I have 7 merc slots. What should i make them?

I want to make my Ranger the main get everything guy. It seems they are the most versitle, unless someone else can convince me i should change for an easier task.

I am back after 5 years, and i want to see and do it all. i bought 7 merc slots, and dont know what the full repitour of heros ends up being.

So for all the builds out there, what should i make my heroes, since i dont want to go through the pain of gearing them up, only to delete them for this discord build, or that RoJ build.

I'm looking for what i should invest in, which i dont have to delete and replace. im still searching for that "7 hero build" thats best.

i want the let the heroes do the work build to, cause my right hand is broken and cast ridden, hence the free time i have to play, so i have a left hand that can use a mouse. :-(

People favor discord, since you can have full team of necros with it and 7 optional skills, so there's enough healing and protection as well.
Mesmer team would be a good choice too, but not full mes, there must be healers, maybe 3 necs with discord, heals and prots or 2 monks.

I prefer balanced team, since it's more fun with, but it would be waste of money for you since you've already bought mercs.

Handy Extra Mercs would be

Mesmer
Ritualist
Necro
Ele

Make multiples of these as you wish. Best way to create them would be to use a free character slot, make a PvP character, register it as a hero. Delete/Rinse/repeat.

this is off wiki
The 27 standard heroes are almost evenly divided across professions:

One each: Ritualist, Variable profession
Two each: Mesmer and Assassin
Three each: Warrior, Ranger, Monk, Elementalist, Necromancer, Dervish, and Paragon

What would you guys think would be the best gap filler? two ritualists seem positive. 1 mesmer and 1 assassin, but what about the last three? is there many common builds that run 4+ of a class?

I wouldn't bother with an Assassin hero, they aren't useful in the slightest, because hero AI for melee is bad, especially when it comes to chaining attacks, and any other role you could give them (Critical Barrage, Spear-thrower) that the AI could use competantly, are generally better off on their respectable professions anyway (I.E. Ranger or Paragon heroes).

A bunch of Ritualists and an extra couple Mesmers are definetly the way to go though, both professions make highly useful heroes but come in limited supplies (especially Ritualists) on the availiable pre-set heroes.

Necromancer heroes are also incredibly good, but there is three of those already and they aren't hard to acquire in a decent amount of time (though perhaps still a little longer than some other heroes). More is always good though.

Paragon, Ranger, Elementalist and Monk heroes are good and all have their uses, though you aren't likely to employ enough of them in a team to need to dedicate Mercenary Hero Slots on them (unless you wanted a Paraway or Petway team), though if you were to use Mercenary Hero slots on them you might want to do a Paragon seems all the base Paragon heroes take a good long time to get to or acquire in the various campaigns, though it's easy to acquire a Ranger, and several Elementalist and Monk heroes early on.

Warrior and Dervish heroes have some very niche uses, but these are rare, so you are almost certainly never going to need more than the basic 3 of each availiable anyway, so I wouldn't go out your way to use Mercenary Hero Slots on them either.

I'd definetly go for at least the two Ritualists, and at least one extra Mesmer. I wouldn't bother with the Assassin. An extra Necromancer and/or Paragon hero are definetly worth considering.

Afterall that, it's probably more fun and just okay to fill the rest of the Mercenary Hero slots with your own characters of any profession that you are simply fond of.

Euh, in my builds, extra heroes I would have liked:

- a third or fourth mesmer
- a third or fourth rit
- a fourth or fifth necro


so 2 mesmers, 2 rits, 2 necros and....


In mesmers I like having:
a dom head runed
an illusion head runed
an FC head runed (for PI and such)

but sometimes I'd like to have 2 illusion head runed mesmers, or 2 dom head runed ones. So if I had mercs I'd use them for that.


In necros I often run a discord or similar. It's mainly the soul reaping energy boost that is awesome so they can be used for more than just discord.
I run a blood runed, a curse runed and a death runed but since discord it has become 2 death runed and a curse runed. I need a blood and an SR head rune guy so mercs would be that.

Rits I run a channeling runed and a communing runed but razah is a mesmer on some chars. So for convenience, another communing.

Ele I run an air head runed, an ES head runed and sousouke still has fire but is never used anymore because nuking is bad. I could just make sou another ES runed so no need for a merc...

Make them what ever you want. The game is supposed to be about enjoying yourself. My Mercs are all based upon my own characters, so basically, I have a 7-hero team of just me, me, me.
(My 8 Mercs are, at this time, 2 monks (1 HB, 1 heal/resto), 2 rangers (1 interrupt, 1 splinter/volley), Ele (air), Mesmer (panic), Rit (SoS), & Necro (MM)

In my opinion, some mesmers, ritualists and necromancers.

The fun part with mercs is you can temporary create a PvP character with some fancy name, dress them up incl. costumes and register them as mercs. For example, I have three goofy looking necros named
Undead Sherlock, Undead Watson, Undead Moriarty,
although poor Moriary doesn't get to play as much... maybe that's why he's a bit bitter.

lol, then i guess its a game of shadows then eh sherlock?

most of us rangers don't even use bows or ranger skills cuz rangers suck thx to arenanet. if you want an easy and versatile main, go with ritualist. you can farm and do solo stuff and it's a useful main that can get in parties. all those things are harder or impossible with a ranger. other mains that will probably be better are dervs for physical damage dealing, sins for being overpowered, necros for versatility, monks, and anything else besides maybe elementalist.

don't bother with any more physical mercs cause most people don't use physical heros they already have. an extra mesmer, rit, and necro can't hurt. but since you have so many get whatever makes you happy after those 3-5 mercs.

3 rits will give the 2 basic rits (SOS and SOGM) and an optional ST/prot rit etc.
Mesmers are pretty tough nowadays so you could run 3-4 of them in plenty of places.
Necros are ran for sabway/discordway/etc. Nice to be able to run one of the basic 3 nec heros builds and toss in another for more damage or support.

gl hf

As for ranger not using bow, it depends. With Splinter Weapon it's very nice, but don't equip your caster heroes with spear/shields then as ritualist will cast splinter weapon on them instead.

If you duo with another player + heroes, you could throw Great Dwarf Weapon on each other for some fun. If you begin by maximizing Deldrimor rank first you could then have +20 damage and %40 chance of knock down on every arrow. With Barrage that's almost a guaranteed Knock Down whenever you hit 3+ foes. Other useful skills in Deldrimor for a ranger would be
Drunken Master for moving/attacking 33% faster (if you're working on your drinking title at same time)
Dwarven Stability to keep up some stances permanently, like Escape for a runner or perhaps Serpent's Quickness for perma-33% faster recharging skills.

There're only two mercenaries you might need: a third Ritualist, and a third Mesmer. Four Rits or Mesmers is possible, but their power decreases very fast. You cannot stack Ritualist spirits, and Mesmer spells have a lot of overlap. You'll do quite fine with just two Mesmers though; Mesmer heroes have their niche but they tend to be rather overrated.

With the rest of your slots I'd suggest using them on whichever heroes you most often use. If you're wondering what I typically use, it's some combination of Necro + 2x Rits + 1-2 Eles + 1-2 Mesmers + 1 Monk.

A near-full paragon team would certainly be interesting. I've wanted to try it out myself. I would leave space for an Orders hero, and a few slots could be filled by R/P variants, but I suspect it is not only perfectly viable to bring a full para team into most areas, but very effective.. Biggest challenge would be hex removal, when needed. Hex Eater Signet might do well with that.