Mesmer and Assassin in Guild Wars 2?

The Mesmer and Assassin are not confirmed to appear in Guild Wars 2, but NCsoft has told Eurogamer that fans of those play-styles "will be happy".

There are three professions left to be revealed, "one more light [armour wearer], two mediums", GW2 lead designer Eric Flannum explained.

"That sort of sneaky anti-hero sort of role - we don't have something that fits that archetype, we haven't revealed one," said Flannum. "So yeah, we think people who enjoy that play-style will find a profession they like as well."

On the Mesmer profession Jon Peters added: "What we've said at some point is people who enjoy that [Mesmer] play-style will be happy, but no more than that."

So far, five of the eight Guild Wars 2 professions have been revealed: all of the returning GW1 professions - Elementalist, Warrior, Ranger, Necromancer - and one new profession, the Guardian. The Warrior and Guardian share the heavy armour class; the Elementalist and Necromancer share light armour; and the Ranger wears medium armour.

In Guild Wars 1, gamers can pick a secondary profession to compliment their main role. Most picked Warrior/Monk, ArenaNet divulged. But secondary professions aren't returning in Guild Wars 2.

"No they're not," said Peters. "There's a large number of reasons but I'll state the biggest one. They're very difficult to balance. The reason is that it opens up a possibility for everyone to do everything. We introduced the Assassin and he had teleport; okay now Monks can teleport, Warriors can teleport, Mesmers can teleport...

"We're trying to create play styles and make you feel like you're getting something different when you pick a profession.

Flannum added: "For a long time the design was to include secondaries. As we got deeper and deeper into it we started looking at it and asking why do we have secondaries? At the end of the day they weren't really doing anything for us. It wasn't enough and they were causing us problems.

"And then the task of balancing the game is a lot tougher when you can allow anybody to do just about anything in combination."

ArenaNet said that with weapon abilities and race abilities, GW2 already fulfils that secondaries role.

ArenaNet won't commit to a release date or public beta date for Guild Wars 2. Maybe it will arrive this year, maybe it won't - the outcome will depend on the result of closed testing.

"We're announcing [the public beta] when we get closer to the date," said Flannum. "We'll probably start some kind of a closed testing - like an alpha programme.

"Something that's happened since we released the first game - and this is something we have to recognise - is public betas have become less about being betas and more about being game demos, and you tend to get your end product judged by what your public beta is like. We're well aware of that.

"Our beta is probably going to be much closer to release," he added. "When that will be I couldn't tell you right now - we don't actually know. We've got dates that we're shooting for but it's still at the point where we're not entirely certain."

This week, ArenaNet takes the wrappers off the hefty snow-dwelling Norn race in Guild Wars 2. Look out for more very soon.