We stumbled across (and we weren’t the first ones!) a fantastic fan made trailer titled “New Heroes of Tyria”. It was made by Youtube user wetwillyhip and it showcases the races of Guild Wars 2.

I wanted to share what a huge fan I am of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 with this trailer I put together!

Guild Wars 2 is going to change the way MMOs play and you should totally take some time to check it out! It will be an absolutely amazing game innovating on all sides and angles to bring you something extremely fresh & exciting. Guild Wars 2 is from developer ArenaNet.

Continue reading to check out the video.

We’ve reached our milestone of 490,000 Facebook fans, and we’ve got some brand-new art for you! Did you find the Shadow Behemoth big and intimidating? This Undead Globster Boss might make him look a little tamer. This early concept art piece by Matthew Barrett depicts a hulking maritime undead boss. Did this monstrosity make it into the final game? You’ll have to play to find out.

Who doesn’t love the artwork for Guild Wars 2?

Check out The Escapist’s preview of Guild Wars 2. The talk about the in and outs of the game and what makes in unique!

Overall the combat in Guild Wars 2 has a great feeling of mobility and there’s much less emphasis on predefined class roles. Like its predecessor, Guild Wars 2 focuses on a much tighter grouping of skills as you’ll only ever have 10 skills at a time and one or more specific profession-based abilities. The thief, for instance, can steal temporary items to be used against foes whereas the elementalist can change their elemental attunement, which effects what their spells do. Your first five skills are determined by your currently equipped weapon, but you’re given more freedom to pick your healing, elite and utility skills in the later five.

Read the rest of the article from the link below.

Source: Guild Wars 2 Preview

Guild Wars 2′s Gem Store is one of the most debated topics for curious, prospective players. It’s easy to understand why. Many “free-to-play” MMORPGs offer similar shops, usually known as cash shops or microtransaction shops, and some of the items sold end up severely impacting the game for all types of players. The term often used for these games is “pay to win”, and it’s fairly accurate in most cases. The players with the most shop-bought items generally end up at the top of the food chain, which is unfair for everyone else. The notion of GW2 going this same route leaves a bad taste in many gamers’ mouths.

But will ArenaNet go that route? Many other games have made microtransaction shops that don’t contain items that have such a huge impact on gameplay, and merely contain novelty, vanity, cosmetic, and collectable items. And let’s face it, shops like this do well in popular games, because players love items that bring character to their characters. Character is good in MMOs. Unbalanced godly items are not.

Last weekend we finally got a chance to take Guild Wars 2 for a spin and in turn talk about it! We love when near-to-release games drop the NDA because we finally are able to get our hands on the game and then discuss it with the community at large. Guild Wars 2 is not like any MMORPG released on the market. Sure you have fireballs, swords, and dragons, but the way you play the game is entirely different. You are no longer competing against other players for quest objectives. No longer are you strung out going from quest hub to quest hub doing a laundry list of inane things.

In Guild Wars 2, you are no longer playing a meta game of quests, you begin living in the world. Arenanet has created a game that moves. No matter where you are, the game could be doing something entirely different each time you visit the same place. With all that being said, let’s take a dive into what we loved about Guild Wars 2.

I love me some PVP videos. AurraTV on Youtube brings us some awesome 1v1 Warrior footage from the last beta weekend.

Footage of organized 1v1 duels recorded on April 29th, 2012 on Jade Quarry. Footage was pulled off my stream (twitch.tv/AurraTV) so quality isn’t as high as previous videos.

We had to use empty Conquest servers as private servers were not enabled at the time. Some duels were interrupted by other players who didn’t know/care that we were dueling, and the battleground timers.

Check it out.

Kotaku takes us through their weekend of beta testing by diving deep into the beautiful world that the developers at Arenanet have created.

Except, of course, that I would. Because of the way that quests and missions pop up around the world, as live events, it’s easy to get carried away. Step across an invisible perimeter (which then becomes visible, on your map), and you’re in range for a ring event, quest, or straight-up mass melee. Up comes an alert, whether it’s for a farmer whose corn you can water or for a giant wasp who’s so far got a full dozen players running for their lives. Cross out of the circle again, and you’re on your own, the plea for aid vanishing from your screen as if it had never been.

Trained by other MMOs, I tried to stay respectful. When someone was fighting a centaur, I backed away; when someone was harvesting apples from a tree, I moved to another node. Only after several hours did I finally realize that the game was aiming for cooperation, not competition, and that kill-stealing was more or less impossible. If a nearby character and I teamed up on a kill, we both got credit and full loot, even without being grouped. Likewise, spawned bosses, like the giant wasp, are fights for any and all hands in the area. Anyone can heal themselves, and anyone can revive others. The game actively encourages the human impulse to come running over and lend aid in a crisis, which for me made a delightful change from the usual gruff “stay out of my way” mood I have felt in other games.

After our weekend in Guild Wars 2 we couldn’t agree more and really loved the cooperation aspect of the game.

Source: A Gorgeous, Living World Sets Guild Wars 2 Apart

Forbes gives us their impression of the last Beta Weekend Event, check it out:

The remarkable thing about this is that none of this gameplay was forced. I could follow the plot, ignore it, or catch up to it later, and I didn’t have to coordinate with other players. What I liked even better: Everyone who takes part in completing an objective gets some credit proportional to how much they contributed. Do well, and you’re rewarded with a gold medal when it’s all over; turn up halfway through, and you might get a bronze or nothing at all.

Those NPCs I mentioned above? They’re quest givers, sort of—except it turns out GW2 doesn’t roll that way. You can participate in an activity just by turning up in the area it’s located and throwing in with whomever happens to be there. The NPC is there to give the activity a purpose (usually, the objective is to help the NPC), and to give the player extra information and background if they want it—but you can also just ignore them. No need to talk to them to start a quest, no need to talk to them later to end it.

Source: Guild Wars 2: First Impressions of the Beta

Originally posted by Jon Peters (Source)

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This is a general rule of our skill system. AoE attacks hit up to 5 targets. AoE buffs or heals can heal up to 5. We cap it at 5 because its the party size and lets us reign in the balance on AoE without impacting most normal situations. WvW is the one place where this shows up, but we believe the alternative is worse. Hope this helps…

Originally posted by Jon Peters (Source)

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Hey all. I wanted to talk about this a bit since it is a hot topic here and also on the internets. The intention is that both styles are viable. Certainly right now Melee is more difficult than ranged. There are some things we will try to do to address this, but I think the more you play you would find they are closer than you think.
First what’s already there:

1) Melee does more damage. Melee damage is simply higher than ranged damage across the board.
2) Melee has more control. With a few intentional exception Melee has a lot more control than ranged.
What Melee needs:
1) defensive tools on more weapons, particularly on lower armor professions.
2) ai needs to favor Melee a bit less than it currently does.

What else:
Finally because of the more action based nature of combat Melee needs to be taught better. Effective Melee requires skills that translate over from FPS games which are notoriously harder on casual players. You have to wasd to move, constantly aim with your mouse camera, and hit skills on 1-5.
Some tips:

If you have learned any good Melee tips that you think we should pass on to newer players feel free to post them here. I’ll start with a few tips of my own.

- If you don’t have mouse look on when using a skill you will turn to face. I sometimes let go of mouse look as I activate to help me aim through the chaos and then click it back down in between attacks.
- Melee has a lot of hard hitting skills and good setup. Utility skills Can really help set up big Melee attacks. Bulls charge on warrior, scorpion wire on thief, judges intervention on guardian.
- know when to run. No matter what you are not a tank. You have to move in and out avoiding damage. If you have to soak damage try and bring boons like Protection and Regeneration or conditions like Blindness and the very undervalued Weakness.

Thanks for reading this all. Rest assured we will keep working on this and just keep in mind the subtle differences in GW2 combat that take a while to sink in.
Jon

Last weekend we finally got a public look at Guild Wars 2 over their first Beta Weekend Event. The game was available to everyone who pre-purchased the game. We took the time to create a series of videos detailing the starting experience of Guild Wars 2 in the first few levels. We’ll be giving you the basics of game as well as a few tips. Our first video shows the tutorial section of the game and we go over combat and the basics of learning weapon skills. Keep your eye out for part two where we details the first portion of Queensdale a long with the first series of Story Quests.

Catch the video after the break!

From Ryan Raplee, Junkies Nation Co-Founder:

I am participating in the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life because I want to make a meaningful difference in the fight against cancer.

Almost everyone has been touched by cancer, either through their own personal battle or through someone they love.

Every day, the American Cancer Society is helping us stay well by preventing cancer or finding it at its earliest, most treatable stages. They assist families in finding the best resources to help their friend or loved one deal with a diagnosis and their journey to get well. The American Cancer Society is also rallying communities (like ours!) through events like Relay For Life, to fight back and find cures for this disease.

Please join my team or make a donation to help the American Cancer Society create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. Together, we can help make sure that cancer never steals another year of anyone’s life!

Fuck Cancer.

Amazingly, digital copies of GW2 have sold out for the weekend. Don’t despair, according to GW2′s Facebook page, copies are still available from Gamestop and Best Buy and may be able to digital order later on in the weekend.

The Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event is nearly here! Gamers from around the world will finally get their hands on the game for the very first time. If you’re reading this, you are a GW2 Junkie, and you’re looking for an edge. We want to share with you a few tips that will help you navigate your way around Arenanet’s masterpiece of a game. Some of the systems in Guild Wars 2, such as leveling, combat and skill gains, are very different from what most players might expect. So, instead of spending precious time figuring out the new systems, we’re here to help you get through the learning curve as fast as possible, and get you to tearing down walls in the Mists of World vs. World.

Keep reading for a full range of tips from character customization, to learning what your profession can do.

G4TV gives an awesome preview of some World vs. World action in the video above a long with a full article that gives you all the details of a full siege.

Anyone can join in on the WvW battle and several GW2 game designers have stated that WvW should act like a stepping stone for those players who are interested in learning about PvP but not quite ready to jump in to the competitive side of things.

As you enter in to World vs. World, regardless of what level you actually are, you’ll be scaled up to level 80. You’ll retain all of your skills, abilities, and armor, but it will all be scaled up to level 80. This is different than in competitive PvP where everyone is given the same gear, and all of your abilities and traits are unlocked.

What this boils down to is that if you’re a level two player fighting a level 60 player in WvW, the level 60 player will have a huge advantage over you. They’ll have a variety of skills and better gear than you do, even though you’ve both been scaled up to level 80 in the environment. In competitive PvP, everyone is on an even playing field, but that’s not the case in WvW.

Source: Guild Wars 2 World vs. World Preview — Realms at War