Developer: Arenanet
Genre: MMORPG
Subscription Fees?: NO
Release Date: TBA, probably first half of 2012, closed beta in late 2011
Platform: PC
Rating: At this point its looking like Teen/Pegi 12
Requirements: Unknown, but stated to be similar to those of the Original Guild Wars
http://www.guildwars2.com/
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page
FP GW2 Steam Group
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FPGWII
Before Day 1 Purchasers
Day 1 Purchasers
markfu
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Credit to Newbience for being smart and making it online instead of on a piece of paper. If your name isn't on this just post saying that you'll be buying it day 1.
Table of Contents:
1. Background
2. Key Features
3. Synopsis
4. Major Races and Characters
5. Minor Races
a. Friendly/Neutral
b. Enemy
6. Dynamic Events and Dungeons
a. How they work
b. Rewards
7. Classes and Combat
a. Basics
i. Even more basic
ii. Skills
iii. Traits
iv. Racial Abilities
v. Active combat
vi. Combos
b. Professions/Classes
c. Healing and Death
d. Underwater v. Land combat
e. Looting
f. Armor and Weapons
g. PvE and PvP
8. Non-combat Skills and other things
9. Other media
10. Conclusion
1 - Background:
For generations, war and chaos raged across the land of Tyria. Five great races competed and warred against each other, struggling to tip the balance of power in their favor.
Then the dragons woke.
The all-powerful beasts stirred from their millennial sleep under earth and sea. With their magical breath the dragons spread destruction and created legions of twisted slaves. A deathless dragon named Zhaitan raised the sunken nation of Orr, triggering earthquakes and tidal waves that destroyed entire cities across the Sea of Sorrows.
Zhaitan's undead armies surged from the sea, hungry for the destruction of the five races of Tyria: the charr, a ferocious race of feline warriors; the asura, magical inventors of small size and great intellect; the norn, towering shapeshifters from the frigid northern lands; the sylvari, a mysterious young race of visionary plant folk; and the humans, an embattled but resilient people.
Now heroes from the five races must set aside ancient rivalries and stand together against their common enemies.
Magic, technology, and cold steel will determine the ultimate fate of the world.
2 - Key Features:
- Unlike the original game, Guild Wars 2 is a fully persistent world in which players can adventure through in a group or alone.
- Fully persistent world
- Day/Night cycle
- Dynamic Events: Arenanet’s challenge to traditional quests, Dynamic events are missions that take place throughout the world and constantly change depending on the player’s action or inaction. More about this later.
-Personal story. Like how the original Guild Wars told the story of your character, Guild Wars 2 furthers that by introducing a fully personal story into the game, based partly on choices in character creation, and partly on what you do in the game. In the capital city of your chosen race, there is one personal instanced district for each player. There, characters that you’ve talked to or saved appear. The story is fully branching.
-More indepth character creation system that includes personality, background, and group membership (ex. Flame or Ash legion, Commoner or Noble, etc.)
The opening of this video shows human and charr male customization (not all of it either)
-60 feature films worth of recorded dialogue (also better voice acting)
-Jumping and swimming now included.
- Stylized painterly visuals.
-Deep history and background, including language and religion.
-There’s a cash shop as of yet we don’t know the details of it, but judging by the original game there will be the usual character slots and storage panes, as well as ingame items to buy that have no gameplay advantages. They are also thinking selling expansions/dlc through the shop instead of making boxed copies.
3 - Synopsis:
Guild Wars 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Guild Wars: Prophecies, and its expansions. Set 250 years after the events of the original games, Guild Wars 2 focuses on the rise of the Elder Dragons, those at this time being Zhaitan, Primordus, Jormag, Kralkatorrik, and the Deep Sea Dragon, and the struggle of the races of Tyria to stop them from destroying the world. No aid can come to the people of Tyria. Cantha is isolated, partly from the Deep Sea Dragon, partly due to their own doing. Elona has been reconquered by Palwa Joko and due to the dragons on the Crystal Desert’s borders, only the Order of Whispers has been able to maintain communication.
Spoilers for Edge of Destiny ahead:
Destiny’s Edge, a group consisting of each member of the five main races of Tyria: The Charr, Sylvari, Norn, Asura, and Humans. This group was able to kill several dragon champions, and almost killed Kralkatorrik, but due to one his loyalty/infatuation with the Queen, Logan, the human group member, left right before the battle, ultimately causing Glint’s and Snaff’s deaths, as well as the escape of Kralkatorrik. This event shattered Destiny’s Edge, and it is you, the player’s goal, to reforge their friendships, and the group itself.
The Races of Tyria
4 - Main Characters/Races:
Logan Thackeray:
A descendent of Gwen and Keiran Thackeray, he was originally a scout for hire. Due to a series of circumstances, he became one of the members of Destiny’s Edge. That is, until he chose to protect his queen over fighting one of the Elder Dragons. Due to his decision, Destiny’s Edge fell apart and that dragon lives on. But due to his service to the queen, he was made captain of the Seraph, the largest human military organization in Tyria.
Humans:
Humans have not fared well in the centuries after the original Guild Wars. They have continued to lose land by the Dragons, the Charr, or other races. Their cities and villages are in constant conflict with centaurs, bandits, pirates, and others. But even with the future looking grim, many humans still hold out hope. They believe that the six gods, Dwayna, Balthazar, Grenth, Lyssa, Melandru, and Kormir (what the hell Kormir, my character should be the god) will protect them and give them strength to continue forward. The two human strongholds left are Divinity’s Reach, the capital city of the humans, and Ebonhawke, a city on the far eastern reaches of Ascalon. Their cities have aspects of traditional fantasy but with a Renaissance touch.
Rytlock Brimstone:
A tribune of the Blood Legion, Rytlock was one of the members of Destiny’s Edge. The most crude of the five, he often cracked jokes during and out of combat. He treated Logan as a brother, even with the animosity between humans and Charr, until what he thinks as Logan’s betrayal of the group and their friendship.
Charr:
The charr are the most warlike and industrial race of Tyria. Following the events of Guild Wars, they have retaken most of Ascalon, minus the human stronghold of Ebonhawke. Out of the ruins of the searing and the internal conflicts that led to the almost complete destruction of the Flame Legion and the shaman caste, the Charr have embraced technology over magic. God’s are of no concern to them, after being deceived into believing the destroyers were Gods. Their cities exhibit this through their steampunk design. Under constant threat from kralkatorrik and his crystalline minions, they are constantly fighting. Steel, guns, explosives, these are the staples of the Charr.
Eir Stegalkin:
The Norn member of Destiny’s Edge, she is a natural born tactician and warrior, but her passion lies in her art. After the events of Edge of Destiny, she devoted to carving, leading to the negative opinion towards her by some Norn. But recently she has taken up her bow again to find Maegder, the sword of King Adelburn.
Norn:
This large, human-like race lived up in the Northern Shiverpeaks until Jormag woke, destroying Gunnar’s Hold and forcing the proud Norn retreating southward. The Norn pride themselves in feats of strength against each other and other creatures in the Shiverpeaks. They often fight alone for success and glory, which made it hard to gain them as allies in the battle against the Destroyers in the past, but even alone, they are fierce fighters. They are unique in the ability to shapeshift into four different animals, the raven, the bear, the wolf, and the snow leopard, which the Spirits of the Wild embody as well. Their capital city is Hoelbrak.
Caithe:
A Sylvari firstborn, she has the ability to pinpoint enemy weaknesses, which proved invaluable in fighting the Elder Dragon’s champions and minions during her time in Destiny’s Edge. She continues to search for various “truths”. Unlike other Sylvari, she isn’t afraid of stepping into the darkness to search for it. Despite this, she refused to join the Nightmare Court, a group of Sylvari attempting to undermine the purity of the Pale Tree and turn it to darkness.
Sylvari:
The Sylvari are the newest race introduced to Tyria. They were born from the Pale Tree, planted and cared for by Ronan, a human, and Ventari, a centaur. They are inquisitive, attempting to understand the world they have been introduced to as well as their origins from the tree and their shared memories in the Dream of Dreams. They believe that the goal of their race is to hunt the Elder Dragons, to lift the shadow from both the dream and Tyria. Unlike other races, most are direct and honest in their dealings with others, even when it leads them to trouble. An exception is the Nightmare Court, a group of Sylvari that want to turn the Sylvari to the Nightmare in contrast to the "false morality" of Ventari.
Zojja:
For the longest time I thought she was a dude.
A female Asuran elementalist and golemancer, she and Snaff, her mentor, were once part of Destiny’s Edge. During the battle with Kralkatorrik, Snaff was killed while attempting to control the Elder Dragon, leaving Zojja the only Asura in the group. She, like most Asura, is highly intelligent and disdainful of the other races, although her time in Destiny’s Edge left her more willing to work with other races.
Asura:
The Asura are a highly intelligent race in contrast to their short stature. After being driven up to the surface by the Great Destroyer during the events of Eye of the North, they have established themselves in the jungles of Kryta, with their capital city being Rata Sum. In the past 250 years, they have have been able to expand successfully from their old outposts, creating massive floating structures, portals, and other amazing architectural feats (compensating much?). Unlike the Charr, much of Asuran technological advancement is based on magic, allowing the function of their massive golems and floating cities. The Asurans challenge themselves with intellectual pursuits, albeit oftentimes pursuits with little practical usage and large chance of error. Most hold themselves as the superior race in Tyria, based solely on their intellect. Their governing belief is in the Eternal Alchemy, an equation that, in their minds, explains why the world works.
5 – Minor Races (In no particular order)
These are the races that are not playable (at this time)
Friendly/Neutral:
1) Kodan: The kodan are a large race of bi-pedal polar bears that lived in the far North until the rise of Jormag. They were scattered by the Dragon’s rising, but attempt to maintain contact with other tribes. They are spiritual, moreso than the Norn, who they deem as spiritual failures. Their main belief is that of balance, with the spirit Koda being the one who created it. While they look menacing, they are very peaceful, believing themselves to be above interpersonal conflicts.
2) Quaggan: The Quaggan is a race of amphibious creatures that live in Kryta and the Maguuma Jungle. While for the most part peaceful, if pushed they can become exceedingly violent, returning to their natural instincts. Those that can be aggressive outside of being angered are considered different. Unfortunately due to their peacefulness, they have been backed into a corner by both the Elder Dragons and the Krait.
3) Hylek: The Hyleks are descendents of the Hekets of Elona, and have been rapidly increasing in population in Tyria. Unlike the Kodan or Quaggan who are mostly peaceful towards the other races, different Hylek tribes have different views on others. Some are very xenophobic and aggressive towards others, while other tribes have taken to wearing clothing and trading amongst the races of Tyria. They are a developing race at the time of Guild Wars 2.
4) Dwarves: The Dwarven race, at one point spanning the entirety of the Shiverpeaks, is all but extinct. As written in the Tome of Rubicon, the Dwarves made the ultimate racial sacrifice by having most of them transform into living stone to battle the Destroyers while the player killed the Great Destroyer. After the battle, most of the Dwarves were dead, most of those who were left were stone, and the few who didn’t transform were left in the ruins of their civilization.
Enemies:
1) Ogres: Ogres are a large humanoid race that has invaded Ascalon in an attempt to take land. They are a triabalistic race. While a player character Charr can choose to have racial sympathy, in media they have been shown to be aggressive.
2) Krait: The Krait is an amphibious, snakelike race living on the coast of Kryta. They are xenophobic, and often resort to slavery, either as a source of income or a source of food. They have been consistently taking Quaggan land and pushing them further down the coast/inland. Strangely enough, they are strong mathematicians as well as fighters, and consider themselves the superior race in Tyria.
3) Skritt: While the Skritt aren’t necessarily enemies, they often make themselves that by stealing and scavenging from other races. Due to their fast reproductive rate and the hive mind ability in large numbers, the Asura deem them as a threat. Like the Asura, the Skritt escaped Primordus and the Destroyers by going up to the surface.
4) Centaurs: This race has been in constant conflict with humans for the past 250 years. While there are a few who put aside racial animosity such as Ventari or Zhed Shadowhoof, overall they continue to harass human villages and trading posts. They are humanoid from the waist up, but have a horse like lower body.
5) Grawl: The grawl make a return in GW2, and are more likely just as aggressive now as they were in GW1.
6 – Dynamic Events and Dungeons (I feel this should be a separate section because of how much Arenanet is stressing it)
Dynamic Events:
Dynamic events work as follows.
Say a group of centaurs is marauding in a village, you could either go defend or just leave them be. If you defend the village and successfully drive the centaurs out, another event occurs in that chain. If you ignore or fail to defend the village, the centaurs take it over, killing useful npcs and making the village uninhabitable. Then you can keep on ignoring it, or attempt to take the village back, and so forth. Arenanet attempted to make events matter in the game, unlike how old mmos used the kill 10 so and so’s that are attacking something, and all the so and sos are in a field waiting to be attacked.
You can be alerted to occurring events by either: 1) walking into it, or 2) talking to npcs who tell you about what’s happening. There are over 1600 events as of right now and 180 event chains, with more being added throughout the development process.
The rewards for dynamic events are gold, experience, and karma, with numbers awarded based on the medal earned at the end (bronze, silver, gold), which is based on participation in the event. Karma is a new award introduced in GW2 that allows you to buy specific items such as transmutation stones and develop your personality.
Dungeons:
Dungeons are similar to the instance based missions of the original Guild Wars, but have some slight changes. The first dungeon is available at level 30, with seven others opening up throughout the course of your level progress. Each dungeon allows a group of five people to enter.
The first time you run a dungeon you play through the story mode, this being part of your personal story and the plot of GW2. In most you help bring Destiny’s Edge back together by helping them complete their goals.
After the initial run through your can play through the dungeon again in adventure mode. New choices open up in adventure mode dungeons based on your decisions. Ex. After the Ascalon dungeon new threats emerge in the catacombs, and you choose how you want to fix the problem. Each different choice opens up different paths and different enemies.
Note: Adventure mode dungeons are much harder than story mode, but they also have better rewards and there are armor and weapons that are exclusive to each dungeon.
Ascalon dungeon cinematic
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...-the-dungeons/
http://www.arena.net/blog/william-fa...g-the-dungeons
7 Classes and Combat
a) Basics:
i. There are eight classes to choose from split into three categories, soldier, adventurer, and scholar. But unlike the original game, each class is self sufficient. Arenanet threw out the old tank-dps-heal system so that choosing a class didn’t doom someone to repeat the same role over and over. But that doesn’t mean that they all play the same. Each class has a different play style, while still being capable to take any role if needed.
ii. The skill bar now has room for ten skills, five of those depend on the currently selected weapon and swap out when you switch your weapon. From newer videos, it seems that new weapon skills are unlocked over time during weapon use. The other five are up to you to choose, but of them, one is an elite skill, one is a healing skill, and the other three can be anything. The elite skills this time around can be game changers and are meant to be ultra powerful, so they have massive cool downs. Make sure you use them wisely.
iii. There is now also a trait system in the game. The traits you can receive are based on class. They give various passive benefits. These traits are acquired by completing challenges throughout the game world, (ex. finding ancient tomes or hitting things). Once unlocked the various collected traits can be selected through the hero panel. There are about 100 traits per class (!) and are split into the major and minor categories.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait
iv. Racial abilities are a new addition to the GW games. While not much is known specifically about them, we do know they work comparatively to other MMOs.
v. Active combat is an important part of Guild Wars 2. With the inclusion of jumping and swimming, there is now the z axis to take into account in battles. Traps can affect a 3D area so it’s possible to jump over them or get hit by them while in the air. This goes for underwater combat too, but of course, in water.
Due to this new style of active combat, rolling and dodging are now much more useful. In GW1, dodging was rudimentary strafing of projectile weapons. Now there’s a specific roll key to allow you to roll out of harm’s way.
vi. Combinations:
Combos are an additional attempt by Arenanet to make combat more active. By utilizing environmental or player made effects, you can combine skills to make them more powerful. For example, laying down a fire trap and then firing arrows through it will set the arrow tips on fire.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/part-one/
b) Classes: All races and use all classes.
Soldiers: Soldiers are the most heavily armored of the professions, being the closest to the tanks of other mmos. They mainly utilize melee weaponry to confront their foes head on, but have either ranged abilities or spells to aid in fighting as well as to make them more versatile.
Warrior:
The warrior makes a return from GW1, but now boasting new ranged capabilities with the ability to use rifles and bows. Their selection of weaponry is also the largest of any of the classes, ranging from swords and maces to warhorns and hammers. Warriors can also dual wield weaponry. They still use the adrenaline system for many of their skills many of these reused from the original Guild Wars. Their unique skill sets are stances, chains, banners, shouts, and charge skills, stances, chains, and shouts being from the original game. Banners act as teammate buffs and charge skills can be held down for a more powerful attack.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...sions/warrior/
Guardian:
Guardians are most comparable to the Paladins of World of Warcraft with their focus on healing abilities and damage taking. But they also have elements of GW1’s ritualists, warriors, and monks. So pretty much a new class based on the wammo. Unique to the Guardian, they have three beneficial passive abilities that can be activated to do damage or help their teammates, these being Justice, Resolve, and Courage.
Guardians, like Warriors, mainly use close quarters weaponry such as maces and swords, but can also carry caster weapons to boost their magical abilities. Skill sets for the Guardian include Spirit Weapons, Symbols, Wards, and Aegis. Spirit Weapons attack enemies, symbols damage enemies or aid teammates, wards impair movement, and aegis blocks attacks.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...ions/guardian/
Adventurers: Adventurer professions are more armored than scholars, but less so than soldiers. Two of the classes, Rangers, and Thieves, use movement and quick attacks to great effectiveness in combat while Engineers mainly set up positions to fight in. Most adventurer professions lack spell based skills, but make for it in physical and projectile damage.
Ranger:
ooo bow strings.
While rangers excel in ranged combat, they are also dangerous melee fighters, with the ability to dual wield as well as carry 2-h swords. Rangers are the only class allowed to move while firing shortbows. Returning from the original game, rangers can use traps, spirits and pets. Rangers are allowed to tame wild animals and use them as pets in combat. Unlike the original Guild Wars, pets aren’t useless.
The pet system is more fleshed out in GW2. A ranger can have three active pet slots at once with there being 12 types of pets to choose from. Out of these 12, there are sub-categories with different abilities. Ex. A polar bear has an icy roar while a brown bear has a fearsome roar. Pets level up 20 times and can be outfitted with various skills that can be unlocked for
them. Like the pet/hero system in GW1, various orders can be given to your pets like attack, defend, etc.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...ssions/ranger/
Thief:
The Thief, like the assassin from GW1, excels in fast and precise attacks, utilizing speed and surprise to overwhelm a single enemy before fading away to strike when the enemy least suspects it. Thieves, then, are designed for hit and run tactics. To help with this, they have a cloaking skill that allows the user to move about unseen. Their skills have no cool down, but run on 10 initiative points that recharge over time. They are mainly designed for melee combat but can wield pistols as well for some ranged capabilities.
Also unique to the thief are the ability to use environmental weapons taken from enemies, and the way dual weaponry is set up. Environmental weapons are things Thieves can take from AI characters to either benefit themselves are attack the enemy, such as taking a root from an oakheart to use as a club. Dual weaponry skills work for Thieves differently than other classes. The main and off hand weapons determine two skills each, while the last weapon skill is determined by both weapons.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...essions/thief/
Engineer:
The most unique GW2 class, the Engineer specializes in the use of the new technology in Tyria. Their weaponry is based almost completely on firearms so they are more susceptible to melee damage. To help defend themselves, they can place various turrets, such as shooting turrets or healing turrets for area denial or team aid. Turrets, in some ways, are continuation of the spirits of GW1.
The Engineer’s special skills come in the form of kits, which transform into various defensive or offensive skills. These kits come in the weapon and backpack variety. Weapon kits include weapons such as flamethrowers, but there are rocket launchers pictured in concept art as well.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...ions/engineer/
Scholars: The least armored of the three archetypes, scholars use a variety of spells in combat. To make up for the lack of armor, the majority of their weaponry is ranged based, including staffs and wands, but still have the ability to wield melee weapons if the fighting gets to close. There are three scholar classes; the two announced being the Elementalist and the Necromancer.
Elementalist:
The Elementalist specializes in magical combat, using the elements of fire, earth, wind, and water to heal themselves or attack enemies. These are called elemental attunements. Fire is mainly area of effect, wind is usually for single target fighting, water heals, and earth defends. These attunements, when coupled with their various weapons, are the basis of the first fiveskills in the skill bars.
Elementalists have the ability to focus fire on one target or use large area of affect spells as area defense. Glyphs and signets return from the original game, and conjuring is used to create weapons and items.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam.../elementalist/
Necromancer:
The Necromancer is a master of the dark arts, with the ability to use undead minions to aid them in their battles. Besides this, they can use curses, marks, and wells in battle, like those from the original GW. New to the Necromancer are the abilities to use axes in melee combat, and the death shroud ability. The death shroud can be activated instead of going into a downed state, with the life force gained in battle used as a secondary health bar.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...s/necromancer/
?
The yet to be announced scholar class. While there are no details on what it is, many believe it to be the Mesmer. There is some proof to this, the main evidence being that Mesmers are mentioned in the GW2 novel, Edge of Destiny.
c)Healing and Death:
Healing and death have been revamped in GW2. In GW1, if you lost all your health, you would die, but in GW2, losing all your health puts you into a downed state. From this state, you are given some skills to attack with. To get out of this state, you either have to kill an enemy, which gives you a second wind, or get helped by another player. The exception is the Necromancer, who has the death shroud ability to fall back on.
If you aren’t revived in time, you die, otherwise known as the defeated state. At this point, you can either wait for a revive from another player, or you can respawn at a set waypoint.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...healing-death/
d) Underwater combat:
To swim, all you have to do jump into the water and then move forward. To dive, aim downwards and after a bit you’ll automatically swim down. To avoid the annoyance of breathing, all players are given a breathing device, allowing for unlimited time underwater. The underwater component of GW2 is heavily stressed, as it effectively doubles the size of the game. Treasures, dynamic events, and friends and foes can be found beneath the surface.
suck my dick
Underwater combat differs heavily from land combat. In it, a lot more stress is put on the z axis of fighting than on land. Many skills can either float or sink enemies giving you height advantage or breathing room (lololol). Skills and enemies also differ from land combat. When you dive underwater your skill bar and weapon changes. Spears are melee weapons, harpoon guns are ranged, and tridents are caster weapons. Arenanet didn’t want the underwater and land skills to be the same since in some cases it makes little sense (casting fire underwater?). Enemies come in different forms. Some enemies can be found in both water and land environments, but others, like fish, sharks, etc. are only found underwater.
Underwater gameplay
e) Looting:
It works like other mmos, except if you have had any hand in killing an enemy something drops for you as well.
f) Armor and weapons:
Armor works slightly differently than the original game. In GW1, you’d buy armor specifically for your character from crafters. From GW2, you can buy armor, get is as a reward, get it from dungeons, looting, or making it yourself. Armor is divided into five parts: headgear, shoulder pads, coats, gloves, leggings, and boots. Each piece of armor has an upgrade slot, like in GW1.
Armor also differs in the fact that there are level restrictions now. No more running to Droknar’s Forge for max armor halfway through the game. You have to be a certain level to use certain armor pieces, probably so high levels can’t give low levels dungeon armor.
The dye system works differently as well. Each race starts with 11 colors and more are unlocked through play. It is unknown whether these are from drops, bought, or are just given to you. But once you get a dye set, all characters on your account can use it. At this point there are 254 colors. They are accessed through the character panel.
There are now many more weapon types in GW2 than there were in GW1. Two-handed weapons now include rifles and greatswords. Torches, pistols, horns, and more are included as one-handed weapons, what skills these give are yet to be revealed.
g) PvE and PvP:
PvE comes in the form of dynamic events, dungeons, and general exploration through the world of Tyria. PvP on the other hand comes in several flavors, activities, structured, and world.
Activities, while not really specified, are most likely like the roller beetle races or snowball tournaments of GW1, except not seasonal.
Structured PvP comes in tournament form with pre-made groups, and pick-up play, which works similarly to lobby based shooter, with the ability to jump into a game. Teams in these matches are five players each, and all players are set at even footing, so if a level 1 player fights a level 80 player they’ll have equal health, weapon stats, etc.
Tournament play comes in several varieties:
1) Pickup tournaments - win these to get qualifying points.
2) Monthly tournaments - Those with enough qualifying points get to participate in these.
3) Yearly tournaments - Top echelon players from monthly tournaments can participate in these.
4) Player-run tournaments - Customizable options for competition.
World PvP are server v. server based games, set in the “mist” between worlds. In this mode, whatever you have in PvE is brought directly into PvP. So in a battle between a level 1 and a level 80, the level 80 will pretty much win automatically. Few details have been revealed, but at this point there has been no mention of player limits in W v. W play. So you could theoretically have hundreds of players fighting throughout the map.
In some ways W v. W acts like a massive RTS game without someone pulling the strings. Players capture resource points and strongholds throughout the four areas that make up the map. From the home area, players move out and attempt to capture the neutral areas and then the enemy base. There are npcs in World v. World, but they serve as defense only.
It’s possible to level up from 1 – 80 just playing world PvP as you gain both experience and from killing other players.
Note: Players are allowed to change worlds, but there’s a delay on being allowed into W v. W after a world switch.
Note 2: I personally am very excited for world PvP. It’ll finally bring the idea of “guild wars” to life as an entire guild can fight together against others. That, and I like clusterfuck battles.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pvp
Note 3 - this is only part of the world PvP map.
8 - Non-combat skills and other stuff:
New to GW, non-combat skills make an entrance in GW2. These crafting disciplines include: armorsmith, leatherworker, tailor, artificier (maker of magical weapons), cook, huntsman (makes ranged weapons), jewelcrafter, and weaponsmith.
In cities there are tons of things to do outside of combat. You can chat and trade with other players and npcs, walk around and explore, or participate in numerous activities such as bar brawls, shooting galleries, and more. There are 30 activities in the game at this time. These activities breathe more life into the world and the game and give players more things to do with both strangers and friends.
9 – Other Media
There is other Guild Wars 2 media outside of the game itself. The Art of Guild Wars 2 is a book of concept art and explanations of them from some of Arenanet’s, and arguably the game industry’s, finest artists. If you’re into art, GW2, or both, I suggest you pick up a copy.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/shop/th...-guild-wars-2/
A series of three novels based in the GW2 universe are in the process of being written. Two, Ghosts of Ascalon, and Edge of Destiny have already been released. The third is being written now.
Guild Wars Beyond, free content for the original Guild Wars, focuses on the events that lead up to Guild Wars 2. At this point, two parts have been released, War in Kryta, in which players saw the destruction of the White Mantle and the rise of Queen Salma and the Seraph, and Hearts of the North, in which Gwen and Keiran finally married. The third part, Winds of Change, is scheduled to be released in the next couple of weeks and explains the race wars in Cantha as well as its eventual isolation.
Fan websites:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/
Up to date with lots of info. There are others.
There’s a ton of fan art out there, just look up GW2 in deviant art.
On second thought, maybe don’t do that.
Comics by Newbience. I can’t find them in the thread, but they’re funny.
Pictures and Videos and Shiz:
Lion’s Arch
From GDC 11
Audio
Hall of Monuments rewards calculator. For those who want extra (cosmetic) bonuses in forms of other weapons, pets, armor, etc.
http://hom.guildwars2.com/en/#page=welcome
Internship Applications for those artistically inclined.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/ar...lications.html
Piano theme aka Jeremy Soule is awesome
Gamescom 2011 - Trailer
10 – Conclusion
Credit to Newbience99
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