Guild Wars 2 Gamescom demo to reveal major skill changes, Charr starting area, giant bosses

ArenaNet designer Jon Peters has been writing on the Guild Wars 2 dev blog about a number of big changes and additions we can expect to see in the Guild Wars 2 Gamescom demonstration this week. Read on for news on the new skill system and an overview of the new areas and bosses ArenaNet will be showing in Cologne.

"This allows players to use the mouse to dodge and lets players bind dodge to a single keystroke," writes Peters. "If you are moving in a direction, the dodge will take that into account and dodge in that direction. If you are not moving, you will dodge backward. Dodging now also evades attacks, making it a more effective and understandable way to avoid big creature attacks or to get out of AoE spells. "

"Non-weapon skills are learned in a different way," Peters adds. "The second half of the bar will be unlocked using a collection mechanic similar to Guild Wars. We want players to make fun choices about how they build their character, so the new systems will help promote this."

The demo will let players experience the start of the Charr personal story, which is set in their Charr starting area on the fiery Plains of Ashford. There players will get to meet the "newly prolific karma vendors" who will dish out bonus rewards to players who complete multiple events.

Sparkfly Fen will also be available as a high level zone that players will be able to explore as Sylvari and Asura characters. It's safe to expect to see some more enormous boss fights, which ArenaNet say have been improved with better camera angles and more spectacular skills.

Owen and Graham are at Gamescom this week, and they'll be hunting down as much new Guild Wars 2 info as possible. Sadly for Owen, an infamous underwater thief, Peters reveals that "you will be able to steal underwater, just not in this current demo." Aww.

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.