Guild Wars 2: 10 Reasons to Be Excited

5. Racial Elite Skills Again, the mind-boggling array of skills and abilities has already been mentioned, but there's an additional reason to be excited about the racial elite skills of Guild Wars 2. Most players of role-playing games know that one of the biggest draws of that genre of games is how cool you feel about your character as it grows more powerful. Well, Guild Wars 2 certainly doesn't disappoint in that area! Each of the professions has some amazing high-level abilities, but some of the most evil-laugh-inducing powers come from your character's race. The humans get several abilities that channel the power of their gods. One of these that is destined to become a favorite summons three flaming mastiff hounds of Balthazar that will accompany the character and fight for him or her for a time. Prepare to be dazzled as the three hounds leap high into the air and 'dog-pile' and enemy in an inferno of flames and teeth. The racial elite skills of the norn allow them to transform into giant animal-human hybrids. Werewolf, werebear, werejaguar, and wereraven are all represented, and each gets - you guessed it - its own set of five new skills that are active during the transformation. And these abilities are powerful! Expect to strike down enemies in only one or two hits with these! Each has its own flavor, too; so bear has raw power, while jaguar has a lot of stealth abilities. They're all unbelievably cool. The charr likewise have some racial elites that will make players drool. Most of theirs involve their gunpowder technology, and the one that stands out is the Charrzooka! Homing missiles? Check! Swarm of rockets? Check! A pile of dead bad guys with a single shot? You bet! And while we haven't yet gotten a look at the racial elite skills for the sylvari or the asura, you can bet that theirs will be at least as good as what we've seen from the other races. The moral of this story is that you should get ready to feel powerful!