Ok I'm surprised that there hasn't been a thread on this yet, mainly because it's estimated to be out next year and is SUPER FUCKING AWESOME.
Some background info on Guild Wars if you're new to the game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_wars
If you want more specific information, search for the 3 campaigns and expansion they have.
Now, on to the sexiness that is GW2.
If any of you have played Guild Wars, the combat can be plenty of fun sometimes. What I don't like is that it can get pretty tedious. Lets look at some of the improvements to combat in GW2 shall we? I'd like to display this game play video that mainly centers around the Ranger class that shows the improvements in combat in GW2.
(the first one is Guild Wars:Nightfall, the second is GW2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNnOxRhX78Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAh1OHBI4uM
My first thought was FUCK YES THAT BEAR LOOKS MUCH MORE AWESOME. Because I loved the Ranger in the first one. Anyways, the visuals look amazing and the harpies flying in the sky would probably lead to an event (more on this later). Ok back to combat.
As you can see, in Guild Wars the combat is pretty restricted. You can't move while casting spells, you can't dodge as effectively as in the Ranger video, and it doesn't have improvements like different parts of the body having a different variable in damage (or attacking a less armored part of the body = more damage). I like what they did with death/reviving now too. Makes it much more of a team game.
Now lets move on to professions. Guild Wars had 9 professions assuming you had all 3 campaigns. In GW2, there are 8 professions with only 4 being confirmed atm; the Warrior, Ranger, Elementalist, and Necromancer. All 4 of these were in the original Guild Wars. I'm sure they're saving the new ones for later, but I love all these classes besides the Warrior anyway. What I really like is now there are 5 races instead of just Human, and there are no restrictions on professions with any race. Each race will have specific traits, but none that will be overpowering yet will still remain a viable option. Also, the character customization when creating a new character has definitely improved. Always a plus.
Guild Wars 2 will NOT have a dedicated healer class (aka Monk). Imo this a big improvement because Monks break PvP. In GW if you were in the Random Arena and your team didn't have a monk but the other did, 99% of the time you already knew the outcome. Although they'll be missed in PvE, developers have stated that classes will have more self-healing and support moves for the entire team, so we'll see how that works out.
I'll throw in the skills/weapon bits here. Regarding skills, developers have stated that they're aiming for quality, not quantity. I look forward to this because in GW there were many skills that did the same thing but had different names (like Zojun's Shot/Point Blank Shot). Skills are also dependant on weapons as well. We'll get to that in a bit.
There are a few new types of weapons, such as the Rifle or Greatsword. I believe some classes cannot equip all the weapons but some can. The real important thing about weapons in this game is that it influences the 5 skills you have on the left side of your skill bar. A Warrior wielding a sword will have the skills Sever Artery or Gash (which inflict bleeding and deep wound, respectively), while if he wields an Axe he many have Cyclone Axe or Dismember. Your offhand also influences what skills your character has, I'm guesstimating that if an Elementalist has a Fire/Water/Air/Earth offhand, it would change the skills to match that type. Also, professions have different skills for each weapon/offhand. A Warrior who has a sword equipped will have different skills than a Ranger having a sword equipped, pretty neat huh? The right side of the skill bar will have 5 skills that you can choose for your character, not influenced by weapons or offhands.
Now we get to the juicy part. Dynamic events. I'll just quote what the site says...
"Enter the living world of Guild Wars 2 - filled with thousands of dynamic events that ebb and flow through the course of your adventures. One day there may be a thriving village filled with vendors and townspeople, the next day that village may be a smoking ruin overrun by centaurs.
Dynamic events evolve and cascade across the world in response to how you, the player, interact with them, leaving persistent effects in the game world. Will you save that village or let it burn? The choice rests with you and your fellow players.
The Dynamic Event system in Guild Wars 2 is built to be scalable and encourage impromptu group play where players are naturally cooperating together and not worried about encroaching on each other. The more the merrier!"
So basically, this has me super excited because it's really bad ass. Developers have mentioned that the age old MMORPG way of "get quest, go kill monster that will respawn, get reward" will not be present in GW2. The world evolves as you play. Let's say you get a quest from someone that centaurs are attacking a village. In most RPG's, the Centaurs would just stand there waiting for you to come and kill them (and since this would be instanced, they'd probably just respawn the next time you come). In GW2, the quest really means it. The Centaurs will be charging through the village, pillaging and killing people until you put an end to it. If you fail, there will likely be another event in that you have to retake the village from the Centaur. Pretty cool huh? Here's a video that shows how it goes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP17RfcWmFw
So yeah...I'm sure I've left a shitload out but that's the gist of it. If you want more info, here's their main site:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/
Right now my only complaint is that they haven't confirmed the Assassin classes return! >:(
Some background info on Guild Wars if you're new to the game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_wars
If you want more specific information, search for the 3 campaigns and expansion they have.
Now, on to the sexiness that is GW2.
If any of you have played Guild Wars, the combat can be plenty of fun sometimes. What I don't like is that it can get pretty tedious. Lets look at some of the improvements to combat in GW2 shall we? I'd like to display this game play video that mainly centers around the Ranger class that shows the improvements in combat in GW2.
(the first one is Guild Wars:Nightfall, the second is GW2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNnOxRhX78Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAh1OHBI4uM
My first thought was FUCK YES THAT BEAR LOOKS MUCH MORE AWESOME. Because I loved the Ranger in the first one. Anyways, the visuals look amazing and the harpies flying in the sky would probably lead to an event (more on this later). Ok back to combat.
As you can see, in Guild Wars the combat is pretty restricted. You can't move while casting spells, you can't dodge as effectively as in the Ranger video, and it doesn't have improvements like different parts of the body having a different variable in damage (or attacking a less armored part of the body = more damage). I like what they did with death/reviving now too. Makes it much more of a team game.
Now lets move on to professions. Guild Wars had 9 professions assuming you had all 3 campaigns. In GW2, there are 8 professions with only 4 being confirmed atm; the Warrior, Ranger, Elementalist, and Necromancer. All 4 of these were in the original Guild Wars. I'm sure they're saving the new ones for later, but I love all these classes besides the Warrior anyway. What I really like is now there are 5 races instead of just Human, and there are no restrictions on professions with any race. Each race will have specific traits, but none that will be overpowering yet will still remain a viable option. Also, the character customization when creating a new character has definitely improved. Always a plus.
Guild Wars 2 will NOT have a dedicated healer class (aka Monk). Imo this a big improvement because Monks break PvP. In GW if you were in the Random Arena and your team didn't have a monk but the other did, 99% of the time you already knew the outcome. Although they'll be missed in PvE, developers have stated that classes will have more self-healing and support moves for the entire team, so we'll see how that works out.
I'll throw in the skills/weapon bits here. Regarding skills, developers have stated that they're aiming for quality, not quantity. I look forward to this because in GW there were many skills that did the same thing but had different names (like Zojun's Shot/Point Blank Shot). Skills are also dependant on weapons as well. We'll get to that in a bit.
There are a few new types of weapons, such as the Rifle or Greatsword. I believe some classes cannot equip all the weapons but some can. The real important thing about weapons in this game is that it influences the 5 skills you have on the left side of your skill bar. A Warrior wielding a sword will have the skills Sever Artery or Gash (which inflict bleeding and deep wound, respectively), while if he wields an Axe he many have Cyclone Axe or Dismember. Your offhand also influences what skills your character has, I'm guesstimating that if an Elementalist has a Fire/Water/Air/Earth offhand, it would change the skills to match that type. Also, professions have different skills for each weapon/offhand. A Warrior who has a sword equipped will have different skills than a Ranger having a sword equipped, pretty neat huh? The right side of the skill bar will have 5 skills that you can choose for your character, not influenced by weapons or offhands.
Now we get to the juicy part. Dynamic events. I'll just quote what the site says...
"Enter the living world of Guild Wars 2 - filled with thousands of dynamic events that ebb and flow through the course of your adventures. One day there may be a thriving village filled with vendors and townspeople, the next day that village may be a smoking ruin overrun by centaurs.
Dynamic events evolve and cascade across the world in response to how you, the player, interact with them, leaving persistent effects in the game world. Will you save that village or let it burn? The choice rests with you and your fellow players.
The Dynamic Event system in Guild Wars 2 is built to be scalable and encourage impromptu group play where players are naturally cooperating together and not worried about encroaching on each other. The more the merrier!"
So basically, this has me super excited because it's really bad ass. Developers have mentioned that the age old MMORPG way of "get quest, go kill monster that will respawn, get reward" will not be present in GW2. The world evolves as you play. Let's say you get a quest from someone that centaurs are attacking a village. In most RPG's, the Centaurs would just stand there waiting for you to come and kill them (and since this would be instanced, they'd probably just respawn the next time you come). In GW2, the quest really means it. The Centaurs will be charging through the village, pillaging and killing people until you put an end to it. If you fail, there will likely be another event in that you have to retake the village from the Centaur. Pretty cool huh? Here's a video that shows how it goes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP17RfcWmFw
So yeah...I'm sure I've left a shitload out but that's the gist of it. If you want more info, here's their main site:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/
Right now my only complaint is that they haven't confirmed the Assassin classes return! >:(
