Guild Wars 2 will satisfy any gamer who wants multi-player, roleplaying, looting, responsive storyline, crafting, pets, character development and of course... Combat!



Guild Wars 2 includes a dynamic event system replaces traditional questing, utilising the ripple effect to allow players to approach quests in different ways as part of a persistent world. Also of note is the combat system, which aims to be more dynamic than its predecessor by promoting synergy between professions and using the environment as a weapon, as well as reducing the complexity of the Magic-style skill system of the original game.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Guild Wars 2 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Free-To-Play version of Guild Wars 2 downloaded from their website. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 17 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.8
Wine: 1.7.49-staging

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.49-staging
Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 1.7.49-staging is installed and you can close this window

Go to: https://www.guildwars2.com/
Click "Play For Free"


Signup and login


Click "Windows Client Download"


or
Download the client from here:
https://account.arena.net/content/download/gw2/win

Save Gw2Setup.exe on your desktop


PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "Install a non-listed program"


Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next


Name your virtual drive: guildwars2
Click Next


Check all three options:

• Use another version of wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next


Select Wine: 1.7.49-staging
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply


Graphics Tab
Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
Desktop size: 1024x768
Click OK


Installing PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, DLL's, Components)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Click Browse

Navigate to your Desktop
Select "Gw2Setup.exe"
Click Open


Click Next

Loading screen


Click "Install Guilde Wars 2"


Click OK


Sign in
Wait for preloading...
Click Ready


License Agreement
Click "I Accept"


Select a server in your area


Create a character or play as an existing character
Close Guild Wars 2 and continue with PlayOnLinux

PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Gw2.exe
Click Next


Name the shortcut: Guild Wars 2
Click Next


Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next


PlayOnLinux Configure

Select "Guild Wars 2"
Click Configure


General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.49-staging


Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine.

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses


Close Configure

Select "Guild Wars 2"
Click Play


Note: Click Debug to see errors and bugs

Optimization

Click the gear or press ESC
Select Options


Graphics Options

Adjust:

• Resolution
• Refresh Rate
• Frame Limiter
• Interface Size
• Gamma

Advanced Settings

Adjust:

• Animation
• Environment
• LOD distance
• Reflections
• Textures
• Render Sampling
• Shadows
• Shaders
• Postprocessing
• Character Model Limit
• Character Model Quality
• Ambient Occlusion
• Best Texture Filtering
• Depth Blur
• Effect LOD
• High-Res Character Textures
• Light Adaptation

All changes happen real-time



Disable Preloading

Click the Wrench Icon
Scroll down to Streaming
Select "On Demand" from the drop-down menu


Note: This requires downloading the entire game on next launch, but can improve performance.

Conclusion:
Guild Wars 2 installation was simple and straight forward. Launching the game is slow on the first try, but tweaking the graphics requires a bit of patience. Make sure to use an Nvidia Geforce video card and the proprietary Nvidia drivers for best performance. My GeForce 550 Ti was able to run Guild Wars at a playable frame rate, but I was not able to crank all the display settings to high.

I found that disabling Streaming and turning down Shaders & Antialiasing improved performance without loosing too much eye-candy.

Gameplay Video:


Screenshots: