Thursday, January 27

GW2 - Guardian Revealed

As we knew from the snippet posted on pcgamer last week the fifth profession to be revealed is the Guardian, Anet posted all the info along with skill videos over on the official site.

Shield of Absorption


Faithful Strike


Zealot's Defense


Wall of Deflection


Hammer of Wisdom



onlinewelten have a nice interview with GW2's lead designer Jon Peters who manages to flesh out some more info on the Guardian and come up with this little gem :

"There are no ally targeted skills in Guild Wars 2."

For anyone with any doubts that Anet meant what they said about NO healers in GW2 this proves the point, healing will come from yourself, via AoE and possibly as bonuses from attack skills, it's a step in the right direction for me. Anets still provides a trinity but one that doesn't rely on class set up in teams. As the only obvious support class I have no doubts that to start with teams will want them in, it may well go from 'looking for healer' to 'looking for guardian' as the most repeated cry in group formations, that's a sad thought in a game that I'm hoping will strip away some conventions, says more about players than it does about Anet. When people get used to the idea that classes are capable of fulfilling each role of Anets trinity I hope that will pass.

6 comments:

  1. Not that I'm cynical about MMO player behaviour :)

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  2. Whoah,do I have to fight a big bad "meh" feeling with after those vids.
    There's something about the carefully choreographed infomercials Anet poors out that really puts me off. :-(

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  3. I have to agree these videos didn't give me much more than a 'meh' too, the same can't be said for the necro videos though :)

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  4. Yes, well...
    Necrophile! ;-)

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  5. Hmm, I actually liked it quite a bit. The landscapes look really good. The guardian look like a perfect goody two-shoes. Not sure I would like to play one, but I didn't got that 'meh' feeling.

    I am a bit worried about the lack of *any* ally targeted skill. It either means there are no support classes of any kind, or everything is done via AOE and everybody has to cluster around the buffer all the time.

    Fallen Earth had no ally targeted skills, but that game was not set up to rely on team mates. So nobody was support. It worked well there. GW is all about grouping. Six self-sufficient characters can probably take on anything, but it seems to make it a bit blend.

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  6. There's a small interview over at moorpg.com that gives a little more insight in to the play options, I'm a little less 'meh' about this class now, could be fun.

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