GW2 @ PAX Prime 2011

The charr have fingers!! No more mitten-paws holding guns! Now every time they take a leap forward you get to see a gorgeous set of claws unfurl before them. That alone would have made this animator's heart happy, but there was so much more to be had.

Sylvari Week Begins!

When it comes to fashioning a fantasy character for oneself, I've always gravitated towards shape shifters and nature-born creatures. I especially have a fascination with and love for shapeshifters who would fashion their clothing, weapons, and really any required tool, from their own forms. It's not just the idea of it that intrigues me, its the visual application. How does the transition look, how does something flow from one form to another, and where does it stop?

I used to doodle shapeshifters half-way between two forms, shifted just enough to facilitate whatever new need had taken them. The efficiency of life tends to work that way, after all. Life is rather lazy when it comes right down to it, and in that laziness you can find an elegant efficiency.

Unfortunately, technical limitations usually keep that sort of cool fluidity out of our games.

In the Aftermath of PAX

I was fortunate enough to go to PAX this last weekend, and boy what a trip it was! I learned a lot of new information about GW2 and had a great time hanging out with fellow nerds and artists.

As a quick overview, I learned that a daggers necro feels like playing a touch ranger, energy potions won't affect skilled players, assassins are pretty much a lock for returning, and the blue mace lady is most assuredly an evolution of the active prot monk. More details after the jump, but first I'll update my profession predictions.


I'm 2 for 2 so far, correctly pegging ranger (3) and necro (4), and the closer we get, the more strongly I'm feeling about my next 3 predictions as well.

1. was elementalist
2. was warrior
3. was ranger
4. was necro
5. will be assassin, with invisibility type stealth mechanic and gun use
6. will be mesmer, potentially with a pirate vibe
   
7. blue mace lady will be an evolution of active prot, extremely support skewed character
8. still mysterious final class, temporarily called engineer

Ghosts of Ascalon

I finished reading the book late last night while babysitting the most recent render jobs for work. I enjoyed myself greatly on account of being a GW fan, but can definitely say that as a stand-alone fantasy work it would be average at best.

It's not a bad book by any means, but its no Neil Gaiman masterpiece either.

Charr can be mesmers too! *cough* Or maybe I was doing a bit too much giggling last night imagining what a Charr would look like in GW1 mesmer fashions. Too bad grooming doesn't help those teeth.

GW2 this week, Necro or Ranger?

It looks like the next GW2 profession will be revealed this week, the small figure on the ground to the right of the warrior and elementalist. I would have bet $$$ that ranger would be the next profession revealed, but now I'm not so sure.

The little shadow seems to be one of the only silhouettes that you could expect to be asura. It's so tiny! If the profession reveal for my precious ranger uses an asura there will be much QQing from me.

I'm not really sure what other class they would reveal now, though. The trend so far seems to be to reveal the profession we have the highest confidence in already, so as to give us as little new information as absolutely possible. That would seem to point to only ranger or necro as the next profession reveals. And since it seems like they should reveal an adventurer next after having revealed one profession each from the other two armor classes, you would assume that would mean ranger is up next.

The little silhouette seems closer to what I'd expect from necro than ranger, though. But admittedly it is really hard to say what's actually going on in it. I kind of doubt that necro will come back as an adventurer, although they did have one armor set that put them in the ranger/assassin armor range (tormentor...?).

Maybe they just plan on revealing something else entirely just to mess with those of us who think we have it all figured out.

Either way we should find out soon enough. Wed or Thurs would be my guess, hopefully this week and not next!

As a side note, if the reveal this week does turn out to be necro, then I would shift my bets to the low-to-the-ground silhouette on the opposite side being ranger and that's reveal that follows next.


Here are my long range predictions:

1. was elementalist
2. was warrior
   
3. will be the small guy to the right of the group, most likely a necro or ranger, though possibly could be mesmer as well
   
4. will probably be either necro or ranger, whichever isn't #3
5. I bet assassin
6. mesmer, unless #3 was mesmer, in which case I bet ranger
7. blue mystery class, saved for second-to-last
8. the new 100% unknown class, thought to be based on environmental weapons (I prefer to call it engineer for now)

Expect to see this come back updated from time to time as news progresses. ;)