Unsung Heroes

I've pretty much only used Razah, Livia, and Xandra since EotN came out. The three Rangers see play if I want to do something odd. One, or sometimes both, of the Mesmers get slotted in if I need interrupts/hex removal, but the Rangers are usually enough for interrupting. It's a shame that the AI of nearly all of the physical classes prevents them from being effective at dealing damage. The biggest losers are definitely the Assassins who are essentially useless.

Don't see why why Warriors are looked down upon, my Koss can survive well and dish out a shitload of dmg.

I use roughly the same heroes across all characters with the same builds unless a mission or quest calls for a different one. It just seems more reliable that way and I don't have to constantly switch out weapons.

Most used? 95% of the time I have Razah as a rit MM, Tahlkora as a protection monk, and Vekk as a fire damage ele. The other heroes hardly get used at all, but since unlocking more paragon skills I've been wanting to bring Hayda out as I prefer her to Morgahn (even though her dialogs are pretty annoying rofl).

Agreed on the sin heroes, I've never ever used them. I unlocked them just to say I have all heroes but that's it. I could try to give them my sin/ranger build (Critical Strike + Way of the Master + Keen Arrow + Disrupting Accuracy) but again, they probably wouldn't do that combo any better than a sin one.

Dervs and warriors are hardly ever used, as I don't generally like bringing melee into battle since they tend to over aggro things being up close in a fight. Koss is sword (he gets used the most if I need a tank), Goren hammer, and Jora axe. I love Jora so been thinking of bringing her when I need a tank instead of Koss. Melonni, MOX, and Kahmu have roughly the same builds, but again they're hardly brought out. Mostly there to hold more green items. Although with MOX you can't actually see the weapon he's holding when he's in battle...lol

Some chars I've been too lazy to progress far enough to get a necro hero for an MM, so in their place I use Gwen as a domination interrupter. Norgu never gets out - he's too busy acting and eating. Margrid is also set to interrupt while Jin is a condition ranger (Burning Arrow + Screaming Shot + Apply Poison). Pyre doesn't really have anything as I don't like the Charr - he just holds an extra green weapon I have.

Dunkoro is my healer, Ogden is my smiter. Both hardly get used as I prefer Tahlkora's protection prayers.

Zhed is my air ele, Sousuke my earth, and Vekk my fire. I bring Vekk the most. I don't know why, guess I just started using him when GWEN came out, gave him a build, and was too lazy to change it. But I may revert to Sousuke since I kind of like him the best.

Razah is a rit MM, and I like that combined with spawning power. When I don't use him, I use Master of Whispers as my MM since he has the superior death magic rune. Livia is SS and Olias was blood magic until I got a Bogroot Staff; now he's a restoration necro when I go out using the 3 necro build.

Heros I refuse to use:
1. Zhed. Y'all are insulting mules when you call him one. I did use him for a while, but one day while out and about vanquishing, he decided, all on his own) to run through 2 mobs to attack a third mob that happened to be on the opposite side of the spin map. NEVER AGAIN!
2. MOX - annoying gimmiky contraption. Only have it on one character, all others just ignore it's existence. Meloni serves just fine when I need her along.

Heros I just don't use because I haven't found a good use for 'em:
1.The Ritualists - Nothing against 'em, I'm just not familiar with the profession.
2. The Assassins - For the reasons others have posted. Plus, I keep the "Chasing Zenmai" and "Drunken Master" quest active for helping others vanquish Bukdek Byway.
Norgu Norgu or Gwen? Gwen or Norgu? Hmm... I don't care for actors with beer guts.
Goren The poor guy. He does see use occasionally when I'm partying up with guildies, tho.

Heroes I rarely use:
1. The Rangers I use 'em for specific missions & stuff, but that's it.
2. Master of Whispers I only use him when I'm feeling like using a pure Sabway team.

The rest I use fairly regularly.

All heroes are useful, except maybe the sin ones, so asking if people don't use some because they are "sucky" is pointless.

But anyways, I usually just use Tahlkora, Morgahn, and Olias - with the alternative of sabway and Pyre replacing Morgahn and Razah replacing Olias. Depends on the area.

Morgahn runs a burning build so in areas against non-burnable foes (like destroyers) I bring Pyre. Olias is always MM, so in non-MM'able areas, I bring Razah with spirits and semi-nuking abilities.

Heroes I refuse to use and other people to use:
M.O.X. mainly because of the broken AI called MOX trot.

Heroes I rarely use:
Ritualists: Love them, but without PvE skills they are like half an lightning ele and half a minion master. Two halves does not make a whole.
Paragons: They don't exist anymore, only imbagons are some reason the only accepted kinds.
Rangers: They are strong... I don't know why I dislike ranger heroes and henchies.
Assassins: The huge problem - they attack target and pull off half their chain, I call a target, they stop their finishing dual attack to start auto attacking the new target till the lead attack recharges.
Mesmers: Interrupts are great and all, but it is easier just to kill.
Warriors: I'd take Devona and keep Olias.

I rarely use Zenmai/Anton. I even have them set up as derv & crit ranger...I just never felt the need to use them. I don't use the paras either. They seem really useless imo. Another one I don't use is Goren. His AI just seems so f*cking retarded ._.

Other then them, my other heroes get equal use depending on the area.

Oh yea, I NEVER use MOX, even on new chars. I go straight to nf/eotn to pick up heroes. MOX is just so...big & clunky :I

ogden cuse I just don't like the way he looks
olias, goren, razah and hayda are runed for attributes I don't use very often
kahmu, mox, zenmai are pretty pointless since I rune all the dervs and sins the same plus melonni and anton are cooler

what they need a 4th ele hero ya know so you can one for every element

I use all except the rits. Poor rits. I can't think of a decent build for them. I have my sins set as either crit barrager or crit scythe. I bring them sometimes just for lulz. Hey, they work fine. My most commonly used would be the 3 ranger heros and 3 ele heros. I love my big orange cat.

Melee heroes.

If Koss/Melloni were not required by quests, they would never get party slot outside newbie island.

I never use:

All assassins
All dervishes
All warriors
(=melee)

I rarely use:

Mesmers
Monks
Paragons

I played with 3 Ranger teams, their evasive stances and Splinter Weapon/Barrage or BHA+Volley/Splinter make them better for hard mode than Warrior NPCs, a role that can be done by henchmen warriors very well.

I sometimes use Hayda, but there is mostly just not a place for her if I am playing on my own. You can only pick 3 heroes, after all.

My most usual combo is Necros or Necro/Rangers mix. Ritualists make some sense, especially now with Spirit Spam. Elementalists are useful at times, too. Though they usually suffer from the hard mode phenomenon that Elementalists hardly have armor ignoring damage and HM has higher armor levels.

Pretty close to what the OP and a few others said.

Never use fatty norgu as I rarely need more then 1 memsmer.
Never use Goren/Koss/Jora, unless required as I'd rather throw Devona at someone.
Never use Zenmai or Anton at all due to the craptacular AI for assassin/melee npc's.
Never use Mox/Melonni/Xamu (or whatever his name is) unless required for a mission.

Sometimes I'll use Hoofboy if i need more nukers then just Souske/Vekk.
Sometime I use Pyre if I'm making a team of three trappers/touchers for a specific mission.

I wish we had another ritualist and paragon hero. I Really wish we could just run 7 heroes, so I can customize my team how I want when friends are not online (hate pugs).

I use Pyre whenever I have an excuse to use a ranger. 'Cause charr rock. Oh, UNUSED heroes? Yeah, I never use Goren. Or Margrid. Ever. Leveled them to 20 w/ the giant worms. Never used them again.

I never use the Sins. I have no use for them whatsoever. I sometimes use MOX, and use Melonni when the mission requires her, but I never use the other derv. I never use the rits. Goren is completely useless, as is Norgu (Gwen > Norgu). I never use Margrid except that rare occasion I do the mission that requires her. I never use Jora. I never use Jin.

All the necros, eles, monks, and paragons see a fair amount of use. I use Pyre as my BHA Ranger when Daze helps. Gwen is my smiter. On the RARE occasions I use a warrior, I use Koss (yeah, that's right ).

I never use melee heroes anymore, they're plain idiots and almost never get to the target I want (spam ctrl+space anyone?) untill they've had a few clashes with their own privatetly decided target somewhere far beyond the horizon - and then it's too late!

Fix this please Anet! I like my Jora :-(


My monk, necro and rit uses Ogden and Norgu when those three needs someone to smite them, mainly 'cause I never use them in general pve and can rune them up as I want.

I used Zenmai only ONE time. For Critical Barrage. While it still could spread bleeding AND poison.

I also rarely use Mesmers or Warriors, unless I'm on a Monk-ish character and I don't have MM's for a shield. Or I need a melee character to abuse Strength of Honor.

I pretty much only use my Necromancers. I have little reason to use others. But if I had to use others, such as for Nightfall missions or special missions/bosses/dungeons/etc, I will. However, I do not use:
-Any Ranger. If I were to use a Ranger, it would be to interrupt. However, the AI doesn't discriminate with interrupts, and will interrupt anything, even if it's a pointless skill to interrupt, and will often miss an interrupt on key skills.
-Acolyte Sousuke. Anything he can do, Vekk does it better.
-Any Assassin. No comment.
-Any Ritualist. With the recent update though, this is subject to change.
-Any Paragon. Too bad I'm forced to bring one for Ruins of Morah.
-Kahmu. The best way to play a Dervish normally requires PvE skills.

Justification for other seemingly useless heroes that I use for:
-Warriors: Jora for sword, Koss for Axe, Goren for hammer. I can pick whatever I need for the situation.
-Margrid: required for Poghan Passage and Dasha Vestibule.
-Mesmers: Gwen is FC Channeling, Norgu is Domination.
-Zhed: required for Kodonur Crossroads or Gate of Desolation.
-Vekk: standard nuker.
-MOX: it's always the first level 20 hero I obtain on any of my characters, so I utilize it until I get better heroes.
-Melonni: Arcane Orders hero. Very useful to have.

3 Necros, Tahlkora as a bonder & mission required Heros are the only ones I use anymore. Everything else is just slower & a waste of time. So I'd say pretty much everyone else.

Melee Heroes:
In PvE they charge into the mob, which will trigger a catastrophic series of events.

(1) Their targets start kiting all over and before you know it, another group will be aggroed.
(2) Melee heroes tend to attack the enemy back line (even on defensive!), so in an effort to heal the hero your own monks will move ahead too far and before you know it your mob and the enemy mob is one chaotic snowball of AoE doom.
(3) Their flags might be good for PvP area defense around a pre-defined spots, but they are useless for the "frontlines" of PvE. One of the most used radar scribbles in PvE is the line people are not supposed to pass, there is no such feature for Heroes. They do not have a single line of code geared towards PvE tactics or decision making.

Best way to fix a melee hero if the mission requires his presence: Longbows, because that makes them stay back like nothing else.

Some things I wished the Hero monks would "learn":
- not walking forward into the enemy melee mob in an effort to save the guy that didn't know when to stop charging.
- kiting in PvE will not prevent damage, only prevent you from healing.
- kiting AoE is the only EXCEPTION to that rule, not vice versa.
- Thou shalt not rez behind enemy lines

I have tried using Anton many times because he's the most handsome out of all heroes. Although I haven't found a use to him. Zenmai on the other hand, was never worth unlocking. Dervs aren't used much, since Warriors are better as a frontline. Sometimes they can do well as Orders. Although I never use 3 warriors at one time, which makes Koss my most used Warrior hero and Goren least.

Now Rits have had a buff which made them useful for builds other than Splinter Weapon, I use Xandra a lot and Razah when I play a character who's got it unlocked.

In more simple areas I use Koss, Olias/Acolyte Sousuke and Tahlkora/Dunkoro. I really dislike this fat dwarf, which makes him least used out of all monk heroes.
And the 3 necros for when it's really needed.