Guild Wars 2

6. My main is my only 80, a human elementalist.

I also have a level 70 Asura Guardian, level 60 Charr Thief, level 50 Norn Necromancer, and a level 25 Human Engineer. All male but the engineer. My 6th slot is relatively recent and has gone through a new character – it now has a Sylvari Mesmer at level 20 from the achievement XP scroll. I plan to at least get her through the Sylvari specific PS steps for the achievements; otherwise I don’t care much for Sylvari.

I tend to play alts sporadically and focus on my main. In some ways I don’t want to level any alts to 80 because it will make me feel like I need to gear them in exotics.

Had to mute the music in the gameplay part of the video, but otherwise, great guide! :P

This really makes me want to finish leveling up my Guardian for WvW. Do you find “Retreat!” to be of much use, or does it never find its way on the bar over the other shouts? Coming from Elementalist, I like as much swiftness as I can fit, but I can see how Save Yourselves can be of more use.

Agreed, the shadowy effect should really be far more pronounced on the Fellblade…it’s even in the HoM concept art.

Fellblade is one of my favorite HoM skins but it’s unfortunate it doesn’t really have one of the main signatures of the weapon from GW1.

vox.5019:

Monsoon is actually one of the few staff skins I like, it’s a more detailed version of the old water staves from prophecies. I’ll agree that most staff skins are annoying with clipping, scaling, positioning, or are just boring. Other weapons suffer too, and armor…

At least I’m not the only one! I like Monsoon as well, it’s a nice water themed staff without being over the top. Granted it is a bit lazy, in that it’s a staff version of the scepter Tsunami, but most of the champion weapons in this patch are reskins anyway.

Though I agree with most people that staff skins tend to be pretty weak overall. I like more toned down, elegant skins, and don’t care for heavy particle effects, but the Sovereign Staff just looks ugly to me – as do most of the Living Story staff skins.

Also not a fan, I was expecting something more Krytan inspired with a royal or noble look. I was hoping for something elegant but understated. I’m particularly disappointed by the staff, but I’ve gotten used to not liking the staff skins in this game.

Of course that’s purely my opinion, but for me it’s a shame because I have liked very few of the LS skins and I was expecting finally seeing ones I liked. Ah well, guess it just means I don’t need to spend anything on a new weapon!

I hate the over the top and flashy skins, especially those with heavy particle effects. If I could turn of the nightime glow of my AC staff, I would; I like toned down designs. You can have ornate and elegant weapons and armor without resorting to particle effects, but it seems like most of the new skins follow the trend of more FX.

That said, I know that’s just my personal preference, and there’s a lot of people who like the glowy and flashy particle effects. I would really like the option to hide the armor and weapons FX, though, and to see more realistic designs.

They should really buy back the representation badges for the same cost. Doesn’t make any sense to only buy back support tokens only.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The ending-in-vowel for female name is more of an asura thing.

Male charr names are indeed rather sharp, while female are more fluid. Both feature a lot of consonants in the name.

For character creation… my personal favorite storylines were Gladium father and Ash Legion. But Blood and Shaman father were good too.

There are numerous examples though – Arda, Torga, Reeva, Eurayle, Wroda, and Fulvia, to name a few. Not that it’s necessarily a set convention but it definitely seems relatively common, more so than with males, at least.

Ash was definitely my favorite Legion storyline. I have not had the chance to try Gladium, but I did enjoy Shaman. Overall I think Charr have some of the best early personal storyline so you can’t go too far wrong.

Engineer fits very well for Charr – in fact the origins of the Engineer are heavily rooted in Charr technology.

As for a name…Charr surnames are always a combination of two words, one of which denotes the Charr’ s warband. For instance, Gearblade could be in the Gear warband, or Sharpclaw from the Claw warband. Just pick two words that sound appropriate and put them together.

First names don’t have as specific conventions, but I tend to like harsh-sounding sounds. My Charr thief, for instance, is Kirok Emberclaw. Most Charr male names end in consonants, while female names can end in vowels.

It is very unfortunate how people are reacting with such childish behavior, particularly over a fictional election in a video game. Is it really a surprise that the gaming community has a negative reputation for sexism when you see things like this over such a trivial matter?

I was hoping GW2’s community was better than that, but I guess I was naive to think that.

Kudos, it’s nice to see one positive and gracious post in the sea of rage and hate.

I pretty much have to use a speed boost signet all the time on my Norn Necro, even though I don’t care for the active. It’s painful for me to play without it, and I too would have a hard time playing a class with no access to such a signet.

Granted I understand why they move slow, and they can’t really move faster without having some serious balance issues. But that doesn’t make it any easier to be playing a character who feels like he’s running in slow motion.

This is, of course, very subjective and I’m biased by the fact that it’s my main, but Elementalist is the most fun for me. I haven’t found a class that is as enjoyable – I love attunement dancing, the mobility, the varied playstyles between the different weapons. I love being able to switch between D/D for roaming and staff for sieges and zergs in WvW without even having to change my trait lines. Granted, it can be frustrating at times, given the low armor and low health, but overall I love it.

The most boring, to me, was probably Warrior, though I barely tried it in WvW so I probably didn’t give it a fair shake. Overall, the abilities don’t seem all that interesting to me, with the possible exception of hammer as I like the heavy control on it. I’ve also found Guardian somewhat boring, which is surprising because I usually love heavily armored support classes.

I agree that Jennah is fairly bland and one-dimensional (as are most NPCs, such as both Kiel and Gnashblade), but killing her off is the lazy way to fix that.

I’d rather see them use the Living Story as a chance to flesh Jennah out and add more depth to her character. They could add a darker side to her character, too. Though I don’t think she should do a total 180 to an amoral or ‘evil’ character, they could have her sanctioning some questionable and potentially immoral actions to solidify her rule and combat the machinations of certain members of the Ministry. I think something along those lines would be interesting and would make Jennah much more compelling, while not completely re-writing her character and without having to resort to just killing her off.

I’d prefer new race over new class (personally Tengu would my first choice, Kodan would be second)…but I’d love to see new skills and new weapons for the existing classes before either.

Craptrain.7203:

Some of you legendary wielders are confusing envy/jealousy with indifference. They’re a world apart and I guarantee the latter is the majority of what you receive.

Pretty much this. I think most people, including myself, are the same way – they just don’t really care either way about someone having a legendary, unless they particularly like the skin. Personally I think most legendaries don’t look very good, but I’ve never been much of a fan of over the top weapons in the first place. That’s not to say I won’t genuinely congratulate a guild mate when they make one; for them it’s a big accomplishment and they deserve a congrats when they finish it.

Still, people should craft legendaries because they want to – because they like the skin, and/or enjoy the journey of making one. And I think most legendary wielders made it for exactly that reason. But those few who did it because they think other people should be impressed by it are bound to be disappointed, because most people just don’t care, and it seems like some of them get very upset when people aren’t properly impressed by their weapon.

If they were to have him written out – it’s not too difficult to do. I’m sure Orr will take a long time to fully heal, and you could easily have Trahearne passing on leadership of the Pact to someone else (the Commander/PC, or perhaps someone new) while he continues to work to fully restore Orr. You don’t need to kill him off to have a reason for him to no longer be leader of the Pact.

That said, I don’t think they’ll do that. I think we’re stuck with Trahearne, unfortunetly. I just hope they improve his character writing and personality

Elementalist from the beginning. I usually stick with my first character as my main, and I’ve enjoyed the class a lot. I have alts that I play from time to time but I tend to focus primarily on a single character in MMOs.

Ascalon was no more Charr land than it was human land – neither were the original inhabitants, Charr pushed out the original inhabitants of Ascalon and then the humans pushed them out.

And even if the Charr were native to Ascalon – how anyone can think that’s morally justified I don’t understand. If Native Americans rose up today and murdered everyone of non-Native American descent to take back their land, would you think it’s morally justified? It’s cliche – but two wrongs don’t make a right. The Charr butchered a lot of innocent civilian lives, and those humans were not responsible for the actions of their ancestors. They committed murder and genocide, nothing more, nothing less.

As a player, I find the Charr very interesting as a culture, and I like playing my Charr – though I also have lingering resentments over the events of GW1, I can separate from this bias when playing a Charr character.

I also try to remember that the Charr of ‘modern’ times are not the Charr of GW1 – just like the Ascalonians of GW1 were not the humans who pushed the Charr out centuries before. Seeking revenge and violence against the ancestors of those who committed the act is, in my opinion, wrong – the sins of the father should not carry over to the son. For humans of GW2 to seek violence against the Charr of today makes them no better than the Charr of GW1.

I would really like to see the peace treaty remain unbroken, and with some land being ceded to Ebonhawke, the seeds of a new Ascalon can be planted – one that can share peace with the Charr. They won’t have Rin back, but at least with the Fields of Ruin ceded to them, they can become a proper nation once more (albiet smaller than the original Ascalon).

It’s beautiful, it’s well laid out, it has a lot of fun events, it’s populated and seems to have a friendly welcoming map chat. And since my first character was human, I have a lot of nostalgia for it (can you have nostalgia after 8 months?).

I feel the same way about Divinity’s Reach – I love going back there because it’s beautiful and I have a lot of good feelings attached to it from when I was just a little noob. It’s a shame the cities other than LA don’t have much of a population.

Halloween – I had a ton of fun with the different events, particularly the Mad King mini-dungeon. My only complaint was having the JP a non personal instance, but otherwise I loved all of the Halloween content.

The Super Adventure Box is pretty fun too, but for me it can’t quite compare with the greatness of the Mad King.

I was on hiatus from the game so I can’t speak for Wintersday. The living story…interesting in concept, but I haven’t been enamored with the storyline thus far. And Lost Shore…well, I did get some nice loot from the Ancient Karka but I did not have much fun doing the event. I just powered through it out of sheer stubborness, but it felt grindy and unfun.

I’m torn between the Dominion of Winds and Elona.

I absolutely loved Elona in GW1. It felt so much more interesting than your typical European fantasy landscape, and had a lot of diverse regions between Istan, Kourna, and Vabbi. I’d love to revisit Elona with GW2 graphics. Plus I find the Joko storyline interesting and would like to see where ANet goes with that.

But I also want to see the Dominion of Winds because it’s new, has the potential for unique architecture, and the Tengu as a race appeal to me.

2 Humans, 1 Charr, 1 Norn, 1 Asura. No Sylvari as they just don’t appeal to me at all.

Humans are my favorite race, and additionally they look the best in the widest array of armor. I enjoy Charr as well, but they can have a lot of clipping and stretching issues with armor. Norn and Asura I don’t find particularly appealing as a race but I enjoyed portions of their personal storylines.

I’d probably have more humans if I wouldn’t have to repeat personal storyline quests with them – I prefer how they look and enjoy their history and lore the most. But I also wanted to experience other storylines, so I have a more diverse cast than I normally would.

It’s Orr temple heavy armor. It can be bought at any of the 5 temples in Orr if they are open for karma.

My Engineer alt (my one human female) has body 8, I believe.

I prefer realistic looking armor – though I’m fine with reasonable ornamentation. I dislike spikes, over the top particle effects, and revealing sets.

For light armor, I prefer pants over the dresses they call ‘robes’ in most MMOs. GW1 was a bit better than GW 2 at this. For medium, I actually like trench coat styles, Aylesbury this game could use more non-coat medium sets. For heavy, I like armies that incorporate some cloth and/or leather – not a fan of all metal from head to toe.

PistolWhip.2697:

But above all of these, I see the humans as all these qualities and more. They can literally be any of these things, but they are adaptation. They are hope when all the odds are against you. A true example of the underdog. As a player heavily into lore, I wouldn’t want my hero to be anything but a human, being the last expected race among the 5 to come out on top, and lead Tyria into glory again.

I definitely have to agree with this. The humans as a whole represent hope and determination, to never give up no matter how much the odds are stacked against them. Sure, asura and charr may have better technology, norn and charr are stronger individually, and sylvari have their immunity to draconic corruption and their fancy Dream, but humans get by with grit, spirit, and a refusal to give up. I find that very admirable.

$60 box + $10 gems early on for a bank tab (I’m a hoarder).

I’ve been debating whether to drop another $10 on the gem store, probably for a 6th character slot. I’ve gotten plenty of enjoyment out of the game, way more than $70 worth, but I also don’t like some of the directions the game is going (Ascended gear in particular, not a big deal now but if they do full armor + weapons, I’m going to be unhappy). So I’m holding off for the moment.

These opinions in most cases don’t reflect my actual characters, but from a lore perspective, this is what I think fits best:

Elementalist: Asura and Human
Engineer: Charr
Guardian: Human
Mesmer: Human (and perhaps Asura, though I see Ele/Necro being more fitting)
Necromancer: Sylvari and Asura
Ranger: Sylvari and Norn
Thief: Human and Charr (Ash Legion)
Warrior: Charr and Norn

Two of my characters fit this (Human Ele, Charr Thief) and three don’t (Norn Necro, Asura Guardian, Human Engie).

GW1: Elementalist. Usually ran Fire-specced but sometimes switched to Air. I wasn’t actually always the biggest fan of the class, but I stuck with him because I always stick with my first character. Usually had Mesmer as my secondary class, though didn’t really use it much.

GW2: Elementalist again, although for a while in the BWEs I bounced around between Necromancer, Guardian, and Engineer. It wasn’t until the final BWE that I actually tried an Elementalist that I realized how much more fun the GW2 version was.

Aeonblade.8709:

Caledore.6271:

Amun Ra.6435:

I absolutely hate the multi guild system in this game. I honestly don’t know what purpose it serves.

What ever happened to guild loyalty?

It lets people be a part of multiple communities and groups of friends – it may not serve a purpose to you, but it does to me and many others. In GW2, I can actually be in a guild with different groups of friends, instead of leaving all but one group out in the cold. This is a huge deal for me, as I enjoy both being in a small tight-knit guild with my RL friends while also having a larger guild to do events and WvW with – and my big guild doesn’t seem to mind that I rep my small guild when I’m playing with them.

Whether the implementation is good or not is another matter, but there’s pretty clear reasons why the idea of multiple guilds serves a purpose.

Personally I find ‘guild loyalty’ a bit of a silly concept. There’s no reason a person can’t enjoy time with multiple communities, and since this is a game, not a job, I don’t see why someone should be forced to only put in time with a single community if they don’t want to be. Requiring loyalty to the guild and only the guild is a bit too serious for what amounts to a hobby for most people.

Again – I’m fine with guilds that require sole membership, it’s their choice as long as they’re upfront about it. But for me, the multi-guild system (as an idea) is great – though I do agree the implementation could be improved.

I was with you till you found loyalty a silly concept.

Not loyalty as a whole – perhaps I was not clear. I meant the idea of ‘guild loyalty’ that precludes spending time with other groups on occasion.

I’ll edit my post to be more clear – but in short, I mean that when people consider ‘guild loyalty’ never spending time with other guilds, and devoting all of one’s time to that one guild alone, it’s a silly concept.

People should still contribute to their guild and not leech off of them, but by the same token someone is not ‘disloyal’ if they split time between guilds.

Amun Ra.6435:

I absolutely hate the multi guild system in this game. I honestly don’t know what purpose it serves.

What ever happened to guild loyalty?

It lets people be a part of multiple communities and groups of friends – it may not serve a purpose to you, but it does to me and many others. In GW2, I can actually be in a guild with different groups of friends, instead of leaving all but one group out in the cold. This is a huge deal for me, as I enjoy both being in a small tight-knit guild with my RL friends while also having a larger guild to do events and WvW with – and my big guild doesn’t seem to mind that I rep my small guild when I’m playing with them.

Whether the implementation is good or not is another matter, but there’s pretty clear reasons why the idea of multiple guilds serves a purpose.

Personally I find ‘guild loyalty’ a bit of a silly concept if it means you can’t split time between different groups. There’s no reason a person can’t enjoy time with multiple communities, and since this is a game, not a job, I don’t see why someone should be forced to only put in time with a single community if they don’t want to be. This is a hobby, after all, and is supposed to be for fun, and some people find fun hanging out with different groups – and some guilds cater to this by specializing in different aspects of the game. There’s room enough in the game for both types of guilds.

Again – I’m fine with guilds that require sole membership, it’s their choice as long as they’re upfront about it. But for me, the multi-guild system (as an idea) is great – though I do agree the implementation could be improved.

EDIT: Changed my wording to be more clear.

Laurelinde.4395:

I think it would help a lot if the chat allowed for better communication between guilds. I was quite excited when I first heard about the multi-guild idea since I thought it would allow me to communicate and socialise with different groups of players who may want separate guilds (in my case, people from my old WoW guild and people from my LOTRO kinship.) I was disappointed to learn that representing one guild effectively shuts you out from any others until you rep them again.

As it turned out one of the guilds never really got off the ground so I rep the other one all the time now. But for me at least, it would be useful if there were a means to follow chat for more than one guild at once so that we could join up with other guilds for bounties and I could join in the server-wide WvW guild without losing out on the social aspect with my primary guild, for example.

Agree 100%. It’s a badly needed feature – there’s absolutely no reason they couldn’t set up separate chat channels for each guild a player was a part of. It can be frustrating to want to play with one group but socialize with both.

Stark.1350:

We don’t even ask 100% – just a majority. I personally think that’s very fair and those judging otherwise, well I think you’re being a bit ignorant on the matter.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I think it’s reasonable, specifically because you said you’re upfront with potential recruits about it. But by the same token, I don’t like that requirement and so would not join such a guild personally.

Maybe that’s judging it, maybe not, but I don’t mind people having that requirement as long as they are upfront about it to new recruits. I’d just never join such a guild, and I don’t think the OP should either since he didn’t seem to like being prodded to represent constantly.

The problem is those guilds that expect 100% repping but do not make that requirement clear upfront. The game’s system allows for multiple guilds and so guild leaders should not expect people to rep the majority of the time unless they specifically told the recruits of that requirement. That allows people like myself who find such a requirement unreasonable to find a guild that is a better fit – and benefits the guild as well as they can find more like-minded people to join.

GuzziHero.2467:

The 6 ‘Gods’ are not gods at all. If they have or had any real physical presence, they are physical, perhaps superphysical, but they are not Gods. Gods are completely supernatural, not bound by laws of physics. Their works may be physical, but they themselves are beyond what we would call structurally defined.

In the words of William S. Burroughs: “Consider the impasse of a One-God Universe. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. He cannot go anywhere since he is already everywhere. He cannot do anything since the act of doing pre-supposes opposition. His universe is irrevocably thermodynamic, having no friction by definition.”

I would strongly hesitate at calling anything that can be opposed, defeated, or that would be able to withdraw it’s very essence from the things that it creates, a God. For if, in GW lore, the 6 Gods are meant to have withdrawn, then surely their ‘works’ would also? If the works remain in place, or were present before the Gods appeared then they are not works of God. Hence the term God is completely inappropriate in this instance.

They are gods, just not in the modern monotheistic (particularly Judeo-Christian) definition.

Plenty of religions in history, particularly polytheistic religions, have had gods that were not omnipotent, omnipresent, or even immortal. They can have physical forms as well, and can be bound by certain physical laws or constraints.

So the Six are gods in the vein of multiple real-world polytheistic religions – they remind me of Greek gods, for instance, in that they have own foibles and character flaws (such as Batlh killing a man in a rage over a board game, then feeling remorse for it). And gods in many religions can be defeated and die – if you’re familiar with the Nordic concept of Ragnarok, many of the gods die in that conflict. So I think the Six are very definitely gods, in the polytheistic definition of very powerful beings, but ones that can potentially be killed and are not all-knowing or all-powerful.

As for the original topic – as many, I think the religious aspects are very important for fleshing out the world and making it feel alive. Religion and faith are an important part of culture and society throughout history, and if a fantasy world ignored it entirely, it would feel fake and unrealistic. Yes, it’s fantasy, but good fantasy is also believable, and creating believable cultures (and thus, the faiths of those cultures) is important to make the world feel alive.

Vayne.8563:

Hardist.3104:

Rafiee.2935:

Yeah I’ve never required members in my guild to represent(unless they’re officers). Sounds like they were just bad guilds so keep looking!

So my guild is a bad guild because we require people to represent at all times? Troll post? Or just jumping conclusions? I can do that too. It sounds to me that your guild is a bad guild if you don’t care about people representing.

We don’t care about influence, but in our guild each and every one is more than just another number, we treat them like that and we expect the same in return. People who do not represent, aren’t really part of the guild anyway (they cannot read nor participate in guild chat for example) and I really wonder why people would be in multiple guilds to begin with.

The only suggestion I have is, find a guild that does everything you like, instead of joining a seperate WvW and PvE guild.

As I’ve said before, I’m very close with some of my friends, but they have other friends as well. Sometimes they’re with those friends…it doesn’t make them less my friend. This whole, you must represent me all the time or you’re not really loyal seems a bit clingy to me.

Exactly this. Guilds are most comparable to real-life group of friends (those comparing it to a real life romantic relationship are taking it a bit too seriously). In real life, I have multiple groups of friends. They don’t get angry or threaten to stop being my friends if I do things with my other friends sometimes. Sure, if I never do anything with them, it might harm the friendship, but as long as I’m spending a decent amount of time with each group of friends, it’s no harm.

I do understand if guilds kick people for rarely representing – those spots should go to people who at least enjoy the community of the guild and want to spend some time with them. But to threaten kicking them if they don’t represent 100% of the time – that’s just insecure leadership. Sometimes people want to spend time with different communities of friends in-game as well. If a guild can’t handle their members occasionally spending time with other groups – they are overly controlling.

As long as the member shows an interest in spending time and effort with the guild’s community, they should be allowed the trust and leeway to also spend time with other group of friends. There’s no reason anyone needs to devote 100% of their time with only a single community in this game – and I for one love the fact that GW2 lets me have both a big guild and a small tight-knit guild of RL friends, something no other MMO I’ve played has offered. Luckily for me, my larger guild has no problem with its members representing other guilds as they long as they don’t ignore them entirely. It’s sad that there’s a lot of guilds that don’t find this acceptable.

All that said – I’m still fine with a guild requiring 100% representation if they are up front about it during recruitment. I personally think it’s an unnecessary requirement, but if they want to have it, that is their choice – but just be very clear on that when recruiting. Don’t recruit people without making that expectation clear than get angry when they spend some time with other guilds.

I dislike most of them – too over the top or goofy for my taste. My favorite is probably the Flameseeker Prophicies – it’s ornate and has a neat effect without being too crazy.

The Juggernaut, Frostfang, Rodgort, and Kraitkin I like as well. Sadly the only Elementalist Legendary I really like at all is Kraitkin, and even if I had the time and gold to get a Legendary, I wouldn’t want to use it on an underwater weapon.

My Charr Ash Legion Thief (and primary alt).

Leather Chest and Legs (lvl 40 crafted set)
Pirate Boots
Drover Gloves (T1 cultural)
HoM shoulder

I also have the T1 cultural helm but usually hide it.

Please keep them as is. I love that I can play casually and still complete these if I work towards them.

Nightarch.2943:

Hold on, I want to change my choices.
1. Dwarves, every curse can be undone. The best depiction of the dwarves I have ever seen was in a film called “The Hobbit”, I was blown away on how well done they were, I certainly hope people take after that sort of detail.
2. Largos, you all already know why.
3. Tengu, I love variety!

I know this isn’t Middle Earth’s lore but it was inspired though, but how Jackson brought those characters to life was simply amazing! Those Dwarves were so badarse, I don’t even think elves can fight that well.

Oh, I hear you – I loved the Dwarves in the Hobbit film (less goofy than the ones in the book, thankfully) and I would love to play one.

But I also really like what ANet did with the Dwarves in EotN and now GW2, so I don’t think I’d want them to reverse the transformation to make them playable. And since ANet has been adamant about not caring for ‘typical’ fantasy races, I don’t think we’ll ever see them actually playable.

What I really hope is we see them featured prominently in an expansion that deals with Primordus.

Dustfinger.9510:

The GW2 writers did establish that. But modern charr aren’t responsible for their ancestors actions.

I think that’s the important thing to keep in mind – for both current Charr haters and people who claim the Charr were ‘right’ in Guild Wars 1. The modern Charr weren’t responsible for their ancestors actions, just as the Ascalonians in Guild Wars 1 weren’t responsible for their ancestors actions (and thus did not deserve to be murdered in droves by the Charr). Trying to wipe out the modern Charr from Ascalon would be as morally wrong as the Charr trying to wipe out the humans in GW1.

Like it or not, the Charr are in Ascalon now – and a lot of modern Charr have shown that they are not as bloodthirsty as their ancestors. Now, if they try to take Ebonhawke again – war is justified, as they’d be the aggressors again. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. Already you can see many Charr individuals coming to respect humans, and vice versa, and gradually Charr culture is subtly changing. As much as I loved Ascalon in GW1, I’d rather see if the peace treaty can hold rather than starting up the cycle of war and genocide again.

A good, distinctive face, with what looks like (to me at least) some Canthan influence. 8/10.

Here’s mine – intended as a Krytan with some Ascalonian blood, so I tried to go for a mixed race look.

Rizzy.8293:

Ascalon was charr land, but the problem was the charr were too busy killing each other that they didn’t notice the humans setting up camp and driving warring war bands off the land.

Just a quick note, as this is a common misconception – Ascalon was not originally Charr land. The Charr drove out the original natives (likely the grawl). They were there before the humans, but they obtained Ascalon the same way the humans did from them – by driving out the original natives with force.

How are Charr at all like Tauren, other than being large, bestial, and possessing horns? Culturally they are completely different, and the Charr have a feline, not bovine, ancestry – the only bovine feature they really have are the horns, but mostly they are feline, a fact that has been outright stated by artists as the inspiration for Charr.

Granted, I didn’t play WoW, but aren’t the Tauren nomadic and close to nature? That is very, very far from the Charr, who are militaristic, industrialized, and have a very strong social order and have no time for faith or spirituality.

And while humans are the most popular race, a lot of people still enjoy and play Charr. Even people unfamiliar with their lore – giant horned cats with rifles and tanks? I’m pretty sure that appeals to plenty of people even without knowing their history in Guild Wars.

None. No Celestial or Black either – have not been super lucky with dyes. I would just sell Abyss though, and buy Black for my Ash Legion Charr since the difference is minimal enough that I would rather pocket the extra gold.

Well, Queen Salma in GW1 had light brown skin herself, and Jennah is her descendant, so it makes sense she has a lighter skin tone than most GW1 Krytans. Though Salma’s difference in skin tone compared to Krytan citizens was never explained, I could imagine it might be the blood of King Doric in her ancestry.

But there’s definitely a disconnect with your typical GW1 Krytan and your typical GW2 Krytan. Sure, there’s probably been a lot of mingling with Ascalonian refugees, but that should mean most Krytans have a light brown skintone and more ‘mixed race’ looks, not the predominantly Northern European looks most Krytans have in GW2. The Ascalonians were refugees in Kryta, not the other way around, so their features should not be dominant as they are in GW2.

As for the original post, I think Jennah’s style of dress is just fine. It’s elegant but not flashy, seems appropriate for a queen who is more favored by common folk than the nobility.

LameFox.6349:

Of course with charr, the tradeoff is that they look bad in 90% of the armour instead… even stuff designed for them in some cases. How they left clipping issues and that silly puffed up look on the CoF medium and T3 cultural light armour is quite mysterious.

Hah, true enough. It’s a shame they didn’t design more unique skins for the Charr.

My issue with the AoE cap is that it makes it very difficult for smaller groups to battle the zerg.

For anyone who played Dark Age of Camelot, it was very possible for a much smaller skilled group to take on the zerg via AoE CC – divide and conquer. It took a lot of skill and coordination, but it could be done.

In GW2, the tiny AoE cap of 5 makes defeating the zerg very difficult without equivalent numbers – and in my mind, that’s a real shame. I have no problem with zerging – it was part of DAoC too, and I was often part of it – but it should be beatable by skilled, coordinated play.

Darth Llama.9217:

So, I look around the net and I can’t find anywhere that ANet has ever verified that there will be Ascended Gear beyond trinkets. Have they ever actually said that there will be Ascended Armor and Weapons?

I’m hoping that they won’t, I’m actually happy with the minimal time investment required to acquire Exotics in GW2. The only real thing you have to sink a ton of time into is Legendaries and those are just skins.

I hope they never do Ascended Armor and Weapons, that has ‘just another grind’ written all over it.

I’m with you, and not to mention anyone who wants new Ascended armor/weapons but likes their current skins will have to buy more Fine transmutation stones – and that means either buying gems with real money, or even more grinding to get the gold to exchange for gems.

Ryuujin.8236:

Spoiler – Humans are the elves in GW2.

Don’t believe me? – The human are the majestic and ancient dying race clinging onto a forgotten pantheon and a shadow of their former selves, looking back wistfully to the time they spanned the globe, walked with gods and commanded all the power of the world.

Exactly like the original fantasy elves ala Tolkein – I’m pretty sure I read somewhere in one of the dev blogs where the devs themselves made the comparison

Indeed – humans definitely fit in with a lot of typical elf themes. I think it’s an interesting take on fantasy humans, who are usually the ‘young, upstart’ race in typical fantasy. Here, they are the once-mighty race now on the decline, struggling to survive as newer races begin to eclipse them.

To the topic at hand, there won’t ever be elves There’s plenty of fantasy that caters to elf lovers. GW2 wanted to get away from typical fantasy races – that’s why the dwarves are much less prominent now. Elves have no place on Tyria.

And also, I love Charr – might even be my main if I wasn’t a GW1 vet and thus was heavily invested in human lore. I admit to an anti-Charr bias from the first game, but I’ve really come to appreciate the race. And anyone comparing Charr to Orcs really missed a lot of the cultural nuance of the Charr. GW1 Charr may be somewhat Orc-like, but GW2 Charr are worlds away from that.