Guild Wars 2

When I started playing GW2, I rolled an Asura Necromancer…and hated it. It just wasn’t my style of play. I tried the Ranger and like it so far, but my question is: what races are the best for that class? I know it’s a minor difference, but minor differences can sometimes make all the difference.

Objectively Charr for the racial battle cry utility. It overshadows the vast majority of Ranger utility skills. It gives fury (+20% crit) to you and allies near you, which includes your pet. It has a low CD too. Slyvari might be better for a specific support build, but Charr is inarguably the best ranger race in terms of raw combat potential.

Roleplay-wise Norn are probably the best fit though. Charr are more fit for warriors, engineers, and Ash Legion thieves.

Find a race that you like, and go with it. The racial abilities are pretty moot.

The only race I’ve tried so far is Asura. I know the racial abilities are very minor, but the fact remains that they are there.

I’m willing to play any race; this isn’t like WoW where I’m restricted in that regard. That doesn’t change the fact that I’d like to play the race whose racial skills would best complement the Ranger class, and that I don’t know which race that is.

I’m playing a Sylvari ranger and I think their racial skills complement the ranger class nicely.

I have 2 level 80’s, and I never use racial skills. They are noticeably weaker and only meant to be used for fun.

Having said that, pick the race you like the look of the most. If you have trouble deciding, make a level 1 of that race, then go look at armors in the PvP locker or from vendors in Lion’s Arch.

I picked asura, but the aesthetic drawback is that their weapons are so small, it’s not that awesome when a human’s longbow is exactly the size of an asura. or even bigger.

but other than that , i love my asura. Never regretted the choice.

The class choice will affect two things in game ( at least that’s what I’ve seen so far):

-Your roleplay mindset, something that most people only encounter in the story quest

-Your looks. Armors are different for the races.

This would be my personal view on these two factors, I’m sure people see it differently:

Charr; “We destroyed our Gods with our machinery!” The Charr are darkminded, war-focused and rough. On the armor side they have very rough and spiky armors, don’t shoot me but I see a bit of Orc in them.

Norn; The spirits of nature, proud and strong. Racial skills are animal form transformations. On the armor side I’d say that a Norn male with body form of Hulk, heavy armor and one of those huge “wow” swords is the most silly thing I see ingame. Not my taste.

Humans; Your usual “goodie-twoshoes” with loads of religious and “order” references. Your story quest is about aiding orphans, becoming a hero and interfering with the royals. Armor is classy and “upperclass’ish”. A human female Mesmer looks like a barbie-princess to me…

Sylvari: The nightmare. I quit my Sylvari at lvl 4 and never got a grasp of this setting. Mostly it was the looks that put it off for me. Not sure how to explain it, just open the caracter creation and have a look.

Asura; Your crazy scientist/ professor. The opposite of the godly humans, science progress for any price, most often it turns out bad. This is how your story will play out and any interaction you have with Asura throughout the world is about cleaning up their malfunctioned science-projects. They are also very small and the effect is that they all look the same as any armor details are hard to spot.

The brilliant side of this sort of diversity is that there’s something for everyone here. The bad side is that if you don’t find the setting to suit your style, then re roll before it’s too late. SW: Tor was built the same way and it made half the professions unplayable to me as their “aura” was just not my kind of entertainment.

I like sylvari. Role playing wise it makes sense that somebody who communes with a pet and has a nature feel to it should be born of a tree =)

I like Asura rangers, personally. Being smaller than some of your pets but commanding them nonetheless is a big self-esteem boost, and your Moa can carry you on it’s back when you are tired of walking!

Good thing I found this thread! I was actually thinking of the same thing but more on the Race and their Armors look. Which would be better for Rangers? My choices were Human and Norm. I’m planning to go Short Bow and Sword/Dagger style.

My thoughts for that is, would the Norm Female having a Short Bow would look like she has a toy in her hands because she might be too big for the Short Bow? No offense to the Norm Rangers out there who rocks. I just want some of your opinions regarding the looks of my future ranger.

/peace

Human: Doesn’t really fit into this whole “royality” thing
Asura: Absolutely not, they are scientists at heart, no “treehuggers”
Sylvari: Very fitting, close bond to nature
Norn: Very fitting, they are hunters at heart
Charr: Somewhat fitting, subjugating a pet for your needs seems Charr-ish. But then again, they are more rank and file soldiers than individualistic adventurers.

Hellmood.2097:

Human: Doesn’t really fit into this whole “royality” thing
Asura: Absolutely not, they are scientists at heart, no “treehuggers”
Sylvari: Very fitting, close bond to nature
Norn: Very fitting, they are hunters at heart
Charr: Somewhat fitting, subjugating a pet for your needs seems Charr-ish. But then again, they are more rank and file soldiers than individualistic adventurers.

thanks for the input, never really played GW1 so i’m really clueless about the classes/races. you know any website that we can view the armors from 1-80 by race?

Human because of Prayer to Kormir, especially if you WvW.

Rangers really lack conditional removal. Being to able to remove 3 conditions on low 40s cool down is great and you don’t have to trait for it.

Sylvari has a nice root racial that you can use instead of the (admitedly stronger) elite that Rangers get. Plus, as a ranged class, the racial elite that roots you isn’t so bad because you get invulnerability and pop some pretty turrets.

Asura get an aoe combo field skill that Rangers could always use more of. And a pretty nice support skill that would really jive with a full support build imo.

Humans get condition removal. Rangers aren’t the best at condition removal (aside from brown bear F2 skill) so if you don’t want that pet out human racial is helpful.

Charr gets you a warband (pair that with hyena x2 and you’ve got an army). You also get a bazooka….yea, a bazooka to add to your ranged repertoire (or however that’s spelled).

Norn….not really good racial skills for Rangers but you do get that “honor the animals” vibe with ‘em. Course, Sylvari are made of nature so that’s a nice RP plus.

Asura ranger with a sword is just hilarious. That little guy is flying through the air like crazy while commanding a bear bigger than himself.

Play Guild Wars 1. Get eaten by Charr Hunters with Explosive Arrow. Roll Charr Ranger. Profit.