Custom Henchies FTW or FTL?

With Nightfall approaching people will begin wondering how they will form their parties with customizable henchmen. We have no idea’s how they will implement this. That leaves us with some questions.

1 How user friendly and customizable is a henchman?
2 Will I be able to select an Assassin or Ritualist henchmen? (I hope so)
3 Can I name my Henchmen or select their Armor type?
4 Do I select their skills from the skill list I have unlocked? OR is there a set list of skills for each henchman?
5 Can I have more than one type of henchman such as multiple Paragons, Warriors or Monks? For example I might want 3 monks Smite Protection and a Heal Monk will this be possible? OR I might want 3 Barrage Rangers with different interrupts will this be possible?
6 Will my henchmen be global for all of my characters?
7 Can I use these customized henchman in GvG type arenas?

My only hope is that this feature will not be poorly implemented. To do something half-ass will result in many not enjoying what this feature could be. BUT any improvements upon the current existing henchman are in fact Improvements.

While I agree that improving henchmen in any way is a positive change, I have to say that I agree: if they don't impliment this properly the change has a greater chance of being more irritating than helpful.

Noob: "What do you mean my healer has no heal skills?"
Game: "The extent of your monking career has been a wammo with healing hands and mending - neither of which are very effective in a party perspective. Sucks for you go cry in a hole."
Noob: *uninstalls*

Dont you mean Newb for the above post instead of Noob. I think Customizable Henchmen would be cool, and id like to give the existing ones some new lines. You should be able to give them lines only you can see. Some better lines from Panaku instead of "PANAKU [CUTTHROAT HENCHMAN]!!!!!!!!!!!!!" as his battlecry -_-.

i don't like the idea of customizing henchies... to much solo play.. more strategy yeah.. but i rather just have more content and have to chose from a select of premade henchies if need be.. rather a drop down menu to chose between say three healers or something.. of even just seeing the henchies skills before chosing which ones would be helpfull.. but i don't want this to turn into a tactic game.

In a way, I hope that you can only choose from a certain amount of each profession, or type of henchie. This would limit w/* just bringing along 7 henchie monks and tanking everything without fear.

But then again, that would be quite fun...

It already is a tactical game. It always has been.



I'm looking forward to superhenchies. I just hope they do them right.

1. being able to give your hench-pals any of your gold/green items would definately unbalance the game (keep in mind the 1v1 henchway arena) at least until your henchies are level 20. (keep in mind that ANet says they will level 'with' you) this way people who are rich and powerful and played for a year wont have uber level 1 henchies that someone new to the game will have to work on for months to get that level of items. Because I have an extra Victos Maul... do you think I should be able to have a lvl 1 henchie with a victos maul?? Itd be fun.. but honestly I would feel like a cheater.

2. using skills that your account has unlocked might also make this unfair- say I have Meteor Shower from GW1... someone new to the game will not have that skill available. My henchies are going to be echo+metoer shower while a newb's team will be spamming Illusionary Burden?? I mean, yeah I guess I earned it... but its not fair to newbs.

3. Naming, dressing, hair/face, etc etc etc would all be very fun... I doubt cosmetic alterations (or choosing between the armor types) will have an adverse effect on the game... this might be the most important part for some...

4. It WOULD be nice to be able to use panaku/gai style henchies, but dont hold your breath.



My best advice to ANYONE is to not speculate too much (im doing it too, im not above you!) because speculation and hope are the only things that will make you disappointed upon release.

Tell yourself there will be NO henchies... that way you will be pleasantly surprised.


(the custom battle cries idea is nice- unfortunately I dont know how far the Devs will really let us go with this)

My theory is that each henchie will be set up as if you were making a pvp character, with face/armor type/coloring/weapon type etc being generic choices.

One way they might balance this sort of thing would be to have you 'purchase' a henchman contract... and to not allow hench weapons to be traded... AND not allowed to give YOUR items to your henchies (i know its somewhat unrealistic in the scheme of things... but you have to find a middle ground somewhere in it all)



Plus- dont flame me for putting down what they 'could' do... Im just trying to take the stance of a newcomer (we want the new people to enjoy their time, right?)


OTHERWISE MY 7 HENCHIES WILL BE 4 55Monks and 3 SSnecros and I will be the Paragon to lead them!

expect crap

that way anything remotely usefull will be met with full acceptance

Not quite to the extent as the games that have "Tactics" in the name, but that's generally true.

Customizable henchmen? FTW. By far.

The ideal is to be able to build your own custom 8-man team from the ground up. That way you won't have to sit in town looking for other people to fit your group needs - you just build the appropriate henchmen and go.

Skills aside though, the fundamental problem with henchmen is AI, and custom skillbars will only exacerbate the issue. You can give a hench monk a boon prot build, but will the CPU know how to play it?

probably not, take it from the prot henchies who use rebirth on top of the dead character.I think you'll need to have balanced builds keeping the AI in mind, you need a set of skills that are conditional but dont needed to be chained effectively to be useful. a boon prot henchie will spam rof till he drops to zero energy, use signet of devotion over and over then use blessed signet after the battle is over.

Attention to All: Costumizable Henchies have not been confirmed by Anet.

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EB didn't make that info up themselves. Perhaps the entire list of features will not turn out to be accurate, but I'd place money on the idea of customizable henchmen being realized in Nightfall.

Hmm, will Customizable Henchman become a standard? Because if they only have them in Nightfall then in CHapter 4 Henchman go back to being retarded.... Well, thats gunna suck. So what are they gunna do? Are we gunna be able to use customized henchman in Prophecies and Factions?

I dream of the day I can tell the henchmen to stfu and they do.
Sorry, but the chatter is annoying and sometimes blocks my view of what else is going on.

Will be great if they are truely customizable and can travel with your character and not just in that chapter.
If not, they will be so so and a gimick of only minor use.

Why should they be able to go back in other chapters? Well, when I make my Dervish I will enjoy taking "her" back to Tryia and I imagine finding a group through three chapters will be more difficult than it is finding one through two.

Attention to All: Costumizable Henchies are confirmed in the PC Format magazine preview, which has been exclusively granted and authorized by Anet.

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P.S.: They are called "heroes" though, not henchmen. Slight difference.

...or just expect crap

LOL where have you been for the past 18 months? Its been a tactic game from the start.

It's FTW. Now I can just play with guildie and non-retarded henchies instead of retarded PuGs