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The warrior is a master of weapons who relies on speed, strength, toughness, and heavy armor to survive in battle. A warrior can shrug off blow after blow to stay in the fight, all the while building up adrenaline to fuel his offense.

Adrenaline makes the warrior more powerful, increasing his damage output with every attack while powering up his burst skill. Each weapon set has a single designated burst skill which a warrior can trigger by spending all his built-up adrenaline to unleash a powerful attack. The warrior can use his burst skill at any time, but the more adrenaline stages he has filled, the more devastating his attack will be. Some burst skills apply more and varying conditions while others simply do more damage.

Each weapon serves a different role, allowing the warrior to customize his play style. Warriors can compliment main hand weapons like swords and maces with a shield, warhorn or dual wielded weapon, but their role is still mostly defined by the main or two-handed weapon.

A SWORD warrior is quick and mobile; he bleeds his enemies as he bounces between them with a Savage Leap.

An AXE warrior quickly builds up his adrenaline and can deliver powerful spike attacks.

A HAMMER warrior pounds his foes and the ground with area attacks that stagger groups of enemies.

A warrior with a MACE disrupts his enemies with powerful stunning attacks, and hits them where it hurts leaving them susceptible to further blows.

A warrior with a GREATSWORD uses his momentum to deliver sweeping area effect damage attacks while gliding around the battlefield.

Warriors with a LONGBOW light their arrows on fire to inflict area-of-effect damage.

The RIFLE is a single-target ranged weapon that a warrior can use to pull monsters or finish off a fleeing foe.

Warriors have a number of special skill types:

•Stances—These are toggle skills that let you turn on an enhancement at the cost of energy regeneration. For example, a warrior could hit Berserker's Stance which drains his energy, but gives him adrenaline regeneration. You can easily toggle off Berserker's Stance and send the skill into recharge.
•Chains—A set of three skills that share a single skill slot, chains go off in sequence if you are hitting your target. For example, the sword chain skills Sever Artery, Gash, and Final Thrust are all on the same key, so rather than making a sword warrior spend three slots, they stack to fill only one slot. Chains effectively give a warrior two extra weapon skills on a weapon set.
•Banners—The warrior calls down banners to buff his allies with attack power. A banner can be picked up and carried around to move the buff, or it can be planted in an area to convey the buff, allowing the warrior to continue fighting. One example is Banner of Courage, which increases the melee damage of allies within its range.
•Shouts—Shouts are skills that affect a large area and give bonuses to allies or debuff enemies. A warrior could use the shout On My Mark to lower an enemy's armor and call a target out to allied party members.
•Charge Skills—Some skills can be held down to power them up for more impressive attacks. A warrior with a mace can wind up the powerful skill Obliterate and release it at four different power levels to do increasing amounts of damage.

A necromancer is a practitioner of the dark arts who summons the dead, wields the power of lost souls, and literally sucks the lifeblood of the enemy. A necromancer feeds on life force, which he can use to cheat death or bring allies back from the brink.

A necromancer feeds on death and decay. Life force is the energy that a necromancer uses to extend his own life. Using specific skills, a necromancer builds up life force by attacking and killing enemies. Rather than going into a downed state when he runs out of health, a necromancer automatically activates the Death Shroud ability. A necromancer can continue fighting in the ghostly Death Shroud form until he either runs out of life force or he gets a kill, rallying back into his own corpse.

Necromancers have a unique set of special skills:

Wells—Wells are persistent spells that allow a necromancer to control the area around him. Created at the necromancer's location, wells affect targets within the skill's range. Well of Blood, for example, applies a regeneration boon to all allies within it. A necromancer can only have one well skill active at any time.

Minions—The necromancer summons undead minions to attack foes and do his bidding. Every minion-summoning spell has an associated secondary spell that appears after the minion has been summoned. This secondary spell destroys the minion while providing a powerful effect to the necromancer. For example, necromancers have a healing skill called Summon Blood Fiend that creates a minion that heals its master while it attacks. After the minion has been summoned, the Summon Blood Fiend skill is replaced by the skill Taste of Death, which allows a necromancer to destroy the minion to gain a larger amount of health.

Marks—Necromancers can also place marks--ground-targeted spells with a variety of potent effects. For instance, Mark of Blood damages enemies while placing a regeneration boon on nearby allies. Marks will trigger after a set period of time, but a necromancer can always trigger their marks on command by hitting the skill again.

Fear—Necromancers use a condition not available to any other profession: fear. A removable condition, fear makes an enemy flee directly away from a necromancer for a short period of time. For example, a necromancer can use Doom to instill fear in a single target.

Weapons
When outfitting himself for combat, the necromancer can choose from the following weapons. The necromancer weapons are:

•Main Hand: Axe, Dagger, Scepter
•Off Hand: Dagger, Focus, Warhorn
•Two-Handed: Staff


Life Force
Life force is a special type of energy used by a necromancer. Once he reaches a certain life force threshold, a necromancer can activate Death Shroud (see below), entering a spirit form and leaving his body behind. Each of his weapon sets have skills that give a necromancer life force, and he gains an even larger amount of life force for kills that happen nearby. Finally, there are utility skills that build up life force, like Ghost Armor, a skill that improves a necromancer's armor and adds life force every time he takes damage.

Death Shroud
Death Shroud is a special ability--usable by a necromancer at any time--that utilizes his life force as a secondary health bar. Instead of entering a downed state when his health is reduced to zero, a necromancer automatically activates the Death Shroud ability and assumes a spectral form. In Death Shroud, a necromancer has a number of special skills. For example, a necromancer can summon a shadow fiend, a special minion unique to this form. With the ability to tap into Death Shroud, necromancers are certainly one of the most durable professions in Guild Wars 2.

master of stealth and surprise, the thief is deadly in single combat—particularly when catching enemies off guard. Thieves compensate for their relatively low armor and health by being quick and evasive. They can move through the shadows, vanish into thin air, or steal items from their opponents and use them as weapons. Enemies should watch their backs, or the thief will watch it for them.

While other professions rely on recharge rate for their weapon skills in combat, thieves rely on Initiative. Thieves have ten points of Initiative to use, and they gain back one point every second. Weapon skills cost Initiative points, but they have no recharge time, so thieves can use them back-to-back. This allows the thief to keep their options open at all times or unleash a rapid flurry of powerful attacks.

Thieves make use of a special skill called Steal, which generates a useful environmental weapon in the thieves' hands based on the monster or player that they stole from. For example, when stealing from a moa bird, a thief might get a handful of feathers that they can throw to blind enemies around them.

When using a main hand and off-hand weapon combination, the thief differs from other professions. Their first two skills come from the main hand weapon, while the last two skills come from the off-hand weapon. The final skill, called their Dual Skill, is determined by both weapons. For example, a thief with two daggers will have Leaping Death Blossom as their Dual Skill, but a thief with a dagger and a pistol will have Shadow Shot as their Dual Skill.

Thieves have a number of special skill types:

Stealth—Thieves can disappear into the shadows. This allows them to become invisible to enemy players and to ignore aggro. When in Stealth mode, the thief can still be damaged, which temporarily reveals them. When a thief is hidden, attacking will break the deception.

Shadow Stepping—Thieves can get in and out of battle quickly by using a technique called Shadow Stepping. This skill allows them to disappear from one location and then instantly appear at a different location by traveling through the shadows.

Traps—Thieves use traps to ambush unsuspecting enemies and control areas. For example, Shadow Trap is a trap that puts the thief into Stealth and Shadow Steps them back to the trap's location.


Mechanics

Weapons
The thief has a mixture of melee and ranged weapons. The thief weapons are:

•Main Hand: Sword, Dagger, and Pistol
•Off Hand: Dagger and Pistol
•Two-Handed: Shortbow

Initiative
Initiative is the thief's resource mechanic. A thief has ten points of Initiative that refill at a rate of one point per second both in and out of combat. Skill 1 on their bar is always free, but the other thief weapon skills all cost Initiative instead of having recharge. Thief Heal, Utility, and Elite skills do not cost Initiative and still have a recharge cost.

Stealing
Above their skill bar, all thieves have a special skill called Steal that can be used on enemies. It does not actually steal a real item from an opponent, but rather generates an appropriate environmental weapon based on the target. Stealing does not break stealth, and cannot be used often. When a thief steals, it can open up a range of support and control options that are less prominent in his basic skills.

Dual Skills
Dual Skills are special skills that thieves acquire in slot 3 of their weapon bar that are based on both weapons they are wielding. A dual skill is determined by both main hand and offhand weapons, and can vary depending on the order. For example, a thief wielding a pistol main hand with dagger offhand (Shadow Strike) will have a different dual skill than a thief wielding a dagger main hand and pistol offhand (Shadow Shot). The shortbow is the one exception to this rule; it does not have a dual skill.

Stealth
Stealth has a limited duration and can be broken in various ways. Most stealth is lost when a player attacks through it. Some stealth breaks when the player moves. While in stealth, a player can still take damage and will temporarily appear in the world when they do.

Shadow Stepping
Shadow Stepping is a teleport mechanic used by the thief profession to get in and out of battle. A thief may only shadow step where normal movement is possible and may not use it to teleport through a gate or other blocking area.

Mesmers are magical duelists who rely on deception and confusion to keep their opponents in check. Indecision is their greatest ally. Using powerful illusions to distract, they make sure they never go toe to toe with an enemy; they use their powers and tactics to set up an unfair fight. Just when you think you've figured out what the mesmer is doing, illusions begin to shatter, clones start to fade away, and you realize you've been swinging at empty air all along. It's hard to keep your eye on the real mesmer.

The mesmer doesn't have the brute power of the warrior, or the ranged devastation of the ranger. Instead, the mesmer weaves a web of interlaced illusions, conditions, and phantasmal sources of damage. Through skillful play, mesmers combine these pieces into a deadly puzzle to be solved by their foes, while also helping their allies.

Illusions—Mesmers create illusions—mind tricks that manifest themselves physically. Most illusions are directed at a specific target, but anyone can see and attack them. They can only exist for as long as that target is alive and can only be dispelled by attacking the illusion itself. A mesmer can maintain up to three illusions at a time, with the oldest illusion being replaced by the newly created one. There are two types of illusions: clones and phantasms.

•Clones—Clones are illusions that look just like the caster, have the caster's name, and have basic behaviors. Clones have low health and tend to do little damage. For example, a mesmer equipped with a sword has two clone-summoning skills: Leap, which launches him forward, leaving a clone at his location, and Illusionary Leap, which summons a clone at his location that then jumps forward.
•Phantasms—Phantasms are illusions that look like the caster but have their own names and carry special illusionary weapons, which look different and have specific behavior. Phantasms are more powerful, having more health and causing more damage. For example, a staff mesmer can summon an illusionary mage that attacks its target and deals extra damage for each inflicted condition.
•Mantras—Mantras are a category of skill that have two phases. The mesmer first activates the mantra, which has a long cast time and replaces that skill slot with an instant-casting skill that the mesmer can then use. Mantras are powerful because many can be charged up before battle and then used in the middle of another spell, without interrupting that spell. For example, Mantra of Pain can charge up into an instant-damage power spike that can be used during a channeled spell, such as the greatsword skill.


Mechanics

Weapons
A mesmer can use a variety of magical, ranged, and melee weapons, including:

•Main Hand: Sword, Scepter
•Off Hand: Focus, Pistol, Sword, Torch
•Two-Handed: Staff, Greatsword

Confused Condition
The mesmer introduces a new condition to our set called confusion. An enemy with confusion on them takes damage each time they activate a skill. This condition stacks in intensity, so the more confusion an enemy has, the greater the damage.

Shattering
The mesmer has special abilities that can shatter illusions. Shattering will destroy all illusions and create a secondary effect. There are four different shatter skills:

•Mind Wrack—Destroys your illusions and does damage to opponents near them.
•Cry of Frustration—Destroys your illusions and gives the confused condition to nearby foes.
•Diversion—Destroys your illusions and stuns nearby foes.
•Reflection—Destroys your illusions and places a barrier around the mesmer, which reflects enemy projectiles.

A master of the battlefield, this elite soldier is equally at home on the mean streets of Lion's Arch, in the steamy Maguuma Jungle, or on the Orrian front. The multi-role commando is a combat medic, an infiltrator, and a tank. By land, sea, or air, the commando is a technological force to be reckoned with. Come get some.

Commandos have several different special skill types:

Grenades—Sometimes you need to kill a whole lot of tangos—fast. Grenades enable the commando to perform area-of-effect attacks with a variety of devastating results. From flashbangs that blind enemies to shrapnel bombs that apply bleeding, the commando has a grenade for every occasion.

Vehicles—Vehicle skills act as the commando's utility skills. A commando can opt for an armored personnel carrier (APC) or a tank for land travel, a helicopter for air travel, or a submarine for undersea travel. Each vehicle gives the commando three utility skills, ranging from depth charges on the submarine to flamethrowers on the APC.

The APC, tank, and helicopter can also carry allied passengers to maximize your firepower. Passengers acquire new skills based on their profession and their position in the vehicle. For example, an elementalist manning the tank's main gun can fire flaming shells, while a necromancer riding shotgun in an APC can use the Corrupted Headlights ability to poison and blind foes caught in the beams.

Force Multipliers—Commandos are one-man armies, but they don't have to fight alone. Force multiplier skills let the commando call in helicopter gunships to take out a boss, rain death from above with Predator air strikes, or even request a danger close offshore naval bombardment.

Mechanics
Weapons

A commando can use ten different weapons to bring the pain on the battlefield. The commando weapons are:

* Two-Handed: assault rifle, grenade launcher, shotgun, shoulder-fired rocket, flamethrower
* Main Hand: sub-machine gun, pistol, scepter
* Off Hand: sub-machine gun, pistol, knife, walkie-talkie

A commando can easily switch between his two active weapon sets as needed, but swapping ranged weapons triggers a brief cooldown during which the commando shouts, "I'M OUT!" or "RELOADING!"

The commando has a long reach. Commando weapons don't have set ranges, they just use line of sight. While other professions need to run to different locations on the map, the commando can set up a bunker to snipe at ettins, drakes, and other unsuspecting tangos at map-wide range.

Because of their military training, when they have a knife equipped, commandos gain an automatic bonus to movement speed. They also have the downed state ability to crawl closer to allies who can revive them.

Reserved