Seeing as PAX is just around the corner, ArenaNet has published their Guild Wars 2 schedule along with what kinds of things to look forward to this weekend! Here’s the run-down, though keep in mind everything is subject to change!

PAX Schedule (Booth #642)

Friday, September 3

10:00 Doors open – PAX begins!

10:30 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

11:30 Guild Wars 2 demo at nVidia Booth

12:30 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

1:30 Guild Wars 2 demo at nVidia Booth

2:30 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

3:30 Quiz Show – win Dynamic Event Panel passes!

4:00 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

5:00 Trading Card Game Prize Drawing

5:30 Quiz Show – win Dynamic Event Panel passes!

7:00 Hall closes

Saturday, September 4

10:00 Doors open – Day 2 begins!10:00 Guild Wars 2: Designing Dynamic Events panel in Room 304 (passes only)

10:30 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

11:00 Quiz Show – win party passes!

11:30 Guild Wars 2 demo at nVidia Booth

12:00 Ghosts of Ascalon book signing and giveaway

1:00 Quiz Show – win party passes!

2:00 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

3:30 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

4:30 Guild Wars 2 demo at nVidia Booth

5:00 Trading Card Game Prize Drawing

6:00 Hall closes

6:30 – 10:30 Guild Wars 2 PAX Party at the Hard Rock Café (pass holders only)

Sunday, September 5

10:00 Doors open – Day 3 begins!11:30 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

1:00 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

2:00 Guild Wars 2 demo at nVidia Booth

3:30 Guild Wars 2 demo presentation

4:30 Guild Wars 2 demo at nVidia Booth

5:00 Trading Card Game Prize Drawing

6:00 Hall closes

ArenaNet has lived up to their promise of providing their fans with a follow-up Q&A for the necromancer after its official reveal last week. Eric Flannum and Izzy Cartwright bring us answers to some of the questions and concerns that the community has brought up over the last week about Fear, Death Shroud, minions, wells and more.

Q: Fear sounds like an unbalanced crowd control mechanic. Could you explain this mechanic in more detail? How often can you use it and can you remove it? Are there certain types of enemies that are immune to fear?

Eric: Fear is a condition and is therefore removable by anything that removes conditions. How often fear can be used depends entirely on the skill that inflicts it, so it will vary from skill to skill. Boss monsters are currently immune to fear, but this is something that we are constantly balancing.

Izzy: Currently, fear lasts 2 to 5 seconds in PvE and 2 seconds in PvP, but these are just the current numbers and we’ll continue to refine and balance them as we keep playing.

You can visit the official blog of ArenaNet for the entire article.  Community discussion can be found here!

Check it out!

- First up is Jonny10 with Ghost of Ascalon Bookmarks for everyone. See and print them off in his thread here: Ghost of Ascalon Bookmarks

- Next are some crazy awesome wallpapers from YeZirko that you’ll want to take a look at. Some samples below but head to his thread to download the rest: Share Your Wallpaper

- Next up is artwork from Zav, whom you might remember from the Guild Wars community and his hilarious Lili Frog comics at GuildWarsSeries posted here in his Some Things thread.

- And then there’s Pumpkin Pie who has created fonts for the Asuran language, Charr and Old Ascalonian that has been found so far! Don’t miss these and download them here: Asura Script Family, Old Ascalonian Alphabet Fonts, Charr Grunts Font

- Last we have actionjack with some Chibi GW Armors that are excellent.  See the rest in his thread here: Chibi GW Armor

See all these great creations and more in our Library of Whispers and Community Works sections.

Today, ArenaNet brings us various links found around the web that came out from gamescom, including links about the latest class reveal – the necromancer. They go over some of the best videos, articles and interviews – including the interview created by our very own Guru community! For the full list of links, please visit the official blog.

Guild Wars 2 Guru did a fantastic job compiling all the news and reveals from Cologne in their epic “This. Is. GAMESCOM!” thread. Speaking of GW2 Guru, Developers Isaiah Cartwright, Leah Rivera, and Devon Carver answered a bunch of player questions about the game in this info-packed thread.

Another blog entry brings us to some exciting information! Lauren Panepinto, the Creative Director of Orbit Books, wrote an article for io9 about science fiction and fantasy art and mentioned Daniel Dociu, Art Director for Arenanet. You can check out the full article here and then comment on our forums in this thread!

As with the work of Alan Lee, much of the magic is in the composition and balance of elements, but I love Dociu’s brush-heavy painterly style – which is ironic, since I know he paints digitally, not with a brush — it gives a real energy to his work that I love.

Following the reveal of the necromancer, Ravious of KillTenRats brings us an interview with the lead developer for Guild Wars 2, Eric Flannum. Make sure you check out the community discussion topic once you’re done reading the full interview!

Ravious: The role of the necromancer in Guild Wars was not easily defined, as it straddled the line between hexer, minion master, and even melee.  The necromancer profession in Guild Wars 2  seems to be a streamlined version of the necromancer of old.  In re-defining the necromancer profession, what role do you intend for the necromancer to play in groups?

Eric: Like all of our professions, we intend that the necromancer be extremely versatile. That being said, the necromancer really shines when absorbing damage and providing support to allies. The necromancer has very high health and the ability to extend that health through the use of the Death Shroud ability. Combine those things with the ability to heal themselves through lifestealing skills and you have a profession that is very hard to put down. For support, the necromancer is great at inflicting debilitating conditions on enemies as well as removing conditions from allies. All these things, plus the ability to heal and cause fear, make them great at supporting teammates.

With gamescom now behind us, it’s time to start ramping up for PAX and that means, once again, we’re looking to the Guild Wars 2 community for questions for our next Q&A with the ArenaNet team. So if you’ve got a question about game mechanics, lore, or anything else GW2-related, please head on over to our Have Questions for PAX? thread and let us know!

Zyuu: Will we be able to reach level 80 by simply doing your personal storyline?

Chris Lye: I was told that basically, the personal story and the dynamic event system are meant to kind of pull together. The personal story is one of the ways that we guide you through the course of the world and in going through the world, we think it would be a shame for you to not experience dynamic events. So I don’t believe you’re going to be able to level purely based off of your personal story content.

Jeff Grubb: By the same token, I think there is going to be situations in going through your personal story that it’s going to be inevitable that you’re going to be interacting with dynamic events in the world. One of the reasons, as Chris mentioned, is that we use that as a guide to get you into areas that are level appropriate for your characters and as such. Even if you try to eschew and stay away from events, you’re still going to be in the middle of a lot of them.

Today, as promised, ArenaNet has officially revealed the necromancer to the masses!

A necromancer is a practitioner of the dark arts who summons the dead, wields the power of lost souls, and literally sucks the lifeblood of the enemy. A necromancer feeds on life force, which he can use to cheat death or bring allies back from the brink.

A necromancer feeds on death and decay. Life force is the energy that a necromancer uses to extend his own life. Using specific skills, a necromancer builds up life force by attacking and killing enemies. Rather than going into a downed state when he runs out of health, a necromancer automatically activates the Death Shroud ability. A necromancer can continue fighting in the ghostly Death Shroud form until he either runs out of life force or he gets a kill, rallying back into his own corpse.

Make sure to check out the official site for the complete run-down on the necromancer — including the other four skill videos — and then stop by the Guru thread for community discussion!

What would you do if Jeff Grubb, one of the Guild Wars writers, offered to you a personal 45-minute-long guided tour of the Guild Wars 2 demo at gamescom? Michael Fahey of Kotaku had the chance and now shares with us the tale of his adventures as a human, bunny-wrangling necromancer in one of his most recent articles.

Here are a few excerpts:

“The world of Guild Wars 2 is every bit as gorgeous as the screenshots make it out to be, though it looks a fair sight better in the eyes of a Necromancer. Other characters (demo players and ArenaNet staff back home in Seattle) ran about killing with abandon. I, instead, killed with certain flair. Poison was my particular poison, casting the ailment on the centaur enemies while my pet ate away at their life. With a press of a button I stripped away the ailment, causing more damage. With another press my pet exploded, healing me with the health it had devoured from my enemies.”

“An event was going on right outside the inn I was staying at. Another player was desperately trying to wrangle rabbits eating a local farmer’s watermelons, as rabbits often do. We had to capture a certain amount within a time limit, while making sure at least one watermelon survived.”

“Guild Wars 2 is definitely living up to its potential so far. The missions I played had long-lasting effects on my game, the experience was tailored towards telling my story and not just the story of the world, and there’s plenty to do when you’re in a mood just to screw around for a half-hour without getting into a fight.”

After you’ve read the full article, make sure you drop by the discussion thread and give us your thoughts!