Guild Wars: A guide to Heroes
by Shawn Schuster 
May 9th 2008 at 4:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Guild Wars, Classes, Game mechanics, Guides, PvE, Academic, Education
Guild Wars has been an innovator in so many different aspects of the MMO genre, but none more than the introduction of ally NPCs to fill out a party and make soloing easier.This was nothing new to online gaming though. Diablo did it way before Guild Wars, but GW refined the process with Henchmen. They made it simple to hire a few NPCs standing around near the city gate and get them to join your party for their share of the loot. It started out simple enough, but it eventually evolved into something much more advanced (and exciting) with Heroes.
Heroes were introduced to the GW world in Chapter 3: Nightfall, and were continued into Eye of the North. Arenanet took the basic concept of a hired NPC and expanded it to include customizable armor, weapons and skill bars for that whole new level of party control. Before, you took the healer monk and whatever crappy skillbar she had, and you liked it. But now, you could try out that great new healer build you've heard so much about, and combo it with a prot monk hero to get that perfect synergy going, completely under your control.
Not only that, but we now get the chance to direct our heroes with flags to let them know where to stand, when to act defensively, when to avoid combat and when to simply act as your own personal bodyguards. This aspect of the controllable AI made for an exciting new type of PvP battle called Hero Battles. In these matches, you control your heroes against the heroes of another player to give it a slight RTS feel.
You can unlock heroes either by completing their corresponding quests, beating them in the Norn Tournament, or buying them with PvP Balthazar Faction points
So to continue this voyage into the customizable ally realm, follow us into this gallery of Heroes to learn more about your 25 new best friends.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mm the master monk said on 11:04AM 5-12-2008
err guilds wars came out nearly 3 years ago and npcs you could control came out over a year ago this topic makes it seems like it came out a few days ago lol
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Eric said on 2:41AM 5-13-2008
I know it really does though, all of these features are pretty old and are taken for granted by any Guild Wars player
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Shawn Schuster said on 8:37AM 5-13-2008
Schools are still around teaching the same things, even after you graduate, right? This is meant to be a refresher course for those who play, and an introduction to those who have never stepped foot in GW.
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Mirage said on 6:51PM 5-19-2008
I think you do a great job Shawn. Though I've played Guild Wars extensively, and I don't pop in anymore, I do know some people who are new to the game and find your articles great. Of course, I only read them because I worship you...
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