Guild Wars 2

So, with the expansion being worked on and the skill & traits overhaul I feel like it might be a good time to look at racial skills again and their place in GW2.

As it stands right now there are only 2 race/class combinations that allow for certain types of play/build types.

One of them is the Asura Daze ranger build that uses technobabble. Which after the trait overhaul is getting more support than before. This is a really interesting archtype that not a lot of rangers have access to.

The other is using Grasping Vines on a Sylvari engineer for the 2s block toolbelt skill. I’ve seen it used a little bit.

Every other racial skill (aside from bear form pre nerf) is not used because they are designed to be worse than other skills.

My question is then, why are they in the game? They serve no real purpose as it is right now. Sure they give characters a little bit of flavor based on their race, but often that can make things harder for newer players who spend skill points on these “bad” skills while leveling instead of something that’s actually made for their class and made to be useful.

Don’t get me wrong, I like them. I just think it’s silly to add a skill that’s supposed to be bad and not used. Wasted space really.

I think they should all be brought up to useable level so they can actually have a place in combat. After that, each race should have the ability to learn other races skills through a few quest lines. Maybe something akin to GW1 skill hunting. Since it’s not a class skill having it be available to players in a different way could fit very comfortably.

Should give each race something cool/special they can do that doesn’t actually make them stronger combat wise.

I was wondering about the fate of Racial Skills in the expansion too, since there was no mention of a track for unlocking them. As the OP says, they are designed to be inferior to class skills, and that’s a sound decision; it precludes worrying about picking the “right” race for each class. Still, I’d be against removing them entirely. The ANet writers are always going on about “fun” — well, racial skills are fun. Who hasn’t gotten a laugh out of springing 20 charging charr on an enemy group, or popping a garden of turrets on the battlefield? How about when a thief jumped on my elementalist in wvw and I Became the Wolf and ate him? He probably died smiling. Not everything has to be about min-maxing. Every time you remove something cosmetic in the name of “elegance” in gameplay, you diminish the game world in the interests of the numbers grind. Let us not pretend that GW2 doesn’t value the cosmetic.

That said, reconfiguring racial skills, either in a manner like the OP suggests or as something else entirely, might not be a bad idea. I just don’t like to see aspects of the game’s personality removed because they aren’t part of optimal gameplay. Hey, I’m a raider; I’m a min-maxer; I crunch the numbers with the best of ’em. But what draws the player in at first — what grabs the newcomer and arrests the attention — is a creativity and imagination in the environment that suggests not just a game, but a world.

Another build assisted by the racial skills somewhat is the Zealot vampire/wells Necro for WvW. You can drop some wells and Take Root when you’re low, drinking your opponents while you’re in invulnerable. It’s a better Elite choice than Plague or kitten meat anyway.

Aside from, I’ve heard several “For Charr Justice!”s and watched Balthazar’s hounds sic some sucker often. I’ve even seen people who choose to play Norn non-ironically. But if you make racial skills exceptionally strong and provide unique utility, then they can become integral to builds. I have a Sylvari Ranger and, because of the lack of racial skills that can provide me with useful utility from that race and the existence of Technobabble and Pain Inverter, that choice was strictly an incorrect one.

Racial skills mean, if you didn’t pick Sylvari or Asura, your race is wrong and you should feel wrong. That’s not the attitude I want to have.

@Ocosh – Mm, I get your point about how there’s cosmetic value in the racials. It just makes me sad to see that they can’t ever be truly viable. I’d definitely hate to see them removed, that’s for sure. I’d just like to see them brought up & made available to everyone. Although the Norn transformations would be a bit….odd on a non-norn character..

Hopefully they remove Prayer to Kormir. No one prays to the troll god.

I use Prayer to Kormir for PvE where utilities really don’t count for much. It’s handy. I also think Hounds of Balthazar has certain uses with lots of mobs you want dead. Or when you just feel like conjuring up some hellhounds. #puppymancer

FrozenChinchilla.5249:

Should give each race something cool/special they can do that doesn’t actually make them stronger combat wise.

That’s more or less how it is now, really.

Remove Racial skills and add Non combat Racial Bonuses.

Something like the following:
Humans Get discount on Karma temple armour and Ebon Vanguard weapons as they worship the six gods and founded ebonhawk +2% gold from monsters in human areas (Kryta)

Norn get discount on Norn weapons, Wolfborn weapons, Godskull weapons and +2% gold from monsters in the shiverpeaks.

This is a simple template to follow and easy enough to balance between the races, also i think it would encourage people to play in there starter areas more.

Thelm.6591:

@Ocosh – Mm, I get your point about how there’s cosmetic value in the racials. It just makes me sad to see that they can’t ever be truly viable. I’d definitely hate to see them removed, that’s for sure. I’d just like to see them brought up & made available to everyone. Although the Norn transformations would be a bit….odd on a non-norn character..

But if they were viable, it would basically force people to use certain races in order to be optimal. Something that goes completely against the core of the game.

Like I said in a different topic last week as well, I actually use Battle Roar and Hidden Pistol. Battle Roar is a free might and fury buff whenever I play a class with a free utility slot who can’t buff it normally, and Hidden Pistol is an evade on a 15 second cooldown which I tend to use in some fractals or freak situations. Granted neither of them are used all that much but I can easily name 10 other utilities I used less or never used at all aside from testing it out.

I would be quite devastated if they were to be removed. I’ll get over it, but I’d definitely have to spend a day complaining about it.

Smidy.6758:

Remove Racial skills and add Non combat Racial Bonuses.

Something like the following:
Humans Get discount on Karma temple armour and Ebon Vanguard weapons as they worship the six gods and founded ebonhawk +2% gold from monsters in human areas (Kryta)

Norn get discount on Norn weapons, Wolfborn weapons, Godskull weapons and +2% gold from monsters in the shiverpeaks.

This is a simple template to follow and easy enough to balance between the races, also i think it would encourage people to play in there starter areas more.

That would be an advantage, and the whole point of (most) racial skills being all-around crappy is so their would never be an advantage to playing, say, a Norn Thief vs. an Asura Thief.

As for their absence in the skill/trait reward track list, I’m betting that racial skills will unlock automatically as you level, and become some kind of newbie skill you can put in slot as soon as you ding until you get the Hero points to unlock the one you want.

Step 1: Make all racial skills do the same thing, more or less, with different animations and flairs. Add more racial skills where necessary.
Step 2: Make said racial skills, now equal or closely equal to across all races, on par to profession skills.
Step 3: Add in a racial specialization tier. Have said specialiazation traits affect racial skills, Antitoxin Spray, and Mistfire Wolf.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Watch and rebalance as needed.

Racial skills should be useful. But they shouldn’t create a desire for certain race/profession combos. To achieve both, the answer is to have racial skills do more or less the same thing across all races – e.g., if one race’s skill bleeds, the other may torment, poison, or burn; if one race’s skill dazes, the other races should get knock down, launch, or stun skill; if one race’s skill transforms the player into a damaging powerhouse, the other races should also get such (even if the powerhousing is via different means).

Don’t forget using Snow Leopard as a Norn Necro to escape conflict!!!! Stealth>dash combo can be handy in WvW all be it at long intervals.

T.T 240 second cd

Sylvari’s use take root pretty often too, and I’ve used Avatar off Melandru as part of builds before as well. Charrzooka is lulz and remotely useful depending on which profession you are. Reaper of Grenth…..need I say more?

Racial skills are good for the game imo and even if you’re only using them to troll people they should still be left in just for fun.