Guild Wars 2 MMO News, Guides, and Features at Ten Ton Hammer

OVERVIEW

Weapons will work a little differently in Guild Wars 2 than they do in traditional MMOGs. While each will still contain various stats that can enhance your character’s role in combat, they will also grant the user access to specific core skills based on their profession. Certain weapons can also be used in either the Primary or Offhand slot, depending on the profession wielding them.

Weapon selection in Guild Wars 2 will essentially be the cornerstone of your character’s build. While Elite skills do exist in the game, it’s the skills that each weapon set grants you access to that will ultimately help shape your role in combat.

However, like all skills in the game, those obtained through your equipped weapon sets will also be customizable through the Traits system. For example, a physical dagger attack could be turned into a ranged attack instead depending on which specific traits you slot.

WEAPON TYPES

Below you will find a complete list of all known weapons available in Guild Wars 2. Depending on profession, many of the Main Hand weapons may also be used as Offhand weapons. Also, certain weapons or combinations of main and offhand weapons can only used by specific professions. Full details will be found on the Weapon Skill listing for each profession.

WEAPON SETS

You can view your equipped weapons or change your weapon sets by opening the Hero [H] panel. By default, this will open up the Equipment tab where you can see your armor, weapon sets, personality, and attributes. Examples of this screen for a charr warrior can be seen below.

In the image on the left, the equipped weapon sets are shown directly beneath the character portrait. For professions that can equip only one weapon set, such as the elementalist, only one set of weapon slots would appear here.

To equip a weapon, right click in the main or offhand slot in the Hero panel to see a list of available weapons in your inventory. This is illustrated in the image on the right. Here you can see that the character has the choice of a Ghastly Mace, Sword, Rifle or Longbow.

WEAPON SWAPS IN COMBAT

Certain professions have the ability to swap between 2 weapon sets during combat. To do so, you can either click on the icon located to the left of the skill bar, or you can use the keyboard shortcut [V] key.

Swapping between weapon sets will automatically change which skills you have active in the 1-5 slots on your skillbar. However, there will be a short recharge time between weapon swaps.

WEAPON SKILLS

Each weapon in Guild Wars 2 has a set of predetermined core skills for each profession. So the specific weapon type you equip will determine exacty which skills you will have access to in the 1-5 slots on your skillbar. Also, certain one-hand weapons such as daggers will have different core skills depending on whether you equip them in the main or off-hand slots.

• One-Handed weapons used in the main hand slot will grant access to profession-specific skills in the 1-3 slots on the skillbar.


• Two-Handed weapons will grant access to profession-specific skills in the 1-5 slots.


• Offhand weapons will grant access to profession-specific skills in the 4-5 slots.

As shown below, you will begin the game with access to only a few of the core weapon skills for your profession. As you gain levels and access to a new weapon skill, it will be indicated by a small book icon in that skill's slot. Here slots 4 and 5 are grayed out indicating that a higher level must be reached before the skills associated with those slots can be learned, while the book icon in slot 3 indicates that a new skill can be purchased at the profession trainer.