Jon Peters has shown up on the official ArenaNet blog to discuss combat in Guild Wars 2. The blog post mostly aims to answer the question if GW2 is not going to break the "holy trinity" of Tank, DPS, and Healer. However, Jon lays down an entire gauntlet of arguments on why GW2 will be different from other MMORPGs.

This is one of the big ones. There are no skills that specifically target allies. Everything must be done using positioning, ground targeting or other unconventional methods. This keeps every profession focused on their allies in the world, which adds a tactical complexity to the combat. Instead of watching red bars, we want you to watch your allies in the world. Making sure you are dropping ground-targeted spells effectively and moving into position to block attacks on allies is how we want players to defend each other.

The essential argument that Jon makes is that GW2 will feature combat that does not allow you to target your allies with beneficial spells, meaning you have to use spells with unconventional targeting mechanics (like the ground or nearby) in order to apply beneficial boons on them. Combat also focuses around other mechanics, such as a beefier character standing in the charging path of an enemy or how every profession can use healing abilities and bring their allies back from being "downed."

Overall GW2 is shaping up to be an interesting and unique game and this just goes to prove further how much dedication ArenaNet has to providing something beyond the norm.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Guild Wars 2 Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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