There’s a lot of repetition going on in MMORPGs these days. Developers subscribe to this trend of continuing to implement features that mirror other games because they assume those features are why the games are popular. Class trainers who teach 30+ abilities, for instance. Sure, some gamers like huge arsenals at their disposal. But when one game comes out with 30 abilities learned by spamming the “train” button, the next 35, and the next 45, at some point we have to stand back and say, “Well, wait a minute. Why do we need all this? Why can’t we just customize our abilities right on the battlefield?”

Lucky for us, ArenaNet hasn’t given into the trend. The developers are attempting to think outside of the repetitive MMO box. Even down to the little details of Guild Wars 2, the hints of immersion and innovation are there. Yes, the game has trainers, but not for every aspect of combat. Players are able to switch abilities based on their equipped equipped. Combat can vary extensively between one encounter to the next– all without needing to spend 20 minutes clicking at the trainer. Minor details like this make the difference upon embarking on an adventure into Tyria, because we know that the developers didn’t say, “Let’s do this like those other games.” They said, “Let’s do something different.”

With last weekend’s major media coverage of Guild Wars 2 there are many people just now starting to pay attention. There are a lot of questions out there of how the game works, how it’s played and what makes it different. Luckily for you, we here at Guild Wars Junkies are paying attention and are here to help you figure everything out. The one question we want to tackle is how abilities and class mechanics are available to you at any given point. In games like WOW, TOR and Rift, players are used to having multiple hotbars with a myriad of abilities readily available to you. How does it work in Guild Wars 2? All the videos you’ve seen showed you a single hotbar at the bottom of the screen and not much else. Are you concerned that there aren’t many options and things might get stale?