Before I buy NF there is just one thing I want to get straight.

1. I have to spend my money that I would normall spend on my armor and runes to buy armor and rune for my hero/companions?

2. I have to get them better weapons and equip them?

!- No

2- No.

Heros are Customizable henchmen 9Skill wize) Just equipe them with whatever runes and Items drop from normal game play - thats it.

Some people will say that you have to dish out 10k, 25k or even 100k For EACH of your heros.

Those people are idiots.

If you want your heroes to deal more damage, then you'll have to give them better weapons. Their armor automatically upgrades as they level.

they don't come with runes either. So for both question - yes, but you don't have to.

For both of your questions, the answer is technically no. You don't HAVE to equip them with really good stuff, but it's smart if you do. I only needed to equip them with the drops I found casually, and that was sufficient.

If you're worried about your heroes having below par items, use henchies instead. Their equipment is always exceptional.

Yeah, what Koala said. Just give your heroes the excess "junk" that you would normally merchant off. And just keep upgrading with better stuff as you go along. I guess in a very very SMALL way they're taking money from you, but hey , think of them as extra storage too.

the choice is yours in both cases, however, there is quite a difference when they have only 12 points in one attribute as against 16 points. fully decked and equipped heroes can play the game for you ...

No cost for armor, aside from doing challenge missions if you want to unlock the purely cosmetical advanced armors (who offer no benefit otherwise)

You should equip most of them with weapons, but white or blue ones that drop along the way suffice. So, I suppose every hero costs you about 50g as you could have sold said blue item for as much.

Runes are optional, as are inscriptions, and I have finished NF 3 times now without ever using a rune on a hero. If you want, you can spend 25g each for a major rune on the headpiece, to get the bonus from there.

So, all in all, if you just want your heroes to get you through the campaign and do a solid, better-than-hench-or-PUG job, you are looking at a cost of roughly 75g per hero. Furthermore, you technically only need 4 sets of equipment for the REQUIRED heroes that you can switch around, as you only can take 3 in your party, but sometimes have to take one of the Istani core heroes with you.

All in all, 300g of investment, or rather, of gold you dont get from selling items, to have heroes.

I think that shouldnt take too many hours to farm

thanks, I gues I'm just a cheap bastard.

I spent 30k for staves from ToPK, which was a good investment for my heroes. My warriors have excess stuff I had laying around. 13-14^50 swords, 20<50 swords, etc. Sadly they all have starter shields.

my heros get crappy chest drops - purple and golds which I re-mod with off-perfect worthless inscriptions and mods I salvage off other things. One of my Koss' faces lit up, however, when a purple, max damage, fellblade dropped for him! All it needs now in some inscriptions and mods. Seriously...the Heroes are not going to know OR care if their weapon has 15^50 or 12^50...it's only 3%! I only give them runes and insignias that drop on armors...if they don't drop they don't get anything!

my heros wear the crappy chest drops and cheap greens ive had forever and cant sell.

armor is "build in" and upgrades with level. runes on the other hand you would have to buy

skills are awsome, cuz they can use ANY skill that you have unlocked (via PVE or PVP)

I would agree with two things said above.

First, there is no real reason to purchase anything for them. Even if you only give them drops you would normally merch and runes/insignias that are not worth much (assuming you created their builds around this) they *still* significantly beat the henchies. WAY beat the henchies. In fact so far ahead of the henchies it is comical. Plus I find that it doesn't take long to get one or two points off max from random drops - one point of damage or +14>50 doesn't make much difference. In fact, it makes so little difference I have no issue using one with my mains if I really like the skin.

You can also farm greens. If you clear the area of non-boss enemies then send the henchies away until the are grayed out they do not "take" drops. You may need to two or three man a boss, but almost any class has a decent max green setup that it will only take an hour or two at most to get. If Anet runs another triple green weekend then even better (I got around 7 greens that weekend and I didn't really try hard, just the ones I needed for my heroes). If you need them across multiple characters just do not customize them - that's what I do.

Secondly a fully equipped hero team can play the vast majority of the game for you. Really, in this respect they are closer to a human team. With flags, controlling thier skill usage when needed, and that they generally do decent with some very powerful builds they can make some part of the game *really* easy. The more skills you have unlocked the better also - nothing like a level 3 warrior with an eviscerate axe build

Though I think the end game is more balanced around this than the previous games. In fact, I would pretty much say it with authority. In one day, with nothing more than heroes and henchies, I cleared the jungle, the desert, and all but THK (I ran out of time). I do not think I had a single death - I know I did not with my character and the heroes, though one of henchies may have been spiked. And it wasn't even what I would call an "optimal" build, just a general purpose one I threw together before starting. Now, nightfall isn't that quick, especially the Realm of Torment (an understatement of the century). Nor have I ever come close to that rate of advancement in prophecies before - that is coming close to a group of human players in a single guild using team speak.

I really wish I could make a team of 8 for UW and FoW. I hate human teams - I tend to either be the lead anchor or pulling the team along. I find neither state to be fun. I've tried it with a four man team and I just can not get a build that works - maybe someone else will and I can finally have fun in those areas (I hate the solo builds even more - they are not playing those areas, just farming. Nothing wrong with that - just not what I personally find fun).

I have Olias using the pre-order ritualist staff and he hasn't complained once - unlike some people! Otherwise they are using whatever I scrape up for them. Something blue or purple drops while out in the Crystal Desert? Drop it in storage for a hero to use, they don't care if it is a shield +14 AL or sword 14-21. Upgrading them as you go is actually kinda fun, I think.

I had so many Greens lying around in my inventory that I just equipped them with what I had. Finally - a use for stuff I haven't used in months... Runes - yeah I think to make them more effective you'd need them. At least minor runes to start...

FoW is easily done with a 4-man team. It used to be easier with the book trick, but it's still not terribly hard.