*****SPOILER WARNING******* cause you know there might be stuff you want to see on your own so venture forth bold traveler at your own risk
General story
The lore behind Tyria is huge and dense, and I am certainly no Vix if you would like to read about the history check out this page. Otherwise the general idea or goal, if you will behind Guildwars 2 is to fight Zhaitan the Undead Dragon that has awoken from sleeping and is spreading out his undead powers in an ever increasing area awakening all the dead to his call.
Races
There are 5 playable races in GW2, each with their own history and culture that will play a part in how you play the game but there is no difference between them in terms of gender or such and such race is better for this class or that class etc. You play the class, race and gender you want.
Human – For once, are not the largest or more dominant race in a game. They live fighting against the ever present noose threatening to strangle out their entire race.
Norn– Standing on average over 2 feet taller than most humans Norns closely resemble Nords both in their appearance and culture.
Charr– A Warrior race of fierce felines the Charr are forged in the heat of battle since birth, the Charr have no tolerance for weakness.
Asura – The smallest in stature of the playable races the Asura make up for it in the brilliance of their minds believing in the brains over brawn…..and possibly a 10 foot golem will win the day.
Sylvari– Sylvari, the plant people are not born like other races rather they wake up whole from their Pale Tree full of knowledge they gained while in the dream of dreams. This almost hive like sharing at the beginning of their lives makes them crave adventure to create unique experiences and explore.
Professions
Much like your Race and Gender, your Profession has no bearing on anything but how you like to play; all races can be all professions.
Elementalist – The mages of Tyria, capable of controlling the elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth to burn their foes, heal their allies, stop enemies in their tracks or shake the very ground beneath them
Warrior – Up close and personal the warrior will coat their shield with your blood or shatter your bones with their two-handed weapons
Guardian – Drawn to battle with a divine calling the guardian will stand fast in the face of multiple foes shielding themselves with holy light that will smite their foes and heal their allies
Engineer – Guns, turrets and flamethrowers, you’ll find basically anything that can cause a big bang in the hands of an engineer.
Ranger – Deadly in both close and distance combat, the Ranger is skilled in a range of pointy weapons that will slice you open if their companion doesn’t get to you first.
Necromancer – Sorcerers of blood magic and puppeteers of the dead, the Necromancer will make your blood boil while their minion feasts on your eyes.
Thief – Cloaked in shadow the thief has made stabbing you in the back an art form. Nimble and cunning the thief can use both ranged and close combat to dispatch their targets.
Mesmer – Are you seeing double? More likely you’ve come up against a Mesmer masters of illusion they are capable of copying themselves to harass and torment their foes into submission before shattering into a mental attack that will leave you gibbering on the floor drooling.
Character Creation
Once you’ve picked your race, gender and class, it’s time to get cracking on your character and unlike most MMO’s which give you about 4-6 options to choose from for your skin colour, face and hair colour and sometimes markings, GW2 plays out more like Dragon’s Dogma but not so as intense.
You have the basics like skin colour and body shape (hurrah they aren’t all stick people!) hair style, colour, hair accessories colour. In some Races like the Norn you can choose tattoos, fur patterns for the Charr and leaf patterns for the Sylvari.
Once you have all this mapped out you then can change the features of your face such are eye angle width, iris colour and size the shape of your nose, mouth, chin & jaw are also available.
Finally you can colour your armour, and even this is broken down to upper, lower and feet. (don't fret about this too much as you can always change the colours later and you might even find some new dye colours out in the world to use.)
Once you have all of this worked out its time to work on your biography, a series of multiple choice questions that will change depending on your choice of race and will determine how you interact with the world and your personal story line. An example of a biography for a human:
- The social status the character was raised as.
- What one of their biggest regrets is.
- Which of the Six Gods they are blessed by.
- How they react in a situation
Players with also be asked a question that will give them an extra piece of armor (like a helm for guardians and thieves) and in the case of rangers what their first pet will be.
Finally you will be given a summary of your choices; all you have to do is sign the paper with your characters chosen name. GW2 has made naming your character one of the least stressful things I have ever encountered you not only have 19 characters to play around with but you can even give your character a last name or two names or three (as long as you only use 19 characters and spaces count) unless in the unlikely event you create a name that someone has exactly letter for letter you are guaranteed to get to name yourself exactly what you want.
Personal Story
This is the “main” quest of your character based on what you chose for your biography to begin with there are 3 variations and as you go along the quest these will branch out as you are given options on how you go about your quest, and more options based on the outcomes of the quests you will also receive varying reward choices based on options and choices so you could really play the same storyline several different ways.
Making your mark on the world
The world of Tyria is vast and there are no mounts (at this point) so you’ll be exploring much by foot here are some things you can find on both the world map and on the min-map at the bottom right of your screen, which can be zoomed in and out of for easy findings.
- Quest markers – This will appear on your map as a green star for your main quest and as either a empty or filled in golden heart for the quest hubs depending on whether you’ve completed that area.
- Event markers – Show where an event is happening with an orange circle around the event location
- Vistas – Mostly these involve a mini jumping game where you just climb over basically everything to reach the map, if you succeed you will be awarded with a beautiful view of the given area and points towards completion of the map.
- POI (points of Interest) – These can be anything like buildings or named caves etc. and work towards completion of the map.
- Skill points – Are marked on your map with an upside arrow and will either be empty or filled in with blue depending on whether you’ve completed it.
- Scouts – when you first set out into a new area the map will be covered with FOW or fog of war with little to nothing but the starting area uncovered, finding a scout, marked on your map as a spyglass will not only uncover more of your map but will also point you towards a quest hub that needs your help.
- Waypoints – blank or glowing squares found on your journeys these serve are checkpoints if you die you can choose to re-spawn at its location they also act as fast travel allowing you to teleport to any of the active ones from anywhere in the world for a fee depending on the distance traveled.
Completing everything in a given map area will award you with a chest containing some loot and boosters. The game scales with you in everything from events (based on the number of people) and zones, say you are human lvl 12 and visit the Asura starting zone, you will scaled down (temporarily) to level 3 but you still keep all your skills and talents etc.
Events
Events are major goals going on in a given area, most are timed or are completed upon a certain number of criteria being met, such Events could be:
Escorting an Npc to an area and defending them on the way, collecting an item in a given area or defeating a certain number of waves of an enemy attacking the location. Unlike quests however events are repeatable many times you just have to be in the area to participate. At the end of an Event depending upon your level of participation you will be awarded with Exp points, Karma and some coin the values of these will vary depending on your participation exit level (bronze for low, silver for moderate and gold for high) you will also get rewards for participating but failing, around half as much.
You do not have to group with people to join these events just be in the area your rewards are based off your performance.
Combat both on land and in the sea
During your questing you will no doubt have to go into combat, duh I hear you say :P So here is how you go about it. You have 5 keys for skills these are locked in and only change depending on your weapon.
If you are duel wielding the first 3 keys (1-3) will be abilities for your main hand weapon and keys 4-5 are for your off-hand weapon. So I have a 1h weapon (scepter or dagger) and an off-hand weapon (dagger or focus) when you start off with a new weapon only the auto attack will be available if you keep using the skill you will automatically learn the second and third skills eventually, same goes for the off-hand weapon though these are only learned after the main hand skills. If you are wielding a 2-handed weapon (e.g. staves, great swords and bows) all 5 keys will be for that weapon. You will retain all skills you have learnt with that weapon and are free to switch them around as you see fit.
F1 - 4 (class dependent) will also hold your special abilities or in the case of a mage the different schools of magic. 6 is your healing spell (all classes have a version this spell) 7, 8 and 9 are unlocked as you level and hold spells you spend your skill points on.
Combat is pretty straight forward, pick your enemy and start using your abilities on them, though you might be surprised at how squishy you character can be you need to dodge (default ‘V’ + direction) out of the way you can dodge up to 2 times before your energy bar runs out and you have to wait.
When you find yourself in water higher than waist deep it’s time to swim! You’ll find that you have equipped a harpoon, spear or trident (again class dependent) to help you in your underwater combat with a whole new set of set for use only underwater. Do not worry about drowning, as you also get a water breather automatically equipped when you dive under.
I’M NOT DEAD YET!!! Sometimes the fight can just be too much for you and you can run out of health but hold your horses you still have a fight on your hands, when you reach low health and get knocked around again you enter RALLY and a set of skills will pop up along with a health bar attack using the skills and use the last button to try and heal yourself if you manage to get enough health back, someone(s) help revive you or you manage to defeat the enemy with the rally skills you will pop back on your feet with about 25% of your health. You can enter this state a few times over the course of a single fight but eventually you will die if you stay in it too long. If you do end up dying in a fight you can choose a way point to re-spawn at.
Loots for all
Unlike most MMOs that are plagued with spawn campers and loot ninjas who snipe kills before you can attack, Gw2’s loot system is all individual, you helped kill that boss monster? Sure have some loot. Everyone who helps gets their own loot so there is no fighting or bitching over it and means people are more likely to come to your aid with the fight instead of standing to the side watching it kill you so they can kill it instead.
Crafts
There are several Crafting skills available (e.g. Tailor, Artificer, weapon smith, armor smith, leather worker, cooking) and you can have 2 active crafting skills available at any one time if you wish to switch to another skill you will have to pay a fee (this scales with your level in that craft) anyone can collect the craft materials if they have the right tools (sickle, axe and pick) all collectibles in your bag can be sent to the collectible bank for easy storage and space the option is on the top right of your bag. Unlike most crafting GW2 crafting is comprised of several parts you have to make 2-3 items (e.g. to make a pair of shoes you will need to make the upper lining, the leather sole and an insignia) the best way to craft is to combine these components in the discovery section of the crafting tab.
Your characters all share the same bank so you can easily pass materials from one character to another (you cannot mail items to yourself, you must use the bank)
Guilds
What would Guild Wars be if there weren’t any guilds? Guilds are a group of people under one banner/name and can receive rewards for group participation here is an overview of guilds
Well we all know how long winded I can get and there are some other major points like the WorldvsWorld and the trading post I’ve skipped over, heh the best advice I can offer you is to explore the world on your own.
And remember you can check out all of my game reviews here So Let’s Talk: Guildwars 2
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