Guild Wars 2

I have been thinking for MANY years now, the race/profession combos of the GW1 and GW2 heroes. and the reasons for this, Could you tell me what you think about my idea, the pros and cons with it in “lore”, and I understand any race/prof combo can be the “hero” but these are the reasons anyway:

Guild Wars:Prophecies

Main Profession: Mesmer
Reasons: Of the 5 “heroes” Devona, Eve, Mhenlo, Cynn and Aidan, there is No Mesmer.

In Factions Vizu is the Assassin, Togo is the Ritualist.
In nightfall Kormir is the Paragon
There isn’t a specific person other than varesh I can think of that is a Dervish

In EotN things go weird as gwen is a Mesmer
And even though I believe Gwen took some “Mesmer” ideas from the PC and some form Velise’s notes in the catacombs when he was trapped, it doesn’t explain the exact reasons she prefers Mesmer magic.

In Guild Wars 2
Of the “main” heroes in Destiny’s Edge and The pact

Rytlock – Warrior
Logan – Guardian
Eir – Ranger
Caithe – Thief
———— – Engineer
Zojja – Elementalist
Trahearne – Necromancer
———— – Mesmer

leading me to believe that the main “profession” is Engineer or Mesmer
and the race I thought is Sylvari for the smallest detail ever. In the level 30 story where you meet the Destiny’s Edge guild. Regardless of which race you choose, After the cinematic, Caithe is standing at the front talking to the other members, leading to odd things where the npcs swap places before and after the cinematic.

so for GW2 – Sylvari Engineer or Sylvari Mesmer
Scarlet was a Sylvari Engineer, as was Aerin (both evil and soundless) Which makes me think Engineer because.. we have to have ONE good engineer.

In Heart of Thorns things change a slight bit.

Canach – Warrior (temporary possibly)
Braham – Guardian, Logan – Guardian
Rytlock – Revenant
Rox – Ranger
—— Engineer (Some say Taimi, but she is in light armour, i’ll elaborate elater)
Caithe – Thief
Kasmeer – Mesmer
Marjory – Necromancer
Zojja – Elementalist

The expansion is based around Sylvari predominantly, so I believe Sylvari is still the “main” race. the profession I believe is Engineer because even though taimi CAN be an engineer because in the books even though logan is a guardian he wears light/leather armour as a scout initially, which means taimi’s light armour doesn’t mean much.

Taimi is however an Asura, so prone to building golems and “thinking”. She is also a progeny (I think) to zojja, meaning she would learn Elementalist “easier” because she’s there.

Overall I think that In Guild Wars 1, Mesmer is the “main” profession, and in Guild wars 2 and Guild wars 2 Heart of thorns, Sylvari Engineer is the main.

please compliment and criticise as you wish, but I would love feedback on this.

Canach also dose engineer like things (bombs mines shield skills and grenade in HoT)

Don’t forget Tybalt!! (Not a sylvari, but still an important new ‘playable’ race)
He was our beloved (Order of Whispers) partner until his final act of courage!!
His Engi skills saved our bacon on many occasion, sans the fancy flying gizmos!

Though that is true, as I said Canach is probably Temporary, Plus he is in heavy Sylvari T3 armour ( again the books make armour not too relevant) However If we assumed he is an Engineer/Warrior Hybrid, with Braham being a Guardian/Ranger hybrid, Marjory being a Necromancer/Ranger hybrid ( as her gs auto attack is not a reaper’s auto). We could assume that the NPCs themselves aren’t any specific thing, I mean Rytlock had a Pistol and was still a “warrior”, so I find it safe to say Canach is a warrior even though he has grenades etc because of the T3 heavy + sword

trub, Tybalt is only relevant to order of Whisper characters. Meaning 2/3 of the pact have no proper idea who Tybalt is/was.

Ahhh- Thank you for explaining that to me Kuulpb.
(IF Tybalt had lived, he would be world renown!!)

I’m still waiting for a large post of criticism or compliments. But thank you to the people who’ve replied so far.

About the GW1 hero/heroes:

Young Heroes of Tyria indicates that the pre-port missions are done by three separate individuals (one per campaign). ArenaNet is intentionally ambiguous about it, but there are other hints here and there indicating the ‘lore canon ambiguous heroes’ identities’. Strickly speaking:

Prophecies Hero – Prophecies, Eye of the North, War in Kryta, Hearts of the North

• The presence of Devona and co. in all games indicates this hero may have been present for them all.
• Gwen’s side-quests indicates that, at the very least, the Prophecies Hero was present for Eye of the North
• War in Kryta has some dialogue indicating the hero being the Prophecies Hero (same for Hearts of the North).

Factions Hero – Factions, Eye of the North, Winds of Change

• Winds of Change’s very introduction talks about the hero who slew Shiro, indicating that the Factions Hero is also around for WoC
• Later WoC dialogue talks about the hero being no longer viewed as Canthan by the overzealously patriotic Ministry of Purity and Am Fah, indicating the Factions Hero went out of the country for one thing or another – Nightfall or Eye of the North, right?
• Well, not Nightfall. Why? Zenmai has a quest and she says ""You remind me of a certain Sunspear I know." If the Factions Hero was around for Nightfall, they’d have met and thus not really be reminding her.
• There isn’t really much to put the Factions Hero in Eye o the North, War in Kryta, or Hearts of the North but nothing to counter that either. The presence of the EotN intro quest is questionable in canon, but we do have the presence of Talon, Zho, and Lo Sha, so the Factions Hero going for the events of EotN isn’t unlikely – staying for WiK/HotN is rather 50/50.

Nightfall Hero – Nightfall, maybe Eye of the North

• Unfortunately other than the presence of Herta, there’s really no indication that the Nightfall Hero would have gone to Tyria for Eye of the North. The above line by Zenmai kind of pushes the Nightfall Hero from being involved with Winds of Change, though there’s not much to counter involvement with WiK/HotN, but nothing to really push for that either.
• I believe that if Anet had continued the Elona Beyond storyline, we would have gotten a clearer stance on this. Sadly, ArenaNet foolishly cut the tale.

As to their profession, a question for the OP:

Why do they have to be what the Devona and Co. are not? What prevents a doubling up, exactly? And besides, if you add in heroes – which you do with EotN – then Nightfall has every profession and half of them twice as heroes alone, consider all of the henchmen and you have all non-Canthan professions once, half twice. In factions you have all Canthan professions three to five times over.

So looking at the professions of ‘major characters’ doesn’t work because every one gets covered.

As for the GW2 hero:

The events of the personal story indicate that each plot gets fulfilled whether you’re the one to do it or not. So there’s 3 asura, 3 charr, 3 humans, 3 norn, and 3 sylvari – it’s just that they are not the Snaff Savant, Hero of Shaemoor, or Slayer of Issormir. But ultimately, there ends up being just one Dragonslayer/Commander of the Pact.

As to professions… You have:

• two necromancers (Trahearne and Marjory),
• two rangers (Eir and Rox)
• two guardians (Braham and Logan)
• two mesmers (Snaff and Kasmeer – well, Snaff is questionable)
• one elementalist (Zojja)
• one thief (Caithe)
• one engineer (Taimi – she’s all about building stuff and learning from engineers, regardless of her armor which NPCs are not limited by)
• one warrior/thief hybrid turned revenant (Rytlock)
• one warrior/engineer hybrid (Canach)

So you already have doubling up of professions, again. Ultimately, it’s left up in the air for both game what the profession – and gender, and in GW2’s case, race of the Pact Commander – is.

Though yes, sylvari are by far treated as the poster child of GW2.

Canonically I see the Guild Wars 2 hero as a male charr warrior. Hear me out, charr can have lion manes, and lions are the animal of leadership. Warriors are also the traditional leader class in RPG’s (or paladin/guardian and since both can use heavy armor, greatswords, and sword/shield it’s a tough choice between the two). A human might be more likely but it’s too obvious. Maybe there are different Pact Commanders at different stages of the game’s story? Like the HoT Pact Commander is a Sylvari revenant while the Zhaitan arc commander was a human?

@Konig Des Todes, Thank you for such a large evaluation. And I know it isn’t much to go by, but I’m sure somewhere I heard that Devona’s squad did everything, and assuming you had a team of equal sides, such as a team of 8 wars is.. not great, but a varied team is, Anyway I just assume that the “Hero” has to be something the others aren’t so, it feels like a progression thing, like how Marjory is a necro, becoming reaper, if she is already a reaper then any necromancer would learn to be a reaper after she is on, and though this is personal opinion, I believe it’d be like following the Shepard, and being a sheep.

and @Agemnon, That is a good idea, however I believe that the pact commander is canonically the “second in command” to trahearne, I’m probably mistaken here, but I don’t think a second in command can have more than 1 person or it’s more like an elite squad of pact commanders.

Devona and Co. didn’t really do everything. They weren’t present for any of the Beyond Arcs (or Zinn’s Task), and they were only background NPCs for the first three quarters of Prophecies (only appearing as henchmen in the second half of the Southern Shiverpeaks, but being present in side quests in Ascalon, Northern Shiverpeaks, Kryta, and the Crystal Desert).

And even then, Eve didn’t show up at all until they all became henchmen (though in her background lore, she joins them in Ascalon – whether this is before Rurik’s exodus or after the events of Prophecies but before the events of Factions is unknown, though given Mhenlo was found in Kryta I don’t think they returned to Ascalon after Prophecies).

About a “balanced group” or “the hero being something the others aren’t” – unlike in GW2, GW1 professions have a lot more variability even just in Prophecies. Cynn wasn’t just an Elementalist – she was a Fire Elementalist, never dealing in Air, Earth, or Water magic. So it’d still be “something the others aren’t” if the hero were a smiting monk, water ele, death necro, etc. etc.

Either way, there’s really no real way to guess at what the “heroes of GW1”’s professions were. Or that of GW2.

If you view the Scarlet’s War cinematic, the Pact Commander is shown as a female norn (I think) wearing scanty armour – I think it might be heavy, but I haven’t identified the specific pieces – it could also be light.

Could be indicative, could just be that it wasn’t practical to show the PC there for some reason and that’s just what they happened to pick at random.

draxynnic.3719:

If you view the Scarlet’s War cinematic, the Pact Commander is shown as a female norn (I think) wearing scanty armour – I think it might be heavy, but I haven’t identified the specific pieces – it could also be light.

It’s the Norn cultural Heavy T3.

draxynnic.3719:

If you view the Scarlet’s War cinematic, the Pact Commander is shown as a female norn (I think) wearing scanty armour – I think it might be heavy, but I haven’t identified the specific pieces – it could also be light.

Could be indicative, could just be that it wasn’t practical to show the PC there for some reason and that’s just what they happened to pick at random.

I was about to post that, but then I couldn’t remember in which exact video I saw that female norn. And then I forgot to look it up later. But I think the same character is also in the release trailer, you know that weird artsy one which barely contained any game footage. She is one of the player characters rising from the sea at the end.

draxynnic.3719:

If you view the Scarlet’s War cinematic, the Pact Commander is shown as a female norn (I think) wearing scanty armour – I think it might be heavy, but I haven’t identified the specific pieces – it could also be light.

Could be indicative, could just be that it wasn’t practical to show the PC there for some reason and that’s just what they happened to pick at random.

That was pulled from a video put on the site to recap Season 1 in preparations for Season 2.

ArenaNet also posted a version of The Machine’s cinematic featuring The All, which has a male human as the PC, wearing IIRC T2 heavy cultural armor.

(EDIT: Found the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQGGytoNXk8 Wearing Vigil armor, not cultural, but still heavy)

BuddhaKeks.4857:

draxynnic.3719:

If you view the Scarlet’s War cinematic, the Pact Commander is shown as a female norn (I think) wearing scanty armour – I think it might be heavy, but I haven’t identified the specific pieces – it could also be light.

Could be indicative, could just be that it wasn’t practical to show the PC there for some reason and that’s just what they happened to pick at random.

I was about to post that, but then I couldn’t remember in which exact video I saw that female norn. And then I forgot to look it up later. But I think the same character is also in the release trailer, you know that weird artsy one which barely contained any game footage. She is one of the player characters rising from the sea at the end.

EDIT: Took wrong trailer.

I wouldn’t consider that one to be close to canon, since it has a bunch of characters that never show, and does show Zhaitan over LA.

It’s likely that this female norn is an Anet dev’s character.

EDIT2: HAHAHAHAH

Seems ArenaNet made that trailer private! Guess all the negative feedback from it made them try to bury it (like all other things that get negative feedback like underwater combat and charr clothing >.>).

According to some, Snaff was a mesmer.

That’s really just speculative due to all his golemancy dealing with the mind, however he is never shown to use magic himself – he uses powerstones to utilize mental connections between pilot and golem. His color scheme being purple also leads to the theory, but in the end it’s just that: a theory.

One I support – whether he was a mesmer or not he did use mental magic indirectly – but still ultimately unproveable.