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Flameseeker Chronicles: Simplicity itself
ArenaNet is designing Guild Wars 2 to appeal to bucketloads of people. The studio's got the PvP and competition, the high-end dungeon challenge, the super-cooperative and dynamic PvE content, the compelling and branching storyline, the flashy (and occasionally sensibly flashy) armors -- there's a lot going on. Part of what makes that possible is the use of very approachable systems. These simple systems pop up all over the place: the straight-forward lists of boons and conditions that affect players, the common capture point mechanic over which more intricate PvP objectives can be layered, and the relatively small pool of skills from which to assemble a build. The beauty of their simplicity is that the simplicity itself isn't a limiting factor -- you can't do only simple things with them. In this way, simple systems have a low entry barrier and a high complexity capacity. That means that more people can enjoy the game with relatively little skill and that there's a lot of room for time, dedication, and finesse to lead to outstanding results. Anyone can play, but not everyone can (or will) master elements of the game.
Guild Wars 2 devs name their nine favorite skill combos
We've heard plenty about Guild Wars 2's dynamic content, branching storylines, and lack of a holy trinity, but one feature that hasn't seen a lot of coverage is the game's combo system. The combo system is really exactly what it sounds like: It allows a player (or multiple players) to meld different abilities into one powerful gestalt of an attack. A new article over on IGN gives players some insight into the ArenaNet devs' favorite skill combinations, such as the mixture of a Necromancer's Well of Darkness and an Elementalist's Churning Earth. Used separately, the Well of Darkness blinds players within its area of effect, while Churning Earth causes large amounts of AoE damage. When cast together, though, the addition of Well of Darkness adds another powerful AoE attack to ensure that anyone standing in the area of effect has a really bad day. To get a look at the other eight favorite developer skill combos, just click on through the link below.
