Guild Wars 2 and GWJ: Launch Date And Final Beta Weekend

After looking through all the skills and traits I think my first character is going to be a Sylvari Engineer that uses the Elixir Gun and at set of utility Elixirs. Really more of an Alchemist than an Engineer, hopefully making this a pretty cool concept build.

I'm am liking the idea of Engineer more now that I understand how their toolbelt mechanic works. So all the Engineer's heals and utility skills will add a secondary skill to your toolbelt (F1-F4). Those skills are related to the heal or utility skill but on a separate cool down and can be used at any time.

As an example Elixir H is a healing skill that when used will heal you. Just for having that equipped your F1 button will have a separate skill that will allow you to Throw Elixir H for an AoE buff. The throw is on its own cool down and treated as a separate skill.

Another example is the Flamethrower utility skill. This skill allows you to swap your weapon bar to equip a flamethrower with its own attacks. The toolbelt ability that goes along with this is Incendiary Ammo which allow you to add burning to any of your attacks even if you are not currently using the flamethrower.

Yeah, the engineer is just an insanely diverse profession. You got a bit of ranged guns, support elixirs, turrets, bombs, grenades, and to top it off, a TF2 pyro's airblast .

I'm still super hungry for any sort of ranger pet information. There's only very scattered info on the wiki about the unique skills. Out of the beta, I've only found a ?french? video on someone clicking on every single pet to see what it looks like deployed, but he doesn't actually hover cursor over the pet skills. Maddening!

Check the ranger video from yogcast. You get to see a few pets in action.

All classes look really versatile. Most classes can equip a myriad of things from bows to horns to great swords to scepters. They all play so differently (leaps, charges, walls, traps, drains, spins, knockdowns, knockbacks, and on and on).

Here is a trait calculator for anyone interested in theory crafting.

http://www.gw2tools.com/

Mmmm.... heavy valor/honor tanky guardian.

Droooool.

Here is a trait calculator for anyone interested in theory crafting.

http://www.gw2tools.com/

There goes the afternoon =)

The ranger has an piercing arrow trait, along with increased range, both in Marksmanship. The thought of shooting lines of doom down dungeon and WvW hallways, oh god.

This game feels like it can be the successor to DAOC...I'm f*cking excited!

Arovin wrote:

Here is a trait calculator for anyone interested in theory crafting.

http://www.gw2tools.com/

All this did was confuse me more :(. I'm looking at making a Sylvari necromancer, but I have no idea what exactly this class is supposed to do. It has condition application, healing abilities, summoned pets, damage spells, melee weapon attacks, a transformation form with different abilities, and ground traps. That's a lot of options and I am bettering other classes have as many options to specialize into. Maybe I'll go back to thinking about making a giant Norn warrior amazon woman and be less useful in pvp.

Coldtouch wrote:

All this did was confuse me more :(. I'm looking at making a Sylvari necromancer, but I have no idea what exactly this class is supposed to do. It has condition application, healing abilities, summoned pets, damage spells, melee weapon attacks, a transformation form with different abilities, and ground traps. That's a lot of options and I am bettering other classes have as many options to specialize into. Maybe I'll go back to thinking about making a giant Norn warrior amazon woman and be less useful in pvp.

And you're seeing that all in one go. When it comes time to play and advance a character through normal play it will be introduced gradually.

Coldtouch wrote:

All this did was confuse me more :(. I'm looking at making a Sylvari necromancer, but I have no idea what exactly this class is supposed to do. It has condition application, healing abilities, summoned pets, damage spells, melee weapon attacks, a transformation form with different abilities, and ground traps.

But that's your entire breadth of the class, Cold. You'll be able to choose what you want to do best, and then pick your skills to focus on that. It's like worrying about tanking powers if you're a healing Paladin in WoW; they're options in the background, but not something you'll have to worry about.

It's just that every class in GW2 is a hybrid.

Coldtouch wrote:

All this did was confuse me more :(. I'm looking at making a Sylvari necromancer, but I have no idea what exactly this class is supposed to do. It has condition application, healing abilities, summoned pets, damage spells, melee weapon attacks, a transformation form with different abilities, and ground traps. That's a lot of options and I am bettering other classes have as many options to specialize into. Maybe I'll go back to thinking about making a giant Norn warrior amazon woman and be less useful in pvp.

Yeah, from reading the guides and official stuff, I get the impression that the classes have a lot overlap in what they can "do," but how they do it, and how good they are at it is the difference. All of the classes seem to be able to do direct damage, AOE damage, target heals, AOE heals, aoe buffs and debuffs, target buffs and debuffs, buff and debuff transferral, etc. Just the mechanisms for these things are a little different and how they chain or interact with the environment changes.

Other than the Necro and the Guardian, are they any other classes that can specialize in healing?

mindset.threat wrote:

Other than the Necro and the Guardian, are they any other classes that can specialize in healing?

Not really. In GW2 you can't target another player and heal them, besides bringing them out of the downed state.

Don't think about taking damage and healing it, think about avoiding taking it in the first place. I don't mean that in a "L2P" way, but GW2 is about dodging and actively avoiding attacks rather than two foes just standing there hitting each other until one dies.

Scratched wrote:
mindset.threat wrote:

Other than the Necro and the Guardian, are they any other classes that can specialize in healing?

Not really. In GW2 you can't target another player and heal them, besides bringing them out of the downed state.

Don't think about taking damage and healing it, think about avoiding taking it in the first place. I don't mean that in a "L2P" way, but GW2 is about dodging and actively avoiding attacks rather than two foes just standing there hitting each other until one dies.

It looks like some classes can drop an AOE heal, or have some other mechanic that indirectly heals other people, but in general there doesn't seem to be much in the way of targeted heals. Personally, I'm pretty happy about that.

Scratched wrote:
mindset.threat wrote:

Other than the Necro and the Guardian, are they any other classes that can specialize in healing?

Not really. In GW2 you can't target another player and heal them, besides bringing them out of the downed state.

To clarify, though, *every* class has some healy and tanky bits. How they use them varies heavily, but if you want to act in a support capacity you'll be able to no matter what class you are. It just won't all be straight-heals /UI Watching/hotkeys and hoping like in most MMOs.

mindset.threat wrote:

Other than the Necro and the Guardian, are they any other classes that can specialize in healing?

Every class has the option to focus on healing if they wish to. They all have a group healing and support mechanic along with a trait line that will increase the effectiveness of their healing ability.

Elementalists Water skills have a lot of healing focus. They can trait for a healing aura as well.
Engineers have Elixirs and Med kits. They can also trait for Healing via bombs
Mesmers inspiration traits will allow for their phantasms to heal. Also can use traits to heal when they cast a mantra.
Thieves have an AoE heal and stealth aura.
Warriors have a banner they can place and move for group healing. Also a couple of shouts can heal.
Rangers have an AoE group heal and their pets can search for downed allies and rez them.

Also here is a much nicer skill and trait planner:

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/...

Edit: Remember to press the English button in the corner, it looks like the en in the link does not actually do anything.

Thanks for the info guys!

Speaking of heals, I took an in depth look at the ranger heal skills. Healing Spring (ground target heal ring) is actually a Light Field that I believe I can combo with arrow projectiles to remove conditions near mobs I shoot at. Sounds absolutely delightful for WvW or maybe condition-happy elites.

I played a ton of GW, mainly because it was free after the initial purchase. As a broke graduate student, I appreciated that. I'll be back in on this one for sure, but I'm staying semi-dark on it. I thought the story was decent enough last time to save a bit for myself. If there's a GWJ clan branch that wants to take a slower pace and hit the GW2 pipe only about once a week on launch, feel free to count me in on the melee. Otherwise, expect to pass me the first week and I'll see you again in GW3.

TheWanderer wrote:

Otherwise, expect to pass me the first week and I'll see you again in GW3.

My intent is to have GWJ's presence in GW2 mimic the WoW BHA experience: an umbrella organization that will happily house hard-core players cheek-by-jowl with static groupers and casual soloers. So, no worries.

Rangers have an AoE group heal and their pets can search for downed allies and rez them.

I saw that the other day when playing with the trait planner and thought, "Wow, rangers are going be be great at support!" Not that other classes won't be, but rangers/hunters/archers aren't typically known for any support at all. They are bascially pidgeon holed into sustained range dps (because they don't typically use a mana pool that, no matter how large, will eventually run out).

Ok that new skill planner is great. The skill system looked really cool but overwhelming with how everything shown in the video is going to work out.

With that skill planner I can safely say that I like this or that combination of weapons on my thief. Or I can say this is definitely how I am going to play my ranger. Then once you figure that out, you can go back to the traits to find things that support your chosen skills and weapons.

On top of it all, there is still a little mystery and room to grow because of things like what are the effects of the different ranger pets or the engineer's turrets? Or now that I have selected 3 different necro summons, what does each do?

The skill planner has already reinvigorated my interest in playing the thief. When the thief was introduced I was intrigued, but it quickly fell off my radar as the other classes were introduced. Now I am chomping at the bit to play a thief and most definitely going pistol with a dagger offhand.

Just watch the Elementalist Spotlight. Holy crap! That's a lot of skills! 20 Skills per weapon type. Plus more if you use the summon weapon class skills. Talk about being versatile.

Elementalists also have one of the sweet elites - elementals! I think just about all elites have terrible cooldowns, but elementals last like 1 minute or such so it's actually noticeable.

Also, summoning anything to do your bidding is always cool.

I wonder if those elemental summons are timed? They also get a minor summon that isn't elite in the utility skills section.

fangblackbone wrote:

I wonder if those elemental summons are timed? They also get a minor summon that isn't elite in the utility skills section.

Since they are both glyph skills you can get a trait that will lower their cooldowns by 20% as well.

Since the others have been posted...

Elementalist Spotlight

Warrior Spotlight

Michael Zenke wrote:
TheWanderer wrote:

Otherwise, expect to pass me the first week and I'll see you again in GW3.

My intent is to have GWJ's presence in GW2 mimic the WoW BHA experience: an umbrella organization that will happily house hard-core players cheek-by-jowl with static groupers and casual soloers. So, no worries.

Cool.