Guild Wars 2

Something I’ve been wondering is how the caster professions are sorted out, lore-wise. Can a magic profession be learned? Does your character wake up one day and say, “I’m going to be a Mesmer for the rest of my life!”? Or are people born with their abilities?

Everyone could use magic according to an interview. Btw I think this is discussed every single week and if you search the very 1st page you can find at least 1 topic about it.

From my understanding – and as Gandarel just stated – everyone can use magic. From the day they are born, no less! However, not all do, and magic is often used as a mechanism for children to spend time or deal with stress. Perhaps a lonely baby boy creates a Mesmer illusion to keep him company? Or maybe a scared little girl hides under the bed and goes invisible (with a thief’s stealth magic) when her parents start to argue?

Everyone has access to magic from the moment they are born and are smart enough to use it (accidentally or otherwise).

Generally speaking, practitioners of one profession won’t trade secrets with one person from another profession. That’s why Necromancers can’t make illusions of themselves, and Mesmers can’t raise the dead.

Basically, everyone has an innate ability to DO so, just like everyone has an innate ability to swing a sword.

However, some people don’t ever practice swinging a sword, some people have never even held a sword. Everyone can be trained to a high degree of proficiency, but for genetic reasons some people are just more athletic, and thus make better swordsmen with the same training.

Basically, magic in Tyria is a learned skill with elements of natural prowess, just like learning to use a sword. Anyone can pick it up, but there are many techniques, schools of thought, and levels of innate ability.

Keyce.8137:

Generally speaking, practitioners of one profession won’t trade secrets with one person from another profession. That’s why Necromancers can’t make illusions of themselves, and Mesmers can’t raise the dead.

I would have to disagree here. Even though some people seem to think the bloodstones have no more effect on the world, I’m gonna stick to my guns and say that they are still making it so only certain people can do certain things, even if the lines are a little more blurred than they used to be.

It should be noted that while “everyone can use magic” but “not everyone does use magic” – there are people with a specific magical proficiency. For example, right outside the Grove you will find an NPC who’s crying – talking to her reveals she wants to train to be an elementalist, but her mentor suggests becoming a thief because she’s more skilled in that profession’s abilities.

One way to look at it would be to view “magic” to be akin to the word “art” – anyone can do it, but certain people have talents in certain fields of art. A good sketcher may not be good at painting, for example; or for a wider field example, a good writer may not be good at drawing and vice versa. In a similar manner, those proficient with mesmer abilities may not have good skills in that of necromancy or elementalism.

Thank you everyone! I’ve really been wondering this for a while now!

Keyce.8137:

Generally speaking, practitioners of one profession won’t trade secrets with one person from another profession. That’s why Necromancers can’t make illusions of themselves, and Mesmers can’t raise the dead.

It’s going to be harder and harder to keep such knowledge secret with Tyrian society advancing has it has. Give it another hundred years, the Priory are probably going to partner with the Asura to create something akin to the internet, then all such secrets to the professions are going to be s.o.l…

Future number one video on YouMagi: “How anyone can raise the dead in 3 easy steps!”

=)

Erukk.1408:

Keyce.8137:

Generally speaking, practitioners of one profession won’t trade secrets with one person from another profession. That’s why Necromancers can’t make illusions of themselves, and Mesmers can’t raise the dead.

It’s going to be harder and harder to keep such knowledge secret with Tyrian society advancing has it has. Give it another hundred years, the Priory are probably going to partner with the Asura to create something akin to the internet, then all such secrets to the professions are going to be s.o.l…

Future number one video on YouMagi: “How anymore can raise the dead in 3 easy steps!”

=)

I think that could be an interesting game mechanic as well, to let people get environmental weapons that give them a skillset of a different flavor, or expanded racial/pve skills that are not locked to any profession.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

It should be noted that while “everyone can use magic” but “not everyone does use magic” – there are people with a specific magical proficiency. For example, right outside the Grove you will find an NPC who’s crying – talking to her reveals she wants to train to be an elementalist, but her mentor suggests becoming a thief because she’s more skilled in that profession’s abilities.

One way to look at it would be to view “magic” to be akin to the word “art” – anyone can do it, but certain people have talents in certain fields of art. A good sketcher may not be good at painting, for example; or for a wider field example, a good writer may not be good at drawing and vice versa. In a similar manner, those proficient with mesmer abilities may not have good skills in that of necromancy or elementalism.

What about bakers, craftsman, and manual laborers?
Is the explanation there that their magic is just so pitiful overall they must rely solely on manual labor?

Sadly, Lostwingman, that’s among the holes in the interview’s explanations…

And how so many NPCs in the game don’t use magical skills even as instinctive “defense mechanisms”

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Sadly, Lostwingman, that’s among the holes in the interview’s explanations…

And how so many NPCs in the game don’t use magical skills even as instinctive “defense mechanisms”

Yea, things don’t really make sense if everyone can use magic in some capacity yet many basic modes of labor exist as they did on Earth in the pre-modern era.

This all just really confuses me. I’ve been trying to reconcile how much magic is involved with basic technology but I just don’t know.
Like with the airships, are we just assuming that for plot and artistic convenience they use a conveniently super light by volume gas for buoyancy or is it some kind of imbued magic? Except I thought Iron Legion machine works were specifically without the aide of magic so that can’t be right…

The ariships use charr, human, and asura technology – the latter two use magic in their technology (for humans it’s a “time to time” thing while for asura it’s “all the time”) so I’m sure there’s some magic related to making it float, especially the Aetherblade version which got revamped by Inquest.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The ariships use charr, human, and asura technology – the latter two use magic in their technology (for humans it’s a “time to time” thing while for asura it’s “all the time”) so I’m sure there’s some magic related to making it float, especially the Aetherblade version which got revamped by Inquest.

The problem for me is trying to figure out where one’s technology begins and the others end and vice versa. With the Charr their level of technology and general functioning is plainly visible and has real life parallels to make it easy to understand.
We also have Asura technology thrown in our faces at virtually every step so imagining their “replace electricity, welding, and hydraulics/pneumatics with magic” isn’t too hard to imagine. Although where it fits in the Airships I don’t know yet.
With the Humans I just don’t know. With them I see a bunch of peasantry and field laborers.

Erukk.1408:

Keyce.8137:

Generally speaking, practitioners of one profession won’t trade secrets with one person from another profession. That’s why Necromancers can’t make illusions of themselves, and Mesmers can’t raise the dead.

It’s going to be harder and harder to keep such knowledge secret with Tyrian society advancing has it has. Give it another hundred years, the Priory are probably going to partner with the Asura to create something akin to the internet, then all such secrets to the professions are going to be s.o.l…

Future number one video on YouMagi: “How anyone can raise the dead in 3 easy steps!”

=)

That… isn’t what the internet is for =)

I still think its more determined by innate ability, while everyone can use magic to some degree some people would be naturally more proficient in an area of magic or none at all like the previous swordsman example.

I’m sure there are npcs with a specific class that have access to various other class’s skills and nothing really stops them from broadening their repertoire of spells aside from individual ability. Players however are just limited for game balancing issues.

Lostwingman.5034:

The problem for me is trying to figure out where one’s technology begins and the others end and vice versa. With the Charr their level of technology and general functioning is plainly visible and has real life parallels to make it easy to understand.
We also have Asura technology thrown in our faces at virtually every step so imagining their “replace electricity, welding, and hydraulics/pneumatics with magic” isn’t too hard to imagine. Although where it fits in the Airships I don’t know yet.
With the Humans I just don’t know. With them I see a bunch of peasantry and field laborers.

I’d have to say this has been a flaw I’ve observed as well.

One distinction that has been made is that where the asura see magic as a science, humans see it as an art. The way that tends to translate is that asura create magitech that is clearly powered by magic and requires magic to function.

Humans, on the other hand, are more subtle. Most of their artifacts are more along the lines of something that would have a function (if not necessarily the function they were enchanted for) even without the magic, and even the exceptions to that rule (such as Sohothin and Magdaer) are loosely based on a mundane object. Examples in GW1 include Stormcaller and God’s Vengeance in Fort Aspenwood, and, ironic as it is, the Searing Cauldrons may be derived from the same style. SoS had a couple more examples that I’m not going to spoil. In GW2, I’d invite you to compare and contrast a golem with a Watchknight – while golems are relatively subtle by asura standards, they’re still clearly magical. Watchknights, on the other hand, could be mistaken for articulated statues until they activate.

Probably the most telling examples are:

From the Zephyrite arc, there was an ambient conversation where an asura couldn’t understand how the Sanctum flew. I can’t remember the exact details, but it basically boils down to “How does it fly? I don’t see any (rolls off list of asura doohickeys)?” “Magic.” “But how do you do that without…” “Ancient magic.” “(splutters)”. Now, while the Zephyrites seem to have more magic than the Krytans do, it is indicative – asura artifacts NEED the various flux capacitors and charging coils and other thingamijigs to function. A human can just take a perfectly mundane object and… make it no longer mundane.

Possibly even more telling, though, is a discussion between a human and an asura spellcaster in Sea of Sorrows. Unlike many such discussions, it’s the human bewildering the asura – the asura is going on about how a particular process goes against all the equations, the human says why it works nonetheless, the asura asserts that it’s too complex for anyone to pull off, the human shrugs and simply says that you get a feel for it.

The overall impression I get is that humans might actually have a better overall talent for magic than the asura do. The asura can do amazing things through applying the scientific process to magic, but they need that scientific process to get anywhere. Humans are better able to feel their way through something. One could think of it as the difference between a cooks that calculates a recipe for the perfect dish and follows it to the letter, versus one that makes it up as they go along on the basis of taste-testing and knowing their ingredients. So when applied to magical artifacts, it seems that the asura need all their bells and whistles and crystals and flashing lights to create a magical artifact, while a human just goes ahead and enchants it..

The problem, when it comes to figuring out where human magic may have been involved in creating a machine composed of the efforts of multiple races, is that what they did… isn’t going to be obvious. Have they enchanted the dirigible portion to make it resistant against leaks and battle damage? Have they enchanted the whole airship so it’s more buoyant than it would naturally be? Enchanted the sail-like paddles that drive them so they catch the air better when they push, and less when they swing back? Who knows?

Thanks, I’ve also been getting the vibe that human magitech advancement is going to be along the lines of “Take X, make Y improvements with magic”.

I’d say humans see everything as art, not just magic. I mean humanity gets access to charr technology and what is the first thing that comes from it? Uzolan’s Mechanical Orchestra. Plus, really who would want to watch an asura play? Humanity’s creativity have allowed them to survive as well as they have. They aren’t bound to boxes like many of the other races.

I’ve skipped most of the wall of text but or humans, you have to be born with the ability to use magic, there are orrian history scrolls you can read and they imply that humans have to be born with the ability

Its definitly a learned ability. If you think back to GW1, just about everybody multiclassed, letting a warrior also be an ele and so on. If you can find someone to teach you it, you can learn it.

Getefix.9150:

I’ve skipped most of the wall of text but or humans, you have to be born with the ability to use magic, there are orrian history scrolls you can read and they imply that humans have to be born with the ability

Not really – the greater usage of magic in Orr was probably because Orr had more magic and thus that it was easier to use, not necessarily that you need to be born with it to use magic and the Orrians were more likely to.

from what the devs have said, every Tyrian has the potential to learn to use magic. Some have more talent than others, though, and some choose not to pursue that talent.