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Healing Guild Wars 2 Style

A few of the Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe were crying in their bandanas after GW2 game designer Jon Peters revealed that Guild Wars 2 does NOT have a dedicated healing class. That's right... there's no reliance on healing monks!

No, the game developers haven't gone mad... they've just chosen to go down the path of making the main source of healing your personal heal skill, with lots of "support" options. Added to this it's also going to be impossible to die, instead you can only be "defeated"! (Which makes me wonder whether there'll be a new "Emo" class Guild Wars 2 healing

). Instead of a dedicated healing class like the monk in the original Guild Wars campaign, each profession will have their own dedicated healing slots to rely on, making them more self-sufficent and giving them more control of their own destiny... and health bar!

Added to this are greatly decreased death penalties and a new addition... "Downed" skills. Think along the lines of Borderlands "Second Wind" or Modern Warfare's "Last Stand", in GW2, when a player loses all of their health, instead of simply dying they're put into "Downed mode." While in this mode, the player has four skills to use to target enemies and fight for a chance to survive. One skill, which is available to all classes, is a call to your party for aid and also makes you invulnerable for a short period of time. The other three skills are class-dependant.

A downed Warrior could daze a foe by throwing a rock or could instead use their skill "Vengeance", which allows them to get back up and act normally for a period of time before falling down and no longer being able to use any downed skills. A downed elementalist might slow down their enemy with "Drafting Earth", or use "Mist Form" to turn themselves into a cloud of mist so they can try and get away. In Guild Wars 2 each class has different downed skills with different effects.

While downed, you cannot move; you are lying on your back, though you can still be attacked, which will send you into a "Defeated" state, where you'll wait for an ally to resurrect you or be resurrected at a waypoint. However, if you manage to kill an enemy while you're downed and before your consciousness meter runs out, you will "Rally" which returns you to life enabling you to quickly return to battle. So much more fun than laying there watching your teammates scramble to avoid a party defeat.

In Guild Wars 2 some professions have special skills that will instantly rally a fallen ally. A warrior using "I Will Avenge You," who then kills an enemy near his fallen allies, will rally those allies. No monk needed!

Any other player, regardless of profession or level can come to you and "Revive" you, bringing you back to life. If you choose not to be revived or rally, you can return to any discovered waypoint on the world map.

Each time a player is downed it will take longer to revive them. If no one revives you, you can pay a few gold to revive at a waypoint. No loss of experience, no loss of overall health, no loss of energy and NO Death Penalty! Enemies do not have a downed state or revival xcept in PvP.

One of the main benefits the Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe can see with this new system of healing and resurrection is that there'll be no need to spend half an hour spamming "Group looking for healer!" as happens in the original GW. Also, scenes such as the infamous "Monk Strike" will be a distant memory, never to hold ransom the fun of so many again.

Instead, the Guild Wars 2 system will actually encourage people to work together and support each other using buffs, active defense, and cross-profession combinations for the benefit of the party.

For instance, a warrior might use his warhorn to "Call to Arms" which improves the armor of his allies for a short time.

An elementalist can support his allies by dropping down a ground-targeted "Healing Rain" that rejuvenates allies in an area or cast an ice spell that freezes enemies as well as giving his allies Frost Armor to protect them from incoming attacks. The Ele skill "Geyser" causes a fountain of water to erupt in an area, knocking enemies away and healing allies. Healing AND damage all in one spell!

Overall, this will mean a more active role for ALL players and is a much friendlier way for players to work together and help each other to achieve their mutual goals and have a ton of fun in Guild Wars 2. Healing in Guild Wars 2.