Hello, Tyrians! My name is Chun-Hong Fung, and I'm a game designer on the Systems Team here at ArenaNet.
Expanded weapon proficiencies are coming in 2024 during the second major update for Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure™, bringing a new weapon and skills for each profession. Today, we'll be taking a look at how the short bow stacks up for the engineer, which will be available to all players during our Expanded Weapon Proficiency beta event, starting on November 28 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8).
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Solving Problems One Detonation at a Time
The engineer has been experimenting with isolating and storing the magic used by others and infusing them into their own contraptions. This has led to the creation of essence-infused arrows, devices equipped with canisters of distilled magic that can be fired at a distant location. These arrows can then be detonated, releasing the essence within and covering the surrounding area with a magic field that affects both allies and enemies. The magic from these canisters may even combine in certain circumstances, causing their effects to be even more potent than when used by themselves!
By wielding the short bow, the engineer exchanges attack power for team support, gaining a total of four types of essence-infused arrows that can be fired into the ground. Despite them being arrows, the actual act of placing these on the ground is unblockable, so don't worry about those pesky projectile blockers getting in your way. These devices vary in effect, from debilitating your enemies to strengthening or protecting your allies. Once planted, the arrows can be triggered in several ways. They will detonate by themselves after a set amount of time (if the engineer is close enough), or the engineer can choose to detonate them manually with the follow-up skill. Finally, all arrows (except the autoattack) have a special property called Chain Reaction; when an arrow is active, it will also cause your other arrows in range to detonate. If this happens, those arrows gain bonus effects depending on the initial arrow that caused the detonation.
As an example of how this works, let's look at the second skill in the set, Essence of Animated Sand. When it detonates, enchanted sand is spread over an area, immediately granting barrier to allies in the vicinity and crippling enemies. When detonating other arrows, it causes them to grant a small amount of barrier on initial detonation as well, regardless of their original effect. You could either layer all the arrows in a single spot to give out large amounts of barrier in a small area or spread them out for maximum coverage, depending on the situation.
Chain reaction effects are not limited to the initial detonation, either. The fourth skill, Essence of Liquid Wrath, grants might to allies and vulnerability to enemies on detonation, then continues to pulse might to allies afterward. Its bonus effect allows other arrows to also pulse might to allies in their effective radius, making stacking multiple arrows in the same spot an effective way to strengthen allies in a short period of time.
As mentioned above, you'll be able to try out all the upcoming new weapon and profession combos during the Expanded Weapon Proficiency beta event starting at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8) on November 28 and ending at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time on December 3. Please note that since this is a beta event, there will be placeholder UI, art, and audio assets for some of the weapon skills. Be sure to tune in to the Expanded Weapon Proficiency preview livestream on November 27 at noon Pacific Time to get a more in-depth look at all the new weapons.