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Guild Wars 2 Launch Date announced: August 28th, 2012

Wow, this game is crazy... I have 10 days to choose my class but there are so much weapon skills/traits/cool elite skills I don't know where to begin !
 
My plans for the 25th were cancelled so it looks like I'll make the head start weekend. YES!

I'm going to go ahead and install the client now so I can play around with character creation just in case there is another stress test before launch.
 
is there a recommendation for what race should be what profession??

Not really. There are racial skills but they're sort of intentionally gimped in terms of power to prevent balance issues. They're not so weak to be useless, but they're more for flavor than effectiveness. You wouldn't want to run a racial if you're worried about maximizing your character strength.
 
probably has been mentioned already, but the Hunter got some new skills
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apparently tooltips don't show up in screenshots, but they all give your pet various bonuses. One transfers all damage for the next 6 seconds to your pet and is awesome (a slight worse version of the Warrior's Ignore Pain)

also, this was slightly amusing
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That will be nice to use along side Signet of Stone.
 
i want the sylvari race but i hate their story. i dont like the look of asura but i kind of like their abilities. humans are always boring in my opinion, no offense to people who like them. and then theres the charr, which i just dont know. i LOVE their skills but i need to know if you change into the avater form do you lose your profession aka do you lose the abilities to shoot arrows if youre a ranger?
 
i want the sylvari race but i hate their story. i dont like the look of asura but i kind of like their abilities. humans are always boring in my opinion, no offense to people who like them. and then theres the charr, which i just dont know. i LOVE their skills but i need to know if you change into the avater form do you lose your profession aka do you lose the abilities to shoot arrows if youre a ranger?

dont pick your race based on those abilities. Those wont be as good as your profession abilities by design and are strictly for race 'flavor'
 
Piecake, i know you played the beta, do u know the answer to my Charr question??

I never bothered with race abilities. I'm sure you can youtube it and find out though. My guess is that if the abilitiy you are talking about is some sort of transformation, you will lose your weapon abilities and get a new transformation skill toolbar.

Im actually not sure which charr ability you are referring to since i dont see any avatar transformation skill in any build editor
 
i want the sylvari race but i hate their story. i dont like the look of asura but i kind of like their abilities. humans are always boring in my opinion, no offense to people who like them. and then theres the charr, which i just dont know. i LOVE their skills but i need to know if you change into the avater form do you lose your profession aka do you lose the abilities to shoot arrows if youre a ranger?

charr do not transform into any avatar form. i don't know what you have seen. the Norn transform into bears and animals, but only temporary and yes the skills do change for that period of time but then you go back to whatever skills you had.
 
thats exactly what i was talking about. alright thanks for your 2 cents. ill be getting the game late anyway so ill ask you guys once you start playing.
 
Piecake, i know you played the beta, do u know the answer to my Charr question??

It's Norn that change into animals. And it gives them unique abilities that replace their weapon skills.


I tried all of the new Ranger skills. Additionally, I tried a Beastmastery build and did very well with it. I used a Lynx for my pet, and with an emphasis on condition damage, he was tearing people up. Pets have gone from being horrible to being awesome in just a few months.
 
It's Norn that change into animals. And it gives them unique abilities that replace their weapon skills.


I tried all of the new Ranger skills. Additionally, I tried a Beastmastery build and did very well with it. I used a Lynx for my pet, and with an emphasis on condition damage, he was tearing people up. Pets have gone from being horrible to being awesome in just a few months.

Eh? What were the other new ones?
 
DAMNIT the info a few pages ago about Birthday gifts mean I have to decide which 5 classes I want to make characters for and which classes I don't. Or I'll have to buy extra slots the first night already. DAMNIT.

Will start a Norn Guardian... I THINK. Impossible to know how I'll feel about it in a few days.

Norn Guardian
Sylvari Elementalist (because really, that's the only way.)
Asura Engineer
Human Thief
Charr Warrior/Necro


But then what do I do about Necro/Warrior and Ranger... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I love Rangers, but REALLY dislike pet mechanics, that's why it most likely won't be part of my first five... and I just can't decide between Necro and Warrior. :(
 
Are we sure they're doing anything like birthday gifts, this time around? And having your birthday gifts a couple months apart is actually pretty nice.
 
Yea, I think making sure that the 5 classes you pick are the top five classes you want to play is a lot more important than birthday gifts
 
Another thing I noticed this stress test was the trait that allows you to charge mantras (Harmonious Mantras) actually works now and it displays how many times you can use each mantra before you have to charge them again. Last stress test this trait literally did nothing.
 
Yea, I think making sure that the 5 classes you pick are the top five classes you want to play is a lot more important than birthday gifts

Well I'll make the five I think are "best" at release day, and then if a few months in when I move onto my x'th character I realise I actually want to play Ranger I'll just delete an untouched, but created character and make a Ranger new. No big deal. I'll just not have "early" birthday on that character. :P
 
A male charr mesmer in violet and pink clothing. You know you want to

Charr Mesmer are the worst - if there's more than one in a teamfight, it turns into a massive clusterfuck :-/

some thoughts (sPvP):

- Conditionmancer is amazing
- Mesmer greatsword feels useless and does no damage
- my condition Ranger with axe/torch did very well. Greatsword didn't work with that build and will be replaced with the shortbow or another 1-hand weapon + horn (need swiftness)
 
There are some Guardian buffs mixed in there but it does seem mostly nerfs. The sword changes on the 1 skill has kind of made me start to question leaving auto-attack on. If I get 2 auto attacks off, it might be a lot more beneficial to wait on that 3rd hit instead of using a skill. Situational I know, and also something that a player should probably be doing anyways... but not having to hit that button made me not always consider where I was in the chain before using a different skill.

What weapon are those last two skills for? Just says 'weapon' for Reveal the Depths and Shackle, and don't remember seeing either of those two.
 
There was a handful of Mesmer changes. None of the mechanic changes that were needed were made, but a lot of things were buffed. I disagree that Greatsword felt weak. I did very well with a Greatsword/Staff setup based on power and high crit. I did most of my work with Greatsword in that build.

My main gripe with the changes is that turning the GS #3 skill into a tiny aoe targeted ability was a bad idea. The ability already has a long animation that roots you, but now it's done through a target circle that's barely larger than the player. What's the point? Worked better as a targeted PBAOE.

As for what got buffed, Mirror Balde now hits pretty hard and bounces twice. If you take the elasticity trait, it bounces three times. At medium range in a 1v1, it will hit three times, critting over 1k each hit, applying vulnerability to the foe and might to yourself.

Mind Wrack had small calculation buff, but more importantly now works like it did in BWE1 where the damage is done once per illusion hit. Traited, I see 2k-3k Mind Wracks crits. With three illusions hitting, its back to its damage spike role. If it goes off in a crowd, it wrecks foes.

 
Was this posted? http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/720-stress-test-changes-skills-traits-recipes-achievements/

They are a list of changes found in today's stress test
Wow, way to make me rethink my class choice ANet. Dubbed one of the most fun and most complete classes, and you go and change a good thing.

And yeah, what one person said, they better damn well buff Guardian HP base as a result of nerfed healing.

Does anyone fully understand all these changes though? Like what is the strikethrough supposed to mean> "Projectile Damage: 1867.656." - there's no new value next to that strikethrough.

-----------------

There's no way these numbers are right. Nerf Virtue of Resolve from 25 to 4? That makes a class mechanic damn near worthless. Something isn't right here.
 
The Ranger buff makes it seem like their arrows will hit like bullets.

Rapid Fire Physical Projectile (20% chance) Finish Type.Damage: 231.6233. 2316.233.

Barrage Damage per Strike: 166.0138. Damage: 1992.166. Cripple per Strike(1s): -50% Movement Speed. Crippled(1s) 12 Stacks : -50% Movement Speed.

Which explains why a few people and I were getting killed pretty much instantly anytime we got caught in a barrage in PvE.
 
Duh, just took a closer look at the races... Seems like the Human and Norn are the only ones that seem appealing, which says a lot since I never pick Human in a fantasy setting. Not digging the cute little puppies or the watered down Kingdoms of Amalur fae. Charr are alright, not for me but I approve of the design. Sigh...
 
Duh, just took a closer look at the races... Seems like the Human and Norn are the only ones that seem appealing, which says a lot since I never pick Human in a fantasy setting. Not digging the cute little puppies or the watered down Kingdoms of Amalur fae. Charr are alright, not for me but I approve of the design. Sigh...

Asura are cute? Well, i guess you can make the females sorta cute if you want to, but the dudes are straight butt ugly gremlins
 
Duh, just took a closer look at the races... Seems like the Human and Norn are the only ones that seem appealing, which says a lot since I never pick Human in a fantasy setting. Not digging the cute little puppies or the watered down Kingdoms of Amalur fae. Charr are alright, not for me but I approve of the design. Sigh...
You're not alone.
 
Duh, just took a closer look at the races... Seems like the Human and Norn are the only ones that seem appealing, which says a lot since I never pick Human in a fantasy setting. Not digging the cute little puppies or the watered down Kingdoms of Amalur fae. Charr are alright, not for me but I approve of the design. Sigh...
You're nuts, the Sylvari are way better designed than the Fae, and as a race they were announced a long time ago, probably before KoA was even revealed. I realize plant people are nothing new, but Sylvari design is excellent, IMO.
 
Cute...? They're disgusting little fuckin' mice people. Busted ass heads. Gross.

Charr and Norn are pretty cool, though. Humans and Sylvari are... there. They're definitely present and accounted for.
 
You're nuts, the Sylvari are way better designed than the Fae, and as a race they were announced a long time ago, probably before KoA was even revealed. I realize plant people are nothing new, but Sylvari design is excellent, IMO.

Don't really care about who announced the concept first. All I'm saying is that I find their design vastly inferior to the fae - but I guess it's not terrible so it can be subjective.
 
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