Guild Wars 2

I still think Prophecies has the best story. I quit when Factions came out (didn’t like it) and came back with the release of Nightfall. I then had to purchase Factions only because i wanted the Ritualist. Prophecies still has the best story and its what GW2 should revolve around, its the big bang that started the whole thing. I never met an asian dude with a English accent, nor wanted one to tell me what to do, so excuse me when i say I’m glad to see him go. We don’t know if we are the chosen yet(possible spoiler) we haven’t got to Augury Rock yet, see Ascension. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ascension

Basaltface.2786:

i just wanna kill him and take the sword that should be mine… and i cant even use swords nor do i like the design very much but thats besides the point. I (we) killed zhaitan, without me (us) he wouldnt even have made it through his own god darn prophercy, he was what.. like 20 years in orr and didnt map it out to find where the place is to do his kittening life mission? He took the place of my mentor tybalt who i adored as a character and then got the audacity to just straight up lead the pact without any military knowledge unlike the god darn iron legion centurio (me) in his shadow who does his dirty work?

According to this reasoning in WWII, you would be the Patton to Eisenhower Thrahearne, commanding part of an army rivaling the French Grand Armee, Roman Legions and Alexander the Great´s army in their respective time. Eisenhower was not exactly an experienced senior officer when he took over command of the allied western forces, he was chosen because he had diplomatic skills and was highly respected from American, British and French generals, even the notoriously stubborn and difficult to control Montgomery obeyed him.

So should have Patton challenged Eisenhower to a duel for the leadership of the allies because he was the more battle experienced officer?^^

I didnt/dont mind Trahearne at all. All these claims about how he steals our glory are laughable in my opinion, especially since he gives you the credit over and over again. One thing i will agree on is the lack of emotion in his voice, but that has little to do with how he was written.

That said, i did like the switch from the old cutscenes to the new, even though i have nothing against the old ones.

Basaltface.2786:

i just wanna kill him and take the sword that should be mine… and i cant even use swords nor do i like the design very much but thats besides the point. I (we) killed zhaitan, without me (us) he wouldnt even have made it through his own god darn prophercy, he was what.. like 20 years in orr and didnt map it out to find where the place is to do his kittening life mission? He took the place of my mentor tybalt who i adored as a character and then got the audacity to just straight up lead the pact without any military knowledge unlike the god darn iron legion centurio (me) in his shadow who does his dirty work? Yea… i better get him as a boss fight and it better be long, hard and rewarding and i better be able to use a finisher at the end and loot his sword from his corpse…

He was named Marshall of the pact for a reason. As the only person that had a connection to all three Orders without actually being a member of any, plus his knowledge of Orr, he was the most likely choice. Besides, you volunteered him for the duty yourself, dont complain now;)

Also: He thought the place to do his “kittening life mission” was in the Royal Tombs. Unfortunately he was wrong. Perhaps you need to pay a little more attention to the dialogue;)

Mordachai.1896:

Basaltface.2786:

i just wanna kill him and take the sword that should be mine… and i cant even use swords nor do i like the design very much but thats besides the point. I (we) killed zhaitan, without me (us) he wouldnt even have made it through his own god darn prophercy, he was what.. like 20 years in orr and didnt map it out to find where the place is to do his kittening life mission? He took the place of my mentor tybalt who i adored as a character and then got the audacity to just straight up lead the pact without any military knowledge unlike the god darn iron legion centurio (me) in his shadow who does his dirty work? Yea… i better get him as a boss fight and it better be long, hard and rewarding and i better be able to use a finisher at the end and loot his sword from his corpse…

He was named Marshall of the pact for a reason. As the only person that had a connection to all three Orders without actually being a member of any, plus his knowledge of Orr, he was the most likely choice. Besides, you volunteered him for the duty yourself, dont complain now;)

Also: He thought the place to do his “kittening life mission” was in the Royal Tombs. Unfortunately he was wrong. Perhaps you need to pay a little more attention to the dialogue;)

while I don’t want to kill him, nor take caladbolg, I would point out that trahearne makes sense as a manger of the three orders, but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily got the tactical or strategic knowledge to command the pact. on top of that, our support for trahearne was entirely scripted, so you can’t pin it on us.

Mordachai.1896:

Basaltface.2786:

i just wanna kill him and take the sword that should be mine… and i cant even use swords nor do i like the design very much but thats besides the point. I (we) killed zhaitan, without me (us) he wouldnt even have made it through his own god darn prophercy, he was what.. like 20 years in orr and didnt map it out to find where the place is to do his kittening life mission? He took the place of my mentor tybalt who i adored as a character and then got the audacity to just straight up lead the pact without any military knowledge unlike the god darn iron legion centurio (me) in his shadow who does his dirty work? Yea… i better get him as a boss fight and it better be long, hard and rewarding and i better be able to use a finisher at the end and loot his sword from his corpse…

He was named Marshall of the pact for a reason. As the only person that had a connection to all three Orders without actually being a member of any, plus his knowledge of Orr, he was the most likely choice. Besides, you volunteered him for the duty yourself, dont complain now;)

Also: He thought the place to do his “kittening life mission” was in the Royal Tombs. Unfortunately he was wrong. Perhaps you need to pay a little more attention to the dialogue;)

this is a story line… any one of our characters could have been written into his spot. As for CHOOSING him??? are you kidding me? I didnt choose him, i was forced into that decision by the writers. As much as the story may have been good, the lack of choice and your role in it was very much steamrolled into one direction… and one decision… Any one of our characters could have been in his place. I am not saying that is what Iwant, but this is a story after all. I would have been happy seeing the story focus more on teh character even if i wasnt the pact commander. As it stands now it feels like i was just along fo the ride… and meh… maybe i did one or 2 small things to help out.

Going to have to disagree with you on that. Youre the second in command, the one who takes orders from one man and then executes them with your squad. Not once have i seen Trahearne say: “Oh Look at what ive just accomplished. It was nice that you came along but i could have done this all on my own”.

I’m an altoholic, ive completed the personal storyline on 26 characters now and i suppose i MIGHT have missed him saying something like that, but i have a feeling that i didnt.

Besides, the whole “you volunteered him” remark was a jest to lighten the mood.

Mordachai.1896:

Going to have to disagree with you on that. Youre the second in command, the one who takes orders from one man and then executes them with your squad. Not once have i seen Trahearne say: “Oh Look at what ive just accomplished. It was nice that you came along but i could have done this all on my own”.

I’m an altoholic, ive completed the personal storyline on 26 characters now and i suppose i MIGHT have missed him saying something like that, but i have a feeling that i didnt.

Besides, the whole “you volunteered him” remark was a jest to lighten the mood.

As I stated before, its not about your position in the pact per say, its more about how the focus is on a spinelss whiney twig that runs to you for every kitten decision he makes in reguards to ALL OF TYRIA! I guess this sums it up for me some one said on reddit…“With Trahearne, players are saddled with a character that is completely useless. He dies in the first 10 seconds of any fight. He couldn’t organize his way out of a paper bag, deferring to the player character every time a choice has to be made, he is simply a weak and undesirable character….that is in charge and taking credit”

In the sylvari story… who has to do all the fighting to get saladbolg back??? yup, you guessed it, the PC… but who ends up getting it and has a WHOLE MISSION called A Light in the Darkness, designed about how great trahearne is and what wonderous glory hes going to bring to tyria? yup, you guessed it… Trahearne… now add in the fact of the quote above, and I cannot fathom why anyone would like him! last but not least, he is thrust on every race in such a manner that no rapport is built withim prior to him dictating to you that he is the leader, but yet defers like a coward to the players choice…

also this from reddit

“If they would have made me say, “Wow! I would never have survived that without Trahearne!” I would be totally fine with him doing whatever. Instead, I kept saying, “I’ve got to go back to get him again; Is he bugged again? Why is he dead again?”

the dude is just a whiny teenager that has had everything handed to him bythe pale tree on the backs of the PC, and the story forces us to be complicit in it…

what more do you need to hate the guy?

Mordachai.1896:

Basaltface.2786:

i just wanna kill him and take the sword that should be mine… and i cant even use swords nor do i like the design very much but thats besides the point. I (we) killed zhaitan, without me (us) he wouldnt even have made it through his own god darn prophercy, he was what.. like 20 years in orr and didnt map it out to find where the place is to do his kittening life mission? He took the place of my mentor tybalt who i adored as a character and then got the audacity to just straight up lead the pact without any military knowledge unlike the god darn iron legion centurio (me) in his shadow who does his dirty work? Yea… i better get him as a boss fight and it better be long, hard and rewarding and i better be able to use a finisher at the end and loot his sword from his corpse…

He was named Marshall of the pact for a reason. As the only person that had a connection to all three Orders without actually being a member of any, plus his knowledge of Orr, he was the most likely choice. Besides, you volunteered him for the duty yourself, dont complain now;)

Also: He thought the place to do his “kittening life mission” was in the Royal Tombs. Unfortunately he was wrong. Perhaps you need to pay a little more attention to the dialogue;)

He had 20 years to figure that one out himself… just sayin, in 20 years he maaaaaybe should have gone into the tomb and check if there might be the place where he needs to do his job and if there isnt he should have taken more time to research. Also… why not a member of the destinys edge? Those guys almost took down a dragon and had at that point in the story the most experience in that stuff. You have the blood legion tribune rytlock and the commander of the seraphs logan there… two military leaders with experience (as much as i hate to give logan any good words) who are not bound to any order and know what they do…given their miliary rank…even if i question logan with his boot licking attitude to the queen… but she could have said “yo logs, get yer kitten over there and break the dragon´s face off” and that would have most likely fixed it. Also zoijja who is pretty darn smart and she would most likely fill that role perfectly aswell. Eir.. well she was the leader of the edge before everything went into the crapper but still.. there would be place for an awesome storyline where she finds her spirit (not norn spirit) again with the help of the player char and leads the pact to defeat zhaitan and then the other dragons till eventually facing kralkatorrik and getting revenge for snaff and glint, there is so much potential for a pact leader i could care about and actually like…or learn to like… but nooo lets add trahearne to the mix who replaces your awesome mentor and leads an army without any experience just cause the mother tree said so. I hate that guy so much..

Fact is, no matter who they would put in charge of the pact you would probably feel the same because everyone would have to defer to you for every choice made, its the way the personal story works. Bit harsh to blame this on a toon, isnt it?

It is not untill A Light in the Darkness that the PC and Trahearne find out that they have to cleanse Orr before they kill the dragon, and they find that out in the royal tombs. Thats why Trahearne mistakenly thinks its there that he has to perform the ritual. Also, you bring a squad with you to protect the entrance, while you protect Trahearne inside. How would he have pulled such a thing off on his own?

As for Destiny’s Edge: Eir and Caithe are too busy with bringing them back together, Zojja is too busy chasing after Kudu and Logan and Rytlock are too busy with their respective military duties, aswell as hating eachother. In the Cathedral of Flame, where Logan saves Rytlock, they finally begin mending their friendship but its not untill after the Crucible of Eternity that they get destiny’s edge back together and join the fight against the elder dragons.

And as a sidenote; Logan is not the commander of the entire seraph, just the ones stationed in Divinity’s Reach. There are seven captains in total, each commanding their appointed regions and answerring directly to the Queen. Logan just has temporary control over the captains closest to divinity’s reach while jennah is working with the charr on the treaty.

Basaltface.2786:

He had 20 years to figure that one out himself… just sayin, in 20 years he maaaaaybe should have gone into the tomb and check if there might be the place where he needs to do his job and if there isnt he should have taken more time to research. Also… why not a member of the destinys edge? Those guys almost took down a dragon and had at that point in the story the most experience in that stuff. You have the blood legion tribune rytlock and the commander of the seraphs logan there… two military leaders with experience (as much as i hate to give logan any good words) who are not bound to any order and know what they do…given their miliary rank…even if i question logan with his boot licking attitude to the queen… but she could have said “yo logs, get yer kitten over there and break the dragon´s face off” and that would have most likely fixed it. Also zoijja who is pretty darn smart and she would most likely fill that role perfectly aswell. Eir.. well she was the leader of the edge before everything went into the crapper but still.. there would be place for an awesome storyline where she finds her spirit (not norn spirit) again with the help of the player char and leads the pact to defeat zhaitan and then the other dragons till eventually facing kralkatorrik and getting revenge for snaff and glint, there is so much potential for a pact leader i could care about and actually like…or learn to like… but nooo lets add trahearne to the mix who replaces your awesome mentor and leads an army without any experience just cause the mother tree said so. I hate that guy so much..

Why not choose one of Destiny´s Edge?
Logan is a horrible battle companion with no sense of loyality at all to anyone outside of his queen, close on being a traitor and is neither very bright or intuitive. I found myself siding with minister Caudecus regarding that Queen Jenna is a horrible choice for a queen with only the blind loyality of her subjects keeping her on the throne. I would have severed ties with him long ago if I were the rest of Destinys Edge.
Rhytlock is a hotblooded risk taker, making no doubt that he distrusts anything non-charr, and was obviously completely unaware that Logan could not be trusted, despite his knowledge of his true colors. If it were not for the dragon´s threatening all of Tyria, he surely would be an enemy or at best neutral. 2 out of 3 orders would not follow this guy.
Eir has two convincing, ehm, arguments, but that´s basically it. She seems to have the necessary skills to knit people together, but gives in too easy to be a good commander.
Zojja is an asura smurf and a scientist. Both kinds of people I would never trust my people too if I were either one of the leaders of any race. One half of the troops, mainly Charr and Norn, would be caught laughing when ordered around by a smurf, while the other one would ask itself if the scientist in Zojja would not sacrifice them for a weird experiment.

A long time ago there was some sort of poll regarding how you like to see your characters’ role in the story line. I’m unsure if this poll was ANet sponsored, or if some third party did it, but I seem to remember that majority of people preferred to not be in the lead role, yet wanted to have special recognition. I believe this was fulfilled in the personal story (though I’m sure some people argue not).

I personally like Trahearne’s character. People feel they want the sole recognition for the personal story, but I feel they’re not taking into account all of the other things that were happening in conjunction and the number of other characters that were involved. But since you’re the player, it seems like you’re doing all the work because you’re actually involved in what you’re doing; every other character is just an NPC.

In Destiny’s Edge 2.0, they gang calls you “Boss”, and you seem to be the one in control of everything that’s happening. And while being the center of attention is neat and all, we cannot forget everyone else involved in the endeavors starting all the way back from the start of season 1 living story to now.

GeminiArcher.7809:

Continuing from that post…

Maybe it’s the fact that Trahearne is actually a stable, consistent character that people don’t like. Or actually, maybe it’s the fact that he’s given as a replacement for your Order mentor, who in most cases is a more engaging character whom people actually like. (Although why people actually like Tybalt is beyond me.

Err, no, none of that. I don’t like Trahearne because his dialogue is depressive, constantly repeating ‘this won’t end well’. Perhaps for him it won’t.

Then I’m not enamored on Tybalt either, he may be more fun that Trahearne but his fighting capability is extremely poor. He’s my least preferred mentor. Magister Sieran is unpredictable, a loose cannon, but fun too. Then you have Warmaster Forgal Kernsson, a grizzled old fighter. Not fun directly, but he reminds me of John Wayne in True Grit.

Truth is I don’t think we were given enough time with the mentors before they were unceremoniously killed off. That is, unfortunately, a problem with a lot of the storyline. Then we were quickly shuffled on from our orders and haven’t really heard much from them since.

As for us being in command, forget it. We may be in command in name but that is it. All of the important decisions will be made elsewhere by others. There might eventually be a MMO where you are in personal command, but this isn’t that. jeez, kitten swear filter was turning the last three letters into kitten cause it makes a ‘naughty word’. THERE IS A SPACE THERE…. isn’t . . . .it is not a swear word

from a stortytelling point of view, this is actually a lot worse in a MMORPG. “I´m Spartacus…”

Yes…from a story telling pov this is a step in the right direction. I like their (late but still welcome) decision.

I keep saying it, its not the fact we are second in command that bothers us…. look, if they would have treated us like “contracted help” per say, I would not have an issue with trahearne as a leader and his focus in the storyline. but it is a constant reminder they we serve a weaker leader thus implying we are even weaker then the one we serve. it would have worked better if DE or the commander and his party along with trahearne were treated as at least equals. I dont have to be the one in charge, but I dont want to serve a pansy kitten teenager either…

I can see some that hate Traheame would want to brutally murder him in cold blood, Like a Crazed Serial Killer Maniac stabbing him 30 times in the chest without stopping. I guess going down the Villainus Route for those that hate him is the only option for them to kill Traheame in cold blood then if they find out the Hero of Tyria will be put in jail or be sentance to death for First Degree Murder.

For me I don’t mind Traheame, I don’t mind if he takes half the glory, I would share half of mines for him, Both of us taking the praise and not just me alone. I am not a greedy charr who wants all the glory for himself/herself (Depending on the Character I play as) I find it greedy and I do not deserve all the credit most of that goes to the team work to all that helped out in the battle.

But this just me, Would you feel tired of being praised day in and day out all day if you took all the credits and no one gets any? You would not be able to live out a normal life in Tyria having people chase you all over Tyria, Atleast I would want some privacy and not be a hero all the time just a day off with a little R&R from all the Heroic deeds.

Trahearne isn’t all bad. In fact, after replaying the campaign for my alt, the vegetable leader kinda grew on me. Granted, he isn’t your standard high fantasy leader, who is at the frontlines with his troops, but that isn’t what he’s good at.

The green Necromancer did fill the role of a general, or a field marshal. Him being a scholar fits, as there have been many historical generals and officers, who were far more competent outside of the battlefield. (doesn’t mean they were incompetent there either)

Some areas where a general applies his Skillset:

Planning force and Equipment.
Remember, when in forging the pact the first thing we had to do was talking to the best smiths in order to secute quality equipment for pact soldiers? The pacts constituent orders were competently trained troops to begin with, but it never hurts to be able to place custom orders. Also, with the help of Whispers and the knowlege of the Priory, the pact became the fist aiship deploying military force in Tyria.

Planning mobilization and deployment.
The Vigil already has great tacticians and leaders, so Trahearne needed to decide on a strategy, brief the colonels and get everyone together to make war plans. This is not what most adventurers find interesting though, since it doesn’t involve much action. Instead you look at maps and coordinate your soldiers.

Logistics
Trahearne has the added benefit of great knowlege on the terrain of Orr. On a tactical level, terrain is merely important, but on a strategical level, it dictates your supply routes and restricts campaign movement. Accurate maps of Orr are likely scarce, so a Scholar, who has evaded the undead for years is actually qualified to direct a campaign against Zhaitan. Logistical planning probably won’t drive adrenaline to high levels either.

Personnel planning
The other important part He did right was to delegate. The orders were employed in their areas of expertise with enough liberty to make decisions on their own. The pact is large and complex, but the pact members know what they do. Trahearne didn’t fall into the micromanagement trap – When things didn’t go right, he sent his second in command to make sure they did.

Operational command and leadership.
This is the point, that would have disqualified Trahearne from Pact command. I make no attempt at claiming Trahearne to be an inspiring leader.
This is where the pact could have fallen apart, if it weren’t for another person. Someone, who probably wasn’t impartial when it cam to order politics. However, that someone has proven his or her competence in actual battlefield performance and leadership even before Claw Island.
Whenever there was a critical mission to lead, whenever something had to work on the first try, this someone would stick up for Trahearne and accompany him into dangerous places. Whenever the Pact needed answers, or results, this person would deliver them.

The problem with all that is, that all that stuff is only vaguely hinted at. You wouldn’t see Trahearne discuss strategical details with his staff. The Person to explain the three pronged invasion plan to you would be Tactician Falx and his northern and southern collegues.
I would have liked to see some more details on the organization and planning of the pact. I understand, that having you be part of many different staff meetings would have been tedious for many players, but I would have liked to see some of the reasons, why the invasion of Orr worked in the way it did. Some NPCs to talk to or, Trahearne visibly being engaged in pact leadership.
From what I could gather ingame, a lot of effort went into the campaign in Orr, but we, as players don’t get to appreciate it, because it is not presented.

TLDR: It is not about Trahearne being a bad general (he isn’t except for his people skills) . The problem is, that the Personal Story wasn’t presented in a way, that made it feel truly engaging. (there are exceptions, the “Greatest Fear” missions, for instance.)
More dialogue (not even voiceover, just text) for the interested players and lore experts would have helped.

I hope that cabbage never comes back, he’s the reason I’ve never finished the story.

Largely, I agree with Castigator. Trahearne’s role in the story is basically to deal with all the things that would be tedious for the players of an MMO to do, freeing the PC up to do what the PC is better at – leading a force in the field. I think ArenaNet could have done a better job at showing Trahearne doing his thing to keep everything running smoothly from the back in the PS… but then, there’s a lot of things ArenaNet fell down on with the PS, particularly at the end. The snippets we see in LS2 seem to be a step in that direction, giving us glimpses of what Trahearne is doing while we’re in the field.

Torolan.5816:

I found myself siding with minister Caudecus regarding that Queen Jenna is a horrible choice for a queen with only the blind loyality of her subjects keeping her on the throne. I would have severed ties with him long ago if I were the rest of Destinys Edge.

You do realise that Caudecus is basically Senator Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels, right? The takehome message of the missing sister story step is that Caudecus has been sabotaging Kryta’s defences to make the centaurs and bandits a bigger problem than they’ve been before in order to make Jennah look incompetant so he can make a bid to take over. The difference is that unlike the Old Republic and the Jedi, Jennah knows what Caudecus is doing – she just doesn’t have the power or evidence to eliminate him without risking a civil war.

It’s also indicated in many places that Caudecus and his supporters don’t care two hoots for the common folk of Kryta, while Jennah does.

I agree with the idea that Caudecus should never be King, and the Palpatine comparison may even be spot on with him. He´s without a doubt a blueblooded bankster type of scum looking for the interests of nobility and the rich only. His vision of Divinity´s Reach is probably much more empire like than rebel like to stay with this comparison too.
But Jenna is making it pretty easy for him most of the time, with it getting rather worse for her position than better over time(No king selected as a young queen so no heir, the mechanical guard incident, the so-so position of Divinity´s Reach in terms of a full out war against the dragons, pressing evidence collected against Caudecus at the ld2 festival).

And regarding that Jenna can clearly point out the culprint and does not take open action against him despite being the monarch, is that a pro or con Jenna argument?
I am pretty sure that the Jedi and the Senate would have taken immediate action against Palpatine if they would have already suspected that he is the bad guy in Phantom Menace.^^
Nobles can be ousted without much evidence it seems when you look at how the father of Kashmeer fell from grace.

Still, I think this can be a really great and big side story if Anet gives it some effort.

Basaltface.2786:

i dont want to murder them or anything… but they make me feel like a 5th wheel. They get all the cool stuff, story progression and what not and i trot along silently in case something pops up that needs to be killed and watch em talk to eachother…or do miracles.. (taimi and the waypoint system, the teleporting spazz outs of the blonde chick thats so forgetable that i actually cant remember her name and so on) when i should be the one doing all of that… ya know the guys\girls who took down a dragon, fought scarlet, killed countless dragon minions, are high ranked order members and respected members of their race and much more, yet we are degraded from trahearne´s personal shoe polisher to babysitter of the off brand destiny’s edge… feels lame… i hope HoT fixes that

Hopefully being able to talk (or at leave hear some voice over) will help to make players feel less separate from everything. But yes I do agree that the Pack Commander feels like a 5th wheel. But the question becomes how character can they give the PC? That’s a general issue in gaming with the two extremes being a silent protagonist (for players to project on or something) and the other end being the highly scripted character with no dialog options (in essence players simply direct a character instead of inhabiting a character).

The problem is that Kryta is essentially a Magna Carta-esque constitutional monarchy, placing limits on what Jennah can do. Specifically, where nobles are concerned, the Ministry controls the judiciary – and as the equivalent of prime minister, this means that Caudecus effectively controls the judiciary. This means that if Caudecus wants to remove an enemy through the judiciary he only needs enough proof to generate a fig leaf of legitimacy – for any case to be brought against one of Caudecus’ allies, or Caudecus himself, though, it has to be so absolutely airtight that it cannot be refused without exposing the judiciary as irredeemably corrupt.

Militarily-speaking, it’s the forces loyal (more or less, some Seraph units are questionable) to Jennah that are on the front lines against the centaurs and bandits. The Ministry Guard, largely loyal to Caudecus, is concentrated in the places of political power, including Divinity’s Reach. There’s a balance of power in that neither can move against the other militarily without being seen as the bad guy – if Caudecus attempts a direct military takeover it’ll be seen as a coup, while if Jennah uses a direct means of removing Caudecus, it’ll be seen as a monarch abusing her power and it’ll probably lead to civil war as other nobles get the impression that if Jennah isn’t removed they might be next.

So she can’t take a legal solution without having a case that would probably have to go beyond some quite unreasonable doubt, in the form of judges that are, if not actually in Caudecus’ pocket, at least favourably inclined towards him. She can’t take a military solution without, likewise, providing sufficient evidence that Caudecus is a traitor that there’s no way it could credibly be spun as anything other than a totally necessary action. Her only options are to find that evidence, or to erode Caudecus’ support base so he no longer has a stranglehold on the systems put in place to limit the monarch’s power. Jennah’s actually doing a pretty good job given the constraints on her power, in a political system that when you look under the hood actually has more checks and balances on royal power than the power of the Legate Minister.

Regarding taking a consort: We don’t know enough about her reasons for that decision. It’s worth noting, though, that one of the best-remembered monarchs in English history did exactly that: Elizabeth the First held off taking a king consort indefinitely partially because there were no candidates that she felt she could trust and that the other nobles would accept, and partially because holding out the hope that she would eventually marry one of them made the nobles less likely to take matters into their own hands. Now, Jennah does have the problem that she doesn’t have a known heir (the Order of Whispers seem to think there is one, though) so she can’t play that tactic indefinitely, but she may have similar reasons.

(If you haven’t already done so, I’d suggest reading this, and considering the ramifications – particularly of the Ministry Guard having the right to meddle in any legal action involving a noble when most of the Ministry Guard answers to Caudecus.)

I have to admit, good points.^^

On the other hand, I am quite sure that there is no united front of ministers Jenna would have to fend off. Most of them seem to be rather apathetic and yes men, fully living up to the cliche of people that intermarried in their own family much too often. The more integer ones or those in trouble already suspect that Caudecus is not the beneficial minister he seems to be if you listen into the ls and personal story even, and the clever ones surely will have made arrangements with their respective ministrial guard captain for emergencies or have asked Anise or the Seraph for help.
Example for such people would be Minister Arton(loyal to the queen but gullible), Minister Merula(likes Faren) Minister Rachel(comes from a poor background and sees that the ministry hides behind taxes and stuff to not be forced to help the refugees), Minister Wi(fatherly friend of the queen)and Minister Etham(no help at all for Nebo Terrace from the ministry).

Caudecus position is additionally weakened by Demmi Bettlestone, his estranged daughter. Her accusation could not give unattackable evidence that he is guilty of treason, but an estranged, and on top legal daugher speaking badly about her own father is surely highly poisonous for a prime minister, especially when she is under the protection of the orders of whispers.

The only way I see for Caudecus to oust the queen without outside help like from Scarlet or another major power block would be a full blown military revolution aimed right in the face of humanity if the Seraph are too far stretched and the shinning blade are too few to stop his part of the ministry guard from disabling or killing Jenna. And even that is highly complicated as the forced suicide of Nero shows. Despite making the Senate feel that he should be quickly killed to restore order, he remained untouchable until his own pretorians gave up on him too.

everybody hates Trahearne for his long depressive monologues, he is actually the best character in the game to turn to the dark side and to give us the chance to remove him for good. He already feels like one of the living dead from Orr. There can be only one hero in the end and thats you!

Castigator.3470:

Trahearne isn’t all bad. In fact, after replaying the campaign for my alt, the vegetable leader kinda grew on me. Granted, he isn’t your standard high fantasy leader, who is at the frontlines with his troops, but that isn’t what he’s good at.

The green Necromancer did fill the role of a general, or a field marshal. Him being a scholar fits, as there have been many historical generals and officers, who were far more competent outside of the battlefield. (doesn’t mean they were incompetent there either)

Some areas where a general applies his Skillset:

Planning force and Equipment.
Remember, when in forging the pact the first thing we had to do was talking to the best smiths in order to secute quality equipment for pact soldiers? The pacts constituent orders were competently trained troops to begin with, but it never hurts to be able to place custom orders. Also, with the help of Whispers and the knowlege of the Priory, the pact became the fist aiship deploying military force in Tyria.

Planning mobilization and deployment.
The Vigil already has great tacticians and leaders, so Trahearne needed to decide on a strategy, brief the colonels and get everyone together to make war plans. This is not what most adventurers find interesting though, since it doesn’t involve much action. Instead you look at maps and coordinate your soldiers.

Logistics
Trahearne has the added benefit of great knowlege on the terrain of Orr. On a tactical level, terrain is merely important, but on a strategical level, it dictates your supply routes and restricts campaign movement. Accurate maps of Orr are likely scarce, so a Scholar, who has evaded the undead for years is actually qualified to direct a campaign against Zhaitan. Logistical planning probably won’t drive adrenaline to high levels either.

Personnel planning
The other important part He did right was to delegate. The orders were employed in their areas of expertise with enough liberty to make decisions on their own. The pact is large and complex, but the pact members know what they do. Trahearne didn’t fall into the micromanagement trap – When things didn’t go right, he sent his second in command to make sure they did.

Operational command and leadership.
This is the point, that would have disqualified Trahearne from Pact command. I make no attempt at claiming Trahearne to be an inspiring leader.
This is where the pact could have fallen apart, if it weren’t for another person. Someone, who probably wasn’t impartial when it cam to order politics. However, that someone has proven his or her competence in actual battlefield performance and leadership even before Claw Island.
Whenever there was a critical mission to lead, whenever something had to work on the first try, this someone would stick up for Trahearne and accompany him into dangerous places. Whenever the Pact needed answers, or results, this person would deliver them.

The problem with all that is, that all that stuff is only vaguely hinted at. You wouldn’t see Trahearne discuss strategical details with his staff. The Person to explain the three pronged invasion plan to you would be Tactician Falx and his northern and southern collegues.
I would have liked to see some more details on the organization and planning of the pact. I understand, that having you be part of many different staff meetings would have been tedious for many players, but I would have liked to see some of the reasons, why the invasion of Orr worked in the way it did. Some NPCs to talk to or, Trahearne visibly being engaged in pact leadership.
From what I could gather ingame, a lot of effort went into the campaign in Orr, but we, as players don’t get to appreciate it, because it is not presented.

TLDR: It is not about Trahearne being a bad general (he isn’t except for his people skills) . The problem is, that the Personal Story wasn’t presented in a way, that made it feel truly engaging. (there are exceptions, the “Greatest Fear” missions, for instance.)
More dialogue (not even voiceover, just text) for the interested players and lore experts would have helped.

I think that was the main issue with the Personal Story for Zhaitan Arc. It lacked the parts showing why Trehearne was a leader and kept it mostly off scene. Everything our character went to meet Trehearne we would arrive right when he was done discussion all military strategies and operation plans in the Zhaitan Arc.

Not to mention as the Leader of the Pact he has less freedom than our character since he has to deal with the military operations planning against the Elder Dragons and politics of Tyria our character does not have to deal with. The freedom our character have now is only there because Trehearne takes on the tasks that would limit our character’s freedom off scene to explore the lands of Tyria, Dungeons, PvP in the Mist, improve on our own crafting, and etc.

Gray.9041:

I think they’re dropping the cut-scene conversations. they weren’t that great, and the look got old fast.

I quite liked the cut-scene conversations Although I get your point. I suppose what I liked about them was that the player character spoke in them, and if they’re adding that to HoT I’m happy, cut-scenes or no cut-scenes

CureForLiving.5360:

Hopefully being able to talk (or at leave hear some voice over) will help to make players feel less separate from everything. But yes I do agree that the Pack Commander feels like a 5th wheel. But the question becomes how character can they give the PC? That’s a general issue in gaming with the two extremes being a silent protagonist (for players to project on or something) and the other end being the highly scripted character with no dialog options (in essence players simply direct a character instead of inhabiting a character).

There used to be the charm/ferocity/dignity options but they dropped it

Torolan.5816:

On the other hand, I am quite sure that there is no united front of ministers Jenna would have to fend off. Most of them seem to be rather apathetic and yes men, fully living up to the cliche of people that intermarried in their own family much too often. The more integer ones or those in trouble already suspect that Caudecus is not the beneficial minister he seems to be if you listen into the ls and personal story even, and the clever ones surely will have made arrangements with their respective ministrial guard captain for emergencies or have asked Anise or the Seraph for help.
Example for such people would be Minister Arton(loyal to the queen but gullible), Minister Merula(likes Faren) Minister Rachel(comes from a poor background and sees that the ministry hides behind taxes and stuff to not be forced to help the refugees), Minister Wi(fatherly friend of the queen)and Minister Etham(no help at all for Nebo Terrace from the ministry).

This lack of a united front is part of the balance of power I was referring to. Caudecus’ faction has enough of a majority for Caudecus to be the Legate Minister (we don’t know enough about the inner workings of the Ministry to know what that requires) but there are still enough nobles who are undecided or loyal to Jennah that he needs to give his actions at least a veneer of legitimacy, particularly since there are good indications that the majority of the common folk supports Jennah. Both are angling to build up the support base they’d need to remove their rival (without the undecideds rallying behind the other side due to the perception that the one that moves openly is the one abusing their power), but neither is quite there yet.

For what it’s worth, it hasn’t been shown much on-screen, but I think Jennah’s position has substantially improved since the start of the game. The events at Caudecus Manor, while Caudecus did not get the full blame, probably diminished both his credibility and, at least temporarily, his freedom to operate. The bandits and centaurs that Caudecus was using as Palpatine used the Seperatists have been substantially weakened, and Caudecus has no Order 66 to turn that around. Demmi’s been hiding in fear for her life with the Order of Whispers and it would be easy for Caudecus’ supporters to undermine her credibility… but the fact of her defection is still an embarrassment.

Jennah’s main misstep has been with the Watchknight affair, which we saw Caudecus try to use in S2 – but that seems like it may backfire with his agent being identified, blackmailed, and interrogated by Anise. Apart from that, Caudecus’ camp doesn’t seem to have achieved much, and Kryta’s position has improved enough for the Seraph to have the spare capacity to launch adventures into the Maguuma. It’s possible that the destruction of the pact fleet will reflect badly on Jennah, however; we’ll see.

Overall, though, I think Jennah has shown that she’s a match for Caudecus when it comes to political acumen. Caudecus’ continued survival is due to the risk that an open move against him would result in civil war (even if Jennah wins, the cost at a time that Kryta is facing major external threats would be too high), but I think Jennah is doing a good job of containing him while building up a case.

If that’s the case i may just have to start playing again, i was hoping Marshal useless would be dead, but this is definitely a close second as long as i don’t have to see his leafy ars anymore.
I can deal with all roads leading to the big boss fight, but the previous personal story didn’t really feel like i got any meaningful choices because the next immediate result was the same… i suppose it’s a lot more work to make every choice have its own outcome, but i’d like it to feel like my choices have weight even on more than one playthrough. At some point you’re bound to see through the veil and it’s not a bioware game so i guess i can’t expect to need a wiki page to decipher the outcomes of all the possible choices, but it’d be nice if i wasn’t immediately delivered to “generic next stage” no matter what choice i made or worse yet, being set back and left with the other choice as my only option… sure it makes sense sometimes but when it happens more than like twice you get a little annoyed.

For what it’s worth, I would totally kill Trahearne and take Caladbolg. In an instant.

I would like to have him tied to a spit, and use a book of matches to hold under him to slowy make a fire….

But now I can’t skip cutscenes on my ults