Guild Wars 2

I’d rather see increasingly practical armour for women. A chainmail bikini won’t protect you against anything.

In particular, the low-level, starting light armor for humans, norn and sylvari females is absolutely ridiculous.

So… An update was downloaded, and now I get “connection error(s) detected. retrying”

:/

Seems this was a problem a while ago too…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Connection-Error-s-Detected-Retrying-merged/first

Exact same problem. Initially I was having this problem:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Launcher-Issues-merged/first

Got another update at some point in the last 24 hours, now I get the "Connection error(s) detected. Retrying…

Same issue – launch the program, it went through a downloading screen, but then the login box vanished. Still active in the taskbar, still active in the task manager. But nothing except my regular old desktop… I tried the “Repairing Data Archive” trick, but to no avail.

Windows 7, SP1, 64 bit OS.
4 GB ram, Intel Core2 Quad Q8200,
NVIDIA GeForce GT240
M-Audio FastTrack Pro

Hope Anet informs us when there’s a fix. Cheers.

If they increase the Celestial ration from 5/8 to 3/4, that would help mitigate the loss. Or, add in Boon Duration and Condition Duration.

Aveneo.2068:

Lucky.9421:

This would be the second uncompensated nerf to celestial gear in a row. Considering how long it takes to make, it would be nice if they added boon duration to make up for it.

Yeah, I’d love to see some compensation for when they simply removed Magic Find without giving anything in return.

+38 Power
+38 Precision
+38 Toughness
+38 Vitality
+38 Condition Damage
+38 Ferocity
+38 Healing Power
+1% Boon Duration

That would be a nice setup methinks!

Add Condition Duration to that list and now we’re ALMOST getting back to Celestial being worth the investment… And both Condition and Boon durations should be a bit longer. 2% – 3% per piece perhaps – that would get you 12% – 18% for a full set of armor. Reasonable, but not overwhelming. 1% over six pieces is barely worth mentioning.

No. Emphatically, no. I don’t play much since the stat cap for gear was busted with ascended, a new level cap would completely eradicate what lingering interest I have in this game.

Ahlen.7591:

…The “Horizonal progression” crowd is most likely such a teeny tiny minority in the game, and they’re also the people who hate the gem shop…

Ummm, in fact it’s the opposite dude. I’m part of the “horizontal progression” crowd and I frequented the gem shop a lot. In fact, I probably spent 4x or 5x more than another game’s subscription fee each month on the gem store. Why? Because I was kitting out my Alternate characters to get them skins and gear I wanted. But the vertical progression introduced STRONG disincentive to put down hard-earned real world currency on gear that will be obsolete sooner than later.

So NOW (and only now) I’ve decided to stop buying gems…

Twitchz.6407:

What exactly is horizontal progression? I dont understand this concept, how can a game move forward into new challanges by sidestepping?

What is it you want Anet to add in terms of content? Is it things like the Southsun Cove? The place no one goes because there is nothing to do there that you cant do anywhere else?

Is this what people are really after?

I can’t speak for all of us, I mostly do PVE – so the WvWvW and sPVP folks might have other points. But I suspect most of what we mean by “horizontal progression” as far as PVE goes was captured in the original Guild Wars. Here’s some suggestions for GW2:

• New content releases (without raising the level cap),
• New races and classes to play (after maybe 2 years or so at least),
• New areas of the existing map to open up, with reknown hearts and dynamic events,
• More storyline to explore,
• New aesthetically spectacular gear (with the same stats so my old gear isn’t nerfed),
• More dynamic events, and event chains,
• New dungeons with equivalent rewards so that old dungeons aren’t abandoned,
• More town-clothes options,
• Mini-games,
• Dynamic events in the cities and towns (social missions that any character of any level could complete),
• Special events.

For PVP, I suspect games besides conquest (e.g. capture the flag, escort missions, attack / defend, every-man-for-himself, etc) would be appreciated.

Thing is, this stuff takes work, and we acknowledge that. But I have paid (and I am sure the “horizontal progression” advocates would continue to pay) real, hard currency to finance the development of quality content like this.

Conversely coding a stat-inflated ring or back-slot with no visible skin takes almost no effort whatsoever. I won’t pay for that.

Curlybaby.6258:

I see the pro-gear grind crowd continues to harp on ascended gear stats and how negligible they may be not fully understanding that the stats in and of themselves is not the issue. The issue is that for years Anet sold GW2 to be a game of horizontal progression. For years we, the anti-grind crowd, followed the game because we loved the idea of a game with horizontal progression. We loved the idea that we finally had a game developer that thought like us and placed importance on creating a game with intelligent design. Not this mind-numbing farce of a game mechanic that simply keeps players on a treadmill with the goal of getting gear with a +1 only to fight monsters with +1 HP.

There are so many other ways that a developer can introduce progression without having to resort to this, the most basic and simplistic of game progression ever created. After all, they don’t call it a “gear-treadmill” for nothing. I have no doubt in my mind that you can train monkeys to succeed in a gear-treadmill game. All it is, is mindless repetition. What is amazing to me is that some of you dare call this skillfull game play, and you dare call those who refuse to “work to play” lazy and uncompetitive. Nothing could be further from the truth. We just demand more from a game than a mindless gear grind.

So let’s keep the focus where it belongs. It is not the stats, or how minimalistic they may be, that is at issue with the non-gear grind crowd. It is the fact that they introduced a gear grind at all. The fact that they simply did a 180 on their oft stated “no gear grind” manifesto, then tried to smooth talk us and convince us that “we were wrong” in our interpretation, coupled with their draconian and heaving handed issuance of infractions, bans, and deletions of our threads and posts when we attempted to express ourselves in the aftermath. These points alone are enough to quit this game. Some of us do have principles.

Those of you who don’t get this are the same people who were complaining that this game had no gear grind. The brainwashed WOW masses that can not think out of the box and believe that they are rendered useless, or that it is not possible for there to be any progression at all in an MMO, unless they are placed on some type of gear treadmill chasing the holy +1 number. You don’t get it. So stop trying to convince those of us who do get it, to simply go with the flow and join you in your gear grind hamster treadmill.

It won’t happen.

Agreed 100%. It just feels like such a letdown. Before the release, I had a sense of accomplishment. Now I know that everything I’ve invested in this game up to this point will diminish. The small stat increase now is not the issue – it’s the establishment of a precedent, and so soon after launch, that let’s me know that there will be a continuing string of letdowns in the future.

Anyways, I’ll still play, but I won’t give ‘em my money anymore… I don’t do business with firms who’ve demonstrated the willingness to abandon their most loyal customer base. I won’t accept “bait-&-switch” as a marketing strategy.

Quench.7091:

I haven’t logged into the game for over 2 weeks now. Last time I logged in was around the 19th of November. However, I’m still keeping an eye on the game. I’m observing the game from behind ballistic glass (forums) so it doesn’t blow up in my face. I won’t be hurt if it takes another turn for what I see as the worst.

Me too. Before the 15th of Nov, I was on three times a week at least, but hardly ever visited the forums. Now it’s the opposite, I’m on the forums a lot looking for a hint of acknowledgement of the issue from Anet.

It’s too late to undo their blunder and remove ascended kit, but hopefully they make ascended the new AND FINAL stat cap, and NEVER release higher tiers of infusions.

Saying that ascended is the final tier on one hand but having stat inflation through future releases of higher power infusions is fundamentally dishonest.

I wager that most of the players you’re looking for in Orr are grinding it away in the Fractals now. PVE population was dealt a pretty harsh blow by the 15 November release. I was (note the past-tense) trying to level an alt, but the mid-level zones on my server are even more abandoned.

Kerri Knight.3168:

Katai.6240:

I think some people are doing the math wrong. A 0.5% increase in equipment stats across all equipment is still only a 0.5% increase in stats. Multiplication is distributive…

Even if you had 40 people in Exotics vs 40 people in Ascended, the power difference is still 0.5%.

People using the 0.5% figure are referring to the impact of a single item on your overall stats.

The difference, for example, between an Exotic Berserker ring and the Ascended Red Ring of Death is 13% more power and 9% more precision. That is before adding an infusion.

So once we get to the point of having a full tier for all slots, you’re looking at somewhere in the 6-8% range (again, not counting the infusion, which they have stated will have a continuing progression itself). This is, despite what many claim, not ‘insignificant’…

Exactly, you said it much better than I could have. People who think the change is insignificant are either making a logic or mathematic error, or they’re willfully pushing a false premise to advance the VP agenda.

MrSilver.5269:

Baron of Winters.5697:

…with a diminishing return and a goal that recedes towards the horizon faster than I can progress, I won’t spend my real world currency on Anet anymore…

…already DID spend IRL money on gems to convert to gold so that I could purchase the exotic items for trinket slots. I only did this because I was lead to believe that I would NEVER have to upgrade those items again. I will never be deceived again into making a gem purchase with this company, as I have already spent my money under false pretenses…
…as customers we also have the choice to spend our money elsewhere…

This bears repetition. I think they’ll notice when they see the bottom line change. They’re relying heavily on the gem store for revenue, and I imagine that players like you and I are fairly commonplace.

People can be dismissive towards our concerns. But my decision to keep playing on occasion but never again visit the gem store will cost Anet a fair amount. I’m a 39 year old professional with not a lot of time, but plenty of disposable inome to spend on a hobby. With a static goal, I knew I would get there eventually, and I would spend money to get there a little faster. But with a diminishing return and a goal that recedes towards the horizon faster than I can progress, I won’t spend my real world currency on Anet anymore.

Thanks for the game, Anet – but the way you’ve set up the grind, I’ll log in once every couple of weeks, contribute very little to the in-game community, and you won’t see cash from me again.

Want to change that? Want to get players like me playing and paying you money again? Here’s what you do:

Accept that Ascended gear was a dumb move. But now that its out there, I understand that you have to keep it. Cap all infusions at the current level, and formally promise to never again increase infusion tiers (as well as gear tiers). Set the current bar (which you just raised) as the new and PERMANENT maximum. With those assurrances, I’ll start buying gems and playing again.

Otherwise, you’ve lost revenue from me. I’ll vote with my wallet.

mulch.2586:

Katai.6240:

…compare Yakkington’s Ring vs Exotic Ring with Jewel is a difference of 5 power, 5 precision, and 3% magic find.

I mean, how much is the total stat difference? After taking Rune bonuses and special effects into account?

Right, the 5 power/pre, considering your prob’ly at 2700 or more power, that amounts to a 0.2% increase in damage and 0.25% increase in crit..

Ok, you’ve accounted for the ring.

Now consider what’s next:

The helmet, and the shoulderpads, and the breatplate, and the pants, and the gloves, and the boots, and the back slot, and the accessories, and the amulet, and the primary, weapon, and the secondary weapon, and the primary and secondary weapons for your second weapon set.

Then consider that on the reddit Q&A they told us of plans to continue with increased tiers of infusions. So after you’ve got each of those items, you can grind for more infusions for your rings, helmet, shoulderpads, breatplate, pants, gloves, boots, back slot, accessories, amulet, two primary and two secondary weapons.

In a nutshell, they can promise no more tiers of gear, but there will be tiers of infusions. It’s nothing more than (not so) clever wordplay to obfuscate their plans for a grind.

paraphrase of Anets new philosophy

“Oh, you won’t have to grind new gear past ascended… but you will have to grind for new infusions for that ascended gear. …Gear that will be obsolete when we raise the level cap, so you can start all over again.”

Thanks for nothin’ there guys. If you’re plan is to introduce a gear grind so that casual players feel compelled to buy the stuff they’ll need on your gem store, just say so, don’t pull a bait-n-switch.

Katai.6240:

But the vertical progression only affects one part of the game, FotM. Those who care about getting to deeper areas of FotM can have their vertical progression to get armor with higher agony resistance. Everyone else couldn’t care less. How does ascended gear affect anyone doing anything outside of FotM in a meaningful way? All you’re doing is upgrading your armor to get more agony resistance.

No, there’s plenty of documented evidence showing that ascended gear has higher base stats than exotic. Further, the Q&A on reddit revealed that there will be more tiers within the infusions, and there’s no reason to believe those higher-tier infusions won’t have base stat numbers too… so you can feel like a hamster in a wheel chaisng those too.

Roland Shadow.6192

The world I leveled my first character to 80 in no longer exists. With internal design decisions they have funneled characters into the fractals. With increased vertical progression on a per character basis their design decisions have stifled the lower level zones as living zones, now instead of leveling an alt and enjoying the game through the lens of another class populating the rich world with players you have people sitting in Lions Arch spamming LFG FotM lvl XX trying to get a head start on the Ascended Gear treadmill. This leaves the lower zones a barren wasteland compared to what they once were in most if not all servers.

Absolutely, positively 100% accurate on that. I’ve found few people running around mid-level areas, and finding a group for story mode on a dungeon is now time consuming and difficult. The devs took a massive dump all over PVE and players with alternate characters.

So, that leads to a question; can I get a refund on those now-useless extra character slots I bought? I’ll delete the characters in them willingly if that’s an issue. But those slots are now useless , because there’s no way I’ll bother leveling one of each class in a world that’s barren and empty of other players where even your primary character will never be good enough given the rate of stat inflation…

Corvindi.5734:

I didn’t quit. I just switched my pvp from WvW to the TP. Unfortunately, I just got pwned by some dye traders who made it look like prices were dropping or flattening earlier, causing me to sell off, then cry when I realized they were still jumping up. I have a lot to learn about this new form of pvp, but at least it’s not gear dependent.

That is the best thing I’ve read on these forums so far! Cheers!

I’m not going to quit. But I have reduced my play and I won’t put any more money (real life currency) into this game.

I played enough that I got about 190 levels across multiple characters since pre-launch, until Lost Shores. While I was dividing my time, I had no problem with that since I would eventually reach max level and max rated gear with each of my characters. I was in no hurry. I could enjoy content and work incrementally towards my goals in PVE and explore the world. Sure I logged in about 3 or 4 times per week, but I was consistent and occasionally buying gems at the gem store. I was a good customer.

Since Lost Shores ended and the release of ascended gear, I’ve logged in once.

ONCE.

Why is that?

Because now, I realize that I’ll be working towards a target that is moving away from me faster than I could ever progress. I’ve realized that with my play style, I will NEVER get to that upper tier.

So why bother getting on that treadmill?

I was a good customer. I bought gems at the gem store to help out my multiple alts keep up. But I won’t do that again, the investments of hard real world currency and time are only offering a diminishing return. Anyways, NCSoft / Arenanet are losing money from me, and I hope they notice.

Invadoron certainly hits the Roman / Spartan vibe, but not that charrish – I haven’t seen many charr with only one name, and when they do have one, it’s a nickname (e.g. “dinky”). So, 6/10.

Urlar Blackgrin

(Urlar derived from the suffix of Khan-Ur, it just sounded Charr-ish, while Blackgrin is because he’s a black and grey furred Ash Legion thief with the face model that’s missing some teeth)

There’s a female norn bodytype that could just be scaled down 25% and it would make a voluptuous female human. Very little coding required I would imagine, no?

As for male faces, I found that aging is achievable by dragging the eye angle so that they droop a bit at the outsides – Not so much that you end up making your guy look like he’s about to cry, but just mere millimeters lower than the inside corner. Choose a young-ish face, put a beard on him to hide the baby cheeks, drag the eyes down, and enlarge the brow and chin.

Not perfect, but it’s a start.

Hey all;

I’m normally an elementalist or thief player, but I’m making my first Guardian. The build is about two months old, but I haven’t gotten around to using it yet, and hope to get any feedback from the group of guardians here. It’s primarily a support build, as a condition eater for allied groups…

Traits:
Radiance 15 – (10: Blind Exposure)
Valour 10 – (10: Meditation Mastery)
Honour 10 – (10: Superior Aria)
Virtues 30 – (10: Vengeful, 20: Supreme Justice, 30: Permeating Wrath)
….aaaand, there’s 5 points unspent. go nuts.

Slot skills:
Stand your ground
Contemplation of Purity
Save Yourselves
Renewed Focus

Main synergies:
1. ‘Save Youselves!’ and ‘Contemplation of Purity’ transfer all allied conditions to yourself, granting multiple boons. ‘Power of the Virtuous’ (25 Virtues) deals extra damage for each boon, ‘Superior Aria’ (10 Honour) recharges shouts 20% faster, & Meditation Mastery (10 Valour) recharges meditations by 20%. All boons last 30% longer (30 Virtues). So the result is, every 48 seconds you get 13 seconds of Might (x2) + 13-26 seconds of Fury, Vigour, Protetection, Regeneration, Swiftness, & Retaliation (& bonus damage as well).

2. Virtue of Justice, blinds nearby foes with ‘Justice is Blind’ (5 Radiance), synergizing with ‘Blind Exposure’ (10 Radiance) causing vulnerability. Burning from Virtue of Justice hits a close AoE with ‘Permeating Wrath’ (30 Virtues), and the burning is extended by 20% with ‘Supreme Justice’ (20 Virtues). All virtues grant Retaliation with ‘Virtue of Retribution’ (15 Virtues). Retaliation duration is extended 25% from ‘Vengeful’ (10 Virtues) and another 30% (30 Virtues). All three virtues refresh 30% faster (30 Virtues), so the Retaliation will extend and stack frequently. The result is, You can spam a pumped up Virtue of Justice every 22 seconds or so, with the other virtues available more frequently too.

Weaknesses of the build:
1. It’s strength is active use of virtues, not passive.
2. Because it invests so heavily in the Virtues trait line, you’re not getting as many of the hard numbers on your key base stats. For example, there’s no bonus to Power, and your Toughness and Healing are rather mediocre. Gear will have to mitigate that, narrowing your options for equipment.
3. Not optimal for soloing. With no party members, you’re not going to draw the necessary conditions from allies with ‘Save Yourselves’, so you won’t take full advantage of ‘Contemplation of Purity’.
4. A clever Necro can turn all your boons back to conditions with ‘Corrupt Boon’ or ‘Well of Corruption’.

Strengths of the build:
1. Near total mitigation of conditions for half the fight. Only fear and blindness will stick, and they’re typically short duration. Switching out the healing skill for Signet of Resolve will mitigate.
2. Flexibility in weapon choice – you’re not limited to builds that rely on one particular weapon to be effective. Weapons that give boons and cause blindness trigger more effects than others, so Greatsword and mace / focus are a good pairing, but all weapons work relatively well.
3. Synergy and AOE spammability of blind, vulnerability and burning conditions.
4. Multiple powerful boons will be up for the majority of the fight as they stack in duration; particularly retaliation, protection and regeneration. Build also offers frequent stacks of might.

Anyways, I analyze systems in real life, so here’s a “synergy map” of the build as I see it. Again, pure theory for now, but any advice would be appreciated. Cheers!

I played enough that I got about 190 levels across multiple characters since pre-launch, until Lost Shores. While I was dividing my time, I had no problem with that since I would eventually reach max level and max rated gear with each of my characters. I was in no hurry. I could enjoy content and work incrementally towards my goals in PVE and explore the world. Sure I logged in about 3 or 4 times per week, but I was consistent and occasionally buying gems at the gem store. I was a good customer.

Since Lost Shores ended and the release of ascended gear, I’ve logged in once.

ONCE.

Why is that?

Because now, I realize that I’ll be working towards a target that is moving away from me faster than I could ever progress. I’ve realized that with my play style, I will NEVER get to that upper tier.

So why bother getting on that treadmill?

I was a good customer. I bought gems at the gem store to help out my multiple alts keep up. But I won’t do that again, the investments of hard real world currency and time are only offering a diminishing return. Anyways, NCSoft / Arenanet are losing money from me, and I hope they notice.

Late to the discussion, but actually read about 80% of the posts thus far (skipping only poor grammar and trolling). Anyways, here’s my $0.02, even if it’s just for statistics purposes.

I’m a 39 year old professional in Canada with real life responsibilities. I’m lucky enough to be able to devote a couple of evenings a week to this game – well, up until two weeks ago; I’ve only logged in maybe twice since then. With a hard cap for stats, I enjoyed exploring this amazing world, knowing that I was working towards a goal I’d eventually reach.

But now I’ve learned that the goalpost will just keep moving further. I find parts of the world world abandoned because the majority of players are grinding it out in some crazy dungeon. I’m not able to join my guildies on high-level fractals, and they don’t want to “waste time” on the low-level FOTM runs. In short, I’m losing interest.

Thing is, the personal storyline and appearances of my characters (I run alts) are important to me. So I’ve bought gems at the gem store to get extra character slots, and to turn into gold to get a skin on the TP. Simply put, as a professional with a busy workweek, I don’t have the time to grind. If I can get there eventually, awesome. But if I’m chasing a target that runs faster than I can, I’ll never make it there – and I’ll stop investing in my characters, which for me is as much of a monetary expense as it is a time expense.

So, in the end, they’re going to lose revenue from me with the incremental power creep. How ironic.

TL/DR: the original poster is spot on.

Drakenvold.9761:

…ive seen my share of officers and commanders that youd think are total zeros but are actually quite capable,i agree tho that Forgal was best suited for a platoon level leadership ^^

Yeah – it’s funny, but to make it to Battalion level command or higher (in theory) you have to prove your leadership at the lower levels. So some suited towards senior leadership and strategic thinking might never get the chance because they’re poor disciplinarians. Mind you, it’s still WAY better than it was during the days of aristocracy, where family, title, and money bought you your rank.

Serephen.3420:

Personally I’d have preferred if Destiney’s Edge had played a larger role in the personal story and not just in the dungeons. I could have easily seen them leading the pact rather than some random dry character such as Trahearne :/

Agreed – Rytlok was already proven to be a strong strategic leader. Logan makes emotional decisions though – too much Kirk, not enough Picard in that guy. But Rytlok reminds me of Patton in a way.

…Waiting to finish Arah, but otherwise done.

Yeah, I remember that now.

Sheesh – you’re starting to convince me.

SteepledHat.1345:

Staff elementalist, Air skill 1 – chain lightning.

This. And the occasional switch to fire attunement for the 5 skill.

Fish n’ chicken… Maybe he was talking about dinner afterwards?

If I had the chance, I’d make a Skritt character myself. Those little rats are hilarious!

I was satisfied with their story – In particular, I liked that their shift from stupidity to relative intelligence was aptly explained, and showed why they were nonetheless an asset to the Pact. Didn’t play the Quaggan story though, but the Skritt one was entertaining.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

I think he would be a better leader if he didn’t put his own insecurities on display so much of the time.

I see your point – though you the player character (as either his 2nd in Command or his Sgt Maj equivalent) would be his only real confidante for his second thoughts. So from the player’s perspective, it should actually be acceptable behaviour.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

I also think he would be a better leader if he kept his morale-killing thoughts to himself. Hearing at the start of combat encounters that “This isn’t going to end well” makes it seem like he either doesn’t trust me when things are actually going fine, or makes the situation worse when we’re struggling…
…I wish he wouldn’t react to things like a colleague sacrificing himself with a glib “Moving on.”

Very good points, I really have no counter to them. I guess I’ve been paying more attention to the cut-scene dialog (which is indeed scripted) as opposed to the random statements he makes during PVE combat.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

To sum it all up: I think Trahearne would be a better leader if he wasn’t quite so self-focused.

I guess having been a “second banana” to a CO myself, I see the role of the Sgt Maj / 2IC as a confidante – somebody to whom the commander would expose his or her second thoughts and introspection.

Tybalt (who couldn’t lead three old ladies to Bingo) doesn’t put on the pretense of leadership. But Forgel does, and genuinely sucks at it. I’ve seen bullies and blowhards like him put in charge of real troops, who tried to display that sort of attitude, and they ended up going home from deployment early – either they got relieved of duty by the chain of command, or they had a very inconvenient non-battle injury while working with their own troops.

So I posted this in response to another thread on Trahearne, but figured it differs sufficiently in tone and direction to warrant it’s own thread…

The degree to which Trahearne is present in your personal story aside (lots of people don’t appreciate being his “second-banana” to him – I get that), what do you think of his leadership qualities?

I personally think Trahearne as written and acted is a great leader. Yes he’s distant and dispassionate – but like all good military leaders he needs to maintain a professional, detached demeanor. Is he entertaining? Loveable? Funny? Outrageous? Emotional? No. But he does exhibit the qualities I want to see in a General.

Anyways, just saying I would follow Trahearne and be proud to do so. He consults his subordinates, considers the impact of his decisions, and maintains decorum. He’s willing to prioritize the mission before his men, and puts his men ahead of himself.

I’ve put 22 years of service in uniform, been to Afghanistan twice and Bosnia once, and worked with senior officers frequently towards the later parts of my career. While I don’t yet hold the rank, at times I have been the acting Sergeant Major for my unit. I’ve been part of a command team with some solid officers, but also some arrogant incompetent fools, both in peace and at war – but I can say that I would willingly follow Trahearne and support his authority.

Now he does sort of dominate what’s supposed to be a personal storyline. Perhaps he should dispatch you and not tag along on the missions. With rare exceptions (e.g. Rommel) modern general officers don’t go running around in the front lines, so that’s a valid complaint. But I think his character is very well written and acted otherwise.

Now I’ve played the Vigil storyline through and I can say I wasn’t really impressed by Forgel. I found him to be a braggart, and close-minded… Not characteristics of senior leadership. He would be a good squad or maybe platoon-level NCO, but that’s where his competencies cease. I’ve just started the Whispers storyline, and while I’ve found Tybalt Leftpaw might be entertaining for comic relief, I wouldn’t follow him – I just couldn’t take him seriously.

So my question to all who dump on Trahearne: What do you think would make him a better military leader? What characteristic does he lack, (or show too much of)?

Cheers!