Mechanics: Levels

Characters accumulate experience and gain levels throughout the game. The maximum attainable level for players is 80. Leveling up however, is not the only way to make progress. Other aspects of the game, such as accumulating skills, traits and achievements also play a major role in character progression.

The level progression is not geometric or exponential as in most other games in the genre. The amount of time and/or effort required to gain levels stays constant throughout the process.

Leveling curve graph

Character, Race and Proffesions

There are two fixed aspects to any character created: race and profession.

The selection of one of five playable races determines the appearance of the character and gives a flavor to the character in combat with versatile racial skills and through a personal storyline with the unique themes and history of the race. The selection of one of eight available professions determines most of what the character is capable of doing. It restricts the armortype wearable, but more importantly determines how the skill bar is built through the unique game mechanics of the profession, the weapons that can be wielded, and the skills and ability modifiers available. The profession abilities have been emphasized over racial abilities to make sure that each race is equally able to play each profession.

The five playable races of Guild Wars 2 are the Tyrian species that can be selected for player use upon character creation.

The choices that will be available at the game's release are:

• Asura
• Charr
• Human
• Norn
• Sylvari

Each of the races has a separate starting area in game, however as the story progresses they are able to interact with other races. The choice of race will, of course, alter the character's personal story. Each race will also have several character modifiers to create a unique backstory, such as the asuran college or human heritage, which will personalise the character's story further.

The 5 playable races.

There will be eight playable professions in the initial release of Guild Wars 2, although not all have been revealed at this time. All professions will be available to each race and are all being designed to be viable to play both alone and in groups. There will be no profession able to use every single weapon available in the game. A character will not be able to change their profession once they have been created.

The professions are divided into three categories based on their level of defense — there will be 3 scholars, 3 adventurers and 2 soldiers, which wear light, medium and heavy armor, respectively.

Scholars

• Elementalist — master of the elements; the elementalist changes their elemental attunement mid battle to adapt to any situation.
• Necromancer — master of the dark arts; the necromancer draws on life force and uses it to strengthen or heal themselves and others.
• 1 other profession

Adventurers

• Ranger — master of animals; the ranger calls upon their animal allies to assist them in the field of battle.
• 2 other professions

Soldiers

• Warrior — master of weapons; the warrior uses adrenaline to improve their attacks or fuel a powerful burst skill.
• Guardian — master of protection; virtues enhance the guardian's attack and defense until they are sacrificed to aid allies.

4 out of the 8 professions revealed so far.

Screenshots and Concept Art

These are some of the in-game screenshots taken from the official Guild Wars 2 website, under the media, screenshots section.

Some awesome concept art showcasing the different races' architecture, landscape and lore. All of which can be viewed at the concept art page of the official site.

Many wallpapers beautifully themed with GW2 art, lore and    professions can be found at the Guild Wars 2 wallpaper page. 

Guild Wars 2 Trailer, Races of Tyria and MMO Manifesto

The Guild Wars 2 Teaser Trailer, the first trailer of Guild Wars 2, premiered at the 2009 Gamescom event. After being exhibited in the show, the trailer was made available on the Guild Wars 2 website and may currently be seen and downloaded there.

The second Guild Wars 2 trailer, titled The Races of Tyria, premiered at December 4th through the Guild Wars 2 website, where it may currently be seen and downloaded. It features the five iconic heroes of each playable races: the human Captain Logan Thackeray, the charr Rytlock Brimstone, the norn Eir Stegalkin, the asura Zojja and the sylvari Caithe.

The third Guild Wars 2 trailer, titled ArenaNet's MMO Manifesto, premiered at August 10th through the Guild Wars 2 website, where it may currently be seen and downloaded.

"We do not want to build the same MMO everyone else is building, and in Guild Wars 2, it's your world. It's your story. You affect things around you in a very permanent way."

Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is a fantasy MMORPG currently in development by ArenaNet, as a sequel to their episodic Guild Wars game series. It was announced in 2007 alongside the final Guild Wars expansion Eye of the North.


Guild Wars 2 game play has been modified from Guild Wars to include a variety of different features.


Guild Wars 2 will allow a player to create a character from five races and eight professions. Professions are divided into three categories: scholars, who use light armor; adventurers, who use medium armor; and soldiers, who use heavy armor. As of January 2011, five professions, Elementalist, Warrior, Ranger, Necromancer and Guardian, have been announced.

Elementalist concept art

The maximum character level has been increased to 80, however the developers emphasize they wish "to avoid forcing players into the grind-based gameplay that too often accompanies a high level cap."


In PvE content Guild Wars 2 will use a persistent game-world but still utilize instanced content as a story telling device. Instead of quests in this game-world, the persistent area will have a set of scenarios, or events, which dynamically occur depending on player actions in the area. These in-game events are designed to allow characters of all levels to continuously interact with the game-world.


PvP combat will also change from the original series. The popular guild vs. guild matches from the original series will continue to be available, but Guild Wars 2 will introduce large scale world vs. world matches in the in-game setting called the Mists. Players will be able to join this worldwide PvP battle in a variety of roles, with rewards commensurate with their success.


Confirmed playable races are those introduced in the "Eye of the North" expansion for Guild Wars 1, namely Asura, Charr and Norn as well as Humans and a new race, the Sylvari. Professions will not be race limited, however each race will have their own racial skills. These racial skills will be less powerful than the majority of the common skills so as to prevent the large uptake of one race, but will be powerful enough to still be a viable choice.


The game takes place in the Guild Wars fantasy world of Tyria, 250 years after the players defeat the Great Destroyer in the Eye of the North expansion. Five elder dragons sleeping beneath the continent have awoken, causing widespread destruction to Tyria and corrupting its inhabitants.