Guild Wars 2

Hey I was wondering what the ranger community thinks which one of these two races has better cosmetics for medium armor and lore for a ranger. I was kind of leaning towards charr just because I had an orc hunter in wow and I figured charr would be the closest thing to orcs. Any non-troll input is appreciated.

Charr look absolutely awful in anything but heavy armor. Norn also have that cool leopard elite skill.

I say look at the armor gallery on charr and see if there’s something you like.

Charrs totally look the business in a brown duster, old west style. That said, that’s also because my charr engie sports a rifle.

Look wise, i like both. Lore wise, no issue either. Norns have the hunting thing at the heart of their culture, but Charrs have lots of warbeast taming going on (you’ll find events related to it in Ascalon). I’d see the Charr ranger approach more in a ‘mastering nature’ than the more druidish ‘becoming one with nature’.

Racial skills wise, charr skills are pretty much all underwhelming, though charzooka is fun (and a rare way to get your ranger to wield a gun), and Warband Support is fun in a “how many pets at once can i have?” way (1 hyena summoning another, 1 mini, 3 spirits, two warband charrs = 8 things moving around you to strain the eyes of the opposition).

Norn racials are poorish, with the exception of some elites that can have some circumstantial use: wolf form has good healing, leopard form has stealth, bear form has zillions HP and bear/leopard forms have an epic sprint to contest a cap or run away. I’d give advantage to norn on that point.

I like the charrs’ lore enough to definitely envision something like a charr who wants to rebel against the machines to a certain degree. This charr could think that machines take the place of good combat and make the user weak and out of practice. By getting in touch with the natural side of things, and with his trusty carrion by his side, he sets out to let everyone know just what it means to put your faith in anything but personal skill. I could see him allying with the ogres to learn their ways of mastering beasts like rock dogs and the like.

For the norn, I can envision a fiercely loyal crusader of the homeland, sworn to protect his ancestral hunting grounds and the spirits of the wild that dwell within. He would be the more natural leader of the two, and would always strive to think before action. The vigil could learn a thing or two from him. He’d be very interested in culture and history relating to the grawl.

As far as aesthetics go, the norn will have more variation in armor, while the charr will mostly keep the duster look.

Atherakhia.4086:

Norn also have that cool leopard elite skill.

All the norn shapechange elites have been changed to work more like the warrior Rampage elite (super-buffs 3-4 of your attributes, replace your skillbar with melee skills). e.g. the snow leopard elite on my low-precision guardian gave so much precision my crit chance was listed as 154%. Power and vit were also increased by 916 in this form. Their duration was also increased to 30 seconds (from 20 sec).

So norn might be a good race to pick if you’re building a ranged attacker, and want to pop the elite if you get stuck in melee combat (3 of the 4 forms give vit and toughness).

Snow leopard form also gives you 5 sec of stealth on a 10 sec cooldown, which can be handy for classes which can’t normally stealth. Unfortunately it was nerfed from 10 sec stealth (so it used to give you 20 sec of continuous stealth – great for sneaking past certain areas of the game).

I say you should be a Charr Ranger. There are just too few good Charr Rangers out there. There best Charr Rangers I’ve seen are wearing either:

1) HotW medium armor
2) The gemstore bought Krytan armorset
3) A mix of the starter thieve’s hood & the heritage armor set

I’ve got a charr ranger in t2 armor with the WvW shoulders. Eventually gonna save up for t3

To answer your initial question, yes. Norn or charr ranger!

As for aesthetics… that’s somewhat going to depend on your gender selection, as well. Remember that all charr wear the male armor sets, and the medium trenchcoat look -can- be a little silly looking on larger characters, including norn males. I would recommend creating one of each (including male and female norn, if you are uncertain) and checking out the PvP lockers in the mists. You can preview most armor sets there. It’s tedious, but it works.

Major caveat: there are a limited number of medium armor sets that work well with charr tails, and don’t have serious clipping issues (unfortunately most or all of the dusters have this problem). I made a list a while back, and here are the ones that work best:

All medium cultural armors, PvP Leather (first occurrence in the list, there are two sets), PvP Duelist’s (one of the Karma armors, and one of the only non-trenchcoats), PvP Ascalonian, PvP Priory, PvP Inquest, PvP Nightmare, PvP Orrian. These come close, but have slight clipping issues: PvP Rascal’s, PvP Dredge, and PvP Vigil.

Norn all day long

Atherakhia.4086:

Charr look absolutely awful in anything but heavy armor. Norn also have that cool leopard elite skill.

I say look at the armor gallery on charr and see if there’s something you like.

Heck yeah, Norn all the way. Like its even up for debate?

Raven.9603:

Heck yeah, Norn all the way. Like its even up for debate?

I like to think so!
(But yeah, if style is your main concern… probably female norn.)

Only way to go is Asura, easily get lost in the chaos all while you pew pew pew.

I love the Charr racial skill Battle Roar, so I went Charr Ranger.

Tynan.6279:

Only way to go is Asura, easily get lost in the chaos all while you pew pew pew.

I will admit, Asura are the only race that look good in that hat with the feather on it and the face mask. They look amazing. I’m making an Asura engineers solely for that look.

Be a tree. Put some roots down. Turn a new leaf. You really are missing the best race for a ranger!

I think charr is the closest thing to an Orc this game has though you can make some pretty savage looking norns too… mess around with the character generator for a bit is my advice.

No one has mentioned that you can’t use norns racial elites with your pet. your pet just disappears while you’re transformed. Go Charr male, don’t listen to the Norn plebians and seperatists that dislike all Charr. As a Charr ranger you’re full beast mode!
Charr is legion!

Several Ranger weapon skills just scream “NORN!” when used though:

- Greatsword (Bear and Eagle)
- Sword (Snake)
- Spear (Shark and Jellyfish)

So, that’s something you may want to consider.

Definitely Charr.

Or try this one on for size.

Definitely Norn.

If you want that shoulder, you need to be a Norn.

Of all my time playing WvW,I don’t think I have ever seen a Charr Ranger.
Here is my Charr Thief .