Guild Wars 2 appears to be shaping up nicely, as ArenaNet has posted a number of intriguing features on the official site recently. The warrior profession has been introduced, the traits system has been detailed, and an extensive discussion of the player's personal journey has been posted.

Warriors, as expected, are heavily armored melee combatants. Different weapon choices will give warriors access to different skills and styles of play. For instance, sword warriors are highly mobile, and jump around the battlefield applying bleed attacks to enemies. Hammer warriors, on the other hand, concentrate on gigantic blows that stagger enemies. Guild Wars 2 retains the adrenaline system from Guild Wars, in which warriors build up adrenaline as they fight, then expend it for powerful attacks. It introduces extremely powerful "burst skills", which use up all built-up adrenaline.

Lore & Continuity Designer Ree Soesbee posted an extensive overview of Guild Wars 2's personal story system. The system begins at character creation, where after choosing a race and profession, players are asked to answer a number of biography questions about their character. Biography questions will shape the character's journey through the game in various ways, from how NPCs react to the character to which quests are available.

Throughout a character's progress through the main game, there will be major choices to make that will affect the game world and the character's experience with the story. Some choices will grant the character cosmetic rewards such as titles and special outfits, though story choices will not affect a character's power or ability (thus ensuring that there are no "right" or "wrong" choices in terms of game mechanics). Overall, the system aims to provide a focus on individual characters, causing the player to feel as though their own story is important within the larger events of the game world.

Finally, the traits system provides a way for player to modify their character's skills and abilities. Traits are collected by completing "profession challenges" scattered around the world. Different professions have different types of challenges; for example, warriors generally train physically to gain new traits, while elementalists seek out arcane lore. Once learned, characters will need to choose which traits to equip on a character, selecting enhancements that work well with the character's particular build.

For more Guild Wars 2 images, see our latest screenshot gallery.