No Healers, No Tanks, Changed Death in Guild Wars 2
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In a somewhat surprising move today ArenaNet has announced that the old method of healer at the back and tank absorbing damage in the front is not going to exist in Guild Wars 2. Unpleased with healers playing the “health bar game” the healer class is set to disappear all together. Instead each profession will have some healing and defensive skills to protect their allies. There will no longer be a monk or priest type class who’s primary focus is healing.
“There are no dedicated healers that do full healing. Every profession has some form of support to a greater or lesser extent, but none of them enough that they aren’t also fighters.” PC Gamer
Standard high-health heavy damage absorbing tanks are also set to be gone with a distribution of more skills across classes and promises of skills that work in collaboration. Need to defend your team, just equip your shield and reap the defensive benefits.
Even death is going to change from the first game. Once players receive a certain amount of damage they enter a “downed” mode where they get access to only a special skill set and will wait for others (any class) to revive them back. In many ways this system sounds similar to one employed in the zombie multiplayer game Left 4 Dead. Once you take sufficient damage in downed mode you are dead. But death doesn’t mean a massive death penalty, instead only a small amount of gold is needed to bring you back to the battle.
It will be interesting to see how these changes will play out in the field of battle, and more importantly if players can accept a virtual world without tanks and healers in it.