Choosing Builds for Your Heroes...

Yes, my last topic was a discussion on equipping your heroes. Now let's talk about builds. To make this easier, keep it to the hero builds you will use along with your "main" character. We all have one character that's our "nearest and dearest". Also, this isn't exactly a "build forum", so I don't really care about formatting a proper build here. My own ideas below are just vague musings.

For me, I use my monk most often. I know Koss is gonna be her new best friend. I haven't decided on making Koss a "Charge!" Sword warrior or if I want him to be an Axe warrior. (I already learned the hard way that he's not smart enough to use shock effectively without a lot of micro-managing on my part.) Since one quest will give you either an ele or a ranger, I've decided to take the ranger. I haven't decided to make that one interruption or degen spam. I will probably wait and look at Dervish and Paragon skills as I unlock them before deciding on final builds for those heroes. If we get a necro, I am going to have to teach it how to minion master as best as AI can manage. If at one point, I also have an ele through some other quest/mission, it's gonna be a heal party bot. The monk heros? I'll bring them for the missions I have to have them for, otherwise, they stay home.

You all know my Hero build, but I'll repost it for emphasis:

Hero 1 – Paragon/Warrior

12 Leadership (8+ 1 + 3 )
12 Axe Mastery (12)
11 Command (10 + 1)

“Go For The Eyes!”
“Watch Yourself!”
“They’re on Fire!”
Aggressive Refrain
Anthem of Flame
Blazing Finale
Triple Chop (e)
Cyclone Axe

The P/W Hero is the most important of the 3 Heroes. He’s responsible for Blazing Finale, which keeps Burning on any enemy within melee range, and Anthem of Flame, which will keep Aggressive Refrain on the other Heroes, even out of combat. Triple Chop and Cyclone Axe hit multiple targets, which allows massive adrenaline gain, which also allows massive “GftE” spamming and constantly maintain “Watch Yourself!”. “They’re On Fire” is a unique skill, since it’ll nearly halve all damage caused by targets affected by the burning.

Hero 2: D/P

16 Scythe Mastery (12 + 1 + 3)
10 Motivation (10)
8 Command (8)

Aggressive Refrain
Penitent Strike
Reaper’s Sweep (e)/Wounding Strike (e)
Chilling Victory
“Go For The Eyes!”
“Stand Your Ground!”
Finale of Restoration
Energizing Finale

The Hybrid Attack/Healer. Since the Dervish can hit up to 3 targets per attack, it charges Adrenaline the quickest, which is helpful for “GtfE” Spamming. It also has decent AoE damage. This Dervish also carries the other Finales, which, as said, will proc very, very often.

The choice between Reaper’s Sweep and Wounding Strike is yours. If you can constantly cast enchantments on the Dervish, use Wounding Strike. Otherwise, use Reaper’s Sweep.

Hero 3: R/P

16 Marksmanship (12 + 1 + 3)
11 Expertise (10 + 1)
8 Command (8)

Aggressive Refrain
Magebane Shot (e)
Savage Shot
Distracting Shot
Read The Wind
“Go For The Eyes!”
“Find Their Weakness!”
Ressurection Signet


You have to be a dictator to the Heroes. They get no freedom. Attack, repeat. Therefore, they can't mess anything up. Give them mostly self-cast skills, don't let them have target ally skills (with the exception of Monks, duh).

For the WPE I just looked at the hench builds, then combined, added and altered some skills from their builds. The idea is that the AI obviously is able to use the hench builds (sort of) so I should just work with their builds as a base.

W/N
Enraging Charge/ Dismember/ Triple Chop/ Distracting Blow/ Disrupting Chop/ Plague Touch/ Healing Signet/ Resurrection Signet

Mo/Me
Revitalize/ Dwayna's Kiss/ Orison of Healing/ Healing Touch/ Mend Ailment/ Channeling/ Inspired Hex/ Renew Life

E/R
Fireball/ Phoenix/ Rodgort's Invocation/ Meteor Shower/ Serpent's Quickness/ Fire Attunement/ Elemental Attunement/ Resurrection Signet

I am just going to work on-the-fly, but I will mostly use the ranger, dervish and a monk if I have to use heroes at all.

Heroes will be given bars of skills that they know how to use. It's nice to sit here and talk about fun 4-man builds, but in reality, unless you plan on microing all of your henchmen like mad, you're really going to be limited by the tendencies of the AI. You should be taking the skills that the AI knows how to use well, and going from there.

Pretty simple, really.

Peace,
-CxE

For warrior heroes I tend to think the standard high DPS skills/easy self maintenance ones are your best bet. Things like plague touch and healing signet are going to be gold, they're pretty hard for a hero to get wrong. Watch Yourself! is another good one. With attacks, you want DPS. I suspect Dismember + Cleave will beat out eviscerate, so that's what you're going to want. Getting them to spike is going to take way too much microing.

Koss:
W/R
Furious Axe of Axe Mastery
Axe: 16
Tactics: ~9
Strength: the rest
1. Cleave/Whirling Axe E
2. Dismember
3. Distracting Blow
4. Watch Yourself
5. Heal Sig
6. None Shall Pass!/Bull's Strike/Sprint
7. Antidote Signet
8. Rez?

Necro:
N/Me
Curses/Blood Offhand
Curses: 16
Blood: ~7
SR: ~9
Inspiration: the rest
1. SS E
2. Enfeebling Blood
3. Well of Blood
4. Strip Enchantment
5. Parasitic Bond (for self-heals)/Cry of Frustration
6. Power Drain
7. Inspired Hex/Enchant
8. Rez?

Ranger:
R/x
Vampiric Recurve/Short Bow of Marksmanship
Marksmanship: ~15
WS: ~8
BM: ~4
Expertise: the rest

1. Incendiary Arrows
2. Savage Shot
3. Distracting Shot
4. Troll Unguent
5. FW
6. Tiger's Fury
7. Throw Dirt/Needling Shot/Antidote Sig
8. Rez?

Monk:
Standard Prot and Heal

Mesmer:
Lots of interrupts

Ele:
If it can run Ether Prodigy, I'll probaby make it a HP/Warder/Blindbot or Nuker

here is a tip, if you don't want your monk hero tanking and your players dying because of seemingly no healing, do not give them healing touch. Your guy will fall under 75% health and your monk hero will run to him and try and do healing touch.

I don't know how much people will change their builds for hero v hero pvp but all I gotta say is... wow HvH pvp is gonna be pathetic. Pve wammos going pvp without the help of decent players.

My monk heroes will have Power Drain. Gosu. They will not have Healing Touch, Healing Whisper, or any other skills that will make them dash up to the front line.

My necromancer heroes will have Blood is Power. Awesome.

I'm going to squeeze Power Return on every hero that I can. Rawr!

I'm going to set my henchmen up for interruption and knock-downs as much as possible. Personally, I find when I'm looking for good allies in missions or quests, knock-downs and interruptions are hard to find when they're needed most. I remember one of the last missions in Tyria was pure hell because the last boss before the mission ended was a Mursaat Monk whose healing outdid our damage potential, and no one on our team brought an interrupt or even a knock-down.

I'll probably make Koss a Hammer/Strength warrior. Especially with Lion's Might and Flail, I think he should be alright. It will require some testing, of course, and I may end up switching him back to sword (I recently switched to Axes, so I saved my sword equipment for him). I'll load him up with the KD skills and let him knock the enemy on their butts.

Goren is thought to be a Warrior. If I can have a second warrior, I'm going to make it a Tactics/Sword build that's more defensive than offensive, but will also include interruption.

Donkaro will be a non-enchantment healing monk for areas where enchantment removal is prevalent. I'll have to find a build that doesn't utilize healing touch, however, since I may not always be paying enough attention to set down his marker and keep him on Defensive mode (which is suppose to keep him near his marker, but maybe that doesn't work as well as it should, haven't tested it).

Melonni will be the hardest to decide upon simply because I don't have too much experience with the Dervish and I'll be playing with Paragon myself. Right now, I'll probably make her a Scythe/Mysticism Dervish, and hopefully get her an avatar skill at one point. I'll make her my main damage dealer, althou if the AI can handle it, I might make her an enchantment remover of some sort.

Tahlkora will be a Prot monk. I haven't decided what type yet. Probably one that uses a basic build, using something like Boon Signet and Mantra of Recall. but that again will require testing. I do have a perfect Insightful Staff of Enchanting waiting for her.

I don't know yet who I will take when it comes down to choosing one class over another. I would definately want one of each. Right now, its believed that Margrid is a ranger, so I'd probably take Sousuke over Jin. People thought Zhed was going to be an elementalist, but now some say he'll be a Mesmer.

Sousuke would probably be a defensive Earth elementalist for me. Since I'm a paragon, I'll have him utilize wards and probably Eneverating/Stoning. Him I'll have to play around with.

If I get a second elementalist, I'll make them a pure nuker.

For Margrid (or Kerak or Jin), I'll make her an interruption Ranger that utilizes dazed in some way. I find that the AI isn't too bad at handling interruption and can usually interrupt a target perfectly. I'll probably give her three to four interruptions and perhaps Melandru's arrows.

If I get a second Ranger, I'll make them into a condition spreader, and if a third, a spiker.

Attoron or the Master of Whispers are apparantely the Necromancer heroes. If I can only have one, I'll probably make them a blood necro with support skills or heavy degeneration. Things like Well of Power or something.

If I can have a second one, I'll test out a minion master build, or go to a curses focused build.

The Mesmer hero, believed to be Mogru, will be interruption.

If I can have a second one, either energy denial or degeneration.

Zenmai is thought to be an Assassin, and that will be the most difficult to figure out since its the class I know the least off. I know they can do knock downs, but I believe that interruption is more ideal for them since the knock down skill needs the target to be away from its allies, which isn't as common in PVE. I'll stick with interruption at first, but may go for spike or conditions later.

The Paragon hero, believe to be Morghan, will probably be focused on Motivation. I will make him either a back-up healer, or have him deal with skills that affect energy management, since the Paragon has some helpful one for its allies. I'm not worried about making him much of a damage dealer since I'll be a Paragon myself.

If I can have a second, they will probably focus on command skills.

That leaves the Ritualist. Any ritualist I have will probably be a protective Spirit Spammer (union/shelter/dissonance).

If I can have a second, I'll utilize spiking skills, or possibly restoration for back-up healing.

I'll be the paragon

Koss

Eviserate[e]
EX S
Pent
Flurry (they just dont know how to stance cancel dammit)
Plague touch (just hot one them they actually use it)
Bulls strike
sprint (I thin maybe it was rush)
res

Ranger guy {FTW}

Apply poison
Punishing[E]
Distracting
Savage
Dual shot
whirling
Troll
res

Boon Prot

if you run this guy at defensive edrain is the choice as he will not edrain at passive. If you run him as passive you will have to MoRecall him in the middle of battle, cause once down to 0 nrg he will not cast it because it cost 10 nrg to cast.

I was LvL 18 and so were my guys and the computers ability to interupt will make the 1v1 w/heroes a spectical, I ran over everything with this

I only got to 1000 points I didnt get the 5000 points so this might just suck.

Blind Spambot
1-Blinding Surge --> spammable blind for warriors/rangers/assassins/dervishes/paragons
2-Enervating charge --> to cover blind/serve as something to use when Blinding Surge disabled
3- Lightning Orb --> spike
4- Aura of Restoration --> use with Shock Arrow for healing, also cover enchant
5- Shock arrow --> Spammable for aura of restoration
6- Air attunement --> deal with energy cost of blind spammage
7- Gale --> interrupt
8-Res - for oops I died