It's time for a bit of developer update love from ArenaNet! In their latest dev update, designer John Peters talks about some upcoming changes to Ranger Pets, Engineer Tool Belts, and Cross Profession Combos. Of particular interest is that Ranger pets can be swapped on call, with two pets to switch between on land, and two seperate pets to swap between in water. If your pet dies, you can switch to your other pet, and a downed pet that was swapped out can be swapped back in at full health. Obviously this will have some cast times and cooldowns associated with it, but it's a nice approach for Rangers who constantly find their useless pets hitting the floor too soon.

I know that I'm hoping to play a teeny tiny Asuran Engineer (if possible), so this tool belt discussion is of specific interest for me. Apparently ArenaNet has designed twenty-three new skills to go with their newly renovated toolbelt, to the point where they now have a tool belt skill for every heal and utility skill. Some of the examples they give are also pretty cool, like a Rocket Kick that causes AoE fire damage, or Super Speed that... well... gives super speed, or even a Throwing Elixir H that randomly grants vigor, protection, or regeneration to allies in a target area.

Finally, the team revealed cross profession combos! Players in GW2 will be able to throw out "initiators" that set down "fields" in the area. Anyone who uses a "finisher" skill within a specific field will be able to create a skill combination. The example they use was that an Elementalist could freeze the ground, and a Warrior could use a "Stomp" finisher within that frozen ground in order to grant an Armor of Frost buff to all nearby allies. All in all, some very cool things in this dev blog!