things we should work on

3 challenge missions that we should be able to get some drops to upgrade our hero's armor

Dajkah Inlet (which we've done a few times, so may be less drops)

Glint's Challenge

Shadow Nexus

check em out and we'll get stuck in this week.

triple necro vanquishing build

i figure i better write this down somewhere - like here
I've found this triple necro build to be very effective
it's me, 3 necro heroes, earth magic henchie, fire magic henchie, monk henchie and warrior henchie.
Found you guys that play warriors, i'd consider using something different as your extra member - maybe a mesmer, or ranger... up to you to figure that one out

in each case they are somewhat unusual builds, but seem to work - i normally use a minion master with flesh golem and healing prayers - both of these are missing in this build, and olias is basically a ritualist - but that necro sgnet makes a big difference...

here's the builds (and who i use for them) in each case the elite is listed first.

Master of Whispers
N/Rt Curses 12+3+1, Soul Reaping 12+1, Restoration Magic 3
Spiteful Spirit, Reckless Haste, Enfeebling Blood, Barbs, Rip Enchantment, Mark of Pain, Signet of Lost Souls, Death Pact Signet

Olias
N/Rt Soul Reaping 8+1+1, Restoration Magic 12, Channeling Magic 10
Weapon of Remedy, Splinter Weapon, Mend Body and Soul, Spirit Light, Protective Was Kaolai, Life, Signet of Lost Souls, Death Pact Signet

Livia
N/Mo Death Magic 12+3+1, Soul Reaping 8+1, Protection Prayers 9
Jagged Bones, Animate Bone Minions, Death Nova, Blood of the Master, Extinguish, Protective Spirit, Aegis, Signet of Lost Souls

woe woe water magic... whoah!

After reading a recent post of copland's suggested that water magic was the ugly cousin who had to sit in the corner of the elements, i thought i defend it, and promote it.

I'm sure we've all had our moments when skills like deep freeze or maelstrom have caused us grief. Both being non elite, i think they make up a great 2 skills to whack in the skill bar of any hydromancer. problem... they both take up 25 energy, so both could be a problem...

Whilst attack is reasonably strong (with elite skills like mind freeze or water trident), I would suggest investing in a balance, with defence being as strong in water as earth (possibly).

Individual armor skills like frigid armor, armor of frost and armor of mist are a real plus. I would include 2 of these in my hydro build (probably) as well as the beautiful ward - ward against harm (and other jag characters?). Ward against harm is arguably the strongest ward in the game, the problem being is that its the only ward hydros have access to. The rest live in geo-town.

So... for a build?
I would go for
armor of frost
armor of mist
ward against harm (elite)
ice spear
maelstrom
deep freeze
water attunement
rez

the only variant i would think about is... adding blurred vision (to add to team defence by blinding foes) and getting rid of one of the armor spells (if you are staying alive really easily) or dropping maelstrom or deep freeze if you have energy probs. I'd probably drop maelstrom and not deep freeze, but... you pays your money you makes your choice...

I'd go for a superior rune of water magic (so... 12 + 3 + 1)
and a minor energy storage (12 + 1)
and if you want to go all out and add 5 radiant insignias (for 8 extra energy)

i currently have something very close to this on my sousuke.

igneous summoning stone

/bonus on any character and you will recieve an igneous summoning stone.

it can only be used by characters under level 20.

it will summon a level (whatever you are) fire imp, that wont be a hero, but will apear as an ally

once you use the stone, it takes 1 hour to recharge.

the imp lasts for an hour UNLESS IT DIES - then you have to wait for the rest of the recharge time to get it again.

If you're about to level up, its best to wait to summon him, so you get a stronger imp
the full wiki article on this creature can be found here

New Hero!

his name is MOX! very easy to get too
another new hero is out too, he's only for under level 20s though

hero update

so... i now have all 25 heroes (yay!)
i'm on a bit of a mission to create 1 or 2 (or more) builds for each of them - with runes etc.

tonight i completed
monks
dunkoro - healing
tahlkora - protection
ogden - smiter

eles
sousuke - water
zhed - air
vekk - earth

and
necros
master - curses
olias - healing
livia - minion master

notes...
i may give olias a blood magic superior rune for a couple more options?
i chose not to have a fire ele for several reasons - 1 - you all have good fire eles. 2 - i can basically be a fire ele. 3 - the henchie is decent, 4 - you can always find a fire ele, the others are a little more elusive at times.

9 down 16 to go

new armor for razah

i decided razah was next - man he looks funky

and in front of his monument

hero armor

hey all...
i feel like pretty much everything i do comes down to one thing - the Hall of Monuments.
My latest edition occurred tonight, when I upgraded Sousuke's armor.
Here he is, standing in front of the monument, with him in itI'm not sure what I'm most impressed with - the brown vest, the 3 quarter pants or the socks and sandals!

some thoughts on mesmer hero builds

sometimes you find a great build, but don't have the skills for it. so... if you don't have all these skills either dont both with it, or try hero skills trainers, see what you can come up with etc...
who knows...

the thing with mesmers is that they can do a bunch of things well - including sucking the energy out of a team, shutting down casters with interupts, shutting down melee among other things.
Heres a few links to builds i found that would be worth trying on norgu and/or gwen.

this first one is a power block interrupter build. its meant to shut down casters and well - it'll do a fantastic job at that. If you're doing the standard Ctrl + space to target whatever your hitting, you'll have problems against warriors, dervishes, assasins, rangers and even some ritualists. Most of these interrupts work on chants, so they will shut down paragons. If you're in a team with others of us (or PUGS) and want to ignore targets and chase the casters, this will work - or - if you're trying to shut down a caster boss this will work. Other than that I'd steer clear of this one.

this one is one of many MoR (or Mantra of Recovery) builds - MoR helps your skills recharge quicker - so you can spam them (basically) . This one has an interrupt focus, but its not all it does - i quite like the mix here really. 2 spell interrupts, 1 general interrupt (will interrupt anything) then empathy which is a good skills to use on warriors etc, remove hex, drain enchantment and a res. What I like about this build on a hero is that it can do many different things at once - which would generally be too much for a human player (or me) to wrap their head around - i can handle melee shutdown and interrupts, but not anti-hex, anti-enchantment too. So, give this one a burl methinx.

here's another MoR build. This one focuses more on melee with 2 handy interrupts. I'd give it a monk secondary, replace res sig with a hard res and put remove hex in the optional slot.

here's the ineptitude spammer i've been using lately. great for just messing with warriors etc. I'd think about adding another interupt or enchantment removal or hex removal.

one last one is here - a little more balanced - i know i couldn't use this, but i think its a decent balanced option for a hero. its interesting, thats for sure.

if you have the skills, i'd try number 2 or 3. 5 could be interesting. 1 and 4 are more specific (1 - caster. 4 - melee). If you want to tell your heroes what to attack, try them

hope this has been helpful.

norn fighting tournament

maybe this should be posted by mick
i havent had a run at it yet, but the norn fighting tournament looks awesome
one of the cool things is that you unlock 2 of the competitors as heroes whn you beat them
Xandra (ritualist) and Kahmu (dervish).

I think I will compete to unlock these 2 in particular - i want to have 25 heroes in my monument of fellowship - but at the moment, I will only have 2. hmmm...

yes... its even more on eye of the north

flicking thru the wiki page on eye of the north (which you will find here) i found some rather interesting info - new things anyways...
as well as being able to score point towards a title with the asura, norn and deldrimor there is also another bunch - who i think are human - the ebon vangaurd.

of the 10 heroes the breakdown is like this (class, race/alliance, name)
Warrior - Norn - Jora
Ranger - Charr - Pyre Fierceshot
Monk - Deldrimor - Ogden Stonehealer
Necromancer - Shining Blade - Livia
Mesmer - Human - Gwen
Elementalist - Asura - Vekk
Assasin - Ebon Vangaurd - Anton
Ritualist - Luxon - Xandra
Paragon - Shining Blade - Hayda
Dervish - Human - Kahmu

I imagine that they are not going to be easy to obtain - otherwise there wouldnt be a spot in the hall of monuments for them. yeah?

here's a pic of Vekk, the funky lookin asura

Hero Builds: some overly generic and longwinded thoughts from ian

The Big Question!
What are heroes for?
I guess my answer here dectates everything else that I will write
Basically to help the team
By
Helping kill things faster
stopping you from dying
Although this seems obvious, there are much more than one answer to these suggestions. If you read them too literally, we’d stick with warriors, eles and monks. The easiest to fulfil these things with simple AI. Let me run through the things that go thru my head with each class. But first expand on the 2 premises.

A. Help Kill things faster
1 – attack things (durr) area of effects are good generally.
2 – make others attacks more beneficial (like weapons spells, shouts, some hexes)

B. Stop you from dying
1 – Heal / Protect – monks, but also, some shouts, paragon skills, wells
2 – Increase Armor (Shouts such as watch yourself)
3 – Increase the chance of blocking
4 – Preventing an attack – interrupts, which I need to note, are pretty much one of the things that the computer does better than real ppl. Lots of these also help kill things.
5 – Self heals – obviously, if they stop themself from dying, the monk doesn’t need to do that, and therefore adds to stopping you dying…

So…
Listed below are some thoughts on each class, maybe a recommended secondary. Please… I’m not expert in this, I’ve played a few different classes quite extensively, so have some different thoughts on this stuff.

Warrior
Attacks and some Shouts (watch yourself helps whole team), I’d go paragon secondary, cause there shouts benefit from the adrenaline you are earning with attacks. Obviously… if you need lots of adrenaline in the build go for a sword (quicker), if its not so important, go axe… I’m sure you guys know more about the intricacies of warriors than me. All I’m suggesting is… use the adrenaline to help the whole team as well as help the Warriors attacks. Paragons have a res skill, so that works fine with the overall team build. Also, disruption/knock down where available.

Ranger
2 options really
Barrage or Interrupt. I think some spirits that help the whole team would be handy with a barrage build. I reckon the monk secondary is good for these guys.
I’ve also put a little thought into a hero pet build, that maybe has interruption going on. I checked out the skills, and made this build up… The first 3 skills are all interrupts, so you could probably replace one of them with a good solid yet cheap animal attack. With this build I’d go 15 Beast Mastery (12+3), 9 marksmanship (8+1) and 11 Expertise (10+1). Unless you have a bow that requires more than 9, then just bump down you expertise.
Savage pounce
Bestial pounce
Disrupting lunge
Predatory Bond
Symbiotic Bond
Heal as One (Elite)Charm Animal
Res

Elementalist
The options start with Fire (blast em, and blast em hard) and work their way thru air (shock em round and knock em down) water (freeze them then ice yourself up to protect yourself) then finally earth (with some great attacks, armors like water and added wards – which are area of effect skills that help protect the team in various ways).
I’d pick one attribute, stack it with a superior rune (12+3) and then whack the rest in energy storage (12+1).
If you wanna mix it up, so inspiration magic spells from mesmers can really help with energy (so drop energy storage to 10+1) and give insp 8 (power drain and leech signet are the best 2 to go with for a hero, as they interrupt)

Necromancer
This is where it starts getting a little complex. Some of my fave necro skills are too dependant on working together (like the other night copland, you me, mark of pain and spiteful spirit) So… dunno a good MM works (at least from my experience it does, I’ve heard others say it doesn’t. Some simple damage spells, and things that add health like vampiric gaze or life syphon.
Also… Wells, are area of effect, and pretty good in most part. Mess around and see what you come up with. Oh… I think Spiteful Spirit would be ok, its just that the AI doesn’t always pick the best person to hit with it, so you don’t get the most bang for your buck.

Mesmer
I haven’t actually got a mes hero, but my 2 choices would be insp/dom or insp/ill. Stick with a few interrupts (3 or 4) and a couple of other classics from the attribute (like empathy and backfire for dom, conjure phantasm and clumsiness for ill). The interrupts are what make it really, so I’d probably keep fast casting reasonably high (10+1) then maybe level the other 2 out (8+3) and (12+1) if the superior rune is killing you just go 11,10,10 with 3 +1s.

Monk
I think we’ve covered this yeah?
I don’t know enough about smiting prayers to give an intelligible build

Assassin
I’m just experimenting, but sticking with cheap skills that recharge quickly, with some speed to get her out of trouble.

Ritualist
Haven’t got there yet. But I’m thinking 2 things – lots of spirits or lots of weapons spells. Help the whole team… you know.

Dervish
Ummmm, yeah
This is the one that I struggle with the most

Paragon
Although they can tank, I think for the purposes of a hero it would be best to stick with a support build that helps other kill things quicker (so focus round command). Or… if you have only one monk and/or a heap of casters so for motivation. Keep the spear high enough to help, and a fair bit of leadership Bob’s your uncle. Note there are also some extra awesome skills in leadership, that may make it round out well with motivation. I mainly go motivation/leadership with my paragon

Please add suggestions, in comments or make a whole new post slamming me if I’m simplistic or wrong, that’s fine.
With EotN having 10 new heroes I really want to be able to have 25 builds, ready to go. Mixing and matching them when I need them. Sure… Xyla only has 7 heroes right now, but that will go up, I hope.

hero builds on gwonline forum

here
definately worth looking at

Tahlkora: some secondary options with Copland's available elites

So, here are some thoughts, based around your elites, that may be useful for a Tahlkora build. All the builds I’ve listed revolve around a simple healing build, with some secondary specialisation. If you want a protection build, the first 4 skills will need to change (at least I will let you know if its more), give me a list of what you have to choose from and I can work from there up.

With these builds assume a 12 in healing prayers, 8 in devine favour and 10 in whatever else I suggest (blood magic or water magic). I’d get minor runes in both healing prayers and devine favour to bump them up that little bit. (+1) Here we go…

1. Escape

Escape is the sort of skills that a monk could benefit from – blocking attacks while healing is useful. It’s also low on energy, which is good, so they don’t waste all their energy on one skill. The HUGE problem with equipping a skill like this for a monk is that it relies upon the primary skill of rangers (expertise), so instead of it lasting for 15 seconds (or possibly more), you get 5. pretty weak really for a skill that takes 30 seconds to recharge. Therefore, I would scratch this off your option list.

2. Well of Power

This necro blood magic skill can be quite handy. It gives both health regen and energy regen. So is a help to the casters, and anyone being attacked. The only problem with wells, is that, at times, they only kick in towards the end of a battle, or at its completion – which is handy to speed things along and move on to the next bunch of beasties. It costs 10 energy, but for what it does, that isn’t too bad really – wells are only possible to cast when someone is dead in the area (foe or friend) so they don’t usually kick in till at least the early mid stages (generally later). The other good thing about this skill is that there are some other handy skills in the blood magic repertoire – life syphon (but its 10 energy, so I wouldn’t recommend it and WoP, and offcourse, vampiric gaze, which I would definitely equip in a build like this, which operates both as an attack and a self heal. Handy indeed.

I’d fill your skillbar with something like this for a healing build

1. Orison of healing

2. Words of Comfort

3. Healing Touch

4. Healing Seed (you can get it from the hero skill trainer in Comand Post)/ Heal Party / Purge Condition

5. Remove Hex

6. Well of Power

7. Vampiric Gaze

8. Res (pick any) Restore Life, or Resurrect are my usual choices

3. Ward Against Harm

Think of this as a elementalist version of watch yourself. A little stronger, and lasts longer, and… gives you stacks more armor if you happen to be up against a fire ele (great for ring of fire islands for example). The key downside of this one is its cost – 15 energy, which is a lot. But… remember, it will make the healers job easier, equip Koss with Watch yourself, and it basically doubles its effectiveness. Wards only work in a specific area, but if you’re a warrior they will have to be reasonably close, so its not as much of an issue, as it might be for a ranger. Sticking with my theme, of giving you 2 specialist skills from an attribute, (in this case water magic) I would recommend armor of frost – its only 5 energy and will really help keep her alive. Armor of mist is also acceptable, but not as great as it costs more. Both are available from a few skill trainers only… so go but them (with someone that has ele secondary obviously – just check wiki for the location)

Heres the suggested build

1. Orison of healing

2. Words of Comfort

3. Healing Touch

4. Healing Seed (you can get it from the hero skill trainer in Comand Post)/ Heal Party / Purge Condition

5. Remove Hex

6. Ward Against Harm

7. Armor of Frost

8. Res (pick any) Restore Life, or Resurrect are my usual choices

4. Mist Form

Basically, I’d use mist form if you’re finding Tahl is dying often. Just replace Ward Against Harm from the above build. Mist form will mean she cant attack others (but that doesn’t matter, shes a monk). This helps just her… not the whole team.

Overall opinion

I’d probably try out 3 and 2 (in that order), see what you think is working best. If shes dying a lot go for 4. I like both wards and wells. You’ll get some attack out of her with 2, but better defence with 3… so its up to you…

Hope it helps

enjoy

Tahlkora Build

OK, so I'm thinking I need to get a better build for Tahlkora (orTally-Orca as she is also known). Ian, as much as it pains me to ask, can you think about a good build for Tahlkora and get back to me.

I have some great Necro elites, as well as a few Ranger elites, and ofcourse the Warrior elites. So, whatever direction you think will be cool...or maybe just as a Monk, that's cool too.

Get back to me when you can.

Tallykarahoiey?

OK Mick, how ever you pronounce Tahlkora, heres a link to a cool bonding build to work towards.

Also, it might be an idea to think about a smiter build, there's a nice mo/me one I was checking out. As we already have 2 healers, we might make better use of another damage dealer. If you'd prefer, I could look into making Dunkora a smiter.

Either way a good build (and yours too big fella) will probably need some skills bought. You can check on wiki where to get them from a hero skills person, or alternatively pick them up with faction from a priest of balthazar.

Ranger Hero needs a clean

Would that be Bathtub Jinn?


So, I had a bit of a think about your Jinn build, in relation to the elites you already have.

Here's a general barrage build that apparently kicks. I know you're not a fan, but I've heard lots of good things. There are also several variations listed including a pet build, a fire ele combo and an interest go for the eyes paragon combo. It would be worthwhile reading the article on barrage builds anyways.

All the other builds listed on wiki utilise other eltes. You might want to check out the various interupter builds listed. I have heard that if there is one thing heroes/henchies are ebtter at than real ppl, its interupting, and well, that makes sense. It might be worth the 3,000 faction to go ahead and pick up one of these skills from a priest of balthazar. just check out all the skills required, so you're not trying to create a build that relies on factions skills.

lastly, is the question. to pet or not to pet? I can understand why you want to, its just the question... does it add that much to the party? I like em too, but it is something to think about. It would be cool to charge around with 3 or 4 different ones between us, but for now i need to mesmer secondary for my monks.

The only other thing to think about is that bowstring. you could come up with a nice conjure flame or conjure frost ele build, but there is no earth equivalent that i know of. not sure if there is something melonni can do to make the most out of the earth damage?

I need a Hero...I'm holding on for a hero til the morning light!

So, tonight I get my Ranger, as Ian has said.

From my Prophecies Ranger (Nathaniel the Judge) I already have the following elite skills to choose from.

Escape
Barrage
Melandru's Arrows
Poison Arrow
Spike Trap

I also have done some trading and hooked up the following weapons...
shortbow with an ebon bowstring
sturdy recurve bow

And, with any new Ranger comes a new pet. I want a cool pet and something a little bit dangerous...I will not just settle for any old Flamingo!

Game Plan: Tuesday March 6

Comment here if there is anything particular you want to do tonight.

I would like to, by the end of the night have both jinn and tahlkora in our party. I don't think this is asking too much.

here's the running order from where we are: Bad Tide Rising, Zaishen Elite, Student Jinn (gain Acolyte Jinn), Special Delivery, Big News Small Package (gain Tahlkora).

If we get thru this quick enough we just need to do following the trail, then we can go on and go the next mission - Blacktide Den.

we'll see how we go.

one for copland

one for mick

hero list

Copland
Koss (w) 1
Acolyte Jinn (r) 4
Goren (w) 8 (optional - not required)
Master of Whispers (n) end of game

Mick
Melonni (d) 3
Tahlkora (mo) 5
Margrid the Sly (r) 7
Acolyte Sousuke (e) end of game

Ian
Dunkoro (mo) 2
Zhed Shadowhoof (e) 6
Norgu (me) 9 (optional - not required)
General Morghan (p) 10