Hero/Henchmen Feature Requests

My apologies if this was duplicated elsewhere, but after doing a few searches I couldn't find it so I thought I'd post a new thread. I enjoy GuildWars a lot but mainly play solo due to not having large chunks of time to game. I play with heroes and henchmen pretty much all the time. Here are some suggestions I had to help make the solo game a bit more enjoyable.

1. Allow some degree of customization of the hero AI such as telling a hero to "prefer" certain skills or skill combos. In other words, there are certain skills such as "Warrior's Endurance" that the hero AI does not use intelligently, and micromanaging skill use via the hero control panel takes away from the game fun. If we could "program" a hero to favor certain skills in certain scenarios, that would help.

2. Allow heroes to use PvE skills - their title track rank would match that of the player

3. Allow heroes to use celestial skills

4. Put henchmen in all areas including Fissure of Woe and Domain of Anguish

5. Put at least basic runes on henchmen armor

I feel these would greatly enhance the enjoyment of the game for those like me who prefer the solo game.

PvE skills are already broken enough, there's no need for heroes to use them too. Runes are not that much of a big deal for heroes; some of the ele ones cost a bit but alot of them are <200g, so no big deal. Besides, what does 'basic runes' include? What type of runes will eles and warriors get, when they are able to wield more than one damage line. It just doesn't work.

Having more AI choices for heros might be cool, but also sounds difficult to implement and have work right....

Really Henchies are as good as they can be (besides changing AI), once you start giving them different equipment or skills you might as well remove them from the game and just let people use heros instead.

Which is actually my feature suggestion for Heros and Henchies- just let people take more heroes and drop henchies. I know there are lots of reasons why they dont do that, so it probably wont happen.....but since were just talking about "wishes" here, I wish i could just have the extra Heroes to round out the party, and forget about henchies.

Put at least basic runes on hero armor... the best suggestion I may have ever heard. No way will I spend like, 10k for each hero to have decent armor with insignias and runes. And that's not even including decent weapons.

Allow them to use PvE skills, I don't see why not

Program the hero AI, could be hard for an average player to figure out, but I like the idea. I hate trying to bring a standard Shock Axe or Cripslash bar, because on a Shock Axe, they will exhaust themselves out, and on a Shock Axe and Cripslash, Koss will Frenzy + Healsig all the way through the Gate of Pain.

/sign everything

Just to clarify #5, I thought it would be nice to have at least minor runes on henchmen armor. I know you can put runes on hero armor already, but henchmen don't have any runes. At a minimum I thought it would be nice for them to have minor runes of their profession along with possibly some vitae, attunement, or vigor runes.

You get to use unlocked skills on your heroes, I don't see why you couldn't just apply unlocked armor mods.

And oh!, would it not be great if we could pick from a drop down menu which bonus armor to use on a hero, so I don't have to type /bonus 10 times to equip my heroes. :-3

/signed

7 heroes as well please

1. Good idea, but it's too late in the lifetime of the game for it to be realistically implemented.

2. PvE skills should be removed or toned down, the last thing we need is heroes to be able to use them as well.

3. Only sensible considering that henchmen do.

4. Absolutely, preferably henchmen with GWEN skill bars/AI.

5. Also agreed, henches could definitely use a buff.

I have thought that heroes would have something like PvP Chars equipment panel, but adding it would remove the biggest gold sink of average players. /notsigned for that

Adding PvE-skills for heroes, would make them so imba that no one would PUG, not even in hardest areas. I would like to see update that would allow h/h:ers use more than 3 pve-skills at time.

Tell me if its imba for h/h how is it not imba for players?

I would like my heroes to be able to use them, I would also like them brought inline with other skills.

I must respectfully disagree with that statement. If having a full party using PvE skills is imbalanced, that's a skill balancing problem, not directly related to whether heroes can use them or not. (Saying it is imbalanced is a bit of a red herring argument.)

Also the reason I brought this up in the first place is because I pretty much never PUG. Not because it wouldn't be more rewarding or because I am anti-social, but simply because my real life schedule does not allow blocks of time for gaming. I often have to leave the computer idle for a few hours during a mission while I tend to my kids. Heroes and henchmen don't mind standing around for a few hours. This of course would be very disrespectful to a PUG.

In short, I know ArenaNet wants to encourage collaborative play, however there are folks like me who cannot do that. I would just like to see these small enhancements to H/H to help allow solo players enjoy the game to the fullest extent.

1. Could be usefull. /signed

2. No, they're already pretty imba when it's just 1 person using them. /notsigned

3. Since henchmen can use them, so should heros IMO. /signed

4. /signedx100 and I'll /signed it again. I would love to see this being added to the game, now I'm constantly bothering people in guildchat/IRC/whatever to lend me their heros. /SIGNED

5. Sure. /signed

1. It would really help, but I doubt they add it until GW2. For your companion.
2. No way. They already can use all unlocked skills. If you want to go Ursan ways, you can always get some friends.
3. Henchmen can use these, and they are linked to the area. They are not PvE skills, but 'temporary' skills usable while in those areas, so I'm not against this one. But the problem here is 'how to?' Making Kuunavang give you the option so your heroes get them too?
4. Nope. Those areas are for non-Henchmen parties only. Heroes are an exception 'to fill gaps'. That's why you can't make 7-hero parties.
5. Henchmen have already some buffs. And even more in hard mode.

/Sort of signed. This would be nice, but probably not doable. I would expect to see this on the Companion NPC in GW2, though.

/Not signed. Would make soloing just too easy.

/Signed. This just makes sense.

/Signed. Definitely would be nice for us solo-oriented types.

/Not signed. Really don't much care about this.

Someone once suggested this :
Let us give heroes the PvE skills, but make them share our character's limit.
Meaning, right now your character can equip up to 3 PvE skills at once, right?
With this system, lets say your character is using 2 PvE skills, one of your heroes can use 1 PvE skill.

This lets you "fill gaps", but not replace real players.

I like your thinking, but at the same time I would argue why have that artificial limit? In other words, what's so bad about going solo with heroes and hench? If I'm with players, we can all have 3 PvE skills. However if real life limitations force me to play solo most of the time, why should my full enjoyment of GuildWars be limited to only collaborative play?

From the responses so far, I'm getting the feeling that most folks don't like the idea of "encouraging" solo players since if going solo was too powerful, no one would play together. Personally I do not feel that way. I believe our personal tastes and schedules should dictate whether we play solo or together with people, but the game itself should not favor one mode over the other.

Anyway, sorry if I'm dragging this into a tangent - this is about H/H enhancements I'm hoping ArenaNet will consider after all. I just wanted to be clear on the motives for the requests. Some folks simply don't have the blocks of time needed to enjoy collaborative play.

1. /Signed - Could be useful, but if they havent done it by now, they probly wont.

2. /Not Signed - I dont really see a huge need for this. Invariably, everyone would have 4 man Ursanway teams ... or whatever the "skill of the month" happens to be after nerf's or buffs. (Seems like Pain Inverter is gaining popularity)
I, like you, prefer to run H/H because of time constraints, cept i dont bother with Henches, and have pretty much run most areas with a 4 man hero team in HM. Giving them access to PVE skills would just make it that much easier.
If you take a little time here and there to really read up on effective bulds and combinations of skill sets, you can easily create a devistating 4 man PVE team. The fact that you can change your own char secondary to further compliment the Hero builds makes it that much easier. It really comes down to, do you want a hack and slash game experience ... Jump in for an hour, do a run with an 8 man team, no fear of failure, and jump out .... or do you want the challenge and spend an hour or three figuring out what 4 man builds will work best for the run and how you can improve your team to make the most efficient run.
As i said, with work and family, i too have limited time, and more often can only spend an hour or two here and there at the game.
Some days, i wont even load GW, but rather will read and research skill sets and ways to improve the build.
This to me is half the fun of the game.
Hack and slash would get old real soon and the game would bore me in no time.

3. /Signed

4. /Signed with reservations, becausei have had some of the best game playing experiences running FoW and the like with guildies. If i were able to solo it with H/H ... well ...
For those areas, i had to make the time on a weekend or late in the evening and coordinated the run with others. If i had to sacrifice a couple of hours of sleep on a worknight, it was worth it. The runs became a bit of an event and was really enjoyable. To add henches to those areas would have given me the option to go it alone, and i might have missed out on the fun.
Something to keep in mind with that one.

5./Signed

Again I have to ask how if its overpowered or imba for heroes to use pve skills is it not for a team of players?

Why should one group get access to these overpowered skill and another group not? (Please note I think neither should, I would much rather see them toned down and both groups allowed access to them)


But no matter what state they are in, giving them to heroes make it no more powerful than in the hands of a player. Less so even because of the heroes AI.

*nods in agreement*

I like these threads. I keep signing them, although Anet doesn't read them.

/signed

I wan't PvE only skills on my hero's.

I have UAX on my account. The only skill's I ever got form a hero trainer are the Sunspear PvE only skills and my hero's cannot use them. "Some hero trainer you are !"

I'd like to be able to select skill combo's.
I'd like to be bale to select some skills as 'allways keep active'. (The AI does ok on some skills and not on some others. )
I'd like to be able to select some skills as 'spread the love arround'. (keep skill active on all party members as much as possible.The AI does ok with say Tained flesh, but not with vital weapon.)

A generic patch allowing to do these things ourselves would eliminate the need for Anet to fix the skills one by one.

And yes, I want full hero parties.