Guide to using Heroes in PvE

This is a simple guide on how to successfully use Heroes in many forms of PvE. From the Southern Shiverpeaks, to the Ring of Fire Islands, from Kaineng City to the Harvest Temple, and from the Consulate Docks to the Realm of Torment, this guide covers not only information on how to make the right Hero choice. This guide also lists the different ways you can modify your heroes using standard GWiki builds.

Overview
Unlike many aspects of PvP, a core PvE group should always be a balanced group. The most standard balanced group includes:


 * 2 Tanks to take the damage as well as dish it out.
 * 2 Heavy damage dealers.
 * 2 Support characters that can both prevent damage, deal damage and/or provide energy.
 * 2 Healers to provide health to allies taking damage.

Almost all PvE builds fall into one of these four categories. This allows for lots of flexibility in a party group, while still maintaining the ability to complete tasks effectively.

The Tank
While often singled out as being a character that stands at the front of a party and does nothing, the optimal tank in most areas of PvE not only takes the aggro away from the midline and backline characters, the Tank should also be able to provide ample damage support. This means that a party with effective tanks is able to prevent damage from reaching the other characters, as well as being able to dispatch foes quickly. Because of this, characters with naturally high Armor are preferred to play the tanking role.

Warrior and Dervish heroes play out the tanking role effectively. Assassin and Paragon heroes can play tanks, but require more specialization.

The Damage Dealer
The role of any damage dealer is simply to dish out as much damage as possible onto the enemy group in as little time as possible. While the popular Nuker fits this role well, a party should have Damage coming from multiple sources, rather than Magic alone. Different from the standard Tank, the damage dealer is usually heavily specialized, and deals ranged damage, so they can focus on the DPS output rather than being harassed by enemy attacks.

Ranger, Necromancer, and  Elementalist heroes can play out the Damage Dealing role effectively. Mesmer, Assassin, and  Paragon heroes can play as Damage dealers, but require more specialization.

The Support
The backbone to maintaining an excellent party requires less specialized characters to bring all of the highly specialized characters together. This is known as the Support. They are often seen to be running a mix of different types of skills. Their job is to make the other party members' jobs easier. From the common Minion Master, to a Warder, to a Spirit Spammer, and to a Battery, the support characters in the party are vital to a teams success.

Necromancer, Mesmer,  Ritualist, and  Paragon heroes can play out the Support role effectively. Monk heroes can play as Support characters, but require more specialization.

The Healers
The key to a party's survival is an effective Backline. In the case of PvE, it's easily dominanted by Healers. While the common Monk specializing in Healing Prayers is the ideal backline, other characters such as Ritualists can also play this role effectively. Healers, being highly specialized characters, are usually run by only those two classes. However, primary Necromancer heroes can use Soul Reaping in conjunction with the high number of enemies in PvE, and in particular Signet of Lost Souls (which heroes use as efficiently as they use interrupts) to provide energy management for healing.

Monk and Ritualist heroes can play healers effectively. Necromancer heroes can play healers powered by Soul Reaping.

Taking Advantage
Enemy AI is very easy to understand. Targets will run from damage-over-time spells if under 50% HP. The AI in this game is especially keen in the use of Interrupts. The nearest target to the enemy will often be the one that they decide to attack. Because of so many factors, it is important to adapt your heroes to the proper setting.

Energy Management
Heroes will often ignore this factor when it comes to using builds. Energy management skills used by Players and energy management skills used by Heroes have a distinct difference. It is important that players understand how a Hero can keep a constant supply of energy while staying effective. Here are some tips:
 * 1) Note the energy cost. Often the case is, giving a hero an expensive spell will result in its excessive use, resulting in a starved energy pool.
 * 2) Recharge times. This is especially dangerous on Warrior heroes. With only 2 pips of energy regen, giving a hero a skill like Plague Touch can result in its excessive use, and the hero will be unable to recover the lost energy quickly.
 * 3) Interruption. Using to advantage a hero's ability to interrupt enemies, skills such as Power Drain and Leech Signet that returns energy is extremely useful in maintaining a large energy supply. In addition to interruption, heroes also use other enemy targeted skills with a small window of opportunity such as Waste Not, Want Not and Signet of Lost Souls with the same automated efficiency.

Knowledge is Key
Being prepared for what the enemy is packing is always important to the survival of any PvE group. This is where build Variants come in. Sometimes, one single skill adjustment can mean as drastic as the death or survival of an entire party, to something as simple as getting that one little chunk of XP from completing the mission.