By Quintin Smith on January 28th, 2011 at 11:29 am.
Arenanet has posted another of its Guild Wars 2 profession spotlights! We had the Necromancer, Ranger, Warrior and Elementalist, and now we have the ever-so-fancy Guardian, who looks kind of like a Paladin without all of that religious dross attached. He’s got the same tank / support / damage thing going on, plus he’s very blue and white in his ethereal skill visuals, so yeah. Paladin. Thanks to RPS reader Mashakosha for the tip. Your kisses are in the mail.
Now, you could go through to Arenanet’s site for all the Guardian info, or you could just hang here with me and watch all the videos. Look, I’ve got some coffee perking. Make yourself at home.
How about that! Those centaurs didn’t stand a chance. Ah, the coffee’s ready. You want some?
What do you mean you take milk and sugar. I… I don’t think we have any of that. No, wait. Maybe we have some corn syrup. Let me check.
Aha! Yeah, found the corn syrup. I guess it’s a little old. Hang on, I’m sure if I find the good knife I’ll be able to cut a bit of it into your coffee. Wait here.
There we go. Just ignore the smell. It’ll dissolve in time, I reckon.
Wait, where are you going? You haven’t even touched your coffee. What do you mean you have somewhere to be? You have to be here. With me. No! Come back! We could have been BEAUTIFUL.
28/01/2011 at 11:33 Diziet Sma says:
I know it’s a silly question but are these videos at all representative of gameplay? If so, count me very much in.
28/01/2011 at 11:38 Dominic White says:
Here’s a full hour of unedited gameplay footage from Gamescom, featuring the human starting area, and a mid-game boss:
http://wl.gamereport.de/v/mvzjEXAUHA7/Guild-Wars-2/Wartower-Spotlight-GC-2010-Folge-7/
Real gameplay doesn’t look QUITE as snappy as these videos (which are all in-engine, but ‘dramatized’), but it’s not far off.
28/01/2011 at 12:19 Crescend says:
All of the skill videos are all in-game footage, except that the camera is wailing all around to grab the best angles to capture the essence of the skill used. Also they deliberately weakened the enemies to make the video more dramatic. It’s worth noting as well that the skills shown are only a fraction of all the skills you can use, so there’s alot of tactical depth.
28/01/2011 at 13:52 WeFlySpitfires says:
It’s very impressive for sure and indeed GW2 is being touted as being so amazing that it will do for MMOs what the Internet did for pornography. It’s also going to cure cancer.
28/01/2011 at 14:43 cyrenic says:
@Dominic White
Thanks for that video. The game is looking surprisingly polished already.
28/01/2011 at 16:07 Dominic White says:
That video is from a good few months back, too.
Yeah, part of why I’m so excited about the game is because of the confidence the developers have. While Final Fantasy 14 only had an awkward CGI trailer on show at Gamescom (and went on to launch as a hilarious trainwreck), GW2 had hours of proper gameplay and lengthy queues to try it out. I don’t think I’ve heard a single negative word from those who did play it, either.
I recall that Spoony (spoonyexperiment.com) said something about how just the world map screen from GW2 was more exciting than anything he’d seen of FF14.
28/01/2011 at 11:33 Navagon says:
How is increasing your shield’s shininess going to protect you from the crushing blows dealt by a giant… thingumy? Surely for that you’d need leg, back and arm shininess too?
28/01/2011 at 20:07 Zyrxil says:
What, you never took the introductory course to Theorectical Fantasy Physics? Obviously the shininess in the form of light indicates the shield is suffused with energy in other forms, in this case, latent magical/kinetic energy that is only activated upon a sufficiently energetic impact, vis-a-vis, the giant club. At this point, the latent energy becomes active, canceling out a large part of the force with which the club was swung, and also making it unnecessary for shield-bearer’s to have magically reinforced legs to stay standing.
I mean, it’s all so simple!
28/01/2011 at 11:42 Kryopsis says:
“[N]ow we have the ever-so-fancy Guardian, who looks kind of like a Paladin without all of that religious dross attached”.
His skills are more similar to that of the Paragon from Guild Wars: Nightfall but there’s certainly some of Diablo 2′s Paladin there too (not surprising, given ArenaNet’s background). It’s probably going to be the character of choice for those who played Monks in the first game.
31/01/2011 at 00:30 Nick says:
He even has at least one skill named after a monk one =)
28/01/2011 at 11:46 Mungrul says:
Guardian’s nice and all, but I’m getting worried for my favourite PvP class now, the Mesmer. When original GW released, it had six classes, and I’m assuming they’ll follow the same model for GW2, as extra classes are a good incentive to buy extra content.
I don’t think I’ve seen a class so dedicated as the Mesmer to screwing over other players in another MMO.
Playing Mesmer is all about making the opposition rage-quit :D
28/01/2011 at 12:08 Chalky says:
ArenaNet have revealed that there will be 8 classes in GW2 instead of 6. Five have been revealed so far, leaving one “scholar” profession and two “adventurer” professions to be revealed.
The smart money is on the final scholar being a mesmer in my opinion. Concept art backs up the presence of this class and it was such a unique element to gw1 it would be a real shame for it to be removed.
That said, in order to work with the new rules of GW2, they will have to be dramatically changed from the GW1 mesmer. No energy denial with such large energy pools and replenishing potions. A different interrupt mechanic. Hexes removed in favour of “conditions”. The mesmer is going to be one of the most interesting reveals simply because of how much it will have changed.
28/01/2011 at 12:13 Crescend says:
If you’ve not read the guild wars novels yet, SPOILER ALERT!!!
…
Queen Jennah is revealed to be a powerful mesmer, which pretty much counts as a proof for me.
For the remaining 2 unproven professions, I’m betting on Assassin and some sort of Gunslinger, assassins because Caithe in Edge of Destiny is using dual daggers and speaks all about enemy weak points + no profession yet knows how to use dual daggers, and gunslinger because no profession yet can use pistols which were told to be in the game.
28/01/2011 at 12:15 NieA7 says:
There are Mesmers in the two books they’ve released too, so it seems pretty likely they’ll be back. As for the other two they’ve hinted that one’s going to be an assassin/rogue type thing, no idea about the other though. Might be some kind of engineer seeing as they’ve introduced firearms.
28/01/2011 at 12:44 Dominic White says:
Yeah, Mesmers seem a given. A sneaky-backstabby class seems likely, and given the focus on firearms in a lot of the concept art, a gunslinger would be an interesting one to round off the set.
Each class is supposed to be multi-role, too. Elementalists have a defensive/healing mode, warriors are just as dangerous at range with a bow, etc.
28/01/2011 at 15:57 dwl says:
That will be interesting. Given the mashup of Monk and Ritualist skills for the Guardian it’s possible that the something similar will be happen to the Mesmer and Assassin classes. Both of which are a lot of fun to play.
I’m beginning to think that the Mesmer will get some kind of pet ( the golems in the trailers suggest something like this ) ….. or maybe they’re just rangers… in any case I think the play style of the classes will remain with the mechanics altered a little to fit the new game. Which is a good thing.
28/01/2011 at 11:49 Corrupt_Tiki says:
@ Mashakosha,
Kisses? Bro you got ripped, take their ass to court and sue them for unpaid royalties, capitalist pigs.
28/01/2011 at 12:04 Chunga says:
A game with this level of graphics is going to need not a computer but rather a small nuclear reactor to run and it will not pass the girl-friend test either, that’ll be an epic fail if anything, knowing how much time I spent as a small but very forsaken WoW-grinding necromancer. But I am still watching all news I can find of Guild Wars 2. One can always dream… And now it’s time for coffee!
28/01/2011 at 12:41 Dominic White says:
Apparently it runs on a slightly enhanced version of the GW1 engine. Word is it should be pretty scaleable.
28/01/2011 at 14:30 Chunga says:
Sounds a bit too good, but if so, I could actually (if probably only barely) play GW2 on an AMD 3000+ with an Asus AH3450. Positively stone-age stuff. (I have played GW1 on it and it worked fine enough, not sure if the expansions upped the specs)
28/01/2011 at 23:38 JackShandy says:
I feel like I should know this, but what’s the girlfriend test?
28/01/2011 at 12:21 Crescend says:
My guess for the remaining 3 professions are mesmer, assassin and gunslinger.
Mesmers because they appear in guild wars novels,
assassins because Caithe resembles alot of an assassin with her dual daggers and all the weak points she speaks of + no profession yet can use dual daggers
and gunslingers because no profession can yet use pistols, which were told to be in the game.
28/01/2011 at 12:42 cytokindness says:
TIME TO WULF IN
FIVE
FOUR
THREE
TWO
ONE
28/01/2011 at 14:08 cjlr says:
Nah, man, you gotta wait till we roll around to his time zone…
28/01/2011 at 15:23 NieA7 says:
Yeah, just kick back and relax for now (but don’t drink the coffee). No need to hurry along the inevitable.
31/01/2011 at 00:33 Nick says:
I thought he left because he threw a giant hissy fit at absolutely nothing and decided RPS was scum.
28/01/2011 at 12:57 HexagonalBolts says:
Any idea when this is meant to be out?
28/01/2011 at 13:06 Dominic White says:
No release dates given so far. At least ‘When it’s done’ rings a little more positively for Arenanet, what with having plenty of playable content available last year.
28/01/2011 at 13:20 sonofsanta says:
This post would explain the need to escape through your bathroom window. It’s all becoming clear now…
28/01/2011 at 13:45 ross_angus says:
Does anyone else feel sleepy after drinking Quinn’s coffee?
28/01/2011 at 13:42 Zogtee says:
The only thing I can complain about is that the “I’m putting my weapon away now” animation plays a little bit too fast. And the lack of blood. Why is there no blood? He hit that thing right in the head with an axe!
But who am I kidding, just release the damned thing already. If THAT OTHER game could get away with having bugs all up it’s arse and still sell, then so can GW2.
28/01/2011 at 15:28 disperse says:
Yay, freckles! That is all.
28/01/2011 at 16:04 dwl says:
Pun-of-the-day award for this article!
28/01/2011 at 16:53 kalidanthepalidan says:
So far this looks to be the class for me!
But rangers get pets and I do love having pets…
And mesmers were great as well in GW….
And one of the classes will get firearms….
Okay nevermind.
28/01/2011 at 17:38 Dominic White says:
Elementalists can transform into a steerable damage-dealing tornado, too.
And Necromancers heal themselves via blood-sucking squid demons and can summon exploding bone-monkeys.
Every class here sounds genuinely fun.
28/01/2011 at 19:02 kalidanthepalidan says:
Argh!!! Stop with the cool stuff. If I ignore the other classes it will make my decision easier.
28/01/2011 at 19:08 Vinraith says:
IIRC there aren’t going to be any mesmers in GW2, sadly.
28/01/2011 at 19:09 Dominic White says:
They’ve neither confirmed nor denied either way, but one of the major characters (who supposedly appears in GW2) from the novels they’ve been doing is a Mesmer. Having the class appear via a major hero character, and never be playable would be rather strange.
28/01/2011 at 19:15 Vinraith says:
@Dominic
Interesting. I would have sworn I’d read somewhere that they were going with a combined caster class in lieu of dedicated “damage casters” and “meta casters.” Presumably I’m either remembering wrong or working from old information. I admit I haven’t kept up with GW2 news so much since I stopped playing GW1.
28/01/2011 at 21:16 Dominic White says:
Just keep in mind what they did to the Elementalist. A true multi-role caster, capable of switching element mid-combat in order to cycle through healing, defensive, offensive, etc roles.
I can easily see them doing the same with the Mesmer. They could do hexes, illusions, mind control and other such stuff.
28/01/2011 at 17:36 aeromorte says:
Yes its nice now gief game kek
28/01/2011 at 17:57 HeroJez says:
Looks ace.. I hope I can be a Charr guardian. But I didn’t play the first one, so I guess I’ll just have to wait and jump in at the deep end. I also like the fact there aren’t 30-odd skills to learn like in WoW. I like the stance-dancing (RIP 4.0.6) but it’s a bit awkward that any level 85 you play has a bazillion skill and you have to bind every single one…!
10-12 would be great.
28/01/2011 at 18:51 Dominic White says:
The skill bar in GW2 is an interesting one. It’s 10 slots, but the skills in slots 1-5 change depending on which of your weapon sets you have equipped (and can switch mid-combat without penalty). 6-8 are based on your class/race, 9 is your chosen healing-type ability (you have to choose one, as every class is meant to be self-sustaining) and 10 is your special Elite skill.
So in total, you probably have about 15 active skills available at any given time, but can swap them out and rejig pretty quickly when in towns.
28/01/2011 at 19:33 FriendlyFire says:
I hope the character limit will be 8/account because I seriously cannot fathom myself not making a character for each class :D
29/01/2011 at 10:34 Dodger says:
SoA still exists in GW2. That alone is enough reason to buy it, and I don’t even care if they changed the functionality completely.