The guys at The Yogscast took the time to give us an in depth overview of racial elite skills. Not all of the races have been available for any of the closed beta events. The two unique races, Sylvari and Asura have been left out thus far. Giving us something to still look forward to seeing. Char, Human, and Norn however have several options to choose from.
Some players may choose a particular race due to the unique story arches available. Other may choose simply based on how a race looks. Players that want to be competitive in the pvp aspect of the game will usually have researched what they decide upon. It may be an extremely powerful utility or do insane damage. Either way it will not be full of frills nor fluff.
With that said it is quite apparent that the racial skills need to be balanced. Charzooka is by far not only one of the best idea’s for a racial. Fire rocket barrage, slot 5 skill, has to be the most OP ability shown. It would seem to be one of the best area effect skills in the game. Capable of obliterating complete groups of mobs at a time. Now that may make pve a little easier. In pvp however, it may become game changer. Expect guilds and servers to stack char for WvW and dominate.
Norns have access to what appears to be the longest duration of stealth in the game, using Prowl, skill 5 when in Snow Leopard form. If you’ve watched any thieves using a heavy stealth build in pvp, you may have noticed that stealth is fairly short duration for them. Yet in this video you may notice they have gone longer than a tief yet the stealth buff icon shows no sign of fading.
The Human elites did not have a skill that stands out as OP, at least not to the extent of the other two races. In fact I’d consider them to be the most balanced and the other skills needing to be reigned in some. Then again it could be the opposite and ArenaNet wants racial skills to be potentially powerful for certain builds. I’ve always consider’d racial skills to be more flavor but not be a major deciding factor. Usually unique skills like these are hard to keep balanced due to the their nature and diversity.
Still, this is only beta and ArenaNet has shown their desire to deliver the highest quality of game they can. Other than my speculations on whether or not they have actually done away with the trinity aside. Not once, so far have I felt they have over hyped or failed deliver what they have promised. That gives me the faith that they will tune all skills to be in line with each other. Within reason and probably with a few mistakes here and there. They are after all still semi-human…
LET'S GET SOCIAL