Hero Healers vs Henchie Healers

I don't know why, but my heros seem to spend most of their time doing nothing (regardless of whether they're set to Attack, Guard or Passive), ignoring the several Jade Brotherhood (or insertothermonster) chopping them and my party to bits. I've tried various builds - WoH healer, Restore Conditions prot, etc. etc. and none seem to work. Unless I can work out what's wrong I'm gonna start taking monk henchies instead and take a extra offensive hero or two. /Agree

Some mobs go right for the healers, others go for the MM, etc.. It wasn't that way at first, so the devs might be responding to complaints about no more pugs IMHO. My MM ruled the first week I had him, now he's mostly a pain, (Master of whispers), minions wander, or stand and watch etc.. but Olias (You have to have access to Prophecies to obtain him) is killer. Same build (MM from Guild wiki). So I am learning some heroes are better than others. Like Zhed (Centaur), if you make him anything but ranger he's useless, he either runs in and wants to fight hand to hand when set to guard, or stands there doing nothing on avoid. I put mine in storage and use Acolyte Sousuke.

Nope sorry you're wrong. Zhed runs in Sou' doesn't. I read that some heroes are "smarter" than others or act more aggressive than others. Goren for example is said to be strong but not real bright. Both do the same for me, depended on setting, skills, and items. When I have them equipped identical (I sometimes run them both as a dual SF team, though currently one carries mark of rodgort and the other steam) they both run in or they both stay, rarely does one do it and the other not. I swap Goren for Koss all the time, I have them set up the same and I sometimes get tired of watching Koss run around - still haven't seen how Goren is stupid regardless of what the in game description of him is. Nor have I seen Dunkoro be particularly planning ahead in combat any more than Tahlkora, Margrid favor treasure/gold while questing, or any of the other things said in their description when you get them - though their cut scenes, dialog, and in game speech fit those models

In fact, if given the same skills they *all* do pretty much the same thing. Make Tahlkora a SF ele and she does the same as the real eles (just not very good damage wise as can not go above 12 in a skill).

Right now, everything we know and have been told say that they are the same. The enemy AI is the same as our heroes which is the same as the henchies.

As far as I know the devs have not specifically stated, just as "leftmost skill is higher priority" is simply from playing around with the heroes. In this instance you can find a few who swear they test it and see no difference in position, yet the vast majority of players *do* see a difference as they are swapped around on the bar. Is left most a higher priority absolutely correct? Dunno, just as I can't be 100% sure they are the same AI. However, I can be sure there are no substantial differences and position does effect skill usage just from testing.

*shrug* have at it though. Doesn't really matter. You can happily believe that Goren is stupid and figure it does whatever to his skill usage or that Sousuke is much better. Without the devs telling what they did we will never know for sure. Until then, do what works for you.

I tend to use Healer hench...

They're builds are tried and tested and leaves me 3 Hero slots to bring things that can either kill or aid defence. My sentiments exactly. Bear in mind that Mhenlo and his buddies have a far more focused skill bar than some, ie, <8 skills, not necessarily a bad thing where AI is concerned. And especially in Nightfall, I'd take Mhenlo and Khim over any hero build, they're that good. And besides, there are far more decent offensive hero builds, such as "Dr Olias Goes To Hell" et al.