Painting Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2 is a game that has many positive points to it for instance the art style is very much done like a painting. The other thing being it is a fully persistent world a lot of what you do or don’t do has an effect on what is available in the pve and wvw (world versus world) parts of the game. Remember it is not finished and from what can gathered from the weekend beta test event they got a lot more polish to put on the game.
You start the game off as a hero no matter what you are one of many heroes though your personal story you unite the greatest of heroes who have basically gone their separate ways. They are Destiny’s Edge and there are five of them. Each one is the best of their race so you will meet each of them at the start of the game. They have a personality system so you may be a hero but that doesn’t mean you’re going to really be nice or kind hearted. The fun part of Guild Wars 2 is that even from the very first step when you make your character you affect your personal story. Your race determines your starting place and even your tutorial. The game’s character creation behaves like a person writing a biography of a great hero. One question is based on your profession, one is for personality, and the three are based on your race.
Guild Wars 2 has eight professions to choose from and each one has interesting main mechanic. One of best features of the game is the simple fact that each weapon gives you 5 different skills. This takes up the first five slots of your hotbar the others are for three utility skills, one healing skill, and one elite skill. Two-handed weapons takes five slots, main hand weapons take three slots, and off hands take up 2 slots. Most professions and swap weapons during combat except for two another fun fact you can fight underwater and your skills will change there are three types of weapons that are used only underwater.
- Elementalist- Basic elemental using mage it can only use one weapon set at a time the reasonis because of its attunement system. The elementalist can switch between different elemental attunements giving it five new skills per element and per weapon set. Fire, Water, Air, and Earth attunements can do special things after you attune to them.
- Warrior- The master of weapons can swap between two weapon sets. They are a very martial damage dealer. Their main mechanic is based on adrenaline, which as you fight the levels of adrenaline build and affect a powerful attack called a burst skill. Your burst skill is dependent on your main hand weapon.
- Ranger- Rangers are spiritual hunters, wonderers, and scout like characters. They can summon spirits that don’t really do anything but give conditions (debuffs) to enemies and boons (buff) to allies. Their main mechanic revolves around animal companions allowing you to switch out you two equipped pets. At the moment the pets need some work some die to quickly but it is better than most games. You can equip four pets one set is for terrestrial battles and the other for aquatic battles.
- Necromancer- This is currently the only occult class in the game they also are one of the most survivable class. They have a unique mechanic that whenever something dies around them they collect their life force and use it to summon up a death shroud which gives the necromancer five new skills the last one being to exit the death shroud. They can someone mangling minions made up of bones and rotting flesh.
- Guardian- The guardian does not gain his magic through gods has many races don’t worship gods. The guardian’s strength comes from his faith and conviction it doesn’t matter where the guardian places their faith. Their mechanic is the use of three special skills called virtues they offer a passive buff to the guardian themselves. However if the guardian activates the virtues the buff is extended to all allies nearby. This eventually fades and the guardian must wait until the cooldown to get the buff the virtue offers back.
- Thief- sneaky buggers who can really put a dent in you they also have the ability to use stealth, a form of teleporting called shadowstep, and steal. Stealing allows them to pickpocket from enemies and holds on to the item till the use it. Their unique mechanic is something called initiative. Initiative is what is used to keep the thief from getting out of control their more powerful skills eat more initiative. The third skill on their hotbar is determined by the thief’s weapon combination.
- Engineer- It may seem like an odd choice for a “high” fantasy setting but in truth the world around them is growing and advancing. They represent this change if you can’t buy that then just think of them as one part alchemist and one part mechanic. They can only use one weapon set at a time this is because they have kits that change their first five skills depending on the kits. They also have turrets that can heal, cause knockbacks, burn, and do damage. The kits are divided into weapon kits such as a flamethrower and device kits like a grenade kit. The toolbelt allows the engineer to have a corresponding skill that connects to the utility skills. Like if you equip a turret you can detonate it.
- Mesmer- Master dualist and impressive illusionist they are difficult to learn but way easier to master then in the original Guild Wars. They can create clones which look like them and have their weapons or phantasms that are like see through versions of the Mesmer and often carries a different weapon then the Mesmer. The clones won’t stay for very long and the mesemer can only have three out and can shatter them to create damages and conditions.
The world feels more alive how do I know because I was part of the weekend closed beta the cities were grand. The npcs had conversations that had were not always the same and some would even stop talking if you or certain npcs got close. Quest are disguised as meta-events, dynamic events, and the renown heats. Dynamic events and meta-events wont reset unless you and everyone else fixes the problem. Warp points will be locked if you don’t go and fight the enemy who is preventing it from working and of course sometimes the prices of things will go up or their won’t be a certain product till you clear the bandits from the farm. Renown hearts are ways to unlock what is known has the karma vendors they give items for karma. Karma cannot be sold or given to other players and you only get them for completing tasks and events.
Next time I will talk about my beta experiences the good, the bad, and the lag.
Rowell Figueroa is an avid gamer and future struggling actor. With a strong passion for video game art, music, lore, and playing them. Also a professional amateur Mesmer.
