Hello and welcome to The Sohothin Courier! A blog dedicated to all things Guild Wars 2. I will post about all things lore, gameplay, graphics, and more! Check back often for updates and info.
Arenanet has just released info on The Battle of Khylo. It will be a battle to control 3 main capture points, the windmill, the clocktower, and the mansion.
Each game will last until one team has reached 500 total points. Points are gained every 2 seconds, one point for each area your team controls. I am extremely excited for this, as my favorite PvP zone types are always "hold and control."
As you can see from the map, each team owns one trebuchet. This is a siege weapon used to bombard the enemy's team and capture points. Destroying the enemy's trebuchet, protecting your own, and keeping them from repairing their's will be crucial to your victory.
Each class will have its own unique uses in this map, as told by Arenanet:
Warriors are great at assaulting capture points and enduring long battles. They want to build adrenaline during a fight and then use it to explode for great effect. By using a shield, they can prolong their survivability in a fight, and they can also bring many utility skills that help them to remove conditions and absorb damage. Conversely, warriors can focus on offense by choosing to dual wield and bringing utility skills that augment their damage output.
Pro tip: You can combine the utility skills Fear Me and Bull’s Charge to fear someone away from you and then charge them from behind, knocking them down!
Guardians excel at helping allies—especially in tight spaces—and holding positions against enemies. Guardians have many defensive skills which allow them to slow down the rate at which they take damage, and others that allow them to deflect or reflect projectiles. While you can roam throughout the map looking for enemies, it’s usually best to choose a position and help your allies at that location as your defensive prowess comes at the cost of mobility.
Pro tip: In a heated battle, you can activate your virtues, giving yourself and nearby allies aegis, burning, and regeneration. You can then recharge your virtues by using the utility skill Meditate.
Thieves can dish out a lot of single-target damage, but they don’t like to get caught in huge fights. Instead, they love to be stealthy, sneaking around the map and looking for enemies moving from one location to another. By using stealth skills, the thief is able to harass and skirmish with his foes without having to commit entirely to a fight: he can jump into an enemy team, pick off a key or injured target, and get away without taking damage. But be advised: The thief is not as durable as some of the other classes, so prolonged fights can be risky.
Pro tip: You can use the healing skill Withdraw and the utility skill Roll for Initiative to move around the map by quickly turning your camera around and “retreating” in the direction you want to travel. But don’t try this if you easily get motion sickness!
The engineer has a couple of area-of-effect bundles that allow for great damage against multiple enemies. The engineer loves to set up at a capture point with mines and turrets, making the most of these gadgets. With the mine kit and a bit of preparation time, you can set up a strong defense at any control point. When you’re on the offensive, try using the grenade bundle. All of your grenades have an area of effect, so with careful placement, you can deal with multiple enemies at once.
Pro tip: Use Smelling Salts to help allies revive faster. You can also use it just before you go down to quickly revive yourself! Self-administered CPR, anyone?
Rangers excel at long-range damage, and are able to skirmish with enemies using their mid-range weapons. Having a pet allows the ranger to excel in 1v1 fights, as the pet can help the ranger rally if they go down. The ranger is also able to control capture points and choke points by putting traps in these key areas, and catching enemies as they hit the traps. Rangers can turn fights to their advantage by luring foes into their traps.
Pro tip: You can have multiple buffs on you at once that help you stack damage. Use the utility skills Sharpening Stone and Lightning Reflexes to quickly dish out a lot of damage. But beware: If someone is blocking or reflecting attacks back at you, you’ll need to wait until they are vulnerable again to do this or you will be one sad panda.
The elementalist is very versatile and is able to flow in and out of different attunements in order to adjust to the battlefield. While they are somewhat squishy, they can use many skills to protect themselves and their allies, reflect projectiles, and hinder their opponents’ plans. They are at their best when helping an ally hold an area or assault a capture point, and they are good in 1v1 fights. They are somewhat weak in large battles, however, so be careful when trying to hold a point against multiple foes as an elementalist.
Pro tip: You can start the cast for the earth skill Churning Earth and then use the utility skill Lightning Flash to quickly close the distance to your target. If you time it right, it’s a great combo!
The necromancer is able to outlast and defeat foes through attrition if they have time to build up life force. Doing so allows you to use the Death Shroud mechanic to prolong your life in battle. But beware: If you do not have a lot of life force, you will be squishy. Try to bring main-hand weapons and utility skills that help you increase your life force.
Pro tip: Use the skill Dark Pact on the main-hand dagger and the utility skill Well of Darkness together, and your opponent will be immobilized inside of a blinding well for 3 seconds. Just make sure you immobilize them inside the well.
Get ready folks, this is going to be big! Many major changed and additions are making it in to the Gamescom version of the Guild Wars 2 demo.
First on my list of OMGYES! changes is the addition of PvP! That's right, you can get your hands on structured PvP at Gamescom this year. The Battle of Kyhlo will be where this PvP takes place, a conquest style map.
Character customization is another biggie. Previously you've only been able to choose from a small selection of pre-made characters. But now you can dive right into the expansive system that Arenanet has created for us!
Keep in mind that this will demo will not include every option possible, but still quite a few will be available.
Not only can you play Human, Norn, and Charr starting areas... but you can now play as a higher level Asura or Sylvari in the Sparkfly Fen area!
In regards to combat, a lot has changed. They have added the greatsword for the Guardian and Ranger, the hammer for the Guardian and Warrior, and the earth attunement for the Elementalist! But that's not all... They've also removed the energy cost from skills. Yes, that does mean that energy potions are completely removed. I personally liked the idea of a short "reload" type of energy potion required in combat, but I'm sure the newer system works just as well if not better. Energy is now only consumed by dodging, which has been changed to a new dodge button on the UI.
The way you attain your weapon skills has changed as well. You now have to actually use weapons to learn the skills that are associated with them. Non-weapon skills will use a system similar to the one that the original Guild Wars used, a collection style mechanic. You will most likely have to quest and explore to unlock non-weapon skills for your class. Traits, attribute-spending, and the skill tiers have been changed as well, but it's currently disabled.
I'm looking forward to the many youtube player videos that will surely be uploaded in the near future! Check back here often as I will be displaying them in my future posts.
Greetings everyone! I sincerely apologize for the lack of posts over the past couple weeks, it's been a bit busy. But I am back, and so are the Sylvari. They've received a complete overhaul and look much better in my opinion.
For instance, here is a picture of the old model for Sylvari:
As you can see, in this they're basically just off-colored elves with plantlike hair that looks almost like a hat or headdress.
Now, here is the new and improved version:
This version is MUCH truer to the Sylvari's botanical background. You can clearly see the veins on the leaves she has for hair, the light bark for skin, and the stems jutting out. She appears to be considerably less human, and yet still beautiful in her own, unique way.
Here you can see different Sylvari wearing race-specific armor:
If you're not a fan of the steam and root style of armor, fear not! They will be able to wear normal armor and robes just like any other race.
Last but not least is the updated Caithe model! As a future Thief player, Caithe has always appealed to me from the books, but I was never a fan of her generic elf-like appearance.
However they've really brought out her roots:
You can find this info and more over at arena.net's blog! They really have some fantastic articles, images, and lore over there so go have a look.
Gamescom will be the biggest convention for Guild Wars 2 yet! Prepare yourselves bros, because this con has it all.
Yet again we'll be able to play with all seven of the currently released professions.
Fans of the Charr will be delighted to know that they can, for the first time, enjoy the Charr starting experience!
A brand new mid-level experience, complete with a new boss, will also be available for play. Also, you can choose to play Sylvari and Asura in this content! That's right, not only will you be able to play with the final two unplayable races, but it will be in mid-level content! So enjoy that cute little Asura engineer in his badass trenchcoat.
While you're making these characters you'll be able to enjoy the full character appearance customization screen for the very first time! You'll be able to make your brand new Charr look like a lion, a tiger, or a bear! Oh my. (Had to say it!)
PvP!! Gamescom attendees will be able to face off against one another in brutal player on player combat.
I cannot wait for the info that will surely flood the net during this convention. This is far more than I could've hoped for! I mean, what do we even have left? The 8th profession, guilds, and World vs. World vs. World pvp? Maybe all that and a release date at PAX? Here's hoping.
I hope you're not sick of all the Comic-Con posts yet.. because there are some fantastic gameplay videos popping up around the internet!
Here we see 27 minutes of glorious Charr thief footage:
Here's 36 minutes of Charr warrior:
And the GW2 panel:
If these videos don't push your hype-sensors into overdrive, then I don't know what will! From the scenery, to the events, to the skill system, Guild Wars 2 is shaping up to be an amazing game.
I've seen that a lot of people are concerned about energy potions being in Guild Wars 2. These potions will be very cheap and abundant, and are akin to a reload in an FPS.
Offensive skills use very little energy, while defensive and utility type skills will use more, including dodging out of the way. As you can see from convention demonstration videos, the recharge of potions is in no way alarming. It has JUST the right amount of time on cooldown so that people don't spam their rolls, dodges, and utility skills to be able to be invincible until they run out of potions.
Around the 7:00 mark you can see the Ranger use a potion.
Don't fret about potions in competitive PvP! You won't be spending your entire gold supply on them, as you get a set number of battleground only potions when you start the match. These will reset when you die, and the map has a few scattered around it so you can restock without having to bite the big one. I don't know if this goes for WvWvW pvp, but I certainly hope it does!
You can find an in-depth interview about potions over at Kill Ten Rats!
Arenanet may have skipped E3, but be ready for them to take Comic Con by storm! I don't honestly see them releasing anything huge like a release date or even pre-order details, however maybe they'll decide to tell us a bit more about their much anticipated beta.
It is confirmed that they are having a demo with the engineer available for play, though! If you visit their site and look at their schedule here, you'll see this confirmation:
San Diego Comic- Con (July 21-24)How could we miss the granddaddy of all pop-cultural conventions? We’ll send an elite team of artists and devs down to the San Diego Convention Center to meet fans and do signings. Drop by the NCsoft booth to play Guild Wars 2 and try your hand at the engineer!
Other than the engineer, I hope for a playable Asura demo as well! We're long overdo for Asura or Sylvari week, and since we have little word on the Sylvari redesign, I would think Asura is next.
Another possibility is the 8th and final profession reveal, but I would expect that at PAX on Arenanet's home turf in Seattle, Washington. Their schedule says to expect "big surprises" at PAX, so that could very well be the 8th profession, which most consider to be similar to the Mesmer of the original Guild Wars.
Seeing photos and videos of where Guild Wars 2 is made only furthers my dream of one day working for Arenanet. They have everything from a pick'n'mix to a Rock Band set up. MMO Report's Casey Schreiner recently visited Arenanet and there's an entire dedicated MMO Report to prove it!
Others have had the chance to visit as well for the Guild Wars 2 Fan Day. The most dedicated fans from all around the internet visited Arenanet and got to play Guild Wars 2 and even help a bit in the recording studio!
A video of their exciting and jealousy-inducing visit can be found right here:
Head over to Arenanet's flickr for more photos of their amazing studio!
The two grand prize winners will receive a trip to Arenanet's studio in Bellevue, Washington where they'll get to spend time with the Guild Wars 2 devs and even get to play it!
The goal of the video was to inform viewers in ~60 seconds what Guild Wars 2 is all about. These 2 very persuasive videos are the winners of the contest:
Icelandic Viking by Leo from Iceland
News Report by Dan from the USA
Congratulations to the winners and have a great time with the dev team!
I figured I'd clear a few things about some game mechanics up for some people.
First off, don't worry too much if your bud wants to be an asura and you wish to make a norn. You can both level together almost immediately due to the wondrous nature of the Asuran gate! Any race can use them to transport themselves to another race's starting area. There will be no fee for this feature, so don't worry about having to rack up a few silver first.
My favorite feature is the storyline driven questing system. Your choices at character creation will affect your story greatly, as will your actions during gameplay. Think of a Bioware game, for example. Another part of this is that when you enter a certain district of a major city you will enter your own instanced version of it for storyline reasons. The npc's will talk and react as you walk by. Another player may enter your home instance if invited.
Here's a short but sweet video of character creation from Gamescom!
Casual levelers will love this next feature: It will never take more than an hour and a half of game time to reach the next level, including 79-80 for example.
Feats, Achievements, and Traits in Guild Wars 2 are all very different things. Feats are similar to daily quests from World of Warcraft. It should be noted that the more of these you do, the more difficult they will become to finish.
Achievements are just like they are in most games, a certain goal to work towards. Think of this like Xbox Live achievements for your gamerscore. There are no in-game rewards for this, just the knowledge of knowing you did it.
Traits, however are very unique. Think of them like a talent system, mixed with a gemming system (similar to Diablo or WoW's). These traits enhance certain skills or weapon types that you have. For instance Snaring Fang would give your Thief's Twisting Fang ability a chance to cripple your foe.
The masters of machine are here at last! Today Arenanet has brought us a preview of the new steampunk-esque Engineer.
In my previous posts I mentioned skills and weapon sets; well, the Engineer can only use a single weapon set at a time. However, this is made up for with special healing and utility kits. These kits provide a bag full of goodies for the engie to use as they please!
Weapon Kits—These are utility skills that equip a new weapon in the engineer's hands when activated. For example, the flamethrower kit creates a short-range AOE weapon the engineer can use to overwhelm foes. The flamethrower has skills like Immolate to damage nearby enemies, Air Blast to defend from ranged attacks, and Backdraft to suck enemies into range of the weapon's powerful attacks.
Backpack Kits—When activated, these special utility kits equip a backpack that replaces the engineer's current weapon skills with a set of more specialized skills. For example, a bomb kit puts a backpack on engineers that allows them to deploy bombs with a variety of effects including smoke, concussion, and fire.
Turrets—An engineer can deploy turrets: immobile allied devices that help defend and control an area. When a turret is deployed, the skill in that slot is replaced with its overcharged version. For example, an engineer can deploy a Thumper Turret to cause AOE damage, and then activate the overcharge version of that skill for a big thump attack that knocks down nearby enemies. An engineer can interact with deployed turrets, packing them up and moving them around. This removes the turret—and the option to overcharge it—triggering a short recharge before that turret can be deployed again. Only one of each type of turret can exist at a time.
Tool Belt—An engineer tool belt is a set of special skills above the weapon skill bar. It enhances the effectiveness and functionality of the engineer's utility and heal skills. The tool belt can add a self-destruct skill to turrets or a detonation option to all mines. When paired with the grenade kit, the tool belt allows a grenade barrage; with the med kit, it adds a self-healing skill.
However this profession isn't entirely reliant bullets and bombs to get the job done. They also have items such as a healing turret, an elixir gun, and even a flamethrower. There's also talk of med kits, which should make you medic playing FPS aficionados quite happy!
Here's the official trailer for the Engineer class, showing off turrets, bombs, grenades, and even a shield reflect!
Thanks for coming to the grand opening of The Sohothin Courier! As the weeks move on, I'll blog about everything from armor dyes to the lore of near every race on Tyria. Even if you have barely heard of Guild Wars 2, you should stop by every so often for a fresh perspective on why this will be the game for you.
I'll start off with everyone's favorite part of an MMO experience... Smashing things with a hammer!
There are many different types of weapons in Guild Wars 2, some of which are limited to certain classes.
One-Handed: Axe, dagger, mace, pistol, scepter, and sword.
Two-Handed: Greatsword, hammer, longbow, rifle, shortbow, and staff.
Offhand only: Focus, shield, torch, and warhorn.
For instance, a Thief can only use certain weapons:
Main Hand: Sword, Dagger, and Pistol
Off Hand: Dagger and Pistol
Two-Handed: Shortbow
In most MMORPG's you would use whichever weapon had the most DPS and/or best stats for your class, right? This is not quite the case in Guild Wars 2. Whichever weapon you use will change which class skills you are allowed to use. For instance if you're using a dagger in main hand and a pistol in your off hand, your first 2 skills will be dagger based,
There are also a few profession specific abilities, such as the Thief's
Steal
You an catch some of these abilities in action by checking out the official Thief skills trailer!
It is worth a note that the thief is the only class where 3 uses both weapons simultaneously. In other classes, 1-3 will be main hand and 4-5 will use your off hand weapon.
