Questions about using heroes in Prophecies

Some background before I bombard you guys with my beginner questions

I am new GW player and just purchased the 3 campaigns and the expansion pack. I started in the Faction campaign and got a level 10 Warrior/Monk. However I want to start again from Prophecies campaign. I want to experience the story as it was originally presented. I am PvE player and I want to solo all the content so my questions about Heroes,

1. Can I use Heroes from the get go in Prophecies? If not from which point can I use Heroes in Prophecies please?
2. From reading these forums I need to play Nightfall to actually unlock the Heroes. Do I need to complete Nightfall to get all the heroes? What is the bare minimum need to in Nightfall to say unlock one hero and all heroes so that I can use them in Prophecies?
3. I saw these Mercenary heroes on the in game shop. If I buy them can I use them in Prophecies from the start?

May be I am going about this the wrong way, so any advice as to how best to accomplish my task is more than welcome

You get the heroes whenever ud get em in the specific campaing.. So u must play Nightfall/eotn to get heroes.. if u want start from prophs u better get to eotn soon as possible then just play with those heros..

Idk about mercenary heroes

The mercenary heroes are available to all chars able to use heroes/hench.. which means you wont have any in pre. Also, you need a level 20 char to create a mercenary, which would require you to create a PvP char at this time.

You should have the fire Imp, and I would suggest staying in Pre to level 10, and farming Nick during your time there, selling the items to pre drunks and title chasers. Pre is a decent area to save gold up as a New player.. simply because there is nothing you NEED to buy there save ID kits.

At level 10, From Lions Arch, you can access EoTN for heroes. From Lions arch you can also quest to Kamedan, and get some by basically showing up.

Eotn Heroes will be 20, I think the heroes you get as a proph char in Kamedan are 15, Jinn and Souseke 12. MOX will be 20. and will show up outside LA. In Kamedan if you can get to Consulate Docks you can add Olias after a short quest. You could add Zenmai, but then would have to get skills outside of Proph to upgrade her.

The first 3 heroes you get in EoTN will help a lot in Proph, they are core, and there are enough skills available in proph to significantly upgrade them past the default hench skills there.

Thanks for the answer guys, things are sort of starting to make more sense now. However I have even more questions now

So I get to level 10 and go to Lion Arch. At this point I have 2 options (?)
1. Go to Eotn and get 3 Heroes
2. Go to Kamedan (is this Nightfall?) and get Jinn/Souseke, MOX and Olias

So if I go to both Eotn AND Kamedan I can unlock about 6 Heroes right?

From what I understand Eotn is for high level characters. So can a level 10 character go there and be able to do those quest?

Also how many quest do I need to do before I can unlock them?

Another question, I plan to use the same character I used to Proph to play Faction, Nightfalls and Eotn. If I do some of these quests to unlock the heroes, will that in anyway affect me when I come to play action, Nightfalls and Eotn?

yes you will get all the heroes--when you unlock them on a character they are available to that character after that.
yes eton is for higher level---you will be able to do the quests, but with much more difficultly as the mobs are much higher levels.
you will get koss, melonni, talkora, dunkoro and mox basically as soon as you walk out the door of kamadan, jin/sosuke and olias will require quests to get them---olias being the longest quest chain---(Complete the quest All for One and One for Justice, which can be obtained from Dinja in the Consulate Docks----wiki)

you might also want to look thru the wiki as it will have lots of answers to more questions : http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

The skills have become progressively stronger as the new chapters have come out. That's why I think you will have the most fun / challenge to play the game in the original order:
- Prophecies
- Factions
- Nightfall
- Eye of the North

Sure, you will play without heroes the first 2 games, but that's those games were designed. And then when you finish all 4 games THEN you go back (with heroes and OP skills) and do Hard Mode.

Sure, you can start Nightfall, get heroes, do EotN and then roll through Prophecies and Factions very easily - but where's the challenge in that?

Have fun - enjoy!

I did not mention the base Nightfall Heros.. two Monks, a Derv and a War.

If you want to finish Proph, and do the storyline in order none of those are needed. With Limited groups through most of Kryta you won't need all those Monks, Melonni, the Derv, will be hampered for skills as you play Proph, so will Mox. Koss.. Warrior.. AI has issues playing that class. Still, you don't have to do anything to get them, just show up at Kamedan.

As you travel to the other campaigns you will interrupt the timeline. How much, or how little of that is up to you. You will not, in any way impede your progress on your char by doing things out of sync.. its just personal preference. You will have a dwarf, seen in Proph. Gwen.. well.. a bit out of place but she is from Ascalon. Olias is a former White Mantle and Krytan.. but it is not a huge lore issue. Vekk and Mox.. both Asuran additions.. how you view that in mostly asuran-free Proph is an issue for you to decide.

Also, I played through all of Proph solo with Hench with two Chars prior to having any of the other games. Although I doubt I ever want to do that again, if you can Hench proph nothing else in game will be undoable. You will learn far more about playing the game and basic strategies and tactics that way. You will also learn to swear at your Henchmen.. a valuable skill you will use throughout the game.

Remember that Prophecies and Factions were designed without heroes in mind. There is not much early in those campaigns that the heroes can really help you with more than the henchies, especially before you have any good skills and elites for them. So don't be in too much of a rush to get to LA.

When you do get to LA, it isn't really worth getting both EotN and Nightfall heroes. For a new player, you will find it strains your finances to properly equip and rune just a couple of heroes. You will likely be working on them constantly as you move through the rest of Prophecies, adding runes and better equipment, and you won't be able to pick up elites for them until after you Ascend.

I went to EotN and picked up Ogden, Vekk, and Gwen, and used those three alone to finish both Prophecies and Factions, including the Prophecies titan quests, without much problem. If I had it to do over, however, I would have gone to Kamadan and picked up those heroes instead, giving me a necro MM early on and the option to include physical damage dealers. Plus, it can be useful to have two monks available, since you can make one a smiter for four-man areas, or another heal/prot monk in six- or eight-man areas.

Edit: Whichever way you go, be SURE you do all the secondary-profession quests in Pre-Searing to unlock as many skills as possible for your heroes to use. You won't even be able to buy non-elite skills for them until after you can change your own secondary, except for heroes that match your own primary or secondary.

Thanks again for the answer and the link guys. I found this nice article http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hero here about Heroes which helps answer lot more questions I had!

Lasai, you said "farming Nick during your time there". Who is Nick please? he drops good loot and/or money?

Based on your answer I think I will get to level 10 and go to LA and from there go to Kamadan and pick up all the "easy to get Heroes" from there. Then finish Prophecies -> Factions -> Nightfalls -> EotN.

One last question, is there any downside to using Prophecies character to play Faction and Nightfall? Is it better to start new character for each campaign?

You can use a Prophecies character to play thru the other chapters. You will start part way through the story, skipping the intro areas. Not a big deal. You can always play a toon from each campaign from the start to see what you missed.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Nicholas_Sandford

He's a collector that collects something different each day.

No downside to playing a Prophecies character in the other campaigns, other than the fact that you start the story in a little bit of the way through. It's easy enough to backtrack and do the first couple of missions, though.

If you ever have any ambitions to achieve titles such as Legendary Cartographer, Legendary Guardian, or Legendary Vanquisher, you will have to take one character through all the campaigns. I would say it's better to keep going with one character.

The only thing you miss is some of the early story, though most of that gets explained in one way or another to characters coming in from other campaigns. What I did was to use one of my empty character slots for a disposable character. After my first character reached Factions, I made the disposable a rit, giving me a chance to try that profession as well as experiencing the early Factions story. After my first reached Nightfall, I deleted the disposable and remade him a paragon, again trying the profession and experiencing early Nightfall. It doesn't take long to get through the starter areas, and you unlock some skills for the non-core professions at the same time.

As a confirmed altaholic, I'm glad I did this. When I got a bit jaded with my ele, ranger, and monk (all started in Prophecies), I added permanent rit and paragon characters to my lineup, knowing that I had enjoyed both when I tried them out.

Just keep in mind that these heroes are just level 15 and you have to level them up while the heroes in eotn are level 20 and also easy to get. You dont have to do any quests to get them. So better go for the eotn heroes then rezone to LA and follow the very first storyline.

Another point ist that you will be lifted to level 20 while moving through eotn.
So its not rly that hard to fight some monsters there with lvl20 and lvl20 heroes.

Since your not lvl 20 when you get to lion Arch, it's not a big deal to have to level hero.

Just being raised temporarily to level 20 (with no control over how your attributes are assigned and missing 30 attribute points) does not make a newer player ready to face EotN. Even if they get max gear in Boreal Station, they still aren't ready. They don't have enough skills to make a good bar for EotN. They don't know tactics well yet and have not had enough practice against lesser foes to face EotN foes, which are tougher on average than those in any campaign and come in more balanced groups. They don't have the knowledge yet of the skills many of the foes will be using and how to counter them. The EotN heroes aren't even as good as the EotN henchies when you first get them, as they lack skills, equipment, and runes.

I think it's misleading to suggest that it's not really that hard to just charge out into EotN and start playing there without having even finished one other campaign. Boreal Station is full of newbies yelling for help because they were not ready yet, were too anxious to get to the HoM, and get trashed easily two seconds after getting past the snow wurms.

Just to comment on: I don't think you lose that much with starting in a different campaign, the story in Nightfall certainly didn't seem to have large chunks missing by not doing Prophecies first.

I started again with my wife (who had never played) in Nightfall and certainly don't regret it! Saying that, starting with Factions - it being so fast - might be a bit tricky for a new player.

e: Now we're planning to do eotn but not finishing it (so no 'War in Kryta') until we've gone back and seen Prophecies + Factions

jm2c.

You are right. I thought he didnt got that point about lvl20 vs lvl15 heroes.
I would take the eotn heroes since they help a newbie much moren than lvl15 heroes.
And i tried to point out that he can join eotn with lvl10. Bad idea.

Its hard to think for a newbie when you made everything before