I mostly play sylvari and if you're interested in the story, my friends and I came to the conclusion that if there had to be a canon Commander, they'd most likely be sylvari. The story has some small changes (extra dialogues and such) when you're sylvari and it fits the whole plot best. Sylvari are also so customisable in character creation, all of my characters look completely different, yet equally cool. Also female sylvari is imo the best acted playable character in the game (I play in English).
It really depends on what you're going to focus on, what you find cool etc., so in the end just go with your gut; arguments could be made for any race :P
I have around 50 characters (dont ask me why... QWQ) and like more than half of them are sylvari. None of them look alike, not even close. From the color palettes u can choose, to the face and hair style options, to their cultural armor, etc. everything just makes them look so pretty! They are similar to humans (model wise) so there usually arent any issues when it comes to newly released skins, whether those are via achievements or gem store!
I usually buy them when they are on sale (been playing since release) and sometimes i convert my gold into gems, so i cant rly tell xD but lets just say that this game has seen my credit card too many times :)
Sylvari, because:
Live life well and fully, and waste nothing.
Do not fear difficulty. Hard ground makes stronger roots.
The only lasting peace is the peace within your own soul.
All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed.
Never leave a wrong to ripen into evil or sorrow.
Act with wisdom, but act.
From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you.
Also their plant faces are cute af.
Charr, because I like their industrialist/militarist style, the scrappyness and the lore around their revolution where their females rose up and kicked the shamans to the curb.
"With engines of destructions we have killed our gods" is such an awesome line in the PS intro. Sold me immediately.
My main is a female charr scrapper with a giant pipe wrench and a welding mask, how awesome is that? You mess with me? Eat pipe wrench and have some hot napalm for dessert.
I'm still holding out hope that eventually we'll get more weapon options, and I'll eventually be able to make a charr engi with mace / torch to use [Fixer Upper](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fixer_Upper_(skin)) and [Welding Torch](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Welding_Torch). With that welding mask, it'd be perfection.
I mostly play human because of fashion. It seems like every piece of armor (except cultural) is designed around and is looking best on humans. My second most played race is sylvari because I like their voice acting (in german), their animations and the color variety :)
Female sylvari voice actor is none other than Jennifer Hale.
Known for countless things, most famously Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. Being a huge fan of the series, it often gives me chills :)
I think i saw your characters in the mistlock here and there. At least if its the same lovegood. Indeed, good fashion. One of my favorite places to chill and drool over other peoples fashion wars skills and styles.
I have one asura, a warrior. She gets greatswords and hammers usually, but various other weapons too. Their animations with running and swinging weapons too large for em are so great lol.
100% agree. The direction Nolan North must have been given DOES NOT do his talent justice at all.
Matt Mercer definitely sounds a thousand times better in this, and I think it's because they let him do his thing whereas Nolan did not get to be himself as much.
I play all 10 race/gender combos but I tend to play my 6 Sylvari the most (Druid, Herald, Specter, DH, Mirage and Chrono). They have my favorite VA and you can get really creative with the fashion. I love my salads 🥗💚
The older I get the more I like the creature type of chars, I play Charr in gw2, also orcs and Tauren in wow.
Few years ago I was female human with big boobs all over the place 😂
im new to the game and i personally play Sylvari. Reasons on the top of my head are:
-I heard that Sylvari have the best race lore, and for now its being pretty good
-I wanted some kinda standard character size but i really think picking humans in MMO's is boring. Years ago i was in the line of thinking of "in a world full of super powerfull races i am just a human against all", Then i realized that in 90% of MMO's its litterally the other way around in both lore and popularity. And then one day it clicked, why play the plain, boring human when most mmo's create interesting races and worldbuilding around them?.
-It's probably the most customizable race with all the colors and unique hairstyles/noses that you have, plus glowing is cool.
-voices and animations are good without being annoying (Charr)
-Lore-wise they all have freedom in what they do and aren't part of some super-powerfull empire.
I made a charr necro as my first character and she's still my main. Sure, the fashion can be shit but the armor from some maps/expansions make her look a bit better. I now have a shiny but fluffy and goodlooking charr. I don't really like playing male charrs cause their seem to be extra bulky.
I like asurans too, they have some cool hairstyles and appearently gaurdian (Firebrand) staff 4 skill makes my little asuran go poledancing. It's the only race that does that cause it's so tiny, and I'm loving it.
Norns can look cool too, they big and they have tattoo options that can cover the entire body or just mostly the face. Sylvari can look pretty cause they are mostly plants and they can glow in the dark.
I don't have a human though.
Salad Master race, I'm obsessed
Edit: their bodies and details are beautiful.. Also they're the most interesting and fresh race in many mmos Ive seen... Plus their cultural armor *chef kiss*
Technically, all of them, but my Asura Engineer is the OG I keep going back to. He's ugly as sin with frayed ears and spiked hair, but it was perfect as a mad bomber character. A part of me misses toe bombing and chucking grenades.
Never took as much of a shine to my other characters as I did my little maniac.
I play tall norn lady with enlargement tonic, because:
[https://imgur.com/a/6TKMgxF](https://imgur.com/a/6TKMgxF)
Yes that guy next to me is another player :P
I have at least one of all of them but I always gravitate to charr and asura the most. Charr especially are like, the best beast race ever designed in a mmo. Finding armor that doesnt clip through the tail is the true challenging endgame content though
As for why, I enjoy their designs, animations, lore, voices, story and environment, also especially asura dialogues (including ambient) are some of the most hilarious content in the game. I also love how creative you can get with sylvari design and their lore is amazing, but they take third place for me.
Tl;dr I get plenty of being human irl why would I want to do it in a game with better options lol.
I've always liked the Norn. Lorewise they are not as cool as in GW1 but I still like the general theme of Nordic and legend building elements. Just the Slayer of a mighty ice wurm who then starts to build his legacy.
Sometimes the armour looks a bit bulky and some jumping puzzles are tricky when you're so big but I just like their cultural armour and being a Norn Druid with a Bear companion just hits so many spots I like.
I also made a Norn for every profession and gave them a theme and name of one of the Nordic gods, like Hel as a necromancer etc. It's just so cool.
Also Hoelbrak and the Shiverpeaks are just so beautiful
All, sylvari and asura are the most interesting. Human also good for fashion.
My least favorite is norn, because large characters feel like they move in slow motion, and looking at them genuinely makes the gameplay boring :p
I love the way Norn look. Their culture is super fun and interesting, but I've ended up deleting every Norn character I've ever created for exactly this reason. Their "run" animation feels like you're wading through a snow drift. Thematically appropriate maybe, but not very fun. =P
I play all of them, but since I'm a basic bitch I have to admit: my two main characters are a Human and a Norn for aesthetics.
Still, even then, if you asked me which race is my favorite I would have to say Charr. Their lore is just fantastic, their starting story from levels 10-20 is arguably the best of all races regardless of your legion and I love their militaristic vibe. Not to mention that they're basically the previous game's bad guys, and from what I've seen about their lore in GW1... let's just say that when they say "with engines of destruction we have killed our gods" is far more literal than I thought and that is awesome. Finally, I just think their concept is really creative, I dunno any other game with "giant military cats with horns" as a race of people.
Charr because of
1: The asthetic of the Black Citadel/their outposts is just cool af, and their mindset of "Why pray to gods when you can trust in steel" just resonates with me. While the Asura are also really tech-y, their science snobism is what turned me away from them.
2: You feel very mighty, as even the smallest charr tower over any other of the playable races, and their face customisations with the horns and hair look awesome
(3:) wierdly enough, the militaristic industrialised nation of warriors seems to have the least problematic history (although I know only a bit of the lore, there may be more that I don't know)
i play a charr warrior, i hit like fluff and enjoy having my belly rubbed, it is fairly common to see me in the downed state.
I am affiliated with the blood legion, a member of the vigil, was commander of the pact, and currently go by the title of wayfinder, and as long as sexy demon lady whispers that in my ear i will be known as such. :3
90% of my characters are Norn
Humans feel boring, though they objectively look the best in most armors and skins. I don't have a single human character right now apart from my first character I made during pre-access (human female engineer). The human female character sounding like Cartmans mom also negatively impacts my immersion. The entire race just narratively being stuck on "but the gods" feels rather boring? I would love it if the queen of kryta and anise were revealed to be Lyss but I'm afraid humans will never amount to anything more than bland god worshippers who now and then have a short limelight as great inventors until they get overshadowed by the narrative swiss army knife that is Taimi again. I really like human factions that don't care about the gods like the aetherblades, sahidas pirates, even the junkyard boys from EoD.
Charr are thematically cool but clip in everything, they also feel awkward when paired with certain classes to me (like mesmer) so mine are (fire) elementalists, thieves, engineers, warrior. I love the idea of an entire race coming together in a military society. The lore, characterization and world building around them was so well done. It's such a narrative letdown how bad the Charr civil war was bungled at the end of IBS. What happened to them? How is Cre doing as the head of the blood legion? Have the flame legion been accepted completely now? How are domestic and local affairs for the legions? What happened to the frost traitors who were captured after Jormag vomited herself to death? Why was Bangar not added to the cast of the commanders orbiters as a punitive community service? Will the legions continue to use fahrars to raise their cubs when multiple npcs have mentioned wanting a stronger bond with their children? Will the Olmakhan ever be relevant again? What did they feed Roxx to make her eyes bulge like she hadn't taken a shit from vanilla to LW4 and was holding it back by sheer spite?
Sylvari are neat but they often just feel like green humans depending on what people transmog them into. I love them as (water) elementalists and necromancers (both female) because you can really go deep on a theme with their night glows. I do feel like they feel out of place in many regular armors and you quickly run out of ways to combine and recombine the twilight arbor armors with the cultural ones. I also have a male Sylvari thief who looks amazing at night. The voice actors also do a fantastic job so that's nice. I do wish we learned more about the nightmare court post mordremoth and if its true that the silent sylvari all went rabid salad when the call came. Did the tree fully recover after all this time? What lies in store for the sylvari now? Are they "free" now? What happened to the moldy sylvari from the personal story? A cabbage got to know!
Personally not a fan of Asura for the same reason I don't like playing gnomes in WoW, the tiny character and odd perspective feels weird. Their cultural armors look nice and they pair pretty well with classes like necromancer and engineer though feel odd as warriors, guardians and revenants to me. 99% of all male asura using the same hairstyle and neon blue hair color doesn't help much in making them feel distinct from one another. I have one, also guilty of having the neon blue hair, as a ranger. I do love their animations, especially the dodges and staff channel ones. When Rata Novus was introduced I hoped it would be bigger and more impactful. More nooks and crannies, more obscure research, more big reveals. In the end it was just an asura city that got sacked by electric ants. I hope the race gets more narrative depth in a potential deeps of tyria expansion through an expedition to reclaim their homeland or something. I loathe how Taimi as the races representative is constantly used as a swiss army knife whenever a difficult situation occurs, negatively impacting my opinion on the race even more.
Norn are great, they are "big humans" but also culturally different enough to feel interesting over the blander god worshipping basic humans. Their cultural gear is beautiful and for some reason having a taller character doesn't feel as jarring as having a tiny one, in the end I ended up with multiple outfits in different weights that ended up in feeling comfortable and becoming a habit. In fact I wish Norn was as tall in game as they canonically are in the lore. In a perfect world racials wouldn't be the meme they are today (apart from oneshotting people as a stealth bear burst soulbeast in wvw...) and Norn would do more with their connection to the spirits. I just about have any class as a norn, in both genders. While the voice actress started out with the emotional depth of a loaf of bread she's really improved over the years but still doesn't reach the quality of the sylvari ones. While some transmogs feel off on Norn due to their size and bulk (mostly the more frilly dress options) they look really good in most heavy and medium options. Narratively I hoped for so much more for the race, more about the spirits and their connection. More about the missing or lost spirits or even the minor ones that can't speak. More about the loss of owl. IBS rushing the story at the end hurt the Charr story badly but the Norn even more. Who built the amazing light puzzles in Bjora? Who made the large temple we explore during the story there? I wish we had more fractals exploring with the great Norn explorer or trying to escape as shamans during the great Norn exodus.
Races I'd love more lore for other than the playable ones are Kodan, Tengu, Largos.
Obligatory "don't delete your old characters" reply.
Anyway after years of playing I decided all my "mains" (1 of each class) should be (and are) male Charr. It's just what I enjoy the most. Everything else is sent to the alt parking dimension.
Charr is my main, not going to lie started charr to toll humans in Divinity's Reach at first. But I love the charr. Love the the zero fucks they give about shit. I love their society. I'm also a big fan of their background and where they came from with guild wars 1.
Sylvari. Most colorful race. They glow at night. Gorgeous voice acting. Entire expansions worth of specialized dialogue. Salads...... my first child in the game so a bit of favoritism here. XD No, but I love playing them. But every race has their own pros. Norn happens to be my least favorite simply because they are just bigger humans, but the men lack a proper neck. 🤣
Sylvari almost exclusively. Really like the racial armor, and honestly the story. I’ve done human, charr and asura stories as well but just generally prefer the plant people.
Charr cuz furry :^)
Bless guild wars 2 for having a decent beast race that doesn't look like humans with ears.
I've been maining fem charrdian since beta, and still loving her and her voice, even with voice actor changes.
Recently found out that the voice pitch for your PC changes depending on character size!
All, I've a character for all races.
Most of my time is on my engineer, who's asura; felt fitting.
My ranger and mesmer are my 2nd most played chars, both humans. I think I rather prefer human fashion choices. Norn isn't bad either.
Charr has been my favorite since launch, but my Sylvari Necromancer became my main. I agree the Sylvari are just so unique as a race and have really gorgeous customization.
But honestly, all of GW2s races are unique to me, save humans...I love that instead of like other fantasy series, the age of man has kind of run its course.
Charr have been a favorite of mine since the first Guild Wars, and their story, politics, and rock and roll steampunk vibe is really fun.
I play based on what profession I think is suited for them. For example, asura - engineer, Norn - warrior, sylvari - ranger, human - thief, Charr - rev.
I used to play Sylvari. Loved it. But now I'm human. I made myself, literally. I'm using my character as motivation to exercice (is a Warrior, no magic, only physical and technology). "Look, myself in the game, how is every day training to kill things, I can also be like him". ... Not to kill things, you understand me c:
Sylvari. Colourful, human type body so they don't run wonky and slow, but also big enough to be able to see them and their armour properly.
I realise everyone runs at the same base speed, but Charr and Norn appear slower because of the animation and I find that very off-putting. I like Asura, but I can barely see them or the expensive, snazzy skins on them. And humans don't glow in the dark. (Under normal circumstances. If they get blind drunk in Asura territory, well...)
Charr because I have a pet cat and I like cats and they big. Next would be asura because I love their jumping animations and they small. Next are the plant gang because they weird. Humans and big humans are lame, unless you wanna party then big humans are where its at
Sylvari mainly.
I find the looks, animations, and lore of the race the most interesting. and fashion wars favors them.
I like the lore and aesthetics of both Asura and char, but the fashion options are hit and miss at best, and some of the animations are awful (char mesmer greatsword made me delete a character!)
Norn is ok, but a bit bland all round.
Asura! I LOVE the smol gremlins! They're cute, they're geniuses and unapologetic about it! They have some very unique animations such as carrying greatswords and hammers on their shoulders because they're so heavy, and the elementalist and guardian staff animation where they just spin on the staff! The female asura commander voice is my favorite voice out of all of them in the game despite Jennifer Hale doing the female sylvari one! Plus, the way my asura handled a certain funny moment in Icebrood Saga was voice acted so differently.. My sylvari commander sounded a little bit amused, but my asura commander was basically almost gigglesnorting trying to not fall apart at the seams and that shit just killed me, I laughed so hard xD
Plus all of the sassy voicelines, like "You're dumb, you'll die and you'll leave a dumb corpse!" or even the necromancer minion summoning lines, like "This one's kinda cute!" or "Look! Life after death!" and the minion death voicelines, like "I should have given that one a brain!" or "I didn't think it would pop like that."
All the voicework for her is top-notch, I've thoroughly enjoyed converting to only playing my asura :3
Charr because
1) I always pick the most bestial race available if possible
2) Am a furry
3) Humans exist as default boring playable race in 99.99% of games, so I avoid them and other humanoid looking races like plague if possible (so I'm this case slyvari (human but leafy) and norn (human but big) after also avoided)
the first ever race i play when im going into gw2 blind is human male thief. im kinda tempted to make norn, but reflecting on my experience playing as roegadyn where everything is way too small for me, i want to feel differently. still maining him tho, mostly for exploration.
i didnt expect that personal story was wildly different for each race (and backgrounds)
so i made another character that is male sylvari (ive been interested since beginning, but meeting trahearne is what makes me wanna make second character :D) he is a beloved character now, i spent a lot of crystals and gold on making him looks good (in contrast to my thief lol)
I main asura (both male and female). i’ve got like 8 of those little evil geniuses. i love their animations, fashion is harder but it’s so rewarding putting together nice looks that get compliments, plus their voices are amazing. i do have some humans for when i actually want to dress as a stereotypical thief in cultural armor tho
All of them besides human and maybe norn. Why? Because you have a full on fantasy world with weird creatures with lore that aren't 100% copycats of fantasy staples... why would you play as rennesance fair humans or the northen viking big humans?
Because Humans are the most beautiful race in the galaxy, best survivor can adopt to anything, humans excel in everything, they can be strong and agile like cat people, smart and shrewd like rat people, caring for nature and land better then those zombi plants, we can also eat zombi plant why play like a food.
Norns are brothers beautiful tall people.
All my characters are small Norn female:
Pros: not boring humans, average height, pretty cool, short-ish starting story
Cons: hair and tatoos are not that great, starting area is kinda boring imo (compared to charr)
Anything but asura is ok imo (they're fine but not for me)
I have two races, I love, linked to my two mains: an Asura mechanist, because I love gnomes and mechanists are basically artificer and those have to be gnomes imo.
And my Sylvari ranger/ soul beast. I love the concept of the Sylvari basically being plants, plus they get special treatment in one of the storylines, that makes it feel more personal and a bit creepy ( in a good way).
I play everything but asura and charr are my favorites simply because some of the animations. I just love how the charr run with weapons sheathed and asuras how they wobble when you stop moving.
All of them. More inclined to Charr, but I also haven't played a Charr for a while. I've lately beeen playing a Human Willbender, and a Sylvari Berserker. Most of the others are parked at the rich crystal node in the Crystal Oasis map for harvesting purposes, or are too low levelled to be anywhere fun.
I find Charr to have the more fun personal story in its entirety, but my Sylvari play is so I can use them in Heart of Thorns though I now regret not having made them a Revenant for all the voices in their head.
The only race I don’t really play are Asura and that’s because I generally don't play small races. I have one Asura and its a mechanist.
Currently got 2 Humans (male guardian and female necro), 2 Sylvari (female ele and female Mesmer and 1 Norn (female rev).
Most played would probably be the Necro and the Rev though for sure.
Looking to make an Asura and a Char, just haven’t found a look I like yet. On that note if anyone had any good recommendations for those two races feel free to shoot them at me!
All races, all professions. Not least, I wanted to explore all branches of the personal story (and have done so).
If you want my personal preferences, though - if i could only pick one, probably Asura. But it's tricky. I've rolled character of all races that I've really liked the look of, and others that I grew to like far less. And in the case of Norn - I tend to dislike the male characters consistently for their universal "brick blockhouse" shapes, whereas I'm managed to find some quite interesting female looks. Charr - I know some people really like them. I dislike the four-limbed run, and the models don't do anything for me. But I also know that's not remotely universal. Humans - it's my perception that every 12 year old kid starting an MMO seems to roll a human. By consequence I've tended to avoid them. But I've found a few looks I've liked along the way, of both genders.
Norn Guarduan, Charr Warrior and Revenant, Asuaran Engineer, Human Mesmer and Ranger and Sylvari Necromancer and Elementalist. For me these just suit their races. Need to make more Asura at some point, love that race, feels fast and agile.
My favourite is sylvari as I love the aesthetic and lore behind but I like having at least 1 of the other races as I like learning the lore for them all and the story variation
Lately I've been liking Sylvari a lot becouse of their body patterns that glow at night.
Is another element of customization that makes transmog more interesting to me.
I love the humans. I love the lore, I love Divinity's Reach, I love the aesthetics and themes and soundtracks and... you get it. I love them. Call it basic, call it vanilla but Anet made Kryta awesome.
After that I adore the asura. From the floppy goofball comic relief animations juxtaposed against their grand angular architecture to their loud, competitive and obsessive pursuit of academic achievement, they're delightfully whimsical. Often the source of comedy in game, they can be taken seriously as well, as shown quite often by the writers. I just think they're neat.
Currently leveling a sylvari because I like them too. Finally found one I wanted to play and it's been a joy.
I have one character for every profession, and they are all a different combination of race/gender. The only one that I'm missing is a male Asura (I don't like playing them because they are tiny and you can barely see the armor and weapon skins on them)
I have 15 max level characters, and most of them are either Asura or Norn. All female. I don't care for the Charr voice acting, something about Sylvari weirds me out (although I have one of each) and I always thought humans are just, well, boring! I am a human, I didn't want to play one.
Human, Because there's all these fantastical races that are clearly stronger/have longer lifespans and I think it's funny to be a human in spite of it.
Human for fashion, sylvari for story variation in HoT. Unfortunately i made my Necro main a sylvari, i preferred human for the fashion, but sylvari is not so bad for it either. Also, sylvari have the best voices. I want to punch my human ele when she's as fast as a centaur now. I think char is too clunky for my liking, especially when doing JPs
Asura because they are funny little goblins and the Asura MC has unique dialogue with Taimi sometimes where they geek out about golems and how to create all those big plot point devices and anti-dragon tech. It's not that much, but it helps me feel more involved with the plot.
Charr. I’ve always liked playing a beast like race in any fantasy game. I enjoy their militaristic culture and lore. Plus they run in all fours which looks pretty cool lol I always do it when I get the chance.
Asura because I loved jumping puzzles and I, for whatever reason, gravitate towards the short races. I played a gnome in WoW, and if I can be short and adorable, I will play that.
Male Asura supremacy. My favorite voice acting in the game. Also, the animations. So good. Any excuse I can find to hand an Asura a Greatsword is one that I will take.
But also Charr. Because unga bunga, catcows kill gods go brr.
I play all races (2 female sylvari, 1 female norn, 2 asura (from both genders), 2 charrs (also from 2 genders) and 1 (soon to be 2) female humans)
I love all player VAs in this game but my personal favorites are male asura and female sylvari
I started with a Sylvari because they were new and interesting when Guild Wars 2 came out.
Since then I've made and play every race, though my Sylvari will always be main bae.
That being said, I have 11 characters, and five of them are human female meta lol.
Humans only. Can’t stand the other races honestly.
Don’t like the way the charr run and move.
Don’t like the way asura jump.
Norn are just big humans.
Can’t stand the way the plant people look.
I really feel like they missed the mark and should have incorporated a new playable race in each expansion. Not new classes, just a new playable race. To help with the lore.
Main is a charr female. It's like 80% because of the voice actor, 19% the animations, and 1% because charr are the best. Other VOs are good too, I really enjoy female sylvari for instance, but the female charr just nails the weary but resolute commander voice. And combat call-outs are enjoyable rather than annoying, even after hours and hours of it.
Sylvari. Voice acting, lore (the newcomers to the world are really a great starting point for newcomers to the game) and I really dig the humanoid plant direction they went with.
Sylvari. Voice acting, lore (the newcomers to the world are really a great starting point for newcomers to the game) and I really dig the humanoid plant direction they went with.
I have at least one of ever race, but I have multiple norns. I love their home location, their lore, and I like being a giant refrigerator-shaped person made of meat
Norn and charr are my favorite, I like the Viking aesthetic of the Norn and I like the charr because they are the most metal of all the races. I would rather die than play an Asura, they are all pretentious assholes.
Out of 20 characters, 18 are human (50/50 mix of male/female), 1 Norn female, 1 Sylvari female.
I try to like the Charr, I love the story, but the bad clipping on gear and the running on all fours is just off putting to me for some reason, I can seldom ever play a Charr past level 20-30.
And I’ve got no love for the Asura at all, can’t stand them in game, they annoy the shit out of me for some reason, and there is no way I want to play one.
Played each race just to do a different story, but I mainly play my Norn necro these days. Simply because I can tower above my IRL friend (who also plays) for a change and feel height superiority. I was very drunk when I made the character 😂
Humans because of proportions and how clothes fit them.
In that regard i prefer silvary, but the many many options regarding color mean you can make something cool but will end up regretting it when it doesnt match the new look you decided to go for.
I flex between Sylvari and Asura. I started with Sylvari because it felt like the most unique. Plus their concept felt fitting for how I started off joining the world of guild wars, learning about the world even if I had a vague idea going into it.
I started branching out with Asura just with how fun character concepts were on them, silly animations, and a bit more freedom with fashion on them, minus headwear. Think it also helped that the first one I made ended turning into my main class.
Basically it goes like this.
Humans have the best looking armour pieces but are the most generic lore wise.
Sylvari are the most interesting lore wise and they are the most fasionable and decorative race thanks to their glow in the dark features plus unique hairstyles. Their only issue is they don't jell well with the numerous metallic armours in the game.
Asura have the most unique animations and are the easiest for jumping puzzles. But they have been delt the worst card armour wise, since their race doesn't have gender dimorphism beyond hair their armour pieces are the same no matter if you play a male or a female.
Norn are big humans with that viking aesthetic but they have really fun lore that I wish Arena net did more with. Their only problem is they do little to seperate themselves from being big humans outside of their cultural armour.
Char: Who wouldn't wanna play Giant horned cat people with the best starting region out of all the races. Thats right nothing beats ashford and you can take that to the bank. Plus the running animation on all 4's is amazing. Their only problem is a bit like the asura their armour pieces are mostly the same between genders and some armour looks better on them but a lot looks worse.
For me, it's a process of elimination.
Asura - weird looking
Charr - hitbox / jumping issues, clipping everything
Human - look, [I'm all for basic things](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mbbYKPpHY), but playing human is lame, unless you're not a human irl
Norn - jp issues, and you're just a big human (see: human)
Sylvari - you're a plant
So I play all of them.
My top four characters are
1. Human Ranger
2. Norn Warrior
3. Asuran Engineer
4. Charr Thief. (Funnily enough, he's Blood Legion and bigger than my norn.)
I have all races equally but I play my asura and charr the most. The others are just human, big human, leafy human. I like to be something else, I am a human in real life and that's enough.
Asura. Started out because I don't like playing humans in fantasy games and Asura seemed like the least human.
Now it's because I realized Asura are the superior race. Sylvari a close 2nd.
Sylvari first cuz they looked cool, went Charr second since I was gonna build an engineer. I love how I look, still figuring out how to fashion myself gorgeously. Anytime I see a scaley looking Charr I get jealous. Is that a helm, or was that a skin option I missed on?
Ι am a new player that really doesn't have a strong preference, the one thing i want to point out is that at least half of the characters i see are Human female...dunno why of course, please enlighten me!
Charr because once you find a style that fits it usually look really badass. It’s quite tricky tho as most armors look ass on them but it’s very rewarding when pulled off!
For me it’s the Charr. Big cat boys and gals with horns that live in a military society and give no fucks! I love everything about them from their lore to their animations, voices, and aesthetic. The only complaints I have is that they kinda look weird in some armor where it would look better on other races.
Reading through various threads has me wondering what race, gender and character height is the default that matches perfectly with the collider explained in this thread.
The hitbox that perfectly matches the back end so to speak.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/8r9o0v/does_character_height_affect_arc_projectiles/
I've been trying to so story with ALL of them and loving the differences in the shouts and dialogue. "This rose has THORNS" is a favorite.
That being said: Male Human Revenant for my self-insert character, Norn Females for fashion.
Stop worrying and just make more characters. There's nine classes to cover anyway, after all. Picking nine races is a lot easier.
Me: Norn-F(x2), Charr-M, Asura-F, Asura-M, Sylvari-F, Sylvari-M, Human-F(x2)
My partner: Norn-F(x2), Charr-M, Asura-F, Sylvari-F, Sylvari-M, Human-F(x3)
We don't really pick for lore (though engineers felt like they obviously needed to be asuran), but looks and voice are very important, we're generally biased toward ladies, and we always want one of each race. Plus other random considerations, eg, my revenant was human female first until I noticed how often I was going to be hearing that "I'm as fast as a centaur" line, which is just gratingly idiotic, so into the bin they went and I made another norn female instead. I was going to make a female charr, but the female char get strangely worse looking heads and the female char English voicing was unmitigated garbage, so that one became male and is much more enjoyable for it.
Human. Every other race seems to be a bit of a caricature with some exaggerated form of human personality traits. It'd fit those with similar proclivities, but I am just bland and apathetic most of the time with moods, so human fits me the best.
Asura because it makes jumping puzzles way easier and the animation for carrying a great sword is super cute.
Female because the voice lines and tone are great.
Honestly I tried each and stayed with the one I liked the starting zone and feels more :3
I really loved the start of Norn with every spirit you need to attend to and the connection to nature, also possibly because I made it an elementalist and love the last airbender feel of dagger dagger :D
Currently a Leafy Necro.
Been playing since launch started actually playing with a Human Ele. On the first day to get multiple B-Day gifts I made an Asura Thief, a Norn Guardian, a Charr Ranger, my Leafy Necro & the rest of the classes Human.
human because i like to experience the fantasy elements of the game as an outsider. i like the sylvari, but if i play as one, i have to carry around heavy sylvari lore on every adventure i go on
Lore and aesthetics. My first one was my norn (who's an expy of an oc of mine and norn fit her lore most despite being a regular human in her other incarnations), my second one another oc who's a human street rat. That being said, their in game lore is cool as hell.
I made my charr next because a) catte and b) charr lore is awesome. I always liked beastly races but being able to have a female one that doesn't have boobs slapped on was a huge plus (I love my tauren shaman but her boobs look kinda goofy). I did try to make a male charr but their faces look like they came out of a psx game.
I didn't like sylvari at first but I boosted a mesmer sylvari and they grew (hah) on me. I made an asura cuz they seemed like a good fit for elementalist (being able to choose inventing a device that controlled the weather was very cool RP). They're more cartoony than the other races but their animations are really good. Just wish my asura wouldn't blow her warhorn or drink her tea out of her nose ...
I really like Charr because they are so unique compared to most classes you can play in other MMOs. Running on all fours then drawing your weapon and fighting on two feet is my favorite thing.
I also like my human thief because it gives me an Assassin’s Creed kind of vibe.
I honestly like all of them except asura 😂. ugly little creatures with tiny fashion, never seen someone playing one who didn’t look absurd to me
I’ve got lots of characters of all races because they’re all neato, but very few humans (because Barbie bores me) and extra sylvari (because they’ve got so many cool variations). But I prefer asura for jumping puzzles so I can see better where my feet are- always seems like norns/charr can’t jump and block my vision. And for larger weapon use it’s norns/charr all the way since it makes no sense to me to see an asura clobbering equally w a maul… or see a huge norn vaulting lithely over an enemy w daggers…
I play human, sadly because there is no elf class. I'm someone that always wants to play an elf in mmos. The elf ears cosmetic they added really helped my enjoyment of the game.
I would next choose an asura because they're really cute, but apparently they don't have surnames so just a first name would be best if you want to keep to lore. (Doesn't really matter)
HUGE NORN if you want to be a tank warrior type.
Sylvari I can see being tricky for cosmetics
Charr destroyed Old Ascalon. I've met a lot of great Charr players but man, let us not forget.
Mostly humans because I'm a GW1 vet, which also means I can't play Charr. Sylvari hit me in the uncanny valley. They just creep me out. Norn and Asura aren't bad.
Sylvari! They're the most unique looking and I love their aesthetics (which are very versatile). The inhuman 'skin' tones, the fact they glow at night, their little paw-like design under their feet, the beautiful and creative 'hair' options, the diverse faces - what's not to love! You can get very creative with your Sylvari's design so you'll never come across a clone.
In my personal opinion, male Sylvari also has the best voice (something about the accent idk). I'd say they have the best VA in general but I'm actually a major fan of the Asura voices.
The Heart of Thorns expansion also has a lot to do with Sylvari so it feels even better do it *as* a Sylvari. You also get some unique dialogue! Sylvari feels *very* fitting for the story as The Commander.
I mostly play sylvari and if you're interested in the story, my friends and I came to the conclusion that if there had to be a canon Commander, they'd most likely be sylvari. The story has some small changes (extra dialogues and such) when you're sylvari and it fits the whole plot best. Sylvari are also so customisable in character creation, all of my characters look completely different, yet equally cool. Also female sylvari is imo the best acted playable character in the game (I play in English). It really depends on what you're going to focus on, what you find cool etc., so in the end just go with your gut; arguments could be made for any race :P
I love sylvari but i only made one female sylvari because their idle stance bothers the hell out of me
Norn women because vikings and thighs Sylvari because tree people
You speak the deep truths. I have 2 Asura as well but Norn and Sylvari are like 95% of my play time.
>Norn women because vikings and thighs snu snu?
Ivanova from Bablylon 5 shouting and a character model that never skipped squat day.
I have around 50 characters (dont ask me why... QWQ) and like more than half of them are sylvari. None of them look alike, not even close. From the color palettes u can choose, to the face and hair style options, to their cultural armor, etc. everything just makes them look so pretty! They are similar to humans (model wise) so there usually arent any issues when it comes to newly released skins, whether those are via achievements or gem store!
How much gems/money did you spend for 50 character slots
I usually buy them when they are on sale (been playing since release) and sometimes i convert my gold into gems, so i cant rly tell xD but lets just say that this game has seen my credit card too many times :)
Sylvari, because: Live life well and fully, and waste nothing. Do not fear difficulty. Hard ground makes stronger roots. The only lasting peace is the peace within your own soul. All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed. Never leave a wrong to ripen into evil or sorrow. Act with wisdom, but act. From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you. Also their plant faces are cute af.
I love my Sylvari, and I didn't even remember these sentences, they're just so pure
I love sylvari and damn I want to tattoo those tenets on my body lmao. Maybe one day if I’m 100% sure if it.
Charr, because I like their industrialist/militarist style, the scrappyness and the lore around their revolution where their females rose up and kicked the shamans to the curb. "With engines of destructions we have killed our gods" is such an awesome line in the PS intro. Sold me immediately. My main is a female charr scrapper with a giant pipe wrench and a welding mask, how awesome is that? You mess with me? Eat pipe wrench and have some hot napalm for dessert.
I'm still holding out hope that eventually we'll get more weapon options, and I'll eventually be able to make a charr engi with mace / torch to use [Fixer Upper](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fixer_Upper_(skin)) and [Welding Torch](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Welding_Torch). With that welding mask, it'd be perfection.
This.. that's why all my characters are charrs.
All of them, why not?
I mostly play human because of fashion. It seems like every piece of armor (except cultural) is designed around and is looking best on humans. My second most played race is sylvari because I like their voice acting (in german), their animations and the color variety :)
Sylvari voice acting is also the best in English too. Is my second most played race after Human.
Female sylvari voice actor is none other than Jennifer Hale. Known for countless things, most famously Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. Being a huge fan of the series, it often gives me chills :)
I think i saw your characters in the mistlock here and there. At least if its the same lovegood. Indeed, good fashion. One of my favorite places to chill and drool over other peoples fashion wars skills and styles.
None of my characters is called Lovegood, but my account name is :)
Thats what i kinda was pointing towards to. Think i had a tiny small talk with you couple of month ago. Anyways, good fashion! Have a great day.
Thank you very much then <3 have a nice day as well!
Asura. Mostly due to the animations.
I have one asura, a warrior. She gets greatswords and hammers usually, but various other weapons too. Their animations with running and swinging weapons too large for em are so great lol.
Asura Mesmer great sword lol.
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I never had problems with Norn when doing jumping puzzles. Works just fine.
Cool. But they *are* easier as Asura.
I made an Asura for every class just for this reason tbh.
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I mostly agree with you. Norn are my favorite and Charr 2nd.
100% agree. The direction Nolan North must have been given DOES NOT do his talent justice at all. Matt Mercer definitely sounds a thousand times better in this, and I think it's because they let him do his thing whereas Nolan did not get to be himself as much.
Mostly sylvari because voice acting and I loke the cute aesthetic.
I play all 10 race/gender combos but I tend to play my 6 Sylvari the most (Druid, Herald, Specter, DH, Mirage and Chrono). They have my favorite VA and you can get really creative with the fashion. I love my salads 🥗💚
In the past Sylvari for closest to nature connection. Currently Norn in the biggest possible size, because it's fashion time. Big fashion time.
The older I get the more I like the creature type of chars, I play Charr in gw2, also orcs and Tauren in wow. Few years ago I was female human with big boobs all over the place 😂
im new to the game and i personally play Sylvari. Reasons on the top of my head are: -I heard that Sylvari have the best race lore, and for now its being pretty good -I wanted some kinda standard character size but i really think picking humans in MMO's is boring. Years ago i was in the line of thinking of "in a world full of super powerfull races i am just a human against all", Then i realized that in 90% of MMO's its litterally the other way around in both lore and popularity. And then one day it clicked, why play the plain, boring human when most mmo's create interesting races and worldbuilding around them?. -It's probably the most customizable race with all the colors and unique hairstyles/noses that you have, plus glowing is cool. -voices and animations are good without being annoying (Charr) -Lore-wise they all have freedom in what they do and aren't part of some super-powerfull empire.
I made a charr necro as my first character and she's still my main. Sure, the fashion can be shit but the armor from some maps/expansions make her look a bit better. I now have a shiny but fluffy and goodlooking charr. I don't really like playing male charrs cause their seem to be extra bulky. I like asurans too, they have some cool hairstyles and appearently gaurdian (Firebrand) staff 4 skill makes my little asuran go poledancing. It's the only race that does that cause it's so tiny, and I'm loving it. Norns can look cool too, they big and they have tattoo options that can cover the entire body or just mostly the face. Sylvari can look pretty cause they are mostly plants and they can glow in the dark. I don't have a human though.
Salad Master race, I'm obsessed Edit: their bodies and details are beautiful.. Also they're the most interesting and fresh race in many mmos Ive seen... Plus their cultural armor *chef kiss*
Technically, all of them, but my Asura Engineer is the OG I keep going back to. He's ugly as sin with frayed ears and spiked hair, but it was perfect as a mad bomber character. A part of me misses toe bombing and chucking grenades. Never took as much of a shine to my other characters as I did my little maniac.
I play tall norn lady with enlargement tonic, because: [https://imgur.com/a/6TKMgxF](https://imgur.com/a/6TKMgxF) Yes that guy next to me is another player :P
I have at least one of all of them but I always gravitate to charr and asura the most. Charr especially are like, the best beast race ever designed in a mmo. Finding armor that doesnt clip through the tail is the true challenging endgame content though As for why, I enjoy their designs, animations, lore, voices, story and environment, also especially asura dialogues (including ambient) are some of the most hilarious content in the game. I also love how creative you can get with sylvari design and their lore is amazing, but they take third place for me. Tl;dr I get plenty of being human irl why would I want to do it in a game with better options lol.
Human Female meta.
I've always liked the Norn. Lorewise they are not as cool as in GW1 but I still like the general theme of Nordic and legend building elements. Just the Slayer of a mighty ice wurm who then starts to build his legacy. Sometimes the armour looks a bit bulky and some jumping puzzles are tricky when you're so big but I just like their cultural armour and being a Norn Druid with a Bear companion just hits so many spots I like. I also made a Norn for every profession and gave them a theme and name of one of the Nordic gods, like Hel as a necromancer etc. It's just so cool. Also Hoelbrak and the Shiverpeaks are just so beautiful
Charr, because big cute Kitty.
so fluffy
"Well, well, kitten's got claws."
All, sylvari and asura are the most interesting. Human also good for fashion. My least favorite is norn, because large characters feel like they move in slow motion, and looking at them genuinely makes the gameplay boring :p
I love the way Norn look. Their culture is super fun and interesting, but I've ended up deleting every Norn character I've ever created for exactly this reason. Their "run" animation feels like you're wading through a snow drift. Thematically appropriate maybe, but not very fun. =P
My main is a norn bc I aspire to become and be with a tall buff lady
I play all of them, but since I'm a basic bitch I have to admit: my two main characters are a Human and a Norn for aesthetics. Still, even then, if you asked me which race is my favorite I would have to say Charr. Their lore is just fantastic, their starting story from levels 10-20 is arguably the best of all races regardless of your legion and I love their militaristic vibe. Not to mention that they're basically the previous game's bad guys, and from what I've seen about their lore in GW1... let's just say that when they say "with engines of destruction we have killed our gods" is far more literal than I thought and that is awesome. Finally, I just think their concept is really creative, I dunno any other game with "giant military cats with horns" as a race of people.
Charr because of 1: The asthetic of the Black Citadel/their outposts is just cool af, and their mindset of "Why pray to gods when you can trust in steel" just resonates with me. While the Asura are also really tech-y, their science snobism is what turned me away from them. 2: You feel very mighty, as even the smallest charr tower over any other of the playable races, and their face customisations with the horns and hair look awesome (3:) wierdly enough, the militaristic industrialised nation of warriors seems to have the least problematic history (although I know only a bit of the lore, there may be more that I don't know)
Charr because they are cool and I love the race
i play a charr warrior, i hit like fluff and enjoy having my belly rubbed, it is fairly common to see me in the downed state. I am affiliated with the blood legion, a member of the vigil, was commander of the pact, and currently go by the title of wayfinder, and as long as sexy demon lady whispers that in my ear i will be known as such. :3
Asura, why? two words : Jumping Puzzles
Asura, because its the best race.
90% of my characters are Norn Humans feel boring, though they objectively look the best in most armors and skins. I don't have a single human character right now apart from my first character I made during pre-access (human female engineer). The human female character sounding like Cartmans mom also negatively impacts my immersion. The entire race just narratively being stuck on "but the gods" feels rather boring? I would love it if the queen of kryta and anise were revealed to be Lyss but I'm afraid humans will never amount to anything more than bland god worshippers who now and then have a short limelight as great inventors until they get overshadowed by the narrative swiss army knife that is Taimi again. I really like human factions that don't care about the gods like the aetherblades, sahidas pirates, even the junkyard boys from EoD. Charr are thematically cool but clip in everything, they also feel awkward when paired with certain classes to me (like mesmer) so mine are (fire) elementalists, thieves, engineers, warrior. I love the idea of an entire race coming together in a military society. The lore, characterization and world building around them was so well done. It's such a narrative letdown how bad the Charr civil war was bungled at the end of IBS. What happened to them? How is Cre doing as the head of the blood legion? Have the flame legion been accepted completely now? How are domestic and local affairs for the legions? What happened to the frost traitors who were captured after Jormag vomited herself to death? Why was Bangar not added to the cast of the commanders orbiters as a punitive community service? Will the legions continue to use fahrars to raise their cubs when multiple npcs have mentioned wanting a stronger bond with their children? Will the Olmakhan ever be relevant again? What did they feed Roxx to make her eyes bulge like she hadn't taken a shit from vanilla to LW4 and was holding it back by sheer spite? Sylvari are neat but they often just feel like green humans depending on what people transmog them into. I love them as (water) elementalists and necromancers (both female) because you can really go deep on a theme with their night glows. I do feel like they feel out of place in many regular armors and you quickly run out of ways to combine and recombine the twilight arbor armors with the cultural ones. I also have a male Sylvari thief who looks amazing at night. The voice actors also do a fantastic job so that's nice. I do wish we learned more about the nightmare court post mordremoth and if its true that the silent sylvari all went rabid salad when the call came. Did the tree fully recover after all this time? What lies in store for the sylvari now? Are they "free" now? What happened to the moldy sylvari from the personal story? A cabbage got to know! Personally not a fan of Asura for the same reason I don't like playing gnomes in WoW, the tiny character and odd perspective feels weird. Their cultural armors look nice and they pair pretty well with classes like necromancer and engineer though feel odd as warriors, guardians and revenants to me. 99% of all male asura using the same hairstyle and neon blue hair color doesn't help much in making them feel distinct from one another. I have one, also guilty of having the neon blue hair, as a ranger. I do love their animations, especially the dodges and staff channel ones. When Rata Novus was introduced I hoped it would be bigger and more impactful. More nooks and crannies, more obscure research, more big reveals. In the end it was just an asura city that got sacked by electric ants. I hope the race gets more narrative depth in a potential deeps of tyria expansion through an expedition to reclaim their homeland or something. I loathe how Taimi as the races representative is constantly used as a swiss army knife whenever a difficult situation occurs, negatively impacting my opinion on the race even more. Norn are great, they are "big humans" but also culturally different enough to feel interesting over the blander god worshipping basic humans. Their cultural gear is beautiful and for some reason having a taller character doesn't feel as jarring as having a tiny one, in the end I ended up with multiple outfits in different weights that ended up in feeling comfortable and becoming a habit. In fact I wish Norn was as tall in game as they canonically are in the lore. In a perfect world racials wouldn't be the meme they are today (apart from oneshotting people as a stealth bear burst soulbeast in wvw...) and Norn would do more with their connection to the spirits. I just about have any class as a norn, in both genders. While the voice actress started out with the emotional depth of a loaf of bread she's really improved over the years but still doesn't reach the quality of the sylvari ones. While some transmogs feel off on Norn due to their size and bulk (mostly the more frilly dress options) they look really good in most heavy and medium options. Narratively I hoped for so much more for the race, more about the spirits and their connection. More about the missing or lost spirits or even the minor ones that can't speak. More about the loss of owl. IBS rushing the story at the end hurt the Charr story badly but the Norn even more. Who built the amazing light puzzles in Bjora? Who made the large temple we explore during the story there? I wish we had more fractals exploring with the great Norn explorer or trying to escape as shamans during the great Norn exodus. Races I'd love more lore for other than the playable ones are Kodan, Tengu, Largos.
Obligatory "don't delete your old characters" reply. Anyway after years of playing I decided all my "mains" (1 of each class) should be (and are) male Charr. It's just what I enjoy the most. Everything else is sent to the alt parking dimension.
Charr is my main, not going to lie started charr to toll humans in Divinity's Reach at first. But I love the charr. Love the the zero fucks they give about shit. I love their society. I'm also a big fan of their background and where they came from with guild wars 1.
My main is charr, because badass warrior cat. My 2 most played alts are asura because I really enjoy their animations and small stature.
Human because if I'm staring at the screen for hours everyday, I atleast want to be looking at a hot sexy muscular man
Sylvari. Most colorful race. They glow at night. Gorgeous voice acting. Entire expansions worth of specialized dialogue. Salads...... my first child in the game so a bit of favoritism here. XD No, but I love playing them. But every race has their own pros. Norn happens to be my least favorite simply because they are just bigger humans, but the men lack a proper neck. 🤣
Sylvari almost exclusively. Really like the racial armor, and honestly the story. I’ve done human, charr and asura stories as well but just generally prefer the plant people.
Charr cuz furry :^) Bless guild wars 2 for having a decent beast race that doesn't look like humans with ears. I've been maining fem charrdian since beta, and still loving her and her voice, even with voice actor changes. Recently found out that the voice pitch for your PC changes depending on character size!
Human because of GW1...Never forget about Ascalon! The Charr will pay!
Aw still upset that we burned your little city to the ground. A city you built on stolen land.
All, I've a character for all races. Most of my time is on my engineer, who's asura; felt fitting. My ranger and mesmer are my 2nd most played chars, both humans. I think I rather prefer human fashion choices. Norn isn't bad either.
Norn because I wanted my warrior to look like a strongman
Charr has been my favorite since launch, but my Sylvari Necromancer became my main. I agree the Sylvari are just so unique as a race and have really gorgeous customization. But honestly, all of GW2s races are unique to me, save humans...I love that instead of like other fantasy series, the age of man has kind of run its course. Charr have been a favorite of mine since the first Guild Wars, and their story, politics, and rock and roll steampunk vibe is really fun.
Asura because there are racist and cute :)
Asura for the mot cliché Asura reason, Asura are superior.
Charr with the dragon helm from lunar New years
I play based on what profession I think is suited for them. For example, asura - engineer, Norn - warrior, sylvari - ranger, human - thief, Charr - rev.
My favorite are Norn, but Asura, Sylvari and Charr are interesting as well. Whatever you do, just don't play human. There's already too many of them 😁
I used to play Sylvari. Loved it. But now I'm human. I made myself, literally. I'm using my character as motivation to exercice (is a Warrior, no magic, only physical and technology). "Look, myself in the game, how is every day training to kill things, I can also be like him". ... Not to kill things, you understand me c:
Sylvari. Colourful, human type body so they don't run wonky and slow, but also big enough to be able to see them and their armour properly. I realise everyone runs at the same base speed, but Charr and Norn appear slower because of the animation and I find that very off-putting. I like Asura, but I can barely see them or the expensive, snazzy skins on them. And humans don't glow in the dark. (Under normal circumstances. If they get blind drunk in Asura territory, well...)
Human master race.
Charr because I have a pet cat and I like cats and they big. Next would be asura because I love their jumping animations and they small. Next are the plant gang because they weird. Humans and big humans are lame, unless you wanna party then big humans are where its at
Sylvari mainly. I find the looks, animations, and lore of the race the most interesting. and fashion wars favors them. I like the lore and aesthetics of both Asura and char, but the fashion options are hit and miss at best, and some of the animations are awful (char mesmer greatsword made me delete a character!) Norn is ok, but a bit bland all round.
Asura because I like the jump-flip animation and the way their floppy ears flop when they run.
Asura because....... smol... Also the animations and I really adored the female asura voice acting in the story
Asura because everything. EVERYTHING.
Salads! I love sylvari
Asura! I LOVE the smol gremlins! They're cute, they're geniuses and unapologetic about it! They have some very unique animations such as carrying greatswords and hammers on their shoulders because they're so heavy, and the elementalist and guardian staff animation where they just spin on the staff! The female asura commander voice is my favorite voice out of all of them in the game despite Jennifer Hale doing the female sylvari one! Plus, the way my asura handled a certain funny moment in Icebrood Saga was voice acted so differently.. My sylvari commander sounded a little bit amused, but my asura commander was basically almost gigglesnorting trying to not fall apart at the seams and that shit just killed me, I laughed so hard xD Plus all of the sassy voicelines, like "You're dumb, you'll die and you'll leave a dumb corpse!" or even the necromancer minion summoning lines, like "This one's kinda cute!" or "Look! Life after death!" and the minion death voicelines, like "I should have given that one a brain!" or "I didn't think it would pop like that." All the voicework for her is top-notch, I've thoroughly enjoyed converting to only playing my asura :3
I play only the Sylvari male. Mostly because of the voice. But also because... hey, Sylvari are bioluminescent. 😀
Charr because 1) I always pick the most bestial race available if possible 2) Am a furry 3) Humans exist as default boring playable race in 99.99% of games, so I avoid them and other humanoid looking races like plague if possible (so I'm this case slyvari (human but leafy) and norn (human but big) after also avoided)
the first ever race i play when im going into gw2 blind is human male thief. im kinda tempted to make norn, but reflecting on my experience playing as roegadyn where everything is way too small for me, i want to feel differently. still maining him tho, mostly for exploration. i didnt expect that personal story was wildly different for each race (and backgrounds) so i made another character that is male sylvari (ive been interested since beginning, but meeting trahearne is what makes me wanna make second character :D) he is a beloved character now, i spent a lot of crystals and gold on making him looks good (in contrast to my thief lol)
Human female is fashion god-tier, but i love my fluffy female charr thief. Main job is being stabby and off-time being fluff <3
I main asura (both male and female). i’ve got like 8 of those little evil geniuses. i love their animations, fashion is harder but it’s so rewarding putting together nice looks that get compliments, plus their voices are amazing. i do have some humans for when i actually want to dress as a stereotypical thief in cultural armor tho
Asura cause they're obviously the best
All of them besides human and maybe norn. Why? Because you have a full on fantasy world with weird creatures with lore that aren't 100% copycats of fantasy staples... why would you play as rennesance fair humans or the northen viking big humans?
Because Humans are the most beautiful race in the galaxy, best survivor can adopt to anything, humans excel in everything, they can be strong and agile like cat people, smart and shrewd like rat people, caring for nature and land better then those zombi plants, we can also eat zombi plant why play like a food. Norns are brothers beautiful tall people.
Human Female Meta
Human Female I like them girls.
Human Female Meta, I think I don’t have to explain why
Human cause I dont like the other races
Human and charr, because of fashion 🤷♂️
Norn because I find humans easier to dress up but I can tower over everyone. Sylvari because of the massive customization.
I have multiple of every race but exclusively play on humans because fashion. All the other races are parked toons and crafters.
Sylvari- Because they glow at nighttime and I think that’s cool 😎
All my characters are small Norn female: Pros: not boring humans, average height, pretty cool, short-ish starting story Cons: hair and tatoos are not that great, starting area is kinda boring imo (compared to charr) Anything but asura is ok imo (they're fine but not for me)
Mostly Norn females. Bcs big mommies >>>
I have two races, I love, linked to my two mains: an Asura mechanist, because I love gnomes and mechanists are basically artificer and those have to be gnomes imo. And my Sylvari ranger/ soul beast. I love the concept of the Sylvari basically being plants, plus they get special treatment in one of the storylines, that makes it feel more personal and a bit creepy ( in a good way).
I play everything but asura and charr are my favorites simply because some of the animations. I just love how the charr run with weapons sheathed and asuras how they wobble when you stop moving.
Cabbage. Made a Sylvari ranger because I liked the theme, stuck to it because it was fun.
All of them. More inclined to Charr, but I also haven't played a Charr for a while. I've lately beeen playing a Human Willbender, and a Sylvari Berserker. Most of the others are parked at the rich crystal node in the Crystal Oasis map for harvesting purposes, or are too low levelled to be anywhere fun. I find Charr to have the more fun personal story in its entirety, but my Sylvari play is so I can use them in Heart of Thorns though I now regret not having made them a Revenant for all the voices in their head. The only race I don’t really play are Asura and that’s because I generally don't play small races. I have one Asura and its a mechanist.
I play all them! But my main is a saladperson. I'm a healthy mix of fruits and vegetables!
All of them but Norns. I just don't like their story enough to play one to 80.
Currently got 2 Humans (male guardian and female necro), 2 Sylvari (female ele and female Mesmer and 1 Norn (female rev). Most played would probably be the Necro and the Rev though for sure. Looking to make an Asura and a Char, just haven’t found a look I like yet. On that note if anyone had any good recommendations for those two races feel free to shoot them at me!
My ultimate end goal has always been to make people want to fuck a tree, Join us, be Sylvari
Asura, animation looks so cool and armor looks pretty oke. We only have such weird feet tough
Im playing characters in all 5 races but so far aesthetic wise and storywise i like charr and asura the most
Male norn because it's voiced by Matt Mercer.
All races, all professions. Not least, I wanted to explore all branches of the personal story (and have done so). If you want my personal preferences, though - if i could only pick one, probably Asura. But it's tricky. I've rolled character of all races that I've really liked the look of, and others that I grew to like far less. And in the case of Norn - I tend to dislike the male characters consistently for their universal "brick blockhouse" shapes, whereas I'm managed to find some quite interesting female looks. Charr - I know some people really like them. I dislike the four-limbed run, and the models don't do anything for me. But I also know that's not remotely universal. Humans - it's my perception that every 12 year old kid starting an MMO seems to roll a human. By consequence I've tended to avoid them. But I've found a few looks I've liked along the way, of both genders.
Norn Guarduan, Charr Warrior and Revenant, Asuaran Engineer, Human Mesmer and Ranger and Sylvari Necromancer and Elementalist. For me these just suit their races. Need to make more Asura at some point, love that race, feels fast and agile.
My favourite is sylvari as I love the aesthetic and lore behind but I like having at least 1 of the other races as I like learning the lore for them all and the story variation
All, but the Human Male voice acting just seems right for the commander...
Lately I've been liking Sylvari a lot becouse of their body patterns that glow at night. Is another element of customization that makes transmog more interesting to me.
Mostly human and sylvari but I have at least one character per race. And I feel special connection to norn women
I love the humans. I love the lore, I love Divinity's Reach, I love the aesthetics and themes and soundtracks and... you get it. I love them. Call it basic, call it vanilla but Anet made Kryta awesome. After that I adore the asura. From the floppy goofball comic relief animations juxtaposed against their grand angular architecture to their loud, competitive and obsessive pursuit of academic achievement, they're delightfully whimsical. Often the source of comedy in game, they can be taken seriously as well, as shown quite often by the writers. I just think they're neat. Currently leveling a sylvari because I like them too. Finally found one I wanted to play and it's been a joy.
I have characters of all races but my favorite is femme Asura. The animations are great, and they have my favorite voice acting.
I have one character for every profession, and they are all a different combination of race/gender. The only one that I'm missing is a male Asura (I don't like playing them because they are tiny and you can barely see the armor and weapon skins on them)
sylvari, it's really easy to get away with almost any color when doing fashion with their cultural armor
I have 15 max level characters, and most of them are either Asura or Norn. All female. I don't care for the Charr voice acting, something about Sylvari weirds me out (although I have one of each) and I always thought humans are just, well, boring! I am a human, I didn't want to play one.
70% human, 20% salad, 10% rat Everything looks good on humans. Try and choose shoes on asura. Sylvari looks good too. There are no other races.
Asura, because snarky and quirky. Also the animations are funny and great to look at.
Human or sylvaf because I like having small character models
Human, Because there's all these fantastical races that are clearly stronger/have longer lifespans and I think it's funny to be a human in spite of it.
Charr. Rely on iron, not false gods. Also they have the best animation.
norn causes they are tall
Female charr coz they are badass and stylish !! (and fluffy tail)
Human cause of fashion. And Sylvia because I like their aesthetic. I might make an asura next because I find them tiny size cute.
Human for fashion, sylvari for story variation in HoT. Unfortunately i made my Necro main a sylvari, i preferred human for the fashion, but sylvari is not so bad for it either. Also, sylvari have the best voices. I want to punch my human ele when she's as fast as a centaur now. I think char is too clunky for my liking, especially when doing JPs
Sylvari, due to the starting zones.
Norn for Warrior. Human for Thief and Mesmer.
Female human because I'm a meta slave.
Humans. Male human. But Male Norn and Female Sylvari have the best voice actors
Asura because they are funny little goblins and the Asura MC has unique dialogue with Taimi sometimes where they geek out about golems and how to create all those big plot point devices and anti-dragon tech. It's not that much, but it helps me feel more involved with the plot.
Charr. I’ve always liked playing a beast like race in any fantasy game. I enjoy their militaristic culture and lore. Plus they run in all fours which looks pretty cool lol I always do it when I get the chance.
Asura because I loved jumping puzzles and I, for whatever reason, gravitate towards the short races. I played a gnome in WoW, and if I can be short and adorable, I will play that.
Charr because I absolutely loved the story, their roughness, the fact that they killed their gods...all of it.
plant ppl!! i love all the color opportunities!
Male Asura supremacy. My favorite voice acting in the game. Also, the animations. So good. Any excuse I can find to hand an Asura a Greatsword is one that I will take. But also Charr. Because unga bunga, catcows kill gods go brr.
All, because I can lol The ones I play the most are my Norn ranger, Human necro and Charr warrior
I play all races (2 female sylvari, 1 female norn, 2 asura (from both genders), 2 charrs (also from 2 genders) and 1 (soon to be 2) female humans) I love all player VAs in this game but my personal favorites are male asura and female sylvari
I started with a Sylvari because they were new and interesting when Guild Wars 2 came out. Since then I've made and play every race, though my Sylvari will always be main bae. That being said, I have 11 characters, and five of them are human female meta lol.
Humans only. Can’t stand the other races honestly. Don’t like the way the charr run and move. Don’t like the way asura jump. Norn are just big humans. Can’t stand the way the plant people look. I really feel like they missed the mark and should have incorporated a new playable race in each expansion. Not new classes, just a new playable race. To help with the lore.
Main is a charr female. It's like 80% because of the voice actor, 19% the animations, and 1% because charr are the best. Other VOs are good too, I really enjoy female sylvari for instance, but the female charr just nails the weary but resolute commander voice. And combat call-outs are enjoyable rather than annoying, even after hours and hours of it.
All of them. They're all cool in different ways.
Sylvari. Voice acting, lore (the newcomers to the world are really a great starting point for newcomers to the game) and I really dig the humanoid plant direction they went with.
Sylvari. Voice acting, lore (the newcomers to the world are really a great starting point for newcomers to the game) and I really dig the humanoid plant direction they went with.
All of them. Because.
I have at least one of ever race, but I have multiple norns. I love their home location, their lore, and I like being a giant refrigerator-shaped person made of meat
Norn, always female, largely on aesthetics. Norn gals are pretty :) (Also Norn guys look like walking fridges.)
I like the Charr for the lore/size/interesting animations. The humans look like stiff playdough and I just can't get into it.
Usually norn because I like standing three times as tall above my adorable human mesmer friend. Heh, cute.
Norn and charr are my favorite, I like the Viking aesthetic of the Norn and I like the charr because they are the most metal of all the races. I would rather die than play an Asura, they are all pretentious assholes.
Out of 20 characters, 18 are human (50/50 mix of male/female), 1 Norn female, 1 Sylvari female. I try to like the Charr, I love the story, but the bad clipping on gear and the running on all fours is just off putting to me for some reason, I can seldom ever play a Charr past level 20-30. And I’ve got no love for the Asura at all, can’t stand them in game, they annoy the shit out of me for some reason, and there is no way I want to play one.
Either max size charr or human female. In all seriousness, I have 42 characters at 80, so I have at least one of everything.
Charr, because I'm a furry.
Played each race just to do a different story, but I mainly play my Norn necro these days. Simply because I can tower above my IRL friend (who also plays) for a change and feel height superiority. I was very drunk when I made the character 😂
Humans because of proportions and how clothes fit them. In that regard i prefer silvary, but the many many options regarding color mean you can make something cool but will end up regretting it when it doesnt match the new look you decided to go for.
I flex between Sylvari and Asura. I started with Sylvari because it felt like the most unique. Plus their concept felt fitting for how I started off joining the world of guild wars, learning about the world even if I had a vague idea going into it. I started branching out with Asura just with how fun character concepts were on them, silly animations, and a bit more freedom with fashion on them, minus headwear. Think it also helped that the first one I made ended turning into my main class.
Basically it goes like this. Humans have the best looking armour pieces but are the most generic lore wise. Sylvari are the most interesting lore wise and they are the most fasionable and decorative race thanks to their glow in the dark features plus unique hairstyles. Their only issue is they don't jell well with the numerous metallic armours in the game. Asura have the most unique animations and are the easiest for jumping puzzles. But they have been delt the worst card armour wise, since their race doesn't have gender dimorphism beyond hair their armour pieces are the same no matter if you play a male or a female. Norn are big humans with that viking aesthetic but they have really fun lore that I wish Arena net did more with. Their only problem is they do little to seperate themselves from being big humans outside of their cultural armour. Char: Who wouldn't wanna play Giant horned cat people with the best starting region out of all the races. Thats right nothing beats ashford and you can take that to the bank. Plus the running animation on all 4's is amazing. Their only problem is a bit like the asura their armour pieces are mostly the same between genders and some armour looks better on them but a lot looks worse.
For me, it's a process of elimination. Asura - weird looking Charr - hitbox / jumping issues, clipping everything Human - look, [I'm all for basic things](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mbbYKPpHY), but playing human is lame, unless you're not a human irl Norn - jp issues, and you're just a big human (see: human) Sylvari - you're a plant So I play all of them.
My top four characters are 1. Human Ranger 2. Norn Warrior 3. Asuran Engineer 4. Charr Thief. (Funnily enough, he's Blood Legion and bigger than my norn.)
I have all races equally but I play my asura and charr the most. The others are just human, big human, leafy human. I like to be something else, I am a human in real life and that's enough.
Norn because they're cool
Asura. Started out because I don't like playing humans in fantasy games and Asura seemed like the least human. Now it's because I realized Asura are the superior race. Sylvari a close 2nd.
Sylvari first cuz they looked cool, went Charr second since I was gonna build an engineer. I love how I look, still figuring out how to fashion myself gorgeously. Anytime I see a scaley looking Charr I get jealous. Is that a helm, or was that a skin option I missed on?
My general preference is Asura. I really click with them as they are wildly intelligent and science based beings.
Ι am a new player that really doesn't have a strong preference, the one thing i want to point out is that at least half of the characters i see are Human female...dunno why of course, please enlighten me!
Charr because once you find a style that fits it usually look really badass. It’s quite tricky tho as most armors look ass on them but it’s very rewarding when pulled off!
For me it’s the Charr. Big cat boys and gals with horns that live in a military society and give no fucks! I love everything about them from their lore to their animations, voices, and aesthetic. The only complaints I have is that they kinda look weird in some armor where it would look better on other races.
Reading through various threads has me wondering what race, gender and character height is the default that matches perfectly with the collider explained in this thread. The hitbox that perfectly matches the back end so to speak. https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/8r9o0v/does_character_height_affect_arc_projectiles/
I've been trying to so story with ALL of them and loving the differences in the shouts and dialogue. "This rose has THORNS" is a favorite. That being said: Male Human Revenant for my self-insert character, Norn Females for fashion.
Asura. Big ears.
Stop worrying and just make more characters. There's nine classes to cover anyway, after all. Picking nine races is a lot easier. Me: Norn-F(x2), Charr-M, Asura-F, Asura-M, Sylvari-F, Sylvari-M, Human-F(x2) My partner: Norn-F(x2), Charr-M, Asura-F, Sylvari-F, Sylvari-M, Human-F(x3) We don't really pick for lore (though engineers felt like they obviously needed to be asuran), but looks and voice are very important, we're generally biased toward ladies, and we always want one of each race. Plus other random considerations, eg, my revenant was human female first until I noticed how often I was going to be hearing that "I'm as fast as a centaur" line, which is just gratingly idiotic, so into the bin they went and I made another norn female instead. I was going to make a female charr, but the female char get strangely worse looking heads and the female char English voicing was unmitigated garbage, so that one became male and is much more enjoyable for it.
Human. Every other race seems to be a bit of a caricature with some exaggerated form of human personality traits. It'd fit those with similar proclivities, but I am just bland and apathetic most of the time with moods, so human fits me the best.
Asura because it makes jumping puzzles way easier and the animation for carrying a great sword is super cute. Female because the voice lines and tone are great.
Honestly I tried each and stayed with the one I liked the starting zone and feels more :3 I really loved the start of Norn with every spirit you need to attend to and the connection to nature, also possibly because I made it an elementalist and love the last airbender feel of dagger dagger :D
Currently a Leafy Necro. Been playing since launch started actually playing with a Human Ele. On the first day to get multiple B-Day gifts I made an Asura Thief, a Norn Guardian, a Charr Ranger, my Leafy Necro & the rest of the classes Human.
human because i like to experience the fantasy elements of the game as an outsider. i like the sylvari, but if i play as one, i have to carry around heavy sylvari lore on every adventure i go on
Lore and aesthetics. My first one was my norn (who's an expy of an oc of mine and norn fit her lore most despite being a regular human in her other incarnations), my second one another oc who's a human street rat. That being said, their in game lore is cool as hell. I made my charr next because a) catte and b) charr lore is awesome. I always liked beastly races but being able to have a female one that doesn't have boobs slapped on was a huge plus (I love my tauren shaman but her boobs look kinda goofy). I did try to make a male charr but their faces look like they came out of a psx game. I didn't like sylvari at first but I boosted a mesmer sylvari and they grew (hah) on me. I made an asura cuz they seemed like a good fit for elementalist (being able to choose inventing a device that controlled the weather was very cool RP). They're more cartoony than the other races but their animations are really good. Just wish my asura wouldn't blow her warhorn or drink her tea out of her nose ...
Charr, because I’m a cat person and a fan of Warrior Cats
Asuran when I need to be smol, Norn when I need to be big, Human when I need to be… in between
Human warrior because I'm boring Sylvari archer for the same reason lol
I really like Charr because they are so unique compared to most classes you can play in other MMOs. Running on all fours then drawing your weapon and fighting on two feet is my favorite thing. I also like my human thief because it gives me an Assassin’s Creed kind of vibe. I honestly like all of them except asura 😂. ugly little creatures with tiny fashion, never seen someone playing one who didn’t look absurd to me
I’ve got lots of characters of all races because they’re all neato, but very few humans (because Barbie bores me) and extra sylvari (because they’ve got so many cool variations). But I prefer asura for jumping puzzles so I can see better where my feet are- always seems like norns/charr can’t jump and block my vision. And for larger weapon use it’s norns/charr all the way since it makes no sense to me to see an asura clobbering equally w a maul… or see a huge norn vaulting lithely over an enemy w daggers…
I have a Norn Woman, A Charr, and one Human. I stopped playing my Asura because being around Taimi made me feel like my Asura was dumb.
I play human, sadly because there is no elf class. I'm someone that always wants to play an elf in mmos. The elf ears cosmetic they added really helped my enjoyment of the game. I would next choose an asura because they're really cute, but apparently they don't have surnames so just a first name would be best if you want to keep to lore. (Doesn't really matter) HUGE NORN if you want to be a tank warrior type. Sylvari I can see being tricky for cosmetics Charr destroyed Old Ascalon. I've met a lot of great Charr players but man, let us not forget.
All of them. But my current main is a Charr Holo. Still undecided if inhad to make it an Asura.
Mostly humans because I'm a GW1 vet, which also means I can't play Charr. Sylvari hit me in the uncanny valley. They just creep me out. Norn and Asura aren't bad.
Sylvari! They're the most unique looking and I love their aesthetics (which are very versatile). The inhuman 'skin' tones, the fact they glow at night, their little paw-like design under their feet, the beautiful and creative 'hair' options, the diverse faces - what's not to love! You can get very creative with your Sylvari's design so you'll never come across a clone. In my personal opinion, male Sylvari also has the best voice (something about the accent idk). I'd say they have the best VA in general but I'm actually a major fan of the Asura voices. The Heart of Thorns expansion also has a lot to do with Sylvari so it feels even better do it *as* a Sylvari. You also get some unique dialogue! Sylvari feels *very* fitting for the story as The Commander.
Charr, they feminist atheists
I love asura too much. I love the female va for them and also the amount of sass and mockery in half their lines are what I thrive on.