Category: Guild Wars 2

Game Designer Andrew McLeod wrote up the crafting system preview for Guild Wars 2 on the ArenaNet blog. The system starts with the vanilla MMO crafting system premise, but ArenaNet has given it a few twists both good and bad.

First off, anybody can gather. There is no miner profession, herbalist profession, etc. If a player sees a mining node, the player can get at it. These nodes are “phased” for each player. So I might see a rare node spawn in the distance, but believably a nearby player won’t, or it might be his own version of that node. In other words, no more node racing and ganking. The node gathering is further supplemented by the Guild Wars gathering mechanics, such as normal loot drop, and my favorite salvaging. I love going through a bag of loot after a run in Guild Wars and deciding which items to salvage. I am glad that mechanic jumped the sequel gap.

Continue reading [GW2] A Crafting Recipe

As part of the pre-PAX week, ArenaNet has posted an article on their blog about Attributes and Iteration. It’s a great read for anybody interested in the nuts, bolts, and granular advancement of their future Guild Wars 2 characters. I definitely appreciate the newly updated attribute system because truth be told, I really did not care for the one I saw last year. The simpler the better, I say, but I do agree that there has to be enough attributes to cause a choice. This choice is compounded by itemization, where Izzy writes:

With our current implementation of the item system, items raise single attributes higher than when they raise a pair. However, the total number of points will be higher for a two-attribute item than for an item affecting a single attribute. For example, a Rare Ruby Ring gives +40 power; an equal level Gold Topaz Ring gives +33 power and +25 vitality; and a Pearl Ring gives +25 power, +25 vitality, and +25 toughness. This item system enhances another choice: do you max out one attribute or raise the total effectiveness of all your attributes? The character who deals the highest raw damage is someone who has maximized the offensive attributes, but the character who diversifies becomes a jack-of-all-trades while mastering none.

Except that rarity could already affecting the choice. I am making a decent assumption here that we have a gleaming Rare Ruby Ring, a notable Gold Topaz Ring, and a Pearl Ring likely caked with oyster byproduct gnarling the hands of wearers and passersby. I am not going to go so far as to say that this itemization example is definitive for the whole Guild Wars 2 system, but it is interesting to examine.

Continue reading [GW2] Conditioning The Precious

Over at GuildWars2Guru, Actionjack is still going strong with the Can I Play GW2? webcomic. He’s created about 80 strips, but that doesn’t include all the variants and asides as well. They are simply fantastic, and rightfully we’ve plugged them before. My favorite thing is the effect Actionjack is having on this one Guild Wars 2 community. Creative people are rallying around his comic, making their own versions to thank him, and Actionjack is running a weekly Art Challenge with a simple Guild Wars 2 subject as the concept. This week it’s a norn thief. So, if you are artistically inclined definitely check out those threads. Finally, I wanted to republish an Actionjack-inspired piece drawn by Husky detailing one of the newly revealed thief mechanics: stealing. It amuses me every time, and it really hits home exactly what the stealing mechanic does. The thief takes something from an enemy then uses it against them. Perhaps the two would want to band together and draw tutorial strips for all the profession mechanics? (wink, wink)

–Ravious

The thief profession is starting to get pieced together as fans act like archaeologists piecing together what was once whole from fragments offered by GDC ’11 videos. The thief seems pretty well understood being a very mobile, very dangerous, and very squishy class in Guild Wars 2. It can steal skills from enemies, go into a Predator-mode stealth, shadow-step (warp), and so on. It’s a pretty cool profession that seems a little more complex than the other 5 released professions. It has one mechanic though that breaks the rules. It’s weapon skills have the costs front-loaded, which amplifies the risk for each weapon skill activation. But, that seems to be what the thief is all about, the Master of Risk.

Continue reading [GW2] Front Loaded

EDIT: And we’re back. Changed all links to fav site, Massively.

So much Guild Wars news today, but first I will start with the unexpected bomb so I can spend more time working on a post for the Guild Wars update later today. It seems that Massively received a pretty good demo at GDC, where they filmed it entirely. We know about the first part being the norn starting area, which was expected for the new demo coming out. And then at Massively’s demo the presenter casually drops that “oh yeah, the sixth profession is the thief. Play it.” I have to say I was not expecting another profession reveal before PAX, and I definitely was not expecting it in the updated demo/presentation.

Continue reading [GW2] No. 6, The Thief

It appears that megasite GameTrailers did ignore an NDA/embargo on the release of the sixth Guild Wars 2 profession, which I was unaware of when I wrote the thief post here. Out of respect for ArenaNet, and more importantly the people that worked on and were excited about releasing the thief, I am taking down my post until official release. Comments and the post are preserved behind Door #43.

It’s a tough decision between sticking it to the man, information must be free, we know anyway, and respect. I feel better inside taking it down, and I hope no one is offended. I expect that the post with modifications from official news will go back up in a week.

Thanks.

–Ravious

The norn can be hard to understand. We want them to be giant, animist, shape-shifting Vikings, but that’s too simple. That’s not depth; that’s just a bunch of cliches rammed together in some fashion where a lesser fantasy game would conclude a new race has been made. ArenaNet didn’t stop there. They gave them life and purpose. I find too often in many fantasy games (MMOs, solo, or even table top), we just handwave some of the most important questions on a new race. It’s when there are actions by the race that make us stop and think because it feels wrong, it feels not human, that we find depth.

The first time I saw this was when I read Lord of the Rings. Elves never made sense to me. They are leaving? They are sad at Man? Buck up, you point eared snobs! I thought they were just full of themselves, except for Legolas. He’s a pretty cool guy. Finally I realized in playing Lord of the Rings Online watching Glorfindel’s face get painted by the sun in the shadow of leaves that Tolkien had given them depth. A depth I could only realize if I thought like an immortal elf that had seen all this before. They wouldn’t make sense in human motivations, and I feel ArenaNet has given the norn the same treatment.

Continue reading [GW2] The Depth of a Norn

Norn week is in full swing with an overview post on Monday and a two-for-Tuesday posts on norn chatter and culture and the huge norn architecture. As usual though, ArenaNet puts layer and layer of material in their “simple” articles. For instance, in the first post fans are already dissecting one picture of a female norn standing inside somewhere holding what appears to be a long-range rifle. This one picture provides speculation on unreleased professions, size of the norn, size of their housing, ad infinitum. One other little gift caught me completely off guard.

The Sons of Svanir, a group of norns holding allegiance to Jormag, has been well known for awhile. Many, including myself, believed that these norn were evil. They worship an Elder Dragon bent on freezing the world; the same dragon that sent the norn retreating to the Southern Shiverpeaks. Svanir was the corrupted nornbear players had to defeat in the Eye of the North. And this is their concept art? Yeah, I would have no problem running my greatsword through a swath of the Sons of Svanir.

Continue reading [GW2] Sons of Svanir Sect

(Note: This post was written for the GuildMag Blog Carnival Event. Be sure to check out the other great articles!) http://www.guildmag.com/blog-carnival-event-bring-the-popcorn

The necromancer in Guild Wars has a handful of iconic builds, those that rise like cream. The necromancer is a lord of hexes and conditions, yet arguably it’s heart, it’s purpose is to be a minion master. The minion master’s purpose is to quickly convert bodies into undead slaves as quickly as possible. Unlike a pet oriented class, such as Guild Wars ranger or the pitiful necromancers in other MMOs, the minion master cares not about a single creature it creates. It sends them on their way in to the meat grinder hoping their death even brings destruction.

After 250 years, the necromancer profession has changed and evolved. Legend says it was a sylvari that asked the simplest question of all, which would change the minion master forever: “Why do we need bodies?”

Continue reading [GW2] Necromancer: The Gambler