Choices of Tyrians (AKA, Is there Lore and a Reason or is it just Gameplay?)

[RMD.2957]

So, yes, most of my questions can be due to gameplay design choices, but they seem (to me) to be lore-related, hence my asking them.

 

**1st**- Why have Tyrians stopped using polearms as weapons, at least on land?

 

_Rationale_: Given that we have been getting spear-like and scythes as staff skins, it gives the feeling that you are very heavily implying there ain't gonna be "land-spears", so I was wondering why we can't use them on land (favorite weapon type), especially since we still use them on water. Was it choice of Tyria of just gameplay?

 

(Extra: I wouldn't entirely consider spears and staves as the same weapon type as they are used differentely. And although one can argue they're both long sticks, then one could also say swords and daggers should be the same weapon-type since they're both weapons for cutting, slashing and stabby. I'm gonna, however, (conveniently) ignore the various different (sub)types of weapons, such as rapiers, being slightly different)

 

**2nd**- Are skills that hard and/or rare to use in the actual world?

 

_Rationale_: I ask this because besides bosses and some other important characters (and not even all?), most NPCs seem happy with just swinging or shooting, with occasional slightly different swinging or shooting. Oh, and some guys kicking or knocking you down (change slightly the wording for animals, and I'm including magic in the shooting part, just with different flavor). Might just be poor memory or bias too, though.

 

**3rd**- Are Necromancers really unable to help or support through their magic?

 

_Rationale_: I don't recall the exact wording so I might be remembering wrong, but I recall it was mentioned that typical supporting wasn't part of their "flavor", as the reason as to why they didn't have much in buffing/supporting allies? I understood this as meaning that necromancers are unable (or is very hard?) to support their allies directly and empowering them in different ways.

Yes, I know we got Scourge but it still seems kind of ... lacking something?

I just found this kind of strange, since Necromancers have Blood Magic, which should allow them too do such.

Not to mention that we seem to be unable to raise/create bone structures to serve as walls of a kind, akin to those made by the Risen in the Personal Story or Marjory in some instances in LS2 and LS3. Though I guess doing that one isn't particularly easy.

 

**4th**- Where are the guardians and dragon hunters (NPCs)?

 

_Rationale_: We have Logan(guardian) and Braham(dragon hunter), and a few NPCs that use a couple guardian skills, most of which seem to be charr (particularly Iron Legion), and some of the others seem to be just recycling effects (mostly Whirling Wrath, GS#3).

But they seem to have so little numbers, when compared to all other classes besides Revenant, which only started appearing through Rytlock, in the last year or so. We even got a mesmer festival with the White Mantle, which wasn't it kinda... high skill/level?

 

Extra (5th) Question:

Why did Norn get seemingly weaker from GW1 to GW2?

 

Thank you for doing this and I hope for some kind of answer.

[draxynnic.3719]

On Guardians - I'd note that White Mantle Clerics appear to be guardians, and one of the new Seraph types in Lake Doric. I think there are quite a few more scattered around the place, nearly as many as the other spellcasters, they're just not as overt.

 

They do seem to be a little less common, but that might be a function of still being relatively recent compared to most professions. Despite the Iron Legion charr using guardian skills, I get the impression that they're still most common among humans (where the profession originated), and the Seraph hasn't really been fully developed as a military force ingame (despite the miniatures suggesting that they have more variety than we're shown). As a result, the highest concentration of friendly guardians is probably in the Seraph, we just haven't been shown them until now because Warriors are still more common, and ArenaNet has only shown the most common Seraph 'builds' (namely, sword and shield Warrior, longbow Warrior, and, now, greatsword Guardian in Lake Doric) and the odd champion. Meanwhile, the White Mantle seems to have drawn all the spellcasters that fell into their web into the White Mantle itself while leaving mostly non-spellcasters in the 'outer circle' of bandits in Kryta - which is why we didn't see many enemy human guardians until the White Mantle came under the spotlight after HoT.