Guild Wars 2 Necromancer Unveiled

After the excitement at gamescom 2010 when the Guild Wars 2 demo unveiled the Necromancer as one of the playable professions, it was only a matter of time until ArenaNet opened the floodgates of information for the master of the undead.

Life Force

Life force is at the core of the GW2 Necromancer. It's a special type of energy used only by the Necromancer profession.

The Necro builds up Life Force by attacking and killing foes. He feeds on death, summons the dead and literally sucks the lifeblood from his enemies.

Each of his weapon sets also have skills that give the Necro life force, and he gains an even larger amount of life force for kills that happen nearby.

The Guild Wars 2 Necromancer also has an array of utility skills at his disposal which build up life force. For example, the "Ghost Armor" skill improves a Necromancer's armor and adds life force every time he takes damage.

Once he reaches a certain life force threshold, this allows him to activate "Death Shroud" and enter a spirit form, leaving his body behind.

Death Shroud

Death Shroud is a special ability, which can be used by the Necromancer at any time, using his life force as a secondary health bar.

When faced with defeat a Necromancer can use his "Death Shroud" ability instead of going into the "downed" state when he runs out of health. While in this shroud, the Necro assumes a spectral form which allows him to continue fighting until he either runs out of life force or kills a foe, which will rally him back into his own body.

In his Death Shroud, a necromancer has a number of special skills available to him. One of those allows him to summon a shadow fiend, a special minion unique to this form.

Skills

Guild Wars 2 Necromancers have a unique set of special skills, which are similar, but also vastly different to those previously found on these masters of the dark arts.

Minions - The Undead are a Necro's best friend and the GW2 Necromancer continues on the tradition of summoning undead minions to attack his foes and carry out his bidding. In Guild Wars 2 however, every minion-summoning spell now has an associated secondary spell that appears after the minion has been summoned. This secondary spell destroys the minion while providing a powerful effect to the necromancer.

For example, the Necromancer's healing skill, "Summon Blood Fiend", creates a minion that heals its master while it attacks (like Vampiric Horror's in the original guildwars). After the minion has been summoned, the "Summon Blood Fiend" skill is replaced by the skill "Taste of Death", which allows the necromancer to destroy the minion and recover a larger chunk of health.

Wells - These are created at the Necromancer's location and are persistent spells that allow a necromancer to control the area around him, affecting targets within the skill's range.

"Well of Blood", for example, applies a regeneration boon to all allies within it (similar to the original Guild Wars skill). The difference with Guild Wars 2 is that a necromancer can only have one well skill active at any one time.

Marks - A new addition to the Necromancer arsenal, marks are ground-targeted spells with a variety of potent effects. "Mark of Blood", for example, gives health regeneration to nearby allies while also damaging enemies. Marks will trigger after a set period of time, but a necromancer can always trigger their marks on command by hitting the skill again.

Fear - Necromancers use this removable condition, which is not available to any other profession, to make an enemy run directly away from the necromancer for a short period of time.

For example, the spell "Doom" will inflict fear on a single target.

Here's a look at the Guild Wars 2 Necromancer in action!

Necromancer Weapons

The Guild Wars 2 Necromancer has a variety of one-handed, two-handed and offhand weapon items to choose from.

Main Hand : Axe, Dagger, Scepter (all one-handed)
Off Hand : Dagger, Focus, Warhorn
Two-Handed: Staff

As mentioned earlier, each of these weapon sets have skills that give the Necromancer life force.

Due in no small part to the Death Shroud ability, Necromancers are sure to be one of the most popular professions to play (and one of the most resilient) in Guild Wars 2.

Entire GW2 Demo on Video

If you have a spare 45 minutes I'd really recommend watching the entire GW2 demo video below. It's the whole shebang from start to finish as played at gamescom 2010. Eric Flannum walks you through the entire process of creating a new Guild Wars 2 character, taking that character through the Shaemoor tutorial, into several dynamic events and finishes with the mid-level Charr in battle against "The Shatterer". Along the way he talks about weapons, spells, armor, dynamic events, party formation and a whole lot more!

As I said, the video takes around 45 minutes but it's a GREAT introduction to Guild Wars 2 narrated by someone who knows all there is to know about GW2!

Level 1 Human Elementalist

Another great video the Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe found shows a level 1 Human Elementalist defending Shaemoor against a Centaur invasion. It serves as a tutorial and as a way to get people straight into the action and playing the game quickly.

It gives a good introduction to the GW2 Elementalist class and the skills at their disposal at the start of the game and demonstrates how easy it is to change attunements to enable a completely different skill set without having to go to an outpost or town as in previous Guild Wars games.

Once again the accompanying commentary is in English by an ArenaNet guy explaining what it is that you're seeing and why it's there.

Guild Wars 2 Voted Best Online Game

In what seems like a well-earned and fitting way to end Europe's largest gaming expo, Guild Wars 2 received the award as "Best Online Game of gamescom 2010". From what we've seen it'd be pretty hard to find a more deserving winner. GG ArenaNet!

Next up, the Guild Wars 2 demo is headed back to the States, so North American players will get their first taste of Guild Wars 2 at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle from Friday September 3 to Sunday September 5. See you there!

Guild Wars 2 Character Customisation

Here's one of the best videos the Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe have found so far. It demonstrates the GW2 character creation process from start to finish, resulting in a Human Female Elementalist. Along the way it reveals how a character can be customised not only in appearance but also in personality, attitude and social standing through the implementation of an individual biography.

Guild Wars 2 is going to ROCK!

Guild Wars 2 Gamescom Videos

The Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe have been spending a lot of time poring over the numerous videos that have emerged from gamescom 2010, looking for the best, most informative videos to share with you.

Here's a couple we've found that fit the bill :)

The first begins by showing a new Human characters home instance in Divinity's Reach and moves on to show a level 47 Charr Warrior in action in a massive battle against the dragon boss "The Shatterer".

The second video demonstrates mapping and the Scout system, shows how Dynamic Events work (including a battle with the River Drake Broodmother), and ends with a tour of Divinity's Reach. The Palace Gardens have to be seen to be believed... they are visually amazing!

What makes these Guild Wars 2 videos stand out is the accompanying commentary (in English) by an ArenaNet guy who explains what you're seeing and why it's there. Great stuff!

Charr Necromancer

Another great video from the Guild Wars 2 demo at Gamescom 2010, this time showing the level 47 Charr Necromancer in battle with a dragon boss known as "The Shatterer".

While the commentary is in German, the video makers have added some English subtitles. The video quality is great and gives a good insight into how the Necromancer class will work in GW2.

Human Ranger, Charr Elementalist Video

Auron sent the Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe a link to two of the best quality videos we've seen. Even though the commentator speaks German in the first video, the gameplay is in English and features a newly created Human Ranger experiencing the beginning of the game.

Check it out!

The second video is two distinct parts. The first shows the entire process of creating a female ranger (complete with a big dog for a pet) and continues on to show that character playing throughout the entire demo content. There's no commentary but the sound from the game is clearly audible.

The second part of the video (from 29:22 onwards) shows the eventual creation of a Female Charr Elementalist who then continues to play the demo as a level 45-50 character. She's shown exploring the Blazeridge Steppes and mapping to various areas, discovering waypoints and participating in random dynamic events as they unfold. At one stage she stops to experiment with armor dyeing and the process seemed quick, easy and very effective. It's fun watching her run on all fours then stand to cast spells and fight. Meteor Shower is simply awesome! Several minutes of the video shows the Charr Elementalist joining the battle against "The Shatterer" and the reward chest which spawns once that boss is defeated. In the last minute of the video we get to see the Elementalist skill "Tornado" score a critical hit of more than 7,000 on one foe. OUCH!

In total the second video is 54 minutes long but it's well worth the download as it gives a terrific feel for how Guild Wars 2 will be played. Thanks Auron!

GW2 Q&A with Colin Johanson

One of the most interesting interviews I've seen from Gamescom 2010 was the Q&A with Guild Wars 2 Lead Content Designer Colin Johanson. The GW2 Blog Krewe are really impressed with the guy as his passion for the game is obvious and he communicates really well.

Some of our favourite things that Colin spoke are listed below.

• How the dynamic event system works, bringing players together to play in adhoc groups and making it feel like you're part of a community.
• How a player's choices and actions in their personal storyline permanently affect their character and home instance.
• There'll be two forms of PvP. The first, WvW (World vs World), takes place in an open world with any number of players participating regardless of level and experience involving huge castle sieges and giant battles. The second type, Competitive PvP, uses structured teams, balanced teams, very action-oriented almost like a first person shooter style.

Watch the video and you'll see why the Guild Wars 2 Blog Krewe are so excited!

Pre-Release GW2 Video

Just a couple of days out from the GW2 Demo in Cologne and pre-release video has already leaked of the in-game action!

Here's some of the first things you'll see as a level 1 Human player... and you can see the yet-to-be-released Necromancer in action!

I'm sure these wont be the last pre-release GW2 videos to "leak".

GW2 Video Update

In the just released GW2 video update, along with some spectacular video of in-game action there are some great comments from game designers, artists and even Mike O'Brien, founder and president of ArenaNet.

"If you love MMO's you'll want to check out Guild Wars 2... and if you hate MMO's you'll REALLY want to check out Guild Wars 2".

Guild Wars 2 takes everything you love about Guild Wars 1 and puts it into a persistent world that's got more active combat, a fully branching personalised storyline, a new event system to get people playing together and STILL no monthly fees!

Daniel Dociu, art director, talks about the attention to detail that's been put into the visual parts of the game... "we treat our environments as if they are characters themselves".

"When you look at the art in Guild Wars 2 you'll say... Wow, that's visually stunning I've never seen anything like that before... When you play the combat in GW2 you'll say... Wow, that's incredible I've never seen anything like that" gushes lead content designer Colin Johanson.

One of my favourite quotes from Colin was "We just don't want players to grind in Guild Wars 2... we want to change the way that people view combat".

Ree Soesbee, game designer was equally passionate. "We do not want to build the same MMO everyone else is building". In Guild Wars 2 it's YOUR world, it's YOUR story, you affect things around you. A single decision made by a player cascades out in a chain of events. The most important thing in any game should be the player. We have built a game for them."

The video is a must watch ... here it is. ENJOY!

The GW2 Blog Krewe are feeling even more jealous of the people who'll be able to get to the hands-on demo of Guild Wars 2 at gamescom in Cologne, followed by a second showing at PAX Prime in Seattle two weeks later.

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