Henchmen equipment improvements for hardmode

There's heated debate on wanting 1 player + 7 heroes in hard mode. As a compromise, maybe just give henchies these equipment upgrades in hard mode:

• two appropriate minor runes (str + hammer, div fav + prot, etc.)
• superior vigor (or even major or minor)
• 2x vitae runes
• 5x survivor insignia
• 15^50 weapons with +5AL or +30hp for attackers (zealous might be nice, too, or furious/sundering)
• -5/20% shields w/ +30 hp
• +5e^50 HSR 20% wands, or HCT 20% HSR 20% wands
• HSR 20% +30 hp foci

That might be enough to bridge the gap between henchies and heroes to put this issue to bed.

You wouldn't be able to control their skills, but they would be much more effective and have better survivability. I'd be willing to pay gold to an NPC for a one time character based upgrade. Pay 5k to an NPC in Kamadan to upgrade all that character's heroes to have this equipment in hard mode. And/or complete a Razah-like quest.

Nobody huh? /frown

What issue? And it's not needed. Hard mode is supposed to be done with groups. Even so 90% of all three chapters are rather easily hero/henchwayed.

/notsigned

It isn't easy mode..

/notsigned if the henches got elite skills that were useful would be better.

"Stephen is using charge!"

~the rat~

The problem here is not all players have Nightfall so until Gwen they will not consider changing the number of heroes. It would be quite nice if they allowed for you to use your own characters as party members but again this is not really equatable as not everybody has 8 or 9 slots. Unless you have good buddies or a good guild I guess it henchman or heroes and henchman for most of the play. PuG's can be bizarrely interesting at times and hugely frustrating.

I think this whole issue with 7 heroes is being much better discussed on the unnoficial GW forums, its getting pointless repeating these things to the people that dont understand the game here.

/signed again for 7 heroes and better equipped and skilled henchies.

It simply isnt possible to create a decent full player group in this game to vanquish every area. Thats why 7 heroes or better henchies is mainly being asked for.

How is using 8 properly eqipped heros or hench going to make pve any easier then an organised full player group? It isnt. However there is virtually no chance of creating a full team of 8 players to play everything in the game on hard mode whenever you want. Most people dont have the time to stand around looking for and organising groups, and having to deal with the occasional idiot at the same time.

Find a friend, or suck it up. I've done a lot of hard mode with me+3 heroes+4 henchies. It's really not that bad if you have any idea of what you're doing.

I find it baffling that the 1+7 heroes thread gets mixed (but mostly positive) support, but this idea is nearly universally shot down. Hypocrites, the lot of ya.

just b/c not everybody has this or not everybody has that is not an excuse. Not everyone has all the money to *waste* on getting something like the lucky title or the drunkard or sweet tooth title. But it's still there as an option. The fact that we do NOT have the option for 7 heroes is just plain stupid. I still wouldn't really like your idea simply b/c as stated above - they use bad elites and skills. I'd like to be able to update their skills too. Which basically just means heroes and not hench.

I'm with ya fender, if the damn henchies are available to us in HM make them usable.

For those of you who say "find a friend", Screw off, not everyone is in a big guild or has the time to get an entire party together everytime they want to do something. My guild only has 14 people and I like it that way, we are all close friends but that doesnt mean we are all online at the same time working towards the same goals. Please don't tell me to get more people for my guild either, I like it the way it is.

No where does ANET say HM is for PUG's and guild's only, the rest of you, "suck it up". We should all be able to play how we want. I also dont think buffing henchies would be so bad and I dont understand why some are so against it.

I am totally for a full party of heroes. Urgoz or The Deep with 11 heroes cool. FoW with 7 heroes bonus. But only for NF characters which is always going to be a stumbling block for the unfairniks and gainsayers.

The people that are saying find a guild/friend etc are obviously the ones that havnt ever tried grinding a carto or vanquisher title, or simply dont know how to use heroes.

Their points are completely invalid in the 7 hero/better hench discussion.

Sorry, but if YOU had any idea of what you were doing in this game, or how the skills work and how to synergise them, you wouldnt be fine with using hench at all. Their skill sets are mostly terrible in all cases, particularly when paired with their rubbish AI.

Anyone with any skill in this game would prefer to design their own custom skillsets to play with, wether thats with people or hench. However, finding 8 decent players that can play the exact skillsets that you want is never going to happen in most areas of the game.

I agree completely with red, vinny and bhavv --> it's extremely tough to find PUGS especially when you're in a smaller guild. I'm that way..there are about 6 people in my guild. I OWN the guild so I don't wanna just give it up and join some huge guild after all the money I've put in it.

I also agree that NOWHERE does it say you HAVE to PUG hard mode or any part of the game for that matter. The game should be designed for people to play it the way they want to and not FORCE them to play a certain way (a certain build, a certain party, etc). Anet is basically forcing us to waste our time trying to find a PUG group for each and every area -- any mission, any vanquisher area, etc -- as henchs and 3 heroes AI is just too dumb to really rely on. Heroes at least have better skills, have runes, and are customizable so you can change their build depending on what you're doing.

So in short -- I'll repeat -- we should have the OPTION to have an all hero team.

If the henchmen got such upgrades they would be better-equipped than half the human players out there. Other people might not like that.

Better equipment doesnt mean jack in most cases, the difference between 15^50 vs 13^50 is so small you can barely notice it.

What needs to be fixed is the henchie's skills and AI, why the hell do monsters kite like bastards and hench just stand in the meteor showers? I tried doing Hell's Precipice in HM earlier with heroes and hench, not my idea of fun. Is that not what A game is supposed to be? Fun.
If anyone is going to say "NO THIS ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE FUN ITS SUPPOSED TO BE HARD MODE!"... please do us all A favor and piss off. I'm not saying they should make the game easier here, I'm saying we need alternatives that don't suck.

I'm not even seeing enough people in the outpost to even attempt at forming A party, the only way I could hope to get or put A party together would be to use these forums. Using an outside source to form A party in A game with over 3million subscribers? Not exactly the way it should be huh.


Anyhow its not like any one of our posts even add up to what Anet has "Envisioned" for their game, so /endrant and godspeed to everyone shooting for HM titles.