Guild Wars 2 developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSoft in 2005 for Microsoft Windows is a multiplayer open world-based video game. As the fourth entry in the Guild Wars series, Guild Wars 2 focuses on combat with Elder Dragons and other fantastical creatures. There are no race-based restrictions on professions, so all characters can choose between the eight professions at character creation. Read on to discover the 5 reasons this game is worth a shot.
Warrior & Guardian Superior Class Skills
Warriors wear heavy armor and can bring hammers, great swords, longbows, rifles, axes, swords, maces, shields, and war horns to battle. A warrior’s unique resource is adrenaline. Adrenaline builds up during combat and can be released in a massive burst attack. Different weapon sets provide access to different burst attacks. Which have a variety of negative effects on foes depending on the amount of adrenaline that was built up.
The guardian is the second heavy armor class in Guild Wars 2 and is similar in philosophy to paladin classes in many games. A support fighter with an emphasis on assisting allies, the guardian wields skills called “virtues’ in order to adapt to the current situation in battle. Using justice causes the guardian’s attacks to burn enemies, courage blocks attacks, and regenerates health.
Guardians have chain attacks like warriors do, along with shouts that buff allies or debuff enemies, summonable spirit weapons, and symbols and wards that can be laid down on the ground to help allies and hinder enemies.
Combat and Stealth Expertise within Guild Wars 2
Rangers are ranged combat experts who also make use of the power of nature and bond with animal companions. Rangers wear medium armor and can wield great swords, longbows, short bows, swords, axes, daggers, torches, and war horns. Their animal companions have different skills depending on species. There are even underwater pets available for aquatic combat. Up to four animal companions can travel with the ranger. Though only one will fight at a time, the ranger can switch pets in and out to react to the demands of the situation. They can summon nature spirits that affect the battlefield and lay down traps for enemies.
Thieves are a new class in the Guild Wars universe. Thieves have a unique resource called initiative. This allows them to chain weapon skills together swiftly at the cost of being unable to act for a short time afterward. Thus, thieves must act swiftly and brutally, then use their talents of stealth and mobility to escape and recharge. The class wears medium armor and generally dual-wields weapons, using a sword, dagger, or pistol in the main hand and a dagger or pistol in the off-hand. Short bows can be used as two-handed weapons. In an interesting twist on the class, thieves can “steal” an improvised weapon from opponents, which gives them access to a unique set of weapon skills depending on the stolen weapon.
Guild Wars 2 Engineering Skills
Relying on gadgets and inventions, engineers are versatile fighters with plenty of fun tricks up their sleeves. Many engineering skills come in the form of unique kits that give access to things like grenades, med kits, or turrets. The engineer’s unique resource is a tool belt, which combines with kits to provide extra skills, such as combining with a grenade kit to make a grenade barrage or with a med kit to allow a self-heal. Engineers wear medium armor and can wield rifles, pistols, and shields. This small weapon pool is due to the many offensive properties of the engineer’s gadgets.
Elementalism Is a Handy Class Set
The elementalist is the first of Guild Wars 2’s scholar classes, which wear cloth armor and focus on magic. Just like in the original Guild Wars, elementalists focus on fire, water, air, and earth magic, but in Guild Wars 2 the character can switch between these elemental attunements freely. Fire spells focus on burning multiple foes, water spells control enemy movements, air spells focus on burst damage, and earth spells focus on quakes and defense. Elementalists wield scepters, daggers, staves, and focii. These weapons combine with the currently selected attunement to determine the five main spells on the character’s skill bar. While the elements determine the kind of spell cast, weapon selection determines the effect. For instance, staves create area-of-effect spells and daggers create close-range and defensive spells.
Necromancer & Mesmer Specialty
The ever-popular necromancer feeds on life energy, using it to power various spells linked to death, disease, and vampirism. Life force is the necromancer’s unique currency. It builds up as the necromancer uses skills and as nearby enemies and allies die. Once enough life force is built up, the necromancer can activate Death Shroud, a spectral form that acts as a second health bar and gives access to a unique set of skills. Necromancers can wield staves, axes, scepters, daggers, focii, and war horns. The necromancer’s weapons help determine the shape of the available spells.
The mental magic practitioners known as Mesmer’s have surfaced with a new emphasis on creating and shattering illusions, wreaking chaos throughout the game’s battlefields. Mesmer’s can create up to three illusions at a time, and the illusions can be clones or phantasms. There are four shatter skills that can be used on illusions: Mind Wrack does damage to nearby enemies, Cry of Frustration confuses surrounding foes, Diversion stuns foes around it, and Reflection creates a projectile-reflecting barrier around the Mesmer. Mesmer’s can use great swords, staves, swords, scepters, focii, pistols, and torches. We’re not yet certain what effect weapon choice has on a Mesmer’s skills.
Departing Words
These eight professions provide a nice diversity of skill sets for players to choose between when playing Guild Wars 2. Keep in mind that there are no specific tank, damage-dealing, or healing classes in Guild Wars 2. Each class has the ability to hold the enemy’s attention, do damage, and heal itself, along with providing support to groups and interacting with others using cross-class combinations. Profession choice is all about how the player chooses to do these things, and each of the game’s professions has a unique flavor. To conclude, Guild Wars 2 is worth looking into especially with the new-and-improved classes and skill sets within.