Guild Wars 2 - June Beta Event Announcement

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Beta Weekend Event 2 will begin on Friday, June 8^th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) and will run until Sunday, June 10^th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).

If that isn’t enough to get you all bursting with excitement, here is some more news:

Your existing beta characters have not been deleted, and you will be able to continue right where you left off! This means that enterprising players with characters level 35 or higher will be able to test their mettle against the explorable version of the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon!

In addition to sharing this news with you, I want to convey a massive “thank you” to all of you for playing in our beta events so far. The participation and enthusiasm we’ve seen has exceeded our expectations, and we’re all very grateful and appreciative here at the studio. Your support during our first Beta Weekend Event and throughout development has been instrumental in getting us prepared for launch and helping us take massive steps in the evolution of Guild Wars 2 as a whole. You, our community, are an integral part of the development process, andGuild Wars 2 simply would not be what it is today without you.

Your participation is even more important when you consider that we take our beta events very seriously in terms of our development strategy. At ArenaNet, “beta event” means exactly that—it’s a development-centric event in which we test our systems, discover new and exciting bugs, and get pivotal feedback from our testers about what is going in the right direction and what isn’t.

Future Plans For Guild Wars 2

We know that you have events on the WvW zone, bosses and you can even get materials and crafting recipes by killing mobs and foes, and of course there are sieges, takeovers and other PvP stuff, but:

What are your plans for the WvW content of the game in the long run?

One of the coolest things that we’ve added to WvW recently is a persistent mini-dungeon that can be accessed through the three keeps in the center map. This area is designed with multiplayer PvP in mind and players can do things like activate the traps in the mini-dungeon to defeat enemy players. Of course, at the end of the area there’s a chest full of rewards.

We also have some exciting plans for WvW post-launch, but of course we don’t want to talk about our post-launch plans until after we ship the game and have had some time to implement things.

Will there be PvP tournaments or some other kind of scheduled competitions?

We fully plan to support tournaments in competitive PvP. We will have a variety of tournament types, from automated tournaments to more competitive scheduled tournaments.

We are still talking about whether or not we want to support any type of WvW tournaments after we launch. If player interest is high, then I think it’s definitely something we’d consider.

Will there be cycles for each of it as in every month you get new neighbors, and does the map reset in this case?

In WvW we plan to match up servers every two weeks. Which servers fight each other is dependent upon their ranking. It is definitely possible under this system for two or more servers to remain matched up when the rankings are recalculated. WvW maps do reset between each two week period.

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Guardian Tome Skills

Tome is a guardian skill type that fixes the user in place while replacing their weapon skills with a new set of skills according to the tome used. Slot skills are disabled during the use of a tome skill.  The Guardian's Tome skills are:

Guardian Downed Skills

Downed skills are the four skills available to a player in the downed state. The first three slots are determined by your profession; the fourth slot is always Bandage. If you're fighting underwater these skills change to a Drowning skill bar.  The Guardian's downed and drowning skills are:

Guardian Utility and Healing Skills

Each guardian is supported by passive benefits, but he can relinquish those benefits, passing his powers on to his allies. This ability makes the guardian an excellent supportive fighter whether they are leading an assault or defending your party's flanks.

Guardian Weapons

Weapons

The guardian can choose from a mixture of melee and magical weapons. The guardian weapons are:

• Main Hand: Mace, Scepter, Sword
• Off Hand: Focus, Shield, Torch
• Two-Handed: Greatsword, Hammer, Staff

Guardian Virtues

Virtues are special abilities exclusive to the guardian profession. These abilities apply continuous passive benefits to the guardian as that character adventures, or they can be activated as something similar to shouts, granting an immediate benefit to all nearby allies. Activating one of these virtues will disable its passive effect until that ability recharges once again. Each virtue has its own recharge so may be used independently of the others.

The benefits of the same virtues do not stack. Two guardians using the same virtue at the same time will not increase the effects of the virtue. Different virtues do not have this limitation.
Virtues can be affected by guardian traits.

Guardian Lore

With the turmoil in Elona and the spread of the Order of Whispers into other lands, more Paragon teaching showed elsewhere in Tyria. These teachings melded with other traditions, and over time, the Guardians and their abilities can be found throughout the world and among all the races. They are not tied to a particular race, philosophy, or group of gods but rather to a larger concept of proactive defense, of taking the fight to a foe and protecting those you fight alongside while appealing equally to humanity's defensive nature and the Charr's desire to rule the battlefield.

I think the Guardian is much more of a pragmatic and tactical user of a magic as opposed to an Elementalist, who is a pure student of magic. The Elementalist casts discrete spells, and you have the feeling that there is a heritage and body of knowledge behind those spells. Guardians seem to use magical energy in the heat of combat, from the front line. That sense of immediacy sets the Guardian apart from more traditional spell-casters and allows for a heavily armored magical character.

Guardian Skills

VIRTUES

WEAPON SKILLS

What is a Guardian?

The guardian is a devoted fighter who calls upon powerful virtues to smite enemies and protect allies. As dangerous with a staff as he is with a mighty two-handed hammer, a true guardian is a master tactician who knows when to sacrifice his own defenses to empower his allies to achieve victory.

Each guardian is supported by passive benefits, but he can relinquish those benefits, passing his powers on to his allies. This ability makes the guardian an excellent supportive fighter whether they are leading an assault or defending your party's flanks.

Guardians have developed three virtues that empower them in combat. By wielding Justice, the guardian's attacks can burn his enemies. With Courage, the guardian can shrug off even a mighty blow. Through Resolve, the guardian passively regenerates health, allowing him to wade into the most dangerous situation and come out alive.

Guardians also have a number of special skill types:

Spirit Weapons—The guardian can summon spirit weapons to fight at his side for a limited time. Spirit weapons cannot be attacked by enemies and can be commanded to inflict a powerful attack before disappearing. For example, Hammer of Wisdom can be summoned to fight alongside a guardian, then commanded to knock down an enemy and vanish.

Symbols—The guardian places symbols on the ground, where they inflict damage to enemies or deliver a benefit to allies. Symbols persist for a few seconds and then go away. For instance, Symbol of Faith is a hammer attack that leaves a transient symbol on the ground, giving allies the Vigor boon.

Wards—A ward is a marked area on the ground that stops enemies from passing through while allowing allies to move freely. For example, a staff-wielding guardian can create a Line of Warding in front of him that keeps enemies from reaching the allies behind him.

Aegis—Guardians are adept in the use of Aegis, a removable boon that blocks the next attack. Guardians have access to this boon through the virtue of Courage.

Weapons

The guardian can choose from a mixture of melee and magical weapons. The guardian weapons are:

• Main Hand: Mace, Scepter, Sword
• Off Hand: Focus, Shield, Torch
• Two-Handed: Greatsword, Hammer, Staff

Virtues

Guardians have three special virtue abilities--Justice, Courage, and Resolve--that grant them passive benefits in battle. They can choose to activate a virtue, extending a powerful version of these benefits to their allies, but disabling their own passive ability until the activated virtue has finished recharging. The guardian virtues are:

• Justice—Every fifth attack causes burning. Use this skill to make nearby allies' next attacks cause burning. (This disables your Justice for 30 seconds.)
• Courage—Every 30 seconds you are granted Aegis, blocking the next attack. Use this skill to apply Aegis to all nearby allies. (This disables your Courage for 120 seconds.)
• Resolve—You regenerate health. Use this skill to remove conditions and apply Regeneration to all nearby allies. (This disables your Resolve for 120 seconds.)