Curse

Bront · Mar 06, 2008, 01:35 AM // 01:35

For a new player, starting off Heroes can be hard work, as you don't have a lot of skills unlocked, so I intend this thread to be kind of a guide to help get your heroes started up.

The Mission: Make a list of 10 non-elite skills per class beyond the core 7-8 you get from starting a new character that are essential in making useful and flexible Hero builds. Please note what campaign each skill is in.

The Reasoning: It's easy to get the initial 7-8 skills from the starting quests by simply making a dummy character, going though the initial motions, and then deleting it, so those should be already unlocked (even a PvP character works for this, and takes 5 minutes to do for all classes). Non-Elite, because those are the skills that can be found with ease, and I'm aiming this at newer players, and you only ever use 1 Elite at a time, so you need 6-7 other skills to fill a bar. And ultimately, not everyone has the time to hunt down every skill for every class, or play as every class, so this gives casual players a guide for skills to hunt down.

The "core" skills everyone should have already
Warrior: Cyclone Axe, Frenzy, Sprint, Mighty Blow, Sever Artery, Healing Signet
Ranger: Power Shot, Charm Animal, Savage Shot, Read the Wind, Comfort Animal, Troll Unguent
Monk: Healing Breeze, Orison of Healing, Bane Signet, Remove Hex, Reversal of Fortune, Resurrect
Necromancer: Animate Bone Fiend, Deathly Swarm, Faintheartedness, Life Siphon, Strip Enchantment, Vampiric Gaze
Mesmer: Empathy, Backfire, Conjure Phantasm, Ether Feast, Drain Enchantment, Energy Tap
Elementalist: Gale, Armor of Earth, Ward Against Melee, Fire Storm, Ice Spikes, Lightning Orb
Assassin Twisting Fangs, Fox Fangs, Unsuspecting Strike, Shadow Refuge, Dash, Death's Charge
Ritualist: Generous Was Tsungrai, Channeled Strike,
Union, Pain, Brutal Weapon, Weapon of Warding
Paragon: Leader's Comfort, Spear of Lightning, Anthem of Flame, Mending Refrain, Signet of Synergy, Barbed Spear
Dervish: Vital Boon, Pious Assault, Crippling Sweep, Chilling Victory, Grenth's Fingers, Heart of Holy Flame
All: Resurrection Signet

Now, since Hero skills work on the account level, all skills that need to be unlocked can be unlocked using several different characters, or one who simply hunts them down, and the characters need not be permanent.

I'm looking for input from any and everyone, and I'll make my contributions as well (I'm admittedly still doing some research myself). Thanks in advance for any and all input.

Edit: Please post full skill names if you can. Wiki links aren't needed, but you're welcome to do it.

Winterclaw · Mar 06, 2008, 03:36 AM // 03:36

Monk: WoH, LoD, PS, Sig of Rejuvination, rebirth/res chant. Probably some bonding skills if you are going to duo farm with heroes.
Ranger: Barrage and interrupts
Mesmers: interrupts like power spike, power lock, power drain, and leech signet.
Necros: Spiteful Spirit for farming and HM and whatever it takes to have a sabway build (I think that's the right one).
El: Mind blast, fire attunement, GoLE, and rogorts.

Zonzai · Mar 06, 2008, 05:08 AM // 05:08

In addition to what is already posted...

Necro: Jagged Bones, Death Nova
Ele: Elemental Attunement, Glyph of Lesser Energy

-EDIT- Removed Animate Flesh Golem. Apparently it is not very good.

shru · Mar 06, 2008, 05:27 AM // 05:27

monk: reversal of fourtune, protective spirit, spirit bond, gift of health, guardian, shield of absorption, signet of rejuvination, Aegis, dismiss condition, (any hex removal skill).

ranger: distracting shot, savage shot, troll unguent, natural stride, whirling defense, apply poison, read the wind, favorable winds, antidote sig, lightning reflexes.

Necro: signet of lost souls, death nova, insidious parasite, reckless haste, enfeebling blood, animate bone minnions, animate bone fiends, blood of the master, blood ritual, signet of sorrow

Just a short list that comes to mind, i'll post more and edit to your specifications when I can get on my computer at home.

Bront · Mar 06, 2008, 05:35 AM // 05:35

Mesmer: Core: [wiki]Energy Burn[/wiki], [wiki]Shatter Hex[/wiki], [wiki]Power Spike[/wiki], [wiki]Shatter Enchantment[/wiki], [wiki]Power Drain[/wiki], [wiki]Drain Enchantment[/wiki], [wiki]Spirit Shackles[/wiki], [wiki]Leech Signet[/wiki] Prophecies: [wiki]Illusion of Weakness[/wiki] Factions: [wiki]Hex Eater Signet[/wiki]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winterclaw

Monk: WoH, LoD, PS, Sig of Rejuvination, rebirth/res chant. Probably some bonding skills if you are going to duo farm with heroes.
Ranger: Barrage and interrupts
Mesmers: interrupts like power spike, power lock, power drain, and leech signet.
Necros: Spiteful Spirit for farming and HM and whatever it takes to have a sabway build (I think that's the right one).
El: Mind blast, fire attunement, GoLE, and rogorts.

Some of those are Elites (You missed the "No Elites" clause), but I like many of the rest of them.

I probably should add in the first post to please post full skill names. (or links if you can), since it's aimed at helping newer players

Quote:

Originally Posted by shru

<lists>

Just a short list that comes to mind, i'll post more and edit to your specifications when I can get on my computer at home.

That's good stuff as is still. Just trying to make it easy to decipher for new players.

Antithesis · Mar 06, 2008, 06:47 AM // 06:47

Rit - Splinter Weapon, Ancestor's Rage, Protective was Kaolai, Life, Mend Body & Soul, Spirit Light, Death Pact Signet

System_Crush · Mar 06, 2008, 08:41 AM // 08:41

I call [skill=text]Power Return[/skill] a mesmer staple for PvE, though [skill=text]Distracting Shot[/skill] is still better.

distilledwill · Mar 06, 2008, 11:28 AM // 11:28

Elementalist: Fire/Air/Earth/Water Attunement, Blinding Flash, Shell Shock, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Enervating Charge, Lightning Orb, Chain Lightning, Rodgort's Invocation, Tenai's Heat, Glowing Gaze

Ranger: D-Shot, Savage Shot, Apply Poison, Trolls, Natural Stride, Charm Animal, Comfort Animal, Tiger's Fury, Penetrating Attack, Sundering Attack

Necro: Barbs, Enfeebling Blood, Rip Enchantment, Reckless Haste, Blood Of the Master, Death Nova, Animate Bone Minions, Signet of Lost Souls, Rising Bile, Blood Ritual

the_jos · Mar 06, 2008, 12:43 PM // 12:43

As general rule, heroes are good at reacting and bad at 'pro-acting'.
Therefore skills like interrupts, hex/ench removers, corpse exploit and ones that trigger on other conditions are more efficient, other skills are likely to be spammed more by heroes.

PvE only, besides the ones already mentioned:
Warrior: Wild Blow, Distracting Blow, Watch yourself. Other skills depend more on team build and equipped weapon.
Mesmer: besides the already mentioned interrupts: Cry of Frustration in some situations, Hex Breaker, Signet of Disruption, Fragility (use in condition heavy team), Signet of Clumsiness, Waste Not Want Not, Epidemic (also for R/Me with Broad Head Arrow) and Pypochondria (use with fragility).
Necro: Order of Pain, Enfeebling Blood, Well of Blood, Barbs

There are a lot more skills to use but those depend more on the actual team build.
For that, consider skills that create certain conditions and others that react on that. The old 'Discord GvG team' is a good example of such a team build.
Or find skills that enhance others, like Order of Pain or paragon shouts/chants.

Also worth considering: the skills you can enable with hero skill points.
You can't get them all when you play with only one character, but when playing with several you can unlock them all. Just browse wiki to find those and try to figure out which ones are most usefull to unlock.

Bront · Mar 07, 2008, 11:09 PM // 23:09

Good stuff jos.

I'm going to try to compile more of this into a general guide as I go, kind of a "starter guide for Heroes", but I wanted more opinions on what skills were good to unlock for Heroes first for new players.