Guild Wars 2 News

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When Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ launches on August 20, each of the nine professions will have access to a new set of spear weapon skills that have new skill effects and animations! If you missed the expansion details, be sure to check out our Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds announcement blog first.

Our blogs last week provided a general Q&A for how spears will work and a sneak peek at the new skills for the ranger, necromancer, and guardian. This week, game designers Chun-Hong Fung, Cal Cohen, and Karl McLain from our Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds combat feature team are ready to discuss the warrior, thief, and engineer respectively.

[h3]Warrior Spears: Damage from a Distance[/h3]



The warrior spear is a power-based weapon inspired by ancient Sunspear techniques, capable of striking multiple opponents at range. Even though most of their skills can attack distant foes, some of them gain increased effectiveness when used on closer targets, making opponents think twice about closing the gap.

The warrior spear autoattack is Mighty Throw, which hurls the spear at a single enemy, shattering on impact and sending spear fragments into other enemies around the target. Proximity to the target matters, as the closer the target is to the warrior, the more fragments are created.

Maiming Spear is a ranged area attack: the warrior launches the spear into the air, dealing initial damage and crippling foes in the area of effect. This cripple is helpful to prevent enemies from escaping the aftershock that follows, which is larger the closer the targeted area is to the warrior. If breathing room is required, Spear Swipe propels the warrior backward in an evasive maneuver before sending a gust of wind forward to knock enemies back.

Finally, the spear burst skill, Harrier's Toss, allows the warrior to leap up into the air, evading attacks while hurling the spear down with explosive force and dealing more damage the more adrenaline is spent on the burst attack!

[h3]Chain Attacks with the Thief Spear[/h3]



Thief spear is a melee hybrid weapon that can be utilized by both power and condition damage builds. It also draws some inspiration from an old system in the original Guild Wars® that assassin players should be familiar with. Let's dive right in!

The second and third spear skill slots share some characteristics. Each has three different states but will always be in the same state as the other. By default, they will both be lead attacks. Striking an enemy with either lead attack will flip both slots into the next state: follow-up attacks. In a similar fashion, striking an enemy with either follow-up attack will flip the slots into their final state: finisher attacks (yes, they're both combo finishers).

After using one of the finishers, both skill slots will flip back to their lead attack state, ready to start a chain over again—although the fourth and fifth skills and the stealth attack all gain additional bonuses when following a finisher skill, so you may want to weave in one of those before using another lead attack. One last note on the skill chains: using other skills during the chain sequence will not reset the chain, but failing to strike an enemy with the follow-up attack will.

Now that we have a quick overview of the mechanic, let's take a look at the full slot 2 chain. You'll be able to mix and match skill slots throughout the chain (for example, 3, 2, 3 totally works), but we won't be covering all of the skills today.

The Mantis Sting lead attack is a quick melee strike that inflicts bleeding and crippled. This will flip into Entangling Asp, which poisons enemies and will also immobilize enemies that are affected by a movement-impairing condition.

Finally we have the finisher skill, Falling Spider. This skill inflicts bleeding, poison, and vulnerability, inflicting additional stacks against enemies that are either immobilized or under the effects of crowd control. Each skill's bonus trigger conditions are fulfilled by the previous skill in the chain, but these conditions are all things that the thief has broader access to, so there are opportunities to get these bonuses even when chaining skills together from different skill slots.

[h3]Engineer Spear Is Shocking![/h3]



Surviving in certain lightning-prone environments can be a difficult task for the common Tyrian. Engineers, with their indomitable desire to create and adapt, have found a way to turn their knowledge against their enemies as weapons of mass destruction. Let's talk about how we'll be using the spear to dart around the battlefield and dominate targeted foes.

The engineer's spear combat style is melee oriented with hybrid damage, encouraging you to pick a target and run directly into battle while utilizing a variety of control and damage skills. Your primary skill for this weapon is called Conduit Surge. This skill dashes to your targeted foe and applies the focused effect to them, charging them for future attacks. Every other weapon attack will apply a bonus effect or work to maintain the focused effect on your foe. One thing to note about Conduit Surge is that if a foe is defeated while under the focused effect, this skill will refresh and allow you to pursue your next target.

The Lightning Rod skill is constantly available while wielding a spear. The engineer will create a segmented lightning rod that spins around them, dealing bonus damage to focused targets and gaining an amplifying effect (with a bonus for hitting a focused target) for the next skill on the same slot—Electric Artillery. When the lightning rod is completed and hovering over your shoulder, you can choose to launch your charged rod at an enemy, immobilizing them and applying damaging conditions based on Lightning Rod's success.

The weapon's fifth skill and battle-ender is a skill currently called Devastation, which allows you to leap to a targeted area and deliver a massive EMP-style attack, inflicting focused foes with a continuously damaging effect.

We look forward to watching you tear around the battlefield, mixing both spears and kits together to cause fear and chaos!



[h3]Upcoming Spear News[/h3]

We'll be showing off all of the new spear skills during a Twitch livestream on June 21 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7). In addition, there will be a beta event from June 27 at 9:00 a.m. until June 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) where everyone can try out spears and give us feedback!

Our blog next week will have more information on the final three professions and their spear abilities. Happy adventuring until then!

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In case you missed the news, we've announced that our fifth expansion, Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™, arrives on August 20, and with it comes a brand-new way to fight with spears…on land. As promised in yesterday's spear primer blog, we're back and ready to dive into the details of how the guardian, ranger, and necromancer will utilize the terrestrial version of spears.

Game designers from the Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds combat feature team, Chun-Hong Fung, Taylor Brooks, and Cal Cohen, are here today to discuss the guardian, ranger, and necromancer respectively. So, without further ado, let's get into it.





Unlike the kodan that settled in the Shiverpeaks, the kodan of Janthir have long separated from their reverence for Koda. Instead, they've turned to the nature they're surrounded by to guide their relationship with the world—the sun and all the benefits life seizes from it included. Certain spear bears look to the sun to channel inspiration in battle, aiding their allies and illuminating a path forward. Guardians have learned from these kodan and wield their spears in a similar manner, focusing on supporting allies and debilitating enemies.

While some of these skills can be used to provide support at a safe distance, their true potential is realized on the front lines when the guardian is fighting alongside their allies. By fulfilling specific conditions, certain spear skills will cause the following spear attack to be illuminated, which makes them stronger or grants them additional effects.

While you can only empower one skill at any given time, those skills can in turn grant the illuminated status to your next skill, allowing the guardian to chain multiple illuminated skills together with precise positioning. Let's look at how a few of these skills work.

The second skill, Helio Rush, causes the guardian to charge forward in the direction they're aiming, dealing damage to enemies and healing allies that they pass through. Striking an enemy during the rush causes the next spear attack to be illuminated. The illuminated version of Helio Rush increases the healing and additionally grants them resolution. Thus, this skill is best used in the thick of the fray, when you're able to go through both allies and enemies at once.

Guardian weapons aren't complete without a symbol of some sort, and the spear is no exception. The fifth skill, Symbol of Luminance, knocks enemies back as you cast it. The symbol pulses resistance to allies who don't have it already and weakness to enemies. Symbol of Luminance is unique in that, unlike other spear skills, it does not have a way to grant the illuminated effect—but for good reason! While standing within the symbol, any spear attacks you perform are automatically illuminated, regardless of whether you are currently in the correct state. With the illuminated version of this skill, this property applies even if you leave the symbol and lasts for as long as the symbol does, including the additional duration granted by Writ of Persistence, an existing guardian trait.





Spear-wielding rangers excel at hunting their prey. They whittle their quarry down at range and then they finish them off with a surprise attack at melee range. Ranger's spear features a new type of autoattack that some of the other spears will utilize as well. When at range, you'll throw a spear at your target, but when you move closer to your foe, you'll transition into using a melee chain! This bimodal model will help you always keep up pressure.

Rangers learn from the animals of Janthir to deftly wield their spear. Using Mongoose's Frenzy, they'll slash their spear in front of them as if they were a wild animal using their claws. Falcon's Stoop throws a spear with the velocity of a raptor. Panther's Prowl will kick up nearby brush, stealthing the ranger and their pet—and that's when the fun begins.

Ranger spear features a new type of stealth attack. Unlike a thief, stealthing upgrades ranger spear's 2 through 5 skills into new versions that share a cooldown with their base skill. Mongoose's Frenzy flips into Wolf's Onslaught; you swipe your spear as before and then follow up with a jab with the same force as a bite from a wolf's gnashing fangs. Falcon's Stoop becomes Owl's Flight, launching an owl spirit that is wider and unblockable to fly through enemies.

Weaving in and out of melee range, rangers will use their spear to chip away at their prey before they go into stealth to finish the kill. Their unique stealth attacks will allow them to decide how they want to tactically approach any scenario.





Now let's take a look at some aspects of the necromancer spear. This spear is a melee power damage weapon that also brings some disruptive elements, a bit of mobility, and some strong burst potential through cooldown resets.

Many of the spear skills create soul shards, life-stealing objects that behave similarly to thief's venoms, but they will only be consumed by strikes from the spear's second skill. This allows them to be consistently built up to a maximum of six to reach a singular moment of power, instead of being immediately consumed by the next strike. These shards deal increased damage against low-health enemies and grant increased healing while your health is low, giving more opportunities for powerful execution sequences or the ability to sustain when nearing death yourself.

As mentioned above, soul shards will be consumed by Perforate, skill 2 on the spear. Perforate is a multihit attack that strikes enemies seven times, enough to consume all active soul shards. Perforate also deals increased damage against low-health enemies, which, combined with the low-health bonus damage of soul shards, makes it a potent skill for finishing the job.

In order to get full value out of Perforate, you'll need to generate some soul shards first, so let's look at another skill that might come in handy.

Skill 4 is Isolate, the singular long-ranged skill on the spear that serves as a gap closer. This skill throws a spear at the enemy, inflicting chill and vulnerability, and on successfully striking a target it flips into the follow-up skill, Distress. Activating the follow-up skill will teleport the necromancer to the target struck by the initial spear and generate soul shards. Additional shards are generated if the enemy does not have any nearby allies of their own, so this skill is great at creating opportunities to pick off lone enemy targets. Teleporting to an enemy will also fully recharge Perforate, so you'll always be ready to consume your newly generated soul shards. Isolate will also recharge itself when exiting Death Shroud, giving access to a lot of potentially powerful sequences. Skills 3 and 5 also generate soul shards (among other things), but we'll talk about those a bit more at a later date.





Speaking of later dates, we'll be showing off all of the new spear skills during a Twitch livestream on June 21 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7). In addition, there will be a beta event from June 27 at 9:00 a.m. until June 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) so everyone can try out spears and give us feedback!

Thanks for reading, and we'll be back next week with more information on three more professions and their spear skills.

Ho, travelers! My name is Taylor Brooks, and I am a combat designer here at ArenaNet. I'll be your guide to our new combat feature in Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™, the Kodan Spear Training Mastery. By training with the lowland kodan of Janthir, you'll learn how to use your spear on land in new and exciting ways. Starting tomorrow and over the next few weeks, we'll be detailing how each profession utilizes the terrestrial spear. For today, I thought it would be a good idea to cover some of the general spear information you'll need to know.



Q: Will spears be one-handed or two-handed weapons on land?

A: Spears are two-handed weapons both on land and underwater.

Q: Will spears on land just use the same skills as when used underwater?

A: No! Every spear has an entirely new set of skills for each profession when used on land. They also have brand-new skill effects and animations that we are excited for everyone to see!

Q: If every profession is getting a spear, does that mean they will all feel the same?

A: Spears are a versatile weapon, and their gameplay will reflect that. Some professions will employ the spear as a ranged projectile weapon, some will wield it as a melee weapon, and others will utilize it as a magical focus to cast powerful spells.

Q: How can I unlock spear usage on land?

A: The ability to use terrestrial spears will be available when Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds launches. They will be locked behind the first Mastery in the Kodan Mastery line, which is discovered early in the story, or as a purchasable unlock in WvW. We want everyone to be able to use your spears early and throughout your journey in Janthir. As with all other combat features, Kodan Spear Training will be unlocked automatically in PvP for those who own Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds.



Q: Can I use my current underwater spear on land?

A: Yes, spears can be used interchangeably in the aquatic and terrestrial weapon slots. But it is important to note that to equip a spear in both slots, you will need two spears.

Q: Which spear skins can I use on land?

A: All current spear skins will be able to be used on land. We also plan on adding spear skins with all future weapon skin collections.

Q: Will there be a new legendary spear?

A: There will be a new legendary spear released with our first major update following the expansion release. Additionally, the Legendary Armory will be expanded to store up to four Kamohoali'i Kotaki in case you want to wield all the spears, all the time!

Q: Since engineers and elementalists can use spears on land in the expansion, will they gain the ability to wield spears underwater too?

A: Professions that currently cannot use a spear underwater will continue to not be able to use a spear underwater.

Q: Do you need to own Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds to wield spears on land?

A: Yes, this combat feature requires ownership of the expansion.



Q: Will there be a beta test for spears?

A: Yes! There will be a beta event from June 27 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) until June 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) that will give everyone a chance to try out spears and give us feedback. We'll be announcing more information about that beta event soon.

Q: Will there be a livestream?

A: There will be a stream featuring your favorite developer (me) along with Cal Cohen and Roy Marks. We'll show off all the new spear skills and do a deep dive into what you can expect with them. Be sure to tune in to our Twitch channel on June 21 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7)!

We'll be back tomorrow and in the coming weeks with more information about the new spears and their skills. We are very excited to give everyone a taste, and so I'll leave you all with some teasers as to what you can expect to see!

• A spear skill reminiscent of an old fan favorite.
  
• A new type of autoattack mechanic.
  
• A set of spear skills featuring a new spin on an existing skill type.
  
• A set of spear skills with multiple ways to reset the cooldown of its key skill.
  
• A melee spear skill that rewards careful positioning.
  
• A set of spear skills that features a reimagining of a mechanic seen in the original Guild Wars.
  
• A spear skill that inflicts a debilitating effect with a new unique effect.
  
• A set of spear skills that require precise aiming at range.

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A fresh adventure is on the horizon! Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ arrives on August 20, bringing with it another year of story chapters and content updates. Bristling with mursaat ruins and harrowing to navigate, the fabled Isles of Janthir have been carefully guarded by the wizards of the Astral Ward—and to most of Tyria's denizens, they are a distant legend. But recent events have inspired the world's leaders to create a Tyrian Alliance and dispatch the wayfinder to befriend new allies. As you seek out the lowland kodan colony in Janthir, you will explore, fight, and learn more about the mysteries of Tyria's past.

We've got a little bit of information to provide about some key features of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds in this blog, and between now and launch, you can stay tuned for even more details.



Prepurchasing any edition of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds before the expansion launches at approximately 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) on August 20, 2024, will grant you the "Homesteader" title, the Whispering Serpents Pauldrons skin, and a box with your choice of one Serpent's Wrath weapon skin.

Visit the official store page for full details on the items included in the Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate editions. You can purchase Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds through the official store or from the in-game store, Steam, or official retailers.





At the launch of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, you'll explore two new maps as you seek an alliance with the lowland kodan who call the Isle of Janthir home, master new ways to fight and explore, and unlock a homestead (an account-wide personal housing instance) of your own. Over the course of three quarterly releases that follow the initial launch, you'll have the opportunity to challenge new content, explore additional story in a third new map, craft a legendary spear and backpack, and obtain new Wizard's Vault rewards, cosmetic items, relic effects, and more.





We're excited to add our take on account-wide housing with Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. Your journeys will lead you to your own homestead, an account-wide personal instance with a structure and land for you to decorate and cultivate. The Homesteads feature is unlocked and developed through an associated Mastery line as a place to express yourself, share space with your friends, and access nodes and unlockable resources from your personal story home instance. Before we launch on August 20, we'll be back to share loads more information and a look at homestead decorating.





Previously only available for underwater combat, spears will now have all-new skills for each profession on land. Spears can be used interchangeably in the aquatic and terrestrial weapon slots, but you will need to equip multiple spears to use them in both slots. The unlocked spear skins in your wardrobe will work with both versions, and if you've made Kamohoali'i Kotaki, the legendary spear, you can equip it through the legendary armory in either slot!





Additional challenging encounters will become available alongside new story chapters in the three major releases that follow Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. In the first of these releases, anticipated to release around November 2024, you'll get to challenge a new raid comprising three encounters. The story of these encounters will be accessible in two ways: through a classic 10-player raid instance (our eighth raid), or with large groups in open-world events.





In Janthir Wilds, the warclaw mount will be featured with new mechanics. Previously only available through World vs. World, the warclaw will be introduced to players in the story of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, including new skills for PvE play. At the same time, we'll be revisiting the warclaw's WvW skills to provide a refreshed experience that builds on what we've learned about mounts since first implementing the warclaw.





And we've got one final thing to share for now: Over the course of the coming year, we'll also be seeking input from the community on a new PvP game mode we aim to implement. We have a prototype of a map and mechanics that we'll be ready to start beta testing later this year, and we'll iterate on and refine that, taking into account your feedback on the beta tests.





Again, you can visit the official store or hop into the game to purchase the upcoming expansion, Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. Between now and launch on August 20, we'll be sharing additional information about the features and content like the new spear skills, Homesteads, raids, and more.