What would be good 3rd hero for my team?

Alright, I'm a mesmer running various builds and don't like to restrict myself to 1 skillbar. Which is why I don't personally use Discordway. I've tried sabway which was okayish, I tried spiritway which was so-so (it gets the job done but too much micro for me).


Right now my team is:

Me/x (me)
E/Mo (personal bodyguard, ER hero; 14-9-9)
N/Mo (Jagged Bones, Bone minions, Shambling, Nova, Masochism, Putrid Bile, Dwayna's Sorrow, Res chant; 16-9-10)

Mesmer henchman
Earth henchman
Monk henchman
Monk henchman



What I'm looking for in 3rd hero build:

* No micro except in rare cases
* As much damage as possible
* Versatility - it needs to work in most game areas, and should be compatible/synergize with heroes others take when I play with them
* Speed - I'm not going to specially "prepare" for every fight. C+space and here we go. Mob to mob. Speed buff would also be awesome, but not much use if it handicaps the hero so that once in battle the battle itself lasts too long and I don't progress any faster.


What I tried:

* SoS Rt - I gave up. I know many like to have channeling on one of the heroes, but keep in mind that Splinter Weapon will be useless in most cases as my party has no melee and heroes don't use it on minions. I had problems with SoS itself; sometimes hero casts it just out of reach of the mob we're fighting and he won't recast it closer until the old spirits die or we move far enough, which means I spend entire fight without most damage. Other problems are standard - spirits hit obstacles. I'm fully aware how strong spirit spam is, I play it myself sometimes, but hero AI is quite annoying. Oh and, they suck at using Painful Bond, when they use it that is.

* Mesmer interrupt hero. It's okayish, I like to watch hero cast spells and interrupt, but it just felt underpowered. I used AP domination. Oh and, I know many like to invest in Smiting, but as I said, no melee means no use for SoH.

* Curses necro. More or less sabway one. It's difficult for me to estimate the benefit of this one, but problem I had with it was SS seemed useless in many cases - hero would put it on target just before death. Im not interested in damage mitigation skills, or heal skills, but mainly damage, so SS+barbs was more or less only thing this hero had. I wasn't too impressed. However, if someone has good Curses skillbar that would go with my team and thinks I should definitely try it more, I'm ok with that.

* Another MM. It works in some areas but it's too situational. I would rather avoid it unless someone convinces me otherwise.

* Melee hero. Ya, I tried them, they aggro everything and tend to die a lot because they run forth and get spiked. I think they can be quite fun actually, so if there's some build that would fit, I'm ok with it if it counters tricky AI. The problem is that the rest of the team just isn't set to support this guy with SoH, Splinter and other stuff.

Actually, I'll stick with Curses, it seems best option from what I tested so far. Gwen was atrocious.

But I could still use help with skillbar:

SS, Barbs, then what? Right now I have also SoLS, Enf Blood, Rip Enchant, Veng Weapon, Life, FomFlesh. If I use PwK then I lose 40/40 equipment bonuses, hate that unless it's really needed. Life is there because of badly needed party heal in case of AoE. Not sure what else so I put Veng weapon. 14-9-10.

Posts Merged by Cebe: Please use the button rather than double posting!

Try combining the SoS and the curses rit. SS is somewhat of a waste because theyll only use it on the target that you're trying to kill. Run something along the lines of this
Rt/N
12+1+1 Channeling
12 Curses
3 Spawning

1.SoS
2.Splinter Weapon
3.Spirit Siphon
4.Ancestor's Rage
5.Barbs
6.MoP
7.Enfeebling Blood
8.FomF

Even though heroes are not entirely reliable, this is one of the most valuable hero bars you can bring to an area. You can swap out the nec skills for prots, para shouts, resto heals, spirits, etc. Even if you don't have a physical, all your heroes/hench will wand whenever possible, so splinter is still put to use.

I agree with the guy suggesting rt/n hybrid above. Or you could make it a n/rt replacing SoS with icy veins, spirit siphon with sols and fomf with dps or rip enchant. I don't know what the deal is with IV, maybe they don't use it often enough. On paper it is one of the best skills for a hero in pve. I never pve without it, but typically it's on a IV resto bar(IV, sols, ff, plague sending, wow, sp.light, life, dps).

Personally I think you run way too much defensive stuff. I like(or liked rather, haven't pve'd in a while...) to run with as little healing as possible without wiping. Typically I get by with 1 copy of spirit light over 2 humans and 6 heroes. I don't know about the ER hero, it's the latest craze I guess so it probably works. Could afford to run something more offensive than dwaynas sorrow on the mm maybe?

Dwayna's Sorrow is for party heal which I feel is sometimes badly needed. But if there are better suggestions I'm open to them. It's also a good place where I can put Fall Back when there's need for it. Or utility like Frozen Soil. I hate going to some areas without that.

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Yes, MoP is an extremely powerful skill regardless of AP, although a 40/40 set does help. With 11 minions running around it'll get some good triggers as well. If you don't feel like running /n, you can always go /p with things like FB! and SYG! On your minion bomber, I suggest replacing Rez chant with Aegis. You don't need to get dwayna's that high to be effective, so dropping the points in prot will help greatly.

I don't agree on the matter of IV. The problem with it's use in HM is that everything has a ton of armor, making IV do much less than it would originally seem.

As for the E/Mo, I never really got into them, always favored my N/Rts more. Heroes have the uncanny ability to drop PwK the second that the mass aoe hits, healing your party back up instantly. The other amazing thing about N/Rts is that they don't need an elite to be effective at healing. I usually run either Corrupt Enchantment or Spiteful Spirit on my resto nec when not running discord.

What I've always used was a R/W(actually 2 of these) with
Expert dexterity|read the wind|d-shot|savage shot|keen arrow|sloth hunter|watch yourself|res sig
12+1+1 exp 11+1 marks leftovers on tactics.Flatbow optimal.

Believe it or not,watch yourself helps quite a bit to reduce all pressure and aoe received.They also interrupt well and pump out dmg(very useful if you're using AP and having to switch targets constantly because they die too fast).
Barbs/MoP necro especially useful when using those too.


If you're not using AP and want some fun with Fevered dreams,switch the build to:
Incendiary arrows|Apply poison|d-shot|savage|screamming shot|lightning reflexes|serpents quickness|res sig
Nice condition spam for fragility and constant daze with FD,also switch the bow for recurve and atributes to
exp 11+2+1 wild 11+1 marks 8+1.

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