My 2 hero build for physical players. (Suggestions for third hero needed!)

Use an E/Mo ER protter. I dont think I ever leave a town in HM without one anymore.
If your a physical you "should" find a way to pack SY in which case an Er protter is completely useless.

As to OP imo go with either a UA/WoH hybrid, SoS rit with splinter or a VoR mesmer; they are always fun, but u can bring anything really.

Except SY doesn't make an Er protter completely useless. when your entire party has +100 armor wasting a hero slot to prot one person is a waste

dmg>prot

when your entire party has +100 armor wasting a hero slot to prot one person is a waste

dmg>prot SY maybe enough for some areas but SY doesn't stop armor ignoring damage, hexes, or conditions. You also need red barring. Even if you remove the ER, you still need to bring the skills carried by the ER onto other characters.

That said, for general areas, I find SY to be less reliable than a player controlled PS and unless you are a primary warrior, it ties your 3-heroes build assumption to your build of a /w.

well if the ER blood/curses is throwing down barbs/MoP, that will provide good additional damage that can trigger off of any ally, while still buffing your physicals (I usually bring a prot and 3 physicals with my imbagon).

And yes, minions walls are not only offensive (barbs/MoP), but also a defensive tactic. enemy AI will target your minion wall while the squishies can do their work.
And yes, I'm a huge fan of physical teams :P If you really want to bring MoP on a hero, you should consider disabling and micro it, since the hero AI is too stupid to choose a good MoP target.

Also if you want such a MoP/Barbs build then you should consider bringing a fiends MM instead of a bomber. Fiends have a higher attack speed and work better with MoP/Barbs from range. In other words, you dont need a minion wall when you already have a wall of melee attackers for the enemy AI to target.

In a 6-heroes team, you can have everything you need, but in a 3-heroes team, simply cramping every offensive buff into those 3-heroes is just going to make your team weaker in the tougher HM areas.

And yes, good generic 3-heroes build tend to be overly safe for most areas because they are generic (e.g. sabway). They are meant for people who are lazy and allows for some mistakes. If you want the optimal build everytime then you have to custom design one for each area/character build and play optimally everytime.

Since when are hexes dangerous in PvE? Hexes in pve are a joke, and proper partyhealing fixes any heavy degen shit. Only if you have enough red barring....if you have to depend on Alesia as your only source of heals then good luck to you in HM hex heavy areas.

Only if you have enough red barring....if you have to depend on Alesia as your only source of heals then good luck to you in HM hex heavy areas. The 6 hero build was the one I quoted =\ Two PwKs, Life, Recovery, and a blood bond isn't enough to make hexes insignificant?

The 6 hero build was the one I quoted =\ Two PwKs, Life, Recovery, and a blood bond isn't enough to make hexes insignificant? Do you have enough data to support your claim? Simply claiming what skills say isn't sufficient proof...

The 6 hero build was the one I quoted =\ Two PwKs, Life, Recovery, and a blood bond isn't enough to make hexes insignificant? I was quoting what you said in the context of the OP's 3-heroes build, and not the other pvx 6 heroes build. For that 6 heroes build, why wouldn't it have hex removal since it already has cure hex and smite hex?

We have to decide what we can lose. It seems like Orders and MM's are mutually exclusive. Orders would have pretty obvious benefits, but I wouldn't rule out MMs because they're considerably more versatile. Also, I'm having trouble supporting teams with no prots/redbars. I agree. The problem with 3-heroes for a physical is that you can't fit everything that you want in there so you have to sort out what you really need and what are the nice-to-haves.

What are the needs: Some prots, nice to be able to pre-PS before aggro. Condition Removal, and some red barring. Nice-to-haves: hex removal, physical buffs (e.g. SoH, Barbs, Orders, Splinter, MoF), minions, spirits.

Of course some physical buffs are more useful than others and some are easier to provide than others. I would usually take Splinter and SoH because they are easier to bring and are more useful for a physical.