More Guild Wars 2 Spear Action, This Time From The Thief, Warrior, And Engineer

Last week we got a taste of exactly what bringing spears into land-based combat means in the upcoming Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds expansion. The team showed off the Necromancer, Ranger, and Guardian abilities, and the new animations that go along with using the spear. The animations were awesome, check them out.

Today, the MMORPG's team is giving us a look at the next round of professions and how they'll use a spear. Let's take a look at the Thief, the Warrior, and the Engineer.

The Thief is my favorite, by far. Moving from ranged combat to melee combat is very cool and the transition between them has a great animation. If you were ever an assassin in the original Guild Wars, the playstyle should be familiar. It's all based on chaining skills together in a certain order and getting that chain to reset and do it all over again. That doesn't mean you can't deviate from the chain's order. You can do so without resetting the order, but missing an enemy with a follow-up ability will reset the chain. The payoff for weaving the chain correctly opens up devastating finishing attacks.

Engineers bring their control over electricity to their spear combat. Spin that spear around you to protect yourself with an electrical power that deals bonus damage and gain an amplifying effect for hitting marked targets. It all builds up into a monstrous leap and slam ability, currently called Devastation, that emits an EMP-like attack at your landing spot.

Finally, Warriors play the ranged game a bit more than other classes, but their damage increases if enemies decide to close the gap. Throw spears directly at enemies or chuck them into the air and have them unleash an area-of-effect (AoE) wherever the spear lands. They've even got a burst attack based on adrenaline that sees the Warrior come down with the spear in a mess of damage.

Again, the animations look great! Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds releases on August 20th.