[Why i love necro.]

I love necromancer, have played it since Gw1 (though my GW1 main is a dervish). I've played necromancer as my gameplay main since before the launch date of GW2, and use that character for literally everything but SAB (My mesmer asura is my SAB char).

Honestly, I laugh at people sometimes whenever I see a balance patch come around, hear the cries and screams about how Necromancer is nerfed and destroyed, load up guild wars 2 and start playing and notice zero change to my build or gameplay.

[I'm sorry for Trahearne (SPOILERS)]

@"VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618" said:Trahearne praised the PC all the time. I did not get the hate.

Did Claw Island with a new character last night. Yeah, Trahearne talks a lot. And then it hit me:

he is extremely lonely. He talks a lot because the PC is the only one listening and he has to get a lot of stuff off his chest.

Poor guy. He was always nice, he always praised and lauded the PC. When he was not sure what to do, he asked the experts: that is extremely good leadership.

And all he got was hatred :/

Valid point. Look at any introvert (myself included) and get them talking to a person they feel comfortable with about a subject they care for? We can talk for hours.

@"VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618" said:https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue

"The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing"

Trahearne is... a skilled scholar with knowledge on the Risen and Zhaitan *formed from years of study on them, and traveling to Orr several times), and a pretty good necromancer (formed from years of practice as he is a firstborn).

@"Eekasqueak.7850" said:His "flaws" come off less as actual character flaws and more like minor things in a vain attempt to make us feel sorry for the character, it isn't until HoT that they have him fail so they could get rid of the failed character he was. He's shown to do plenty of things that other characters in the setting can't, too. Both of these are Mary Sue traits. The lack of any real personality or being shallow as a character is also a trait, but it's clear you won't accept anything below "literally invincible and godlike" as a Mary Sue despite it having more of a range than that.

What things does he do that other characters can't?

Summon lots of minions? Oh you mean the thing we explicit see a random necromancer do in an event (summons 3-5 flesh golems at once, who talk, and promptly resummons any that die?)? The thing that is also explicitly a gameplay related limitation on the player, for balance reasons? (there is no information implying that this feat is unique to these two necromancers, Trahearne and the human, and that the limit is merely a balance thing placed on players. Have you see Gw1 minion masters who could field armies of 30-40 minions at once?)

@"Moonyeti.3296" said:I agree completely about Braham, It felt very un norn like to mourn that way. I heard a lot of people say "he is a teen that lost his mother, it makes sense" but that would be true if he were a human, or not already established as being pretty typical norn as far as cultural values. To me, as a norn he was disrespecting his mother's legend by acting that way. Anet goes out of their way to say that Norn are not just big humans, but they constantly ignore Norn specific culture and just go for cliche, relatable writing, making them come off as essentially just big humans.

About Braham: I love how people act as if the commander - Braham interactions are wrong and "not like norn" And then promptly forget we are telling a teenager (19 about to be 20ish) who has never adventured before his home was destroyed (his crush literally turns him down and goes with a merchant for the mere fact the merchant has actually explored and wandered the world, while Braham never left Craigstead), and when he was just reconnecting with his mom, his mom died, and who literally holds an item that can make his legend immortal, to turn around and go home and stop.

"Yes, let's tell the grieving Norn who NOBODY supported and helped grieve (Literally, Rox went to try to find Garm, everybody else went and did their own things until the funeral. Nobody ever talked to or hung out with Braham after we left the jungle), to give up this scroll that can crack the tooth of Jormag, making his legend (and by extension, his mother's) legend completely immortal, And possibly lift up every Norn's morale incredibly by news of the tooth being cracked, to just give up and go home because we said so."

"Wait, he reacted badly? WHY?"

I saw Braham's reactions as being quite normal for a Norn. He's A: Never really adventured until joining the commander. B: Always hated his mom for leaving, then later felt smothered in the shadow of her deeds. C: As soon as he reconnected with her, she died. D: Found an artifact that could secure his legacy for all time, and also honor his mother's mission to rid the world of the elder dragons. E: Was promptly told by the commander to F off and come back home, instead of using the artifact. Said commander who promptly after the dragon died and everybody came home, disappeared from his life until the funeral date.

@DiscordOfSound.2190 said:I'm going to chip in on this conversation. First, to put this to rest, if you go through the dialog listed in the wiki through the personal story and interactions with Trahearne, there is 0, ZERO, implication that he accepts or takes credit for victories. At the very least, credit is always centered on the PC, on DE, or the various Pact members involved in sieging Orr. So it is incorrect to assume that Trahearne ever takes the spotlight from the accomplishment of the PC. His role in the matter was to organize the three factions, develop plans of attack with the seated leading parties of each factions, and issue duties. The same as any LT or Commander would do in the US military.

Think of it this way. You, the PC, are a Command Sergeant Major, an NCO. You personally oversee the rest of the soldiers, and lead them. Trahearne is a Colonel, a CO. That is the hierarchy. He devises plans of attack, does the paperwork, and entrusts YOU with the undertaking of missions. And factoring in that it was critical to have an impartial leader, meaning not from one particular group but having worked with them all in the past, Trahearne was a choice candidate. It's not that he wanted the role, he really didn't, but necessity over ruled and he took the mantle. Not only that, he did harbor some of the most intricate knowledge of Orr, making him the expert in that matter. So you have to ask yourself, would you rather have this turn into Age of Empires with you sending out the troops, or was it better that you personally lead in all the missions?

I think he takes credit in one case, which was when a risen mesmer had basically discredited him and the commander in some manner. And even then he literally says he's taking credit purely because he has to in order to keep the Pact together.

trahearne handled the politics and paperwork, and trusted the commander to handle 100% of the field work alongside the Pact.

[What is your favorite characters backstory?]

@Ben K.6238 said:

@Jimbru.6014 said:

@Ben K.6238 said:Owing to railroading and human-centric writing, I've skipped the idea of having a sensible backstory for any of my characters.

It's pretty much impossible to not have human-centric writing since being human is our only perspective.

Not sure I follow how this could be the case. Supposing there is an RPG where humans don't exist, this would require the dialogue and choices of all characters to be more consistent with a storyline that didn't exist than any of the storylines that did.

What I think you're trying to say is that the behaviour of all races is going to be anthropomorphised, which makes sense, but it's not related to my concerns with the storyline. The problem I'm seeing is exemplified by the Shining Blade arc in LS3 ep 6, where norn, charr, asura and sylvari are required to swear fealty to an alien nation in order to progress the plot. That decision would likely be questionable to sylvari, distasteful to norn and asura, and treasonous to charr. It only makes sense if the player's character is human.

And we see that issue repeatedly in the current GW2 storyline, albeit seldom with that degree of absurdity. That's the reason why I've given up on RP backstory to any of my characters; it would ruin the only part of GW2 I still enjoy in its other facets.

Why must your RP backstories be linked to the commander's? I enjoy both the main story (which was heavily sylvari centric for chunks of early living story and in HoT, and switched to human as we went into Elona. We'll see where we go next) and various RP stories by having the two be distinct from each other.

For example: Only one of my characters actually has plot relating somewhat to the commander, and that's my Vigil character. Almost all others, including my gameplay main have personal stories that are totally unrelated to what the commander does entirely. The commander is, basically, Anet's character. I will never RP as "The commander", therefore I'm not going to make backstories for that character.

I love when people who RP, are heavily involved and have their custom backstory, do not RP as the commander, then promptly go into a mission and complain "Well my character would never be at this party!" Well, that's because your character is not the commander, so...

Character backstories? Well my human necromancer noble is heir to a proud Kurzick family that migrated to Kryta during the rise of the Ministry of Purity, and established a small, but high end school of magic in their manor grounds. She currently acts as the necromancy headmaster, and teaches classes relating to minions, both crafting and maintaining, and using them. She's got contacts within the Priory, and some old family connections into the order of whispers. If she's not teaching classes or dealing with family matters she may go out with a bunch of fellow priory members and explore a bit.

Another character is my Vigil warmaster, an ancient norn, slightly younger then Forgal was. She's served on many fronts and fought many battles, including being on the ground at Arah and fighting through the first few nights in Verdant Brink. She knew Traehearne, but not closely. She's fought all five known dragon minions and was even in Thunderhead Keep and Dragonfall. She's got a lot of stories to tell, and wants the world to be safe again, whether the dragons are resting, friendly, or dead.