Guild Wars 2 Weapons, Professions And Races Detailed

In the second part of Lead Designer Eric Flannum’s double feature, he discusses weapons, dynamic skills, professions and races.

Weapons will either be one-handed, two-handed or held in a character’s “offhand.” What the character is able to do with that weapon (indeed, if they can even wield it at all) will be determined by their profession. No profession will have access to every single weapon, and a weapon held in the “offhand” will have different skills to the same weapon wielded in the stronger hand.

Professions will also determine how a character is able to interact with the environment. For example, an Elementalist (as detailed yesterday) will have more skill options when interacting with natural world objects such as boulders. Rather than just being able to throw a rock, the Elementalist will be able to fire it into the air, potentially turning it into a deadly, meteor-esque weapon.

Specific professions have not yet been revealed, but there will be eight in total – with some Guild Wars favourites making a return. Those eight will be three scholar professions, three adventurer professions and two soldier professions. Professions will also be able to work together to maximise the potential of their unique skills.

Races too will impact on the skills available to a character, allowing them to specialise with “elite racial skills.”

There’s a lot more to come from ArenaNet. The next Guild Wars 2 update will be written by Lead Content Designer Colin Johanson and promises to focus on the game’s dynamic event system, so look out for that.