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The Guild Wars 2 Krewe blog about their favorite MMORPG!
Guild Wars 2 Healing
Some of the Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe were crying in their storage chests after Jon Peters, one of the game designers on GW2, revealed that Guild Wars 2 does NOT have a dedicated healing class. That's right... there's no reliance on healing monks!
No, they haven't gone mad... instead they've chosen to go down the path of making it "alright" to die! (Which makes me wonder whether there'll be a new "Emo" class  ). Instead of a dedicated healing class like the monk in the original Guild Wars campaigns, each profession will now have their own dedicated healing slots, 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. 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 a number of downed skills they can use to target enemies and fight for a chance to survive.
For example, a downed elementalist might lock down their enemy with Grasping Earth, while a downed warrior could daze a foe by throwing a rock.
While downed, a player can still be attacked, which will send them into a "Defeated" state, where they'll wait for an ally to resurrect them or be resurrected at a waypoint. However, if you manage to kill an enemy while you're downed, you will "Rally" which returns you to life enabling you to quickly return to battle. So much more fun that 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 revivie at a waypoint. No loss of experience, no loss of overall health, no loss of energy and NO Death Penalty!
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.
Overall, this is a much friendlier way for players to work together and help each other to achieve their mutual goals in Guild Wars 2. 
Guild Wars 2 Activities
Something which is hugely popular among the Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe is the prospect of "mini games within the game" which was recently revealed by designer John Stumme.
These "Activities" are sideline events which players can participate in regardless of their play style or mood, when they either don't have the time to or just don't feel like killing monsters, exploring dungeons, following their personal storyline or slugging it out in PvP battles etc.
In Guild Wars 2 the capital cities of the five playable races will have a variety of fun activities that are unique to each location. These mini-games will cover a wide range of game styles including 1-on-1 tests of skill, team based games and even an out-of-control free-for-all!
One of the great aspects of these activities is that they aren?t restricted by character level so a new character is going to be just as effective at playing an activity as a max-level character equipped with all of the best gear that the game has to offer.
One example of these activities is the Bar Brawl. No outside weapons are allowed in the bar brawl so players need to rely on their fists, feet and whatever they may find laying around in the bar environment. tables, chairs, bottles and kegs, you?re encouraged to fight dirty in order to win! Arm yourself with different flavored ales, each with unique effects when consumed and weigh into battle against all and sundry. You can choose to throw the bottle to stun your opponent or use it to bludgeon them into submission.
If an arcade-style game is more your style then you can test your skill at the shooting range, where you?ll compete against other players to rack up the highest score before time runs out.
The snowball fights of the Guild Wars Wintersday event will also be making a return as one of the games within the game of Guild Wars 2. There will be unique activities to experience and part of the fun lies in traveling from city to city and trying them all. 
Guild Wars 2 Written Language
One of the cool things the Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe have been impressed with is the attention to detail the GW2 game developers have paid. The latest example comes in the effort being put into creating, balancing and maintaining the written language system used thus far in the world of Guild Wars.
Matthew Medina, one of the content designers at ArenaNet, has been working with fellow team members implementing subtle but rewarding elements of lore into the written languages of Tyria and refining how they'll be used in Guild Wars 2.
Says Matthew, "When we started development on Guild Wars 2 I knew from the beginning that I wanted to have a fully integrated set of writing systems that would include all the written languages we already have, plus a couple of new ones. Our team set to work collecting our existing alphabets, crafting new ones, and setting guidelines for the written languages that players will discover in Guild Wars 2."
Players will have the opportunity to read and translate examples of two new writing systems in Guild Wars 2. Over the past 220 years, New Krytan has become the standard writing system in Tyria and is used widely throughout the human kingdom, the asura colleges, and by the norn. "The other language will remain secret for now" says Matthew. 
The end result is that translatable writing systems, both old and new, will be found throughout Tyria, though deciphering these alphabets will be completely optional.
Rest assured that if you see writing in Guild Wars 2, you?ll almost certainly be capable of reading it, something which will make the game play experience richer, more absorbing and most certainly more fun.
GW2 Character Traits
Guild Wars 2 game designer, Ben Miller, dished up some tasty information regarding GW2 Character "Traits" and how they are used to improve a character's abilities and effectiveness.
Traits will combine with your skills and attributes, becoming part of your overall "build" in order to make you even more powerful.
Each profession has its own set of trait lines, with roughly 100 traits for each profession, resulting in countless variations to allow players to build a really unique character based on the choices they make during their gameplay.
Traits are acquired by completing profession-based challenges which will be scattered throughout the Guild Wars 2 world. Each profession has its own set of trait lines, similar to the profession specific attribute lines in the original Guild Wars. Two examples Ben gives are for the Elementalist and the Warrior.
Elementalists seek ancient knowledge locked in tomes or particularly powerful elemental locations. For instance, you may walk into an inn and persuade a shadowy stranger to tell you about a mysterious tome full of arcane knowledge. If you are successful at aquiring the tome it will unlock the secrets of magical energy.
The less intellectually-blessed Warriors train physically, bash stuff, drink stuff and eat stuff. A Warrior's challenge may be to duel a legendary swordmaster and, if victorious, the swordmaster will teach you his skills, allowing you to select the Sword Mastery trait.
Each trait line has a number of major and minor slots. Warriors have two general trait lines called Power and Tactics as well as trait lines for each of the weapons they can wield. As your character masters traits, you slot them into these lines, affecting your character and the abilities they have. You may choose to stack traits that increase your Warrior's strength attribute so your individual melee attacks do more damage.
The rules for changing traits are extremely flexible. You can respec your character at will, any time you are outside of combat, without having to go back to a town or outpost.
There are countless unique trait combinations to experiment with, which will let actively master the profession you've chosen.
In Guild Wars 2 YOU get to pick the character traits that suit YOUR playing style! How much fun is THAT going to be?! 
Guild Wars 2 Warrior
When it comes to weapons the Guild Wars 2 Warrior is the master of mayhem! Able to wield 9 different weapons, in 19 different ways, with each serving a different purpose, players can equip their warrior to suit their own play style.
The old faithful weapons from Guild Wars 1 are still available... Axes, Swords and Hammers... but in GW2 the warrior also has the option of using Maces, two-handed Greatswords, Longbows and even Rifles!
When wielding one-handed weapons in their main hand, warriors can also use shields and warhorns in their offhand or even choose to wield two weapons! A warrior equipped with the Weapon Master "trait" (more about the Trait system in a later post) can switch back and forth between his two active weapon sets in combat, cutting a devastating path through his foes.
The warrior's choice of weapons can be...
Main Hand Weapons : Axe, Sword, Mace.
Offhand Items : Shield, Warhorn, Axe, Sword, Mace.
Two-Handed Weapons : Hammer, Greatsword, Longbow, Rifle.
Axe Warrior quickly builds up his adrenaline to deliver powerful spike attacks to cut down his enemies.
Sword Warrior is quick, agile and highly mobile, bouncing between foes with a "Savage Leap", inflicting bleeding on his foes as he goes.
Hammer Warrior smashes his enemies and pounds the ground, staggering groups of foes with devastating area attacks.
Mace Warrior uses powerful stunning attacks to disrupt foes and hits them where it hurts leaving them susceptible to further blows.
Greatsword Warrior uses sweeping area of effect attacks to decimate his foes with his two-handed weapon.
Longbow Warrior inflicts fiery area of effect damage using incendiary arrow.
Rifle Warrior pulls distant foes or delivers the final killing shot on fleeing enemies using the single-target ranged weapon.
Here's a sneak peek of the Guild Wars 2 Warrior in action... 
As in Guild Wars 1, adrenaline plays a big part in the damage output of the warrior. At the start a fight the warrior has zero adrenaline but as the battle progresses he gains one strike of adrenaline with every attack they make. In Guild Wars 2 warriors have three stages of adrenal power that take increasing amounts of strikes to fill. They can wait for the adrenaline to hit maximum or they can release their stored adrenaline with a "Burst" skill.
Each weapon has one Burst skill that improves at each stage of adrenaline charge, resulting in more damage, increased skill duration, additional conditions or increased condition duration. These Burst skills use all of the warrior's adrenaline so should be used wisely.
Other familiar Warrior abilities such as Stances and Shouts are back in Guild Wars 2
Stances : Lets you turn on adrenaline enhancement at the cost of energy regeneration. For example, a warrior could hit "Berserker's Stance" which drains his energy, but give him adrenaline regeneration. Toggling off the skill will send it into the recharge phase.
Shouts : Spells that affect a large area, giving bonuses to allies or debuffing enemies. A warrior using the shout "On My Mark" can call a foe to be targetted by party memebers and lower the enemy's armor rating. Added to this are traits that increase the number of targets your shouts affect.
A few special skill types have been added, making the GW2 warrior even more fearsome.
Charge Skills : For even more impressive attacks, some skills can be held down to power them up. A Mace Warrior can power up the skill "Obliterate" through four different power levels and then release it at a particular level to inflict increasing amounts of damage to their unfortunate target.
Chains : In a great improvement to efficiency, Guild Wars 2 Warriors now have a set of three skills that share a single skill slot! The sword warrior for example, has the chained skills "Sever Artery", "Gash", and "Final Thrust" all on the same key, so rather than using three skillbar slots, they stack to fill only one slot. Similar in activation to the GW1 Assassin, chains go off in sequence if you are hitting your target. In this example Gash becomes available only if Sever Artery hits its target and then Final Thrust becomes available only if Gash hits. Chains effectively give a warrior two extra weapon skills on a weapon set. The GW2 Krewe LOVE this concept!
Banners : The warrior calls down banners to buff his allies with attack power. A banner can be picked up and carried around to move the buff, or it can be planted in an area to convey the buff, allowing the warrior to continue fighting. One example is Banner of Courage, which increases the melee damage of allies within its range. There are also traits which increase the duration of your banners.
One thing's for sure, the Guild Wars 2 warrior is a far more versatile, resilient and destructive class than we have ever seen before. 
Guild Wars 2 Demo Release
ArenaNet's Chris Lye has just announced the unveiling of the first public hands-on demo of Guild Wars 2 will be in Cologne, Germany at gamescom August 19th - 22nd! If you want to be the first in your guild to play GW2 this is the show to attend.
Other ArenaNet staff will be on-hand including studio head Mike O?Brien and German community manager Martin Kerstein.
For those of us who can't make it to Germany ArenaNet will also be out in force at PAX in their hometown of Seattle with a full crew of artists, designers and community people ? as well as a number of hands-on demo stations of Guild Wars 2. Get in line early for those!
Hey, I've been good and I have a new stocking that's going to need filling, so wouldn't Christmas be a great time to release Guild Wars 2? 
GW2 Marketplace
The Guild Wars 2 design team have certainly brightened the day for many of the GW2 Krewe today with the announcement of a GW2 Marketplace!
The in-game Marketplace will support postings from both sellers AND buyers and will also be available out of game through your web browser. While you must be in-game to put a new item up for sale, you will be able to browse the market, make bids, or even cancel your own auctions and offers without running the game.
If the items you have on offer sell while you?re offline the funds will be deposited in your "bank account" and the item removed from your inventory and placed in the buyer's storage. Similarly, if you place a bid for an item and it is successful the item will be waiting for you in your storage when you next log in, with the amount you bid being withdrawn from your bank account and deposited into the sellers bank account.
Another huge step forward for Guild Wars 2 fans to look forward to.
Guild Wars 2 Elementalist
My first character in the original Guild Wars was an Elementalist. I just loved being the firebug and raining Meteor Showers and Fire Storms down on marauding foes. For myself and other Elemental fans, the upgraded Guild Wars 2 Elementalist looks to be made to please!
Controlling fire, air, water and earth the GW2 Elementalist once again has the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack. Now the Ele has the added ability to adapt to new threats by "Attuning" to any of the four elements as the need arises, receiving intrinsic bonuses that continually empower.
Fire Elementalist - FIRE attunement automatically causes flame damage to any foe foolish enough to touch the Ele, who still has the ability to inflict massive damage on multiple enemies by raining down molten rock from above or turning the ground to fire.
Air Elementalist - AIR attunement causes nearby enemies to be continuously shocked by lightning strikes and transforms the destructive powers of wind and lightning into dazzling bolts of lightning which surge from the Elementalist's fingertips.
Water Elementalist - WATER attunement provides nearby allies with continuous healing while offering the Elementalist a means of controlling an opponent's movement with slippery ice or by freezing foes solid.
Earth Elementalist - EARTH attunement offers automatic magical protection to the Elementalist along with powerful defensive skills which can turn the ground, or even flesh, to stone. The earth Ele is not just a defender though as volcanic eruptions and seismic shocks are all at the Elementalist's call.
Guild Wars 2 Elementalists have a number of special spell types:
Glyphs ? enhance or modify the natural power of the Elementalist to increase the damage, range, and duration of spells.
Signets ? Signets provide an ongoing benefit to the Elementalist, but can also be activated for a greater effect.
Conjure Spells ? Summon useful items and potent weapons that she or other party members can use.
Area Spells ? Create hazards and mayhem all over the field of battle.
Ok... here's a sneak peek of some of the Elementalist skills in action...
I'm now thinking that my first Guild Wars 2 character will definately be an Elementalist!
Guild Wars 2 Combat
Eric Flannum, the Lead Designer for Guild Wars 2, has let loose some inside information on the Combat system being fine-tuned for GW2.
One priority has been making the simple act of moving around and interacting with the world an enjoyable experience for players, who will now enjoy being able to run, jump and swim freely. From a combat perspective, your character's position in Guild Wars 2 battles will actually matter, with lots of attacks that encourage and reward tactical player positioning and movement.
Important in GW2 was for combat to be visually appealing with lots of distinct and impressive visual skill effects such as players shape-shifting into massive tornadoes, giant crushing stone hands, or flocks of vicious birds being summoned.
The centerpiece of the Guild Wars 2 combat system will be a TEN-SLOT SKILL BAR and a choice of TWO weapon sets, both noticeably different from the original GW configuration. Depending on the player's profession and weapon choices, the first five skills on the skill bar are automatically chosen to ensure that each weapon is balanced with a fun combination of skills. The remaining five skills are free to be chosen by the player from a pool of skills determined by both profession and race. One of these slots is dedicated to elite skills that trigger visually spectacular and powerful effects. Another slot is dedicated to healing skills which will replenish the health of the player's character and that of his allies.
Overall though, Guild Wars 2 will have a less complex combat system, with fewer overall skills, leaving the screen as clean and unintimidating as possible.
Official Guild Wars 2 Blog
In another sign that GW2 is getting closer to release, ArenaNet have just launched their Official Guild Wars 2 blog and it's got the GW2 Blog Krewe here VERY excited!
While we're really looking forward to blogging about the game from a player's perspective, ArenaNet's blog is going to be a fantastic source of Guild Wars 2 information as it will be coming straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. From behind the scenes where the developers, artists and story-writers get their heads together and work to build GW2 into the BEST MMORPG ever!
Reading through Mike O'Brien's first blog entry, he reveals some of the thinking behind the gameplay and how the designers are striving to make Guild Wars 2 more SOCIAL and more FUN to play... from moment to moment!
Here's a quote I really liked...
"GW2 doesn?t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn?t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn?t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn?t have a monthly fee."
What's not to like about that?!
Now I could quote all day but my advice is to head on over to the Official Guild Wars 2 Blog and make sure you bookmark it!
OK, OK... One last quote from Mike before I go...
"As you?re reading this, we?re playing the game constantly, tweaking it and polishing it, adding more content, and getting it ready for you. In the end, this isn?t just our game ? we want it to be yours as well ? and we can?t wait to play it with you."
And THAT my friends is why the GW2 Blog Krewe are VERY excited!
Guild Wars Novel - Ghosts of Ascalon
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While you wait for Guild Wars 2 to be released, acclaimed fantasy author Matt Forbeck has teamed with Jeff Grubb to co-author the first Guild Wars novel, "Ghosts of Ascalon", which helps to set the stage for the release of GW2.
The story takes place one year prior to Guild Wars 2 and revolves around a mis-matched group of adventures and their search for a long-lost Charr artifact "The Claw of the Khan-Ur", which is hidden somewhere within the ruins of fallen Ascalon. Until the Claw is returned, the Charr Legions ignore the efforts of the Queen of the besieged descendants of Ascalon to negotiate a treaty.
The adventurers set forth into the haunted, war-torn land that was once Ascalon to retrieve the Claw and help the Queen's bid for peace, but the undead King who rules Ascalon won't surrender it easily... and not everyone wants peace!
Ghosts of Ascalon is scheduled for release in North America and Europe but it can also be ordered from online retailers such as Amazon. Sounds like the perfect way to pass the time until Guild Wars 2 is "at a store near you"!
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Guild Wars 2 Character Level Cap
One of the most anticipated Guild Wars 2 features (and one of the most speculated about) is the level cap for characters. In the original GW series the cap was 20, which was easily and quickly achieved, with no benefit other than skill points after that.
In GW2 it's been confirmed that there WILL be a maximum character level and that it will be higher than 20. Some have been speculating it will be as high as 100, with one poor soul insisting it will be "over 9000!!!" (though the GW2 Blog Krewe believe his exposure to too many DragonBall Z episodes may have clouded his judgement). 
Lead designer Eric Flannum has gone on record stating "We will not be retaining the level 20 cap. We will announce the exact nature and level of the Guild Wars 2 level cap early next year but let me state that our philosophy of allowing players to play the game without grinding their life away is something that is unchanged from Guild Wars 1."
Other sources have confirmed that the primary goal of the character advancement process will be to avoid forcing PvE players into the grind-based game-play that too often accompanies a high level cap while still allowing players of different levels the freedom to play together.
This same philosophy will apply to competitive play where players will be able to engage in balanced, organised PvP (similar to GvG in the original GW) without the need to first unlock skills, level up characters and find equipment. Right from the start, all characters will be the same power level and will have access to the same equipment.
Day by day the Guild Wars 2 release gets closer. We can't wait!
Previous Guild Wars 2 Blog entries are linked in the right hand column.
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