Guild Wars 2

The first time I played this mission I did it with a few friends. it was our first time, and we had a decent experience. The second time I did it solo and noticed that the party of NPCs accompanying me wasn’t really pulling their weight. I’d even turn around once in awhile to see some of the Vigil Crusaders randomly cheering in the middle of a battle.

The third time it was just tedious. I noticed that no friendly NPC could capture one of the three control points, even if there were no enemies standing in the circle (it was just red as if an enemy were in it).

When the fight with Blightghast, the Plaguebringer began, I hung back and cleared the courtyard area to free up the NPCs there so they could join the fray, only to see the enemies respawn and the NPCs go nowhere. Whatever. I went to join the main fight and noticed that beyond the three charrs firing mortars, everyone was just standing there. They’d get feared, then run back to their original point and just stand there. Occasionally when Risen or those plague mouths would spawn they’d engage half-heartedly, but otherwise they contributed nothing. So I joined them and did nothing for the entire fight and we won on account of the NPC-propelled mortars. Awesome.

“Watch out! It’s dropped poison! Stay away from it!”
“Watch out for the Plaguebringer’s poison breath.”
“Stay out of its reach! It’s calling for the dead to rise!”
“There are grubs falling from its wings. Don’t let them surround you!”

YOU THINK? Players are already annoyed with Trahearne at this point, I don’t know why his dialogue is set to repeat endlessly throughout the entire thing whether you interact with him or not. It is really disappointing to think about all three orders coming together just to see them stand around on a battleground doing nothing.

I’d love to see this mission tweaked so that the NPCs are better engaged with the task at hand, otherwise I may just as well be fighting alone. I know this is a recurring issue with many missions, but in my opinion this is one of the worst.