Overview
Guild Wars 2 is the sequel to the immensely popular game Guild Wars, which was one of the first massively-multiplayer online games (MMO) to feature no subscription service. Guild Wars 2 continues the trend and will not require players to spend any money after they’ve purchased the core game, though it is expected that some sort of paid expansions will exist (as they did for the original game).
At launch Guild Wars 2 will feature five playable races and eight playable professions. Any race can be any profession, and aside from a racial bonus each race has the same stats as the other. However, your racial choice will impact how NPCs react to you in a system known as sympathy. Some races are more likely to react favorably or unfavorably to certain other races, though no playable race is universally hated. These differing reactions will have an impact on each player’s experience of the game.
Unlike most MMO games each profession does not fit into a pre-defined role such as healer or damage dealer, and instead any profession is capable of filling any role based on how the individual player chooses to play the game. During character creation the player can make some choices for the history of their character.
Below is the list of races and professions that are available in the game with some details to help you decide if any of these races and professions might appeal to you.
Races
Asura
Charr
Human
Norn
Sylvari
Professions
Elementalist
Engineer
Guardian
Mesmer
Necromancer
Ranger
Thief
Warriors
