Guild Wars 2

I’ve been replaying Living Story recently, and something that really annoys me is how Taimi, this child, manages to continually make a race of geniuses look dumb in comparison. So, my question here is simple. If no living Asura is smarter than Taimi, is Snaff at least her intellectual superior? Taimi’s intelligence feels a bit forced, and this would at least make her seem more flawed and believable (Of course, she’s disabled but still).

Well, speaking in raw achievements, Snaff’s inventions caused the destruction of several dragon champions, he managed to find a way of making people immune to the dragons’ mind control and nearly brought down Kralkatorrik with his sheed willpower. That seems to make him intellectually superior to any being in activity, but still, Taimi may prove her own intelligence in the expansion, so we can’t rule her out yet.

Taimi is definitely not smarter than Snaff. The reason she seems to be smarter than other asura is because of how you interact with her. We spend time with her that we don’t with most other asura. But if you look at the things she says, it is nothing special that almost every other asura would know. The things she creates is simplistic that any asura can create them (The waypoint device was created by her because she had access to Omadd’s Machine for the longest).

To get a judge of her intelligence, you should look at how she is talked to in asura society. She is talked down, seen as just a child while Snaff was revered by many, he was going to be on the Council, and had a whole event and location named after him, as well as revolutionized golemancy. Taimi has done no such thing.

Plagiarised.2865:

Taimi is definitely not smarter than Snaff. The reason she seems to be smarter than other asura is because of how you interact with her. We spend time with her that we don’t with most other asura. But if you look at the things she says, it is nothing special that almost every other asura would know. The things she creates is simplistic that any asura can create them (The waypoint device was created by her because she had access to Omadd’s Machine for the longest).

To get a judge of her intelligence, you should look at how she is talked to in asura society. She is talked down, seen as just a child while Snaff was revered by many, he was going to be on the Council, and had a whole event and location named after him, as well as revolutionized golemancy. Taimi has done no such thing.

Someone sounds like a bitter Asura.

Truly though, she’s still a child who certainly shows potential. Give her time to grow up before making too much of a comparison to an oldy.

Like Plagiarised said, she’s really only got one accomplishment under her belt right now. She may, arguably, be the leading non-Inquest expert on ley lines, but that’s due to how new the field of study is, and her personal inclinations made her one of the first asura to pursue it. Recall that there was (somehow) no actual proof of ley lines until Scarlet- the main bulk of asura society would have been raised believing them to be something theoretical, if they’d heard of them at all.

Gaius.1425:

Truly though, she’s still a child who certainly shows potential. Give her time to grow up before making too much of a comparison to an oldy.

Oh, I agree. Given time, she may become up there with Snaff or Kerrsh, but to say that she is making all other asura look dumb is false.

To elaborate, her intelligence is often attributed to four key factors, that are:
1. Knowledge of Ley Lines
2. Knowledge of Engineering
3. ‘Futuristic’ Golem
4. Creation of the W.R.D.

1. Knowledge of Ley Lines: This one is two fold. The information she says during the early episodes, such as the leading theories and definition of ley lines, is all common knowledge to asura. We are told specifically that almost all asura know basic understanding of the ley lines. When Taimi speaks of the ley lines during these early episodes, she is not bringing anything new; she is repeating what scholars before her have said.

Then later on, Taimi becomes more knowledgeable about the subject. So why her? Well, you must first understand that she is not the first to study ley lines. Omadd, Ceara, and supposedly others before her have tried. The new information that Taimi gets about ley lines, and this is important, is based on other people’s research, mainly Omadd and Ceara. She took Scarlet’s notes and Omadd’s machines and studied them. She ‘reverse engineered’ knowledge if you will.

2. Knowledge of Engineering: She is a golemancer and an engineer. She is often noted to say very technical descriptions and understanding of golems. For example, she understood things about the steam creatures. This doesn’t make her unique, however, for if you play an engineer, you yourself notice the same things Taimi does. She is part of the College of Synergetics, so she would have some understanding. But she is not a master, and there are proven of some that are better than her by miles. After all, she sought out Brun Ingotspitter so she can learn more.

3. “Futuristic” Golem: Her unusual golem design is often noted by players to be more ‘high tech’ which gave the impression that her golem is better than everyone elses. How can a child have a better design than, say the Peacemakers. But this is actually the opposite. Scruffy is actually an older design. This is noted in two areas: when speaking with Taimi she boasts that her golem was built all by herself, which is fine for a student of Synergetics, but then she says its made of all classical vintage parts. That is why her golems looks odd. It isnt a newer design but an older design. After all, we mainly only see what golems looked like after Snaff’s evolution.

While on the topic of Snaff, he revolutionized the field. Before him, joysticks and directional pads were used, but now piloting a golem is as easy as thinking. But, interestingly, when you look into Scruffy, he is piloted clearly with joysticks and buttons. An indication that Scruffy is an older design. It would also explain why Taimi would always quip about upgrading it, because she needs to.

4. Creation of the W.R.D: This is what gets most people. How can a child create a device to stop an Elder Dragon. Simply put, she had the tools, mainly Omadd’s machine. Remember she used the machine to tap into the network and that is how she created the W.R.D. Was it smart? Yes. Does it put all other asura to shame? Probably not.

So, yeah Taimi is smart. She may even be above average, and given time could become one of the great minds of this age, but she has a long way to go before she makes all asura look dumb.

I guess it’s too early to know. Taimi probably has great potential, considering the fact that probably Zojja wouldn’t take an average asura under her tutorship; besides that Taimi by the fact of hanging around Destiny’s Edge 2.0, has had access to documents/items that no other asura has gotten like Scarlet’s documents and Omad’s machine in LS season 2.

Also at silverwastes she was learning also from a supposedly acclaimed charr metallurgist(?) things that seemed not familiar to asuran knwoledge.

Right now, I doubt Taimi is smarter than Snaff was (who knows compared to Zojja), but Taimi indeed has potential.

Sorry for the broken English.

Taimi only appears superior when it comes to knowledge of the ley lines. Phlunt is said to be unable to reverse engineer her W.R.D. But this is all because she has been studying Scarlet and her works and we haven’t seen her in comparison to other asura who have done the same, such as the asura who wrote that ley line theory we can find in the Durmand Priory library (the small one).

She is said to be smarter than others her age, but just that.

Say, who are Taimi’s parents? Did Snaff have any progeny?

Plagiarised.2865:

The reason she seems to be smarter than other asura is because of how you interact with her. We spend time with her that we don’t with most other asura.

S2 doesn’t really do a good job of demonstrating a variety of Asura… or Charr… or Norn, Humans, Sylvari. Now that I think about it S2 we don’t really get to know any of the major races better.

Tachenon.5270:

Say, who are Taimi’s parents? Did Snaff have any progeny?

We don’t know. We do know they’re probably dead though.

CureForLiving.5360:

Tachenon.5270:

Say, who are Taimi’s parents? Did Snaff have any progeny?

We don’t know. We do know they’re probably dead though.

I will point out, though, that it strains credibility a bit for the Biconics to have two secret Destiny’s Edge babies.

Well there is the theory that Rox’s sire is Rytlock…

The (credible) theory is that they’re half-siblings (one shared parent). IIRC, that got mentioned in a scrapped dialogue for Season 1’s ending (where Marjory was to be killed by Taimi’s rashness). Though whether they scrapped that bit of lore or not is left in the air (hence, credible theory).

Taimi may be smarter than the average asura her age, but snaff was smarter than a krewe of his own field

Taimi is a genius without any doubt, far more smart than other progeny, and, first and foremost, more bold, brave, entusiastic and ambicious than the vast majority of the other equally smart asura on her field. Mere inteligence is usually not as effective as sheer dedication. Combine both…

Snaff is in a whole different league, though. He probably was as capable as Taimi at some point of his life, but after that he keept growing not only in smarts and drive, but also in character and experience. He became not only a genius, a visionary and a hero, but a true example for his people.

So, while it is posible that Taimi and Snaff coul get similar grades from a mere inteligence test, when facing the real world, Taimi is still just a struggling youngling, far weaker than the veteran Snaff.

The difference is huge. Where Taimi is brilliant, Snaff was genuinely wise.

I think the main reason that Taimi seems smarter than everyone else is because she’s the token asura in Dragon’s Watch – at least, if you aren’t also playing an asura. She’s the one dedicated to research, so she’s the behind-the-scenes brain that explains to your character what’s going on, since you’re too busy running around everywhere saving the world to do this yourself. It has been a bit of a pet peeve of mine, considering I tend to play an asura for the initial story steps, that my own character doesn’t ever seem to do asuran research or anything of the like while Taimi lists off a bunch of things your asura character probably knows. (Although when Rata Novus is revealed, asuran PCs do demonstrate they know about it without changing any other dialogue. Props where props are due.)

There are a few hints about your projects when you play Asura in the dialogues with Taimi. She actually ask you why you havent done anything relevant for science since you received the Snaff price. The commander answer there hasn’t been enough time and peace to do so, and the tone is very sad and a little embarrased, indeed: Asuran commanders would probably prefer to be doing research instead of being in charge of saving the world. This I think is hilarious, emotive and admirable at the same time.