Asura Game Play & Commentary

I've always like the Asura, but I've been waffling between Human and Asura. Do I really want to get stuck with a comic relief character? Or do I want a heroic Human I can admire, so to speak, and identify with?

When I saw the recent Asura videos it cinched it for me. I'm totally playing Asura. I love that along side the dopey and cute looks, there are also some hungry little gremlin looks we can build.

I also love the momentum in the character animations. The way the Asura bounce around and an have trouble stopping their movements is brilliant. It will make for a great hammer wielding Guardian.

On a side note, I didn't think I was going to be interested in Sylvari, but the recent CC videos for them have changed that entirely. They look incredible. Their body models look more anatomically human than the humans do, and the bio-luminescence is great. I hope there are some male armor skins that reveal a lot of arm and leg so we don't cover up that great glowing effect. I know the heavy armor has some roman and gladiator style looks, but the male medium and light armor seems to be pretty head to toe, and my sylvari character will most likely be thief or mesmer.
 
Kymeric said:
I've always like the Asura, but I've been waffling between Human and Asura. Do I really want to get stuck with a comic relief character? Or do I want a heroic Human I can admire, so to speak, and identify with?

When I saw the recent Asura videos it cinched it for me. I'm totally playing Asura. I love that along side the dopey and cute looks, there are also some hungry little gremlin looks we can build.

I also love the momentum in the character animations. The way the Asura bounce around and an have trouble stopping their movements is brilliant. It will make for a great hammer wielding Guardian.

On a side note, I didn't think I was going to be interested in Sylvari, but the recent CC videos for them have changed that entirely. They look incredible. Their body models look more anatomically human than the humans do, and the bio-luminescence is great. I hope there are some male armor skins that reveal a lot of arm and leg so we don't cover up that great glowing effect. I know the heavy armor has some roman and gladiator style looks, but the male medium and light armor seems to be pretty head to toe, and my sylvari character will most likely be thief or mesmer.
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One thing that will decide if I go sylvari or not is if I see a good natural armor set that fits them and doesn't look forced. Platemail and animal skin just looks so out of place on them.
 
Bring on the asura!!!!! GREAT vid! I will be asura guardian for sure. I have reserved a name in GW after the 2nd book came out.

I want heavy armor on my asura.
 
Prophet Elhanan said:
One thing that will decide if I go sylvari or not is if I see a good natural armor set that fits them and doesn't look forced. Platemail and animal skin just looks so out of place on them.
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There should be at least one set of racial armor for each armor class. How long we'll have to end up wearing out of place armor until we can access racial armor, I don't know.

Does anyone know at what point racial armor is available and how?

I'm actually toying with the idea of shifting around which race gets which profession in my characters for this very reason.

On one hand, I love the idea of an Asura Guardian. Their animations are perfect for a physical class, and I like the idea of tweaking the noses of people who get all twisted up about small races getting to play the soldier professions.

On the other hand, I like the idea of Guardian for WvW, and expect that there will be times where it is better to just shuck your armor and fight without it to avoid being nickle and dimed with repair costs when you are vastly outnumbered. And of course, if your going to be fighting without armor, you might as well be playing the race that looks good without armor.

GW2 just gives me too many choices!
 
I think if my life was such that I could play more, I would have a lot of alts as well. As it is, I'm probably looking at fifteen hours a week or so. I'm thinking I should stick to a maximum of two characters (maybe three?), or get bogged down in a lot of alts who don't progress very much. As WvW is a major focus for me, I want to get at least one character maxed in a reasonable amount of time.

My race choices are pretty easy. I'll roll one Asura and one Sylvari. I don't really like the human models, the only thing that interests me about Norn is their shape-changing, a minor feature gameplay-wise, and while the Charr can look cool, something about their all-fours run bugs me, and their growling and posturing put them out of the running. I love the Black Citadel, but when I found out how easy it is to visit other race's starter issues, that became a non issue.

My real angst is over profession.

I love the aesthetics of the Mesmer (the illusion idea, not so much butterflies and frilly garments), Thief (shadowstep!), and Engineer (steampunk!), which also happen to be the three professions that ANet seems to be having the most problem getting to work right.

Playing WvW last BWE, I found I liked rezzing people and doing support with Water on an Ele, which made me think Guardian would be an excellent choice. I'm not usually one for heavy armor types, but an Asura swinging a big ol' hammer and forcefields(!) also make me interested in them.

Ele is pretty fun in a nuke'em-all-then-zip-away sort of fashion, but they seem to be one of the most popular professions, which kinda turns me off playing one.

At the moment, my current thought is Asura Guardian and Sylvari Engineer, but it changes every thirty minutes as I think about the game.

Maybe I should roll five different professions, and keep playing them, eliminating them as I get find I'm not interested. Still, I don't want to end up with five 30 level toons a year from now.
 
Yeah - I did that in GW. Started with a monk for a couple of months - didn't like all the grief and "Rez me" screaming. Tried a Warrior for a couple of months - enjoyed that in-your-face game play. Then an Ele - and fell in love.

I took all three through all the game expansions - but the Ele is the one that got all the titles. I'll probably do something similar in GW2 until I land on the right race/profession combo for me.
 
For me, in GW1 I had multiple alts that I leveled up to max and completed the game content. I did that with Ranger, Warrior, Monk, Mesmer, Assassin, Paragon, Dervish, and Elementalist. Elementalist was last because I really didn't think I'd like it. As it turns out, I really loved the Elementalist (2nd favorite). Ranger was my preference. Petless Ranger with either a R/E or R/W combination. I loved playing the Archer (ranged combat). My Ranger got all my big titles.

Then I spent a few years in WoW. My big three classes there that I played most often were Paladin, Mage, and Hunter. And yes, I had quite a few alts in WoW, too. But the Hunter required a pet all the time (so that wasn't as much fun). As a Paladin, I learned to tank for dungeons. As a Mage, I got into ranged combat. And yes, I did lots of raiding.

So now I'm ready for GW2. I know I'll have a guardian (like the Monk/Paladin of previous games). And I know I'll have an Elementalist. But I want to focus first on what kind of archer to play. GW2 offers three options: Warrior, Ranger, and Thief. Guns are not preferred, so Engineer will follow later. Both Warrior and Thief will be petless. But right now, GW2 stats show that all three bow professions are below average in damage. So I'm stuck waiting to see how BWE3 will fix that. Its kind of strange that under current builds, the Ranger is strongest as a melee class. It doesn't feel like a "Ranger."

And then, for race... I have no interest in shapeshifting, to that cuts the Norn. And don't get me started on Charr. Blech! Humans are great (I especially love the back story). So I know at least one of my characters will be human (perhaps the guardian). But what of the Sylvari and Asura. I don't know. For BWE3, I'll try out both races with the various archer styles and see how they flow.

All that is simply to say that the BWE3 will be important for me in testing out the changes Anet have made (improving the longbow warrior and the thief mechanics) and how they work with Sylvari and Asura.
 
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I have to admit, after trying all the professions in the beta I have narrowed my choice down to..... All of the professions. They were all fun in their own way; I do love the guardian in pvp though.
 
Fluffy hath spoken. Really I will have most char races and classes revolving around the feel of a given name. And some names are already decided on. I do the same thing a lot in GW, hence some of the goofy names given to characters.
 
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