Welcome to the complete information knowledge base that we have so far for Guild Wars 2. We have taken the time to collect all the information, news, spoilers, rumors, and tidbits we have found from interviews, announcements, and information sources of Guild Wars 2. Everyone’s really excited about the sequel to one of the best MMORPG titles of the last decade, and if you’re now no longer playing GW on a regular basis, switching to WoW or even www.partypoker.com until the sequel comes out, this is the best source of information to get yourself excited. This post will be updated as we find out more about Guild Wars 2 and the release date of Guild Wars 2 comes closer.

Guild Wars 2 Basics

• Guild Wars 2 is a brand new game being built from the ground up and has no relation to Guild Wars 1 in terms of recycled content.
• Guild Wars 2 will have the same design principles as the original Guild Wars – but with improved everything after the experience gained by producers Arena Net.
• Guild Wars’ inspiration comes from games like Magic the Gathering rather than the game most often copied in this genre: Dungeons and Dragons.

Main Principles of Guild Wars 2

o Guild Wars 2 will  be free – in that it will not be subscription based to play month to month
o Casual lone Players and hardcore Guild players in Guild wars 2 will both have the chance to enjoy most of the content at their own pace.
o Storytelling in Guild Wars 2 will be improved to make the player feel more part of the world allowing for better atmosphere and immersement.

Differences between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2

• Characters from Guild Wars 1 can’t be transferred to Guild Wars 2
• Your original Guild Wars character name will be saved for you to be played in Guild Wars 2.
• Guild Wars 2 Hall of Monuments will recognize all your achievements from the former game and will reward you accordingly in GW 2.
• If you don’t wish to play the sequel to Guild Wars, you will still be able to play the original Guild Wars

How the subscription in Guild Wars 2 will work and extra content

• Subscription in Guild Wars 2 will be free as previously noted, however the game will be sold at a normal game price and everyone needs an original copy of Guild Wars 2 to play.
• ArenaNet hasn’t decided yet how they will feature content after the game goes live. They will however begin working on new content in Guild Wars 2 when it goes gold, but whether they will provide it through free upgrades, mini addons, or Guild Wars 2 expansion packs – that is yet to be decided.

Lore and Story in Guild Wars 2

Storytelling in GW 2 will gain much depth as personalized stories will be developed based on the players race, profession, and decisions taken throughout the game. Players will feel like their actions have consequences and what they do in the world of Guild Wars will gain much more valuable meaning.

Guild Wars 2 Map

Tyria and the world around it in Guild Wars 2 will be expanded tremendously really making the original Guild Wars world puny in comparison. Not only will the map in Guild Wars 2 be much large in terms of available space, there will also be much more detail everywhere around the map meaning that it’s not just a big desert or wasteland for you to rush through. Previously, travel between zone boundaries was limited but GW 2 will allow for much more sightseeing if that is what you wish.

Guild Wars 2 Gameplay:

• Heroes in Guild Wars 2 can now jump and swim.
• Unlike World of Warcraft, flying has NOT been introduced to GW in this latest sequel.
• Underwater exploration in Guild Wars 2 will be a significant part of the game, but worry not as it will made very easy and enjoyable and will avoid the stress of drowning experienced in many other games. These underwater zones in Guild Wars 2 will allow players to explore much more and will be featured in most dungeons and explorable areas. There’s even an underwater city as well as ruins and caverns.
• The freedom of movement will increase the liberty to explore the world as well as make the game and the combat much more realistic.

Character Customization in Guild Wars 2

• You will be able to have multiple characters on the same account.
• You will be allowed to play new races, all of them being non-human naturally.

Guild Wars 2 Races

There are in total 5 races in Guild Wars 2 that can be played, all having male and female variants:
• Human
• Charr
• Norn
• Asura
• Sylvari

There is no faction separation in this game and not real good or evil race segmentation – in fact you will not be fighting against other players except in the seperate PvP mode. Race also doesn’t play a special part when you determine who you party with or are in a guild with nor does which Guild Wars 2 professions you are allowed to master.

Racials, Racial Differences, Racial Traits in Guild Wars 2

• The starting areas of races in Guild Wars 2 will be different.
• Personal stories in GW 2
At the starting areas and initially while leveling up, players will have race specific quest in Guild Wars 2, but as they evolve they will join forces and engage in quests to defeat the bigger enemies in Guild Wars 2
Racial flavours in Guild Wars 2 will provide distinction between the different races:
These racial factors will be varied based on race:
• Guild Wars 2 Sylvari race: Season of birth
• Guild Wars 2 Human race: Racial heritage
• Guild Wars 2 Norn race: Animal totem of choice
• Guild Wars 2 Charr race: Legion affiliation
• Guild Wars 2 Asura race: College of magical thought

Guild Wars 2 Racial Abilities:

Each race has a special skill including a primary ability that plays a big part in how the character feels and plays

• The Norn racial in Guild Wars 2 is shape shifting into bestial forms: a bear, raven, half-animal/half-Norm shapes as well.

• The Charr racial in Guild Wars 2 is having war machines

• The Asura racial in Guild Wars 2 is using powerful golems to fight on their behalf.

• The Sylvari racial that they have a common dream and an empathic sense, which will have an effect on gameplay but no details of that announced yet.

Leveling in Guild Wars 2

• There is naturally a level cap in Guild Wars 2 which will be set at least higher than level 20.
• There is no grind based play in GW 2 and you won’t have to grind to reach the max level.
• There will be advanced character advancement in Guild Wars 2 much like more high budget games on the market.

Crafting in Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 crafting will be available for players to do something when they are not in the mood for combat or adventure.

Guild Wars 2 Solo

• If you’re not in the mood to make friends or feel like being alone, you can play Guild Wars 2 by yourself perfectly fine and finish the game in this way.
• Almost all content will be designed to be able to complete while leveling up solo in Guild Wars 2 and therefore you will never have to join a group or guild if you don’t wish to do so.
•Content will scale in difficulty and will also scale depending on how many players you are grouped with. There will be quests and objectives so difficult that you can’t complete without the help of friends – similar to some elite quests in World of Warcraft.

Playing and Grouping with Friends in Guild Wars 2

• There will be a sidekick system similar to in City of Heroes where you can play with a friend of much lower character. The average of the players will be taken so that you are all the same level evened out.

Companions in Guild Wars 2

• There is still much development being for companions so much can be changed from now until Guild Wars 2 is released.
• The companion will not take up a party slot in GW2 so that will allow more space for actual players.
• The Hero or Henchman feature won’t be in Guild Wars 2 like it was in the original game.

•NPC Heroic characters will be a larger part of the story and will sometimes even interact with the players themselves.

Guild Wars 2 Persistent Zones and Guild Wars 2 Instances

• Persistent areas in Guild Wars 2 will be featured much like other conventional MMORPG’s and you will be able to interact and meet other players giving the world a much more human feeling.
• Different Guild Wars 2 servers will be used to seperate the players into different groups.
• You will be able to easily transfer between different servers in Guild Wars 2.
• Unique narrative elements will be used, previously not seen in MMO’s – alternating both between persistent zones and instanced zones.
• The purpose of instances will be mainly for quests, dungeons, and raids particularly in the late game at higher levels.
• The existence or lack of a persistent world is totally unrelated to the running expenses which are needed to maintain an online game.
• There will be no ganking in Guild Wars 2 as PvP has always been and will always be a mutual entered exchange in GW 2.

Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Event System

• Events will be group-orientated activities that encourage players to explore the world – and should create some surprises along the way.
• You might start walking along a road you’ve walked a hundred times, and suddenly there’s a caravan travelling along that road that you may not have seen, and you can go help that caravan out.
• The event system is a feature that was worked on in the unreleased campaign, Guild Wars: Utopia.
• This is quite a unique feature in Guild Wars 2 as the world will change before your very eyes as you are playing.
• The quest system also being revolutionized – no more question marks above the quest giver heads.
• Events are not schedule pushed, but instead come as a result of what the players are doing in the actual world.
• Players are never punished for playing the game.
• Players are encouraged to work together to achieved these shared goals.

Guild Wars 2 PVP

There will be two modes of PVP in Guild Wars 2:
• World-versus-World
• Team-versus-Team
This will allow for the seperation of casual players and e-sport enthusiasts. The number of game types have been reduced to keep game balance in Guild Wars 2 manageable and fair across the board.

There will no longer be PVP only or RPG only modes, your player can enjoy both in the same world without any disadvantages.

World-versus-World
• Worlds as we described before are servers where there is a persistent world. There will be Mists, which are areas shared by several Worlds – which is the same as Battlegrounds in World of Warcraft. In this way you can still play with players from different servers. You will even be able to over resources that just benefit your specific World (server). You will find teammates very easily that will expand to hundreds. The battles will not be race vs race and will be casual PVP that is easy to get into for casuals. You can even bring your PvE character along and gain experience and levels by engaging in this PVP mode. You will not have access to the same skills and gear and will play with your actual character and where he is at in his development.

Strategy will be an important part of gameplay with aims to control more of the map, and the ability to take on different roles: you can conquer mines, attack caravans of the enemy, be a scout and inform your team, defend the castles and watchtowers, or simply kill opposing enemy players.

Guild-versus-Guild
Guild vs Guild play in Guild Wars 2 is highly competitive form of PVP that will test your abilities to the limit. Abilities,equipments, character properties, skills, equipments will all be leveled out to provide a perfectly fair playing field. This mode if open from day one to any player, even if they have not leveled their characters yet. Of course, the more experienced players will still have a clear edge due to their experience and built skills.

Guild Wars 2 Interactive Elements

The game will featurea day and night cycle but will not run on a 24-hour cycle. Day and night cycles will be determined by external factors such as events and such.
• Weather effects will be improved granting better atmosphere to the game and making the world feel more real.

Locations of Guild Wars 2

•Guild Wars 2 is set in Tyria with many familiar locations for Guild Wars fans.
• Lion’s Arch is no longer considered a part of Kryta
• Ascalon has now been conquered by the Charr and has become their homeland.

• The Sylvari races live in the Maguuma forests
• The Norn will live in the Shiverpeaks.(Hoelbrak)
• Asura gates will be used as portals that will allow players to move from place to place – the links allow different areas of Tyria to be connected and easily travelable

Guild Wars 2 Skills

•The main focus is now on the quality of skills rather than the quantity. The basic idea will be the same but it will be made more comprehensible.

Number of skills will be less, but there will actually be increased diversity in the skills in Guild Wars 2.
• In case you were wondering, jumping in Guild Wars 2 2ill not have an effect on a skill.

Guild Wars 2 Equipment

• Equipment in Guild Wars 2 will become much more important.
• A lot of cool items will be available improving the character progression that was lacking in the original Guild Wars 1
My guns – they’ll get ya!
• Magic and technology has progressed leaps and bounds since the original game. Some professions will use rifles and pistols – and the Charr will also lead the way with their guns and war machines.

Guild Wars 2 Game Engine

GO RED ENGINE
The Go Red Engine has been developed significantly and will improve the game in many ways:
• Finally allows a persistent world
• Allows free form movement and exploration within the world
• Dynamic Day and night cycles
• Support for more advanced dungeons
• Graphical boost enabling better environments and models, high quality lighting effect and shadows, fresh animation styles and effects systems
• Completely new cinematic and audio engines

Combat gameplay much improved:

• An overhauled terrain system leading to more accurate and fluid gameplay
• Guild Wars 2 will now be fully 3D and not have hidden 3D objects that are in fact only partially 3D.
• Destructable items and permanent changes that change the way you play and view the game
• Will run great on mid range PC’s and will still retain a great visual style despite not tremendous amount of polygons
• Design and development systems has been optimized allowing for more quick content creation and content management.
• Camera angle will be closer to the actual player.

Guild Wars 2 Beta

• Guild Wars 1 beta was introduced very far from development stage, but for GW 2 the beta will be much further along the production and close to the game release.
• The Guild Wars 2 release date has yet to be set, but predictions range from late 2010 to early in 2011.

That wraps up our comprehensive look at Guild Wars 2 and hopefully this preview of Guild Wars 2 answers most of the questions you have about the game. We will be providing much more in depth Guild Wars 2 reviews, Guild Wars 2 info, Guild Wars 2 tips and tricks, and Guild Wars 2 how to guides as the Guild Wars 2 release date dawns upon us. Stay tuned!