In addition to the small-scale, tactical combat described above, the game features "World versus World", large scale combat taking place in a persistent world independent of the main world. In player versus player, a player will have access to almost all skills and items, and compete at the fixed level 80, so that all players will be on a level playing field. Player versus environment features a scaling system that lowers the players level and stats to reflect the levels of monsters, thereby maintaining a global level of difficulty. The low level cap of Guild Wars (20) has been replaced with one at 80, which the developers state strikes the correct balance between allowing for character development and avoiding forcing players into the grind-based gameplay that too often accompanies a high level cap, the elimination of which was a core design principle of the original Guild Wars. In a departure from the high number of skills present in Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 will focus on quality of skills over quantity and attempt to minimize skill splits across game modes to reduce balancing complexity - one of the most common issues present in MMORPGs. However, unlike Guild Wars, skill slots have predefined roles: the first five are determined by player's weapon and profession, the sixth is for healing, the seventh through ninth will be skills with no defined roles that are unlocked as the game progresses, and the tenth slot will be for an "elite" skill, which is also initially locked. Guild Wars 2, like Guild Wars, uses a skill-based combat system, whereby players must select only 10 skills from a much larger pool, introducing an element of strategy. The race and profession of the player determines the skills they can access. There is no dedicated healing class as the developers felt that making it necessary for every party to have a healer was restrictive.
The professions are divided into armor classes: "scholars" with light armor, "adventurers" with medium armor, and "soldiers" with heavy armor - five of the professions make a reappearance from Guild Wars. The five races are the humans and charr (introduced in Prophecies) the asura and norn (introduced in Eye of the North) and the sylvari, a race exclusive to Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 allows a player to create a character from a combination of five races and eight professions. The developers say the engine now does justice to the game's critically acclaimed concept art, and that concept art will be integrated into the way the story is told to the player. The modifications to the engine include real-time 3D environments, enhanced graphics and animations and the use of the Havok physics system. Guild Wars 2 uses a heavily modified version of the proprietary game engine developed for Guild Wars by ArenaNet. By August 2021, over 16 million accounts have been created. By August 2015, over 5 million copies had been sold, at which point the base game became free-to-play. By August 2013, the peak player concurrency had reached 460,000. The game sold over two million copies in its first two weeks.
GUILD WARS 2 FREE TRIAL LIMITATIONS INSTALL
Also of note is the combat system, which aims to be more dynamic than its predecessor by promoting synergy between professions and using the environment as a weapon, as well as reducing the complexity of the Magic-style skill system of the original game.Īs a sequel to Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 features the same lack of subscription fees that distinguished its predecessor from other commercially developed online games of the time, though until August 2015 a purchase was still required to install the game. A dynamic event system replaces traditional questing, utilising the ripple effect to allow players to approach quests in different ways as part of a persistent world. Guild Wars 2 claims to be unique in the genre by featuring a storyline that is responsive to player actions, something which is common in single player role-playing games but rarely seen in multiplayer ones.
The game takes place in a persistent world with a story that progresses in instanced environments. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons, a Lovecraftian species that has seized control of Tyria in the time since the original Guild Wars. Guild Wars 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSoft and ArenaNet.