The New Blackout: Disarm [Speculation]

Mesmer main-hand sword skill: For 5 seconds, target foe has no weapon.

Wheeeee!

*goes back into thought-hibernation*

Calculating skills from weapons

You know how the profession-weapon-skill system works – a profession is defined by what it does, and weapons play a fundamental part in that.

Now take a look at this spreadsheet, especially if you want to fuel speculation: Google Docs spreadsheet or download the Excel 2003 spreadsheet.

Note: I have created 6 rows of unconfirmed, unofficial, unfinished data – my own experimentation with numbers.

Some statistics about the revealed professions:

• Elementalist
  • Weapon types: 4
  • Weapon sets: 1
  • Weapon combinations: 5
  • Total weapon-based skills: 64 (including Attunements)
  • Skills available in combat: 24
• Warrior
  • Weapon types: 9
  • Weapon sets: 2
  • Weapon combinations: 19
  • Total weapon-based skills: 45 (assuming 2 additional chain skills per main hand)
  • Skills available in combat: 16

Caithe: sylvari assassin?

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

Necromancer Video

I have made a video showing the necromancer skill animation I pointed out last week. Creepy music is cool. Watch it in HD to see the details.

Skill for Malchior Devenholm

Skill #6 of your face, your skill:

Malchior Devenholm in Soothing Fog

Next: San Darkwood appears in an Assassin skill!

Skill for Ambrose887

The fifth image of your face, your skill:

Ambrose887 in Anthem of a Thousand Spears

Next: Malchior Devenholm appears in an Elementalist skill!

Skills for Glyph and Silvanus

Presenting your face on your skill:

Silvanus in Keen Stance and Glyph in Arcane Inspiration!

Next up: Ambrose887 & Malchior Devenholm! I might do them tonight.

Also see the skills for Tzu & Tigerfeet:

Whee!

Skills for Tzu and Tigerfeet

I found the Ritualist one easier, not only because the image was unusual, but also because Ritualist skills tend to be fully featured people, while Monk skills tend to be shapes and silhouettes. I think the early professions – Monk and Mesmer especially – had a broader theme prior to the expansion chapters. Like I’ve pointed out before, Mesmers used to have pink, purple and aqua; now they are just shades of the same pink (look at the EotN skills). This was a trend I didn’t like much. Colours are good!

Ritualist inspiration: Ancestor’s Rage, Channeled Strike, Pain.

Monk inspiration: Contemplation of Purity, Reversal of Fortune, Protective Spirit.

I had fun doing this :) I’ll do the other ones soon.

Eviscerate blog

I have completed the skill chain Exportsever + Import Gash + Final Redirect and moved my blog to WordPress.com. Self-hosted blogs can be fun, but can induce migraines.

Once I decided to make a new blog, I quickly realised that the original name – “I Love Guild Wars” – was funny at first, but as time wore on I began to think to myself, “What if I don’t love Guild Wars 2? Will I have to make a new blog ILikeGuildWars2?”. So I had to come up with a new name. I wanted it to be funny, with a reference to an aspect of Guild Wars that I love.

I wracked my mind for hours. It seemed quite the conundrum, but how could I create a name without it backfiring? My past blog efforts had been burdened by clumsiness and rarely inspiring, and moving forward I wanted it to be a pleasant diversion, rather than a distraction. Guilt and shame and ignorance all played on my mind. I didn’t want this thing to shackle my spirits, and yet all this thinking was beginning to burn my energy. With a sudden cry of frustration, I settled on the first thing that I loved about Guild Wars: twirling with my starter cane, and casting Conjure Phantasm, and giggling as those River Skale were drained of health and died.

While Conjure Phantasm is a degenerate kind of skill (the kind that I profess to despise), it is still an iconic Mesmer skill. The line between Necromancer and Mesmer is blurred when it comes to Hexes, yet it always felt more like a Mesmer’s job to kill a foe without dealing damage. The fact that it is one of those For X seconds Y happens skills aside, the pure simplicity of the skill is what makes it balanced and a joy to use at the right times.

Also playing into my decision: Iconic, simple skills like Meteor Shower, Eviscerate, Final Thrust and Water Trident make their return in Guild Wars 2. Conjure Phantasm may be changed functionally, but I think the name is cool enough to deserve a place in GW2 as a Mesmer staple skill.

But wait… how can I name my blog purely after a skill? Shouldn’t it be… unique? Probably, but who cares.

Today ArenaNet have revealed the second Guild Wars 2 profession: the Warrior! My favourite part is the Eviscerate video, and the Sword skill chain is pretty cool too. I am loving the flashy-swooshiness, and especially the bloodstained arc in the Sword video. Take a look at the screenshots over at my GW2 Screenshots Blog (I try to get the highest-res images from around the web).

Note to other bloggers: I will fix up my links to your blogs soon :)

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.