Guild Wars 2

Hey guys. I was wondering what professions fit each race the best lore wise. Can’t wait to see what you guys say, but here’s mine:

Elementalist: Asura
Asura have major ties to alchemagical things, and because of this I think they would have a knack for elements and magic as a whole.

Warrior: Norn or Charr
Norn are giant, strong barbarians; warriors seem like an obvious choice for these guys. Spirit of the bear seems to fall under ‘warrior type.’ Like the Norn, the Charr are strong and agile making for some of the best warriors. Plus the whole Blood Legion thing.

Guardian: Human or Norn
Humans always have that ‘holy warrior’ vibe to me, my opinion may have been influenced from World of Warcraft. I could see Norn as well because of ‘protecting the spirits.’ This seems to fit under the Guardian description.

Necromancer: Asura?
I actually had a hard time figuring out which race fit this profession the best. I guess Asura just because of the reasons I had previously stated under Elementalist.

Ranger: Sylvari or Norn
Sylvari seem to be the agile elves. Agile and elves, first things that come to my mind ‘archer.’ Norn are referred to as great hunters, so this is just my logic.

Engineer: Charr
Charr were the first to invent guns, they have the Iron Legion, and they have steampunk influences. Charr seems the best fit for this profession.

Thief: Charr, Asura, Human, Sylvari
I think any race fits the thief playstyle except Norn. The Norn just seem clunky to me. Although I could see someone making an argument of Norn being lore friendly because of the Snow Leopard spirit.

Mesmer: Asura?
Once again, they’re magically inclined. What can I say?

So, what do you guys think?

All professions fit all races. Anet made sure to ensure this works. There’s not really a profession that fits one race better than another, or vice versa. They all work, for their reasons.

Indeed, and each race can approach things differently.

For example, ranger:

Norn = hunter, probably one out for monthes at a time and returns to sell the furs he/she gathers.
Charr = scout, recon for warband
Asure = animal behaviour scientist or trainer, or something similar
human = mix of norn and charr, scouts, hunters (perhaps not as far traveling)
Sylvari = I got nothing but they fit it naturally.. probably something like nature defender/healer.

It’s just one class example, and probably doesn’t cover the various options or ‘archtypes’ you could pick even for ranger.

All professions fit all races, but some fit better than others.

ArenaNet apparently have a matrix of what professions each race favours, disfavours, or is neutral towards, which is used in generating both named and unnamed NPCs. However, while they’ve confirmed a couple of professions as being favoured (charr engineers, for example) or disfavoured (charr don’t trust magic on the whole), they’ve never published the full matrix – probably figuring that people would see it in action, but if they release it people might bind them to it, while keeping it to themselves keeps it as a guide rather than something they might be judged against.

That said, my general observations are as follows:

Asura: Asura NPCs seem to be elementalists or mesmers by default. Inquest enemies – which are probably not that different in profession balance to the general asura population – also tend to have a lot of engineers and thieves.

Charr: Warrior and engineer are common across all legions. Iron, notably, has guardians as unnamed NPCs. Ash has thieves and necromancers, and a few mesmers in strategic locations. Blood seems to be the legion most concerned with animal husbandry, with more charr rangers being Blood than other legions to my observations.

Human: Guardian is a human profession, and a lot of well-known mesmers are human. Formal military orders are mostly warriors, with some guardians mixed in. Most bandits are warriors or medium armour classes, but this might represent their bias towards outlawry, sabotage, and other criminal activities rather than typical human preferences.

Norn: Most norn seem to be warriors or rangers. Sons of Svanir have ice shamans as well as warriors or rangers, but this is almost certainly a Jormag thing rather than a norn thing. Shamans of the Spirits of the Wild tend to be magic-users, with the different spirits preferring different professions.

Sylvari: Wardens are predominantly elementalists or rangers. Nightmare Court sylvari add mesmers, necromancers, warriors, and the odd guardian – this is probably reasonably reflective of general sylvari trends, although the focus on fear, pain, violence and suffering among the Court may have lead to an increased representation of necromancers and warriors.

A thing to note is we do see several bad guy guardians, especially in the bandits. Sop while the generic one may be protective, not 100%.

Or they’re protecting their bandit buddies, or their anti-royalist cause. Guardian magic was said a long while back to be fueled by loyalty, but loyalty doesn’t necessarily translate to moral good.

I hadn’t heard that. But even then I was referring more toward the fact people seem to LOVE comparing them to Paladins and “Human paladin” = a favorite idea in fantasy to many it seems.

I’ll find the link for you. As far as the paladin comparison… bleh. I guess they’re aesthetically similar (heavy armor with ‘holy’ magic) but it really is just skin deep.

EDIT: Nevermind. It was one of the Ashenfold interviews, and if there are any backups for those, I don’t know them. The gist of it, though, is that a guardian derives his power from faith, and if they’re non-religious that means faith in their comrades or their cause.

Kalavier.1097:

I hadn’t heard that. But even then I was referring more toward the fact people seem to LOVE comparing them to Paladins and “Human paladin” = a favorite idea in fantasy to many it seems.

Paladins have been heavily romanticised anyway. The legends of Roland etc are little more than fairy tales.

In reality they were basically the retainers (if we want to be polite) or enforcer goons (more to the point) of a military strongman who managed to arrogate to himself the title of emperor. Having guardians in the retinue of a bandit warlord is probably quite apt.

I do have one link.

What sort of basic personality does this profession have?

Eric Flannum: “To me, the Guardian feels a lot like playing a caster who wears heavy armor. This is in contrast to what you’d typically think of when you think of the Paladin archetype found in many games, which feels like a melee bruiser who also knows a few spells. The Guardian also doesn’t feel particularly religious, but he does feel spiritual. What I mean by that is that the Guardian embodies certain ideals without ascribing to any one faith in particular, which is also a bit different than your typical Paladin archetype.”

“They are not tied to a particular race, philosophy, or group of gods but rather to a larger concept of proactive defense, of taking the fight to a foe and protecting those you fight alongside while appealing equally to humanity’s defensive nature and the Charr’s desire to rule the battlefield.”
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/31/behind-the-scenes-with-the-guild-wars-2-guardian-massivelys-in/

I hadn’t really parsed guardians as being a strong factor among the bandits – mind you, guardians seem to be an uncommon profession among NPCs in general, so any appearance if meaningful. I’ll be looking for it in the future, but out of curiosity – are we talking about bosses, or is there a regular bandit type that’s composed of guardians?

Either way, though, it actually doesn’t surprise me – guardians would, after all, be very fitting for White Mantle, and there are strong indications that the bandits have at least been substantially infiltrated by the Mantle.

I feel like you could have some Norn necros as well – because of their connection to the mists

And humans can be mesmers!

draxynnic.3719:

I hadn’t really parsed guardians as being a strong factor among the bandits – mind you, guardians seem to be an uncommon profession among NPCs in general, so any appearance if meaningful. I’ll be looking for it in the future, but out of curiosity – are we talking about bosses, or is there a regular bandit type that’s composed of guardians?

Either way, though, it actually doesn’t surprise me – guardians would, after all, be very fitting for White Mantle, and there are strong indications that the bandits have at least been substantially infiltrated by the Mantle.

Seraph path in CM features a bandit boss who uses explicit guardian abilities. I think maybe some separatists use them as well? As for generic bad guy bandits, I’m having more trouble with remembering if there was one specifically like that.

That’s what I thought – I remembered there was a boss somewhere that had guardian abilities, but no general trend. Bosses within a faction have always been able to buck the general profession trends of that faction – consider the Am Fah and Jade Brotherhood in the original Factions, which each had four of the professions in their lineup but had bosses among all eight that were in the game at the time (yes, Winds of Change expanded the lineup).

Like I said, guardians seem to be rare enough among NPCs that even a relatively small number is significant, but just one I would regard as the exception rather than the rule.

@Blue Magnolia: Necromancers seem to be associated with Raven shamans, mesmers with Snow Leopard, and guardians with Wolf, from what I’ve observed. Bear shamans I’d have to admit I don’t know.

I’d say rangers more with wolf and guardians toward bear. But as you said, guardian NPCs (named) are rare, and other ones it’s a toss up (sometimes iron legion heavy are warriors, rarely guardians for example).

As for the bandit/guardians… I’d have to check it again sometime.

Hrrrmn. I’m pretty sure the wolf and guardian connection has been made before, as Wolf is the one out of the four major spirits that emphasises cooperation, and the guardian is, at least in theory, a class that focuses on cooperation more than others. I can’t remember for sure, though, if this was from an official source (there was a lot of such things in the interviews around the guardian reveal which, unfortunately, have been taken down). Certainly, the most prominent norn guardian we currently know is connected with Wolf, although, admittedly, not at the level of being a shaman.

That said, if I had to pick, I’d probably go with guardian for Bear as well, since Bear emphasises strength and guardian is the spellcaster profession most associated with augmenting the user’s physical strength.