Help with gear and build

Hi there,

I am kind of a newcommer to the game. Well, I did finish Factions and I'm now playing Eye of the North (I started doing Prophecies for the lore, but was advised to start with EotN to get some Heroes and some easy HoM points as GW2 is only a month away). Just to be clear, I'm not after HoM points in this post, I just want to play the game correctly. Anyway, I tool all the starter main quests for Asura, Ebon Vanguard and Norn, and I'm now just starting the Asura arc with the quest "A Little Help". My main problem is that ... I don't know what I'm doing from a combat viewpoint : I die too fast, I feel like I have no synergy with my Heroes, I have actually no idea how to build them, or how to gear them for just general questing, I just plain suck at the game at this point even though I though I was doing alright with henchies in Faction.

So, to make you eventual answers easier I made a little character profile and included it below :

Quote: Level 20 A/R
545 Health
25 Energy

Skills :
Golden Lotus Strike
Fox Fangs
Death Blossom
Moebius Strike
Dash
Critical Eye
Critical Defenses
Shadow Refuge

Attributes :
14 Dagger Mastery
12 Critical Strikes
4 Shadow Arts
1 Deadly Arts

Gear :
Ceremonial Daggers customized for +20% Damage: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Cerem...s_%28unique%29
Standard Canthan Max Armor
> Mask : Minor Dagger Mastery - No Insignia
> Guise : Survivor - No Runes
> Gloves : Minor Critical Strikes - No Insignia
> Leggings : Vitae - No Insignia
> Shoes : Vitae - No Insignia

Heroes :
M.O.X
Ogden
Vekk
Gwen
Livia The Heroes are in their default armor, no runes or insignias added. Default builds too as I have no idea how to build them. As you've seen I'm mostly a Dagger Mastery / Critical Strikes Assassin, so I built myself around that. My build may be lacking so any suggestions are welcome. I have no idea if I should add Insignias to my gear, and in that case what Insignias I should add.

Thanks for your help

PS : Some of the acronyms I use may be wrong, I'm just forcing myself to use the jargon To be honest my only experience with the game is playing through Factions, and even then I was sometimes helped by helpful strangers. I wouldn't have had Max Armor (or even know what it was) if it wasn't for a kind player who helped me buy it.

Since it seems like your team is wide open for building, I'll offer just a few pieces of general advice. First, when possible its best to avoid melee heroes (and henchmen). The Melee AI has been notoriously bad for a long time, even though it got a slight upgrade recently.

Second, until you can put good builds and equipment on your heroes, they are almost always worse than the henchmen. This is especially true in EotN areas. The only henchmen in the game that currently are pretty bad are most in the factions campaign, but they do ok there too.

Thirdly, when running the assassin bar you listed, some of your best friends should probably be an E/Mo protter (see PvX for builds) and something that can regularly remove hexes (in my opinion its even worth devoting an elite skill slot towards for plenty of areas... I like "Divert Hexes" but there are other good choices). The two biggest problems sins face are snares and spike damage. Protters will handle the spike damage (and usually conditions like cripple if you choose skills wisely) and strong hex removal will deal with the snare hexes.

As far as what else to run on your team, a smiting prayers monk can be useful to buff your melee damage with "Strength and Honor". You'll also want heroes that can out-damage the henchmen, so check around for builds. An MM or Spirit spammer (or both) will help a lot as well. Necros are great because their primary attribute gives them loads of free energy and they have some pretty powerful skills lines. Best of luck!

EoTN is actually not the best place to start if you want to get heroes, that would be Nightfall.

For builds and equipment (for you or heroes) go here - > http://www.gwpvx.com/PvX_wiki

Best advice you will get... find a "team build" and make it our goal to get, first the heroes, then the skills and leave equipment for the end. Team builds can be found here -> http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/h...t10474776.html

Very nice guys, thanks

What about my question about Insignias/Runes ? Should I get Survivor for all my gear ? Which Rune for my Guise ?

Also, do you think I should just finish EotN with henchies/heroes (I actually got through the Asura arc yesterday ), or should I switch to Nightfall, finish it, build my Heroes correctly, then go back to EotN ? I'm not worried about the recruitment story lines, but maybe it gets more difficult after that (?)

Lastly, how do you get new skills for your Heroes ? Do you give them a Signet of Capture ?

I'm aware these are noobish questions, but I guess you gotta start somewhere. Thanks !

Quote: Originally Posted by Jamal Hakim What about my question about Insignias/Runes ? Should I get Survivor for all my gear ? Which Rune for my Guise ? That depends a lot on your build, team and other equipment. Many people run full survivor's insignia (which is why they are expensive from the trader) but this is often not the best setup. Generally speaking, armor is better than health (though not against armor ignoring damage of course) so its usually a good idea to run a combination of armor increases and health increases for insignia. For runes, it makes a big difference to run minor runes of whatever attributes your build uses (try to stick to 3 or fewer of these though) and whatever else you feel like. Sup/Major vigor is usually a decent choice.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jamal Hakim

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for all the help, I'm in a much better position now. I went ahead and tried to lock down one meta build to work towards. I am doing the 7 Hero Player Support meta-build right now. I only have 5 Heroes for it : Master of Whispers, Livia, Dunkoro, Xandra and Gwen, but it's already making a lot of difference. I played a lot of PvP during the weekend for Balthazar Faction and unlocked all the skills I needed for them. I was able to defeat the Great Destroyer in NM alone with this build + 2 Henchies so I'm very satisfied with it

Again, thanks for your help. I'll try to see what I can do about equipment now.