Curse

Jeydra · Aug 23, 2009, 09:46 AM // 09:46

Bump with slightly updated builds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Dawg

Well, it depends on your perspective. I agree that humans are better healers than henchmen. I agree that you can make a better healer hero bar than a henchman. But if you're hero-henching, by definition you need to bring henchmen--and learn how to win with them--and I don't know which henchmen are better than the healers. Zho (when she's an interrupter) is pretty good. Otherwise, they all kinda suck. So, relatively speaking, the healer henchmen aren't bad at all.

I don't agree, some henchmen are pretty good. In EotN where I do most my PvE, the best henchmen is clearly Hertha. Next up would be Mhenlo, Cynn and Lo Sha - the three henchmen I use with the two N/Rt semi-healers. In other areas I usually mass casters, after which I mass Rangers / Paragons. These are decent enough. Prot henchmen however are completely untrustworthy and I use them only because I so dearly want to run three damage heroes. Some even have Zealous Benediction - talk about running out of energy!? Fortunately when you have Union, Displacement, Aegis etc covering for you it's workable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Dawg

My usual eight-man setup when hero-henching uses two hench healers and one hero that is at least partly devoted to healing--usually this slightly modified Sabway N/Rt healer is superbly effective:

Interesting. When I H/H the hero I will use every time, sometimes even when bodies are lacking, is the MM. Already one of the most useful heroes, he has other strengths: Aegis and Prot Spirit especially. I think your team setup is overly defensive. The N/Rt hero you're using has more defensive spells than offensive; if left to me I'd probably drop WoW for something else.

The defense in my team when I H/H:

When I use the two Rits - no healing on heroes whatsoever, so I bring two henchmen healers and that's it. Usually works, in spite of Prot Monk incompetence.
When I use the two N/Rt's - two semi-healers, so add Mhenlo (no need for a second Monk). Usually works.
When I use three Smiting Monks - three semi-healers, which works sometimes and fails other times. To be on the safe side I'll usually run Mhenlo, but then again I very rarely use triple Smite.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Dawg

Edited to add: Oh, I meant to point out that the divine favor bonus for skills like smite hex and smite condition is very often wasted. When I'm a physical and blinded, I need that condition removed pronto, but I'm not necessarily low on health. So I really don't see why I want my smiter investing in attributes (like divine favor) and skills (like smiter's boon) that are designed to heal me when I don't necessarily need to be healed. Again, leave healing to healers. A smiter's main purpose is to make foes fry. They're NOT great at condition-and-hex removal. They merely USE conditions and hexes to blast enemies.

Well yes, but the key purpose of using the Monk-based Smiter is less to deal damage as it is to heal. If your aim is primarily damage, then surely other options are superior; what's more if you are blinded for example chances are very good you've already taken damage of some kind. I like Smiter's Boon because it allows you to run less primary healers.

I suppose if you're running a Smiter to maintain Strength of Honour on you then Necro Smiters would be reasonable - seems then we're running Smiters for different reasons.

By the way I said I'd try the Necro Smiter but by the looks of it I probably won't. Not that I think it's a bad build, but I usually don't change my hero builds wholesale and all my Necros are already taken up (the two N/Rt's and N/Mo MM), and in any case using a non-healing Smiter when all I've used are healing Smiters feels unnatural. When do you use your Smiters anyway?

Paul Dawg · Aug 24, 2009, 01:35 AM // 01:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeydra

When do you use your Smiters anyway?

I rarely use smiters because when I'm hero-henching I usually don't find enough room for them. When I feel I must have a few smiting skills, I change the N/Mo MM to 9 or 10 smiting prayers and load on RoJ instead of jagged bones, and also a few smiting skills instead of the aegis and protective spirit that are on the regular Sabway MM. That's usually plenty. Sometimes, when I'm vanqing and bored out of my skull at how easy the game is, I'll dust off a smiter and throw him in just to try to make things interesting.

I have weapon of warding on the N/Rt healer because most of the rest of my team consists of casters, and it's a useful weapon spell for them. If I were just worried about myself, I'd sub in nightmare weapon instead. But with a godmode warrior and seven hero-hench casters, nightmare weapon isn't a great choice. (I'd rather just have her spam splinter weapon on me, as she does very nicely--so I can't agree that she's primarily a defensive hero.)