History Videogame / GuildWars2

* GameGourmet: A wide enough variety of food to warrant four different food groups: Soups, Meals, Snacks, and Desserts.

* {{Elemental|Powers}}ist -- A scholar profession focusing on, not surprisingly, magic based on the standard FourElementEnsemble. Unlike most other classes, instead of swapping weapons, the Elementalist can swap "attunements", which change all five weapon skills to a new element; fire focuses on damage-dealing, water on healing, air on crowd control, and earth on defense. With their slew of 20 weapon skills combined with a wide variety of utility skills, they are highly versatile in combat.

* CameraScrew: One of the most prevalent complaints about the Jumping Puzzles and [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] Arenas. Attempts have been made to remedy this.

* LightningLash: One ability available to elementalists is to attack their enemies with a whip made of ''electricity''.

* LivingStatue: What the dwarves have become since [[VideoGame/GuildWars Eye Of The North]] in order to defeat the Great Destroyer. They're a DyingRace now (being made of stone and unable to reproduce) but the survivors continue to fight the Elder Dragons.
** [[spoiler: It's revealed in the Icebrood Saga that because the dwarves are now made of stone, they're actually now vulnerable to corruption by Primordus.]]

* WhipItGood: One ability available to elementalists is to attack their enemies with a whip made of ''electricity''.
** Some Nightmare Court enemies also use vine whips as their main weapons. You can use one at one point in a Sylvari personal story.

* BadassBaritone: Most charr have this going for them naturally, but the voices of Rytlock and the male PlayerCharacter are especially impressive. Bonus points, the voice of Rytlock is brought to you no other than Creator/SteveBlum.

* NoPronunciationGuide: There were [[https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/audio/A-plea-from-a-Welsh-speaker-re-the-Sylvari some complaints from Welsh speakers]] about the proper pronunciation of many Welsh words from the sylvari as well as the proper usage of them in many sylvari locations.

Since January 2013, the developers have released regular "Living Story" updates. These updates provide episodic story chapters that last roughly a month before being made unavailable. Since these updates are all building towards a bigger story, for people who want to catch up, a summary of the story so far can be found [[http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_Summary on the game's official wiki]], and some kind Youtubers have [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWlcIGXrHRQxugVaQPiGh4tvUSeCcRuQA thoroughly recorded all of the story update content.]] As of July 2014, the Living World has become more episodic, with a storyline unlocked for level 80 characters if they log in during the 2-week span and then able to play through the story whenever they want on all characters. Players who do miss this window will be able to buy the chapters for gems.

* ProudScholarRaceGuy: The asura, with a double helping of the 'proud' part.

* KillEmAll: The Foefire, King Adelbern's final gambit to protect Ascalon City from the charr, killed everyone in the city, and turning all the humans into vengeful ghosts that kill anything they see inside the walls.

* CoolPet: Absolutely bunches for the Ranger, although they can only equip four at a time (two terrestrial and two aquatic). Cool pet options range from drakes and double-tailed scorpions called devourers to jellyfish and sharks.
** The description after getting a shark pet hilariously {{Lampshade|Hanging}}s this:
--> This is your pet shark. That's right. Your very own pet shark. [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment It's your pet. And a shark.]] Awesome. Sharks rend their foes with powerful teeth, and can even swallow foes whole.
** Several new pets were added with Heart of Thorns, including wyverns, bristlebacks (large armadillo creatures that can shoot its scales), smokescales (who emit a cloud of smoke to hide in) and... a tiger.
** Even more pets were added in Path of Fire, with the sand lion, fanged iboga, cheetah, rock gazelle and jacaranda.
* TheCorruption: Every dragon has shown evidence of doing this.
** Kralkatorrik can corrupt living beings into crystalline horrors, including plants into noxious bushes.
** Similarly, in the Shiverpeaks, you can encounter the Icebrood -- creatures corrupted by Jormag, the ice dragon.
** The Destroyers of Primordus also seem to be "adapted" versions of other creatures, and Zhaitan more or less does that too (although he [[OurZombiesAreDifferent corrupts corpses]] instead of live specimens.
** Soo-Won, the one benevolent elder dragon, doesn't really have minions. The closest we see are the saltspray dragons, who are horse-sized serpentine wyverns coloured in various aquatic hues. Accordingly, all the ones we encounter are also benevolent, or corrupted by other forces.
** Mordremoth's corruption affects Tyrian flora, from thorny vines that destroy or strangle anything or anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way, to supercharged husks, skeletal sylvari hounds, and plants twisted into forms never before seen. And by the end of Living Story Season Two... [[spoiler:the sylvari themselves]].
** After the death of two dragons, other dragons are starting to mix their corruption method with those of the dead dragons...
** [[spoiler:Aurene has the ability to brand people, sylvari included thanks to consumption of Mordremoth's magic. It's an unusual ''heroic'' variation however, as Caithe fully consented to being branded by Aurene, and retained her free will. Caithe even protests against calling Aurene's branding corruption, stating that connection is a more apt term. Aurene's branding is similar to Kralkatorrik's; but is instead significantly less horrific and has a flower motif.]]

** One engineer toolbelt has them produce a wrench that [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 damages enemies and repairs turrets when swung.]]

* Humans: The [[HumansAreAverage same old]] humans played in the original game. Their once-great kingdoms in Tyria have largely fallen to ruin, with Kryta being the only remaining and the home of the modern heroes.

The game has eight core [[CharacterClassSystem professions]] available, with a ninth -- the Revenant -- introduced in the ''Heart of Thorns'' expansion. These classes are divided into Scholars (light armor), Adventurers (medium armor), and Soldiers (heavy armor). Any race is able to play any profession equally well and each profession has a "unique mechanic" that greatly distinguishes it from the others. With the release of ''Heart of Thorns'' every class also gains access to an elite specialization, which adds new mechanics to the existing ones and possibly broadening the experience with those classes. The first indentation is the specialization that requires ''Heart of Thorns'' to access, the second are the ones that require ''Path of Fire'', and the third requires ''End of Dragons''.

* StayInTheKitchen: Literally the offer of a group of Flame Legion soldiers to a female Blood Legion soldier to join them. Goes back to the history where the Flame Legion send all charr women to the kitchen, which [[NiceJobFixingItVillain bit them in the ass]] when the women of the other legions did join the fight against them. Seeing how the above offer is rejected and the soldiers respond by attacking her and all other Blood Legion soldiers, including the player, they didn't learn their lesson yet. Apparently, the Flame Legion have this attitude towards women of other races as well, if a female dredge's complaint to her commissar is any indication.

* BalefulPolymorph:
** The Mesmer elite skill Moa Morph turns enemies into far less dangerous moa birds (or tuna fish, if used underwater).
** The fight with Xolotl is based around it, with her regularly turning the characters into different forms.
** A random event, involving opening a chest and chasing down a Skritt Burgler, may turn you into a creature based on where the event is started.

* LostWorld: The Heart of Maguuma, aka Magus Falls, seem to be a direct invocation of this trope. There are [[EverythingIsBetterWithDinosaurs saurians]], thick jungle, the lost civilisations of [[AnimatedArmor the Exalted]] (with an ElDorado expy as that civilisation's capital), the druids and the Rata Novans, and primitive hylek tribes.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Due to the charr's naming conventions, pretty much every charr has a name like [[LukeNounverber Pyre Fierceshot or Kalla Scorchrazor.]]

** Early in the Level 70 personal story, the player character gets a letter from their racial mentor. If you're playing asura, Zojja's letter starts out by thanking you — she just won 100 platinum off a college friend by betting you'd find a way to retake Claw Island [[note]]accomplished at the end of the Level 60 personal story[[/note]].
** At least twice during the expansions, Canath heads off to a casino to bet on the Commander's success.

** In the expansion, [[spoiler:Blighted Canach. At certain points in the fight, regular Canach will tell you to stand in his reflective bubble to reflect the boss's damaging grenades back at him, breaking his defiance bar and making him vulnerable again. Eventually he loses the will to fight and tells you to do it yourself, letting you pick up his shield and play a literal game of tennis with the grenades. Or you could just break his defiance bar yourself.]]

The game has eight core [[CharacterClassSystem professions]] available, with a ninth -- the Revenant -- introduced in the ''Heart of Thorns'' expansion. These classes are divided into Scholars (light armor), Adventurers (medium armor), and Soldiers (heavy armor). Any race is able to play any profession equally well and each profession has a "unique mechanic" that greatly distinguishes it from the others. With the release of ''Heart of Thorns'' every class also gains access to an elite specialization, which adds new mechanics to the existing ones and possibly broadening the experience with those classes. The first indentation is the specialization that requires ''Heart of Thorns'' to access, the second are the ones that require ''Path of Fire'', and the third require the upcoming ''End of Dragons''.

* SideBet: Early in the Level 70 personal story, the player character gets a letter from their racial mentor. If you're playing asura, Zojja's letter starts out by thanking you — she just won 100 platinum off a college friend by betting you'd find a way to retake Claw Island [[note]]accomplished at the end of the Level 60 personal story[[/note]].

** This is particularly egregious if you're playing as a norn: in one high-level personal story mission, Trahearne explains norn memorial customs, instructing the player on how to properly eulogize a fallen compatriot. If you are a norn.