Guild Wars 2

I tried out the elementalist recently and really enjoy playing it, however I can’t choose between Asura and Sylvari, I know the racials aren’t seen as useful but is one more preferred than the other? Or does one not fit due to lore reasons? Does one look better than the other in high tier armours? I’m looking for any reason to choose one or the other as I genuinely cannot choose between the two, thanks in advance!
Also I’ve read in some places that Asura have advantages in PVP is this true?

Asura have advantages in pvp because the skill animations are far too small to notice. I don’t know much about Asura racial skills other than the golems that they can summon, but for Sylvari we use Take Root, Summon Sylvan Hound and Summon Druid Spirit.

Take Root is really beneficial for condition builds (stacks bleeding) and if you want the extra survivability (3 sec invuln).

Summon Sylvan Hound is immune to conditions, poisons and bleeds foes. Also good for condition builds.

I wouldn’t recommend using Summon Druid Spirit in actual combat as the cooldown for this skill is really too much. (240 secs)
Druid Spirit applies regeneration, immobilizes and draws conditions. Not sure if this works for allies too since it’s not specified, but as I said this elite isn’t really good.

The Asuran racial utility skills are pretty okay, with Technobabble, Radiation Field and Pain Inverter all having some utility use for the Ele (who doesn’t have easy access to daze, poison or confusion/retaliation outside of runes/sigils/combos). All of the elites kinda suck, in my opinion - the Glyph of Elementals can give you a better tank or damage dealer than either summon.
I’ve barely used my racial skills, though - in almost all situations, you’re better off bringing your profession skills with their generally better cooldowns and effects as well as the benefits they can gain from traits.

It’s worth noting that racial skills can only be used in PvE and WvW - in sPvP, you’re only allowed to use skills from your profession.

As Dahir says, Asura have a definite advantage in PvP due to their small size (so they can hide behind minions or in the general melee, as well as some skill appearance scale issues) but player skill is a much bigger factor in deciding the outcome of a fight!

The other thing to consider is the scaling that’ll happen to your weapons - Asura weapons are scaled waaay down, so if you like having big flashy weapons you’ll lose out on some of that.

Take Root is great for soloing and small group stuff – much better than the regular ele elites, except for situational meteornado.

scerevisiae.1972:

Take Root is great for soloing and small group stuff – much better than the regular ele elites, except for situational meteornado.

I’d still take a good sturdy Earth Elemental or two any day. Those things draw aggro and tank it so very well through most of the game.

I have an asura elementalist and I’m remaking it for sylvari, currently level 29. Asura elementalist has no advantage in PvP because ele animations are the coolest but the clearest in the game, everyone can see what you do, no matter how small you are.

Asura has smaller animations though, and that’s lame for a class with such beautiful animations, so pick sylvari. I have tier 3 on my asura and it’s cool, but not very noticable. I have tier 2 on sylvari and it looks great, so much awesome color combinations and effects. I’m saving for tier 3 now, which is just incredible, might be the best looking armor in the game.

Be special and pick sylvari, you won’t regret it.