Let us see Hench skill-bars in outposts before picking them!

Im not suggesting we be able to see the henches skill-bars once we're inside an instance or a missions. Im not suggesting we be able to change or control hench skill-bars. Im suggesting we have a way to view their skill-bars before we make a choice to add them to our teams.

An example being...

You speak to a Hench while he/she is stood in their line. A button at the bottom of the dialogue box will say "View my skill-bar"!

Once you select this, it will expand to show that henches entire skill bar and skill-points allication. The only issue I see with this, is whether your doing HM or NM, and whether the programme can distinguise that and show you their NM or HM skill-bar.

Why...?

At the minute, most players have absolute no idea what build the henches use. Even if you've been playing for 18 months, like myself, its not something you generally pick up on or know indepth unless you take the time to learn.

Especially since we now have several dozen henches throughout the game, with both NM and HM versions.

Personally, I dont really have the time to carefully observe and analyse each and every hench throughout all 3 campaigns and learn what possible skills they have available to them.

The main problem is that you might invite a certain profession hench and have no idea what their going to do. For example the Necro henches can be either Blood, SS or MM. The warrior could be tank or damage. The monks could be heal or protections. You just have no way of telling, unless you take the time out to observe them.

And how many people put priority on sitting back and learning what build each hench is? I know im usually too busy fighting, and distracted to be able to sit back and watch what my henches are doing. It would take hours of gametime to learn that kind of thing.

Yes the information is probably there to find...

I realise websites like Guildwiki probably provide this information, but its something we need at hand. We shouldnt have to jump in and out the game to find it out.

I also realise that after you have played for a while, you are going to inherintly pick up small impressions of how certin hench play.

I also realise their names give away their builds a little bit. But I wouldnt say thats a huge aid in describing their builds. For instance whats the difference between a brawler and a Guardian warrior hench? those arent build names im familiar with. They mean nothing to be.

Maybe if I had ever playe a warrior it might, but I havent! I have no warrior experience.

But...

Having the informaton at hand would make the use of henches alot more effective, if we were able to atleast choose the correct ones for a certain area. Instead of basically hit and miss!

It would help educate newbie players too, if they knew to use certain builds instead of just picking henches at random. It would give them an idea of what effective and what isnt.

It would make it a far more intelligent game, then randomly picking any old hench.

It could result in cookie-cut builds if people copy the hench builds, but if your stupid enough to do that, then its your fault.

It wouldnt be a hard thing to do, as your just displaying information which already exists ingame. Maybe have 2 buttons which say "View my Normal mode skill bar" and "view my hard mode skill bar".

Vote this 5 stars if you like the idea!

I thought they already give descriptions of what the heroes do? Like Brutus [Blood henchman].

But I agree, a better description would be nice.

Although its super easy to work out what build type they are using just by observing for a few seconds during combat and the fact most of them have xx Henchmen whihc normally tells u what type of build they are generally using eg. Lina the Protector Henchmen.

ill say /signed to make it easier for newer players even though i dont think its really needed

Most players will already know their builds more or less. Otherwise, their builds are displayed on the wiki pages.

Then again, if I am picking henchmen in a town, I wouldnt go look on wiki to look their skills up. And because of that, I am still confused what the difference is between the two [Healer Henchmen] in Kaineng City Area.

/signed

Some do, some dont!! For example... whats the difference between a Brawler or a gaurdian warrior? Even after 18 months of playing, I have nooo idea!

For all I know one might be better suited for certain areas, but I wouldnt know. One might be tank, damage or interupt. It would be nice to know.

Yes I could check wiki perhaps, but newbie players wouldnt know about that website and we shouldnt have to flicker in and out of the game to find that information.

Its something Anet should let us see, if we're expected to use these henchmen.

If something like this is implemented, and I don't see why it shouldn't, I'd like to see the [Henchman] tags removed. Mostly for the sake of continuity, in a visual sense they'd fit in more with our Heroes if they just displayed their names out in the wild, like Khim, Koss, Sologon and Cynn instead of Khim [Healer Henchman], Koss, Sologon [Motivation Henchman] and Cynn [Mage Henchman]. You know, to reduce screen clutter. Would probably make clicking on minions and pets a little easier too.

From the lore aspect, it'd be more intuitive to select the proper party members than just "Hm, Monk... OK come with me. Mage? Fire, alright you too." It's be... "Well, who are you now? Cynn eh? And what do you...? Hm, and these skills would benefit me how exactly?"

...Maybe I get too far into the RP side of a game that doesn't have as many RP elements as say Dungeon Siege, Oblivion or any of the others, but I'd still find it a neat feature.

Add their skillbars and attribute loadouts right to their in-town dialogs, for the sake of those who don't like to alt-tab to the harsh reality of an internet browser... it ruins the fun. I look at a browser too often when I work, I don't really want to revert back to in while gaming as well.

/signed
That would be nice to be able to see what skills they have on their skills bar. And the difference between a Brawler and gaurdian warrior, the former use mainly stardard axe warr build, as for the later use party buff skill such as shield up.

Well they give some sort of categorization, but in some places its just completely wrong. For instance:

Kihm, Healer henchman:
* Aegis
* Dismiss Condition
* Renew Life
* Reversal of Fortune
* Protective Spirit
* Zealous Benediction

Odurra, Illusion Henchman:
* Cry of Frustration
* Empathy
* Ether Feast
* Leech Signet
* Resurrection Signet
* Shatter Hex

Aurora, Longbow Henchman:
# Bestial Mauling
# Call of Haste
# Charm Animal
# Heal as One
# Pounce
# Resurrection Signet
# Savage Pounce

Also what exactly does ANET mean with cultist and vile henchmen ?

But there is another advantage for letting us view the henchman's entire setup (skills, attributes, equipment). It gives new players, who are still learning their first class, starting points for setting up their heroes.

/signed. Really, whats the harm in doing this ?

This will show my lack of ever playing a warrior, and prove my point somewhat. I wouldnt know the pros and cons with comparing an axe build to a sword or hammer build.

I can understand by looking at a skill-bar and reading skill descriptions, whether or not it looks like a decent character. But just by seeing that one holds an axe and the other a sword means nothing to me.

And I thought all warrior henches used buffing skills to effect the team. This just proves even more why we need to know their skill bars. Now im told they dont..... that kind of makes me think about using Guardians more!

GuildWiki/Official Wiki. If you want to learn, you have to put forth the effort.

/signed
I basically know what the henchman do, but sometimes I have brain gaps.

If its information that we shouldnt be given ingame (such as maps, NPC locations, and how to complete missions and quests), then im all for using websites like guildwiki and putting the effort in.

But why should we be denied seeing the henchmen skill-bars? What possible advantage could it give us over the game? its not cheating at all!

This is information that Anet should provide us anyway, if they expect us to use Henches and to be able to use them effectively. Its information that new players could use to learn how to use Henches more effectively.

Plus I dont want to spend 10-15 minutes moving back and forth between a website and the game, just to select henches.

Most information in the Wikies is also in the game.
Being it in the wiki does not man that it should not be included.

Alas, some players would have to alt tab and start a browser, and for some machines that is a pain in the... ahem... just a pain.

I was going to post a similar idea, but also making them have some different builds to choose from, around 3 per Henchman.

It's important to know the builds of your allies, and wikies do not have the absolutely real data, only the data they see by selectin the henchmen and watching what they use.

/Signed, very, a lot, incredibly, enormously signed!

How many times have I wondered about a hench skill, but too lazy to check it out in GW wiki and such? How many times did that later spelled disaster?

Getting a direct reference of skills would really help determine party chemistry. The game itself should be able to allow a kick overview of hench skills and leave wikis and their thorough reports to a more leisurely time.

Action is the name of the game!!!!

A color distinction of their names, would've been a more elegant solution. Maybe they should be more integrated into the lore, instead of the "Brainless automatons right here!" that the tag implies (new idea coming up? )

/signed

The other night I was vanquishing Tahnakai Temple, leaving from Zin Ku corridor. Do I want Chiyo or Professor Gai? Jamei or Sister Tai? Devona or Talon Silverwing? If the game wants me to choose, it should give me some basis to make that choice.

/signed

Very useful idea

/signed always thought it was weird to see khim casting aegis even though she's put as healer

/signed this would help newbies out a lot and give them a basic setup for heros too. especially those too embarassed to ask for someone elses build

amazinging idea, at first i thorught it was another can we control hencys or a secret 8 heros teams, but yah nice i dea would help loads

/signed

/signed enthusiastically

This....

would ROCK. With the whole hero/share your skillbar functionality added over the last several months, it makes a lot of sense to incorporate something for the henchies too. Cmon - who doesn't love Lina, but wonder wtf she is doing half of the time? (or wonder why she is so unprepared to do her job).

And yes - we can go to wiki for this - but why should I have to go outside the game for this basic info...

/signed

the point of the game is to beat it and if u dont kno the henchies skills then how do u know wut to beat it with?

And doing this doesn't actually have to be that complex. We know ANET is planning on linking their wiki into guild wars. So once they have that done, they just link us to a page stating the henchman's setup, then make sure the page has accurate information.

In fact, I'd settle for ANET simple making a web page with the skills, attributes, runes, armor stats and weapon stats of the henchmen and updating it as they change them.

Having the player consult a webpage is what we have with wiki right now.

There should be a reference in the game itself. Webpages are good for thorough reading, thinking, planning, learning, etc...

When we access the Party window, we can add heroes as well as henchmen. Why not add an option to see the skills there?

/signed.

I don't see a downside to it. Descriptions like 'Cultist', 'Brawler', 'Vile', 'Holy' are FAR from revealing

That is actually what im trying to avoid. I dont want to leave the programme and rely on accessing a website to find this information. Its when you try to move between the guild wars programme, and back into your windows desktop to look at websites that the issues start.

On my PC for instance, it can take a good 30-60 seconds just move between the two, because the game takes so long to stop thinking about what its doing. It really doesnt like being flicked in and out of.

If you consider how much time it would take to move in and out of the game, to look at websites over and over again to view hench skill-bars. That would get frustrating!

Yes you can minimise the window, but that can slow a system down too.

What im asking for, is the skill-bar information be inside the game. Simply accessed by speaking to the NPC and asking to see it. Not changable, or controllable, just simply viewed.

/signed

If Anet made the hench, they certainly have their attributes, skills, etc, listed somewhere. Can it be that hard to shove it on a page on their website or their wiki?

Im not flaming, I swear. But did you read the thread? The henchs skill-bar information is already available on guildwiki.net. That information already exists on a website.

My point is, im asking for that information to be put in side the game, so you dont have to move in and out of the game to view a website to retrieve it.

Welll If they link to the wiki, I hope they have an igame browser, otherwise it would not fix much.

We dont need an ingame browser, because all im asking for is the skill-bar to be displayed in a very simple window so we can what they use.

Probably the same window which you view, when you select a persons build after they ping it.