Help me decide what weapons to use on my heroes

I imagine I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm trying to get a better understanding of weapons for heroes. I've read a few things here and elsewhere and it seems that for caster heroes it comes down to staves, 40/40 wand/focus, or a spear and a shield.

When I first starting setting up heroes, I admit all I really did was copy the builds from the GWPvX page on 7 Hero Player Support. Initially, I didn't understand why those builds worked. Since then I've also tried 7 Hero Dual Ele, and now I've tweaked my heroes' armor and skills to be more what I'd like to use.

But when it comes to their weapons I don't really know what I'm doing.

A little bit about my heroes: my AotL protter, IV resto, PoD resto, and SoS resto all use a spear and a shield. My domination and illusion mesmers, smiting monks, and fire eles all have 40/40s. Again, all of this was recommended when I looked up this builds.

Is there anything I should be improving here? Is there any consensus on what is optimal for heroes?

I admit I tend to prefer safe and consistent choices, which actually makes me question 40/40s, and whereas a spear and shield offers a nice defensive bonus or a staff can be setup to offer additional health or energy, I'm almost leaning towards those.

Is there a consensus on what is best or what is optimal? Or is there a set of rules I should follow to determine what weapons I should use on what hero?

There are people that will put 2 superior runes and a 60 health staff on certain heroes. Some builds don't have as much use for 40/40s and I sometimes put a 15 energy 20 recharge staff on heroes.

I can see the 60hp staff really helping out if you're using two superior runes. That's a lot of reduced health.

I know that 40/40s are good, but I'm put off by its inconsistency. It's not a reliable thing. My gut instinct tells me I should probably go for staves or shield/spear, as those are a bit more consistent (even though the inherent HSR on staves and the inscription on a shield isn't reliable).

My personal reason for not running many 40/40s is because the mods for them are pricey for setting up heroes for many characters, but you're right that they are inconsistent. You could try a 20/20 set which many don't seem to discuss. 20/20 for either recharge or casting or even 20 for casting and then 20 for recharge. Energy, health, armor, or whatever for rest.

A 40/40 set isn't really 40 percent.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/40/40

Two superior runes work out if health is still around 500 or so. There should be enough skills to keep them from dying too badly.

Hello there, assuming you run a full caster setup.
This definately worked out for me speaking in the general tongue of being able too VQ a ton of area's with ease.

(Chronological formation : head,chest,hands,legs,feet)


+3 Head rune with Insignia of choice (Depending its role, MM = -25% exploit etc)
+15hp +10hp
+41/50hp +1e
+10e +5e
+Offrune of choice, or +2e and +1e.

You Will Round up at around 505-515hp, and 45-47 energy.
The hp is able too soak up Atleast the first two heavy spikes which if your hero setup is capabele, can soak that up pretty easily.

For weapon sets i use this.

Spears : +33% Condition, with +5e or 10%HSR Inscription, and +30hp or 20% Ench (depending on Ench heavy Builds ofc)

Offhand : 20% HCT, along with +1 Attribute 20% (Inscr: Master of My Domain)


This Weaponry combo allows you too bypass some skill mechanics, like enemys wont cast Backfire or Chaos Storm ANYMORE on you're heroes because they wield martial weapons.

+33% Poison, Deepwound, Bleeding its all handy with necro setups like bomber, Domination etc.

+1 Attri allows your heroes SECONDAIRY attribute too gain +1 which makes Resto Necro's even more stronger upto 13 Attri on Skill use. (When using a Restoration Offhand).
Its like a Pcon use, for one skill (20% Chance of applying)

In general, they also keep within earshot due too Spear range (=Shortbow Distance), which helps for mêlee and ranger para players, but just as fine for Caster players.

Total :
+33% Condition
12 energy (with +5e Inscr = 18e)
10% HCT (just 12e then)
+30HP
Or +20% Enchant
20% HCT
+1 Attribute 20%.

So having that rounded up, It shows in most cases more durabel then Staffs and Wands combination wise.


Hope you found his information usefull!

Zephyr.

One further consideration is that a spear/shield combo will tend to have your heroes move slightly closer to mobs. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Range

Quote: Originally Posted by Cuilan My personal reason for not running many 40/40s is because the mods for them are pricey for setting up heroes for many characters, but you're right that they are inconsistent. You could try a 20/20 set which many don't seem to discuss. 20/20 for either recharge or casting or even 20 for casting and then 20 for recharge. Energy, health, armor, or whatever for rest.

A 40/40 set isn't really 40 percent.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/40/40

Two superior runes work out if health is still around 500 or so. There should be enough skills to keep them from dying too badly. After reading that, I can see that the actual likelihood of a 40/40's mods taking effect isn't very common. I think I'd much rather have increased health, energy, and an inscription that at least will be in effect most of the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mouse at Large One further consideration is that a spear/shield combo will tend to have your heroes move slightly closer to mobs. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Range That is also true. I really do not like that. I started to notice that my N/Mo AotL hero kept taking a lot of damage or was dying a lot, and I started watching what he was doing more closely, and he runs in to cast spells on his minions and then starts throwing spears. At least my heroes that use caster weapons, unless I run them into the enemy, stay far enough away that they aren't an easy target.

Typically, I just give all my casters staves with Insight heads (+5EN). Depending on how many (if any) enchantment skills they run would determine if I gave them +30 life or +20% enchant length.

This probably isn't optimal, but it makes things easy and simple. I prefer giving them staves because of the universal 20% chance of all spell half-time recharge which covers their secondary skills (and my own PvE spells when I run a caster).

I was thinking of doing something similar. I think that's a simple, safe, and consistent option. It bothers me knowing that 40/40s only work a third of the time.