NPC class abilities

[castlemanic.3198]

I haven't really seen any sort of discussion about what various npcs can do that players don't have access to that we see throughout the game as the main topic (i've seen it discussed here and there when relevant to a topic but not as a topic in and of itself). figured i'd start the topic. i'm going off of memory though so please add if there's anything that i'm missing.

 

Mesmer

1. Kasmeer is able to light up the dark in season two in that mordrem cave
2. the season 2 episode where you traverse up the cliffs to discover what happened to the zephyrites, kasmeer is able to 'catch' you if you fall off. Probably more game design rather than an actual lore ability but i'm gonna count it here.
3. white mantle mesmers have an illusory 'armor' that needs to be destroyed before the mesmer becomes vulnerable.
4. during season 3, valette is able to teleport both herself and caudecus away from the commander using a portal in a way mesmers in game can't do (for obvious balance reasons)
5. throughout gw2 many mesmers are able to disguise themselves and other individuals using illusion magic
6. kasmeer dispelled the invisible barrier and illusion hiding the tower of nightmares in season 1
7. mesmers are able to control watchknights (though that may be more of an engineering feat than anything else)
8. implied telekinesis because of greatsword 1 skill animation
9. that one guild bounty skritt looks like a moa, not sure if illusion or transformation. several mesmers have disguised themselves or others using illusions
10. season 3 during the trial to become a member of the shining blade, livia (as kerida) and anise are able to create illusionary terrain, allies and enemies. similarly kasmeer in the prologue of icebrood saga creates a bunch of enemies for the charr cubs to fight. anise in one of the human personal stories likewise is able to summon several phantasms. and one sylvari from the personal story (forgot the name) is able to summon a ton of clones of herself at once.
11. that one event where the nightmare court affect the minds of skritt, implying that mesmers can directly mess with some people's minds. not sure if mind control, the mesmer collective probably keeps that in check 🤐
12. queen jennah creates and uses a phantasmal weapon in season 3
13. Valette wi creates a magical area on the stairs that damages and pushes back the commander in the first caudecus fight in season 3
14. in season 3 queen jennah activates several defenses that seem to be a combination of mesmer magic and guardian magic
15. the signet in jokos keep was most likely created by a mesmer, which allowed him to disguise all the bodies as the commander.
16. in one of the novels, queen jennah tricked the branded into leaving a battle using a clone of kralkatorrik
17. queen jennah creates a maelstrom type effect to suck up the flame vortexes that was created by minister estelle

honorary mention to the keep construct that was created by xera. i dont know if that counts as mesmer magic or bloodstone magic however.

 

Necromancer

1. the white mantle necromancer in caudecus' manor in season 4 summons skeletons from the bodies of his allies. similarly one of the norn shaman in the norn personal story was able to summon undead krait.
2. marjory is able to sense the lifeforce of the party in the mordrem cave in season 2
3. marjory creates a bone bridge in season 2 as well
4. in the human personal story, the priest of grenth was able to create a portal to the underworld to summon a specific spirit
5. palawa joko is able to raise the dead to create the awakened, including awakened sylvari
6. palawa joko also made an illusion of himself in season 4, can't remember which episode but it was a battle by the harbor. the illusion was yellow which makes it seem different than mesmer magic
7. palawa joko was able to control the scarab plague.
8. palawa joko is a lich, as well as others liches existing within guild wars history, implying that necromancers are able to transform themselves permanently into such a state.
9. trahearn summoned six golems at the same time at one point in the personal story.
10. Palwa joko froze braham and the commander in some sort of magical trap in season 4 episode 3.

 

Elementalist

1. flame legion/molten alliance use flame portals. similarly seiran creates a portal if you take to long with the jumping puzzle
2. seiran is able to make herself fly using air magic
3. smoke shamans are able to not only blind players but are also capable of stealthing themselves and their allies
4. crecia creates a flame barrier protecting smodur from ryland in the icebrood saga. there's also several places in core tyria where flame barriers are erected by the flame legion
5. the wizard in garenhoff summons permanent elemental protectors and several of them too.

 

Ranger

1. the toxic alliance are able to use something akin to poison magic. i'm assuming this falls under ranger because we don't really have another nature magic class
2. this is probably more sylvari magic than ranger magic, but sylvari have been able to create buildings and furniture from plantlife
3. rox is able to manipulate the vines in the mordrem cave to open up new passageways

 

Engineer

1. everything the asura created, under the broad category of magitech
2. engineers probably serve as architects, as the holosmith mentor mentions taking care of the water pipes
3. use bombs to blow up doors
4. scarlet created mobile holograms that could attack during season 1.
5. molten alliance tech involving the mixture of flame legion magic and the sonic based dredge technology
6. aetherblades created electronic technology using lightning magic.
7. iron legion technology such as the ghost containment unit
8. taimi has created a lot of technology too, such as the communication devices, that may not fall exactly under the umbrella of asuran magitech
9. the watchknights were a feat of human engineering
10. steam creatures were most likely made by scarlet as well

 

Thief

1. Lockpicking (i know the player does it at one point but demmi does it too and it's generally not an advertised ability)
2. permanent out of combat stealth
3. caithe has some powerful versions of thief abilities when you play as her during season 2, including a specific ability to attack while stealthed without removing stealth

 

Revenant

1. rytlock uses the image of glint to knock that one moredrem off of its mount at the beginning of heart of thorns
2. elite and veteran haunted aetherblades are able to summon mist-lost comrades, and elites can summon multiple at a time. probably means revenants are able to commune not only with spirits that aren't legends, but also summon them too. may be indicated by renegades being able to summon kalla's allies, but the mist-lost comrades seem to have been more personal.
3. not an ability exactly, but mai trin loses control over her echo of scarlet briar and was able to summon not only several echoes of scarlet briar, but a gigantic scarlet briar echo too. vindicators can summon achemorus but it seems that this can be done with any legend.

 

Guardian

1. Able to create barriers that protect from falling debris
2. in season 3 queen jennah activates several defenses during the white mantle attack that seem to be a combination of guardian magic and mesmer magic.
3. minister estelle created flame vortexes during the fight against her
4. before the fight with minister estelle, she immobilizes and disables the abilites of the commander, however queen jennah was able to break this effect
5. almorra created a giant flame wall in the fight against bangar and ryland. during that fight she also has abilities similar to those of a willbender, creating lines of fire on the ground, entering a defiance stance where she launches blue orbs against ryland.

 

Warrior

I honestly can't think of anything that warriors do that isn't just fighting, which the player is able to do.

 

Please help me update this, i feel like i'm missing a lot of things.

Edited March 2, 2022 by castlemanic.3198

[The Greyhawk.9107]

Well, most of what we've got here is Lore vs Mechanics.  In Universe our characters probably have many more abilities and/or skills than what show up on the skill bar but the game itself can only give us so many of them due to game limitations and the need for at least the pretense of skill balance.  Some are unique to some specific characters, I'm pretty sure Kasmeer's lie detection ability is particular to her, whatever magic turns a person into a real Lich (I'm going to assume that Lich Form isn't the real thing, fight me) isn't something the the vast, vast majority of necromancers are going to know, and I'd be willing to bet that the Queen has been taught some exclusive knowledge about mesmer magic.

[Balor.8432]

For Joko and other gw1 NPCS in gw2, a lot of them could multiclass in gw1, Livia was using a mesmer and necromancer skills in season 3. Somewhere between gw1 and gw2 multiclassing came a lot less common. Only modern npc I can think of off the top of my head is Brimestone going from warrior to Revenant though I haven't seen him use any warrior skills since. For other npc skills we don't have some are prepared ahead of time for incase of  bad things happening like Jenna and bubbles during white mantle attack.  NPCS also don't have all the same skills as the commander does.  

[castlemanic.3198]

6 hours ago, The Greyhawk.9107 said:

Well, most of what we've got here is Lore vs Mechanics.  In Universe our characters probably have many more abilities and/or skills than what show up on the skill bar but the game itself can only give us so many of them due to game limitations and the need for at least the pretense of skill balance.  Some are unique to some specific characters, I'm pretty sure Kasmeer's lie detection ability is particular to her, whatever magic turns a person into a real Lich (I'm going to assume that Lich Form isn't the real thing, fight me) isn't something the the vast, vast majority of necromancers are going to know, and I'd be willing to bet that the Queen has been taught some exclusive knowledge about mesmer magic.

 

i figured it would be interesting to see what lore allows that we as players dont have access to, and hence why i put it in the lore forum as i thought it would be the most appropriate place.

 

kasmeers lie detection ability isnt magical (as far as i'm aware), she talks about facial movement when dawn lies to the commander about how she doesnt know what's going on with the master of peace. i initially forgot about it but seeing that it's likely not magical

 

i agree with you that temporary lich form isn't the same thing as turning yourself into a lich permanently.

 

also agree that queen jennah has been taught things that most mesmers won't have access to. i wonder if she has any association with the mesmer collective.

 

3 hours ago, Torn Fierceslash.6375 said:

For Joko and other gw1 NPCS in gw2, a lot of them could multiclass in gw1, Livia was using a mesmer and necromancer skills in season 3. Somewhere between gw1 and gw2 multiclassing came a lot less common. Only modern npc I can think of off the top of my head is Brimestone going from warrior to Revenant though I haven't seen him use any warrior skills since. For other npc skills we don't have some are prepared ahead of time for incase of  bad things happening like Jenna and bubbles during white mantle attack.  NPCS also don't have all the same skills as the commander does.  

i was wondering whether i should include livias fragility ability or not. seeing as it's a legacy ability it's probably out of fashion but still viable, giving her an edge most modern mesmers wouldn't have. i wouldn't really consider rytlock as dual classed, but more having swapped classes instead. lorewise revenant commanders swapped classes too, but i don't think there's a canonical class commanders switched from. true, neither the commander nor rytlock lorewise would simply forget the skills of their former classes, but game design wise it's just simpler to let the player have access to only revenant skills. so maybe it is a form of multiclassing. it's a point i hadn't really considered.

 

i didn't think about including the siege bubble, though in all likelihood the siege bubble was a combination of mesmer magic and guardian magic (i was more active here when that discussion was had), worth including so up it goes.

[starhunter.6015]

Dont forget Traherne was able to summon 6 flesh golems during personal story. 
Cannach seems to be a Mix of Warrior and Engi. 
As for some of the other subjects touched already. 
The illusions on the bodies in Joko's fort where done by a artifact. So even if Joko is not a Mesmer he does have access to artifacts that have or are blessed by Mesmer magic. 
mesmers have barrier like abilities with focus and shields, So Queen Jenna making one is not that much of a stretch as we still are not fully sure how strong she really is. She did trick dragon minions with a clone of Kralk. 
Lore wise multi classing still seems to be a thing, but mechanics wise not for the player outside of Elite specs. 
Some NPC's will always be a bit on the overpowered side to help move story and plot points along. 

[draxynnic.3719]

Minister Estelle seems to be a guardian (including using guardian sword autos), so you can probably chalk her long-duration immobilise and flame vortices up as guardian abilities. Conversely, Jennah has her non-underwater Maelstrom effect that sucks up the aforementioned vortices.

 

Similarly, on the topic of guardians, a lot of what Almorra uses in Darkrime Delves. A lot of it is essentially souped-up Willbender, her warding circle is similar to some guardian abilities but certainly isn't available to a willbender using her weapon sets, and PCs don't have access to that 'channel to light fires across the general area' ability she has.

 

Caithe has a lot of really souped-up thief-themed skills when you play as her. More generally, permanent out-of-combat stealth seems to be fairly common among thief NPCs. I think Caudecus was also a thief, but like other prominent White Mantle bosses it's hard to say how much of his stuff is actually bloodstone magic.

 

Scarlet was an engineer, so everything she did loosely comes under engineering. You've mentioned asura magitech, but there's also some charr engineering that isn't available to players - such as the ghost containment unit and the lightning-themed (don't cross the streams!) bundle that you use to capture ghosts in a nearby event. Taimi also seems to be an engineer, so you can also include all the stuff SHE'S pulled if you don't already classify it under asura magitech.