draxynnic.3719

> @"Castigator.3470" said:

> A Kingdom of Elona would be a major Power with vast resources, effectively restoring humans to the most powerful race on Tyria.

Depends on how devastated it is by the fighting, and being mostly desert, it might not actually be that much stronger than Kryta once the Awakened are removed from the picture. The charr also have a lot more territory that is not currently explorable. A Kryta-Ebonhawke-Elona alliance _might_ be able to overshadow the High Legions, but it might not.

Possibly not so ironically, actually. That lack of appreciation may be precisely why they regard their creations more as pets than as puppets.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> Consider the origin of Revenants in the first place.

>

> Rytlock, the first revenant, was taught such by Glint. The legend he channels is Glint (we never see him use any other legend). The revenants he taught? The charr of the Black Citadel, and they channel Kalla.

>

> Revenants haven't gotten to norn in lore yet, despite the presence of PC revenants. Or they've only just begun, and the teachings haven't spread far yet.

>

> > @"draxynnic.3719" said:

> > Well, there aren't any asura legends either. (I was going to say there weren't any sylvari legends, but I figure Ventari counts for that.)

>

> I kind of see the core legends as relating to one of each GW1 release. Prophecies (Ventari), Factions (Shiro), Nightfall (Mallyx), EotN (Jalis). So I would argue all the core are "non-racial legends".

>

> And by that extension, I'd argue only Kalla is a "racial legend" since Glint was more of a "Destiny's Edge legend".

Strictly speaking, only Shiro was a member of a playable race out of that group, yes. However, Ventari is essentially a spiritual father to the sylvari, and Mallyx, being one of Abaddon's generals, is therefore linked to human mythology. So I think it's reasonable to say that Shiro and Mallyx are sourced from human history and legends, while Ventari is sourced from sylvari. (Odds are, the only reason he had enough impact to become a legend in the first place is because of the Tablet, which would be why all of his stance skills are based around the tablet.)

One could make an argument for Glint and Jalis being linked to humans due to past interactions, but that's more of a stretch. It's probably more accurate to say that both are rooted in Tyria's ancient history.

Now, the theory that there's a legend for the events of each of the GW1 campaigns is one I share - each campaign is an important series of events, and therefore each campaign spawns a legend, although I tend to think that it's Glint that represents Prophecies rather than Ventari. However, given how human-centric most of GW1 was, this does extend to those legends being more closely related to human history than to other races.

Well, there aren't any asura legends either. (I was going to say there weren't any sylvari legends, but I figure Ventari counts for that.)

I have a suspicion that Asgeir Dragonrender might be in the list of candidates, but they're probably waiting until a norn/Jormag/Shiverpeaks related storyline to link him to.

I'm pretty sure, in fact, that it's explicitly stated that it was the armies that hit Ascalon that proceeded to Orr. They basically blitzkreiged straight through on the assumption that they could take out Orr with sufficiently low casualties that they'll be able to go back and mop up the Ascalonian strongholds that were still battered from the Searing.

Ah. I didn't double-check her dialogue, so I'd forgotten that she states that her magic doesn't help with her art.

Nevertheless, particularly among humans, some level of artistic ability seems to be common among mesmers, more so than most other professions. It wouldn't surprise me if that's something they encourage among mesmers in training due to some synergy between artistic ability and mesmer magic.

Actually, there was resurrection in GW1. **Something** happened between GW1 and GW2 that made it no longer available - what that was has been left ambiguous. It's generally supposed to be related to the gods withdrawing from the world, but regardless, it is in the lore that there was a time when resurrection was possible, and then there was a time when it was... not _impossible,_ but certainly a lot harder to achieve.

Regarding the gods: We do in fact kill Abaddon in Nightfall. This released a huge amount of magic from Abaddon's essence, which Kormir absorbed to become Abaddon's replacement. Killing full-on gods is certainly not easy (for instance, it would not have been possible in Nightfall without the remnants of the chains used to bind Abaddon), but it is possible - doing so releases the magic contained within them, though, which can be quite dangerous.

However, Balthazar does not kill the other 5. They bound Balthazar in the Mists and left of their own volition.

On the first:

It wouldn't surprise me if mesmer training involves at least a minor in art, particularly among humans (which tend to view magic more as an art, compared to the more scientific approach of asura), in order to develop the inspiration and creativity to make the best use of mesmer abilities. Visual artistry, such as painting and drawing, may be particularly valued, as the ability to visualise an image and project that visualisation onto a physical medium would be a useful practice for the formation of believable illusions.

They may even have a kind of unfair advantage when it comes to visual arts, as they may be able to do things like project an illusion of what they want to create onto the canvas and then paint directly onto the illusion, making it that much easier to achieve exactly the final result they're going for.

A lot of what I'd say has already been said, but one thing that I recall from someone back in the day - possible Grubb - is that asura names can also have a tendency to sound like science fiction sound effects.

Ending in a vowel is also pretty much a signifier of a feminine name among asura - Logan makes a comment in one of the dungeons about Kudu having "a girl's name." Masculine names are _usually_ monosyllabic, but I don't know off the top of my head if that's a fixed rule or just a tendency.

> @"Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497" said:

> My only gripe with the charr is...

>

> The huge fricken shoulder pauldrons. Oh my god you look like a football player on roids. And some of them just float off the character's body.

>

> And the running animation looks slow at times, but once you speed up just slightly, it looks natural.

That, and floating backpacks on female charr. I kinda wish they'd bring the old engineer kit backpacks in as back skins, since those skins were among the few that actually sat well on a female charr, and I'd really rather have a 'hobosack' that's actually attached to the character than something flashy that's obviously floating half a foot over my character's back.

I suspect it's part of his "rebranding" of Awakening being an honour to be sought - in order to maintain the aura of exclusivity it appears to have in Vabbi, he makes it appear as if only honoured citizens receive Awakening. Given that we know that _outside_ the borders of Elona he isn't picky at all about who he Awakens, though, I'd be willing to bet that he still has a sizable contingent of nonhuman Awakened that he keeps in reserve - or garrisoning locations where Elonians aren't likely to go or see. Such as Fahrunar.

Incidentally, on sylvari: They're resistant to most forms of dragon corruption, but we don't know for sure they can't be Awakened. Given that we've never seen plant Awakened, there's a good chance they can't be, but it's possible they can.

The nerfing of Unflinching Charge is an... interesting choice. I can see why having Aegis on tap for the duration of the tome was too good, but currently it seems like it's just too niche for the spammable skill of a tome. It could probably stand for the Aegis to be replaced by some alternative protective effect - possibly a good spot for a small amount of barrier?

> @"Leo G.4501" said:

> > @"draxynnic.3719" said:

> > > @"Leo G.4501" said:

> > > A lore reason to make Charr stand straight? The only reason I can think of is them participating in politics more and want to see eye-to-eye with the taller Norn or tower over everyone else to look a bit imposing while having a "dignified human-like" posture to make dealings with humans more amiable. Beyond that, I don't really see much advantage for a digitigrade creature to walk upright at all, much less like a human. Having a more balanced and lower center of gravity just has more combat advantage compared.

> >

> > Having your eyes up higher means that you can see over things that might otherwise block your vision.

>

> You could just be higher than what you're looking at, i.e. climb up something.

Depends on the terrain. As I'd noted, the theory was that the selection pressure for a fully upright stance developed when humans moved onto the savannahs, where trees were relatively few on the ground and the things that would be blocking vision would be more along the lines of tall grass, bushes, and so on that aren't really practical to climb. Simply put, being taller means that your viewpoint is higher up even when you're not climbing something.

That said, among the Flame Legion, upright stances seem to be more social than anything - probably adopted so that the less physically imposing shamans can still be eye to eye with (or even look down on) the warrior castes rather than facing the embarrassment of being obviously smaller.

> @"Cantatus.4065" said:

> It's too bad this change has to be across the board. One of the primary complaints about our elite specs has been that they don't really interact with our core mechanics much. This would've been a good opportunity to make our elite specs feel more distinct from each other in how they use phantasms. Personally, I've always liked the concept of shatters and am glad they'll be more useful, but at the same time, I think there's room for the more phantasm reliant build that currently exists even if it would require some retuning. It'd create more diversity in how we play.

As Curunen says: Watch the next elite spec be about bringing back persistent phantasms in some form. Wouldn't be the first time that ArenaNet's pulled something out of a core profession and then re-introduced it in an elite spec (and, to be fair, usually in a better form).

Hrrrmn.

Been thinking about this one, including taking the time to play the current mesmer a bit while I still can, and here are my thoughts. Note that I've only scanned the rest of the thread - if what I say has been said before (it probably has...) than consider it a case of independently coming to the same conclusion.

From a pure balancing perspective, I can see this being a good thing, assuming that mesmers are adequately compensated for the loss of the old phantasms. It's been felt for a while that mesmer sustained damage, especially in situations where phantasms aren't practical, has been held back because a lot of their power "budget" is tied up in phantasms, which require a bit of a ramp-up time. Removing the old style of phantasms and shifting the DPS back to the mesmer and to immediate effects could go a long way to bringing the mesmer on par with other professions in raid-type scenarios. (PvP probably won't change much, since phantasms often don't last long before being shattered or otherwise destroyed anyway... although the lower health of clones relative to phantasms may impact PvP.)

I do worry, however, that it might compromise the uniqueness of mesmers to convert phantasms into, essentially, a one-off attack that generates a clone rather than a persistent entity. Make no mistake - this is actually _the_ biggest change that has been made to a profession since release. Bigger than elite specialisations: those add options, while this is fundamentally changing the basic character and mechanics of the core profession. No other profession really has the mesmer behaviour of quickly summoning multiple persistent but expendable entities linked to a specific target, and taking that away could compromise what makes the mesmer distinctive.

Buffing the attacks of the clones may help here. Currently, most clones, power clones especially, essentially exist only to be shattered. Now, evidently it's a goal of the change to make shattering as often as possible more desirable, so the goal should be to make it so that using Mind Wrack or Cry of Frustration is never a DPS loss, but with clones out of the picture, clones could probably stand to become a more significant threat in their own right (without Infinite Horizon). Because of the behaviour of conditions applied by clones, I have noticed that having three staff clones does seem to provide low but not negligible additional damage - that might be a reasonable ballpark to aim for.

> @"DoctorOverlord.8620" said:

> But the wiki makes them sound like they are intelligent beings. I guess we're back the idea of asura eating other sentient species lol

Well, the mushroom-people we see in HoT aren't going to be the only fungi around. There are various non-sentient mushrooms that we harvest in-game, and Guild Wars 1 had the Fungal Blooms and similar enemies (https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fungal_Bloom) which are probably _not_ intelligent.

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> > @"Rognik.2579" said:

>

> > 3. Asura believe in the Great Alchemy, which is a pretty big catch-all for spiritualism. I think the closest real-world concept is that of karma, where whatever you do in the world, the world will reward or punish you as you deserve. How the Great Alchemy affects how asura act is pretty unclear, but more than one have striven to learn the true nature of it.

>

> It's not so much a catch-all or spiritualism. The core tenant of the Eternal Alchemy is simply that everything that is, has been, or could be- even the mystical or metaphysical parts- operate on predictable principles that can be codified and quantified. In RL, with the modern fetish for science, many folks just take that for granted, but in a fantasy setting it's a much more radical (and potentially wrong) proposition.

>

> Naturally, that means it doesn't have many implications for behavior, which is how you can get something so traditionally immoral as the Inquest accepted into the society. The only things that spring to mind off the top of my head are tendencies to look at the big picture ("We're all just cogs in the Eternal Alchemy"), tendencies to treat reality as a zero-sum equation ("There is no profit in the Eternal Alchemy", or Macha's theory of pseudo-karma), and a rationalization of death as the elements that make up an asura simply being dispersed and recycled into something larger than themselves.

>

Largely this, although there do also seem to be philosophies of interconnectedness and things happening for a reason in the Eternal Alchemy. But at the bottom line, the Eternal Alchemy philosophy views the universe as a machine, one that can be controlled (or at least influenced) by someone with a sufficient understanding of how the machine works. It certainly is, however, not what I'd call a religion _per se_ - the asura don't worship anything - although it does contain the concept of an afterlife. (But in a universe where it is not only demonstrably true that there is an afterlife but where people have visited it and returned, recognising the existence of an afterlife _is_ scientific.)

> @"Leo G.4501" said:

> A lore reason to make Charr stand straight? The only reason I can think of is them participating in politics more and want to see eye-to-eye with the taller Norn or tower over everyone else to look a bit imposing while having a "dignified human-like" posture to make dealings with humans more amiable. Beyond that, I don't really see much advantage for a digitigrade creature to walk upright at all, much less like a human. Having a more balanced and lower center of gravity just has more combat advantage compared.

Having your eyes up higher means that you can see over things that might otherwise block your vision. In fact, I think that's one of the theories for why humans evolved to become so upright - in order to be able to see over long grass and other ground cover when human ancestors moved to the savannahs.

Regarding the charr: Charr spellcasters in GW1 typically did have upright postures. Flame Legion shamans in GW2 are still _more_ upright than most charr, albeit still with a horizontal neck rather than a vertical one.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

>

> Even in GW1, resurrection had its limitations. Otherwise we would have just resurrected Rurik when we had his undead corpse.

>

> Or Saidra, who's corpse was eventually recovered and cremated. Or Togo.

>

> There seems to be a bit of a statute of limitations for how long someone can be dead yet still resurrected. And it doesn't seem to be very long given Togo.

Well, in Togo's case, it's possible that his specific manner of death (being sacrificed in order to give Shiro a physical body) prevented him from being resurrected when it otherwise would have worked for him in that short timeframe.

Similar for Saidra, actually - she might have been recaptured and dragged to the Shiverpeaks Bloodstone rather than killed on the spot, which also interferes with resurrection.

But yes, there does appear to be a pretty short limit to how long someone can be dead and still resurrected using GW1-style resurrection.

> @"Rognik.2579" said:

>

> the skritt and their devotion to shinies (tell me that's not their religion!)

"The skritt have only a faint sense of faith—more a sense of empathy for the world than a belief in a divine source or power. Skritt feel that life exists simply so that one can have pleasant times and good memories. They are hedonists and are willing to gain their comforts from someone else's labor. They are scavengers, but picky ones. They're not the sort to dig through your trash, but rather the kind of mooch who convinces you that your extra sword is too much trouble to carry and you should give it to them. They do have a sense of material value, and prefer shinier, more advanced items. In time, skritt will likely break anything they've been given and come sniffing around for newer and better items to acquire."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Those_Sneaky,_Sneaky_Skritt

> @"Torolan.5816" said:

>

> Loyality:

> Lets say that really every charr is organized in a warband. Charr who loose their band become kind of dishonored and Gladius, probably with all the setback of survivors guilt which is semared in their face every day. What about them? Not everyone of them will be material for the Adamant Guard. They have a very low chance of social redemption so that they will either immigrate into other countries to escape that situation or let themselves stationed at the outskirts of charr lands.

> In a given skirmish, it would be enough for Joko to inflict damage on foot soldiers instead of leaders because it would very quickly weaken the morale of the soldiers when they loose 2/4 or just 1/4 of their closest allies. A human army could compensate for that on a much easier term. And humans recently ended their internal strife.

> So I would say Charr: 0, Humans 1

I think you're overexaggerating the effect of gladium on charr society as a whole, _especially_ if we're talking about a single battle. We see a lot of responses from charr in-game for becoming gladium, but in most cases it tends to be "find another warband", "accept a solo mission", or "go out fighting for the good of the Legion!". In the single-battle scenario, a charr who's lost the rest of their warband - assuming they even know they're the only survivor - is probably going to continue fighting the rest of the battle, and leave thinking about the future for, well, the future.

On the whole, the loyalty of charr to their legion seems to be greater than the average loyalty of humans to Kryta. We've just seen a resolution of the "cold civil war", which has probably cleared out a lot of the actual traitors - however, the banditry problems probably haven't gone away and humans historically have had a lot more problems with treachery than the charr have.

So I would give this one to the charr.

BC 1, DR 0

>

> Terrain:

> The Black Fortress is a wide array of killing fields if you want to advance to the center. The best way would probably be through the backdoor of the arena, but charr are skilled skirmishers so that would be a highly dangerous route too.

> Divinities reach is cramped and only gets wide in the middle. Good for an army like the one of Joko, they had years and years to train city combat.

> Charr: 1, Humans: 1

Your points against Divinity's Reach might actually be points _for_ Divinity's Reach. We've seen that Jennah has the capability to raise magical barricades that are prepared in advance - the cramped spaces might actually grant the defenders of Divinity's Reach more ability to capitalise on such defenses, turning the narrow streets into traps and bottlenecks. This is pretty much speculation, though. I would note that the central palace would probably be difficult to break into, though, especially if the high roads were broken or otherwise rendered inaccessible.

Based on what we actually know, as opposed to speculation, though, the BC probably still wins.

BC 2, DR 0

>

> Logistics:

> Charr use a wide array of firearms with ammunition. It takes a higher technology level to fashion firearms and ammunition than bows and crossbows. Charr are largely carnivorous, humans can basically eat window putty or hay roofs if things turn really dire for a short time. You can store bow ammunition for a very long time and still use it, simple flintlock ammo is suspicible to weather and especially water if you are not firing improvised shot ammo which is not very good for the weapon.

> Charr: 1, Humans: 2

Apart from the food supply, this is pretty much the exact opposite of what you claim:

There are reasons that historical armies turned towards gunpowder weapons even in the days when they weren't tactically superior to crossbows (which are apparently unknown in Tyria anyway) and longbows, and part of it is that they're actually easier to maintain a logistics supply chain for. Arrows require skilled fletchers and are bulky - powder and shot, despite requiring more scientific knowledge to make, actually requires less skill once the knowledge is available, and more rounds of ammunition can be stored in the same space.

On top of this, human equipment, including higher-tech stuff such as firearms, tends to be handmade by traditional means. Charr equipment is mass-produced. So even on top of the above, they probably produce equipment at a faster rate and what they produce is more standardised (which further simplifies the logistics).

Advantage: Charr, unless a starvation scenario presents itself.

BC 3, DR 0

>

> Individual class of soldiers:

> Charr are probably the better and more trained soldiers, although less numerous. The general mobilization potential is indeed very high among them.

> Charr: 2, Humans: 2

Agreed. BC 4, DR 0

>

> Support:

> This is in my eyes the main weakness of the charr. They have a quite narrow mindset about martial superiority instead of a combined arms approach(in our case Casters, Infantry and Artillery), so their casters and probably even heavy artillery troops(mortars, tanks) will not be of the best quality compared to infantry armies. They are probably more resistant to damage, but I would guess that their medical teams also do not stand very high in the pecking order.

> Charr: 2, Humans: 3

This one is hard to define.

Charr certainly do have a combined-arms approach. They have good infantry and their artillery corps is probably the strongest in Tyria (Asura can build more dangerous pieces, but charr cannon are dangerous _enough_ and produced on a much greater scale than anything the asura put out). Kryta doesn't have tanks at all that I've seen (although there is an ambiguous question on whether anyone outside of Lion's Arch, the Pact, and the Aetherblades have airships - I'd be inclined to say, though, that either both Kryta and the Iron Legion have them, or neither do, making it an even point either way), and a lot less in the way of cannons. Watchknights can compensate for this somewhat, but what we see in S3E4 indicates that watchknights are still relatively few on the ground.

Magic is a relative charr weakness, but only a relative one. Charr disdain magic, but they don't eschew it entirely. Human access to magic is certainly stronger, but _how_ much stronger is quite hard to define. Can't really give it to either without knowing what Jennah might have up her sleeves.

>

> Leadership:

> I always though of Logan Thackery as a terrible field commander and of Jenna as Damsel in distress. Jenna proved differently and Logan is now a pact commander but would surely come to the aid of his hometown because loyality to a given cause is not his strongest suit. Jenna is powerful but still operates more with the help of her secret society and not in open warfare.

> Smodur is a military leader through and through. Rhytlock is the charr version of Logan and for me no help at all.

> Charr: 3, Humans: 3

I personally don't have the same lack of faith in characters as you do. It's worth noting, though, that Logan and Rytlock might not be relevant to current circumstances since both are otherwise occupied elsewhere. So we're essentially looking at Jennah and her commanders versus Smodur and his commanders.

Jennah does have a history of delegating her battle tactics to her commanders, so Smodur probably has the advantage here. Furthermore, it's generally been Logan that Jennah puts in charge, while Smodur has multiple Tribunes available who probably are more focused on battlefield command than Rytlock. So Smodur probably has the edge here.

So, by these criteria, I actually end up with all points but one to the Black Citadel, and that's a 'maybe'.

I should note, though, that Kryta is still a worthy competitor - the human military is probably still the most powerful among the five races _apart from_ the charr.

There is some old EOTN promotional materials which show and talk about concepts of the asura at a much more primitive level. I don't recall off the top of my head if there was anything indicating what their diet might be, but if I can find the magazine I might be able to chase it up.

One thing to note regarding the norn is that despite the name, there is a lot to indicate that the Shiverpeaks aren't actually frozen year-round, apart from the actual peaks themselves and the areas corrupted by Jormag - if I recall correctly, not even pine forests can survive if the ground is permanently covered by snow. Most of the time we've been in the Shiverpeaks has been hinted to be in the colder portions of the year, as well. So it's possible that barley and other grains that can be made into ale can be grown as a summer crop in the valleys of the Shiverpeaks, making it available for brewing by both the norn and the dwarves.

I would agree regarding mead, though. It surprises me that mead is such a niche thing these days.

> @"Torolan.5816" said:

> > @"draxynnic.3719" said:

> > On the communication thing:

> >

> > We DO know that it is possible, through mesmer magic, to set up a mental link that can be used for long-distance communication. If Joko has all his mesmers devoted to his spy network, he could probably make use of that as a means of receiving reports.

> >

> > > @"Torolan.5816" said:

> > > > @"Ardid.7203" said:

> > > > Charr are three full, trained to walk and fight armies...

> > > > Queen Jenna and the Seraph are only important to humans, really. Since Joko is also a human, as are his awakened, yes, It is very likely he sees Divinity's Reach as a main objective for conquest.

> > >

> > > Charr are not an united and standing army. Only because you call yourself legion does neither make yourself Roman or as organized as a legion. Would you grade paramilitary forces that love to patrol the woods and wait for the Russians to attack the USA as a real army? Contrary to the belief of these people, they are only dangerous when they fight as guerilla forces. Even when they have an old howitzer standing around somewhere these guys are toast in the open field.

> > >

> > > Edit: after thinking a little bit about it, it would be a city combat and therefore good terrain for a skirmisher force.

> >

> > I think you are grossly underestimating the charr here.

> >

> > What a charr Legion is, basically, is an entire nation organised as if it was an army. Because of the realities of keeping a nation running, obviously every citizen can't be a front-line soldier all the time. Instead, you get some "warbands" that focus on tasks that in a more conventional nation would be the "home front", some warbands which perform noncombatant military duties, and others that are full-time soldiers, such as those in the Sentinels and the Adamant Guard.

> >

> > There's no reason to think that the Adamant Guard is any less effective than the defenders of Divinity's Reach. In fact, on a one-to-one basis, I'd probably bet on the charr.

> >

> > Where the real distinction lies is that most humans who aren't part of the military are going to be mere civilians. The existence of magic means that civilian magic-users might still be decent fighters in a pinch, and other civilians might be able to handle a weapon in self-defence (as was typical in the time) but they're not going to be soldiers. For the charr, though - you still have a core that is a genuine full-time military force, and each and every additional civilian is at the very least the equivalent of a reservist. When it comes to the fighting caliber of the citizens, I'd expect the Black Citadel to be a much tougher nut to crack than Divinity's Reach, especially given that the Citadel also has cannons and is generally built to be defensible.

> >

> > The only advantages that DR is likely to have over the BC are population, a higher ratio of magic-users among humans compared to charr, and whatever additional magical defences Jennah may have put in place that we didn't see in S3E4.

>

> In the country where I live, we had something called the Wehrpflicht. Every male adult was checked if he was able to serve on a weapon and if he was, he either could make a compensatory service in child care, old care or something like that. I was enlisted too and served within a Jaeger unit first and finally an Artillery unit. My military practice today is close to zero. I still know how to march, crawl, drag a wounded comrade, know my place in a gunnery line and could probably maintain and fire a weapon after a crash course but I would be cannonfodder footsoldier material by every account.

>

> If war broke out and I would be reenlisted today, I would have to fight alongside people I have never met as my reserve unit has long been disbanded. Any halfway organized army standing in the field for a little would easily slaughter us.

>

> A paramilitary unit like a warband would overcome some of the problems I explained with practice on the weapon and the ability to follow orders quickly, but they still would have to face the problem that only a larger maneuver can prepare you for a theatre of war. An attacking army is mostly made of professionals, a hometown militia is a ragtag band of people standing around in the wrong place at the same time. Asymetrical warfare is always a thing, but it is a drawn out process and usually follows when your home base has been taken already.

I'm pretty sure that the charr system still requires non-frontline warbands to spend some time maintaining their skills, which is something that is entirely possible to achieve on a national level. Medieval England, for instance, made archery practice once a week mandatory for able-bodied men - which is how England was able to field large numbers of longbowmen which most European countries couldn't do (without hiring English or Welsh mercenaries) because of the training, practice, and bodybuilding needed to make an effective longbowman.

The charr system seems to be more along the lines of a universal reserve that trains together, at least at the warband level, on a regular basis. Not a national service of the kind you're talking about where people serve their time and then their skills are allowed to fade.

And this doesn't even address my main point: that the Black Citadel has a full-time military as well in the Adamant Guard (plus whatever other regular units happen to be stationed there). So, when comparing the Black Citadel to Divinity's Reach, we're not comparing a full-time army to reservists. We're comparing a full-time army supported by a population which is mostly comprised of reservists to a full-time army that needs to protect a population of mostly civilians.

The only way that Divinity's Reach could be a tougher nut to crack than the Black Citadel is if the former has a significantly higher population and/or additional magical protections that we haven't seen. (Both of which is possible. One of the distinctions between human magic and asura is that items enchanted by humans aren't necessarily recognisable as magic on a casual inspection. DR could be more heavily enchanted than Rata Sum and we might never know. On the population side - you need a LOT more arable land to support a mostly carnivorous population like the charr compared to omnivores like humans, particularly considering that charr are also bigger.)

> @"Prinimi.6470" said:

> It takes show-don't-tell to an unfortunate extreme, giving you vague descriptions of a character's posture or (usually stern) expression and never gives you any real sense of what the characters are feeling on a deeper level.

This is a very good observation - it's something I've thought in the past, particularly about EoD, but didn't think to mention in my earlier post. It's possible that it's deliberate rather than by omission, though - ArenaNet does like keeping their proverbial cards close to their chest.

On the communication thing:

We DO know that it is possible, through mesmer magic, to set up a mental link that can be used for long-distance communication. If Joko has all his mesmers devoted to his spy network, he could probably make use of that as a means of receiving reports.

> @"Torolan.5816" said:

> > @"Ardid.7203" said:

> > Charr are three full, trained to walk and fight armies...

> > Queen Jenna and the Seraph are only important to humans, really. Since Joko is also a human, as are his awakened, yes, It is very likely he sees Divinity's Reach as a main objective for conquest.

>

> Charr are not an united and standing army. Only because you call yourself legion does neither make yourself Roman or as organized as a legion. Would you grade paramilitary forces that love to patrol the woods and wait for the Russians to attack the USA as a real army? Contrary to the belief of these people, they are only dangerous when they fight as guerilla forces. Even when they have an old howitzer standing around somewhere these guys are toast in the open field.

>

> Edit: after thinking a little bit about it, it would be a city combat and therefore good terrain for a skirmisher force.

I think you are grossly underestimating the charr here.

What a charr Legion is, basically, is an entire nation organised as if it was an army. Because of the realities of keeping a nation running, obviously every citizen can't be a front-line soldier all the time. Instead, you get some "warbands" that focus on tasks that in a more conventional nation would be the "home front", some warbands which perform noncombatant military duties, and others that are full-time soldiers, such as those in the Sentinels and the Adamant Guard.

There's no reason to think that the Adamant Guard is any less effective than the defenders of Divinity's Reach. In fact, on a one-to-one basis, I'd probably bet on the charr.

Where the real distinction lies is that most humans who aren't part of the military are going to be mere civilians. The existence of magic means that civilian magic-users might still be decent fighters in a pinch, and other civilians might be able to handle a weapon in self-defence (as was typical in the time) but they're not going to be soldiers. For the charr, though - you still have a core that is a genuine full-time military force, and each and every additional civilian is at the very least the equivalent of a reservist. When it comes to the fighting caliber of the citizens, I'd expect the Black Citadel to be a much tougher nut to crack than Divinity's Reach, especially given that the Citadel also has cannons and is generally built to be defensible.

The only advantages that DR is likely to have over the BC are population, a higher ratio of magic-users among humans compared to charr, and whatever additional magical defences Jennah may have put in place that we didn't see in S3E4.