Guild Wars 2

I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but I can’t decide what race to play with which professions.

Example, I want to try both a Guardian and a Mesmer. I want to also play a Human and an Asura. Problem is, I can’t settle on whether I want the Human to be Guardian or Mesmer, and vice versa with the Asura. I think it stems from the fear of getting bored with one or the other, although there could be any number of reasons, from roleplaying issues to OCD and ADD lol.

Anyone else have this problem?

I had this problem, made an Asura elementalist – got it to 47. I then quit that and made a human Thief and got it to 80.

I have now deleted the Asura and have an 80 human ele.

All down to personal preference though. For me, the allure of the asura wore off pretty fast and then I just wanted to look good.

Just don’t go for Asura if you make an engineer. It’s not a very big deal but the lower camera can be a bit annoying when tossing grenades.

Race makes little difference in the game. It might be a good idea to get a taller race for long range AoE heavy professions but that is about it.

My advice would be to check out some armour sets. You may find that light armour is more elaborate and impressive on the more humanoid races (human/sylvari/norn) and so you’d prefer your casters to come from those races, or you may find a heavy armour set that would look so ridiculous on your asura that you have to have it. I made a heavy-armoured charr partly for roleplay reasons, but I actually really like a lot of the medium and light options for charr, much more than I thought I would.

The wiki and places like gw2armor.com can show you what things look like on the different races. Other than that, play around with the characters creator and if you’re a roleplaying type, think about how you’d make things work. For example, given that asura are very intellect-focused, what kind of asura would become a warrior and why? What kind of norn learns magic instead of weapons? If you have a cool idea, run with it.

It may in fact be the roleplay thing. For all the professions I WANT to play, I can usually think of two or even three race that fit. For example, a Necromancer i can see being Asura (Oola’s talk of golemancy and necromancy, etc.) or Norn (in terms of talking to the spirits of the dead, a shaman). Engineer could be Human (rejects all gods and their “gifts” focuses on science) Asura (focusing more on the technological and manufacture of golems, rather than the imbuement of magic into golems) or stereotypical Charr.

I think the problem is a double edged blade, ANet made the races and professions malleable enough that any combination is truly possible lore-wise, and so having so much choice makes it difficult to settle on one, especially when you consider the time investment of taking a character to 80 and outfitting with exotics.

I’ll bet ANet could make a killing in the gem store by allowing race changes in the makeover packs.

The problem with that is that race is integral to your personal story, and so a race change would require a re-write. It’s just too complicated.

I have a perverse tendency to find the race/profession combinations that seem the least appropriate, and then challenge myself to come up with a character who makes it work. Charr guardians were stated to be very unusual, but I love my fiercely protective feminist legionnaire :P

Factoring in roleplay, I think you should probably just think up some basic concepts and decide which you like better. Can you picture your asura necro, can you imagine how he/she would talk? What about the norn necro? Then go for whichever seems more interesting. And again I’d suggest factoring in armour appearances. Asura can be made to look super creepy, if you want, especially with the face paint necromancers get at creation, but then again if you wanted a more imposing rather than freaky necro norn might work better.

Curuniel.4830:

The problem with that is that race is integral to your personal story, and so a race change would require a re-write. It’s just too complicated.

I have a perverse tendency to find the race/profession combinations that seem the least appropriate, and then challenge myself to come up with a character who makes it work. Charr guardians were stated to be very unusual, but I love my fiercely protective feminist legionnaire :P

Factoring in roleplay, I think you should probably just think up some basic concepts and decide which you like better. Can you picture your asura necro, can you imagine how he/she would talk? What about the norn necro? Then go for whichever seems more interesting. And again I’d suggest factoring in armour appearances. Asura can be made to look super creepy, if you want, especially with the face paint necromancers get at creation, but then again if you wanted a more imposing rather than freaky necro norn might work better.

I like to hear you make up something for a sylvari engineer then that would imo be the MOST odd combination of any

I actually have a sylvari engineer! His name is Cullen Autumnforge, a name he earned from his master in the craft, a charr named Garrus Slyforge (I couldn’t resist calling him Garrus!). Cullen got really interested in engineering and mechanics, and so he went to the Black Citadel to find a teacher. After a lot of persuading he got an Iron Legion engineer to take him on, and after a lot of work managed to prove himself and win a little respect from the charr. His teacher’s warband made him an honorary member and told him to choose a warband name (which also made it easier for me to secure the name I wanted in-game!).

So I have a sylvari who loves blowing things up, is very comfortable with charr culture, and adores the Black Citadel because even though he likes the natural, living environment of the Grove, he also feels like the Citadel is ‘alive’ with activity and purpose. See, isn’t it also amazing to have an environment entirely shaped and designed by the minds and imaginations of living beings?

yeah… another topic i can help out with. so as an alt-aholic. i at lease one of each professions and 2 or three of each race. i wanted to play the differnt story lines. at lease until claw island. i have deleted some characters. so i planned it out.. what to make what and which order they would join.

for me it came down to play style and which racial skills would fit the profession. but…. i didnt want to have 5 of the same profession just to try out all the racial skills combination.

so my guardians are a norn and a sylvari,
my mesmer is sylvari.

if i had to choose between human and asura for guardian and mes the answer is easy human guardian, asura mes.

because. you can remove a lot of conditions and get boons as human from your racial skills, thats what a guarian is doing.

the asura can drop a poison field do technobable and daze.. plus its got robots…which you can use as a divertion along with your clones. mes army.

Another armor thing to think about is: do you plan on making a female character? Asura females wear male armor skins and have no access to female skins (mostly due to their size and lack of breasts – it would look silly). If you like any of the female armor skins for light or heavy, then chose human for that class. If you plan to make males only, then nevermind, this won’t help you decide!

Truthfully, mesmer and guardian are excellent matches for both human and asura.

Also look at the race specific armor. And racial skills.

Kaleban.9834:

I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but I can’t decide what race to play with which professions.

Example, I want to try both a Guardian and a Mesmer. I want to also play a Human and an Asura. Problem is, I can’t settle on whether I want the Human to be Guardian or Mesmer, and vice versa with the Asura. I think it stems from the fear of getting bored with one or the other, although there could be any number of reasons, from roleplaying issues to OCD and ADD lol.

Anyone else have this problem?

Look at the utility skills and the way the racial skills compliment them. You will find very little (no) direct damage utility with a mesmer. Perhaps having the Radiation Field and Pain Inverter of the Asura will make a more effective character in this regard. Look at the racial skills of the Human and compare it to what the guardian is and what it does. Perhaps the racial skills of the human would be a nice compliment to the guardian’s skill set.

well from a skill synchronicity standpoint Asuran Mesmer would be the way to go .

Your weapons are going to be much smaller and less impressive as an Asuran. As a human Guardian your weapons like GS & hammer will look imposing.

Armor wise, if you’re thinking of having a sexy female toon, it won’t be Asuran. They’re pint-sized and often adorable. But never sexy. Human female mesmer will rock some skimpy light armor better than female Asuran. If you’re planning on both being male then you’re fine either way.

My vote: Human Guardian & Asuran Mesmer

Thanks for all the responses everyone. Right now I’m leaning towards Asuran (female) Mesmer, I like the animations (such as one handed Mind Stab and mid-air gravity defying Blurred Frenzy lol) and she’s cute as a button.

The problem NOW is that after reading up a lot on Guardian gameplay, it seems the overwhelming consensus, although never actually qualified, is that Guardians at end-game are simply boring. Maybe its due to repetition, or tactics and strategy, but its starting to turn me off the idea. Now I’ve read that Engineers can be a blast (pun intended) and have a much greater diversity of builds and playstyles due to their kits.

So new question then, Guardian or Engineer? lol Or perhaps I should just make a Charr Engineer, but I don’t know if I really have the time to play an Ele main and then THREE alts…

Another note concerning scholar on humanoids or Asura/Charr:
If you are playing a female and are keen on showing lots of skin, put your scholar on a human or norn (or sylvari, but it’ll be bark and leaves then).
If you don’t like flashing your panties, go with an Asura (or Charr).

Also: By all means, make all three – play them up to lvl 22 (30 at max) or so to get the whole racial storyline, and then decide which profession you like best.

Just as a note (as a female player who always facepalms a little at the ‘how to make your character sexy’ discussions outside of this thread) – it’s true that charr and asura females will not get skimpy/sexy armour, and that they tend to get versions which fit much closer to the armour’s appearance on a human male. Sometimes, this can still look really cool. If you make a human/sylvari/norn female, she will have access to skimpy/sexy/skin-showing armour, but she will also have access to plenty of more reasonable and/or modest armour styles. Thank the Six Gods, not every female caster set in this game insists on exploitative sexuality

Also, am I the only person who finds that skimpy armour looks a lot less suggestive and skimpy on sylvari females? I think it’s because although they show skin, it’s not a human skin colour, so it looks more like part of an outfit, haha. Plus, I do like showing off the luminescence on my sylvari, which skimpier sets do allow a lot more.

Curuniel.4830:

Just as a note (as a female player who always facepalms a little at the ‘how to make your character sexy’ discussions outside of this thread) – it’s true that charr and asura females will not get skimpy/sexy armour, and that they tend to get versions which fit much closer to the armour’s appearance on a human male. Sometimes, this can still look really cool. If you make a human/sylvari/norn female, she will have access to skimpy/sexy/skin-showing armour, but she will also have access to plenty of more reasonable and/or modest armour styles. Thank the Six Gods, not every female caster set in this game insists on exploitative sexuality

Also, am I the only person who finds that skimpy armour looks a lot less suggestive and skimpy on sylvari females? I think it’s because although they show skin, it’s not a human skin colour, so it looks more like part of an outfit, haha. Plus, I do like showing off the luminescence on my sylvari, which skimpier sets do allow a lot more.

I want a skimpy armor option for all my male characters. In gw1 we had necros running around in Speedos and tatoos.. its a bit sexist to think only females can show skin. Man cleavage is sexy too. Look at Borat.

My (female) friend got flak for her (male) sylvari mesmer wearing nipple warmers in this set, so not all hope is lost of gender equality I suppose :P

Borat no thank you. GW1 assassins, I could go for… as could a number of my female friends. But let’s not just spread the objectification around.