Guild Wars 2

First, let me say that I really liked how they split the stories of the Pact assault against Mordremoth and the struggle of the biconics into map meta events and personal story respectively. One of my few complaints about this split is that it wasn’t immediately clear that this would be the case, so many people rushed the PS without participating in any of the metas. This creates a a bit of a disconnect and makes the actions of the player’s party look unrealistic (especially in Act 4).

Here’s the main question on my mind. What is going to happen to the Pact now? Obviously they got their ducks in a row in time to assault Mordremoth, so I’m sure they will still be around, but who will be the new leader? I doubt it will be us (the player character), and logically it shouldn’t be us. Our characters have always had a more “special ops” relationship with the leadership department. We weren’t there for the initial assault because we were out doing biconics things. When we arrive and see the fleet destroyed we help Laranthir and his gang out for the night, but after that we essentially just distance ourselves from the Pact. I laughed a bit during the Pact Encampment event chain in VB when they have to elect a new leader of the encampment. Here they are squabbling about electing a leader right in front of the second-in-command (first even since Trahearne’s current state). Sure they all acknowledge us as commander, but we don’t really command. It almost feels like we are supposed to assume that our characters never really participate in the overall Pact assault arc told through the metas.

So who is going to be the new leader? Trahearne got first choice because he was not tied to a specific order and he knew the enemy (Zhaitan and Orr) the most. Right now we are the highest ranking member, but I feel like that wouldn’t be a wise choice. It would be very restrictive in the kinds of adventures and missions that the player character could go on if they were promoted to Marshall. One option would be Laranthir of the Wild. He was already in charge of the Pale Reavers and seemed to take a prominent leadership role in the assault at Dragon’s Stand. This would go against the original “unaffiliated with any of the three orders” criterion but it has been long enough for that to not be a big concern anymore. What do you guys thing?

TL;DR

We are bad at large scale leading. Who is going to take over as Marshall of the Pact after Trahearne’s death?

First of all, I want to see Riel Darkwater (at least her Preceptors), Almorra Soulkeeper and Gixx back in the game. Since Trahearne took leadership of the Pact, they were out of the radar.

Even if Laranthir of the Wild has a major role in the expansion, I don’t think he is eligible to lead the whole Pact – because he’s a Vigil high member. (I think that Almorra will die somehow in the future, so that Laranthir could become General of the Vigil)

If an unaffiliated character is chosen, then I bring Destiny’s Edge members to the discussion.
Not Caithe.
Not Zojja.
Not Logan.
Rytlock Brimstone – great figure, military genius, two-times dragon slayer, carries a new profession. And fans love him.

I agree with Gorgaan. Arenanet should bring back leaders of the Orders. Pact has leader but still Pact is made from orders which have their own leaders. They should be taking part in Pact actions. They should be advisors of Pact leader. Of course Riel should work in shadow and only her Preceptors should accompany Pact leader. Or Riel could accompany Preceptors as some kind of “helper”.

Just bring back Riel….. She is the best female character xD

Im going to guess they will either make the player character the leader of the pact based on all the “stealing muh gloryz” complaints about trehearn or they will make rytlock the leader, because fan favorite and seems to kind of taken center stage in HoT

I don’t think the Pact will play a major role in the future. It seems like ArenaNet might be pushing for a more guild-centric storyline with the Guild Initiative and Braham/Marjory calling themselves and the PC part of a guild. Seems the biconics are more or less members of Destiny’s Edge now.

I think the Pact will be effectively disbanded and it will be the Guild Initiative – led by a fan-favorite: Dougal Keane – with Destiny’s Edge (iconics+biconics) who takes the lead of future storylines.

I never really liked the Pact as it took away from the dynamics of the three Orders which were far more interesting. I hope that now the three Orders go back to their original state and focus on their strengths without losing their autonomy.

The Vigil should assume the military role of the Pact and unite various military efforts into a central peacekeeping force that aids the existing conflicts led by smaller forces. Kinda like a Tyrian version of NATO or the UN Peacekeepers, where a group like the Sentinels would have a Vigil rep. The Piory should revert to one big university designed to know and house everything about magical knowledge, where it would be the hub for knowledge like a giant library or vault. The Order of Whispers should go back to being a secret society that seeks to infiltrate and keep a watch on everything.

So while Destiny’s Edge & Friends do the Dragonslaying, the Orders will be there to aid. So if they need a military diversion, then the Vigil will arrange it. If they need to research history or lore, then they’d turn to the Priory. If they need to spy or investigate then they’d call on the Order of Whispers.

I think it would be useful if there was a Order rep within Destiny’s Edge. Like a counter/foil to Taimi from the Priory, a liaison to the Vigil and someone within Destiny’s Edge that is a spy from the Order of Whispers. I fear that the more we delve into Destiny’s Edge the more we will lose our ties to the people of Tyria.

I have mixed feelings about the Pact. One one hand, it just makes sense to have a large scale military force dedicated to fighting the dragons; however, this can lead to the actual story getting quite stale. In reality the Pact is kind of overpowered. The base game PS was all about creating it to fight Zhaitan, and when it was complete it was able to beat him with relative ease (after getting the necessary weapons/technologies). They had to essentially shatter it and rebuild it during the course of HoT so that there was some sort of development with it during the expansion. I feel like this is something that cannot be a recurring theme.

I really feel like there needs to be some sort of large-scale fight. Quite a few people that hadn’t played Dragon’s Stand were dissatisfied with the PS Mordremoth fight because of the way it plays out as being so small scale. They rectified this by having a large scale battle with the Mouth of Mordremoth (I don’t know if it is official but I believe this to be his physical form). I don’t want every dragon to be like this though.

I like Konig’s idea of putting the Guild back in Guild Wars. This would allow a focus on a specific group of people who go about doing specific actions to fight the dragons instead of the Pact zerg push. How would you take focus off of the Pact, though? Surely it can’t just dissolve…it would be difficult to realistically play that out in the story. Do you just put them out of focus? The Pact is out there pushing against the dragons but Destiny’s Edge takes the main focus in their endeavors to figure out weaknesses.

I don’t think it can be Rytlock, since unless he significantly changes his allegiances after Heart of Thorns, he’s too closely bound to the charr command structure to be considered independent of it, including being the Blood Legion representative at the Black Citadel when not off doing other things. Members of other races, particularly humans, would likely be nervous about the possibility of Rytlock being tempted to use the Pact to forward the interests of the charr over other races.

A similar observation applies to Logan as a Seraph captain. Almorra and Riel can, I think, get a pass because they’re not closely tied to the command structure of either race – Almorra may or may not still technically be a gladium (there are other charr Vigil members with Soul names around) but there’s no evidence that she’s taking orders from the Legions, and it seems clear enough that her first loyalty is to the Vigil that I doubt the legions would want to test it by giving her an order in the first place. Riel, on the other hand, may not even be from Kryta at all (and those outside the inner circle of the Order of Whispers technically don’t know that the Master of Whispers is human, and it’s probably not a coincidence that the Preceptors include one human and one charr).

Caithe… clearly doesn’t play well enough with others to be a leader, given her behaviour with the egg. Zojja isn’t as bad there, but while she’s smart I don’t think she’s leader material.

To be honest, I think the Pact has reached the point where it’s more important to have a well-defined commander in each theatre of operations than to have a single formal leader. For the overall command of the Pact, a triumvirate of the three Order leaders or their representatives is probably sufficient. I could see the PC given a formal role as the leader of the Pact as someone everyone can respect, but with this being semi-ceremonial or ‘first among equals’ position: with the authority to cut through the chaff and override anybody else when needed, but generally able to let the technically lower-ranking officers and command staff do their thing while the PC does what (s)he needs to do.

When it comes to the ‘voting’ event and things of that nature: Personally, I’ve always considered that the PC is only actually the Pact Commander when in a story instance. When in the open world, generally I think the PCs are basically just elite troops rather than every PC in the dozens that may be involved in a meta event being The One And Only Commander Of The Pact. When you shift between playing story and taking part in world events, you’re also shifting between playing the part of the Pact Commander and playing the part of just another Pact soldier as part of an army.

Even if you don’t subscribe to that interpretation, however, the Commander clearly has more important things to do than babysit a single camp. Ensuring that the camp is properly led and then moving on is probably actually the best thing for the Commander to do under the circumstances.

When it comes to representatives of the Orders in Destiny’s Edge… It’s worth noting that Marjory is already a member of the Priory, and I could see Braham going Vigil. With the Order of Whispers… we might never know until it becomes relevant. Even for Order of Whispers characters, the Master of Whispers might want someone keeping an eye on the PC without the PC’s knowledge, just in case…