There isn’t much to do for rabid

rampaging Guild Wars 2 fans hungry for information other than

play the original Guild Wars and dream of all of the possibilities

for GW2. We’re currently sitting at the cusp between knowing nothing

at all about the game and knowing everything. As it stands we only know

about four professions, some of the land, a little bit of the lore,

and not much else. We have gotten a chance this year at CES to see it

demo’d, but there is still a lot that we don’t know about. The biggest

thing that everyone craves is to know is what the four remaining professions

are.

The class, profession, or general archetype

that you play determines how much fun you’ll have in a game. People

who like to smash things with big hunks of metal will obviously enjoy

Warriors while more subtle tacticians will want to have a bit more control

(and stand a little further back from the mayhem). So finding out what

you could potentially play is a big thing for a lot of fans. We do know

about four professions currently: Warrior, Elementalist, Ranger, and

Necromancer. That leaves us with four empty spots. ArenaNet hasn’t

left us completely in the dark; we have a few hints from some of their

twitter posts, forum posts, and other areas.

• There will be two soldiers,

  three adventurers, and three scholars in Guild Wars 2.

• There are currently one

  soldier (Warrior), two scholars (Elementalist and Necromancer), and

  one adventurer (Ranger).

• One soldier, one scholar,

  and two adventurers are missing from the roster.

• One profession will be a

  returning profession while another will be a similar profession, but

  renamed. The last two professions will be two entirely new professions.

• Dervishes will not be returning

  because Scythes are not on the official weapon list or in any of the

  weapon concept art.

• Monks may not be returning

  because Guild Wars 2 will not have a dedicated healing profession.

• Ritualists are currently

  missing from the lore and have not had a heavy mention anywhere.

• “Blue Mace Lady” is

  a piece of concept art showing a female in plate, wielding a mace, and

  using a shield which may be a hint toward the second soldier profession.

• Paragons may not be returning,

  due to the fact that only one soldier profession remains and they are

  aligned to Elona than Tyria and the “Blue Mace Lady” is wielding

  a mace, not a spear. Spears are also not on any of the official weapon

  lists currently.

• Concept art has appeared

  with a profession that seems to heavily resemble the Mesmer, not to

  mention the blurry profession listing has a masked

Taking all of this information into

account we can assume, with little accuracy, that the soldier profession

will be similar to a “Guardian” or “Paladin”, some form

of defensive (compared to offensive) melee class. The remaining Scholar

will most likely be the Mesmer since there is a large amount of evidence

pointing to that fact. The remaining two adventurers will probably feature

a new form of Assassin along with something entirely new to the game.

The Return of the Mesmer

Guild Wars did something different

by introducing the Mesmer. The Mesmer profession was something unique

and unheard of in most fantasy MMOGs before the release of Guild

Wars. A profession focused entirely around control, hexes, debuffs,

and interrupts versus the usual large list of damage dealing or healing

abilities.

A lot of popular lore based characters

were Mesmers as well, including Gwen who currently has a large amount

of influence in the world. Only Monks and Mesmers have not been announced

in Guild Wars 2 while all of the other original professions have

already been added. Obviously Monks will have a difficult time returning

due in part to the fact that there will be no primary healing profession,

so it would be a great waste to use the last scholar slot on something

that can only smite and beat things with a staff.

There are some arguments against the

Mesmer. Hexes will not be making a return which is one of the huge features

to the Mesmer profession, but I’m sure they’ll figure something

out since Necromancers retain some of their hex like skills like Life

Siphon. The skill monitor is also gone, meaning interrupts have to work

on visual cues and we’re obviously not going to see cast times like

you can view in Allods (where it takes forever for some classes

to cast their skills).

All in all, I say it’s a safe bet

to say that the Mesmer will be making a triumphant return to Guild

Wars 2, maybe just a bit differently.

Watch your Back – Assassins

on the Move

The only profession you can’t outright

rule out for a myriad of reasons is the Assassin. Daggers will be in

Guild Wars2 and there is fewer professions more fun than an Assassin.

Dash forward, blink toward the target, and begin unleashing your powerful

combos before slinking back into the shadows. Cantha is currently cut

off from Tyria, so it would make since that this a prime profession

to be renamed. While I doubt we’ll see something generic like “Rogues,”

we’ll probably see something cool and fantasy styled while having

similar skill sets.

The "Blue Mace Lady"

is speculated as being one of the new professions in GW2.

Blue Mace Lady

The Blue Mace Lady or “BML”, based

on the concept art of a female wearing plate, a shield, and wielding

a large mace, could be the remaining soldier profession. The only thing

we know for sure is that the Blue Mace Lady loves maces. Joking aside,

there is a lot of speculation around the remaining soldier profession

and what connection it has to the BML.

It’s likely that the remaining soldier

profession will be more “Knightly” or some type of “Guardian,”

using Boons and protective/defensive buffs in lieu of the Warriors offensive

buffs and large variety of attacks. This means that they’ll be more

of a tank who exchanges large quantities of DPS for the ability to stay

alive more. Knowing ArenaNet though, they’ll make sure it isn’t

an exchange where you can never die but you can make three sandwiches

by the time something dies.

The story gets better when you drag

Logan Thackeray into it. Many speculate that Logan is part of the “BML”

profession since he is a defensive type character who heals and wields

a two-handed warhammer for the majority of the book. He uses “blue

magic” which is synonymous with defense in most fantasy based gaming.

In many parts of the book blue energy flings out of his hands to stop

bullets, deflect blades, or even lightly heal his allies. That seems

to be in line with the “Guardian” or “Paladin” type profession

to me.

It’s also obvious he isn’t a Paragon,

since the only thing anyone ever calls him is a “Guardian”

(in both the official character description and some points in the book

referring to his auras) and Paragons utilize spears. So it would make

a lot of sense for Logan to be aligned to the second soldier profession,

a profession that focuses more on defense than offense. I

The Remaining Adventurer

That leaves one slot, an adventurer,

with no single clue as to what it could be. You could open up Final

Fantasy Tactics and begin hunting for professions (such as Dragoon,

Alchemist, Engineer, etc.) but I like to be a bit more logical.

First let’s take a look at what we

have, assuming if the above information is true. We have three physical

melee professions, three magical ranged professions, and one ranged

physical profession. It would make a lot of sense for the last profession

to be a ranged physical profession.

Second let’s take a look at the available

weapons. None of the professions above can or should wield Pistols or

Rifles, both which have concept art in the game and are used by characters

within the books. Rangers cannot use them, so obviously something should.

That’s why I propose the last profession

will be a gunner. Thinking about it there is a lot of steampunk-esq

gadgetry going on within the last two GW2 books and there seems to be

a lot of heavy focus on technology. Where there is steampunk there is

rifles and pistols (also top hats and gears, but that’s for another

story). Gunners can also deploy gadgets of various types (like turrets

or mobile weaponry) while still fitting in within the lore giving

Guild Wars 2 at least one profession dedicated to gunpowder and

mechanics without calling it an Engineer. Engineers seem not only like

a ripoff of Warhammer Online (which one of the GW2 devs is currently

playing according to Twitter) but also more of a repair things profession

which doesn’t fit in with the “everyone needs to have a whole lot

of fun” motto ArenaNet seems to be running.

Others speculate that it could be more

an Alchemist profession, using potions to heal, do damage, and control

the playing field. That sounds like a fun profession to me, but seems

more like Alchemy will be related to the creation of potions (which

are to be plentiful in GW2) rather than a class dedicated to hurling

bottles around (and once again, would seem like a rip-off of Warhammer

Online’s Zealot).

Whatever the remaining professions

will be is still up to ArenaNet, but I bet you one thing is true: that

they will all be exceedingly fun to play.

I personally can’t wait to get my hands on Guild Wars 2 and

give each and every profession a try. So which professions do you speculate

will be in GW2? Come to the Ten Ton Hammer community forums to share

your opinion today!