Reddit AMA Question & Answer

Thanks to Reddit user Nucking Futs for assembling all the questions and answers, 75 of them in total.

Question #1: "Any information for closed beta release? And.. When will mesmer come to guildwars2.com in proffesions"
Answer: "We will officially enter Closed Beta Testing this Friday. It will be marked with an increase in our pool of testers. To clarify, this phase of testing is still under NDA and is not open to the public.
Based on the feedback we get from our current Closed Beta Testing, we will determine the next phases of our beta program in which we will open beta access to more people."



Question #2: "At any point in development did you ever personally come up with a feature that was great on paper but didn't work so well in practice? If so what was it?"
Answer: "Sure! Our first version of Death Shroud actually involved the Necromancer needing to capture souls in order to use weapon skills, with skills costing different amounts of souls. It didn't work very well because it meant the Necromancer had a lot of useless skills on their bar until they killed things. We like the new one much better. "



Question #3: "Hi, will you be able to finish any Instance with -lets say- 5 rangers with shortbow/dagger set. So will you really have a free choice in terms of professions?"
Answer: "I will. As far as anyone else, it depends on if they are any good at playing ranger.
....
Seriously though it is our goal is that how you play your profession and skills are more important than what you bring. "



Question #4: "In WvW what is the maximum number of players allowed on one given map? Or what is the most people you've seen in a WvW at the office?"
Answer: "At least 500."



Question #5: "Is that an answer to the former or the latter? Best to clarify now cause if you meant the latter and people assume the former well then people will run with "ONLY 2,000 PEOPLE ALLOWED IN WvWvW!" and I'm sure you know how that is."
Answer: "So what game allows PvP that is bigger than this?"
This part goes on for a bit, they all mention Eve Online and someone said Lineage 2. Someone else mentioned Dark Age of Camelot and eventually it lead to ArenaNetTeam saying the following line, "and I am hoping that we can live up to it and MORE! I played DaoC from release and had a level 50 Eldritch roaming the frontiers very early on. I remember the first time I ran into the Midgard giant, and proptly turned and ran as quickly as a could." He continued to respond to this question and expand upon it and if you would like to see the rest you can view it at THIS Link.



Question #6: "The thief class seems like the only class which can't fulfill all the three roles (damage, support, control), especially the control and support part. How are you going to put it on par with other classes?"
Answer: "The thief can absolutely do all 3 roles. I know it can do damage, I know it has good control, and I know Izzy has a great support thief that he runs right now in PvP tests."



Question #7: "Now that all the professions are out, which one do you think you'll be playing the most of?"
Answer: "Warrior. "



Question #8: "Are you worried that people of a high skill level will be able to detect which illusions are fakes and focus down the mesmer more quickly than they can other professions? Given that they have the lightest armor and lack a pure survival mechanic (like attunements and death shroud), how do you feel about their PvP survivability? While I recognize that Mesmers have a high skill ceiling, that also could be mitigated by certain cues as to what they are doing. Also, what is your favorite profession in PvP thus far?"
Answer: "I don't think they are supposed to be so deceptive so much as a temporary distraction. They die in about one hit so even AoE attacks tend to melt them pretty quickly. The more interesting decision is how to build up sets of them to shatter in interesting ways.
Favorite PvP profession: Warrior."



Question #9: "Very cool, thanks for the answer! I'm actually personally glad that they don't "rely" on the deception; it is often too difficult to make a convincing deception with AI as we can see in League of Legends. Sub-question regarding the shatters; can you have all 4 "pre-cast" before a fight, or can you only have one charged up at a time?"
Answer: "They are all just normal skills like anything else. You use F1-F4 to activate them, and they are instant skills that can be used in the middle of another cast."



Question #10: "Greetings Jon, thanks for taking the questions. A lot of fans have been worried about the thief profession, feeling that it will not have all the tools that others have access to. Is there any new things that have changed since the last demo; specifically, if you can, what are some of the effects of stolen items that we haven't heard about yet?"
Answer: "Blog coming next Tuesday on thief improvements. I can promise you they are not bad in PvE or PvP."



Question #11: "Is the confusion condition going to last long and do small amount of damage, or be applied for short time and do big enough damage to actually shut down the enemy?"
Answer: "As of right now, it can actually stack. This means that it does a small amount of damage with one application, but with many applications, it will definitely make someone think twice about attacking!"



Question #12: "What is your #1 favorite thing about GW2?"
Answer: "Dynamic events. It will be nice to finally play an MMO with content that makes sense for the genre."



Question #13: "How's the work environment at ArenaNet? Do you guys get stressed from the pressures of the community / their demands? I feel like working on a game would be bitter sweet because there are so many people that want to be pleased by GW2. "
Answer: "It is a double edged sword for sure. Once you work on a game its not as exciting to play games because you start to nit pick everything in them. Oh wait, that is what fans do anyway. It is a really great place to work and I look forward to my Mondays as much as my Fridays."



Question #14: "In the demo featured at G Star we a revised skill placement for the Thief's dagger. Would you mind sharing with us:

• The reason Backstab was changed to only being available in stealth
• If the other Thief main hand weapons revived skills available to them only in stealth as well
• The name of the new slot #2 Dagger ability that replaced the Thief's Backstab"

Answer: "There is another blog post coming with some information about changes to Thief (even newer than stuff in the G Star build) coming next Tuesday. Also...Heartseeker"



Question #15: "I noticed the Mesmer had a few melee weapons in the skill videos but didn't really hit anything with them in melee range. Do mesmers have up close and personal attacks as well?"
Answer: "Yes."



Question #16: "Is the mesmer's portal skill group based or only the mesmer can use it?"
Answer: "Allies, but players only. For now."
He expanded on this after another user asked him a similar question, "Wait, does that include minions and/or pets for necro/ranger respectively? Because that would be tragic if you accidentally stranded them by going through a portal." his response to this question was "Yeah, it might also allow companions. Hey, it's not quite ready yet ."



Question #17: "Has anything been changed with the Elementalist's cooldowns across attunements since Gamescom? It seemed like the Elementalist PvPing was able to annihilate everyone and get away as they wished, was that just a result of the player's skill, and intended, or did it need a bit of balancing?
Thanks for the AMA."
Answer: "Some of this was skill on the player's part, part of this is just balance. Cooldowns, just like everything else in the game, are still in a place of flux until everything is balanced. "



Question #18: "Will the Necromancer have skills that inflict the new confused condition ? If yes, can you give an example of such skill?"
Answer: "Yes, Warhorn - Wail of Doom (skill #4)"



Question #19: "Will you be supporting the E-Sport side of Guild Wars 2 through officially ran tournaments with cash prizes, likewise to the original game?"
Answer: "Yes, we want to support the game as an E-Sport, but we're not talking about the details just yet."



Question #20: "Does gear affect your stats?"
Answer: "yes they do, all most all gear you find will have stats. "




Question #21: "Whirlwind for Ele seemed overpowered as it lasted a long time when I played the game at PAX. Is that how it is supposed to be?"
Answer: "You mean Tornado? Whats the point of turning into a Tornado if you don't feel overpowered. " and "Balance is an ongoing thing, so we're always tweaking things that we feel are too weak or too strong."



Question #22: "In PvP, how does a Mesmer prevent it from being obvious which clone is real? For example, do the clones follow the exact actions of the Mesmer to the split second? Or do the clones sorta do their own thing independent of the Mesmer, leaving it somewhat obvious who the real Mesmer is? Additionally, can aoe spells easily and quickly dispatch a Mesmer’s clones?"
Answer: "Once you learn your illusions and how they work, you start to realize what they look like to your opponents. Then you can start behaving like illusions to really throw your opponents off!"



Question #23: "Can you tell us what are your plans for PvE Endgame? More 5 mans dungeons only, Raids with 10 or more people, more Areas with Dynamics events like The Shatterer, a mix of those?"
Answer: "Endgame is such a dirty word. We want our game to be the endgame. We don't like the idea of a game that changes when you hit max level. As you level up you can play events, dungeons, WvW, or at anytime take a break and do some competitive PvP, and then hit a button and go back to PvE stuff."



Question #24: "Why no interrupts? Where's the Diversion (out of place, maybe, but still), the real Cry of Frustration, Psychic Instability, etc. I'm so sad now. I WANT D-SHOT! Loved Guild Wars, can't wait for Guild Wars 2. Consider Interrupts!"
Answer: "Here are the ways to interrupt: Stun, Knockdown, Launch, Knockback, Daze. Interrupts as just interrupts were just a wierd mechanic that were hard to explain. In fact the shatter F3 that stuns is called Diversion."

A follow-up question was asked: "Still wouldn't it be nice to have skills with the same mechanic as the old diversion / power block / blackout / arcane thievery / d-shot / d-chop (...) What do you think ?". The response to this question was "Those mechanics just don't make as much sense in the new system. Basically, the nice thing about a daze is that a bad player using it still gets the blackout portion of it, but a great player can get the interrupt out of it as well."



Question #25: "So why the need for a difference between clones and phantasms? Couldn't one fulfill the needs of both? Or am I misunderstanding their nature?"
Answer: "Clones are really just deception. They are there to utilize the shatters and create temporary dps and distraction. Phantasms are more like "in world" hexes. There is a Phantasm called Backfire that does a powerful attack to foes casting skills."



Question #26: "On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), how likely is a closed/open beta in January."
Answer: "10 - For closed beta."



Question #27: "How will the steal mechanic look like in the future?"
Answer: "We have a blog coming Tuesday which will shed some light on this!"



Question #28: "Game design student! Questions HO!

• How many iterations have these professions gone through already?
• Did you guys have these professions in mind from the beginning?
• How much of an effect does weapon choice have on gameplay?"

Answer: " * It depends on the profession. We just got out of the 10th or so meeting on Elementalist skills yesterday. Guardian had A LOT of iteration, whereas mesmer and thief actually have had a lot less.

• We had 12 professions in mind at the start. We ended up with these 8 because they fulfilled the archetypes in the best ways while keeping some of the GW1 feel and still making it feel like a new game. GW2!!!
• Weapon choice is almost as important as profession choice. A Hammer warrior is a CC nightmare, but a Longbow warrior is an AoE damage machine. Of course its also valid to play a warrior with neither of these weapons."

Question #29: "Fans had predicted that the final class would be the Minstrel, what influenced your decision in opting to go with Mesmer instead?"
Answer: "Have you heard the minstrel singing? Obviously Billy Ocean was unavailable so we went with what you have heard. It seemed like it would get old pretty quickly."



Question #30: "What is the most fun profession ,in your opinion, to play"
Answer: "Warrior. - Jon", "Necro or Mesmer. (--) (That's a ninja face) - Chap"


Question #31: "How far apart can the portals in the portal skill be set? and can allies use them?"
Answer: "Radar range, which is 2500 units, so 208.333 ft., so 63 meters if you use a sensible system like the metric system. "



Question #32: "How long does the Mesmer's Veil skill last? Seems like it could be overpowered in PVP"
Answer: "It is permanent...Seriously it is a number and that number will be balanced in PvP. I think somewhere between 0 and 1000 seconds."



Question #33: "It seems like there is a base of people who are disappointed by the Mesmer profession (I am definitely not one of them), because their mains were Ritualists and they feel they have no profession that represents that well. What GW2 profession do you feel will cater to that subset of players?"
Answer: "In the way that Ritualists were indirect suppport in GW1, many classes in GW2 can support their allies as the Ritualist did. Rangers can bring nature spirits, Necromancers can bring minions, Elementalists can bring familiars, Mesmers have their illusions, etc. etc. All classes can bring buffs, boons, etc."




Question#??: "The "Thief" severely lacks 1 of the 3 pillars of combat (Support skills) from what we've seen so far, while other professions seem to be be very proficient with each pillar. Is this going to change, and if not, what was the reasoning on making the Thief more 2 dimensional? "
Answer: "Tell that to Izzy's support thief so he stops playing it!!!"



Question #34: "Will PvP players still need to "reroll" to a different profession, or will that process be easier in gw2?"
Answer: "You will need to make a new character to play a new profession. However, you will have access to everything once that character gets to PvP, so you won't need to "grind up" the new character."



Question #35: "I'm just trying to grasp the clone parts of the Mesmers. In PVP will other people see them as exact copy of you, or their ghostly forms like we saw in the videos?"
Answer: "If it's a clone, they will see something that looks like you. If it's a phantasm, they will see an illusion with a purple color to it."



Question #36: "One of my coworkers was a long-time EVE player, and I've been trying to convince him to join us in GW2 when it comes out. He seems interested, but his biggest question has been whether or not there will be any sort of world PvP.

One of his favorite things about EVE (and one of my favorite things about WoW) is always having to watch your step when you're questing/farming in dangerous territory. He loves the idea of being able to kill and be killed anywhere you go, beyond the boundaries of safe territory. I've tried to convince him that WvWvW and organized PvP are both huge elements in GW2, but he still would like to see world PvP enabled on some servers. Any idea if that's a possibility we can look forward to?"
Answer: "No OPEN PvP in PvE, it doesnt make sense with how events work. However I think people who like Open Gank PvP (like myself) will REALLY love WvW."



Question #37: "Thanks for doing this AMA. I have a question about pvp. In the usual unorganized pvp environment, either in a mmo battleground or in many fps's, people tend group up and zerg points. This can lead to very monotonous gameplay. How does this strategy or lack thereof fit into GW2? Are there specific counters for it?"

Answer: "We use our secondary objectives to discourage this type of game play. By using things like a treb that deals massive damage to everyone in the area you can really punish people for grouping up. "



Question #38: "So lets say I play an Elementalist and I throw down a firewall and then want to switch to water attunement to heal some of my buddies, would I experience a kind of global cooldown from when I throw the firewall before and can switch to water attunement and then heal my buddies?"

Answer: "GLOBAL COOLDOWN! UGH please no. I hate global cooldown with the passion of 1000 fiery suns. In fact attunement swapping is instant so you can do it mid cast!!! Blog post coming Tuesday on thief also talks a bit about why we don't have global cooldowns and how our combat system works based on animations." Another answer to this question is also present, I assume it's from someone else working at ArenaNet. "Nope! You can throw down the firewall, swap to Water, and then support your allies immediately with water skills."



Question #39: "Was it always the plan to have the Mesmer in the line up? Or did you realise how pissed fans would be without it "
Answer: "It was always the plan."



Question #40: "It seems that the Elementalist, Guardian, and Warrior are so powerful/versatile in PvP that any team that doesn't include at least 1 of them (or maybe all 3?) will be disadvantaged against a team that did. How are the niche roles that other professions fill balanced out to match those 3 professions power and versatility?"
Answer: "They are all that versatile to be honest. It all depends on how good you are at playing your build."



Question #41: "Can Rangers still throw traps?"
Answer: "Emphatically. Yes."



Question #42: "Of all the combat skills, which is the one you love to use most?"
Answer: "Personally, Savage Leap. But the coolest skill in the game is Phoenix. "



Question #43: "How much control does a Mesmer have over Clone and Phantasm behavior? Is there a UI in place to allow him/her to direct them, do they have the same AI as necromancer minions, or what exactly?"
Answer: "They will only attack the target upon which they were summoned. You cannot control them as much as Necromancer minions or a Ranger pet."



Question #44: "Which games do you feel influence you the most? What games are you currently playing? Skyrim?!"

Answer 1: "Influenced: Warsong on Genesis, Final Fantasies, Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape, War 2, War 3, SC 1, CS, Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3, Street Fighter 2, Soul Caliber, etc. Currently: LoL , Skyrim. Also Warmachine (tabletop). -Chap"

Answer 2: "Influence me the most? X-Com. When I played that game, that was the moment that I decided to get into making games because I wanted to pass on that quality level of experience to future gamers. Right now I am playing Battleheart on the ipad. Influence GW2?"



Question #45: "So, what happened to the sandwichmancer? Did it take an arrow to the knee and as a result, had to be removed from the game?"
Answer: "Colin is still here. He is busy crafting a fancy club sandwich."



Question #46: "Any favorite dungeon party set-up/teams you've had yet?"
Answer: "Any combination is actually very strong, which, in itself, is really one of our favorite things about the game. Instead of people needing to bring specific builds or professions, they just need to be good at whatever build/profession they bring."



Question #47: "What is the time frame/level required before you can play with other races? Will be playing with a younger few who may need assistance..."
Answer: "Just finish your race's introduction (tutorial area), and you can meet up via Asura gate once you go into your race's starting city!"



Question #48: "Is it possible to play a 'tanking' role as a Warrior?"
Answer: "Take a Mace/Sword and a hammer. Healing skill: I recommend healing signet. Utility skills: Endure Pain, "Shake It Off", Stomp."



Question #49: "Any comment on the Ranger pet irritation? "
Answer: "There is a special lotion that will help get rid of that. It's available at Karma vendors."



Question #50: "Can clones and phantasms be affected by boons and targeted by other beneficial skills?"
Answer: "For now, yes. This may change before release."




New Questions + Answers Start Here



Question: #51: "Without any sort of dedicated healer role what options will players in mob fights or PvP situations have to deal with intense focus fire? Escape tactics on cooldowns?I am fantastically excited about GW2, have loved the original since release. Thank you for posting this."
Answer: "Heal and Dodge. As well as use crowd control to stop it from happening. Block, blind, reflect, etc..."






Question: #52: "How did you get into the Industry? Was it your first choice when going to school?"
Answer: "I got a degree in computer science. Out of college I worked at a web dev company and then got a job working at Cavedog doing programming. I didn't REALLY get into design until I worked here at ArenaNet."



Question: #53: "I have heard rumors that organized pvp gives players a default set of gear for their class so everyone is on an even playing field. Can you confirm this? If not, will players have to grind for sets of pvp gear as they do in WoW?"
*Answer: "Absolutely NOT!!! No grinding in PvP. Here is how it works. You press a button that says go to PvP. You end up in the PvP lobby where you are max level, all skills and items and traits are unlocked and you make a build and go play in a hot join server. When you are done press the button again to return to PvE. It's that simple. Why anyone would want to spend time unlocking skills or leveling up in PvP is beyond me. If you want PvP with power creep and ganking and massive battles we have that too. It's called WvW."



Question: #54: "Phantasms: Do they look exactly the same as your char, but have a different name, or are they purple and transparant (like in the vid) and have a different name?"
Answer: "Somewhat purple and carry a purple weapon."



Question: #55: "Now that all classes have been released, do you have any ideas you'd be willing to share about plans to keep them all balanced with each other? EX: Right now the Ritualist is one of the stronger PvE classes (as compared to, say, a Ranger). In GW2, what would you do to try and make Rangers just as useful/in-demand as Rits?"
Answer: "We're going to work very hard to balance all professions so that they are all equally viable in PvE and PVP. This simply means playing the game a lot and constantly working to keep all the professions balanced."



Question #57: "This may have been answered a long time ago in some interview but I've always wondered what was your influence for having your weapon set be directly related to your combat skills? (Such as greatsword, shortbow, etc) Initially, this was my biggest complaint as I thought it greatly hampered your customization of your play style. I'm assuming your traits have a great deal to do with exactly this problem but I haven't really heard much since you announced the revamp of said traits. Would you care to elaborate on some of the different things we can see with skills that are affected by traits with the revised system? Also just wanted to add that I have not been more excited about a game since I was 11 years old. I think your team needs to be the standard for how game developers operate, with innovation and not repetition of the same IP."
Answer: "The main influence is that it just made sense. It let us making awesome skills like Savage leap on the sword, etc..."



Question #58: "How does Anet feel about having their work released ahead of them, like this week's leak? Is it 'no big deal, since it was only a couple of days', or would you guys rather like to, say, see fingers broken over it or something?"
Answer: "response edited by PR. "



Question #59: "Can I draw on the map in GW2?"
Answer: "Yes! How could we give that up? "



Question #60: "Any details about WvW in the future? A video of WvW would be appreciated. I am really pumped up for this gameplay. Also, are dynamic events in WvW? Like a monster or creature attacking while you pvp."
Answer: "We've hinted a lot at WvW, but when we are ready I'm sure we will explain it a lot more! Hang in there."



Question #61: "How many classes do we have in total when GW2 gets released?"
Answer: "8."



Question #62: "What is the one thing that your are personally most excited about what the Mesmer offers to PvP?"
Answer: "Portal. "



Question #63: "Will people be able to grief a dynamic event by being present just to increase the event difficulty, but not actually contributing anything towards the completion of the event?"
Answer: "Nope. "


Question #64:" * Mesmers: It seems like the mainhand sword will only have room for a single (guessing very simple) autoattack, since they have both Leap and Illusionary Leap. What offhand would pair up well with the sword to allow for a true melee playstyle, and can you give any example skills?

• Also, does summoning a clone or phantasm break enemy targeting? If not, how effective will they be as distractions in PvP?
• Rangers: Utilities, from what we've seen in demos, have been pretty restricted to somewhat passive skill-types like signets, spirits, preparations, traps, and stances. Are there plans to introduce more active/interesting utility skills (more like Entangle, for instance) that other professions seem to have?"

Answer: "Hey Skyy, enjoy your posts on guru. Ok sword skill 1 is a combo so that gives it so dynamic. I like mixing it with sword or torch offhand, but really everything works. Yes it breaks targeting. Yeah we just did a pass on ranger utilities to get them to be as diverse and as good as the warrior ones."


Question #65: "I it possible to play a ranger without the pet and manage on par with other classes?"
Answer: "No, as soon as you enter combat your pet comes out. Trust me, you will want them. "


Question #66: " * Did aspects of Utopia end up in Guild Wars 2, or did Eye of the North get everything that wasn't scrapped?

• Can you tell us anything about the Utopia Chronomancer and Summoner professions?"

Answer: "Dynamic Events. We have been pondering this concept for a long time. The idea that you don't have to fight for content in an MMO. I think it is what defines the game! That social aspect is really important to us because ultimately that is what an MMO is!"



Question #67: "It seems like there is a base of people who are disappointed by the Mesmer profession (I am definitely not one of them), because their mains were Ritualists and they feel they have no profession that represents that well. What GW2 profession do you feel will cater to that subset of players?"
Answer: "In the way that Ritualists were indirect suppport in GW1, many classes in GW2 can support their allies as the Ritualist did. Rangers can bring nature spirits, Necromancers can bring minions, Elementalists can bring familiars, Mesmers have their illusions, etc. etc. All classes can bring buffs, boons, etc."



Question #68: "Familiars?"
Answer: "Summon elemental."



Question #69: "The idea of the magical swordsman has always been a favorite of mine. Just about every game that I can accomplish such a creation I do; be it the Mystic Knight in Final Fantasy 5 or an Eldritch Knight in D&D/Pathfinder. To say the least, I am excited to explore this iteration of my favorite hybrid!" Someone else added an additional comment to this reply, "I agree with this guy! Hearing illusion/duelist makes me one happy guy!"
Answer: "Me too. I loved the Mesmer in GW1, but to be honest I love the new one even more! Once you get used to the whole idea of in world hexes it just is a lot of fun and a really active profession in both PvP and PvE."



Question #70: "Will condition removal skills remove the whole stack of confusion or will players have to cast their condition removal more than once to get rid of the whole stack? "
Answer: "When you remove a specific condition it always remove the whole stack, however the specific skills can remove 1 condition or many."



Question #71: "I'm dutch so at first sorry if my English isn't correct. I've got a question. After you have completed the main story in GW2 are there still awesome things to do that require skill? Hardcore instances you can play with some friends and get nice and rare loot? I really look forward to this game, but sometimes I'm afraid it's gonna be too easy."
Answer: "Dungeons, WvW, PvP, giant boss dynamic events! "


Question #72: "What determines the abilities of the illusions, please?"
Answer: "I do "


Question #73: "Can you give us more info on builds and traits and if we will be able to constantly change our build or be locked into a certain type like other games?"
Answer: "Lets just say there are a lot of options and you can change it fairly freely. Especially in the PvP lobby!"



Question #74: "I'm good friends with your buddy jonathan sharp. He used to play starcraft at my house back in the day when LC (Louisiana College) used to block bnet ports."
Answer: "Chap says hi Dave! Remember he invented the Ultralisk Rush!"



Question #75: "How many skills are you going to be able to choose from? A lot of the complaints i have heard is that this is a dumbed down version with out freedom to make builds how you want them to play. "
Answer: "There is so much build making in GW2 sometimes it is staggering. I think people that are worried about this will be just fine. It is a new system with a lot of layers, each of which has a lot of choice to be made.