Guild Wars 2 races guide

Charr

The charr are the most Klingon-esque of GW2's races: they're extremely militaristic and value martial prowess over, say, artistic accomplishment. Charr are introduced into warrior creches at a very young age and spend most of their lives either training to fight or actually fighting, with other roles in the charr economy or society being left for those too young or too old to engage in combat. The charr are not simple-minded brutes, however: they are also adept at technological innovation, which they (of course) put to use in the creation of war machines and other devices to aid them in their battles. Their home city, the Black Citadel, is often filled with the smoke from its massive smelters and military factories. Most charr are taught the value of carrying around a hefty sword early in life, and as a race, they largely distrust magic-users, thanks to the nefarious influence of the Flame Legion. This has no bearing on a Charr's choice of profession, however: you can be a Charr Elementalist if you like (although you might get some funny looks from your compatriots).

As a society, the charr divide themselves up into four High Legions, named the Iron, Blood, Ash, and Flame Legions. The Ash Legion is renowned as a source of spies and assassins, and as such is a good choice for charr thieves; Blood Legion prefers straightforward fights, making them a good choice for warriors and guardians; and the Iron Legion is the driving force behind much of charr technology, making them a good choice for engineers. (All of this is referring to thematics and storyline; you can mix any profession with any college and not miss out on any skills or gameplay elements.) The Flame Legion, which once dominated the charr through a mixture of magic and religious zealotry, has been banished from the Black Citadel and cannot be chosen by a player. You'll meet them soon enough, though, as they plot to return to power from within their massive Citadel of Flame.

One way in which the charr distinguish themselves from the other playable classes lies in their movement; when they need to cover ground in a hurry, a charr will slope forward and move with all four limbs, rather than run upright. They'll revert to an upright stance when battle is joined, however.

Racial Skills

The first of the Utility skills available to a charr is Shrapnel Mine, a trap effect that can be placed on the ground; when an enemy crosses it, they'll be both slowed by a cripple affect and also given a stack of bleeding. Next up is Battle Roar, a useful shout skill that will grant fury and might to yourself and all nearby allies, making you all deal much more damage than you normally would for a few seconds. Lastly, you'll come across a Hidden Pistol, with which you can fire at enemies from 900 range; a handy ability to keep around if you want to pull enemies from a distance but don't have ranged weapons equipped, especially since it's on a quick 15 second cooldown.

The Elite skills that the charr draw upon are influenced by the charr's relation to military technology and their culture of warbands. As such, you can use Warband Support to summon members of your warband to aid you in battle for 30 seconds, or call in an Artillery Barrage to rain destruction down on a section of the battlefield. Most powerful, though, is the Charrzooka, which will replace your weapon bar with five new skills, capable of delivering a number of banes and high damage to nearby enemies. It'll only last sixty seconds, but its cooldown timer is only three minutes, so you should be able to get a lot of use out of it if you hit it often.