Guild Wars 2

Where in the lore does it say that Warriors are not magic user?

It seems to me lore neither says that nor the contrary. It says the entirety of Tyria is infused with magic. Warriors are part of it, but they don’t take the time to study and train in that field like your more common magic user.

There are texts in Orr wich can help explain how warriors may be magic users (much like everyone in fact) : http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Orrian_History_Scrolls#Everyday_Magic_in_Orr_and_Signets

Signets are basically artifacts that store spells for use by people without magical training. So any class that uses signets uses magic in some form.

Also I seem to remember something about warriors using magic passively to increase their strength and durability etc. Or maybe that’s just my brain making stuff up again. It does that sometimes.

You get magic, You get magic, Everyone gets magic!
Angel McCoy’s magical interview

Fjaeldmark.9043:

Signets are basically artifacts that store spells for use by people without magical training. So any class that uses signets uses magic in some form.

Also I seem to remember something about warriors using magic passively to increase their strength and durability etc. Or maybe that’s just my brain making stuff up again. It does that sometimes.

Noteworthy is what precisely your armor stats mean – Power for a warrior, thief, or ranger is almost guaranteed to be strength. On another note, the thief? Shadowstepping is almost like a muscular action for them, which is why you can even do it while disabled. Hell, there’s monsters that turn invisible or shadowstep around, and that’s because of how magical the world is rather than some gaming abstraction.

Tyria is so suffused with magic that everybody has some level of enchantment to them. Warriors are just “nonmagical” in that they’re not actively utilizing spells.

Where do you think those bolas come from? Magic!

Just kidding, it’s like the others said, every living creature has the ability to use magic, that’s the reason for GW1’s dual-profession system, which allowed even warriors to mix in any kind of magic they saw fit.
It’s the same for engineers btw, they also have the innate ability to use magic, they just never use it (unless some of their inventions are atleast partly powered by magic).

Warriors can use magic, but it’s unclear if they actually do. But as said, it’s never stated that they do or don’t.

The thing is that all we see them do with skills could just be flashy mechanical ways of doing non-magical stuff. Banners falling from the sky in mechanics? Well in lore it could be that they carry it around with them all the time (like engineer with kits would) and them activating it is just waving it around to improve morale – same with shouts that remove/induce conditions/boons, etc. – just a case of morale improvement, not actual magic.

Or it could be magic.

Fjaeldmark mentioned warriors using magic passively to increase their strength, durability, etc. This is the more comment player speculation on how warriors use magic. But like said, nothing proves or disproves the thought.

Engineers, however, were explicitly said to not use magic directly – again, a case of “can but don’t”. They may infuse magic into their inventions (mainly their elixers) – either directly or indirectly – but nothing else they’d do would involve magic directly. And even then, it was said that they could be using chemical reactions to duplicate magical effects rather than using magic through elixers, etc. It’s an open-end there, for the sake of roleplaying.

I recall, concerning GW1, it was stated that something like Warriors and rangers didn’t use magic. I can’t remember the source but yeah. I think it was something like “warriors and rangers don’t have magic, but they have shouts.”

I heard that in Sea of Sorrow’s there is an instance where a hammer wielding warrior slammed his weapon into the ground and caused actual shockwaves to hit another person. That would be an example perhaps of “passively enhanced magic”

In Sea of Sorrows, what happens is a fighter with a hammer slams down on the beach and a cloud of sand around said fighter/hammer shoots up. Which is possible, though not quite to the degree described, without magic.

I don’t think a profession is ever named, however, so it could easily be someone using magic with a hammer that an ranger might or some such.

Kalavier.1097:

I recall, concerning GW1, it was stated that something like Warriors and rangers didn’t use magic. I can’t remember the source but yeah. I think it was something like “warriors and rangers don’t have magic, but they have shouts”

I don’t remember that. What I do remember is that ritualist magic and ranger spirits were roughly equated (drawing from spirits/ancestors and nature respectively). I also remember a remark on how the GW2 ranger has turned towards nature magic even more, compared to GW1’s ranger.

I think the only magic Warrior’s use are signets.

It doesn’t say they aren’t, but there is a higher burden of proof to labeling something a magic user when technically magic infuses everything in the dimension. One normally applies the descriptor to guardians/mesmers/necros/elementalists where the use of magic can be sorted by school, and it is not an indirect use of magic like appealing to nature spirits.

Warriors are dedicated physical fighters or probably but that does not mean that they can never use magic in any way, shape, or form.

I find it very difficult to explain the Rampage elite, without the use of magic to be honest. Engineers use an elixir to get into this state, but warriors seem to do it by themselves.

I think Konig describes the problem quite accurate – we don’t know if flashy mechanics are just flashy mechanics or actually magic. Rampage falls in this category as well. It could just be some visualization for archetypical berserker rage, or there could be a magical effect.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

In Sea of Sorrows, what happens is a fighter with a hammer slams down on the beach and a cloud of sand around said fighter/hammer shoots up. Which is possible, though not quite to the degree described, without magic.

Actually, in this instance, it is even described that there is a crackle of magical energy around the head of the hammer.
So one could interpret that there is either some passive physical magic involved (of which I have so far not found any other description in GW lore) or perhaps earth magic.
This is, to my knowledge, the only source that gives us a clue for some specific ‘warrior magic’ that doesn’t involve secondary professions.

Which brings me to another point that was mentioned before – GW1 secondary professions. There is no plausible reason why they shouldn’t work anymore (since magic has become more potent in GW2), especially for warriors who wish to spice their combat style up with some minor spells.
I think the way ArenaNet has (or rather hasn’t) treated this topic in GW2 is really quite lackluster.

Angel McCoy has stated that learning two magical disciplines (say, mesmerism AND necromancy together) is possible but akin to having two doctorate degrees and includes the risk of an explosion if directly combined with one another.
I think this is a blatant contradiction of what secondary professions were in GW1, but perhaps she is speaking of completely mastering those two different magical professions.

On the other side, there are several NPCs in GW2 that combine magical spells and weapon choices of several different professions. For example the undead priests in Orr, or these two guys:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vallus_Smokemane
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Champion_Drakin_Cinderspire

I’d really like to know what we’re supposed to make of this mess. Especially since I am roleplaying a priest of Balthazar who is a warrior with some fire magic spells, albeit not being a guardian.

In all fairness, professions aren’t what they were in GW1. They’ve become more complex, and more versatile, with more there to master. Angel also said, in that same answer, that there were people who took specific spells or tricks from other professions.

The closest you can get to a duel class person in GW2 is Liadri the concealing dark. She comes across to me as being a necro/mesmser combo of some sort.

Evans.6347:

I find it very difficult to explain the Rampage elite, without the use of magic to be honest. Engineers use an elixir to get into this state, but warriors seem to do it by themselves.

Well we do have example of real world berserkers in Nordic history, although there is some theories that they were using mind-altering substances.

It’s not the berserking aspect I find difficult, it’s the sudden and temporary giantism it causes. Considering Engineers trigger this state by ingesting some sort of elixir, I assume Warriors do it magically.

Or it’s just mechanics, to make things look more epic. Just as leaping around in heavy plate armour.

@Aaron:
Angel McCoy said that only the most powerful of mages have the time and energy to do it. Perhaps she’s only talking of truly mastering two magical ways, but if she’s not, we have a contradiction to GW1 lore, where it was no difficulty to learn some elementalist or necromancer spells as a warrior, eventhough they would never be just as powerful.

Yes, one could say that professions are more complex these days. But that doesn’t mean that everybody has the potential to do that or even that everybody is really into that. The PC hero can hardly be representative for all magic users in Tyria. He/she is a hero. Heroes always stand out.

I state again that it has been said elsewhere that mastering a profession is objectively more difficult than it was in GW1. It’s not a perfect analogy, but to get an idea of what that means imagine learning the entire field of chemistry as it existed in 1762 and compare that to what it would take today. That goes for all the magical professions, sure, but also probably the semi-magical ones, the engineer… hell, even the warrior now has to master eleven kinds of weapons where in GW1 he only dealt with four.

As for the interview… here, I’ll just copy it.

Esprits d’Orr : For gameplay considerations, each class can cast only a specific type of magic. However, in terms of roleplay, would it be possible for wizards to have a wider magical knowledge or potential, and therefore be able to cast spells from a variety of branches (such as an elementalist fireball coupled with a mesmer illusion) ?

Angel McCoy : I love that idea, as do many people living in Tyria. The reality, however, is that only the most powerful have the time and energy to do this. It’s like getting two doctorate degrees, one in medicine and one in engineering. Few have the time to do this, and usually, an individual doesn’t want to turn her back on everything she’s already learned to start a new magical discipline. She’d much rather continue advancing her knowledge in the discipline she’s invested decades in. Some, however, may dabble and experiment with specific spells. If a master elementalist can find a mesmer to teach her to produce an illusion, then she may explore ways to combine them. Most professions keep their secrets close to their chests though. And, the danger of a conflict between magical energies and thus, an explosion, is very real.

Emphasis mine, and it seems to cover what you’re talking about for your priest.

Well, just because GW1 mechanics didn’t have greatwords, maces and warhorns doesn’t mean they didn’t exist in lore. :P

Of course, magic has become more complex, due to the dragons leaking more magic into the world. I absolutely get your point in comparison to chemistry and how it evolved. But that is not really the problem I am pointing at.

Angel explicitly only speaks of powerful mages that delve into different forms of magic. That’s not what secondary professions were about. The point was that even a warrior or ranger (eventhough rangers are definitely magic users by themselves) could get limited access to elementalist or necromancer spells.
That’s hardly the same scenario.

Fair enough. In that case, though, I think you’ve just about answered your own question: there’s nothing saying it can’t be done. In lieu of any official indication, you’ve the freedom to fill in the gaps in whatever way you find most fun.

It’s not that I doubt it can be done from a lore perspective. Within reason, GW2 offers a ton of possibilities for what could be done with a certain type of magic (for example Flame Legion smoke shamans, who use fire magic indirectly to create ash blasts).

But it’s the wording which I find a bit lacking in that interview with Angel. I just wish they hadn’t just dropped the topic of secondary professions so much. It feels a bit like a mechanical choice that has intermingled with lore.