a couple of noob questions

I've been playing solo for a while, just using henchmen, and just made it to the Eye of the North campaign. Now the henchmen have specialty names, like "Interrupt", "Brawler", "Guardian", "Protection" and "Illusion" henchmen. I can see what class they are, for example the Interrupt henchie is a Ranger, but how do I choose between similar classes? i.e. what's the difference between the Interrupt and Archer henchies?

Also, the collectors always seem to have inferior items to the ones you find... does anyone ever trade with collectors?

Thanks,
Wrayk

In general, it describes their function. For example, a Ranger labeled "Interrupt Henchman" might use the elite Broad Head Arrow, which can be a major shutdown/interruption tool, while a Ranger labeled "Archer Henchman" might use a more damage based build, like one based around the elite skill Barrage. Which one to take depends on the rest of your team and the area you'll be facing. You can always look at the builds that each henchman uses and what their skills do on either the official wiki (wiki.guildwars.com) or the non-official (guildwars.wikia.com/wiki).

As far as collector items, they can be great for folks who can't afford to buy a weapon on the player-based market, and there are a few later on in the campaigns that offer better items, but overall you're more likely to get what you want by just purchasing it from a player. Again, a list of all collectors, along with what they're collecting and what they offer, can be found on either wiki.

Hope it helps!

I've found collectors to be pretty useless.

Especially when running with full parties of henchies. You don't get that many drops and getting 5 of the same trophy item can take ages.

Most of the time if you are just wanting *better* weapons/armor, you may as well just spend some gold to craft it. You can get weapons easily enough as well from drops.

1. Go to wiki and you can see the henchmen's skillsets in full.

2. You will come to appreciate collectors once you understand the item upgrade system. Collector items are max, req 9, come with either perfect inherent mods or a blank inscription slot, and are fully modable.

As noted, collectors can be a cheap source of otherwise expensive equipment, the same is true of weapon crafters...

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Quic..._(professions)

That link makes finding cheap perfect gear quite easy...

some collector stuff is ok, other is not worth it....some is worth more than the items that the collector wanted to make them---
I have a few collector items that work just as well as anything else I have found in game. (my main ele still has a collector air focus and wand she STILL uses 5 years after she got them).
Collector weapons are good when you have the items the collector wants and you dont have the money, especially in lower level areas (if you have not made it to the max stuff yet). Collector armor is ok until you reach max armor level--at which time you should invest in armor made by the armorer.