I just completed the Claw Island story mission on my human guardian (Vyl Nemiri; Vabbi). During the instance, major story characters (Traherne, and Forgal) wouldn’t join fights, unless some damage was dealt to them, usually only once they were triggered by some accidental AOE. Otherwise they stood in their idle stances, regardless of the surronding battle, since the enemy NPCs ignored any friendly NPC that remained idle. It’s a jarring, annoying thing. Also, this seems to be a regular occurrence in story instances, since the very first one with lord Faren (excluding the introductory one with Logan Thackeray).
I admit i found one other report on this, but lacking both detail and notice, so i chose to resubmit the issue. Please forgive if this was not appropriate. I hope someone gets to fix it eventually. Otherwise i love the game, so just keep up the good work!