Sharpen Your Daggers - The Thief Revealed for Guild Wars 2
Even though the cat was let out of the bag a bit early on this one, today ArenaNet officially announced that the Thief is the sixth profession for Guild Wars 2. While full details on class mechanics and general gameplay style are still forthcoming, we'll get the chance to see the Thief in action next week as it will be included in the live demo at PAX East. Until then, I think it's safe to say that fans of GW1 assassins were just given a pretty awesome unbirthday present from ArenaNet.
The official press release describes the profession as:
As a master of stealth and surprise, the thief is deadly in single combat particularly when catching enemies off guard. Thieves compensate for their relatively low armor and health by being quick and evasive. They can travel through the shadows, vanish into thin air, or steal items from their opponents and use them as weapons.
While other professions rely on a recharge rate for their weapon skills, in combat thieves rely on Initiative. Weapon skills cost Initiative points, but they have no recharge time, so thieves can use them back-to-back-to-back
Based on the image above, and the strong similarities to GW1 assassins, the thief can be played as a dual-wielding profession for sure, but it will be interesting to see how the other weapon set options factor into their overall combat style. In the meantime, ArenaNet also provided some examples of the types of skills and weapons that the thief will have in their aresnal:
Featured thief skills include Stealth, Shadow Stepping, Traps, and Dual Skills to name a few. As for weapons, thieves have a mixture of melee and ranged weapons including swords, daggers, pistols and a shortbow.
I don't know about you, but I'm really hoping that means we'll be able to dual wield pistols which would totally rock. The other thing I have to wonder is how a massive norn or charr will work as a thief - I mean, Tyria must have some awfully huge shadows for them to be able to travel through undetected.
The full announcement for the thief profession and PAX East demo details can be found on the next page. And don't forget to head over to our Guild Wars 2 Profession Discussion forums to share your thoughts on the thief!
The Thief Steals the Spotlight as the Next Guild Wars 2 Profession
Players will have an opportunity to play the new build during its first public showing at PAX East
SEATTLE, WA March 3, 2011 -- NCsoft®, the worlds premier publisher and developer of Massively Multiplayer
Online games (MMOs), and ArenaNet, the developer of the wildly acclaimed
Guild Wars franchise, are thrilled to reveal details of the thief, the sixth
profession to be revealed for Guild Wars 2, the highly anticipated title
that challenges the norms of todays MMOs. Gamers will have an opportunity to
play the thief in ArenaNets brand-new Guild Wars 2 demo build at PAX East
beginning March 11 in the Alienware, Nvidia and Logitech booths. And for non-PAX
East attendees, fans can experience the build at our NCsoft Boston Meet and
Greet at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel the evening of Friday, March 11.
As a master of stealth and surprise, the thief is deadly in
single combat particularly when catching enemies off guard. Thieves compensate
for their relatively low armor and health by being quick and evasive. They can
travel through the shadows, vanish into thin air, or steal items from their
opponents and use them as weapons.
While other professions rely on a recharge rate for their
weapon skills, in combat thieves rely on Initiative. Weapon skills cost
Initiative points, but they have no recharge time, so thieves can use them
back-to-back-to-back
Featured thief skills include Stealth, Shadow Stepping,
Traps, and Dual Skills to name a few. As for weapons, thieves have a mixture of
melee and ranged weapons including swords, daggers, pistols and a shortbow.
Thieves are not for everyone, but their skills and
mechanics should be studied, as they are welcome allies in group play and worthy
adversaries in PvP combat. For additional information on Guild Wars 2 and
the thief profession, tune into the ArenaNet blog and GuildWars2.com next week
for a post on the thiefs attributes and a special preview of the PAX East
build.
For additional information on Guild Wars 2, please
visit www.GuildWars2.com
and for our NCsoft events http://us.ncsoft.com/en/
About NCsoft
NCsoft, headquartered in Seoul, Korea, is the
world's premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games,
including the critically acclaimed Aion®, Lineage, Guild Wars®, and
City of Heroes® franchises. NCsoft West is a division of NCsoft that holds
operating responsibilities for North America, Europe, South America, and
Australia/New Zealand. More information can be found at
www.ncsoft.com
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