Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I rolled a Sylvari because I liked the look and their background/lore was pretty interesting. But now I’m wondering if I made the wrong choice, because my racial abilities don’t seem that useful when compared to the Norn speed boost, the Human chill/poison skill, or even some of the Asura abilities.

How useful are these abilities? Do you ever find a time where it’s worth replacing a profession elite in order to use one of these racial abilities?

I’ve never used racial abilities. Ever.

sylvari has a really nice root. other than that no. charr also has a nice pistol ability. dont wrry about it too much honestly

All the racial skills are garbage, and deliberately so. The only purpose they serve is to demonstrate a spectacular lack of priorities and resource management.

Racial Skills of note

Asura
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pain_Inverter (Confusion + Retalliation)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Technobabble (2s Daze)

Charr
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Battle_Roar (Weak version of For Great Justice)

Human
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Prayer_to_Dwayna (Decent 30 second Heal)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hounds_of_Balthazar (Decent DPS Elite)

Norn
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Become_the_Snow_Leopard (Easy escapes inWvW)

Sylvari
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grasping_Vines (7s root)

The only time I use a racial is against lupi. Take root is good as a survival ability there.

The rooting the sylvari can do is pretty nice for thief. I have used radiation field (Asura) on a few stationary bosses in dungeons with my condition build. It’s pretty awesome there, but haven’t used any other.

I think Grasping Vines is one of the most useful racial skill available in the game. I have watch to a thief video roaming in WvW ganking so hard using this skill! I think this may be useful for many classes builds such as Elementalist or Ranger.

The only time I’ve ever seen an elite really matter was Pain Inverter in WvW before confusion was nerfed.

Hounds of Balthazaar are the best way to min/max your dps on a particular boss fight, but the cooldown usually means you have no elite for the next boss fight, lol.

Don’t worry about it, racial skills are there just for the fluff factor. Most of them are either useless or have a better counterpart in a profession specific skill which has a lower cooldown or better effects. Or both.

Smo.6520:

I’ve never used racial abilities. Ever.

This ^^

And not just on a thief, but on any toon