New racial skill ideas

[Kencu.5846]

Let's be honest: nobody uses racial skills. They are totally useless. But I have an idea of improved racial skills. It would require team effort to gain the benefits of them.

My idea is to use them to give support to weaker servers.

 

I give you some ideas as examples:

 

Asura group racial skill: Create asura gates. Asuras could create 2 asura gates each map (of each server) between 2 keeps (including SM), between 2 towers or between a tower and a keep. The 2 gates must be completed within a short time, otherwise the skill fails. (maybe 10 asuras in each place?) The cooldown would be hours.

Norn group racial skill: Spirits of the Wild. Norns could channel their new skill to summon spirit animals to defend a tower or keep. Like extra guards, but animals with different skills.

Charr group racial skill: Warband Support: Similar to the norn skill but charrs would come to defend.

Sylvari group racial skill: Grasping vines: Summon vines around a keep or tower to protect it. (like an extra layer of weaker wall)

Human group racial skill: Prayer to Kormir: strengthen te veteran guards at a keep or tower to make them elite guards.

 

Only one of these could be active in a keep or tower. You get 1.5 times more WXP and reward track progress if you're defending a keep or a tower with a group racial skill active in them.

Capturing an objective with an active group racial skill would give 2x WXP and reward track progress. Only T2 or T3 objectives could be buffed this way.

 

If you control 5 or less objectives, you can have 5 skills active (if you control 2 objectives for example, you can either put 2 asura gates in them or give each a buff of the other races. But you have the option to choose from all.)

 

If you control 6 objectives, you can have 4 skills active.

If you control 7 objectives, you can have 3 skills active.

If you control 8 objectives, you can have 2 skills active.

If you control 9 objectives, you can have 1 skills active.

If you control 10 or more objectives, you can have 0 skills active.

 

For example if you have 6 objectives and had 4 skills active and you capture an objective, the firstly applied group racial skill ends. And so on.

 

Pros:

 

Encourage players to make good strategic decisions and invest in defending, because it is rewarding. Also it encourages offence since the reward is higher for capturing a buffed objective. More "out of the box" strategic decisions could be made. Example: Eternal Battlegrounds. You are red. You capture Bravost and upgrade it to T2 and connect it with your keep through an asura gate. You use Bravost to attack blue keep.

 

Asura gates could reduce travel time. Like Emergency Waypoints.

 

Cons: possible OP skills, needs good balance. (Can't get any worse than dragon banners :D)

 

What do you guys think? What new features would you like to see in WvW?

 

[hobotnicax.7918]

Waste of dev time (if there is such a thing for wvw).

The game mode needs more important things, as in alliances and population balance.

[Kencu.5846]

How do you imagine alliances?

[DemonSeed.3528]

Although I'd like an extra flavor to add to the mix, I think Anet already shown they don't want to make them even close to average performing skills. The problem before (which they already took care of on some, not others) was the synergy it had with certain traits or mechanics. That said, the Norn one can still be used for gimmicks. Heck, I've even found room to make use of the charr one when I was bored. They should at least reconsider revisiting them and give them semi useful lore bound utility. Just not totally useless as icons.

[Arcaniaxs.4519]

Btw these skills limit racical skills to wvw... and that wont happen

[Kulvar.1239]

> @"Kencu.5846" said:

> Human group racial skill: Prayer to Kormir: strengthen te veteran guards at a keep or tower to make them elite guards.

 

GW1 players mostly say : "duck you, I will never pray that useless piece of carp".

[Uden Reavstone.3426]

When GW2 was still in development, the devs made several blog posts about how and why they developed the game the way they did. In one post, they stated that they made racial skills (and races in general) the way they did was so no one would say stuff like, "Why are you playing an asura warrior you noob!?" or, "Oh. You want to play a norn ele? Not in my party, noob!" In my opinion, they made the right choice, and I'll stand by this until the day I die irl. The "You better be playing the meta!" gamers are annoying enough as is. Don't add more fuel to their fire.

[Seera.5916]

Racial skills were intentionally designed to be weaker than other skills. They didn't want the meta to include race as a factor.

 

They're great for thematic builds and for new players to use while leveling up and unlocking their skills.

 

But beyond that, I don't think ANet will ever add more racial skills or improve the others. Nor do I think they should. I agree with them that race shouldn't be part of the meta. And ANet should work on adding more content to the game and fixing the content already in the game than working on a system that most players won't ever use.

[Zephire.8049]

> @"Uden Reavstone.3426" said:

> When GW2 was still in development, the devs made several blog posts about how and why they developed the game the way they did. In one post, they stated that they made racial skills (and races in general) the way they did was so no one would say stuff like, "Why are you playing an asura warrior you noob!?" or, "Oh. You want to play a norn ele? Not in my party, noob!" In my opinion, they made the right choice, and I'll stand by this until the day I die irl. The "You better be playing the meta!" gamers are annoying enough as is. Don't add more fuel to their fire.

 

I don't know if it's still the case, but back in WoW during the Wrath of the Lich King era, humans were the only viable Alliance PvP race outside a handful of niches where the other races were only a _slight_ downgrade because the human racial skill was so much stronger. In PvE it didn't matter _as much_, but if you were serious about PvP you had to play human, especially if you wanted to join a PvP guild. It sucked. A lot.

 

I am so glad Anet made racial abilities thematic rather than making them comparable to profession abilities. As soon as the min-maxers figured out which race had the "best" racials, anyone playing anything else would be mocked and/or excluded. PvP, WvW, and even PvE before raids. You can't simply change a race or class in GW2 so people would have had to make a whole new character... and then make another one when a patch changed up the meta. And again the following balance change...

 

Racial abilities still serve some purpose anyway when leveling. They may not be as powerful but if you only have a few profession skills available, they're a viable alternative.

[Super Hayes.6890]

Okay, the norn transformations should be an activate/deactivate skill in PvE only while keeping your current weapons skills and not gaining anything other than the look. I want to become the bear! Not become bearlike for 30 seconds or whatever and wait a few minutes before attacking the next mob. Those skills should be re-designed for racially themed fun instead of collecting dust.

[Cyninja.2954]

> @"Kencu.5846" said:

> Cons: possible OP skills, needs good balance. (Can't get any worse than dragon banners :D)

>

 

Cons 2:

There is still a class with no access to any racial skills at all.

 

This topic is as old as the game forums. The relevant bit was posted by Uden Reavstone.3426 :

> @"Uden Reavstone.3426" said:

> When GW2 was still in development, the devs made several blog posts about how and why they developed the game the way they did. In one post, they stated that they made racial skills (and races in general) the way they did was so no one would say stuff like, "Why are you playing an asura warrior you noob!?" or, "Oh. You want to play a norn ele? Not in my party, noob!"

 

Making racial skills advantageous brings with it issues. Also, in all past cases where racial skills were even slightly useful (Sylvari Seed Turrets as extra condi damage), the developers were very fast to address the issue and change (and mostly) nerf the racial skill asap.

 

So once again, until the developers decide to change their approach to these skills, which there is many reasons not to, any one who wants racial skills to become more relevant will be disappointed. The best suggestion in this regard I have seen was made by Woodenpotatoes a while back: add racial masteries so other races can learn each others racial skills and make use of unused hero points. Yet even that would bring with it a ton of extra animation and design work.

[Thornwolf.9721]

> @"Uden Reavstone.3426" said:

> When GW2 was still in development, the devs made several blog posts about how and why they developed the game the way they did. In one post, they stated that they made racial skills (and races in general) the way they did was so no one would say stuff like, "Why are you playing an asura warrior you noob!?" or, "Oh. You want to play a norn ele? Not in my party, noob!" In my opinion, they made the right choice, and I'll stand by this until the day I die irl. The "You better be playing the meta!" gamers are annoying enough as is. Don't add more fuel to their fire.

 

This happens still, with the humans are the master race crud we get all the time. Thats why everyone or the majority plays humans WHY bother playing anything else, the race has the best looks when it comes to armor issues and it has fluid animations as well as the most customization out of any of the races. AND some of their racial skill still rock~ So this issue still exists. The least they could do is give us something that makes the other races just as cool (More customization or so on.)

[TheGrimm.5624]

One of the first draws to GW2 was the extra depth that racial skills would further distinguish one warrior from another. Depth in builds allow people to create more unique interesting builds that be would fun to play. The racial skills should be something that make you want to put them on your bars versus just the classes abilities. One race shouldn't be stronger than another, they should all be interesting, fun and bring values to builds in their own ways. You want them in a position that people want one of each race for a given class since it would make the play differently. As far as balance, players shouldn't assume it can't be balanced, you have to plan that it can be. And I have to admit, I would side on the side of fun over balance if grants more build options. So from me, yes racials should be relooked at and reworked if it leads to them being more valuable and used in builds.

[Zaxares.5419]

I too would love to see racial skills get more use, but I think that due to their semi-exclusive nature they should be kept out of PvP-modes like sPvP or WvW. Instead, what I'd like to see are new Racial Skill Slots, an additional 2 or 3 (maximum 1 elite too) buttons on your skill bar into which you can place racial skills (and ONLY racial skills). This means that racial skills can be balanced against each other, rather than competing with the standard profession utility skills. Generic skills like Summon Mistfire Wolf (when was the last time you saw this guy, for instance?) can be available to all professions, in case a player just doesn't care for their particular racial skill.

 

The intent behind this change is to basically give players more weight to their choice of race for flavour and a teensy power boost (as racial skills as a general rule are much weaker than profession skills), without making it feel like you HAVE to go with a particular race for a profession. For example, despite all the lore behind Norn players being able to channel the Spirits of the Wild, when was the last time you actually saw someone use Bear Form or Wolf Form etc.? When was the last time you actually saw a Charr call in members of their warband, or an Asura use Technobabble? I feel that the inclusion of racial skill slots would allow players to enjoy their racial skills more without feeling like they're missing out or hamstringing their build.

[Uden Reavstone.3426]

> @"Thornwolf.9721" said:

> > @"Uden Reavstone.3426" said:

> > When GW2 was still in development, the devs made several blog posts about how and why they developed the game the way they did. In one post, they stated that they made racial skills (and races in general) the way they did was so no one would say stuff like, "Why are you playing an asura warrior you noob!?" or, "Oh. You want to play a norn ele? Not in my party, noob!" In my opinion, they made the right choice, and I'll stand by this until the day I die irl. The "You better be playing the meta!" gamers are annoying enough as is. Don't add more fuel to their fire.

>

> This happens still, with the humans are the master race crud we get all the time. Thats why everyone or the majority plays humans WHY bother playing anything else, the race has the best looks when it comes to armor issues and it has fluid animations as well as the most customization out of any of the races. AND some of their racial skill still rock~ So this issue still exists. The least they could do is give us something that makes the other races just as cool (More customization or so on.)

 

Again, back durring the game's development, there was a forum discussion titled, "What Race(s) are You Going to Play and Why?" If I had a penny for every person who said, "I'm going to make a human because I am one," I'd be a millionaire. Look around you. There are tons of players, myself included, who play non-humans. There is a reason why my signature reads, "The Charr shall rule!" While I do have human characters, I'm a Charr player through and through. Heck, many of Woodenpotatoes' characters are Asura. Also, I see more people use norn ice worm skill than any other racial skill. Always had. And yes, some people care allot about Fashion Wars, but not all.

[GummyBearSummoner.7941]

I would love to see my norn racial skills updated. I use snow leopards form on occasion in PvE just for fun but it has such a long cool down . Norn is one of my favorite races since guild wars 1 & I’m still disappointed that racial skills get no love /:

[Dante.1763]

> @"GummyBearSummoner.7941" said:

> I would love to see my norn racial skills updated. I use snow leopards form on occasion in PvE just for fun but it has such a long cool down . Norn is one of my favorite races since guild wars 1 & I’m still disappointed that racial skills get no love /:

 

By design. racial skills are little more than fluff as they didnt want one race to be better than any other. HOWEVER, i think for Open World PVE(Not raids, strikes, fractals or dungeons) anet could add an F6-9 Skill slot(have them rest just slightly above the 6-0 keys) for racial skills. balance doesnt really matter in Open World PVE, so why not make it more fun and allow all the races to use their skills all the time?

[GummyBearSummoner.7941]

> @"Dante.1763" said:

> > @"GummyBearSummoner.7941" said:

> > I would love to see my norn racial skills updated. I use snow leopards form on occasion in PvE just for fun but it has such a long cool down . Norn is one of my favorite races since guild wars 1 & I’m still disappointed that racial skills get no love /:

>

> By design. racial skills are little more than fluff as they didnt want one race to be better than any other. HOWEVER, i think for Open World PVE(Not raids, strikes, fractals or dungeons) anet could add an F6-9 Skill slot(have them rest just slightly above the 6-0 keys) for racial skills. balance doesnt really matter in Open World PVE, so why not make it more fun and allow all the races to use their skills all the time?

 

I think by now we all know that norn is the best race so...

 

Yeah I think racial skills should be improved just for PvE & remove them from WvW so they don’t have an excuse to say they are “op”

[Super Hayes.6890]

Yes!!!! Make them all fun to use in PvE! Why has this not been the case from the begining? Don't answer that...

[Zelanard.5806]

Instead of racial skills, I'd love racial animations.

Asura Engineer: Use Asura tech. Charr engineer: Use Char tech. Sylvari Engieer: use sulvari tech. Etc.

Golemancy you say? Asuran Necromancer. Let it's undeads be Golems.

 

Alternatively, I'd love for them to completely eliminate all racial skills and make racially themed elite specs, available to all races. We have already established in gw1 that humans can use the skills of both norn, asura and dwarfs. There is no reason why there should be racially limited skills, when we already know that humans can "become the bear" etc...

[TheGrimm.5624]

I don't know that I would agree with the just PvE bit. Myself would like them improved and usable in WvW at least. PvP would be good as well but with ranked I could bend some.

[Zaxares.5419]

> @"TheGrimm.5624" said:

> I don't know that I would agree with the just PvE bit. Myself would like them improved and usable in WvW at least. PvP would be good as well but with ranked I could bend some.

 

While I do see the appeal, there are two main downsides to allowing racial skills in competitive modes. The first is that unless you were to really fine-tune the balances (which runs the risk of making the racial skills too homogeneous), racial skills can be used to shore up weaknesses for certain builds. For instance, Human characters have Prayer to Lyssa/Kormir, which basically functions as additional boon/condition removal. This would make Human characters a lot more resilient in combat, allowing them to adopt more aggressive builds than the other races. You could, of course, adjust the other racial skills so that every race has one skill that performs a similar function, but then, as I said, that means all the racial skills would start feeling too homogeneous. This isn't really an issue in PvE because usually enemies are either weak enough that you don't need to bother, or in end-game content like fractals/strikes/raids, you'll typically have one member of the party who's dedicated to that role anyway.

 

The second downside is that if you allow racial skills (above and beyond the usual skill slots, like what I proposed in my post regarding Racial Skill Slots), that would mean that zergs could easily double or triple their size by every single player summoning Mistfire Wolves, Charr Warbands, Norn Wurms etc., which would cause massive slowdown and lag, especially when you have three-way fights in places like SMC.

[TheGrimm.5624]

> @"Zaxares.5419" said:

> > @"TheGrimm.5624" said:

> > I don't know that I would agree with the just PvE bit. Myself would like them improved and usable in WvW at least. PvP would be good as well but with ranked I could bend some.

>

> While I do see the appeal, there are two main downsides to allowing racial skills in competitive modes. The first is that unless you were to really fine-tune the balances (which runs the risk of making the racial skills too homogeneous), racial skills can be used to shore up weaknesses for certain builds. For instance, Human characters have Prayer to Lyssa/Kormir, which basically functions as additional boon/condition removal. This would make Human characters a lot more resilient in combat, allowing them to adopt more aggressive builds than the other races. You could, of course, adjust the other racial skills so that every race has one skill that performs a similar function, but then, as I said, that means all the racial skills would start feeling too homogeneous. This isn't really an issue in PvE because usually enemies are either weak enough that you don't need to bother, or in end-game content like fractals/strikes/raids, you'll typically have one member of the party who's dedicated to that role anyway.

>

> The second downside is that if you allow racial skills (above and beyond the usual skill slots, like what I proposed in my post regarding Racial Skill Slots), that would mean that zergs could easily double or triple their size by every single player summoning Mistfire Wolves, Charr Warbands, Norn Wurms etc., which would cause massive slowdown and lag, especially when you have three-way fights in places like SMC.

 

Actually that's exactly what I am looking for. I would like it that racial abilities could help cover gaps in builds or further strength a build in a point it was already leaning on. As far as WvW and larger zergs, pets get burned down already and HP can be adjusted if a racial summons is over-performing. Opinion stands, they should be better and should make you question do I take a class ability or a racial. Its should be a weighty decision when creating a new toon versus just an appearance. Again won't speak for others but to me that was an original draw to GW2 when seeing the marketing that race could add another dimension to a build.

[Dante.1763]

> @"TheGrimm.5624" said:

> > @"Zaxares.5419" said:

> > > @"TheGrimm.5624" said:

> > > I don't know that I would agree with the just PvE bit. Myself would like them improved and usable in WvW at least. PvP would be good as well but with ranked I could bend some.

> >

> > While I do see the appeal, there are two main downsides to allowing racial skills in competitive modes. The first is that unless you were to really fine-tune the balances (which runs the risk of making the racial skills too homogeneous), racial skills can be used to shore up weaknesses for certain builds. For instance, Human characters have Prayer to Lyssa/Kormir, which basically functions as additional boon/condition removal. This would make Human characters a lot more resilient in combat, allowing them to adopt more aggressive builds than the other races. You could, of course, adjust the other racial skills so that every race has one skill that performs a similar function, but then, as I said, that means all the racial skills would start feeling too homogeneous. This isn't really an issue in PvE because usually enemies are either weak enough that you don't need to bother, or in end-game content like fractals/strikes/raids, you'll typically have one member of the party who's dedicated to that role anyway.

> >

> > The second downside is that if you allow racial skills (above and beyond the usual skill slots, like what I proposed in my post regarding Racial Skill Slots), that would mean that zergs could easily double or triple their size by every single player summoning Mistfire Wolves, Charr Warbands, Norn Wurms etc., which would cause massive slowdown and lag, especially when you have three-way fights in places like SMC.

>

> Actually that's exactly what I am looking for. I would like it that racial abilities could help cover gaps in builds or further strength a build in a point it was already leaning on. As far as WvW and larger zergs, pets get burned down already and HP can be adjusted if a racial summons is over-performing. Opinion stands, they should be better and should make you question do I take a class ability or a racial. Its should be a weighty decision when creating a new toon versus just an appearance. Again won't speak for others but to me that was an original draw to GW2 when seeing the marketing that race could add another dimension to a build.

 

im glad and always will be glad its not a consideration when making a class. I agree with anet on that decision, especially when it comes to competitive play, and its iffy when dealing with high tier content like raids and fractals. Race should not matter in that context, ever. Which they already have major issues in balancing those game modes(pvp, wvw), adding in having to make sure all the races are balanced on top of skills would be laughable.

 

Remember the days of getting kicked for playing a ranger or a necro? i do. Now imagine getting kicked from a group because your Charr Eles build isnt as good as a Human Ele, no thank you.

 

Which is why i said racial skills should be removed from those modes entirely and be made fun and good to use in pve(dungeons included due to how easy dungeons are nowadays, but raids and fractals no.) where anet doesnt care about balance. Alternatively in PVE add them as F6-9 Utility skills, allowing all races to access those skills, always.

[Jimbru.6014]

I know many Asura players wish Radiation Field was better so they could include it in condi builds. I imagine other races have ideas for their own skills. Obviously you don't want racial skills to become the ZOMG META (elitist min-maxers have a place in Torment waiting for them) but there's nothing wrong with making racial skills more reasonably useful.