GW2 Concept Racial System including Races for Future

GW2: Start:

- Human (standart)
- Charr (nice cat hybrids, "felines")
- Asura (little gnomes -.- hope they get smaller then dwarfs, then they would look good, more the size of the minipet)
- Sylvari (awesome wood elves XD)
- Norn (stupid giants which can transform into huge teddy bears, no were bears like on artworks, hope in GW2 the bear form will look much more aggressive and scarefully, and when transformed, Bears should not fight with "suddenly" grown weapons, which are then suddenly double so big, as before the transform.
No they should fight with their bear claws -.-, Norn fight with their weapons only, when not in bear form, and Norn should transform in GW2 also in Wolf and Raven Form ... would make the whole boring race more interesting and would fit to them due to GW:EN, which was based on norse mythology)

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Future Races:

- Dwarfs
- Centaur
- Sylphs
- Undines
- (name regardless, something drowlike) call them for example "Deimos"
- Demons (Mursaat)
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The Humans

Humans are a folk, which never fights alone, their strength relies in their massive amount. Humans live near everywhere on the world, cause of their very good ability to adapt to their areas where they live in and to the conditions of nature.
Humans are very interested in technics and science, but also don't fear the war. Their Weapons are strong and of high quality, only weapons of the dwarfs surpass them in fact of physical quality and durability.
Humans have the very good ability to adapt abilities from other races, which is the reason, why not only dwarf's fight with siege weapons, humans fight with tzhe same type of siege weapons, cause they adapted them and learned from the dwarfs, how to build them.

Race Bonus
- -15% quicker recharge of Skills
- +15% Defense Power, when Fighting in a Party of x People
- +15% more Damage with Sword Weapons

The Charrs

Charrs are a folk which works in a clusterlike system, there are different tribes, which are lead by different "shamans" but all the tribes again are lead by one single main shaman, a hierophant. Charr look at Humans, as if they are their quarry. They call them "mouse", as if hunting humans would be for them only a cat&mouse game. Charrs don't fear the war, the charr were it, which startet for 100 years ago a war against the humans in believe of their "gods", the Titans, which were only slaves of the Lich. The Charr were only manipulated figures of a big chess game to start the flame seeker prophecies.
Now 100 years later, after the Titans were slayed down and the Humans had their revenge also in the Charr Homelands, by killing the hierophant of the Charr, the Charr are now free of their "dictator" which used their weird religion to control his folk. The Charr are now free of religion and can go all their own ways of living in peace, but who know,s maybe there are some little tribes left, which don't want to miss hunting humans as their "mice" ...

Racel Bonus

- +15% Damage Magic
- Can Jump 50% higher/farer
- Can see better in the Night then any other Race


The Asuras
A folk of very small gnomelike creatures, which are extreme intelligent and have superior abilities in kinds of magic, also very superior in technologies and science, like the Human, but far more superior.
They think of themself, that theey are the rulers of the world and are superior to all other races. The asuras live under the earth and in some towns and outposts over it. Their technologies allow them to teleport everywhere through their Asura Gates. Just type in the coordinates where you want to go, wurm hole pops up and you go through and end up at ur destination point.
asuras are the smallest race of all on the world of Tyria.

Race Bonus

- +1 more Energy Regeneration regardless of Class
- +15 % more Defense Power vs. Magic
- Any Asura of any Class has 15% more Energy then similar classes of other Races


The Norns
The Norn are a folk of half Giants, Half human, Half Giant. Norns are a Race of Hunters, they love the challenge to Hunt mighty beasts and are for that blessed by the Goddess of Hunt&Fertility, which is shown for them in a "Bear Form" and is known by the Norn as "Great Bear", who has granted them as tribute for their tribute to the Goddes of Hunt the ability to transform into the 3 holy animals of the Norn - the Bear, the Wolf and the Raven which represent the 3 points of hunting teachings a Norn must have in his Heart and Soul.
Norns hunter ever alone, they take only help of others, when they have no other choice, then to imbide the help.

Race Bonus

- +15% more HP as Bear (can detect hidden Items)
- +15% Chance to avoid physical Hits as Wolf (can detect hidden Enemies)
- +15% Criticals as Raven (can detect hidden Traps)


The Sylvaris
Sylvari are a peaceful Race of Wood Elfs, Guardians of Nature.
They live reclusive in their mystical Woods, which are seized by several protection spells, like mystiful mists, unvisible barrier fields, masses of illusions and so nearer you come to them, so more deadly are the woods filled with traps, which should make the intruders clear, that they are not welcome.
Not much is known about them yet, because not much were seen yet in the open world of Tyria.

Race Bonus

- +15% damage/markmanship with Bow Weapons
- -15% quicker healing from negative Stats
- Sylvari can talk with Animals and Trees, getting Help/Infos from them

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The Dwarfs
Dwarfs are a simple to declare folk:
They are small, but not so small as the Asuras, they have long thick beards, are mostly all fat and the overall dwarf is ever sulky.
Dwarfs love 2 thinks most: Alcohol in form of beer or met and GOLD, Ya Dwarfs love gold and thats why Dwarfs live very often in mountains and work in mines to mine for gold. Dwarfs are very good blacksmiths and merchants. They are appraised for their works as those professions. Dwarven made weapons are very valuable cause of the very high quality. Rumors say, that only 1 legendary dwarf can create an axe, that is able to cut the divine wood of the mighty Tree of life Yggdrasill ind the sacred woods of the Sylvari.
But no one would even think of doing something like this, because it would destroy the nature and when the nature dies, then is the planet doomed to die also.

Race Bonus

- +15% damage with Axe/Hammer Weapons
- 25% more gain of Money by selling Loot
- 20% more gain of materials when salvaging something


The Sylphs
The Sylphs are a Hybrid Class like the Norns, Half Human, Half Bird. Normal Humans call them Angels, when they see them, but they are none. Sylphs have big white feathered Wings like Angels but they are naturally no divine beings which are Messengers of the yet unknown god of the gods - the godfather, which is called yet by the mortals only as "the Almighty", because only the known gods self know his name. Sylphs live in their own kingdoms high up on floating islands which look to other races through magic only like clouds Those floating huge islands float only in the sky thanks to the magic of powerful big runestones. Rune Magic is also the answer to the question what grants this race their comfort to live reclusive like the Sylvari in the Sky.
Sylphs have arch enemies - the Harpies, they are in war versus them for ages and the reason of this war is still only a legend.
Sylphs are very agile fighters, thanks to their wings they can move very quick.
Their type of magic relies only on Runes and Signets, they don't know any other magic. Their bodies are very light and due to that fact, they don't fight with any heavy weapons or wear any heavy armors, because those things would all disable the Sylph the ability to fly.
Sylphs can't fly into the high sky into an instance, their wings need the strogn jet streams of the sky to be able to fly, which will mean, that this race must rely on magic or on mounts to come back to their floating islands (home) once they fly to near to the ground where the winds are not strong enough to carry them anymore. With help of the Asura, they would be able to create a Gate system to their islands, but this would destroy the point of living reclusive.
So they search for an other kind of teleport magic in their rune stones, which could be a solution.

Race Bonus

- +15% Chance to avoid ranged attacks
- +15% Damage with Spear Weapons
- +Double Effect of Non-Attribute Insignias/Runes attached to Weapons/Armors


The Centaurs
Centaurs are a folk, which live in different tribes too, like the Charr but are not lead by any dictator. They are also guardians of nature, like the Sylvari and live in union together with them in woods. But there are also tribes of them, which live on mountains like the dwarfs or even on wide plains and deserts.
Centaurs are also Hybrids, Half Human, Half Horse, whereby the part of the horse is much stronger, then the part of the Human, so that you you say better, that Centaurs are 2/3 Horse and 1/3 Human.
Centaurs dislike Humans and live also like the Syvari reclusive. Centaurs are be said, to create the strongest and best Bows on the world, they are very good with them too, better then nearly all other races, only the Sylvari surpass them in kind of markmanship slightly. Centaurs are also very strong warriors. a rampaging centaur with sword and shield is nearly unstoppable once the centaur got into rage. Only Norns would be able to stop them then.
Centaurs love wine and music, they love also to party.

Race Bonus:

- +15% more Movement Speed
- +15% Immunity to Knock Down
- + 7,5% Damage with 1H Melee Weapons/ Bows


The Undines
Undines are creatures blessed by Abaddon - the God of Knowledge and Water.
Its an amphibic folk, which lives underwater in the seas and lakes of Tyria in an Atlantis like kingdom. Not much is also know about them yet, becaune none was seen yet. The world of Tyria doesn't even know yet, that this race exists.

Race Bonus

- + Can swim/dive 100% faster (no need to to take new air for diving)
- This race has telepathic abilities and can read minds of others
- + 15% better physical regeneration powers (includes HP Healings)


The Deimos
The Deimos are the bad counterparts of the Sylvari, they are like twilight.
Evil Half Brothers and Half Sisters which have taken the wrong path and were used as vessel for evil parasitic spirits which went into their minds and poisoned them with massive hatred, sorrow, fear, anger and feelings of revenge. Those evil spirits caused their bodies to change over time.
The appearance of the wood elf disappeared totally, leaves became very dark purple to near black, their "skin" faded.
Deimos as dispelled creatures from their origin searched them their own home, where they could plan in silence their terrible plans on how they could take revenge on the Sylvari. The Deimos god became very quick Grenth and Deimos don#t fear the death, They seek their redemption in death, thus Deimos go very often they way in of becoming Necromancers.

Race Bonus

- Negative Stats hold 15% longer on
- They can talk with Undeads and Spirits and Ghosts
- Minions/Ghosts/Pets do 15% more Damage, but die quicker


The Mursaat
The Mursaat are Greater Demons from the Box of Pandora and one of 2 major tribes of known demon tribes of Greater Demons, which rule in the moment over the box of Pandora beneath the Margonites.
The Mursaat were once the "gods" of the Charr, summoned out of the demon dimension by their mighty shamans. But they were also only chess figures for the Lich to start the Fire Seeker Prophecies.
When the Charr had summoned them, they summoned only a very small sum of them. The really big thread of them still lives in their own dimension and waits for revenge versus the Human, they must find only a way to overset to the other dimension by their own powers, and then the invasion can begin.

Race Bonus:

- 15% lesser damage by any undeads/ghosts
- Get not affected by Nature Spirits
- 5% Chance to ignore Defense with Attack Skills/Spells



I would find this awesome so (don't like tengus for playable race)
i thought yet only for bonus effects, someone other may think maybe for Race Malus for those examples to balance it more. I thought only on Boni, which would fit the races, not so much on balance, so don't blame me and whine about "this and that is imba, when you want really see, what is imba, go play Vlox Dungeon and go on Stage 3 fighting endless lvl 28 monster, which respawn ever every 2 minutes with full HP at the last ressurection shrine near the Boss -.-)

So don't take those examples please too serious ...

Your ideas seem interesting, though I wouldn't be in favour of each race having special inherent bonuses. I'm still a little concerned about how the new races will effect people's choices in GW:2. I've always believed that each race shouldn't give a benefit over another.

One thing caught my eye:
Can anyone spot the Ultimate Farming Class? lol

hmm, Ya XD ^^

thought of those boni, because dwarfs are best merchants XD and they love GOLD *gg*

Hate it. I think each race should have unique skills and that's it.

Anything more, and we'll just see everyone have dwarf Farmers, Asura spellcasters, and Norn tanks (which we'll probably see too much of anyway, so no reason to make it stupid to make anything other than that).

Oh, and could Sylvari suck more? Sorry I'm so harsh, it's just this is my worst nightmare of what GW2 will be like.

hmm, but exactly in this way will GW2 somehow go more, naturally not exatly like i wrote here now, but i think, races will have some different race boni/mali which will make them different and in kind of builds more or less interesting, but more important making each race more different, then just only by looks, that would be boring ...

it would be unlogical, when a Norn tansforms in any of his forms, for example yet only bear form -.- and the transformation has then no racial effects, then just only looking like a bear ...would be imo plain stupid and a waste of making such a race, when everything resultds only as effect of different looks.

With giving Unque skills to races, you will exactly have the same thing, as when you give them "unique racial skills" ... people would thne prefer the classes with the unique skills they like most ... so thats nothing other then unique race boni/mali ...

What is the difference of 55 Hp farmers which farm 24/7 a weak a month a year with chara x, or with making the same now as dwarf, who has slightly better gains from selling "loot"

wow, 20% from 500g are 100g, when 20 is too much ,lower it to 10% ... and its only 50g, but first get loot that sells for so much money ...

most golden loots sells only for like 200-300g in average
20% of 250g is again only 50g so come on and stop whining about farming.

I say only, ur fear will become true with GW2, or at least GW2 will become for sure more similar to a good ol's classical real MMORPG, containing several improved features of GW1.

say bye bye to 100% instanced playing, say bye by to lvl 20 max, say bye bye to making every shit only with henchs and heroes, because in GW2 you can have maximal only 1 companion at your side, be it your pet or 1 hero npc, the rrest must be players with their companions then or full player party ...
Say bye bye to the pvp system how it is in GW2, say hello to World PvP, where the pvE character is your "pvp" character.

more examples of what will changing in GW2 ? Feared ? I welcome those changes ... XD ^^

Tieing class to species would be stupied, if the asura are only spell casters and nothing more they wouldnt have survived same for the other races, the only way they all would have survived is through diversity. i think that each race should have certain race abilities e.g norn with their transforming into animals and each race should have certain race advantages such as charr moving X% faster than humans. i like the idea of having centaurs as a playable race...perhaps you would be able to ride upon your friends back if you are a human and he/she is a centaur. i also had the idea of a winged race living in flying castles... my idea was that they were distant relatives to the Harpies, but i still think they SHOULD be able to fly to make the best of this Z axis anet are putting into GW2.

Do we know if when you start as a certain race you will be starting from the same point or will the Norn start in a Norn camp, humans in a human town, asura in the dungeons and sylavri in the manguma forest? i think it will be each race to a starting town... has anyone noticed those green plant houses in manguma? possibly sylarvi dwellings...me thinks these ideas have beed there for a while.

@Azael :

there exists an edit button XD ^^


Uhm, Anet has with GW:En so or so proven, that classes won't be tied with species, there exist in GW:EN Warrior Asuras as also Spell Casters, what shows me personally only, that in GW2 every race is playable as every class and that...

about m< Asura race bonus. anyone who had read it, would have seen, that those 3 bonus are nothing special which would result only in making spell caster asura, , sure the effects are more of interest for spell caster, because Asuras are in general intented to be spell casters, Anet descrives them self as mighty magicians, so why should they have race boni, which benefit other classes more, then spell casters ? Would be total unlogical ... but how i made it, every asura, regardless of its class would have benefits from those race boni, certain classes more, other less .... so is life, life is never fair

The lower I get in the list the more often the stats are unbalanced.

but more importantly:
I don't see no scalies!!11!1eleven
Even if your Undines are scaly, as you failed to describe them.
They are amphibians not reptilians.
no signing 4 U.

Simply to unblanced, all Dwarvs would be farmers, all spell casters would be Asuras, all rangers would be Sylvaris..itd.
In most MMO choosing a race is more a matter of appearance and/or a side on whith you play and less a matter of gameplay, what you proposing would seriously effect the gameplay.

I like your concept but there is few flaws.

Dwarves body and mid is changed so, that they got no interst anymore to maintain their race. It is also reason why other races get their abandoned lands.

In GW:EN, Mursaat called lazarus is one from few Mursaat survivors.

Yes its probably a good idea to give them bonuses that would affect all classes equally, instead of several or a specific class benefiting.

A few options would be:

• Movement speed
  (Seh'hip are cold blooded, they have between +10 and -10% adjusted movement speed, depending on the area they are in, and recently taking cold or fire damage)
• Jump hight
• Extra max health and energy
  (Dwarves are hardy, they probably have additional health)
  (Ashuras seem like they would have a few additional points of energy)
• Reduced miss chances
  (Ashuras have big eyes for seeing in dark undergound, maybe they will miss 5% less)
• A %tage resistance to a specific condition
  (Ashuras for the same reason as above 10% chance to resist blind)
• A different from a specific condition.
  (Fleshy undead suffer only 1 degen from disease and only 2 from poison)
• A %tage duration reduction from a specific condition.
  (Undead suffer from disease 100% longer)
• A bonus or penalty to dodging projectiles because of being tall or short.
• Reduced damage or increased armor for specific types of damage.

Importantly humans are supposed to be the ground level & adaptable race.
They have no bonuses.
To balance this for each bonus another race gains, they would gain a negative effect as well.

Dwarves have additional health, a dodge bonus because of their height and a resistance/reduction to daze.
Agaist that they suffer reduced movement speed because they have short legs and any lightning damage against them receives a bit of armor penetration.

Ashuras have additional energy, a dodge bonus because of their height and a reduction of miss chances.
On the other hand they suffer a movement speed penalty and have a little less max health.

These are just examples to illustrate the point, I didn't try to balance them or be accurate.

GW2 is already a WoW clone, its sad to see that people actually want to see it "fit in" more with the mundane MMO's out there.. i play gws for a reason...

lol you say that, as if you would be a seer, who knows all, what will be the future oO
U know a shit about GW2, how it will be really and say, its already a clone of an other game, lol, thats so plain stupid and stubborn thinking, ever having only nothing better to do, than to compare everything ever with WoW first and declaring everything as WoW Clone, only because GW2 will be more like a classical MMORPG with persistant worlds, higher level caps, which have nothing to mean and so on ...

Anet even hasn't mady any official statements about the race System and if they will give the races different boni and mali to make them more interesting and not only boring other "lookings" with no differences at all
When you can't live with the changes, simple don't buy GW2, nobody forces you to buy it, when you don't like it how it will be in the end.
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however, again, please don't take my examples too serious, numbers are exchangeable oO and I don't think what should be on features imbalanced, like "talking with animals/undeads" or on increased damage with certain weapon types when its clear, that the explained weapon type will be the most used and best known weapon of a certain race, when those weapons are like "trademarks" to a race ...

come on, everyone who has seen the sylvari, who has thought not direct to give them a Bow in their hands, cause they look so good like "Elfs", only not with long ears, or when you think on Dwarfs, who thinks not on giving them an Axe or a Hammer ?

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@System: lol ... U and your Scalies, and you don#t like my Undines only, cause they are amphibics ? XD lol
When I would love to have reptilians as playable race, then would come only 1 thing into my mind ...

The Krait ... because this are Lizardmans, and they come in with the nice ability to metamorph in more wilder versions of them self XD some of them even look like little dragons XD
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In the moment would interest me only one thing: let us all make one example:
Let us say/imagine, Anet would implement in GW2 exactly this here, but before GW2 releases the game, they make a contest where players have to discuss over "Racial Mali"
As you can all see, i wrote for every race yet only 3 racial boni. Me would interest now, what for 3 racial mali you would give those example races here to balance them more (including changes of boni maybe)

first off, do you talk so arrogantly and rudely this often? second, a few direct portions of the developer talk linking GW2 and WoW already:

Multiple Races
Super High, even endless level cap (if any)
Jumping, Swimming, Climbing
Weapon/Armor Dependencies
Few instanced monster/story arc situations


and thats just a few of the MAJOR changes to gws that make it similar to WoW/everquest/... oh, the list goes on. maybe you could read some of the developer works before you tell others they don't know what they are talking about

There is a huge difference between unique racial skills, and inherent racial modifiers.

A skill is just a skill. It takes up a slot on your skillbar (assuming GW2 will still have those), and it will hopefully be somewhat balanced.

Plus, you could still make interesting builds with a Norn Elementalist using shapeshift and a Norn Warrior using shapeshift (if anet implements it correctly).

An inherent modifier is inherently unbalanced. If race "x" moves y% faster than all other races, than only race "x" will be runners. Dwarves will be farmers. Asura will be spellcasters. Etc.

I can't imagine a more boring or thoughtless way to implement races to GW2. Just because Anet is going to have no/high level cap and races, doesn't mean it's going to be a WoW clone....

if you want to play WoW, play WoW.

thank you for being one of the few logical people on this webiste.

This thread doesn't seem to interest me.
I'll me a CRC .

Mekkakat
Yup, Cause Mordokai is a One of the Veterans in this Forum^^.
But S/He havent posted in this Forum for a Long Tim already.
Why?

Yea those are cool, don't have GWEN yet(waiting for the ECI offer to save myself 8 or 9 bux, yea I know Bart already told me that makes me unworthy to be a true GW fan)
Ok I want Krait as a playable race

Yea when he is in the mood he becomes a troll.

This morning I cleared the first 5 quests of the Fissure of Woe and I ended up with about 10k in drops/mats.

That would give me an extra 2k for doing nothing. Bad idea imo

Hi, Holababe^^!

@Pheonix Tears
You got the lore of the Charrs wrong.
The Charrs hate humans cause the humans took over some of their land .
Read somemore lore, If you can't find any make a thread asking about this.
Try checking Druid's Overlook and Riverside Inn.
And Plural form of Sylvari are not Sylvaris it's just Sylvari, In what I think.
Never heard of Pandora's Box doing something with the Mursaats.
Why would the Deimos side with Grenth if they are Evil?, Grenth is Good BTW.
And no one said about Sylvari being a Forest Guardian.

I think race traits should follow several rules:

1) Passive bonuses, negatives should be kept relatively small.

2) Passive bonuses, negatives should be kept balanced. That is to say, there's no race which has a positive that helps you and a negative which doesn't affect you. Every player should feel the positives and negatives (for example +health or -health or +energy or -energy, everybody is affected).

3) Passive bonuses, negatives should avoid favoring specific classes. That is to say, you shouldn't have a spellcaster race or a warrior race. They should both provide bonuses to both styles of fighting in different ways as well as negatives which counter-balance both styles of fighting.

4) Bonuses, negatives should not touch 'Death Penalty', 'Heal rate', 'Environmental effects', or anything which should stay relatively static for all players, as modifying them would probably give undesireable consequences.

5) And it is my personal feelings that humans should remain the untouched untampered choice for players who don't want the negatives of any race.

What he said...

Except I'd like to add, have bonuses somehow justified/explained in the races lore, not just adding them because they happen to be good for balance, but because they really fit the race.

And I think you take #4 to broad.
Bonuses, as in non passive; could be anything.

• Favored treatment from NPC's, such as: 3% cheaper items from merchants of your own race, or access to special area's or quests.
• Racial skills such as Norn transformations and Asura summons.
• Racial roles or directions, making a certain mission easier for Asura because they can turn off some machine that regulates the traps in the area, or Norns and Charr being strong enough to lift something in the way allowing them to take a shortcut.

Question, is it right to touch the Elemental, Physical, Divine(Dark/Light) or Chaos Resistance of a Race?
Also Special Traits, Is it fine if it may sound a little bit of a Primary Attribute.
Like Soul Reaping or Fast Casting?, But I know Energy Storage and Divine Favor and others may be a little overpowered.
Others may be just usless like Critical Mastery or Strength, not entirely usless but for the Casters.
Cause I think those kinds of Attributes should affect the Race instead.
Cause why does the Mesmer is able to Cast Fast? Warrior hit stronger?
So I think this should be Race Trait instead cause those types of attributes should affect the person body composition not cause of no reason at all.

Well you run the risk of making some races 'the race for class x'. So you have to do things like add a negative to a bonus pertaining to the same type of class.

Like adding a 10% more to attack damage shouldn't have a negative as 10% longer recharge (at least not only). It hurts warriors to have longer recharge, it's true, but it isn't what a warrior is about. A better negative would be 10% slower attack. It ends up rounding off damage per second by delivering a heavier payload in slower amounts. This would reflect a race very large, for example.

And yes, I partially agree to the cheaper items idea, System_Crush. The bonus would have to be applied across the board in that case so it remains 'equal', so buying from humans would give a 3% reduced rate as well. Things I wouldn't agree too would be some sort of 'haggling' system by which a race could reduce that rate further, for example. That would be an unfair bonus and spew a bunch of characters for the sole purpose of taking items from the inventory and buying and selling.

I only meant that generally speaking, any 'edge' one race has is not something which would give a severe imbalance to the game or defy the game's death penalty system.

Why not? The PvE mobs already do this, also rangers and elementalist armors can.
And necro armors do the opposite for holy damage.

The effect would not be as much as the armors, so not to be unbalancing, but every little helps.
And if it where to become a problem at some point because of a large amount of foes in an area dealing the same damage type, you can use insignias to boost your defense against that damage type if you happen to be weak to it.

I see 55 MONKING DWARVES!
This has been mentioned, but the Dwarves are pretty much extinct in GW2, and I guess 55ing will be, too. :P

Also, I don't see how Sylphs fit in the Guild Wars universe. I'd rather have something, like, Half-Dredge.

Great job on the concept though.

I thought the dwarves weren't going to be in GW2 due to Anet not being able to make a female dwarf...

Really? Because I thought mursaat were just lesser creatures, thus their ability to be summoned by asura. Even if their was a Mursaat class, it would get enslaved by the asura >.>

alot of great concept thought,
Small details however like the race that follows abbadon should be changed to kormir just not to forget our deeds in gw2 from nightfall lol

Also, I'd say that I hope more effort is put into making nearly all races compatible on some level with any class

I know it may sound strange, but I'd LOVE to be an asuran warrior of some sort...

No, it has a sense why the Undines follow Abbadon as their god, because they are a race from the Seas and Abbadon is(was) the God of Water, also the Undines would never follow a dumb human ***** which has become a God.
That race, which killed their god Abbadon... Undines have a great inner hate in their heart versus human...would you follow a god, that was before something, that you totally hate ? I doubt not ...
The only reason why Undines would not start a war vs. mankind is the thing, that the Undines need the help of the human, to seal back the ancient dragons and to receive their lost powers back, which enables them to do that, which the Undines have lost in their long long sleep. under the sea.
======================

Not ALL Dwarfes have become "stoned" rofl, only some chosen ones ...nobody can tell me, that we have seen ingame underground that the little group of dwarfs there are ALL dwarfs of GW... nope that was only like 0,000000000001% of the dwarven population there....
When Anet don't want to give us dwarfs, then only cause of the reason, because it would mean, that they had to implement then also other classical races as playable races, like centaurs, elves, fairies, gnomes, sylphs and nymphs...

but then do cry all people only WoW and LotR >.>, but I personall<y say there....who cares ...let us simply play, as what we want, just give us the possibility to play as whatever we want, nobody forces you to play as race X, when you don't like them

GW2 will have their set of unique races, I think, then there can also exist a set of classical known races, so that also the faction, that loves classical races can be happy ...
We have also a Dwarf Title, for Dwarf reputation...dwarfs exist in the world, they should also be playable ...

When I should chouse now a 4er Set of Classical Races, that should be playable, I'd say

Dwarfs, Sylphs, Cetaurs and Fairies, because Asuras are like Gnomes, they need to receive only a smaler size, then Dwarfs to be trustworthy and Sylvari are perfect unique Versions of Elfs/Nymphs, GW2 needs only to receive an alot better Character Creator with alot more possibilities of Character Modelling, for example changing on ears...

just create an Sylvari and give them long ears and et voila, there you have your nice GW Wood Elf
====================

Mursaat are no lesser creatures, they are greater demons like the Margonite.
The problem is, creating the skill of summoning Mursaat is just a bad joke.
A skill ,that should be changed and let Asuras summon something else instead, for example Saltspray Dragons with "Ride the Lightning"

I also think, these Asura Summons should receive better skills.

The Naga should attack with Spirit Rift, the Djinn should attack with Fire Ball or use the fire haste of the Djinn. The Ice Kobold should use Maelstrom

I also find it somehow stupid, that only Norn got Elite-pve Skills and all others not ...but however, in the end i don't like all these asura summon skills, that would be better concept skils for finally a REAL Summoner Profesion, which would be able to summon all kinds of Monsters from GW..

but all this has Anet destroyed with these pve skills and as long Mursaat can be summoned through players, it also makes no sense to make them as playable Demon Race.

I hope only that GW2 will have later

1. enough races for everyones taste and

2. that there are enough races, which can be put into all kinds of possible 3D territories, so that the World of GW2 will look really full of live, that when the player explores GW2, that you can expect to meet ever somewhere on an other race.

My optimal Race list for GW2 looks like this:

- Human
- Charr (Felines)
- Norn (Half Titans)
- Sylvari (Wood Elfs/Nymph)
- Asura (Gnomes)
- Dwarf
- Centaur
- Fairy
- Sylph (Heaven's Race)
- Undines (Sea's Race)
- Krait (Draconics/Lizardmen)
- Tengu/ Harpy* (Aviors) *(Heaven)
- Deimos (Sort of Drows)
- Mursaat/Margonite (Demons)
- Vampire*
- Werewolf* *(Undeads/Half Demons)
- Orc
- Troll
- Satyr
- Gremlin

That would be around 20 Races, something in for everyones taste, from good to evil, from underearth race to races that live in the sky to races that live in the seas (so the new 3D engine will have races for every 3D territory XD ^^)
Theres a race of each kind,that you can think of, from GW unique ones to classical known ones, from everythign is somethign in XD

Imagine only a GW2 with such a big variety of playable races, that would be awesome...the world would be somewhat full of live.

*thinks on a big market places in a huge commerce town, where hundreds of peoples run around and so much different races will run around there, u get automatically the feeling of being on an internatinal basar ^^ full of culture...
this is imo the feeling of culture GW2 have, not so much trying to convert real life clutures into GW...races needs culture and so more races a game has, so more cultures can be represented by them ingame, espcialy with such classical well known races, like dwarfs...imagine only the bombastic roleplay flair on such a big multi clutured commerce town.

Also implementing a real day/night interval would make playable races like Werewolfs and Vampires possible and reasonable.
While these races look at day like normal Humans, they transform in night into their true appearance forms.

I hope, Anet uses the huge potential of GW2 to implement into the game an epic row of races and that they don't say no to classical known races... imo i think it would be otherwise from the start on stupid of anet, to brign in dwarfs and centaurs into the world of GW ....would be senseless to give a world such races, when they aren't going to be then playable later.
Each race has great potential for their own campaigns and storylines

Too Much Classes ia a Problem, Too much Races is a Large Problem.
I suggest 2-5 Races only.

Well its more work for the devs
They have to make skins for all races
They have to make armors for all races
They have to make sound packs for all races
They have to make NPC's for all races
They have to make faction(skills) for all races
They have to make Animations for all races(most can be recycled, but not dances for example)
They have to make (starting)villages/homes for all races

So far it actually sounds like many races will make GW a larger, more immercive and more interesting fantasy world.

on the other side though.
EQII has a load of races and proves the folowing 2 points.

More races means more textures and more models, this means more loading time, more memory usage and probably less FPS.

But it also means that there will be many options available for everyone, so not all warriors will be norn or char.
Not all mesmers will be Asura, and not all monks will be human.
Because there is just too many options, all with advantages and disadvantages.
There'd be 6 preferred choices coming down to personal preference mostly; that is a good thing.

Lastly many races would require a spread of attention form players and devs.
This doesn't necessarily lose quality, because Anet can just get more devs to get more work done.
But either with more work or more devs to manage, it becomes more complicated for them, as well as it gets more complicated for players, to pick and learn the advantages and disadvantages of all races.

Anet actually started GW2 instead of Utopia because they where complaining GW was becoming too complicated, with too many modes with too many skills and professions.
They couldn't just snap on what they wanted to make, as another piece to the puzzle.
Only a piece with exactly the right ends would fit.
So they decided it was time for a new puzzle.

Numerically that is 2 good points Vs. 2 bad points, on having a lot of races.

However bad point #2 practically out weighs the others, because the Devs wouldn't want to risk bringing into GW2 what they dumped development on GW1 for.
And because EQII made #1 in the list of failed MMO's because it was too complicated and because of that no one played it.(I tried it, I don't get what is so complicated about it)
(kinda silly because SWG was to complicated for the crowd of 8 year old "I wanna be a jedi" whiners to actually become a jedi. So they made it easyer and it got #4 in the list because all the people that keep playing after the first month, where scared of by how 1 sided it was)

Anyway, I'm not a very practical person and don't agree that EQII is complicated so I second that a lot of races, does as much good as it does bad so there is not problem in putting in a whole bunch of races.
(except the vampires(maybe trolls too*) because unless you f/ up the lore of that race, they are immortal. And vampires should die from sunlight)

*Trolls can't be killed by normal weapons, only incapacitated/KO. Cut of their head and it will grow back(taking X hours) unless you burn all pieces of the corpse, or melt them with acid.
(no WoW n00b replies to that plz, Blizzard is not a source of racial lore)

I totally agree. To have racial bonuses is so "Cut and Paste." Guild wars has set out to be different and doing this will only help prevent this.

A Net has already stated, that after Charr, Norn, Asura and Sylvari will follow some more Races, once GW2 is released and running a while.
Much races are not a problem, as long the lore around all is easy understandable, as long the races are not uber hard designed creatures, which are hard to implement, meaning, all races should look more or less humanlike in some way, nothing that has ever a different look, like demons with thousands of different unique looks, or races, which simple get too big or too small. Lots of races give the game a extreme far better feeling ofingame cultures, as when you try to convert real life cultures into a game ... als Anet gets then not foreced ever to make only new profession, which fit to any dumb RL culture, because a stand alone game got inspired by culture X, then they can ever implemented new professions at will, without having to worry about any dumb cultures.


-sure, naturally each race should look somehow differnt, thats normal, when Anet made asuras, Norns, Charr and Sylvari, that should be no problem for them to do that work for more races and as said, A Net is planning on more
- have they so or so.. GW2 is in the end still a complete new game, everything has to be made for all races new, don't think, that anything from GW1 will be converted 1:1 to GW2, other then maybe some stuff of our HoM's
-see above...what counts for Armors, will also count for all Sound Effects
- NPC's are the least problem ...
-that is wrong, who says, that A net has to do this ? Who knows of us, if the faction stuff of GW1 will be continued, as we know it from GW1...sure is only that GW2 will have completely new Skills and maybe a new Concept around Skills itself, how they hsould work. we will see it.
- That isn't true either, everything can be recycled, also dances, or do you think, what humans can do on emotes, other races can't ? it will only look different, when i human makes a monk dance, or if an Asura makes it
- Have they ? I don't think so, but it would be only better, if they would do it...would also make more sense, but

Do you know that or do you believe that only ?

theres NO statement at all yet, if races will, or will not have any advantages/disadvantages against other races....

Only because other/older games failed at this, doesn't mean, that GW2 will also fail, when they give as a big load of different races, so that is something in there for every taste from unique to classical and well known ones.
the MMORPG Scene was, is and will be ever a Scenen of learning from fails and mistakes from other older games to get inspired, of how a company can improve their own new game and don't repeat mistakes of other games...and when A Net/NCSOFT is clever enough, they will get inspired hopefull by lots of other game features and by older games, analylzing, at which points those games have failed and improve these features ect. so that they won't fail later in GW2, because they are then better thought out, easier to handle, better understandable ect. pp.
Sure, creating such a big list of different races will mean work, but its work, which will give GW2 an epic RPG flair of ingame culture, once successful made and implemented. Also the game would receive with lots of different races much more "individuality", there are not much MMO's out there, which give their players a big list of choice, as what race you want to play ...
the standart mmorpg offers mostly ever only the same ..say 3-5 races and that was it with the big individual choice, other stuff which would be theoretical good playable races end up in such games then mostly only as enemies or NPC's ...thats boring...good MMORPG's offer every humanlike race, that exits in their game as playable race imo at least

Vampires/Werewolfs should exist in GW2 ..and who the **** cares for realistic lores, this is a fantasy game and in GW the player is with all races "immortal" otherwise our characters would be in GW not ressurectable - no then our characters would be dead forever, once died and we could delete them and make a new one oO
Not everything about the lore of certain races has to be taken too serious, when it would destroy more or the the gameplay of a game ...

As Vampire in GW2 you would look by daylight simple as a Human, which wears wide clothes and hoods ect, so that his skin can't be touched by light and when it becomes night, they show their true faces ... same with werewolfs, only that they don't have to hide from the sunlight
When you attack an Vampire, he will also suffer damage...only because something is "immortal" doesn't mean, that Vampires can't bleed, can't be hexed, can't be poisoned ect. ...Vampires have simple only better physical regenerative powers, than mere human..thats all...and when you slay of a Vampire the head, or thrust through their undead hearts with your blade..they are dead... Vampires are only as far as immortal, as long they don't get burned from sunlight (would end up for balance ingame maybe only in defense malus versus light elemental attacks/spells, but not in instant deaths), as long they don't get headed or got their heart pierced.

You surely have killed several Trolls ingame in GW or ? Then you should know, how they should look like in GW2 also -.-
nothing stupid invulnerable to "normal" weapons as u describe them...nothing, which gets new body parts regrown, once slayed off, you are neither a racial lore, nor neither me or anylone else, that has to descrive, how classical well known races should have too look/work in GW2, should Anet decide to give us them as playable race, its still Anet itself ..which decides that for their game, so don't please forbid other people to say they opinions about races, only because you don't like the concept of classical races from other games
======================

However, to my topic back ...
it would be awesome, when there woukld exist Werewolfs/vampires as own races under the category of having an Undead Race and a Half Demon Race in the game. When I think on these 2 races, automatically come into my mind the two Underground Movies, ^^ That would be so god damn cool to replay in some RP way these personal War between Vampires and Werewolfes ^^, only in a medievil scenario and not in a new age scenarion, like in the movies with pistols.... In the movie, the Vampire Lord also fought with a cool Sword in the End.

Also everyone, who has seen in the latest thread about better Character Customization, which shows videos on youTube about Perfect World...there are also trailers, which show a race (elfs) that are able to fly ...imagine something like this seen on those trailers als "Sylphs", being able to fly through the whole world at high sky ...have the phenomenal world in a bird perspective to overlook ^^ whoa, that would be a great gameplay feeling i wish me to have in GW2 too with playable races (Sylphs) ...
the new 3D engine will will give the game finally a Z-Achsis, what enables GW2 to have also content, like floating islands ect in the Sky and giving the game in general the ability to show much better flying things/creatures, so there should also be a playanble race, that should be able to fly, somehow similar to the Elfs of perfect World...flying so through the worls looks just increadible cool and surely like huge FUN.

GW2 races should not play all only on the ground, that would be boring...with all GW2 races at ground, Anet could just stay at the boring GW1 engine...

but the philosophy of GW2 is called [u]"with +100% more jumping"[/b] XD
meaning, that GW2 will take usage of its much better 3D Engine, that it will have.

My account has been hacked, and I need NCsoft to fix it, I went to their site and found 2 bugs in 15 minutes, I think that the brains will have to come from Anet's side(like most other game-Designer&Publisher match ups)

What are you smoking?
More textures = more data = more loading time
If this is not true for you plz give me your source so I can break grounds in my field and be come filthy f/ing rich.

More models means more things to move(or jiggle) means more calculations, means more processor time, means more optimization is required to have good FPS.
(or no optimization and force people to buy more RAM and a better video card)
If you can process quicker, the more you have to process, then you should be in a asylum, because that defies the laws of reality.

(your own fault for asking me to get technical)

I stated I didn't think EQII failed, a list published in the PU did, which I think is wrong in the first place as it has AO at #5 (and they reviewed patch 12.X, while 17.6 is already up and running)

But I meant to point out that complexity can/will be a problem if you have lots of races with unique stats.(and possibly good/evil starting alignments)

Oh yea, I totally for gout a bout the green uglies, your right GW trolls already have their own lore and looks.

Can I cut/burn their clothes off in PvP?
Would they have to feed?

Thats what I said... I think.
Or should I add unique from most other MMO's to the good stuff list?
Making it 3 Vs. 2 so Anet should add many races sure fire?
Ok, no argument from me there.

Hmm...

if the game has to load now the data of 500 Human Character, or the Data of 100 Humans, 100 Norn, 100 Asuras, 100 Charr and 100 Sylvari makes imo no (great) difference...but I'm not very experienced about that ...thats why i asked you, if you know, what you wrote there, or if you believe it only that it is so ...
========0

Hmm, naturally have Vampires to drink Blood ^^, otherwise we have only Wannabe Vamps ... I say, wen Vampires get implemented in GW2, they should receive a Blood Meter, which very slowly decreases and when the Blood Meter reaches 0, that vampire has to drink Blood ...

it would give ingame new buyable items....vials which could be filled with blood from dead enemies, but it has to be pure blood from humanlike races, so not blood from monsters or animals...

this way can also be implemented Heal Potions ect. as consumeable items, so that the Heal Class in GW2 (monk, whatever) won't be in GW2 again like in GW1 the main focus of all teams
(why use skills which cost only energy), when i can also use consumeables, which heal me )

also could be implemented in GW2 hopefully a PK Mode, but with strongly level restrictions ect. so that the PK Mode won't become only a big Festival for f***ing Griefers. PK mode would give also the PVE a nice additional RP touch ^^

imagine only to play as a Rogue RP like and you play PK in search of your next victim, ^^ I would find that find ...finish off hopefully the victim and steal something for your victory.
Naturally people could active activate/deactivate for them self, if their Character should be in PK Mode or not, but that decision can be made only every x days ....

PK mode makes it also possible so that Players can make good or evil characters and thereby u gain gain good or evil reputation ^^
being a good or bad guy could also unlock certain armors/weapons, which could be only usable by good/bad guys/girls ^^ *g*
But I go too offtopic XXD, but it would be nice features for GW2 at all

Well it's actually exponential, so 5 humans vs 5 different races is a much bigger difference than 500 vs 5X100, it's not game killing, but it will definitely be there.
Hopefully improvements in the engine will also be there, not only making things look better, but making the game runs smoother too.

One thing I wonder though, is if Asuras would cause less lag because they have small models with smaller textures and if Norns would cause more lag...

True

A blood meter would be kinda weird though, would make the vampire play completely different from others races while playing the same class.

20 different races would be pretty cool, but waaay too much work to create unique storylines, quests, armours, character models, items, locations and other stuff for each single one.
Also some of the races don't have anything to do with the Guild Wars world... like Vampires, Deimos's, Werewolves, Orcs and Satyrs (don't even know what a Satyr is XD).
Then about racial bonuses and weaknesses, that would suck, because it limits your choices if you want to play a class effective.

In my opinion the 5 different playable races (human, norn, asura, charr, sylvari) Anet is planning to add in Guild Wars 2 is good enough. It's always nice to have more, but it would be too much work and more chance on having imbalanced classes/skills.

Thats a Satyr


They are also called/be known as "Faun"

Desc:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyr
A Hybrid Race ..half Human, half Goat, with 2 Legs, unlike Centaurs, which are Half Human, Half Horse with 4 legs ...
==========

@Milennin
Deimos is only a thought out name for a race, that should be similar looking to Drows (Dark Elves)
Yes, they have nothing to do with the lore of GW1...but that doesn't mean, that they can't be implemented into the lore of GW2 or at general into the GW World...

With GW2 getting a Z-Axis, players being able to fully explore the world with no borders in moving around ... mankind can explore more XD and find new races..., also the world of GW is imo still not complete, ...the world has still place for like 2-3 new continents...and on new continents with absolute new content can live other races on...when these continents are yet absolutely undiscovered by mankind of GW, theny the people of GW can#t naturally know, that there are other races ect pp ^^

the Z-axis allows it GW2 to implement 2 awesome races at least, from which 1 could live in the seas as amphibian race (Undines) and the other one could be a winged race (Sylphs), which live high in the sky in their floating island empires, which are tarned as clouds, which float thanks through the strong magic of huge Rune Stones, which have the power to create big Anti Gravity Forces, which can lift up anything. Sylphs would be the most awesoe playeable race i would wish me for GW2, a winged race, with that I can fly in the high sky over the world lke the winged elfs of the game Perfect World.
That would make somewhat of FUN. Being able to to start flying, and to land, wherever you are in the persistant world.

As Undine versus that again, you can then just go into seas/lakes and dive into them, as long as you want, without any air problems, like other races, which would have to retake every while new air, being able to dive to the deepest points of seas/lakes, where only Undines can live, viewing underwater towns, fighting under water versus sea monsters and animals, like Sharks XD
Being able to have Sea pets lol... think only as Undine Ranger of taming a Shark *g* or a now it comes ..a Clown Fish lol *Findign Nemo rofl*, but most cool imo would be taming a Dolphin ^^.
under Water 3D real time Battles, whoa, what an imagination, that would be so cool because under water you have absolutely no movement limits, you can attack something from absolutely all sides and that very quick out from your own movement.
=========

@SC: i don't believe, that it would be such kinda weird, when each own race would also have its own unique style of gameplay, i would love that... when every race would be totally different to be played...then GW2 won't become boring ..never, each race being a total different play experience.
And i don#t think, its to hard as Vampire, to buy some Vials by day as the appearance of a normal human, then to kill ingame some Human Enemies, or what would be even cooler, when you could interact as vampire with NPC's...lure your victims into traps, where they are alone and where nobody sees you ..and then BITE *g* muahahaha

playing as a Vampire would be sure increadible fun , especially for players, Which take RP really serious, like me for example and I hope, GW2 will receive a much better RP flair, then GW1 with more playable races..so more..so better as said for the ingame culture feeling

PS. when Blood Meter reaches 0 and Vampire drinks no blood, the Vamp will receive a little Life Degeneration and will take more damage, because hes then in a state of physical weakness, that would be the balancing malus, for otherwise increased physical regenerations and better movement abilities...
shoudl Anet give each race really certain advantages/disadvanteges ..but we will see..hopefully anet gives us finally soon more information about GW2, or I become crazy *g*

the whole concept of the thread is fail. inherent racial abilities cause class extensions to never work. every class would be X race, and do X things with X skills, just like EVERY other MMO. sorry, but not everyone started playing GWs with the daunting hope that one day the devs would just flat out turn it into WoW.

oh...

and the vamp idea making you lose hp slowly after you bottom out of blood...
epic failure. that would crush all hopes of time sinks that the devs could ever want. imagine the boardwalk, and 300 dead vampires are laying on the ground because they've been out of blood for over 24 hours while trying to score tokens.