Guild Wars 2: Defeat is an experience, not a punishment

ArenaNet's Jon Peters, one of the game designers on Guild Wars 2, has posted an update on the game's official blog with new details surrounding death and healing for the MMO.

In Guild Wars 2, the death system allows you to go into a downed state instead of dying. In this state, your character only possess four skills to take down the enemy before the consciousness meter is depleted.

Should you dispatch your enemy in time, you can get back up and resume the game as normal. It's sort of like Zero hit points system in D&D where a character is not dead yet, but should they roll high enough on a save, gets back up but takes a negative-2 all rolls and half movement.

This new system for Guild War 2 also means should the inevitable death happen, any class can revive you, or you can instead revive at the nearest spawn point for a fee.

There are no "healer classes" in Guild Wars 2, as each player must heal themselves.  Same goes for tank and DPS classes because each class has the ability to play different roles.

While a classless system may sound a bit strange, ArenaNet does not want players to "value one profession over the other",  thus making it easier to form a group.

"You could say instead of DPS/heal/tank, we have our own trinity of damage, support, and control, but we prefer to think of them as the variety of elements that create a diverse and dynamic combat system that gives each player a toolbox to work with to solve any encounter we might throw their way," wrote Peters.

"If that sounds like the kind of combat you are interested in, Guild Wars 2 is going to be a great place for you and your friends to fight together for many years to come".

It all sounds rather interesting, and Peters' blog post is a must-read if you're thinking of playing the game.

GW2 is slated for 2011, with a Beta expected sometime this year.

New screens from the game are below.

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