Caithe: sylvari assassin?

Is Caithe an assassin? I take a closer look at her actions in the second Guild Wars 2 trailer.

Charracter customization *purrrs*

I’m looking forward to creating a fluffy-tailed female Charr. The gameplay videos have only shown boring tan and grey fur. The models from the Guild Wars 2 Charr page show the same female model as the recent Elementalist screenshot. I want to create spots and stripes :) NO, I’m not a furry, I just think tigers and leopards (with freakin horns!) are cooooool. But not as cool as my cat.

Beware the angry Norn with a Cane

Thanks to Martin Kerstein and Eric Flannum for posting on Guru the following points:

The first five skills (what I call “Weapon skills”) are fixed per Weapon type/Profession combination. I already recognized this, however there was some confusion in the community. Weapon skills can be affected by character traits, which are passive abilities that are equipped.

This actually sounds somewhat similar to Signets they’ve already announced, especially how they were envisioned for Guild Wars – physical items (a signet is a ring) that can be equipped for passive benefits – and (speculation here) may provide modifiers like Vampiric or Enchantment mods.

Attunements are special skills, and do not take up precious slots on your 10-skill bar. Characters will eventually have access to all elements to all times using this skill. It can be used in combat, has significant cast time and energy cost, and a long recharge. It enables Elementalists to react to situations or combine skill effects.

This is the “unique mechanic” which enables Elementalists to play 4 entirely different weapon skill bars, and possibly more depending on weapon sets available at a time.

In response to concerns and queries around the community, Eric flannum has posted Nine GW2 Follow Up Questions including:

You’ve got 5 slots that you can slot freely, with the caveat that you have to bring one heal and one elite skill. Your other 5 skills are determined by the weapon set you bring. Most professions can equip two weapon sets and switch freely between them in combat, even stringing together combinations of attacks between them.

I keep telling people: there is still plenty of choice. This system reduces the likelihood of overpowered gimmicks and entirely useless skill combinations. Professions have access to multiple weapon types, they have racial skills, and they have the traits mentioned above. I think this system is intuitive. If you don’t see that now, please wait until you learn more or play it for yourself. Negativity in the community really bugs me.

Norn shapeshifting changes your skillbar.

No shit. You transform into a powerful half-animal form. Did you really think we’d be using swords and shields? Or canes and chakrams?

Previously mentioned Companion system is not in the game.

I take this as a good sign that their difficulty scaling and solo-ability works well. Also, less NPCs = happier Nox! They ruined the game.

Characters cannot change Profession.

I understand why people don’t like this. They invest time into creating a character, and as their reward they want to switch to a different Profession and have access to that Profession’s skills, without playing the content involved in getting there. It sounds like a good reward. But that’s not how a Roleplaying game works. And it’s not how a business model based on microtransactions (for something like a character slot, or, in future, a profession changer *gasp*). They don’t want to be stuck with a poor Race/Profession combination.

I don’t care about the last point. In PvE, I play whatever I want to play. My guildies tolerate my usage of Echo -> Chaos Storm or Signet of Illusions -> Ruby Djinn. If your friends say:,

“Hey idiot you can’t come, Norn Mesmers suck dolyak balls,”

reply with,

“Fuck you,”

and shove your oversized Norn Cane up their asses.

Well, that’s what I will do.

Character choices and Combat options

A summary of Races, Professions, Weapons and Skills.

Overview

• Introduction
• 5 Races
• 8 Professions
• 16 Weapon types
• 10 Skills at a time
• Conclusion

Introduction

Recently, ArenaNet have revealed the details of the Guild Wars 2 combat system. Race, Profession, and Weapon choices interact to provide players with a set of Skills, in a way that is totally different to Guild Wars.

All of this information is sourced from these pages on the official Guild Wars 2 website:

• Combat Notes – Part One: Skills
• Combat Notes – Part Two: Weapons, Professions and Races

These articles are very informative and exciting; the system described is complex, yet somehow simple. You should read them!

My goal is to give you a summary, and help you understand how your choices impact your gameplay options.

The depth of this article is limited; visual effects, tactics, movement, individual skill behaviour and interactions between skills have not been included.

Races

There are 5 playable Races, each offering subdivisions for the player to choose from:

Human

Racial heritage:

• Ascalonian
• Canthan
• Elonian
• Krytan

Charr

Legion affiliation:

• Ash
• Blood
• Iron

Norn

Animal totem:

• Bear
• Raven
• Snow Leopard
• Wolf

Asura

College:

• Dynamics
• Statics
• Synergetics

Sylvari

Season:

• Spring
• Summer
• Autumn
• Winter

Race provides flavor and plays a huge role in your character’s personal story.

Professions

There are 8 Professions, roughly categorized according to their armor:

Scholars

• Elementalist
• Mesmer (unconfirmed)
• Necromancer (unconfirmed)

Adventurers

• Ranger (unconfirmed)
• (Unknown)
• (Unknown)

Soldiers

• Warrior (not announced)
• (Unknown)

For Guild Wars players…

Many of these will be familiar to fans of Guild Wars, and some are new.

Secondary professions have been removed.

Profession provides unique mechanics and skill options.

Weapons

Weapon types

There are 16 weapon types, categorized according to how you wield them:

• 6 One-hand weapons:
  • Axe
  • Dagger
  • Mace
  • Pistol
  • Scepter
  • Sword
• 4 Offhand-only weapons:
  • Focus
  • Shield
  • Torch
  • Warhorn
• 6 Two-hand weapons:
  • Greatsword
  • Hammer
  • Longbow
  • Rifle
  • Shortbow
  • Staff

No single profession is able to use all of these weapons, and some can wield more than others.
Some temporary weapons are obtained from the environment (e.g. a boulder, a siege weapon), from enemies (e.g. a thrown greatsword) and created by allies (e.g. Conjure Frost).

Weapon sets

A character can equip weapons as these sets:

• One-hand weapon (main hand) + Offhand-only weapon (offhand)
• One-hand weapon (main hand) + One-hand weapon (offhand)
• Two-hand weapon only

Most Professions have 2 weapon sets, which they can quickly and easily switch between.

Weapons give you a useful and balanced set of skills to build upon.

Skills

There are now 10 skill slots on the skill bar.

• 5 Weapon skills
• 5 Character skills

Your available skills are determined by Weapon, Profession and Race.

5 Weapon skills

These skills are determined by your current weapons and Profession. These cannot usually be changed, except by switching weapon sets.

• 3 skills from your mainhand weapon
• 2 skills from your offhand weapon
  One-hand weapons used in the offhand (commonly known as dual-wielding) will provide different skills.
• 5 skills if using a two-hand weapon

A Warrior wielding any Sword in the same hand will always have the same 3 skills.

A non-Warrior wielding any Sword will have 3 different skills.

Elementalists use Attunements to change these skills.

5 Character skills

You are free to change these skills. Your pool of available skills is determined by your Profession/Race choice.

• 1 healing slot. You choose one healing skill from your pool.
• 3 other slots. You are free to choose skills for these slots.
• 1 Elite slot. You choose one skill from your pool. Elite skills are rarely-used, powerful and visually impressive.

These skills can be altered whilst not in combat.

Choose skills to suit your desired play style and complement your Weapon-based skills.

Conclusion

Race is the spirit, Profession is the mind, and Weapons are the body; combined, they provide a selection of Skills. The way you choose these 4 things, to build upon your strengths and those of your allies, will decide how you play the game.

Ellen Dubin voices Charr, Norn, Asura

According to Gareth at sknr.net, Actress Ellen Dubin of LEXX (a sci-fi series from 1996-2002) is voicing three characters in Guild Wars 2:

Canadian Actress Ellen Dubin of Lexx and The Collector fame has been announced to voice three characters in the upcoming Guild Wars 2 Game. Speaking to her publicist, we have learned that Ellen willl be playing the following characters.

Here are the three character voices that Ellen Dubin will provide in Guild Wars 2.

• TORRUN IS A NORN- low status character
• MIGHTY GRIKA IS AN ASURA- middle status character
• TYRANA IS A CHARR- high status character

Source: Skewed & Reviewed
Stock image: sxc.hu

Eric Flannum on Races & Professions

ArenaNet’s Martin Kerstein has passed us information from Eric Flannum, Lead Designer for Guild Wars 2, about the criteria for new races and professions:

There are a lot of decisions that we have to make when we add new races and professions to the game. The evaluation process goes something like this for races:

• Is the race visually and culturally interesting (are they cool enough to be a playable race)?
• Do they provide us with a different sort of archetype that is currently not in the game?
• How difficult would it be to implement the new race from an art/animation standpoint?
• Can we write a compelling story for them? What is the lore impact on making them playable?
• Does the new race provide us with the opportunity to make cool skills and abilities?

For professions, the evaluation process would be very similar but in a slightly different order of importance:

• Does it provide us with a different sort of archetype that is currently not in the game?
• Does the profession provide us with the opportunity to make cool skills and abilities?
• Will those skills and abilities work well with existing professions, or will they unbalance things?
• How difficult would it be to implement from an art/animation standpoint?
• How do they fit into the lore of the game?

With professions, we’re much more concerned with how they interact with the current balance and whether they provide a different play experience. With races, their overall look and feel is generally the most important thing.Of course, this is because while race does have some impact on how a character performs in combat, it’s nowhere near as important as profession in that regard. Likewise, a character’s personal story is impacted greatly by race and only very minimally by profession.

Source: Room for Future Races and Classes? at GuildWars2Guru.

Vote: Favorite Race

Okay, so from the latest trailer, recent interview and all the other information to date, you should have a fair idea of which race you like the most. Even without knowing the specifics of abilities and storyline, we have a definite feel for each race’s place in the new world of Tyria.

Please choose your favorite from the options below. This poll will close on Sunday 20th December, so do it now! Have your say! Let your voice be heard!

You can also comment below, why you love that race so much :-D

[poll id="2"]

Sylvari Wallpaper

I felt the urge to explore tonight, so I decided to trudge through Arbor Bay, die a few times to those evil Krait and Wind Riders, and finally make it to Ventari’s home.

Please let me know what you think of my newest wallpaper. Is it too grungy?

Our Grunge will guide us through messyness… to chaos.

Please tell me what you think in the comments below… :) thx

Sylvari are real!

I saw one on my back patio!!

Is it a guy or a girl? Why do Sylvari have gender? Regina said they modelled themselves on Humans… but why do they have boobs, and not belly buttons?