Guild Wars 2

I almost have enough gems to buy a new characters slot and I’m thinking of making a warrior or guardian. So far I have played through the personal stories of the Asura and the Norns so I would really like to play as a Sylvari or Human.

However I spend the vast majority of my time playing pvp and wvw where being an Asura feels like a distinct advantage due to being harder to spot. I really want to branch out into some new races and classes, but I don’t want to get all the way to 80 and end up regretting my choice.

I’m curious to hear what experiences others have had?

Race doesn’t really affect your survivability.

Some zergs like to have max size Charr Warriors and Guardians, with Asuran eles and necros in order to help protect the backline by making the warriors/guardians look massive, and to draw attention away from the eles and necros.

Asura can also be a little bit harder to target, but beyond that your race wont affect your survivability at all. Choosing your race is either irrelevant, or a psychological decision to unnerve your opponent

Well there are 2 things race affects, aside from storyline. Aesthetics and different racials skills. Playing an asura can give you a tiny advantage because of their small size, and with all the particle effects on screen and other lighting/spell effects etc it might make you a little harder to attack with certain professions.

In PvP there is an option to turn all models into a standard human model, so its not so useful there.

In terms of racial skills, the norn skill Become the snow leopard is the only real decent choice for survivability among racial skills because it gives you a long dash skill, and a stealth, its also a 240s cd and only 30s duration. Sylvari have the Take Root skill that gives 3s of immunity and grows some turrets around the user, with a 150s cd and 30s duration. I dont actually recommend using these if your going for a warrior/guardian, they have better elites availiable.

I would recommend whichever your more comfortable moving around with, me personally I just cant use charr guardian, its just too slow in every way.

Race does affect your use of siege I think, Asura being shorter have a worse camera angle when using ACs, so you have a shorter line of sight I believe.

DevilishLyx.2340:

Race does affect your use of siege I think, Asura being shorter have a worse camera angle when using ACs, so you have a shorter line of sight I believe.

This is what I understood from the upcoming changes anyway…. Norn guard (max size) and asura necro – I will find out soon enough….

It will affect your survivability vs people who succumb to attacking bigger and easier to see targets.

Asura master race, hands down.

All I know is fighting an asura Mesmer sucks and picking an asura ele or necro out of a zerg is harder than a charr or norn.

I play have both a norn mesmer and an asura mesmer in wvw. I haven’t yet noticed a difference in being targeted during fights or roaming.

Most people probably still in awe to see a norn mesmer. Jaws drop with a deer in the headlights expression.

If by RACE you mean how fast you can run, it definitely matters. If by RACE you mean what creature type … makes no difference. Go for the coolest looking, it is all aesthetics.

I haven’t noticed a difference in getting targeted by race, class matters a lot more for that. As far as racial skills, Grasping Vines is the only one that I’ve found useful enough to slot regularly, it immobilizes for a loooong time.

I intentionally picked the smallest asura character possible for tactical benefits, such as being able to hide behind a tiny tree stump when being trageted by a LB.

I would say terrain and how large your character is plays a moderate roll. Being tiny does help. Asura master race confirmed.

Charr’s Hidden Pistol (utility) is handy too for evade spam builds. Additional evade on 15s cd.

Asura has the only real advantage as their small size makes it more difficult to see their wind-ups especially around larger models. They are by far the most difficult class to fight and recognize their attacks.