Exclusive FAQ | Guild Wars 2 PC
General Questions
Q: Will there be a subscription fee?
A: No, you only need to buy the game once and there are no additional required costs.
Q: Will there be micro-transactions that don’t come with the game, like character slots?
A: Yes, but they will not affect the balance of the game or ruin gameplay.
Q: Is Guild Wars 2 more like other MMOs this time around?
A: Yes and no. It is certainly not WoW and has its own style and unique features like Underwater Combat. Read Guild Wars 2 PvP, giving all players a reason to PvP with their unique approach to Player vs Player.
Q: What do I do if your FAQ doesn’t answer my question?
A: We tried to get as much as we could into this FAQ without making it a million pages. If you have a question, check out our Guild Wars 2 Forums and we will be glad to help.
Q: Where can I Pre Order the game?
A: Currently there is no official announcement for pre orders but Amazon and Gamestop offer you the ability to reserve a pre order. Check out the Guild Wars 2 Pre Order page for further details.
Technical Questions
Q: Will Guild Wars 2 be available on platforms other than PC?
A: GW2 is a PC game, like GW before it. Only ArenaNET can tell you for sure if they plan to bring it to other platforms like consoles and Mac, but it doesn’t seem likely. If they did explore a console option it would likely come sometime after the mainstream PC release.
Q: What are the system requirements?
A: Official requirements are as of the date of this writing, unannounced. According to what we do know, they are trying to keep the requirements as low as possible to reach as many PC users as they can.
Q: Will you be allowed to play through dial-up?
A: ArenaNET hasn’t specifically addressed this, but even if you can? We highly recommend against it. Dial-up just doesn’t work well with MMOs and you are likely to lag out most of the time and have a bad overall experience.
Q: What versions of Windows will I be able to use? Is DirectX 10 a requirement?
A: It seems that Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 (and 8 will all be supported. This means that DirectX 10 will be supported but not required.
Q: Will the game offer an internal voice chat system?
A: Only ArenaNET knows for sure. Even if it doesn’t, there are plenty of very good voice strongients for Windows that will play nice with GW2.
Release and Testing Questions
Q: When is the game going to be released?
A: According to ArenaNET, “2012”. ArenaNET announced officially that they have been conducting a closed beta test and that planning for beta has begun.
Q: Will the Beta be open for players to try?
A: Very likely, though it probably will have a limit on the amount of users that can sign up and other restrictions. According to ArenaNET the beta will be announced through the newsletter on the main site, so if you want to participate keep an eye out for news and GW2PC will certainly put it out in our news system as well.
Q: I heard that the game will no longer have standalone add-on campaigns, is this true?
A: The stand-alone campaigns in Guild Wars split the community and were somewhat flawed. New gameplay will be added in GW2 through expansion packs instead.
Original Guild Wars
Q: Why make a sequel? Was something wrong with Guild Wars?
A: The development team at ArenaNET started working on their fourth GW Campaign and decided that there were too many things they wanted to do that just wouldn’t work with Guild Wars’ current engine. They decided that making a sequel was the best way to handle this problem.
Q: Will the original GW servers still work after the release of Guild Wars 2?
A: Yes, and actually achievements that occur in GW1 can be linked back to your Hall of Monuments to gain some really cool in-game items and rewards.
Q: Are more GW1 expansions still going to happen?
A: While anything is possible, ArenaNET will now focus most of their attention towards expanding and developing. Even so, small expansions that bridge GW1 and GW2 will be released for free.
Q: Can I transfer my favorite GW character over to GW2?
A: 250 years have passed, your characters are long dead. Still, the Hall of Monuments allow you to earn special achievements based on your past adventures in GW1. For more information on the Hall of Monuments check out our HoM page.
Q: Will there be different servers?
A: Yes, but you will be able to move your characters easily between worlds and aren’t locked down to just one.
Q: How many people will be in each server?
A: Each world will host many thousands of people at a time.
Gameplay
Q: Will map travel stay in the game?
A: Yes, you will be able to instantly travel to any discovered waypoint for a small fee. Asura gates are also available as part of the map travel network.
Q: Will the game features mounts or ships?
A: At the moment, no. This could change later though.
Q: Will there be henchmen for hire?
A: No, this was considered early on, but was cancelled.
Q: How does looting work? What can I get?
A: There are many different ways to get loot and monsters will still drop it. This time though monsters won’t drop anything that will require you to participate in a particular event to get. Events reward with coin and karma this time around.
Character Questions
Q: How many character slots to you get with a new account?
A: This hasn’t officially be decided though they are likely aiming towards 5. Like in GW1 you will be able to purchase more slots through the item store.
Q: In GW1 I had to have a separate PvP and PvE character. Will it be the same this time around?
A: Nope, this has changed. A PvE character can also play in PvP, but will be scaled up to the highest level (80) and given all possible equipment options to level the playing field.
Questions Regarding Level
Q: Is there a level cap?
A: Yes, and it is set to 80.
Q: Will leveling take forever?
A: Each level should never take more than 90 minutes to reach, so no the game is pretty easy to level up in.
Q: With such a level gap won’t this get in the way of friends playing together?
A: Thanks to a new sidekick system your current level will be scaled up (or even down) to match all the players you are grouping with.
Q: Will players of much higher level have the chance to steal kills from me?
A: No, all players regardless of if they are part of a team or not will be rewarded all XP and other rewards for killing a monster if they actually significantly helped with the battle.
Crafting in Guild Wars
Q: Will I be able to craft?
A: Yes, there are eight crafting professions, each specializing in a different discipline:
- Weaponsmiths craft melee weapons, such as swords, axes and hammers.
- Huntsmen craft ranged weapons like shortbows, longbows and pistols, as well as torches and warhorns.
- Artificers craft magical weapons such as staves and scepters.
- Armorsmiths craft heavy armor pieces.
- Leatherworkers craft medium armor pieces.
- Tailors craft light armor pieces.
- Jewelcrafters craft jewelry, such as rings and necklaces.
- Cooks can prepare food which characters can eat for temporary combat buffs.
Q: With there be an in-game trading mechanism or auction house?
A: Yes. A marketplace will allow players to register items to buy or sell.
Persistent World versus Instanced World
A: What is a persistent world and how does it differ from GW1?
Q: In GW1 the only places to interact with the entire community were in special places like cities. When you grabbed your party and wandered out into the world it was only your team that you would encounter. With a persistent world your team might run into other players that aren’t part of your group as well.
Q: Why is GW2 adding persistence this time around?
A: Basically to improve the social interactions and make the world seem more alive than in GW1.
Q: Will there be loading screens? Is this a seamless world?
A: There are some loading screens between travel waypoints and different areas but they tried to keep it to a minimum.
Q: Are there still instanced areas in the game?
A: Yes, the character’s home area is instanced, dungeons are instanced, and organized team PvE will still be instanced.
Q: What about “Play Killing”? Will this be a problem in a persistent world?
A: Players can only attack other players while in the PvP mechanic, so PKing will not be a problem.
Setting Questions
Q: Will Cantha and Elona play a role in the game?
A: Through further expansions, maybe. For the core version of the game these areas are cut off from the world and so you won’t get to explore them initially.
Q: Will there be a day and night cycle?
A: Yes, the cycle will be faster than real time though. Events and monster spawning will also change based on the time of day. Currently the day cycle lasts 80 minutes and night lasts 40, but this is always subject to possible change.
Q: I heard that underwater exploration exists in GW2?
A: Yes, there are extensive underwater areas and even underwater companions for rangers. A whole different combat system will even exist for the underwater areas. Read Underwater Combat and Exploration.
Guild Questions
Q: I already have a great GW guild established; can I reserve the name for GW2?
A: No official news from ArenaNET is specified about this as of the date of this writing.
Q: Will my account be able to join multiple guilds?
A: Yes, each character will optionally be able to join a different guild. All characters from the same account will show as a single member. If one character belong to a guild no further invitation will be required to add more character to the guild.
Q: Are there any features being added to support guild-based activities in-game?
A: There will be guild achievements and guilds may hold keeps in world versus world. There will also be a guild calendar and you can participate in guild chat from a web browser.
Q: Will guilds be segregated by character race?
A: This decision will be made by the individual guild leadership. If you want to allow multiple races in your guild, that is great. If you want to be a one-race guild that will be acceptable as well.
Q: Will there be guild halls?
A: Yes, though they will not initially exist at launch.
ArenaNet statement 2011 PAX: “There will be no Guild Halls on release as we want to make Guild Halls a great experience and not just a “place”. We will introduce player housing at some point after launch, and at that time we will also implement guild halls.” Plans do change, and it’s not saying that it would be implemented on any timetable, but for now that’s the closest official word we’ve got. – September 2011. Source