Turn Henchmen into Heroes

People are upset about the mercenary packs allowing a gameplay advantage because it allows them to have more heroes of each class than those who don't have it. There are now a large number of redundant henchmen throughout Tyria who will rarely see the light of day now.

Turn them all into heroes.

Simply allow players to talk to them in the outposts and give them an option to select 8 henchmen (the same number as the mercenary max) who will then appear in their hero lists. This will allow players access to the same party mixes the mercenary pack allows (assuming you allow them to get PvP henchmen as well to make up for dervish and paragon numbers). There are at least 7 heroes and henchmen of every single profession available in the game right now, turn all the henchmen into heroes and allow us to select them like players can create mercenaries.

This maintains the cosmetic only benefit of the mercenary pack - somethign ArenaNet said they would never sell a gameplay advantage. Players who bought the mercenary pack will still be able to access the exclusive ability to customise their party with their other toons and everyone else is able to bring 7 necromancers or 7 monks or 7 assassins if they want, without the added cosmetic bonuses other players enjoy.

I'd really like this just because I personally like Mhenlo more then all the monk heroes, ditto for a few other classes. Don't even care about the limit of 3 of each profession thing. Finishing prophecies or factions with all these nightfall/eotn characters just feels wrong.

There are pelnty of great combinations of heros you can use without buying mercenaries.

And there are combinations you can't use without buying mercenaries. That is 100% the problem and for as long as that remains true there will be a problem. I don't care if other players want to play with copy of their own toons (I think that's pretty cool, not $45 cool but still pretty cool).

If you are going to give people the ability to customise their party completely, you should give it to everyone. This way it allows those of us who don't pay the ability to bring whatever combinations we want if we consider that a superior gameplay option for us.

I think they did this on purpose. The " a bit expensive " price isn't only for the cool skins imo , but for the possibility of rolling face with 7 necros for example. If everyone was able to bring 7 heroes ,many would find the price very exagerated and noone would buy it for sure...

I know that's not fair but well , that's just commercial reason...

Everyone is able to bring 7 heroes...

Anyway, I agree with the op. Mercenary heroes are too expensive, and henchmen are almost useless for people who have Nightfall and/or EotN.

I'd say that could fix part of the problem, except there's no rit hench in NF or eotn areas, for example.
There's several things they could change to solvbe it, but they need to do something to make everyone have the same amount of the same professions available.
Perhaps if youre using your mercenary mesmer, you use it instead of either Gwen or Norgu, but not in addition to?
Or youre using your Mercenary rit so either Xandra or Razah is no longer available? thats just as fair.
but the cash shop advantage has got to go, one way or another.
And if people are really buying mercs for the coolness of the re-skin, they really shouldnt mind.

You do realize if you keep asking the guild wars gods for things, they will eventually take everything away. Do not tempt the higher beings with your petty wishes!

Instead repent and REJOICE for the seven heroes. All shall be well and no smiting shall occur (unless of course you want your monk to run that! )

Why would you need a ritulaist hero if you don't own Factions?

My idea involves talking to a henchmen in whatever outpost they are currently found in and selecting an option to have them listed in your hero list (the same way the mercenary function takes an image of a player character and then adds it to the list with a maximum of 8). This means you can bring them with you away from Factions as long as you first talk to them in Factions. If you don't own Factions in the first place a ritualist hero isn't going to be very useful.

This allows players to keep their mercenary cosmetic benefits while maintaining any gameplay benefits evenly split with the rest of the gaming community.

I think your idea to turn henchmen into heroes is pretty cool. It breathes new life into the otherwise abandoned henchies. I know I've always wished I could give them better equipment and skill loadouts.

But I completely disagree that the mercenary packs are unfair. Every player in the game has the same opportunity to build a team of any combination of classes. Some just pay real money for the option to skip the hassle of making friends. Just like some people pay real money to skip the hassle of skill hunting for their heroes.

Merc-buyers still have to endure the downside of not only equipping all those "bought friends," but being limited in the builds they can actually utilize. Heroes/mercs still don't use a lot of abilities correctly, and while there are plenty of viable builds for them, a team of mostly/all real people has the most build options, the most coordination, and the highest potential power. No one is excluded from that by money.

Oh there will definitely be smiting going on... One way or another.

Those Guild Wars Gods do understand that they need worshipers to exist, right? If they continue to give cash shop advantage then this worshiper can find somewhere else to be. It's just business.

I regularly spend money in the cash shop. People who say GW is a one time buy and since I've already bought the "Gods" don't care about me anymore anyway are simply wrong. If they didn't care about me spending money in the cash shop they wouldn't provide a cash shop or put new stuff in it.

Equity in the game is important. This new item that is available for purchase isn't merely cosmetic, and it doesn't allow equity for people that don't buy it. If the "Gods" are going to tread into this territory then I'm going to find somewhere else to play. Simple as that. They must find some way to make it equitable.

To me it doesn't matter how that happens as long as it happens. Hench added to the hero list (but also still in town as henchmen) they way the OP suggested, disabling one profession from the hero list as Sir Cusfreak suggested, I don't care. But they need to do something to fix this. ASAP.

Any henchman, as a hero anywhere? I'm actually not against that at all.

It would at least give all players the ability to create any team builds they want, an set mercs back to being cosmetic like they should be.

I'm for it.

This would defeat their purpose of making merc heros. I have a feeling they did this take money for future projects and for other company reason. Its not all just for the community. I think people who buy the merch heros deserve what they get they paid for it with real money they work hard to get. I myself will not be getting them I've learned to play the game without many perks other people have and ill to it again now. People are never satisfied.

Equity is certainly important. But it has not been violated, not any more so than it has been in the past. Only the costumes are truly cosmetic. Have you ever purchased extra character slots, skill unlocks, or inventory panes? Because if you have, it's pretty hypocritical to argue against merc slots.

Unless you've only bought costumes, never used skills from one campaign in another campaign, and always PvP with purely Core skills, your have no grounds to stand on against mercs.

If the purpose is to give the advantage of any team composition you want, then yeah, it would. (and it should.) But they say the purpose was for a re-skin, to have your heroes look like your other toons, not an in-store advantage. There are ways they could have that cosmetic appeal and still be fair. (and I would buy them if they were only cosmetic, because they really are cool, but it needs to be fair.)

Geez... all this backlash about mercenary heroes when the live team has just given everyone with NF and EotN "click here to win" option. Seriously, even though the people who buy mercs can have more build options, its already easy enough to /faceroll your way through the entire game with the existing heroes. I doubt there'd be much of a time difference either way.

Took the words out my mouth. Be creative and make your own builds win this new great 7 hero update

I've been asking for this for a long time now.

/signed.

Where is your evidence? What are the horrid imbalancing effects you have noted over the course of ONE day. What content are you gated from by not purchasing?

Chicken Little wants free stoof methinks.

Aaaarg!!!! some people have more Xunlai storage than others too which give them a gameplay advantage!!!..

It's not a big deal really. Let the people spend the money if they really want that extra Necro hero.