Why heroes are awesome

I see a lot of people complaining about heroes. A lot of these complaints are due to the fact you rarely see people LFG anymore. They'll ask their friends if they want to join up, get 1 other person, and run whatever it is they're running with 2 people and 6 heroes.

Or, some of the complaints are that heroes have the same AI as henchmen do. Even though this complaint is valid at its base, you can't forget that heroes have the build you want them to have, so they aren't stuck with a static skill bar and named Billy Bob [Orison of Healing spammer].

Here are a couple reasons why heroes are a very good thing:

1. Tyria and Cantha are both seeing depleted population since the release of Nightfall. Tyria was already suffering a little, in both the beginning missions and the very end ones. It's even worse now. Heroes can quickly fill slots you aren't able to fill, with the classes you're lacking.

2. Heroes are in the mission for their own personal gain. They're in there for the good of the team. They aren't carrying 2 skill caps because they know two elites are located inside of this near end-game mission that they haven't had the opportunity to snag yet. This means they aren't forfeiting their resurrect or other utility spells in order to get some skills that are most likely not even associated with the attribute set to the highest value their build calls for.

3. Heroes don't go afk, they don't disconnect, and they don't argue with you when you're trying to go for Masters ... or even ONLY for the bonus. They do what you ask of them, without complaint, and to the best of their abilities. You will never notice mid-battle that Koss has stopped targetting the newest called target, only to find out after your party has completely wiped that he had "something really important to do" in real life, mid-battle.

4. Heroes have the builds you want them to have, without skills that make no sense for the missions ahead. If you know what you're getting into, you can tailor not only your skillbar around it, but 3 others as well. This saves a lot of time, headache, and hassle. No longer do you hear "I don't have SS but I have Flesh Golem and 16 death magic with a Ghial's Staff", when you're trying to go to Nahpui Quarter and exploitable bodies become a rarity very quickly.

5. Heroes have the weapons / runes you want them to have. They aren't running around with an Air spiker build, brandishing Koosun's Fire Staff. They also won't have spread attribute points where their build just isn't as effective as it could be, if you would just drop that one skill from w/e att you're pulling it from (unless you play like that anyway...then that's up to you).

But, here are a couple bad things about heroes, that would be unfair for me to leave out.

1. Heroes are as good as the people utilizing their abilities. If person A is totally garbage at playing their class, there's a really good chance their heroes will suck as well. You'll see skills being used that shouldn't even be on the bar, only because "it seemed like a good idea".

2. If Person A is poor, he probably won't have ANY runes / upgraded weaponry on his / her heroes. This means that you might see Koss running around with that beginner set of weaponry he was still swinging around at level 2. (Yes, I saw someone at the Kodonur Crossroads using Koss, who still had that freakin' shield equipped.)

3. Heroes only work when you know how to work them. If you've set all of your heroes to Passive because you were trying something...and you forget to change their status, you will not see them using any offensive skills. (I've seen this also. Watching Goren stand there the entire fight, only to find out he was in passive for the last 20 minutes....oh man...don't even get me started on that guy.

4. Elitist players will absolutely refuse to allow you to bring your healer if they feel they're a more capable monk than you ever could wish to be. Likewise with any nuker, tank, or whatever you're grouping with. Talk about annoying. "Uh...don't bring your Dunkoro, mine's way better. Just bring a ranger or something, we won't die." -- No thanks, i'll find a different group.

5. Elitist players that actually really really really really really suck at their class, that refuse to let you bring the hero of your liking because theirs is "better". Same as #4, but instead of even having a semi-good chance of completing the mission, you basically invited yourself to 30 minutes of being ridiculed for choosing skills that ARE working...your partners monks just suck and can't keep you guys alive through a 3 mob pull. Barf.


So...there's what i've observed thus far with the situation concerning heroes.

As a side note: I've completed the game with my Dervish and have gone through most of the way with my Warrior, Paragon, Mesmer, and Ranger (others are just in Kamadan or freshly in Yohlon) and i've done almost all missions with the H/H setup, receiving masters on the ones i've cared to attempt (sometime you just don't have the time, and want to advance your quest line before you go to work / pass out). So, I know what H/H'ing things can do, will do, and should do. I'm not the most professional elite player in the entire world...but none of you are. I still feel that everyone can give input toward situations they've personally gone through and come out alive.

I can understand somewhat why people don't like heroes. But the mistake they're making is jumping to the conclusion that they're the main reason why PUGS are hard to find now. No, the heroes are actually a symptom and a small solution to the horrible PUGS and horrible GW community in general. And yes, I think heroes are awesome.

PUGs have generally been disappointing, however, the fun that one can enjoy playing a good game with real players can never be replaced by heroes. But I do agree that the introduction of heroes is a good thing. For solo players, they now have better chance of completing missions/quests on their own. For PUG supporters, it's possible to PUG at least without waiting for a near full party of real players.

Uhm... my ele hero ran fire without a staff or offhand last night.. I HAD to have the collectors fire staff for my ele and forgot to give it back to my hero after I finshed playing.

I like to give my Fire Eles FDS's. Just looks better.

My ele hero is using earth skills and the starter water wand they give. lol I'm lookin for earth stuff but its just not dropping. :/ And I aint spendin money on weapons...pfft....

I agree that the hero implementation has been an excellent idea, but they should have made them like PvP characters so that they weren't so ****in expensive to equip.

Many times I decide to go with a PUG for a mission, and almost every time we're sitting around looking for that 2nd monk that never shows up. Then we decide to just take a hero monk.

Ive forgotton what pugs mean since Ive joined a decent guild, even if we are short a few players, the heros we now have available are way awesome. 4 of us completed Vizunah Square, and achieved masters too!

I took a PUG group through Thunderhead last night, and they were all incredibly impressed at how easy my heroes made it.
Several even said that they were DEFINITELY buying Nightfall now.
Heroes are the Bee's Knees
For Thunderhead I used Oli as MM, Dunk as Prot (the monk said "Bloody AI removes stuff faster than I can!!!" ) and Jin running Broadhead interrupts (I never leave home without her). The mission went by, bonus and everything, rather uneventfully

I also needed a couple of infusions after going to Elona, so I used this same group (except swapping Dunk for Tahl who's healer), and nothing else. Just us 4. We TORE through Iron Mines
It's quite embarrassing how a well designed team can make the Tyrian missions a triviality...

I'd still PUG if there was a way to find one without waiting for hours...curse this heroeway, I say, it even infected PvP...

Heroes are a pleasant change IMO but I feel I spend too much cash on them...
Unlike PUGs, you can actually use a team build centered around yourself, your 3 heroes, and the remaining 4 henchies to roll thru missions and areas without that "I wasted time" feeling that people get when they went with a horrid PUG.

---Follower of Grenth

The best part about heroes... they're more than willing to DIE for you! You can't get alot of real players to do that.

Actually I am.... jk

Heroes are great. They add options without taking anything away. People who want to play with other people still can and still do. I know I do. I wouldn't know if it's harder to get into a PUG, I haven't tried in ages. If that's true, it appears there's a lot of people taking the hero option, and good for them! If that's how they want to play, isn't it great that they can?

I'd like to point out not everyone has UAS and/or greens/collectors weapons for all their heroes.

That means Henches > Heros equipment wise (if you're poor like me).

Also henches don't need to be leveled. I hate leveling heros and that is why I PUG or hench.

the only bad part of heroes i see is that there isn't a ritualist hero

there is still mr.X from the mists but he is on vacation in wow...

Hero>Pug

I have never had a hero draw a penis on the radar ... even without skills that would make them better than most pugs. Nothing quite like being in a FoW pug and having someones kid drawing on the radar the whole trip. Thank you Anet for the Heros and being removed from the babysitting role.

I think they're great myself, don't have to sit around anymore LFG when playing a mesmer, dervish, or assassin. And since I have most of the other profession skills, customizing them for certain environments is fun as well. I'll just let those monk-warrior-nuker groups carry on without me.

...Er, what? There's a 1:1 correlation between the introduction of heroes to the system and a massive reduction in the PuG player base.

Some of those people probably stopped PuGGing because they disliked the community, and plenty more stopped because a full hero team is more powerful than any but the most rigorously sculpted guild group (if you know what you're doing). But either way, they're not in PuGs, therefore PuGs are harder to form, QED.

Or are you saying that the introduction of the machine gun did nothing to reduce the overall viability of swordfights?