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Guild Wars 2: Combat: Weapons, Professions, and Races
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
The Guild Wars 2 information blowout continues with the release of part two of Lead Designer Eric Flannum's two-part feature discussing the combat system in Guild Wars 2. Part two gives us a look at how your choice of weapon, profession, and race play into the game's combat systems.
Kicking things off we are provided with the full list of weapon types available to players in Guild Wars 2:
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.
Not all classes can wield all weapon types, and Eric also mentions that some classes will be able to dual wield one handed weapons, which is key due to the fact that as Eric mentioned yesterday, the weapons you wield will determine five out of the 10 skills at your character's disposal. In the case of a warrior dual wielding two one handed weapons (let's say an axe and a dagger) he would receive three skills from the weapon in his main hand and two from the weapon wielded in the off-hand.
Environmental weapons will make use of this system as well. When a player interacts with a siege weapon for example, his first five skills will switch to skills determined by and appropriate for the siege weapon. The skills that become available will also be determined by a player's class; as an Elementalist will be able to different things with a boulder than say a Warrior would, such as launching it into the sky and bringing it down with the force of a meteor strike. Environmental weapons will often be generated in a number of natural ways, such as breaking a barstool over a patrons head and then using the chair leg as a club.
Moving onto profession, Eric mentions that there will be eight in total in Guild Wars 2 and they all fall into categories determined by the armor that is available for them to wear. Scholars make use of light armor, Adventurer professions use medium armor, and Soldiers will use heavy armor. The final profession breakdown is being described as: three scholars, three adventurers, and two soldier professions. Secondary professions will not be making a return to Guild Wars 2, but Eric assures us that this choice was made for the best:
Many players from Guild Wars are familiar with the concept of secondary professions. We included secondary professions in early versions of Guild Wars 2, but due to the unique mechanics of each profession and the increased role of race in character customization, they are no longer a feature of the game. We feel that this decision will allow us to create a more balanced game with really distinct professions that are fun to play.
Professions will also be able to perform cross-profession combinations, and we've heard a few examples so far, but we're treated to a few more in today's update. One of the more interesting examples includes the ability for a Warrior to use his Cyclone Axe ability near an Elementalist's Fire Wall in order to fan the flames outwards and damage their foes.
Finally, Eric touches once more upon the importance of race choice towards a characters combat options. Racial skills aren't new to MMOs, but some of the ones available in Guild Wars 2 sound pretty interesting:
A player can also choose to bring elite racial skills. A norn Elementalist might take the norn skill Wolf Form and transform into a giant half-norn half-wolf able to tear across the battlefield, savaging enemies. A human might bring the Hounds of Balthazaar, a skill which summons two massive fiery dogs into the battle. Racial skills can combine with profession skills to give players a wealth of choices when deciding how they want to play their characters.
And that's about it for thepart two of Eric Flannum's combat update. In the future, we can expect to hear from Lead Content Designer Colin Johanson who will provide details on the oft touted dynamic event system of Guild Wars 2, and how ArenaNet intends to use this system to really change the experience from your traditional quest-driven MMO.
Read the original article here.
Comments
Single profession, i can live with that, wondering if they will still impose a set number of skills you can go out with or will they be freely available like in most other MMOs.
It will have 10 slot skillbars. From what I read though it sounds like you can change your skills on your skillbar on the fly though (the skills that you can customize that is).
And the goodies just keep on coming!
Environmental weapons combat sounds great, but I'd like to see that in action in a clip. But if it all works as described above, it'll be amazing.
A shame for losing the second class, it was very unique for a MMO. I gather they'll add the flexibility in other ways, with the adaptable weapon skills, racial skills and environment usage.
Looking forward to the revelation of the other classes
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
all i have to say is rifles and pistols, i love old school / steam punk guns, im certianly more interested now
I wonder if anyone will be able to dual wield a sword and a pistol.
There are two things that have disappointed me, the limited skill bar and the loss of secondary professions.
The news that the first 5 skills will change dependent on what weapon or environmental object you are wielding/interacting with makes me think that this may not be as limiting as it first sounds, I'm guessing all professions will have more than one weapon option.
The idea of combinations of skills between players sounds great and will encourage people to play with each other to see how their skills interact, if those interactions are as visually stunning as the skills we've seen so far we should be in for a treat, I guess they are holding back video examples so as not to spoil the reveal of further professions.
One of the things I loved about GW was the abundance of skill choices because of the secondary professions, the information so far doesn't really give me the feeling that the amount of choice will be as evident in GW2, all the pointers are there that it could be a complex and interesting system but until I see more I'll reserve judgment. Having only 5 skill slots (one of which must be a heal) to play with doesn't sound that interesting at the moment.
Having said all that I won't deny this is pretty exciting stuff and feels like a much needed breath of fresh air.
So far Ive only seen and read positive things about GW2. Up to the part where its said that there will be no more secondary profession. This was an important part of GW , which offered a lot of playing variety within the chosen profession.
I hope they come up with an alternative to this in GW2. Something that will offer a similar amount of variety in playing your profession. I really hope that they wont dumb it down to the stereotypical holy trinity classes.
Another one of the skill slots is dedicated to an elite. The 5 skill slots that you can customize you can change when out of combat as well. Reading about the dedicated healing skill slot leads me to believe that there will be no dedicated healer class. There might be a cleric type class which uses something like the current monk prot line of spells but I have a sneaky feeling that a dedicated healer is going away.
As we all are going to receive healing skills it might well be that a dedicated healer is a thing of the past in GW2, as you suggest a cleric type profession utilizing the protection line of skills could be the basis of a support class, maybe an integration of some of the Paragons shouts?
It's hard to get away from the holy trinity in any game, even the most in depth sandbox usually ends up with the holy trinity taking hold.
So we have sword/greatsword, mace/hammer but no love for the axes, just 1handed? Meh
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
why do all MMOs have to have pistols and rifles now? Dark Age or Middle Age Fantasy...I just cannot do guns in those settings. Guns were the big equalizer which made Knights worthless.
I'm so goin to pick the class that lets you dual wield pistols!
I can see where you're coming from but it does fit within the lore, in the 200 yrs since GW the Charr seem to have entered in to some kind of steam/iron age. Gunpowder was already available in GW, seems a natural enough progression.
It's set 250 years in the future from the first game, there's bound to be some technological advances.
well the fact that different profession skills work with one another such as an ele putting up a fire wall and a warrior spinning threw it fires the wall out in all directions. This to me is much more exciting then having a warrior/ele.
also with the whole 5 skills chosen for you..its all meta game anyway those skills would have been chosen anyway imho. if you equip a hammer you would bring a knockdown a auto attack speed increase and a basic hammer attack that gives bonus dmg....and those are the skill that will be chosen for you...
it personally see no problem with this...my only question is for casters will this be of weapond such as staff or wand or will this be off of atunment such as a fire ele will get five fire skills or a water with water skills....
I dont really mind so much the loss of a second profession. The combination of skills amongst other classes during battle seems like a cool concept. Im hopefull it will turn out to be a very effective system.
Very excited for GW2. The hype machine is certainly working on me. I wonder which classes from GW will make the cut? hmmmm.
Oh and for all those bemoaning the loss of secondary professions: I think they are really playing up the racial skills in place of skills from a secondary class, and it would be counter to their system if one player could cast the fire wall with his second class then as a warrior primary run into it and wave his axe about.
I don't like that we lose secondary professions. My favorite part about Guild Wars was creating my own custom classes, and playing around with them. Such as a Wa/Mo, Wa/Nec, and Wa/Ele. I doubt they'll put all three of those concepts in the game, which makes Guild Wars 2 not as fun concerning professions (on paper) as the first one was.
They're also talking a lot about players working together, yet in GW you rarely grouped. Granted, GW2 will be open worlded, but so are most other MMO's and people aren't flocking into groups there either.
So realistically, judging from past game experiences, these cool features that booted out secondary professions probably won't get used nearly as much as the developers are planning, since MMO's players don't typically group anymore and haven't in many years. Most MMO players are occasional groupers, not die hard groupers.
Simply put, I'd rather have secondary professions.
No polearm or spears? /sadface
My hype lvl just got a downgrade no 2ed class makes be want to wait on the game it was the best part of GW that mixed with only 4 skills at a time it was hard with just 8 skill bar.
I'm not saddened by the loss of a 2nd profession.
From the sound of things, your character will rely heavily on racial traits, and which weapons you choose.
If they are giving characters skills based upon which weapons you choose, that allows for a lot of customization options.
What were they giving? 5 skills of a certain type for the main hand weapon and 3 for the off-hand?
So 8 skills.
Then throw in a class with the choice of several weapon options and the skills add up.
This definately has kept me interested in the game.
I don't think it's fair to compare real life history/events to a fantasy game. There could be an explaination for it. Magic could be one. Anything goes in a fantasy world which has magic, because magic can do just about anything. So, it's easy to say that someone who can't make good use of magic or 'super human knight' would turn to technology where things come to a little more even footing. I can make up for my lack of power and magic by using technology.
Sounds really promising, can't wait for the release! The cross profession combos sound really awesome
Currently playing: N/A
Retired from: GW, WAR, Aion, LOTRO, Rift, SW:TOR, Vinductus