Human
Although the humans once ruled most of Tyria, they are now seen by other races as a dying breed: their kingdoms have been shattered by a variety of enemies, leaving them only their fertile homeland of Kryta and their capital city, Divinity's Reach, to rely on. Their downfall has caused a massive wave of refugees to descend on Kryta from distant lands, with all of the social and political problems that one would expect to follow in their wake arriving as promised. The humans are a confused race, not quite sure how they've been so reduced in stature, but still a proud one. Humanity is determined to endure, even if thriving seems out of their reach for the moment, and many young humans fight back against their race's humbled circumstances by becoming adventurers and warriors, striking out for new lands and seeking their fortune far from home.
As a human, your biographical choices will include the kind of upbringing your character had, which will affect the personal story that you run through early in the game, as well as their choice of specific god to receive a blessing from. Each of these choices will determine some aspects of your character's story, so choose the options that sound most interesting to you!
Racial Skills
Each of the human racial skills revolves around beseeching one of the six human Gods for aid. The early skills are a bit more passive than those of the other races, largely focusing on healing and boon/condition interactions. If you invest in Prayer to Dwayna, you'll be capable of pulling off a powerful self-heal (which may wind up being more useful than your profession's default healing spell, depending on your playstyle). Prayer to Kormir will remove three conditions from your character, which will certainly be helpful if you're a frontline fighter engaging in a condition-using boss. Prayer to Lyssa will grant your character a random boon and place a random condition on the target enemy; randomness is not generally a positive thing in RPGs, since you won't know whether or not the boon or condition that is generated will be useful in a specific situation, but it might be fun to experiment with this skill regardless.
The human Elite skills draw upon the more forceful deities. Melandru, the goddess of nature, will enable you to transform into an Avatar of Melandru, a creature that is completely immune to all control effects, like stunning and knockback, for 20 seconds. During that brief time, you'll be able to grant nearby allies with healing, condition removal, and the protection boon. Grenth, on the other hand, has little time for such niceties: as the god of death, he'll enable you to become the Reaper of Grenth, which doesn't override your weapon skills, but will inflict the chill and poison conditions on all enemies within your reach. As the god of war, though, Balthazar is capable of answering the prayers of even the most powerful warrior by sending down the Hounds of Balthazar, a pair of fiery hellhounds that will fight by your side for a short period of time.
