"I Can Be Your Hero, Baby..."

on my main toon all my heroes have their specific builds because they each have specific purposes/missions i use them for

my main healer has always been ogden, and he still uses the old well of power healer build, and he uses it well
gwen is my main interrupter whenever i choose to use her
when i'm bored and just looking to run around killing everything i use my 3 pet barrage hero team

yes... i do like my heroes

The extent of my communication with H/H is shouting profanities and blaming them for everything.

Wow, swap a few roles, and this list is almost exactly how I have mine built. It was as if I wrote this list myself...

I always play monk as my favourite proffesion but for some reason i've grown attached (in a completly heteroway) to mhenlo! He must always be in my team if another monk is required.

Olias..actually if there is one hero that seems to be different it would be him. He does seem to die alot and not stand back when required, interesting u guys have the same response. I thought it was the runes i had gave him giving him not enough health but no.....it really isnt not i grow to see.

also i see its not just the default biulds but you cannot help think each hero's weapon is chosen for them.

Koss - Axe, Goren - Hammer, Jora - Sword
Dunkoro - healing, Tahlkora - protection etc...

-Tahlkora is boss. I trust her enough that I sometimes use her as the sole healer.
-Mox is a meatshield, he's almost entirely useless.
-Sosuke, zhed, vekk are my three musketeers.

After years of Hero Battles and PvE, I've become very accustomed to me heroes, so much so that I know they're strengths and weaknesses. For instance:

Tahlkora - she's the best monk. period. I can always count on her to support me.
Ogden - he's a great smiter but has very bad judgement. Once, in HB, he shadowstepped out of range and let the rest of us die (i forgot to disable the skill but tahlkora was fine even with the shadowstep available to her)
Dunkoro - nice heals ty
Sousuke - amazing in 1v1s
Zhed - Unleashes everything in short bursts and then crumbles
Vekk - very consistent but tends to over-kite
Gwen - she beats Norgu easily
Margrid - If I need interrupts, she's the one I call
Pyre - best beast master but gets solo'd too easy
Jin - Acolyte Neverdies
Master of Whispers - Master of Minions
Livia - She's just awesome in everyway
Olias - annoying but until they bring 7 heroes in, I'm gonna have to tolerate him. Only thing he's pro at is landing barbs on my targets.
Xandra - She really shines in resto/channeling type builds.
Razah - he can't stand on his own two feet but if he has backup, he's unstoppable
Goren - He's made for spear builds

I also find that, when pveing with my sin, I must take tahlkora, dunkoro and vekk. It must always be those 3 together. If I change one out, they all go. It's because they were my HB heroes for so long and it's like the 4 of us are family

I use Gwen, Xandra and Master of Whispers.

Ocassionaly I drop Gwen for Razzah if I want spiritway.

Aside from that they never change on any of my toons unless Nightfall forces me to, in which case I usually drop Gwen. The limited hero spots means I need to get the bang for my buck in the three places I have, Minion Master, Spirit Spammer and Psychic Instability is what I've decided is the optimum build for almost any situation.

I used to vary my heroes a bit more, bringing whomever I though was more suited to the content's story line (in Factions I usually bring Sousuke, Jinn and Xandra or Zenmai) but sometimes HM makes me want for more optimised builds. WiK and Zaishen quests killed my preference for bringing heroes I liked and enjoyed playing with; the shoe horning of players into HM meant I had to alter my team to suit the content and my builds were less creative and fun if I wanted to complete content at all or in times that were acceptable.

Maybe after the hero cap is removed I will pick heroes based on character and a fun balanced party now that I control everyone's bars.

O'Lazius as in:

"Ah! I see from all the fresh corpses that there must have been a fierce battle here just recently. Fortunately, I do not need any of them since I was keeping my minions safe back on that hill!"

Every time i see melee heroes AI in action i have an mental image of retarded kids with swords, axes, scythes and other melee weps running around aimlessly, screaming and bumping into each other.
Especially when it comes to Koss.

I've been trying an unlikely build lately -- making Jora a warrior/assassin. I was surprised that she actually is using shadowstep; I halfway suspected she wouldn't use assassin abilities. This is for two of my characters/parties -- with other characters, Jora is a warrior/paragon or whatever.

Oh yes they have personalties and it's both good and bad. But even if they misbehave from time to time i really enjoy playing with them.

Dunkoro is my main monk! He's a champ and rarely runs out of energy even in intense and/or long battles. If i bring another monk hero to do "his job" with the same build, they strangely don't seem to handle it as well.
Ogden is the guy who never seem to be at the right place at the right time. He's the goof that you can't fix no matter how much you try to help him by micro his every step. He's the short, slightly senile grandpa of the team.

All the others have their place too of course just Keiran who's a bit new to the bunch but he's slowly getting to know the others. Like i always feel bad if i don't use Keiran and Gwen at the same time. They deserve it no?

Heroes have no quirks. They are AI-controlled and all heroes of the same class behave absolutely identical, given the same build, runes, weapons and position in the party list.

There are heroes I prefer over others, however. This depends on their build, on their location of the drop-down list, and of course upon their look.

For example, I skilled Master of Whispers as a minion master because he is the first Necromancer on the drop-down list, and I have a mouse hotkey bound to the "control hero 1" action to set his flag. This way, he must be the first hero I add to my party to be able to push him and his minions into battle.
I never take Ogden Stonehealer, because he is so ugly.
I prefer Gwen over Norgu, because she looks better then Norgu.
I prefer Acolyte Jin over the other rangers, because she is the first ranger on the drop-down list and I never take more than 1 ranger. Pyre Fierceshot would be much cooler, but he is too far down on that list.

I just recently got Kieran and spec'ed him out as a P/W with Swordsmanship, Tactics, and Motivation...emphasis on stances. He seems to take on the role pretty well and uses the sword in a fairly effective manner. I've been pleased so far :-)

I'm rolling on the floor laughing at the experience people are having with their heros. I completely agree with most of you.

Oggy is usually my main healer monk, as I had EOTN before Nightfall and am used to him. Dunkoro sucks for both my wife and I, and we call him "Drunky" as he's either drunk or senile. Talhkora is my protection monk, and she NEVER has any problems with that role.
Zhed is my water ele, Vekk is fire, and Sousuke is either fire or water/earth. I dont usually bring ele's but I havent noticed any problems with them when I do.
Hayda friggin rocks. She's hawt, and she shouts at me like the bad boy I am. Morgahn has the same drunk and senile problem that Dunkoro has. I only have Keiran on one char, and I set him up as a P/R with motivation and marksmanship skills.
Anton and Zenmai dont get much play, but I do like setting up Zenmai as a A/R with the ranger preparation that interrupts on criticals. She does well with it for the most part.
Gwen is my dominatrix. She's the first one to get the Deldrimor armor upgrade, as her outfit just looks hot. Norgu I cant get away from the buffet table.
Jin, Pyre, and Margrid all have their roles, usually casting frozen soil or winter when needed. Otherwise I have better heros to use. They'll probably see more use when the 7 hero party update happens.
Xandra and Razah are great. I usually have Xandra has channeling and Razah as communing prot spirits. They definitely have a spot on all of my char's teams.
MOX, Melonni, Kahmu, Koss, Jora, and Goren dont see much use either. Most of my chars are midrank, so I bring warrior henchmen instead as meat shields. Goren stays as hammer with Dwarven Battle Stance, and Koss and Jora are swords.
For necros, I almost always bring Livia for the eye candy. She's either minion master, or blood magic if there's no corpses. Olias usually does his job and I rarely use Master of Whispers. When I do, they're curses builds.

Thanks for the laugh, this thread is great.

Am I the only one who actually likes Norgu? I mean, sure, every time something like pie drops he eats it, but hey. It's part of his charm!

I like Norgu when I give Gwen Panic, and I give him Psychic Instability.

It's like: Who is gonna cast? NO-BODY!!
(Ghostbusters theme music in the background)

No, I'm not attached to them at all. I hate them.

I hate them BECAUSE of the patterns in their behaviour that have become a part of them in my mind:

1. Inane, unwanted text boxes popping up saying stuff that doesn't matter! Yes, yes, Abaddon is dead, and Grenth is not going to make the same mistake, and blah blah BLAH! I know, Olias. I know. You told me already. Four years ago. Put a cork in it.

2. Olias casts Life! Everyone "shifts around in a circle!" Life dies! Everyone "shifts around in a circle" again! Olias casts life! Everyone "shifts around in..." *sigh* QUIT IT! STAND STILL! OMFG!! When Master of Whispers drops a "Protective was Kaoli" and we're all just standing idle, you don't need to shift around in a formation to "make room" for the pot he just dropped!

3. I can see the Maelstrom coming. There are Ice Imps everywhere. I'm on the lookout for it. It falls out of the sky. Why can't you see it!? Why do you just stand there for 2 interrupts before you get off your butt and MOVE?

4. "Oh wait, the heroes on this character don't have runes or weapons... can one of you guys bring one of yours? No runes or weapons on yours either? Ok, let me log my main, salvage his heroes' runes, and get their weapons... brb" <----- FAIL.




Guild Wars 2 can't come soon enough. Three cheers for NOT being required to bring three or more AI bots along with me everywhere I go.



PS: I appreciate that heroes are better than henchmen. I'd just prefer not bringing any of 'em.

Off-topic for a second, but could someone explain the heroes' tableau in Rata Sum for me? Four heroines have their hands raised while Mhenlo talks and laughs, and Cynn stamps her foot and pouts. Are the heroines saying "Pick me", or are they saying "I know the answer" to whatever Mhenlo is saying? It's one of the more memorable tableaus from EotN.

The only hero that brings a particular thought to my head every single time i see it is Zhed.
"Darn no IMS...Shotgun on Zhed!"

And yet.. of all that you mentioned.. the Hero AI has yet to develop the monumental capacity for sheer incompetence that human players can achieve.