Guild Wars 2 Q&As

To ensure that we know everything we need to about the ranger profession and death, healing, and resurrection in Guild Wars 2, the folks at ArenaNet have been busy answering questions around the web.

First up is an in-house Q&A with lead designer Eric Flannum on the official website:

Q: Do arrows in Guild Wars 2 work similar to how they do in Guild Wars, where they can be dodged, because they follow a straight trajectory?

Eric: There are some projectiles in the game which cannot be dodged because they auto track to their target. Auto tracking projectiles are a minority case, however, so it’s true that most projectiles can be dodged as they were in Guild Wars.

Then Massively chimes in about the ranger profession, too:

The pet system sounds much more robust than the one in Guild Wars 1. Are pets only one of many options for the ranger, or is there a clear overall advantage for those rangers who have one?

Having a pet is an integral part of being a ranger in Guild Wars 2. It is possible for a ranger to fight without a pet but fighting with a pet is always more effective. If a player wants to play a ranged character without a pet then they will very likely find one of the other professions more appealing. Every profession in the game has some sort of ranged option, be it magic, a bow, or a firearm.

And, finally, Ten Ton Hammer talks about death and healing with designer Jon Peters:

Ten Ton Hammer: While not nearly as fun as the systems announced for Guild Wars 2, the death penalty in the original Guild Wars does help to turn the tide of battle in PvP once you manage to defeat key members of the opposing team. Will the downed state and associated abilities, and the rally mechanic function differently in PvP than it does in PvE situations to help prevent stalemates in the same way?

Jon Peters: Predominantly, death, rallying, and revival works the same way in PvP as it does in PvE. The one distinction is that in the same way that a player interacts with an ally to revive them, a player can interact with an enemy in PvP to do a strong finishing move that sends them straight to defeated.

Of course this does help break stalemates, however, Guild Wars 2 PvP is just a different beast and the concept of the Guild Wars 1 Mexican flag standoff, where everyone is just posturing until there is a tiny opening that has a small chance of accomplishing anything is something we are trying to avoid. Guild Wars 2 is a game about killing, not a game about not dying. It is more about taking risks and heroic actions and that is one of the reasons that the death penalty system has been removed.