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name="Overview">OVERVIEW
Weapons will work a little
differently in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2">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.
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name="Types">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.
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MAIN
HAND
TWO-HANDED
OFFHAND
- Axe
- Dagger
- Mace
- Pistol
- Scepter
- Sword
- Greatsword
- Hammer
- Longbow
- Rifle
- Shortbow
- Staff
- Focus
- Shield
- Torch
- Warhorn
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name="Sets">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.
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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.
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name="Swaps">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.
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name="Skills">WEAPON
SKILLS
alt="Guild Wars 2 Elementalist Skill Bar"
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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.
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name="Objects">ENVIRONMENTAL
OBJECTS
AS WEAPONS
Certain objects in the world
can be picked up and carried by the player to be used as a weapon. To
pick an object
up, approach it and
press the [F] key when in range. Upon doing so,
your skill bar
will automatically swap in any new skills associated with holding that
object.
alt="Guild Wars 2 Objects as Weapons"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89919/preview">
In the example shown above, the
player had picked up a Jar of
Bees which can then be thrown at enemies to do AoE damage. Once the jar
is thrown, the skillbar will automatically swap back to the normal core
skills for your equipped weapon set.
Certain stationary objects can
also be used in a similar manner, such as the cannons and mortars used
in the
dynamic event fight
against The Shatterer as seen below. In this
example, should the flow of battle turn in the favor of The Shatterer's
minions, it's possible that they could push the fight back far enough
to destroy the cannons and mortars. Should this happen, it begins
another event chain where players are tasked with escorting a supply
train into the area. Doing so will give them the ability to fix the
cannons allowing them to be used
again during the event.
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alt="GW2 Shatterer Event"
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width="600">
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name="Customization">WEAPON
CUSTOMIZATION
While full details on the
different ways weapons
can be customized are currently
unavailable, there are certain ways in which their base functionality
can be altered.
The first of these is due to
Environmental Factors and
will happen automatically so long as the environmental conditions are
met. For example, in the image to the left below, the Ghastly Dagger
has
+10
Life Gain on Hit during the daytime, while that same weapon will
instead grant the user a +10 Life Steal on Hit during at night.
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A second, indirect way that
weapons can be customized is through
Traits. Slotting different traits for your weapon-based skills can
alter
the base functionality
of those skills. In the image to
the right
above you will see an
example of the traits
window for a Ranger, with the ability to use
traits for each of their weapons shown.
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style="width: 300px; float: right;"
alt="Guild Wars 2 Achievement Categories"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89947/preview">
name="Achievements">WEAPON
MASTER ACHIEVEMENTS
Achievements in Guild Wars 2
are earned per account rather than for
each individual character. This allows you to earn all of the
achievements in categories such as Weapon Master which has specific
achievements that can be earned for each weapon type in the game. For
example, you may earn the Staff achievements on
an elementalist, those for the Scepter on a necromancer and the Sword
achievements on a warrior and they will all show up no matter which
character you're currently logged in with.
There are currently a total of
48 Weapon Master achievements. Each of the 16 types of weapons has 3
distinct tiers that can be earned by using specific skills for that
weapon. Your progress towards each can be seen by opening the Hero [H]
window and clicking on the fourth tab at the top as seen
in the image
to the right above. You can also view the achievement progress for
anyone on your friend's list by selecting them from the drop-down list
seen at the top right of the window.
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To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Guild Wars 2 Game Page.
