About Heroes and the Hero Skills NPC

2 pages • Page 1

ArenaNet

Joined Feb 2005

Oct 20, 2006 at 10:20 PM • #1

I thought I'd post a bit of information about the exciting new Heroes feature of Nightfall, and about the “Hero Skills” NPCs. So, to begin with, these NPCs can teach skills to your character and your Heroes without requiring a skill point or any gold. You will be able to earn these Hero skills by gaining ranks in the Sunspear title and the Lightbringer title, and once learned, these skills are known by your character and unlocked for your entire account. Unlike normal skill trainers, who only offer you skills that match your profession, Hero Skill Trainers will offer skills for every profession. (Pretty nice, huh?

)

And here's more information:

Your character and your heroes can still only use skills particular to their professions.
Heroes have access to any of your unlocked skills.
In any outpost, you have a dropdown menu that allows you to set each hero's secondary profession.
When you change the hero's secondary profession, the skills that are available to the hero change to represent the new secondary profession. Those skills consist of whatever skills of a particular profession you have unlocked on your account (or those you unlock in the future).
Heroes come with a few skills for their professions when you acquire them. (You would have noticed that when you brought Koss on as your first hero, during the WPE.)
You can learn skills for your heroes through the Hero Skill Trainer and those skills are then unlocked on your account for any character or any other hero (if they have the appropriate profession, of course).
There are no unique, hero-only skills. For example, warrior heroes can acquire those skills that a warrior player can use. If the hero is a primary warrior, he will have the ability to acquire the elite skills just as your primary warrior character does.

I hope that's helpful. Do feel free to post if you have questions and we'll try to answer those. Keep in mind that we'd like some facets of this feature to be discovered by players, so giving chapter and verse may not be possible. Still 'n' all, we will do our best to get answers for the non-spoiler-ish questions.

Hollerith

Lion's Arch Merchant

Joined Sep 2005

Oct 20, 2006 at 10:23 PM • #2

Dev question: will it ever be possible for our non-logged in characters to stand in as Heroes?

AW Lore

Jungle Guide

Ancient Warriors Gaming Clan

W/Mo

Joined May 2006

Oct 20, 2006 at 10:25 PM • #3

thanks for the confirmation Gaile

Quote:

Heroes have access to any of your unlocked skills.

woot!

GloryFox

Desert Nomad

Now Plays World of Warcraft on Whisperwind

Joined Jan 2006

Oct 20, 2006 at 10:29 PM • #4

thank you Gaile for clarification

Sir Skullcrasher

Furnace Stoker

15 over 50 [Rare]

W/Mo

Joined Jun 2005

Oct 20, 2006 at 10:33 PM • #5

Thanks for the information Gaile!

Sooty

Lion's Arch Merchant

Giggity Giggity Goo

Joined Jul 2005

Oct 20, 2006 at 11:59 PM • #6

bugger i was lookin forward to those heroes only skills. least we won't be disappointed next week now tho, thx gaile.

Any comment about the inscription system?

The Great Al

Forge Runner

ALOA

E/Me

Joined Jun 2005

Oct 21, 2006 at 12:23 AM • #7

where was it that I read that there would be hero specific skills? Oh well..

Thanks for the info Gaile!

I do have a question that hopefully you can give some insight on...

just how 'smart' will these heroes be? For example, I play as a Elementalist. Let's say I bring a E/Me hero along with me. If I give it the mesmer spell that lets him copy an elite for 20 seconds, would he know to copy my elite? (Assuming I am using him as an elem as well) or would that be the type of skill that I would want to disable the AI on and just cast myself? Thanks!

Scutilla

Wilds Pathfinder

Tyrian Explorers League

R/P

Joined Sep 2005

Oct 21, 2006 at 3:00 AM • #8

Ah, I see- so "hero skills" are just Priests of Balthazar, only using something other than Balthazar faction points. That makes more sense, now.

Too bad, I was looking to "Koss's Afro Attack"

Knightsaber Sith

Furnace Stoker

Few Fallen Heroes [FFH]

W/E

Joined Aug 2006

Oct 21, 2006 at 4:08 AM • #9

tnx gaile; Alex also pointed this out earlier in another thread

Navaros

Forge Runner

Mo/Me

Joined Apr 2005

Oct 21, 2006 at 4:25 AM • #10

Questions:

1. What, specifically, are the rewards for winning in Hero vs Hero PVP?

2. What is the the procedure for unlocking and using Heroes with PVP characters?

natuxatu

Wilds Pathfinder

Rt/Mo

Joined Apr 2006

Oct 21, 2006 at 4:32 AM • #11

I guess I'm still a little confused. Are there any regular skill trainers or are they simply called Hero trainers in Nightfall? Or is the difference only how you purchase the skills? Thanks~

I'm just trying to understand what are the benifits of both if they still both exsist. Obviously not requiring a skill point and gold is plus~

Carl Butanananowski

Krytan Explorer

We Have Big [Meat]

Joined Mar 2006

Oct 21, 2006 at 5:22 AM • #12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hollerith

Dev question: will it ever be possible for our non-logged in characters to stand in as Heroes?

Then the thought of PvP-only characters enters into my mind..

RuPee

Frost Gate Guardian

[RoD]

Mo/

Joined Dec 2005

Oct 21, 2006 at 5:52 AM • #13

i have the same question as Navaros,

whats the reward for winning the Hero vs. Hero battles?

luauelveneno

Frost Gate Guardian

Guilty Guild [GG]

Joined Jul 2006

Oct 21, 2006 at 5:53 AM • #14

1 more question Gaile can Hero's also cap elite skills like human players can do that? i know you have to cap it only once but then u can setup a hero with like maximum 8 capsig's and yourself full with skills for example.

strcpy

Desert Nomad

One of Many [ONE]

Joined Jul 2005

Oct 21, 2006 at 6:24 AM • #15

I don't know if this has been answered (I was thinking of starting a thread, this seems good enough) - do heroes get infused? We know they can go to older campaigns with you and this would be important in Prophecies. Since I'm starting to finally go back and get bonuses with henchies this makes a difference to me. Some bonuses suddenly become possible to "hench" this way.

With 10+ heroes, 8+ characters (giving 80+ instances of heroes armor), and only being able to take 3 heroes at a time infusion runs may get important again. If they are totally global (Skills, equipment, and armor that would mean each account only need do the infusion a hand full of times) it will be interesting to see how customized weapons or new characters (given their armor is based on level - different for any non-max level character) will work.

Dancer

Pre-Searing Cadet

Children Of The Legends [DK]

E/N

Joined Jun 2006

Oct 21, 2006 at 9:07 AM • #16

please take a look at this info:
http://www.guildwars.com/insider/issue01.html

exsample:
We’ve also worked a lot on improving Hero AI and refining the controls for Heroes. Heroes are much better now at intelligently managing their Energy to make them better for everyone, and for you control-freaks out there (you know who you are), we’ve added the ability to disable AI for an individual skill. Once you disable the AI for a skill, a Hero won’t use it unless specifically told to do so by you. This can be especially handy for skills like Traps and Spirits, which can require a little extra foresight for determining where and when to use them. You can turn the AI for each skill on and off independently during missions.

DreamWind

Forge Runner

E/Mo

Joined Oct 2006

Oct 21, 2006 at 10:45 AM • #17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Navaros

Questions: 1. What, specifically, are the rewards for winning in Hero vs Hero PVP?

My question exactly. Sure this 1v1 with heroes battle sounds great, but if the rewards are bad then there's not much point in playing it. =/

draxynnic

Furnace Stoker

[CRFH]

Joined Nov 2005

Oct 21, 2006 at 10:53 AM • #18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl Butanananowski

Then the thought of PvP-only characters enters into my mind..

Well, they could simply block access to use PvP-only characters as heroes, just as PvP character s are blocked from having access to PvE areas...

I Brother Bloood I

Banned

Joined Jun 2006

Oct 21, 2006 at 2:09 PM • #19

Do heroes take core and nightfall skills only?

Relambrien

Wilds Pathfinder

Error Seven Operators [Call]

Joined Jan 2006

Oct 21, 2006 at 3:05 PM • #20

Heroes can use *any* skill unlocked on your account. EDIT: Provided they have the suitable profession, of course.

I had Koss using Hundred Blades during the NPE ^^