Okay, my original post was eaten some how, so here is the gist of it: Today is the Year of the Dragon and with it came Guild Wars 2 news. From the ArenaNet Blog we learned the open beta is coming in spring.
My guess for release is September – November.
The anticipated next installation of Guild Wars beyond finally came to pass on 7 July 2011 with the first of three phases of Winds of Change. Winds of Change tells the events of what happened seven years after the completion of the Guild Wars: Factions storyline.
To start, the character must have completed Factions in order to obtain the starting quests from Initiate Zei Ri in Kaineng Center. There are seventeen quests (and their hard mode equivalents) available. The quest chain has quests available from Initiate Tsuriai (Seitung Harbor) and Xan Hei (Xaquang Skywalk). Additionally, a separate chain quest can be obtained from Lei Jeng (Kaineng Center) after completing Zei Ri’s first quest.
While I haven’t completed part one of Winds of Change yet, I have tried the first quest with a PUG in hard mode and found it quite difficult. Frankly, we got pwned. A second try went much better, but still proved to be quite challenging. I think it’s safe to say that anyone doing the quests in hard mode should be on a well prepared team. I admit I’m taking it slow in normal mode, only being at Rescue at Minister Cho’s Estate (which I annoyingly failed the first time due to the last peasant getting killed).
At this point the Winds of Change quest chain is surprisingly banal. Perhaps the only exception to this was the boss in Cleansing Pongmei Valley. I’m forgiving of that though since it is simply the first part, and therefore likely only setting the stages to more exciting and interesting events to come.
Overview
The Engineer is an intriguing new profession available for Guild Wars 2. A support profession, the Engineer doesn’t use magic per se but use a variety of mechanical devices: explosives, gadgets, elixirs, mines, bombs, grenades, et al. While limited in their use of personal weapon sets, it is their special kits that allow Engineers to complement said weapons with weapons and equipment that allow them to quickly take over an area and provide support.
Weapons
The Engineer has a limited set of weapons sets, which are augmented by the variety of kits and turrets they can use.
Abilities
Backpack Kits
Backpack kits replace the Engineer’s current skills list with a specialized set of skills.
Weapon Kits
Weapon kits equip an Engineer with a new weapon.
Turrets
Turrets are immobile support devices that can provide a variety of are controlling support. These items are portable. Only one of each type of turret may exist at a time.
Tool Belt
The tool belt is a set of special utility skills above the weapons skill bar that improve the effectiveness of the Engineer’s utility and healing skills.
Personal Thoughts
Definitely the most “steampunk” style profession in the game, I think it will be interesting to see how the Engineer’s mechanical and chemical aptitude will mix in with the traditional weapons and magic of Guild Wars. Whereas I found the Guardian rather uninteresting, I find the Engineer profession to be rather intriguing. It’s now on my list of ‘must –try’ professions. I admit as soon as I saw the Engineer profession I thought Asuran or Charr as a character given the storyline and events in Eye of the North. I suspect when Guild Wars 2 goes live that there might initially a lot of Asuran and Charr Engineers, a smattering of Humans and Norns, and the smallest number of Engineers amongst the Sylvari.
The turrets are an interesting concept, though really more akin a mechanical version of Ritualist spirits. Hopefully the turrets won’t be overly powerful as is the problem currently w/ SoS Ritualists in Guild Wars. I suspect the turrets are going to be a big hit (no pun intended.) alongside the Flamethrower with many players. Who can resist massive AoE and blowing stuff up?
Overview
The Thief, inheritor of the Assassin profession of the original Guild Wars, is a master of stealth and surprise. They rely on speed and evasion combined with their unique abilities to compensate for their lighter armor and relatively low health.
Weapons
Unsurprisingly for a profession that relies of stealth and mobility the weapons choices available reflect the nature of the Thief.
Unlike other professions, Thieves main and offhand weapons combination differs. The Main hand weapons determine their first two skills and the offhand the last two skills, with a fifth skill being the Dual Skill (explained further below).
Abilities
The Thief has several unique abilities to their profession: Initiative, Stealing, and Dual Skills.
Skill Types
Personal Thoughts
I personally find the Thief to be an interesting profession to add to Guild Wars 2. Like the Guardian being inheritors to the Paragons that came to Tyria, the Thief is the inheritors of the old Canthan Assassins. Both have evolved and changed over time, but elements of their original professions origins and capabilities remain.
On Traps, I haven’t followed up on some of the articles so don’t know if they’ve further expounded on how the traps work. Are they similar to the Ranger’s traps with respect to duration and limitation of one of each trap type out at a time?
I’m now actually torn between playing a Charr as a Thief rather than a Necromancer as I had originally considered. I may still stick with the Charr Necro and go with an Asuran Thief largely due to the images released showing different types of thieves. Before hand I honestly had some interest in playing an Asura but only minimally so when compared to my intended Human main, a Charr, and a Norn.
As of now I think my selections will go something like this: Human Ranger, Charr Necromancer, Norn Warrior, and Asuran Thief.
ArenaNet gave Guild Wars a sizable update today: Embark Beach, Mercenary Heroes, Hero team size, and some small changes to the UI windows and minor changes to titles.
Continue reading
The buzz today has, of course, been the surprise leaked reveal of the sixth profession for Guild War2: the Thief. Like many, I didn’t expect to hear further news on professions, let alone a reveal (intentional or otherwise), until either PAX East or sometime afterward.
The following is a summation of information garnered so far about the Thief collected from assorted gaming and Guild Wars 2 sites and blogs such as Massively and Kill Ten Rats and may not be accurate or complete.
The Thief profession sounds like it’ll be interesting to play with its focus on stealth and mobility, especially with the play style. Based on the information so far, I’m seriously considering trying my hand at a Thief.
Human week at the ArenaNet blog unleashed a flood of information on the state of Kryta and humans in Guild Wars 2 while providing a look to the artwork, lore, and dialogues that flesh out the world. The following is a general summation of what we’ve learned along with a few thoughts and comments.
Content Designer Matthew Medina Discusses the Alphabets of Guild Wars
I, personally, think the greater attention to detail the better when it comes to any medium in which a new world is created. It adds some texture and shows thought when into what the designers and creators were doing.
I did find some of the tidbits provided quite interesting and sometimes ironic. (Potential spoilery comments to follow.)
A new article over at: Healing and Death with some interesting news and information.
I found the changes to the traditional damage-tank-healer to damage-support-control to be interesting along with the capability of all professions to self-supporting. Sure self support (e.g. self healing) could sort of be done in GW but let’s face it: a Ranger’s Troll Unguent or Healing Spring trap is no replacement for a good healing Monk or resto Rit in the thick of battle.
The article addresses some questions many Guild Wars players have about the forthcoming game, namely leveling and progression of characters.
Leveling
The maximum level in Guild Wars 2 will be 80. That may seem like a lot but the time between each level apparently has been intended to be kept short. This leveling will take approximately the same amount of time to progress to each new level instead of increasing difficulty for each new level as per the norm in many games and MMOs.
Progression
Progression in Guild Wars 2 will not solely be leveling and traits but will include other things like achievements, crafting, skill collection, items, and so on. The intent seems to be to eliminate grinding and make the game more interesting in the dynamic world setting.
Thoughts
My first reaction: ‘whoa, 80 levels.’ After a moment of consideration I decided that it didn’t really matter. Some players will blast through those eighty levels faster than you can say Catacombs of Kathandrax and others will just take their time however slow it may seem. I like that the progression is being altered some to be more than just XP and attributes but to include greater aspects like skills, items, and achievement. It’s a far more realistic approach when you consider it from a real world perspective.
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