Subscription Fees: NONE!
Release Date: August 28, 2012!
Requirements: Unknown, but stated to be similar to those of the Original Guild Wars (ask someone who's in the beta)
Pre-order now for Beta access! posted:
Table of Contents:
2. Key Features
3. Major Races and Characters
4. Dynamic Events and Dungeons
5. Classes Combat and Professions
6. Other media
1. - Background:
For generations, war and chaos raged across the land of Tyria. Five great races competed and warred against each other, struggling to tip the balance of power in their favor. Then the dragons woke.
The all-powerful beasts stirred from their millennial sleep under earth and sea. With their magical breath the dragons spread destruction and created legions of twisted slaves. A deathless dragon named Zhaitan raised the sunken nation of Orr, triggering earthquakes and tidal waves that destroyed entire cities across the Sea of Sorrows.
Zhaitan's undead armies surged from the sea, hungry for the destruction of the five races of Tyria: the charr, a ferocious race of feline warriors; the asura, magical inventors of small size and great intellect; the norn, towering shapeshifters from the frigid northern lands; the sylvari, a mysterious young race of visionary plant folk; and the humans, an embattled but resilient people.
Now heroes from the five races must set aside ancient rivalries and stand together against their common enemies.
Magic, technology, and cold steel will determine the ultimate fate of the world.
Guild Wars 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Guild Wars: Prophecies, and its expansions. Set 250 years after the events of the original games, Guild Wars 2 focuses on the rise of the Elder Dragons, those at this time being Zhaitan, Primordus, Jormag, Kralkatorrik, and the Deep Sea Dragon, and the struggle of the races of Tyria to stop them from destroying the world. No aid can come to the people of Tyria. Cantha is isolated, partly from the Deep Sea Dragon, partly due to their own doing. Elona has been reconquered by Palwa Joko and due to the dragons on the Crystal Desertís borders, only the Order of Whispers has been able to maintain communication.
Destiny's Edge, a group consisting of each member of the five main races of Tyria: The Charr, Sylvari, Norn, Asura, and Humans. This group was able to kill several dragon champions, and almost killed Kralkatorrik, but due to one his loyalty/infatuation with the Queen, Logan, the human group member, left right before the battle, ultimately causing Glintís and Snaffís deaths, as well as the escape of Kralkatorrik. This event shattered Destinyís Edge, and it is you, the playerís goal, to reforge their friendships, and the group itself.
2. - Key Features:
- Guild Wars 2 is a fully persistent world in which players can adventure through in a group or alone.
- Day/Night cycle
- Dynamic Events: Arenanetís challenge to traditional quests, Dynamic events are missions that take place throughout the world and constantly change depending on the playerís action or inaction. More about this later.
- Personal story: Like how the original Guild Wars told the story of your character, Guild Wars 2 furthers that by introducing a fully personal story into the game, based partly on choices in character creation, and partly on what you do in the game. In the capital city of your chosen race, there is one personal instanced district for each player. There, characters that youíve talked to or saved appear. The story is fully branching.
- More in depth character creation system that includes personality, background, and group membership (ex. Flame or Ash legion, Commoner or Noble, etc.)
- 60 feature films worth of recorded dialogue and voice acting
- Jumping and swimming now included. Over 30% of the explorable area is underwater, including underwater towns and cities
- Stylized painterly visuals.
- Deep history and background, including language and religion.
- An optional cash shop that will never sell items that affect gameplay. Stuff like more character slots, character recustomization will be available.
3. - Main Characters/Races:
Rytlock Brimstone the Charr, Eir Stegalkin the Norn, Zojja the Asura, Logan Thackeray the human, and Caithe the Sylvari.
Humans have not fared well in the centuries after the original Guild Wars. They have continued to lose land by the Dragons, the Charr, or other races. Their cities and villages are in constant conflict with centaurs, bandits, pirates, and others. But even with the future looking grim, many humans still hold out hope. They believe that the six gods, Dwayna, Balthazar, Grenth, Lyssa, Melandru, and Kormir (what the hell Kormir, my character should be the god) will protect them and give them strength to continue forward. The two human strongholds left are Divinityís Reach, the capital city of the humans, and Ebonhawke, a city on the far eastern reaches of Ascalon. Their cities have aspects of traditional fantasy but with a Renaissance touch.
The charr are the most warlike and industrial race of Tyria. Following the events of Guild Wars, they have retaken most of Ascalon, minus the human stronghold of Ebonhawke. Out of the ruins of the searing and the internal conflicts that led to the almost complete destruction of the Flame Legion and the shaman caste, the Charr have embraced technology over magic. Godís are of no concern to them, after being deceived into believing the destroyers were Gods. Their cities exhibit this through their steampunk design. Under constant threat from kralkatorrik and his crystalline minions, they are constantly engaged in war. Steel, guns, explosives, these are the Gods of the Charr.
This large, human-like race lived up in the Northern Shiverpeaks until Jormag woke, destroying Gunnarís Hold and forcing the proud Norn retreating southward. The Norn pride themselves in feats of strength against each other and other creatures in the Shiverpeaks. They often fight alone for success and glory, which made it hard to gain them as allies in the battle against the Destroyers in the past, but even alone, they are fierce fighters. They are unique in the ability to shapeshift into four different animals, the raven, the bear, the wolf, and the snow leopard, which the Spirits of the Wild embody as well. They also like drinking mead.
The Sylvari are the newest race introduced to Tyria. They were born from the Pale Tree, planted and cared for by Ronan, a human, and Ventari, a centaur. They are inquisitive, attempting to understand the world they have been introduced to as well as their origins from the tree and their shared memories in the Dream of Dreams. They believe that the goal of their race is to hunt the Elder Dragons, to lift the shadow from both the dream and Tyria. Unlike other races, most are direct and honest in their dealings with others, even when it leads them to trouble.
The Asura are a highly intelligent race in contrast to their short stature. After being driven up to the surface by the Great Destroyer during the events of Eye of the North, they have established themselves in the jungles of Kryta, with their capital city being Rata Sum. In the past 250 years, they have have been able to expand successfully from their old outposts, creating massive floating structures, portals, and other amazing architectural feats (compensating much?). Unlike the Charr, much of Asuran technological advancement is based on magic, allowing the function of their massive golems and floating cities. The Asurans challenge themselves with intellectual pursuits, albeit oftentimes pursuits with little practical usage and large chance of error. Most hold themselves as the superior race in Tyria, based solely on their intellect.
Minor unplayable races
Quaggans, Skritts, and Kodans, Oh my!
4 Ė Dynamic Events and Dungeons
Dynamic events work as follows.
Say a group of centaurs is marauding in a village, you could either go defend or just leave them be. If you defend the village and successfully drive the centaurs out, another event occurs in that chain. If you ignore or fail to defend the village, the centaurs take it over, killing useful npcs and making the village uninhabitable. Then you can keep on ignoring it, or attempt to take the village back, and so forth. Arenanet attempted to make events matter in the game, unlike how old mmos used the kill 10 so and soís that are attacking something, and all the so and sos are in a field waiting to be attacked.
You can be alerted to occurring events by either: 1) walking into it, or 2) talking to npcs who tell you about whatís happening. There are over 1600 events as of right now and 180 event chains, with more being added throughout the development process.
The rewards for dynamic events are gold, experience, and karma, with numbers awarded based on the medal earned at the end (bronze, silver, gold), which is based on participation in the event. Karma is a new award introduced in GW2 that allows you to buy specific items such as transmutation stones and develop your personality.
More on Dynamic Events
Dungeons are similar to the instance based missions of the original Guild Wars, but have some slight changes. The first dungeon is available at level 30, with seven others opening up throughout the course of your level progress. Each dungeon allows a group of five people to enter.
The first time you run a dungeon you play through the story mode, this being part of your personal story and the plot of GW2. In most you help bring Destinyís Edge back together by helping them complete their goals.
After the initial run through your can play through the dungeon again in adventure mode. New choices open up in adventure mode dungeons based on your decisions. Ex. After the Ascalon dungeon new threats emerge in the catacombs, and you choose how you want to fix the problem. Each different choice opens up different paths and different enemies.
Note: Adventure mode dungeons are much harder than story mode, but they also have better rewards and there are armor and weapons that are exclusive to each dungeon.
More on Dungeons
More on designing the dungeons
5 - Classes and Combat
Combat in Guild Wars 2 is unlike other MMOs, where you sit and cast spells that have activation times. Many of the skills in Guild Wars 2 can be casted while moving, and there is no targeting at all; when you shoot a fireball, people can dodge out of the way, or you could just miss completely. It plays like an action game, and is much more intense. Active combat is an important part of Guild Wars 2. With the inclusion of jumping and swimming, there is now the z axis to take into account in battles. Traps can affect a 3D area so itís possible to jump over them or get hit by them while in the air. This goes for underwater combat too, but of course, in water. Due to this new style of active combat, rolling and dodging are now much more useful. Combos are an additional way of making combat more interactive. By utilizing environmental or player made effects, you can combine skills to make them more powerful. For example, laying down a fire trap and then firing arrows through it will set the arrow tips on fire.
Healing and death have been revamped in GW2. In most MMOs, if you lose all your health, you would die, but in GW2, losing all your health puts you into a downed state. From this state, you are given some skills to attack with. To get out of this state, you either have to kill an enemy, which gives you a second wind, or get helped by another player. The exception is the Necromancer, who has the death shroud ability to fall back on.
If you arenít revived in time, you die, otherwise known as the defeated state. At this point, you can either wait for a revive from another player, or you can respawn at a set waypoint.
There are eight classes to choose from split into categories of armor: Soldier (Heavy), Adventurer (Medium), and Scholar (Light). Unlike most MMOs, each class is self sufficient; Arenanet threw out the old tank-dps-heal system so that choosing a class didnít doom someone to repeat the same role over and over. Each class has a different play style, while still being capable to take any role if needed.
The skill bar now has room for ten skills, five of those depend on the currently selected weapon and swap out when you switch your weapon. From newer videos, it seems that new weapon skills are unlocked over time during weapon use. The other five are up to you to choose, but of them, one is an elite skill, one is a healing skill, and the other three can be anything. The elite skills this time around can be game changers and are meant to be ultra powerful, so they have massive cooldowns. Make sure you use them wisely. Energy is used for dodging skills in combat, while skills have cooldown times.
There is now also a trait system in the game. The traits you can choose from and earn are based on class, and give various passive benefits.
PvE and PvP:
PvE comes in the form of dynamic events, dungeons, and general exploration through the world of Tyria. PvP on the other hand comes in several flavors, activities, structured, and world.
Activities, while not really specified, are most likely like the roller beetle races or snowball tournaments of GW1, except not seasonal.
Structured PvP comes in tournament form with pre-made groups, and pick-up play, which works similarly to lobby based shooter, with the ability to jump into a game. Teams in these matches are five players each, and all players are set at even footing, so if a level 1 player fights a level 80 player theyíll have equal health, weapon stats, etc.
Tournament play comes in several varieties:
1) Pickup tournaments - win these to get qualifying points.
2) Monthly tournaments - Those with enough qualifying points get to participate in these.
3) Yearly tournaments - Top echelon players from monthly tournaments can participate in these.
4) Player-run tournaments - Customizable options for competition.
World PvP are server v. server based games, set in the ďmistĒ between worlds. In this mode, whatever you have in PvE is brought directly into PvP. So in a battle between a level 1 and a level 80, the level 80 will pretty much win automatically. Few details have been revealed, but at this point there has been no mention of player limits in W v. W play. So you could theoretically have hundreds of players fighting throughout the map.In some ways W v. W acts like a massive RTS game without someone pulling the strings. Players capture resource points and strongholds throughout the four areas that make up the map. From the home area, players move out and attempt to capture the neutral areas and then the enemy base. There are npcs in World v. World, but they serve as defense only.Itís possible to level up from 1 Ė 80 just playing world PvP as you gain both experience and from killing other players.Players are allowed to change worlds, but thereís a delay on being allowed into W v. W after a world switch.
More on combat, More on Healing and Death, More on PVP
Professions are what most MMOs call classes, like Warrior or Ranger. There are 8 professions, and 3 different types of professions; Soldier, Adventurer, and Scholar
Soldier professions are the most heavily armored of the professions, being the closest to the tanks of other mmos. They mainly utilize melee weaponry to confront their foes head on, but have either ranged abilities or spells to aid in fighting as well as to make them more versatile.
Adventurer professions are more armored than scholars, but less so than soldiers. Two of the classes, Rangers, and Thieves, use movement and quick attacks to great effectiveness in combat while Engineers mainly set up positions to fight in. Most adventurer professions lack spell based skills, but make for it in physical and projectile damage.
Scholar professions are the least armored of the three types, and they use a variety of spells in combat. To make up for the lack of armor, the majority of their weaponry is ranged based, including staffs and wands, but still have the ability to wield melee weapons if the fighting gets to close.
The warrior makes a return from GW1, but now boasting new ranged capabilities with the ability to use rifles and bows. Their selection of weaponry is also the largest of any of the classes, ranging from swords and maces to warhorns and hammers. Warriors can also dual wield weaponry. They still use the adrenaline system for many of their skills many of these reused from the original Guild Wars. Their unique skill sets are stances, chains, banners, shouts, and charge skills, stances, chains, and shouts being from the original game. Banners act as teammate buffs and charge skills can be held down for a more powerful attack.
More on the Warrior
Guardians are most comparable to the Paladins of World of Warcraft with their focus on spells and heavy armor. Unique to the Guardian, they have three beneficial passive abilities that can be activated to do damage or help their teammates, these being Justice, Resolve, and Courage.
Guardians, like Warriors, mainly use close quarters weaponry such as maces and swords, but can also carry caster weapons to boost their magical abilities. Skill sets for the Guardian include Spirit Weapons, Symbols, Wards, and Aegis. Spirit Weapons attack enemies, symbols damage enemies or aid teammates, wards impair movement, and aegis blocks attacks.
More on the Guardian
While rangers excel in ranged combat, they are also dangerous melee fighters, with the ability to dual wield as well as carry 2-h swords. Rangers are the only class allowed to move while firing shortbows. Returning from the original game, rangers can use traps, spirits and pets. Rangers are allowed to tame wild animals and use them as pets in combat. Unlike the original Guild Wars, pets arenít useless.The pet system is more fleshed out in GW2. A ranger can have three active pet slots at once with there being 12 types of pets to choose from. Out of these 12, there are sub-categories with different abilities. Ex. A polar bear has an icy roar while a brown bear has a fearsome roar. Pets level up 20 times and can be outfitted with various skills that can be unlocked for them. Like the pet/hero system in GW1, various orders can be given to your pets like attack, defend, etc.
More on the Ranger
The Thief, like the assassin from GW1, excels in fast and precise attacks, utilizing speed and surprise to overwhelm a single enemy before fading away to strike when the enemy least suspects it. Thieves, then, are designed for hit and run tactics. To help with this, they have a cloaking skill that allows the user to move about unseen. Their skills have no cool down, but run on 10 initiative points that recharge over time. They are mainly designed for melee combat but can wield pistols as well for some ranged capabilities.Also unique to the thief are the ability to use environmental weapons taken from enemies, and the way dual weaponry is set up. Environmental weapons are things Thieves can take from AI characters to either benefit themselves are attack the enemy, such as taking a root from an oakheart to use as a club. Dual weaponry skills work for Thieves differently than other classes. The main and off hand weapons determine two skills each, while the last weapon skill is determined by both weapons.
More on the Thief
The most unique GW2 class, the Engineer specializes in the use of the new technology in Tyria. Their weaponry is based almost completely on firearms so they are more susceptible to melee damage. To help defend themselves, they can place various turrets, such as shooting turrets or healing turrets for area denial or team aid. Turrets, in some ways, are continuation of the spirits of GW1.The Engineerís special skills come in the form of kits, which transform into various defensive or offensive skills. These kits come in the weapon and backpack variety. Weapon kits include weapons such as flamethrowers, but there are rocket launchers pictured in concept art as well.
More on the Engineer
The Elementalist specializes in magical combat, using the elements of fire, earth, wind, and water to heal themselves or attack enemies. These are called elemental attunements. Fire is mainly area of effect, wind is usually for single target fighting, water heals, and earth defends. These attunements, when coupled with their various weapons, are the basis of the first fiveskills in the skill bars. Elementalists have the ability to focus fire on one target or use large area of affect spells as area defense. Glyphs and signets return from the original game, and conjuring is used to create weapons and items.
More on the Elementalist
The Necromancer is a master of the dark arts, with the ability to use undead minions to aid them in their battles. Besides this, they can use curses, marks, and wells in battle, like those from the original GW. New to the Necromancer are the abilities to use axes in melee combat, and the death shroud ability. The death shroud can be activated at any time and acts as a second health bar, as well as another set of skills.
More on the Necromancer
The Mesmer is a master of illusion, using spells such as clones or phantasms to defend against attacks or deal damage. In addition, Mesmers also can inflict confusion, which causes damage to enemies under it whenever they cast a skill. As a scholar class, they wear light armor, but unlike the others, they can wield weapons such as pistols and two-handed swords to great effectiveness.
More on the Mesmer
Underwater Combat and Gameplay
To swim, all you have to do jump into the water and then move forward. To dive, aim downwards and after a bit youíll automatically swim down. To avoid the annoyance of breathing, all players are given a breathing device, allowing for unlimited time underwater. The underwater component of GW2 is heavily stressed, as it effectively doubles the size of the game. Treasures, dynamic events, and friends and foes can be found beneath the surface.
Underwater combat differs heavily from land combat. In it, a lot more stress is put on the z axis of fighting than on land. Many skills can either float or sink enemies giving you height advantage or breathing room (lololol). Skills and enemies also differ from land combat. When you dive underwater your skill bar and weapon changes. Spears are melee weapons, harpoon guns are ranged, and tridents are caster weapons. Arenanet didnít want the underwater and land skills to be the same since in some cases it makes little sense (casting fire underwater?). Enemies come in different forms. Some enemies can be found in both water and land environments, but others, like fish, sharks, etc. are only found underwater.
6. Ė Videos, Screenshots and More
Useful links for more information:
Shut up and take my money!
FP GW2 Steam Group
Day 1 Purchasers
If you're going to buy on release date, post to tell us!
people who actually bought it posted:
First open beta weekend this weekend boi
Guild Wars 2 Megathread V.1
Credits to Newbienice, DuncanFrost and Swanky for helping on this OP. If it was possible to put multiple posters as writers of the OP I would.