Guild Wars 2

^Sxalpha: Never been a fan of weird hair colours, but her face alone is nice, albeit sad. I’d say 7/10.

My warrior. Trying to make a face based on real-life is very, very hard, and this wasn’t as successful as I wanted it to be.

It’s funny, on my server, it’s one of the least popular.

Siamak, don’t bother with Daecollo. He’s convinced that his own lack of skill means the class is broken.

Daecollo.9578:

Siamak.8126:

Hey guys, I have both Warrior and Guardian and like both of them but for the life of me can’t decide which one to go with as my main, here are my basic needs if helps advise me on which would be better for me:
1. Survivability/durable ( very important )
2. Good Damage
3. Mainly PVE and Dungeons
4. PVP is not very important but like to try it from time to time.

1. Survivability/durable ( very important )
Kill it before it kills you. No sustainability. Warriors have the durability of a red solo cup in a party. AKA, have a blast before your thrown away.

2. Good Damage
Warrior is the best damage in the game, if your enemies stand still, to bad that isn’t the case, if the enemies move the Guardian does more damage.

3. Mainly PVE and Dungeons
Guardians are a required class in most high in fractals because of how good they are.

4. PVP is not very important but like to try it from time to time.
I dunno.

1. With a naturally high health pool, armour and dodges available (and evades through the WW), we do have survivability, but no profession can just stand there and take it: and none should. To be a good warrior you need to keep your feet moving. Need to land a 100B? Then you stand behind your enemy or at least have the sucker knocked down (or apply frenzy+endure pain). If you’re wearing all Berserker’s and just standing like a chump, taking the damage, you deserve to go down.

2. Warriors have excellent damage on the move: axes are mobile weapons (fun fact about the fifth axe skill: you can move, dodge and jump while channeling) and aside from a hammer skill and 100B, you can keep on strafing.

3. So are warriors for the sheer amount of damage they bring.

Nah, it needs higher damage and either a roundhouse animation or… or a flying dragon kick!

Rakuren Kenshou.7689:

I have both.

However, one is the smallest male possible (as he’s supposed to be half human) while the other is the largest male possible. So I think they are different enough. The Norn actually have a pretty good range of body size options.

You do know that cross-species breeding is impossible, right?

I have a norn guardian still at level 2 – while I love the story, I am having trouble with the gameplay. Guardian is just… slow, especially compared to my warrior.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

What Thruln ACTUALLY said was that jotun considers elementalist magic to be the most primitive of magic. But that’s subjective, first and foremost, and no timeframe – let alone before the gift of magic Abaddon gave – was given. That editor (Santax) has an issue with differentiating subjective truths that NPCs like Thruln give from the objective truth, and mix-matches them up, rather than the more appropriate form of showing all versions of the same story.

Mikhail.4961:

previously established lore, regarding Abaddon and the release of magic.

Well the original version of that has been redacted, more or less, with GW2. Instead of Abaddon giving magic and magic not existing beforehand, rather Abaddon released magic from the Bloodstones but too freely and gave unique forms of magic to different groups.

Yes, the ‘history’ tab under the Magic article looks like a tug-o-war. I’ll take a look at it this weekend or even today and see if I can straighten things out. I’m not a GW-lorebuff, but I am good with wikis, and this article wouldn’t last a day on the Big Pedia.

Will need to dig for sources for that

^You know, it took me ages to get a template for that wikipage since some of the standard Wikipedia ones didn’t work. I believe much of the information there is derived from Thraln or Throln, whatever, the jotun in Hoelbrak who tells stories. The problem with this is that he himself discredits his information: he says that there’ve been gaps in the storyteller line, sometimes for generations, and who knows how much information and truth has been lost and perverted? And he comes from a proud people, stuck in the past, so there’s probably some bias there. The final nail is that is sounds very much like a story told to explain, but all it is is a story. Like why the Sun chases the Moon, etc.
The second is as Nacremus says: it directly contradicts previously established lore, regarding Abaddon and the release of magic.
As for Ritualists, as I understand it, they practised something that looked like magic long before Abaddon actually released it and then it became fused with magic, creating the profession in Factions.

Kyban.4031:

@Mikhail – I think you did a pretty good job of summing it up. Ritualists get their power from spirits that grant it to them, the question is where they get it. It would seem that they obtain their power from the mists themselves and Razah would get his power in a similar fashion. Since there are no longer ritualists in GW2 I see two options:
Necromancer – They use life energy which is sort of similar to gaining power from spirits like you said.
Elementalist – They are the only profession capable of using raw magic (Magic not bound to the bloodstones or granted by other beings).

Magic itself isn’t really clearly defined in the Guild Wars universe though and there isn’t really a profession that represents Razah well in GW2.

Yeah, it does seem to boil down to those two, doesn’t it? Hm.

Yeah, it’s a question of graphic settings then.

Tbh, the Anglicisation of Norse words (not to be confused with Swedish, Danish, Norwegian or Icelandic, that while being descendants of Norse, are vastly different) used in games always makes me angry. It’s the little things, the details, that make me hiss like Odaen. But, what can you do? The culture and language is considered “cool” by the West and so gets this treatment.

Truthfully though, I find the British accents of the Sylvari far more grating than anything said in Hoelbrak. Shove your violets up your-

That’s the heritage armour, right, Rizzy? Makes me think of Big Blue Dress =)

Honestly, I think most of the light armour is fine.

OP: Interesting tidbit: the hammer has the highest damage out of all our melee weapons, so if our hammer skills (or just the tree it’s in: despite it’s CC capabilities, the hammer should benefit more from the Arms tree) got a bit polished, it’d probably be on par with GS in dungeons.

Personally, I think hammer is great fun but you have to remember that its strength isn’t raw damage like the GS or Axe: it’s good control and good damage, but not great in either.

Hm, so after reaching the “sweet spot” of 2700, would it be optimal to go from (example) Knight’s to Valkyrie for the increased Vitality, if you’re building for survivability?

Oh, right. Never mind then^^

Twiista.1689:

I do not understand this need of everyone on the forums thinking warriors need protection. NO, we do not…

… And yes, I too am a warrior.

Couldn’t have said it better if I had the script =)

Dristig.9678:

Actually we do. (I play a Guardian) we can have 100% vigor up time pretty easily.

Oh right, forgot that. Also forgot the Warrior Warhorn, tsk, tsk. Vigour, wahey…

Daecollo.9578:

It has an internal cooldown of 9 seconds, meaning “FAST HANDS.” will not matter…

What do you mean, it will not matter? The speed of the weapon swap is only relevant if your other weapon currently in your hand doesn’t have an On Crit Effect (Strength, Air, Fire etc) or Swap Effect (Battle, Energy, Stamina), as they all share a cooldown – but very often, you can plan ahead for using Energy when you need it, and then quickly switch to another weapon, dish out some mad damage, swap back and deliver 100b, if that’s your fancy.

Then, as Leo G has pointed out more than once, Building Momentum can turn a would-be death into extra damage+survival. I know I use it when I am low on endurance and the ICD of Energy is still on. Then with 30 points in Discipline, you can recharge your endurance every 8 seconds – even vigour can’t do that.

In exchange for protection, aegis, regeneration and all the defensive boons of the Guardian, Warriors get health and endurance and as such, we have to be on our toes: we’re proactive, not reactive. Maybe that’s the difference between many of us and you, Daecollo: we’re good warriors because we initiate and constantly go at it, and you’re a bad warrior because you just stand there and take it… and think of England.

Dustfinger.9510:

In 250 years since playable humanity was restricted to one main kingdom, he may very well be a mix of several or just a couple bloodlines.

Very true, but he asked for one of the above.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Technically, lore-wise, Razah would be considered a demon. He’s just unlike most demons in many aspects.

As I understand it, the difference between Razah and a demon is the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter.

Daecollo.9578:

Well, Guardians have much more condition removal. Also the ability to turns bad conditions into boons. Also passive condition removal. Also amazing low level traits. Also much more healing. Also better boons. Also more dodges.

They also have a lot more combat movement in there attacks too, that is always important, they are much more mobile when it comes to there damage. They also have access to a lot of blinds as well.

True. True. True. Dunno about that… True. True. Lolwut? Guardians have zero endurance regenerating skills or traits: Warriors have SoS and Building Momentum – 33% regen and half a bar on burst skill. We can go from zero to (hero) full in a matter of seconds, so no, Guardians do NOT have more dodges (which is another reason they got Protection and Aegis: they’re not very mobile).
Hm… I’ll admit that some of our weapons are basically stand-here-and-smash, but the GS, MH sword, rifle (optimal for kiting) and Hammer all favour movement.

smeen.4237:

She just needs a new voice, she sounds too much like my female Sylvari, who I like much, much more.

Same voice-actress: Jennifer Hale, who did Bastila in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Honestly, I half expect her to shout “The Force fights with me!” whenever I meet her.

I like the use of the Dark Armor, the CM legs and HotW shoulders: it looks very well put together.
That aside… based on the skin tone, I’d say Krytan (as Ascalonians were more Germanic than the Krytans in both names and appearances), but the name seems to be Ascalonian-sounding: this doesn’t matter much though, as it can be the result of marriage, an honorific or pseudonym.

Aesthetic reasons – yes, yes, I am shallow.
Sylvari does nothing for me: they’re all these faux-Brits and they’re all walking vegetables.
Charr has never appealed to me simply because they’re giant cats. With horns.
Asura… aside from their animations (which are awesome), they remind me too much of gremlins.
Norn? I have two norn, but what draws me here is that they’re basically very human-esque and have an interesting culture (if somewhat stereotyped).

I have… three humans at the moment, but there’ll be about five soon (or whenever we get a new profession) for a few reasons: they’re nice to look at, both the males and females, any class fits them, and there’s diversity.

Artyport.2084:

Queen Jennah is a hot mess.
She’s Not wearing any shoes and her dress is a bit.. boring.
She is our queen and she needs to be fabulous.
Post your idea of how she should look

That top makes me think of those pastry racks with lacey paper thingies under so it looks “pretty”. Cheap, is another word. Gaudy.

The only redesign I would have of Jennah is that she gets a really unique dress – something similar to what she has now, but unique enough to b hers alone. I mean, that norn with the stupidest hair has a unique armour, why can’t our Queen have that?

Dunno why you dug this up, Ethan, but to the OP, if it still matters: you most likely have the graphics settings too low. I believe at medium or higher, it shows the muscles and veins more clearly.

Primal Zed.9714:

Not sure if it’s already understood, but want to make clear that Razah is just the name of the individual, not the name of that sort of creature or anything.

Also, I think that you could play a creature from the Mists as any profession. It’s not like he has to have some affinity for Mists-magic (which may not even be a thing, so far as I know).

I actually didn’t know that^^ I thought ‘Razah’ was both his name and the name of what he was. The more you know, eh?

Hm… I see what you mean.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

Given how the Soviet Union treated women generally, they’re probably little more than workers and child-bearers.

Women in the Soviet had abortion legalised long before other “free” countries though (then banned, then legalised again), so they weren’t really incubators, and as early as 1917, measures were taken to emancipate women so they could work and live without a man. But I am going off-topic…

I think in some cases, like the ettins, the difference between male and female are indistinguishable to the player, but obvious to the in-game characters: a male ettin can probably tell a female one by scent, colour, walk etc. Or it’s a case of autogamy, in which case it doesn’t really matter

Knox.8462:

Mesmers (and elementalists to a smaller extent) can manipulate Ether, which is basically magical energy in its purest form.

Oh right, ether renewal and bolts, yes.

WonderfulCT.6278:

Also you don’t consider Razah to be a person even after he tried so hard to fit in and find his own path? QQ

What? Did I say that? If I did, I didn’t mean it

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Either “all magic users” equally – as outside Tyria, magic wouldn’t be bound to the four schools like player professions, and in turn all professions – including ranger though maybe not engineer or warrior – utilize magic to manipulate things in some manner – or it would be “none of them” because, truth be told, the Mists are protomatter and that’s not manipulated by any single profession.

I suspected as much, the latter half of your post, I mean. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

Riot Inducer.8964:

I suppose you could think of him as a “meta” mesmer in the sense that mesmers generate illusions to appear as anything they choose, Razah does a similar thing when changing professions except that it’s an actual change not just an illusion. Really though I think the profession that best reflects his ability to utilize the powers of any other profession is the GW1 Dervish as they don’t seem to adhere to any one “school” of magic but instead have limited abilities of all of them.

Talking GW2 now, though

No, no, this isn’t an idea about turning them into a profession… good lord, no. My question is related to roleplaying purposes (hence the lore section?) about this fascinating creature.

If we look at the Razah itself – look away from the starter profession it has in GW1 (ritualist) and focus on the being itself – a creature of Mist energy, which profession would be the closest to it? Which profession emulates this being the most?

I’ve excluded engineers, warriors, thieves and rangers as I can’t really see any connection there.
I’ve given this some thought, and honestly, I’m not sure where I stand.
Guardians utilise the school of Preservation which seems to be all about Faith (in gods, religions, yourself, your friends etc) and maybe not the Mists themselves.
Elementalists are Destruction and as the name suggests, wield the elements – I suppose the skills under the “Arcane” tab is closely related to the Mists, but the profession is almost entirely made up for air, earth, water and fire (which also seems to be a magic as old as Tyria itself) – we can argue that these basic elements make up all of Tyria and as such, are the best physical representation of the Mists themselves…
Mesmers… I don’t really know where I stand here.
Necromancers! This was my first choice, but then I realised that I was probably thinking too much of the Ritualist Razah rather than the Razah itself, so I came here This profession seems to be more about the power of blood and flesh than anything else, with a touch of the spiritual: spectral skills etc. Honestly, I don’t really see where the Mists play into this, unless we accept that life force = souls and spirits which reside in the Mists (and once again, fall back to the Ritualist… kitten .

I use Divinity runes on my warrior simply because they provide such a good, all-around boost. I think it boils down to what you want: a small damage increase, or a small overall improvement.

Sollith.3502:

One thing I can say though, is that I do prefer the aesthetics of the ranger skills over all the other classes and the feel of the ranger skills is definitely good (I just wish you could use dodge to cancel out of sword 1…).

Heh, this is the exact reason why I made a ranger over a thief as my second character: I just like the look of the animations and the feel of the class (minus the pet… if I could just use the harvesting sickle to end it once and for all, I would). I’ve only ever done an AC story run with him, but I really hope I can continue playing him without a bow in dungeons later on.

Fey Zeal.7032:

The Norns from GW1 actually did not have all the chest hair all the Norns in GW2 have.

Yeah, was going to say this as well – they’ve got chest hair and fairly hairy arms already. If you want a carpet, your best bet is a Charr.

You know, I’d also change the burst skill of the MH sword. Flurry isn’t good – that’s a fact: it roots you into place for its duration and has a very short range. The damage isn’t much to cheer for either. I’d suggest changing it to a Death Blossom-y kind of attack, where you spin through the air, slicing up foes along the way. This would provide a) a non-rooted burst, b) something on par with the other weapons’ bursts which are actually useful and c) a reason to use the sword.

Mattidore.3482:

Wait, it’s almost only good for pvp and wvw? But… Isn’t that all we care about, pvp and wvw??? I dunno if you have played with a hammer, but it definitely isn’t “poor”. Also the hammer trait is perfect in the defence tree… /facepalm

You might care more about PvP and WvW, but a weapon should be viable in all fields, not just one (and let’s be honest, WvWvW is sitting on a wall with an arrow cart or running in a zerg). I’ve played extensively with a hammer in PvE and found that while it is very useful for control, this control does not make up for the gap in DPS. Why is it perfect in the defence tree?

Sahfur.5612:

Sword needs buffing to the level of g/s via having the forceful greatsword trait apply to it as well. This would encourage other builds to counter kiting and get some people off of greatsword occasionally.

Damage isn’t king in this game, utility is. Proper sword would add to this in spades.

I like this idea… a lot, actually. If we could replace the inherent bleeds of the sword with… I don’t know, Vulnerability (obviously not too many, considering it’s attack speed), this could really be something.

Manticore Five.9867:

Well, someone must because you wouldn’t believe the level of crap I’m receiving for suggesting the CD be lowered. Apparently no one likes the idea of a sword-parrying warrior.

Really? Did they say which content? I can understand it in PvP since it’s yet another block (we got many of those), but not in PvE…

Mattidore.3482:

I would quit GW2 if they removed all the cc from Hammer and turned it into another all out DPS weapon, GS is arleady a big enough noob magnet as is… Hammer and the 1h sword is that only weapon that really has its own unique niche.

I wrote “some”. As it is now, it’s almost only good for PvP/WvWvW and trash mobs. I wouldn’t want it as an all out dps weapon either – I just don’t want it as poor as it is now.

Only four things:

Sword MH: Instead of Bleeds, apply Vulnerability and Confusion (1sec, can be increased through traits).
Sword OH: Instead of the parry (does anyone use this? Anyone?), we get something similar to Whirling Axe – a sphere of damage and reflection of missiles, which we can move with.

Hammer: To make it more viable in PvE content, especially dungeons, I’d remove some of the crowd-control and simply up the damage and apply Vulnerability. And move the kitten trait away from Defense. Of course, I also want a one-handed hammer…

Warhorn: You should be able to stab them with the sharp end.

Oglaf.1074:

Mancleaver sounds like a horrible, horrible homoerotic movie.

Best. Reply. Ever.

Runiir.6425:

Either the females need to be changed, or the males need to be made more human in ratio.

Well, they don’t have to make them more human anatomically (they aren’t human, afterall), but they should definitely make them more like the females.

Mejo.3198:

The males are all babyfaced aswell. Or there are too much babyfaces at least.

Hmm, I think there are… three or four faces that aren’t baby-faced – but these are old/scarred/distorted and usually reserved for Sons of Svanir NPCs.

Weindrasi.3805:

The reason men don’t have cheek sliders is probably because less cheek fat makes people look more masculine. In society, it’s more acceptible for women to be masculine then it is for men to be feminine. As a result, the female faces can be made to look quite masculine or feminine, but the male faces are more limited in this area. And that’s a pity—because double standards are FXXXin dumb
So yes, give male characters the cheek sliders and chin sliders. But also give female characters more scarred and aged faces—the fact that all the females look like teenaged supermodels is also a double standard.

And as for the norn… yeah, they suck. The females are boring because they’re essentially just twigs with melons on top. The males are boring because they’re just hulks with shrunken heads.

Hm, wasn’t really thinking about the cheek fat, but the shape of the face that the cheek option gives (being of Eastern European decent, I and many in my family have very “classic” looks hailing from there) that aren’t available to either Norn or Humans. But yes, more not-pretty options for the females too! If I want to make a wizened old crone, I should be able too

Edit: Took a stroll though Hoelbrak, just on a whim. Interesting to note is that “fat” male Norn seem to have a straighter back and the children are also less curved and more normal-looking.

Agreed, Oglaf, especially since the male Norn heads themselves are like bowling balls… and they’re not in a straight line as with humans: they’re sort of pushed forward, as if their spine bends near the end (which is weird, seeing as the female Norn have perfectly straight backs), heightening the sense of the head’s shape.

It’s a ‘No’ for inspecting from me, as well. I’m running with a semi-obscure armour set right now that gets a lot of compliments and questions about where it’s from: usually I just say “karma” or “it’s transmuted” and then drop the subject, because I’m selfish like that: it is my armour that I worked hard to get and not everyone else has to run around in it. Preserve some of the mystery, and do your own bloody work.
Also, and this is a little less self-centred: inspecting, even with a toggle on/off function, will lead to elitism.

I disagree, Lt Google: I teamed up with a hammer warrior yesterday for a CM run and the dude was incredible: having him smack down enemies made the run go a lot faster and have a lot less need to run from the Bombers (he also made the Cutpurses into a gooey paste, so yay). For bosses however, yes, the hammer isn’t as effective, which is a shame.

There also isn’t any “best” builds (well, some are better than others and some some are utter crap), so just build your warrior around the Merciless Hammer trait and get a feel for it.

You know, I didn’t notice this until I a few weeks ago when I couldn’t figure out what was bugging me about character creation:

Human and Norn males do NOT have cheek and lower jaw sliders, unlike their female counterparts. Seriously, what’s up with that? Our dudes can have cheekbones too, you know.

Anyway, it’d be nice to see that implemented, if only for the sake of equality. It’s impossible to make a good-looking character with a rounder face without the cheek sliders :/