When Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ launches on August 20, each of the nine professions will have access to a new set of spear weapon skills that have new skill effects and animations! If you missed the expansion details, be sure to check out our Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds announcement blog first.

Our blogs last week provided a general Q&A for how spears will work and a sneak peek at the new skills for the ranger, necromancer, and guardian. This week, game designers Chun-Hong Fung, Cal Cohen, and Karl McLain from our Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds combat feature team are ready to discuss the warrior, thief, and engineer respectively.

Warrior Spears: Damage from a Distance

The warrior spear is a power-based weapon inspired by ancient Sunspear techniques, capable of striking multiple opponents at range. Even though most of their skills can attack distant foes, some of them gain increased effectiveness when used on closer targets, making opponents think twice about closing the gap.

The warrior spear autoattack is Mighty Throw, which hurls the spear at a single enemy, shattering on impact and sending spear fragments into other enemies around the target. Proximity to the target matters, as the closer the target is to the warrior, the more fragments are created.

Maiming Spear is a ranged area attack: the warrior launches the spear into the air, dealing initial damage and crippling foes in the area of effect. This cripple is helpful to prevent enemies from escaping the aftershock that follows, which is larger the closer the targeted area is to the warrior. If breathing room is required, Spear Swipe propels the warrior backward in an evasive maneuver before sending a gust of wind forward to knock enemies back.

Finally, the spear burst skill, Harrier’s Toss, allows the warrior to leap up into the air, evading attacks while hurling the spear down with explosive force and dealing more damage the more adrenaline is spent on the burst attack!

Chain Attacks with the Thief Spear

Thief spear is a melee hybrid weapon that can be utilized by both power and condition damage builds. It also draws some inspiration from an old system in the original Guild Wars® that assassin players should be familiar with. Let’s dive right in!

The second and third spear skill slots share some characteristics. Each has three different states but will always be in the same state as the other. By default, they will both be lead attacks. Striking an enemy with either lead attack will flip both slots into the next state: follow-up attacks. In a similar fashion, striking an enemy with either follow-up attack will flip the slots into their final state: finisher attacks (yes, they’re both combo finishers).

After using one of the finishers, both skill slots will flip back to their lead attack state, ready to start a chain over again—although the fourth and fifth skills and the stealth attack all gain additional bonuses when following a finisher skill, so you may want to weave in one of those before using another lead attack. One last note on the skill chains: using other skills during the chain sequence will not reset the chain, but failing to strike an enemy with the follow-up attack will.

Now that we have a quick overview of the mechanic, let’s take a look at the full slot 2 chain. You’ll be able to mix and match skill slots throughout the chain (for example, 3, 2, 3 totally works), but we won’t be covering all of the skills today.

The Mantis Sting lead attack is a quick melee strike that inflicts bleeding and crippled. This will flip into Entangling Asp, which poisons enemies and will also immobilize enemies that are affected by a movement-impairing condition.

Finally we have the finisher skill, Falling Spider. This skill inflicts bleeding, poison, and vulnerability, inflicting additional stacks against enemies that are either immobilized or under the effects of crowd control. Each skill’s bonus trigger conditions are fulfilled by the previous skill in the chain, but these conditions are all things that the thief has broader access to, so there are opportunities to get these bonuses even when chaining skills together from different skill slots.

Engineer Spear Is Shocking!

Surviving in certain lightning-prone environments can be a difficult task for the common Tyrian. Engineers, with their indomitable desire to create and adapt, have found a way to turn their knowledge against their enemies as weapons of mass destruction. Let’s talk about how we’ll be using the spear to dart around the battlefield and dominate targeted foes.

The engineer’s spear combat style is melee oriented with hybrid damage, encouraging you to pick a target and run directly into battle while utilizing a variety of control and damage skills. Your primary skill for this weapon is called Conduit Surge. This skill dashes to your targeted foe and applies the focused effect to them, charging them for future attacks. Every other weapon attack will apply a bonus effect or work to maintain the focused effect on your foe. One thing to note about Conduit Surge is that if a foe is defeated while under the focused effect, this skill will refresh and allow you to pursue your next target.

The Lightning Rod skill is constantly available while wielding a spear. The engineer will create a segmented lightning rod that spins around them, dealing bonus damage to focused targets and gaining an amplifying effect (with a bonus for hitting a focused target) for the next skill on the same slot—Electric Artillery. When the lightning rod is completed and hovering over your shoulder, you can choose to launch your charged rod at an enemy, immobilizing them and applying damaging conditions based on Lightning Rod’s success.

The weapon’s fifth skill and battle-ender is a skill currently called Devastation, which allows you to leap to a targeted area and deliver a massive EMP-style attack, inflicting focused foes with a continuously damaging effect.

We look forward to watching you tear around the battlefield, mixing both spears and kits together to cause fear and chaos!

Upcoming Spear News

We’ll be showing off all of the new spear skills during a Twitch livestream on June 21 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7). In addition, there will be a beta event from June 27 at 9:00 a.m. until June 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) where everyone can try out spears and give us feedback!

Our blog next week will have more information on the final three professions and their spear abilities. Happy adventuring until then!