ArenaNet continues to push out information about how Guild Wars 2 is different by leaps and bounds from other traditional MMORPGs. One of the biggest statements was in the “Healing & Death” post a few months ago where Jon Peters claimed that GW2 would avoid the “holy trinity” that most games adhere to, where players form groups based on having tanks, healers, and DPS.

"That is why Guild Wars 2 does not have a dedicated healing class."

“Instead of the traditional trinity, every Guild Wars 2 profession is self reliant--not only can they all help each other by reviving in combat, but all professions have ways to build their characters differently to make them more versatile for group play.”

This statement brought out a lot of passion in the community as players became hopeful that ArenaNet would deliver a game that reinvigorated and redefined the genre as a whole. However, the recent introduction of the Guardian brought in much doubt to fans minds as they struggled to understand how the Guardian, a profession that speaks highly about defense, did not fit into the tank archetype. A wave of interviews, including one here at Ten Ton Hammer, answered many questions about how the Guardian was not a tank. Then Jon Peters himself wrote a detailed article on the official ArenaNet blog about how GW2 is on track to deliver something different and amazing.

The Lack of Dedicated Healers

In the latest article we discover a lot of things that we have already read before and then we were made aware of a few additional ones. We already know that GW2 will not have any “dedicated professions” or professions that have a singular objective like healing or tanking. However, healing will evolve into something slightly different. There is no way to target friendly players to cast spells on them (allied targeting is non-existent in the combat mechanics of GW2) and the various spells available do not simply allow you to cast a heal to bring someone’s health up.

Izzy Cartwright has shared a lot of interesting information over Twitter on this subject:

IzzyCartwright:  Mainly, there are no enchantments or buffs, so it's either a regen or an area on the ground that pulses healing.

IzzyCartwright: I mainly use regen to prevent stacking since regen stacks duration not effect where pulse would stack effect.

IzzyCartwright: I'll clarify stacking a bit for ya boons and condi's stack up to 9 times on a duration one like regen you could get 9x duration.

From Twitter in a conversation with TriggerSad.

In a nutshell, to restore health in GW2 you have three options available. The first is the “Regeneration Boon” which heals a small amount of health each second. This comes from spells such as Healing Rain or the Guardian’s Virtue: Resolve. The second is a “pulse healing” effect, which is like Healing Spring, where a set amount of healing is done every second. The third is self only healing abilities that restore health to yourself, like Healing Signet, that provides a set amount of healing regeneration but can be used to heal yourself for a set amount of health.

Certain abilities like Static Field can be used to mitigate damage.

The Regeneration Boon cannot stack, but it can have its duration extended up to 9 times, meaning you have it last for a relatively long period of time. Pulse healing effects, like Geyser, can stack multiple times so if multiple Elementalists used multiple Geysers then players would get healed over and over from them. Other healing skills mostly apply to you and can’t be cast on other players since there is no friendly targeting.

Taking all of this in we can somewhat get the idea that there will not be any dedicated healers. As for tanks, it’s a bit more complicated because we don’t know very much about it. However, we do have this quote from the Warrior interview:

Q: Is there any taunting mechanism, similar to what other MMOs have? Will there be “tanks” in GW2?

Eric: No, there is no taunting mechanism. There will be “tanks” in the same way that there were tanks in Guild Wars. That is to say, a tank in Guild Wars 2 is a character that can take a lot of damage and has some way to protect allies. A warrior fits that description since he has high health, heavy armor, and several defensive skills that can protect allies from harm.

Essentially there are tanks, like Warriors and Guardians, who can take a lot of damage and can protect allies, but as far as if they’re needed I would say that other professions all have ways to deal with incoming damage and ways to control the enemy. Without the ability to taunt and the way the original Guild Wars aggro system worked (where mobs attacked the weakest target) we can expect to see groups focused more along the lines of combining abilities to deal with incoming damage and the “tank” type professions the ones who deal with it in that unique run up and take it in the face/shield kind of way versus snaring it or using some kind of shield type spell.

Speaking of the aggro system, an interview over at GuildWars2Guru brought about information about the aggro system:

[patrickvp] Can you talk about the agro mechanic? Is it DPS based, armor based, random, or something else?
[IsaiahCartwright] Currently its a combination of DPS, Positional, and a bunch of other factors. Currently how close you are to the enemy is the biggest factor.

So we know that the system will involve enemies running around and attacking everyone, not just the meat shields that we throw at them. That's at least with how the system works now.

First Person Experience

GW2 will be a game about movement, control, and action. ArenaNet is working diligently to peel away the standard definition of a game where you spend the majority of your time working tirelessly to keep bars up or keep a single number at some percentage. You’ll run into battle and begin using your skills effortlessly while using the world, position, and abilities to keep your health up. If you should somehow fall in battle your allies can come and rescue you from the brink of destruction.

The "Downed" state allows for players to return from near death while remaining in the game.

With gameplay like this, the Guardian makes a lot of sense. Jon Peters said: “A guardian that brings Wall of Deflection or an elementalist with Swirling Aura can use them to defend allies when retreating. They can also use it to push into enemy lines, or they can cast it in a timely manner to counter a particularly dangerous enemy projectile and send the effects of that projectile back to the attacker.”

ArenaNet’s great video game sagacity has them breaking down the stereotypical archetypes that we’re used to and applying skills and abilities in way that others have yet to think of. Imagine running into a battle and throwing down a shield to split the flow of enemies into an Elementalist’s waiting trap or running into the middle of a large group of enemies and using Swirling Aura to slay them all with their own projectiles.

Overall there are a lot of things to remain hopeful for and this latest post from ArenaNet just solidifies their stance on creating an interesting, compelling, and different MMO experience which is something I think the genre as a whole would benefit greatly from. What do you think on the subject? Can’t wait to get your hands on the game or do you think that healers, tanks, and DPS make an “MMORPG” an “MMORPG”? Come to the Ten Ton Hammer community forums and share your views.