Guild Wars 2

[Dark_Avenger]

d I'm pretty sure there already was a Guild Wars 2 thread, but it may have been before the Gamer's Lounge existed. Either way I couldn't find it.

Anyways, There's been a recent small update on the Guild wars 2 site so I thought I might make a thread for it.

Here's the set up. Guild wars 2 takes place 250 years after the original. It's enough time to actually have a technological difference in the setting. You'll see different forms of clothing being worn as well as different armour and weapons being used (Gunpowder anyone?).

I won't go too much into the story incase you haven't played the first one, either way the story as it stands is on the website for you to read.

The FAQ states that they're keeping some of the old professions while adding others. They have so far announced the Warrior and Elementalist:
Elementalist
Warrior
Ranger
Necromancer
Guardian
Thief
Engineer
Mesmer Update (08/21/2011)
(There's videos in the class links )

Something that really intrigues me is the event system they are designing. They're trying to make player actions affect the actual world they are in. One example they have is players in the area may be tasked to attack a centaur camp. If for example no one pays attention to it and leaves, the centaur camp would grow in size, and eventually mobilize to attack other parts of the map. Eventually attacking a Player oupost itself. That's just one example though, they have a lot more here:

Event system explained

Something else they also just added in is the trait system. Most MMOs have some kind of trait tree they alocate points to. Guild Wars 2 is trying to make it a little more immersive. Here's their example

You acquire traits by completing profession challenges scattered throughout the world. For instance, you walk into an inn and persuade a shadowy stranger into telling you a rumor about a mysterious tome full of arcane knowledge. Or you challenge a legendary swordmaster to a duel while exploring Divinity's Reach.

The traits they're refering to aren't something like a trait tree. The way they put it is that you have so many trait slots you can alocate (at anytime when you're not in combat) any traits you've acquired throughout your playtime.

Traits explained

Most of this stuff isn't new. But they're trying really hard to make this MMO much different than all the rest. They're still planning on making it Free to play. Which is great, I just hope they don't change this in the future.

There's a few more articles on the main page here that I didn't go through: http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

I'm pretty excited for this. How do you guys think this will turn out?

[Imperial Honour]

Looking forwards to Guild Wars 2, hopefully we might see more awesome some stuff at E3, after playing through all of Guild Wars(1). I like the fact that they are keeping at least some of the original professions. I do hope they keep\make a profession in GW2 akin to the Ranger as my first character (Will Forrester) was a Ranger, not to mention I love playing as Rangers.

The whole skill, combat and trait system sound interesting. The revamped skill system sounds like it could be great. As much as I love all the skills in GW1 some of them are duplicates, less useful then others, or a pain to balance in both PvE and PvP. So, presumably, having less skills but a better selection of balanced effective ones could\should be great.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

They've abandoned secondary professions. Quite honestly they almost lost my interest right there. GW2 seems to just be an attempt to make Guild Wars more mainstream, and I don't see the point. I'll probably get it still even if just for the lack of monthly fees (which needs all the encouragement it can get) but I'm not expecting much.

[Dark_Avenger]

I read that the no Secondary professions was in favor with the Racial choice in skills. Though I do think that having those choice of skills shouldn't be determined by race.

It will make people go a certain class/race combo regardless of if they wanted to go that specific race (unless they don't really care :P)

In all honesty though the 2 professions at a time it was a nightmare to balance it for PVP. Everytime they fixed one thing, then something else became overpowered.

[Kaldaris]

Reveal Necromancer already!

[Methuselath]

Pah, the fact that Cantha is off the map (for now, at least) means that Assassins will not be one of the classes. S'pity, I love playing as the Assassin, nothing beats juggling enemies in the front AND backline using shadow stepping and dark arts.

Despite players saying Cantha was one of the weakest of the three campaigns, I kinda like it. The city felt somewhat alive, imaginative, atmospheric and somehow, like home.

[Supernaut]

If my squeals of joy in IRC are anything to go by then I cannot wait for this game, I really enjoyed GW and all the information they've released so far makes me a happy man.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

Pah, the fact that Cantha is off the map (for now, at least) means that Assassins will not be one of the classes. S'pity, I love playing as the Assassin, nothing beats juggling enemies in the front AND backline using shadow stepping and dark arts.

Not necessarily. There are noncanthan assassins amongst the Heroes I think.

EDIT: Well one noncanthan assassin anyhow. Anton.

[nyyti]

Guild Wars 2? My almost 700 hours of gametime in GW1 should tell everything you need to know. I absolutely love this series.

The removal of 2ndary classes might sound like dumbing it down, but after seeing the new trait system, I dunno if it's that big a deal really. Time will tell.

Removal of heroes and henchmen, and now the planned AI companion too is sad. One of the thing that made GW unique were the AI dudes running with you. Then again the allied AI at times was/is pure terror, so this is again kinda 50/50 if it will be good or not. Sure it looks more like WoW and all the other MMO's now, but the dynamic party system sounds delicious.

Meth, if you look at THIS you'll notice how ele and warrior art from there was used in the announcements. So it would seem like we have ele, ranger, mesmer, warrior, somesorta monk/knight class?, and something that really looks like an assassin .
Also if you start as a human, you can choose if you're tyrian, elonian or canthan.

[Kronoch]

I'm a big fan of the guild wars series, and I'm absolutely going to get GW2 when it's released. I can't wait for this game.

Ok, enough fanboyism. I was quite surprise when i heard they were goign to dump the secondary classes system, though I can understand it from a balance perspective. I think it's a shame though, because my warrior won't run around with a pet anymore . On the other hand, apart from the warrior/ranger combo I never really used a secondary class. Every class had plenty of skills already, combined with the rank skills, and though trying out the thousands of combinations possible was fun, it rarely resulted in effective builds and most of the time it just made my skill window more chaotic as I had to scroll through a huge list of skills to find the one I wanted.

I'm interested to see how the new skill system is going to work out. If your first five skills are connected to the weapon you equip I wonder what that means in practice. When I equip an axe, do I get five generic axe skills? Or do I get 5 slots that can be filled with axe skills? What happens with multiple weapon sets? I'm leaning towards the 5 generic skills option, because otherwise you would have to choose 15 skills if you have 3 weapon sets.

One more thing: I know that Tyria/Ascalon is the Guild Wars setting, but I hope it isn't as boring as the original GW. The other campaigns had interesting and beautiful scenery, and Prophecies scenery was dull and generic in comparison. Now I know it's unfair to compare the first campaign to the later ones, and I hope that the terrain is at least as varied as in EOTN. It's just that it takes place in the same world, with likely the same geography. The level design wasn't that great in prophecies, so I hope that GW2 scenery and level design will be beyond awesome :P. Slogging through miles and miles of hills, farmland and forest isn't that exciting TBH. It's what I dislike about most MMO's.

As a side note: I WANT MY TURTLE ARMOR!!!!!

[Dark_Avenger]

In that link you posted nyyti I don't see one that could possibly be the Necromancer .

Here's hoping that he's still in.

[Pocktio]

I like the talk of more eventful combat. I like my combat eventful.

[Methuselath]

Assumptions here, but I can see some class rolling into one another, like the daggers being given to ranger; stances have always been the forte of rangers/warriors and the lack of a secondary means rangers traditionally will have no access to melee. The armour looks suitably assassin-ish; on the other hand, the cloth mask, well.... It certainly looks interesting.

Yeah, Anton's addition seems to point out the fact that there is non-Canthan assassins. Perhaps the list of class is foreshadowed by the hero classess with have access to at EOTN?

Is there a release yet on how many classes there is in GW2?

[Dark_Avenger]

Not at the moment. The main page did have the elementalist as well as a bunch of silhouetted characters in the background which I would assume to be the other classes. That was before they announced the Warrior though and the main page changed.

We'll find out soon enough.

[ShyGuy]

They mentioned 8 classes somewhere in the descriptions of the new skills/weapons/traits systems (3 scholars 3 adventurers, and 2 soldiers). That's backed up by the silhouettes on the main site.

the lack of a secondary means rangers traditionally will have no access to melee

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Each character can carry two weapon load-outs. They've been showing the warrior carrying around a bow.

I suspect they'll try to merge the Ranger with something else to help differentiate him from the bow-wielding warrior. There's some potential to merge with some assassin skills to create a scout. That's kinda traditionally what Rangers are in lore. Or, they could try to explore things like ungents, or spells, to make a druid.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Each character can carry two weapon load-outs. They've been showing the warrior carrying around a bow.

There's a difference between being able to use a bow and being remotely competent with it. The Warrior in GW1 can use a bow too, it just won't do anything barring pulling stuff. Similarly you can give a Ranger a melee weapon too, if you particularly feel the need to waste time doing no damage.

[Dark_Avenger]

It is definitely like that in GW1, but I think they're changing it up in GW2. In the Warrior video it did show one using a longbow with a pretty high effectiveness. So maybe they'll do the same with the Ranger

[ShyGuy]

Right. My question was more aimed at deciphering what the quote meant, than trying to pick it apart as an argument, because I honestly don't understand it. My best guess was that Rangers won't be able to melee in GW2 without a secondary profession and offered up some evidence that this may not necessarily be the case. It could even be argued that every profession has access to melee through party members. It is after all, an MMO (although the bits about scaling difficulties and such have me hoping that running single player will be much more viable).

Anyway, apart from the speculation at the bottom of my post, I have no idea what the ranger (if there even is one), will be capable of in Guild Wars 2.

[Methuselath]

Well, what I meant was by thinking in the lines of GW1 way of classes, it meant that every class have an access to every weapon provided they have the correct secondary. So with the lack of secondary certain classes like rangers and casters could not access warrior type weapons; that's three weapons, hammers, swords and axes.

But never mind my post, that was just me speculating. More likely, what with the new skill system and all is that different classes have access to different weapon skills?

So 3 scholars 3 adventurers 2 soldiers? Thats one scholar (ele) and one soldier (war) and I think its safe to assume monks (scholar?) and rangers (adventurer) are in. What makes an adventurer anyway? Dervish does sound adventurer-ish, being travelling mystics and all, necros are definitely scholars. Mesmers are a bit of wierd one, travelling theater group and casters; so does Paragon and Assassins; either of them seem to fit the soldier/adventurer type.

Could this mean.... dum dum DUM.... NEW CLASSES!?

PS: Hmm, so, it seems that there is a theme of hybridization going on; Longbows and Preps seems to be on the Warrior's side of the deal (AoE sounds just like Ignite Arrows no?) and the Elementalist seems to have access to melee weapon (dual wield daggers?) so I think speculation according to GW1 class is definitely out of the window.

PPS: Also WTF Rifles? WIN...

[ShyGuy]

Monks, if they make it in, will probably be re-factored pretty heavily. Everyone now has a dedicated skill slot for a healing skill. More speculation (of course), but something like a Paladin with auras to mitigate damage, or offer slow and steady regeneration might be more useful. Depends on how much overlap there is with warrior stances and such.

[Methuselath]

The reasoning for the dedicated healing slot seems logical; everyone have some form of healing skill and unless its a dedicated PvP team build, everyone with two braincells to run together will carry a healing skill of somesort.

Monks aren't just for healing, if I recall by PvP gameplay and high level hard mode play right, a more efficient build is for the monk to dedicate to protections, buffs and cures and let everyone else handle their healing. On the other hand, Paragons also open up a somewhat on par ability in prots, as well as excellent damage and condition buffs.

[Dark_Avenger]

Just doing an update on first post, they released new information on the Ranger and how healing and death works in the game (I hope it's ok I bring this thread back everytime they do an update).

Anyways, the Ranger is in, and it looks like it is going to be a rogue-type class (High damage, low armour, as apposed to Warrior which is lower damage, higher armour), except with a pet as well. The video they have up there of the whirling defense looks badass, that alone would be enough for me to pick a Ranger.

As for how they're going about with healing, I think I like the direction. There are no dedicated healers anymore (Sorry Monks), and every class will have some sort of healing skill. But they're also doing a "downed" system similar to Borderlands, where if you lose all of your health you become weakened (Move slower, limited abilities), but if by chance you kill an enemy while weakened, you rally and get back up. Party members can also help you up in the heat of battle, and certain abilities (like a rallying shout for example) can also get you back up.

You can still of course be killed after you're weakened. I personally like how this sounds, making the game a little bit more action oriented is never a bad thing.

[Kryopsis]

The fact that there is no dedicated healer is a very bold if unusual move. I am very curious to see how that plays out. It will certainly make party management different from every other game out there.

After all the time I invested into Guild Wars, my interest in GW2 is very high. It is very likely that I will pick up the game at release, unless something unforeseeable happens.

[FriendlyFire]

They've just released a manifesto video with tons of interesting sequences. I'm just blown away by the art style and what the game has in store.

You can view it on the game's front page.

[Dark_Avenger]

Ah yes I just found out about that today. It doesn't say much they've already said, but it's a nice video that sums it up for people just tuning in.

[Imperial Honour]

Release the Necromancer! Another profession from since the beginning of Guild Wars that will also be in Guild Wars 2.

[Ira Aduro]

I am just tuning in. And my jaw was scraping dust after watching that 'manifesto' trailer. I came for the visuals, I fell in love with the dynamic events, and I will stay for the no monthly fee.

You have my axe.

EDIT:

Also, artgasming over GW2. Here are some videos of art and panel discussion with concept artist:
http://www.cgchannel.com/2010/04/the...-guild-wars-2/

[QuixotesGhost]

2 serious reservations about what I've seen so far.

- The removal of monks. Protection monks are the heart and soul of the PvP metagame and are part of what makes GW's PvP much more intresting than any other MMORPG on the market. Dynamic Mitigation (which is what Protection Monks provide) makes the game much more stategic for every class from Warroirs to Mesmers. Without a class providing Dynamic Mitigation I fail to see how PVP won't devolve into "Everybody wail on the squishiest target until they're dead" like every other MMO on the market.

- After looking at the trailers it looks like the necromancer has a "fear" skill (the first one listed). The presence of intelligent and complex shutdown always set GW apart from the rest of the pack as opposed to WoW which was pretty much "Lolz feared". The possibility of a "fear" skill in GW2 makes me wonder if thier approach to shutdown is going to become more simplistic like other MMORPGS.

Still crossing my fingers though.

There's a difference between being able to use a bow and being remotely competent with it. The Warrior in GW1 can use a bow too, it just won't do anything barring pulling stuff. Similarly you can give a Ranger a melee weapon too, if you particularly feel the need to waste time doing no damage.

Actually, R/W Hammer Rangers were quite in vouge in Team Arenas for a while. I'm not sure exactly how the build worked, never playing it myself, but after facing it a few times I can tell you it was quite capable of dealing signifigant damage. I think the idea was to exploit expertise to spam Warrior skills that used energy, much like R/N Touch Rangers (which were far easier to defeat if you knew what you were doing).

Also, people mention broken class combos as a reason why dual-classing was removed, but I can't really remember any class combos that dominated the metagame except for W/R IWAY which has since been nerfed.

[Makille]

Nothing says Monks are removed. They could still be in there in a similar fashion.

Also, Please Release Faster!

[QuixotesGhost]

The traits they're refering to aren't something like a trait tree. The way they put it is that you have so many trait slots you can alocate (at anytime when you're not in combat) any traits you've acquired throughout your playtime.

Was just reading up on traits and I'm not thrilled. I liked GWs lack of passive skills because they made builds more transparent.

I see two possible ways that traits can go - either they are generic like "moar damage" or exotic like "conditions you inflict have a chance to resist removal" and so create this hidden element that blunts the mind-games that were a hallmark of GW PvP since it's hard to read if player X has passive skill Y slotted.

I really really hope GW2 will not have stats like Strength, Detexrity, ect.

The reasoning for the dedicated healing slot seems logical; everyone have some form of healing skill and unless its a dedicated PvP team build, everyone with two braincells to run together will carry a healing skill of somesort.

Actually as someone that monked quite often in both PvP and PvE I couldn't stand it when other players took self-heals. I much perfered that they would slot some sort of disruption or shutdown skill. As a monk, my heals are far more efficent than any other class, and I'd prefer other classes to do thier job and let me do mine. In short, Throw Dirt > Troll Ungent.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

Actually, R/W Hammer Rangers were quite in vouge in Team Arenas for a while. I'm not sure exactly how the build worked, never playing it myself, but after facing it a few times I can tell you it was quite capable of dealing signifigant damage. I think the idea was to exploit expertise to spam Warrior skills that used energy, much like R/N Touch Rangers (which were far easier to defeat if you knew what you were doing).

Hammer knockdown mixed with a pet and beastmastery for damage. It was quite fearsome.

[Methuselath]

Actually as someone that monked quite often in both PvP and PvE I couldn't stand it when other players took self-heals. I much perfered that they would slot some sort of disruption or shutdown skill. As a monk, my heals are far more efficent than any other class, and I'd prefer other classes to do thier job and let me do mine. In short, Throw Dirt > Troll Ungent.

Ah yes, but I mostly play RA thus the healing reasoning. Like I said, unless its a dedicated PVP team build. In the region I played monk seems quite rare for a team to get, my dad occasionally runs a barrage R/Rt in PvE with additional heals just to cover up that lack.

If I'm not mistaken, the R/W build uses the pet to quickly build up Adrenaline, combined that with a pet knockdown of its own you can almost constantly knockdown an opponent, a downed monk is useless to his team.

On the other hand Assassins have really sweet self-heal ability. That and uber dodge i.e. Crit Defense or escape skills. Definitely my fav class.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

If I'm not mistaken, the R/W build uses the pet to quickly build up Adrenaline, combined that with a pet knockdown of its own you can almost constantly knockdown an opponent, a downed monk is useless to his team.

Yeah that too, though I'm pretty sure there's some damage spikes from the pet. That said there's a lot of variations on the general build.

[Methuselath]

Yeah, the hammer skills line-up is pretty much the same across the table, its the pets that give this build is flavour, and man, flavour it gives. All the way from damage spikes, to knockdowns, to conditions. And then some, considering the stuff rangers can pulls. Can I say IAS and Dodge for some early quick clobbering?

[n0z3k1ll3r]

Yeah see stuff like that? That's what I'm not seeing in GW2. And it saddens me.

[CyberSargent]

I can't wait to play this and exclaim loudly, "This is unlike anything I've ever played before!"

[Catra]

i hope they make GW2 PvE harder, i solod nearly all the content(pre and post minion nerf) with a necro | monk build that aimed to keep my minions alive for as long as possible.

[Methuselath]

Well, I'll certainly miss my Assassin/Necro combo for insane damage spikes. Or adding some warrior flair to my chains, or even giving my daggers some ooomph via elemental boosts.

On the other hand, chains-per-skill, flexible approach with death and a more living world is something to look forward too. I just wonder how the PvP scene in GW2 would be.

[QuixotesGhost]

If I'm not mistaken, the R/W build uses the pet to quickly build up Adrenaline, combined that with a pet knockdown of its own you can almost constantly knockdown an opponent, a downed monk is useless to his team.

Your comment on "a downed monk" underscores exactly how important I feel Protection Magic is to the GW metagame. If a monk is able to anticipate the adrenaline spike he can easily survive a hammer chain with Reversal of Fortune, Guardian, and/or Protective spirit. In fact Protection magic is interesting in that it becomes more efficent the more people wail on the same target. As someone who has played monk in PvP, it's acutally easier to anticipate this spike if it's directed against myself as opposed to another soft target on my team. This is why some form of Protection Magic needs to be in GW2 or PvP will simply devolve into "everyone dog-pile the softest target".

Also, if they pull "tanking" out of GW2's PvE entirely and force players to rely on other forms of mitigation I will be a very happy, happy player. The whole concept of "tank pulls mobs, mobs wail on tank, Dps wail on mobs with impunity" that has been the trend in MMOs since EQ feels so outdated and it makes PvE combat static and repetitive. If they manage to break out of that mold, I will be very impressed. Doing this will also help smooth the break between PvP and PvE since it's normally the case where there are certain skills that are only good in PvE since they rely on mobs stupidly clustering around the hardest target (Meteor Shower anyone?}. In fact, outside a few select skills, Elementalists are underpowered in general in PvP and this stems from the need to prevent thier AoE spells from demolishing the stupid mob AI in PvE. Get rid of tanking and it becomes much easier to balance skills for both PvE and PvP.

Monks, if they make it in, will probably be re-factored pretty heavily. Everyone now has a dedicated skill slot for a healing skill. More speculation (of course), but something like a Paladin with auras to mitigate damage, or offer slow and steady regeneration might be more useful. Depends on how much overlap there is with warrior stances and such

GW already has a Paladin class, called Paragons. I felt Paragons were such a unqiue and intresting take on the concept that I would be diappointed if they opted not to include it in favor of a more traditional Paladin class.

[Methuselath]

Heh Paragons. Not only that they're Paladins they are also RANGED Paladins with a nasty condition giving skills. They're evil in PvP I tell you.

[ShyGuy]

I'm not terribly worried about the lack of monks, thus far. I think we should be encouraged by the fact that there is no longer the need* for a dedicated healer in a party. For all the reasons you guys have laid out, we should expect even better from the new "monk". Everyone has a dedicated heal slot now, so there's even more room for the paragon, and monk, and mesmer to fill out the roster with some truly unique roles -- like damage mitigation (whether it be prevention, misdirection, negation, or whatever). Only half of the professions have been revealed thus far, and I would bet that that the heavy condition (removal) classes are yet to come, as they are the hardest to keep in balance with the rest of the game.

* I should probably point out, that I don't ever really play PvP. The landscape is surely different, but I remain happy with the direction of the player roster so far, and look forward to the new monks, paragons, mesmer, and all the others things we're "missing" from Guild Wars 1.

[Ira Aduro]

Some more info at RPS. Some info is old, some is new:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010...comment-500781

After you choose your race, class and appearance in Guild Wars 2, you also answer a series of multiple-choice questions that make up what ArenaNet call your bio. For a human necromancer, these include what was your biggest regret growing up? Were you raised by nobles, tradesmen or peasants? What dark creature do your paint on your face? And do you get yourself out of tricky situations with charm, ferocity or honour?

Your answers to these questions then personalise your experience, in a way that MMORPGs are traditionally quite bad at. What was your biggest regret growing up? That’ll affect your character’s personal story. Who raised you? Again, that affects your personal story, and who your friends are in the human capital city. What do you paint your face with? That gives your necromancer a unique bit of visual flair.

How do you get out of tricky situations? This is, perhaps, the most exciting part. Depending on which of these three personalities you chose, your character will get different dialogue in conversations with NPCs, and the world will react differently to you. The sole example we were given is street kids either following you or running away, so it’s impossible to know how far this’ll extend. Still, it’s a wonderful idea.

The phrase ‘personal story’ surfaced a lot during our presentation of Guild Wars 2. Basically, it’s an attempt to individualise the player’s personal experience of the game’s narrative. Again, it’s impossible to know how far this’ll extend, though there is already one incredible-sounding feature relating to your personal story. Let me tell you about the Home Instance.

One district of your race’s capital city is instanced. When you go there, you go there alone, and what you find there relates to your personal story. Your home instance is filled with friends, family and quests relating to the answers you chose in your bio, and this place will actually evolve over time, depending on whether you choose to save the hospital or the orphanage when they’re both found burning, for example, and any people you save out in the public game world might be found later on back at your home.

....

Talking to ArenaNet about GW2, they have an animal confidence to them; they seem hugely excited that they have all these ideas, they have the money to actualise them, and they’re not fucking it up. I’m posting an interview with GW2′s global brand manager, Chris Lye, and designer Eric Flannum tomorrow, but for now here’s a choice snippet:

“We’re not just designing an MMO. We don’t want to make the best MMO ever. We want to make the best game ever.”

I’m know that’ll strike some people as arrogant, but it makes me happy. What would you rather a developer wanted to do?

Here’s a high-res, direct-screen-feed presentation done by Arenanet. Really shows off the game better than any printed preview.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

[Dark_Avenger]

Oh man, Those are some good videos. I'm glad you posted them here because I completely missed them.

I kind of don't like how "scripted" the dynamic events seem. Though I can't really say too much yet as I haven't played it obviously :P. It does seem like the world events in Warhammer Online.

That being said though, it looks very very good

[QuixotesGhost]

The more I read and saw videos about GW2 the more disappointed I was becoming. No secondaries, no in-depth discussion of the complex skill interactions that make GW gameplay what it is, "level 50" .... and then - I click on this link in the OP that talks about "support/damage/control" (I actually posted that bit about tanking before I read that article). Fucking A - Anet, Good on you! You have my gaming dollar. I've wanted MMO combat to progress in that direction for years now.

Though just to have something to complain about - warriors now have projective attacks and there seemed to be a distince lack of snares in the Water Elementalist's repertoire (though maybe because she's just low level). I wonder if this means that Gw2 is going to diminish the importance of snares and by extension movement. It was always funny watching WoW players come in during the free weekends, roll warrior, neglect to take sprint/rush or a snare and then chase monks around in circles benny-hill style.

[Methuselath]

I don't think snares will be out, its such an important concept in GW.

[FriendlyFire]

Looking at how movement seems to be emphasized even more in GW2, I just can't see snares not making a comeback. That you can cast spells and do attacks while moving means the combat will be very dynamic and reliant on positioning.

The only thing I'm still unsure about is the lack of skill customization. You only end up with like 4 choices out of 10 skills... 5 of them are related to your weapon and so will probably be fairly generic, 1 is a dedicated heal slot. Unless you can swap out the attacks your weapon does, which doesn't appear to be the case, that stands to be my only disappointment so far.

[Supernaut]

I do remember the Devs saying they were cutting a lot of the duplicate skills, you are probably going to have less skills in GW2 - but ones that really make a difference to how you play, rather than the god knows how many skills you could choose that made little difference back in GW1.

And snares are definitely in, fairly sure the devs talked about it on the main website and I'm pretty certain I saw a hunter use a snare on the gamescon live stream.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

There really weren't many duplicates in GW1. Just a few skills from Factions that were the same as in prophecies. Oh there were similar skills but the differences changed the dynamics a lot. An area of effect Earth Magic spell ended up with vastly different builds than a similar Fire Magic spell, because of the different dynamics of Earth and Fire.

[Ira Aduro]

The promised RPS interview has arrived, and it is good.

Russian Guy: I want to ask about PvP. What will it look like in Guild Wars 2? Will be that mixture of Magic The Gathering and Counter-Strike?

JG: We have not revealed the full details of our PvP yet, we’re saving that for later. But what we can tell you now is that we will have two distinct modes of PvP. One will be the competitive PvP you are familiar with, where experience doesn’t matter and it’s purely down to player skill. And there’s the new element of PvP which we call “role versus role”, where one GW2 server will play against another GW2 server in something we call “the Myth”. It will be like a big RTS map with resource points and control points, and three servers will be going at it. Instead of units there will be players.

CL: It’s under development, we just aren’t able to say exactly “this is what it is” right now.

German Guy: How will the sidekick system which allows low level players to play with high level players work for rewards? What about if I am level 70 playing with my level 15 friend and I am sidekicking down? Is there a reward?

JG: So it’s interesting to look at how dynamic events are rewarded. You don’t get gear, you get things like gold, karma, and experience. You can never have too much of that stuff. But the real reward for sidekicking down is being able to play with someone you want to play with. If you are a social gamer then that’s the thing. If you are all “I must maximise my XP per hour!” then well you are probably not going back to help your friends anyway.

German Guy: But how quickly can my friend who is playing one race going to be able to meet me?

CL: Immediately. In the main city. We’ve thought about exactly that, and you can find each other pretty much straight away. There’s no waiting thirty levels before the worlds converge.

[Dark_Avenger]

Just read that as well. I'm hoping everything they're saying ends up being true on release.

Especially the subscription free part, I have a feeling that it's too good to be true.