ArenaNet have today announced that the Stronghold PvP game will receive a set of Mist Champions that will alter the gameplay associated with the mode. Players will be allowed to select highly specialized champions which can be summoned to turn the tide of battle. There will be three Mist Champions to choose from:

Turai Ossa - Savour of Elona: This battle-hardened warrior can summon a protective barrier to aid the defense of friendly players and their Lord.

Nika - Obsidian Flame Assassin: Long-time Guild Wars fans will remember this hero from another celebrated expansion, Guild Wars: Factions. Nika has the handy ability of being able to stealth a whole team at once, and their lord.

Grymm Svaard - Sailor and Sword-for-hire: Supported by his flagship Nomad II, Grymm has the ability to call in cannon barrages which burn and knock down any enemies they hit.

The idea behind Mist Champions is that they'll replace heroes in Stronghold, with each player being able to select one before they enter the match. Each Mist Hero has a unique War Cry as well as a passive and elite skill. War Cry's are used when the Mist Hero is first summoned and provide a map wide buff. Turai, as one example and as noted above, grants a protective barrier to all team members whilst Grymm calls in cannons to burn and knock down foes.

As for each Heroes passive and elite skills, they're all pretty different. Nikka will pulse stealth around herself and Turai will provide Aegis that turns to protection once you've blocked an attack. Selection of these Mist Heroes and tactical use of them is going to be incredibly important, with teams needing to choose the right one based on opponents they're facing.

Players obtain Turai by default once Stronghold is released, with Grymm available to all players but they'll need to complete his reward track in PvP. As for Nika, you'll need to own Heart of Thorns to unlock her. The idea is that ArenaNet will continue to add Mist Heroes to Stronghold in future content updates, with all future ones requiring Heart of Thorns. In an effort to test these new characters, they'll be freely available during each Beta period.

Finally and the best news all day, players will be able to set their play preferences when it comes to PvP. You'll be able to choose Stronghold, Conquest or both when you queue. If you choose only Stronghold, you'll queue with others who only pick Stronghold and vice-versa. As there's currently only one Stronghold map and if it's the only mode you want to play, you'll skip the map screen when a match starts. Rejoice!

You can learn more about these changes by looking out for the Mist Heroes blog post that goes live today.