Guild Wars 2

[Zed-F]

In GW1 you mainly (a) use positioning to get the person you want to be taking the beats to take most of them and (b) use strong protection magic to make sure whoever is taking the punishment doesn't get hurt too badly.

Zerging everything will probably work acceptably well in GW2 open world as long as you have sufficient players for the content you are trying to do, but GW2 open world isn't intended to be that challenging. GW2 dungeons and certain PvP formats is where you'll find more challenging content. In that instance you'll probably need a certain amount of battlefield awareness for when to use your control skills and so forth.

[Sir Bruce]

From watching gameplay footage I'm not sure if it's as stark as 'there's no tank or healer' - there is still a difference between supporting your teammates, soaking up damage, and dealing damage. However, there are two key differences: First, everyone does a little of both - this should encourage zerg strategies. Second, and more importantly to my mind, is that any class can fulfill any role (at least in theory) and this can change on the fly. This hopefully gives a much larger degree of flexibility in encounters or even forming groups.

Here's a pretty good article on the pluses and minuses of the holy trinity versus what we think GW2 is trying: http://mesmer.pl/?p=157

[Tyrmith]

More power too them if it works out (and I think pvp will be awesome with it), challenging the status quo is awesome, but I just don't understand how it makes for an interesting raids/instances in pve. You can't make anything that'll hit very hard or people will be out of the fight until they get revived. Encouraging zerging just doesn't seem interesting either to me.

This is of course all personal opinion, which is what makes the life of an MMO developer so interesting, when there's an uncountable number of different ideals running around.

[Zed-F]

Watch for information about how dungeons work in GW2 and you'll see more of how they plan to inject challenge in the game while keeping it both fast-paced and fun. Zerging in a repeatable-mode dungeon will most likely get you naked from repeated deaths, without a lot to show for it except a significant repair bill. And you can be sure the monsters will hit hard enough to challenge you to make the most of your control abilities to try to reduce some of that incoming damage.

[Nitetales]

It'll be mostly about damage-prevention, instead of damage-soaking or damage-mending.

The dungeon enemies/bosses do hit very, very hard, but that is because it is possible, with skill, to avoid almost everything. So, Dodge-rolling at the right time, and blinding/stunning/dazing at others and moving out of AoE spells. Kiting can also work in some cases. Again, it all comes down to not being hit, unlike other MMO's were you are going to be hit regardless of what you do so they have to have a tank of some sorts.

[Alanbrad]

I'm in alpha-test mode, for goodness sake...

[KingOfPain]

I'm in alpha-test mode, for goodness sake...

Are we suppose to tell?

[Plunder]

I'm in alpha-test mode, for goodness sake...

I'm not really sure what you mean... the game is out for a year already :D