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.

Heroes that play out the tanking role effectively:
 * Koss
 * Goren
 * Melonni

Heroes that can play tanks, but require more specialization:
 * General Morgahn
 * Zenmai

Build Spotlight: Build:W/any Triple Chop PvE Tank

The cookie-cutter build of PvE tanks, this build is able to both able to take large amounts of damage, as well as cutting through enemy groups. Effective use of this build often requires being in the right position at the right time, although simply locking a hero onto a target in the middle of an enemy group will do.

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.

Heroes that play out the Damage Dealing role effectively:
 * Acolyte Sousuke
 * Zhed Shadowhoof
 * Acolyte Jin
 * Margrid the Sly
 * Olias
 * Master of Whispers

Heroes that can play as Damage dealers, but require more specialization:
 * Norgu
 * Zenmai
 * General Morgahn

Build Spotlight: Build:R/any General PvE Barrage Ranger

The pinnacle of Ranger builds in PvE, the Barrager is able to rain high-damage arrows upon enemies. Utilizing the full benefits of rapidly spamming a single skill, this highly versatile character packs both firepower and speed, with Ranger stances ready to trigger when under attack.

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.

Heroes that play out the Support role effectively:
 * General Morgahn
 * Olias
 * Master of Whispers
 * Norgu
 * Razah

Heroes that can play as Support characters, but require more specialization:
 * Zenmai
 * Tahlkora
 * Dunkoro

Build Spotlight: Build:N/any Minion Master

A key to having a healthy party is providing enemies with more targets to hit. Taking advantage of killing large groups of enemies, large numbers of minions raised by this build provide both damage as well as protection for the party, all while the character controlling these minions is safe in the back.

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. However, Healers being highly specialized characters, are usually run by only those two classes.

Heroes that play healers effectively:
 * Dunkoro
 * Tahlkora
 * Razah

Build Spotlight: Build:Mo/any Light of Deliverance Hybrid

An excellent display of the skills available to the common Monk, this build uses skills from three of the monk's four attribute lines to provide both healing for the entire party, as well as boosting defense and reducing damage when needed.

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 managment 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.

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. Here is an overview of important skills to bring for specific areas/missions, and how easily those adjustments can be made in build selection.


 * Hell's Precipice (Mission): Winter. Taking this spirit on one of your heroes greatly enchances your party's killing ability, using to your advantage the Titans' weakness to Cold damage.
 * Unwaking Waters (Mission): Magebane Shot. Taking advantage of the skill's Instant Recharge effect when hitting a Spell, a Ranger is able to interrupt more than once, effectively reducing the effectiveness of Kuunavang's partial interrupt immunity.
 * Gate of Madness (Mission): Psychic Distraction. Knowing that heroes have excellent timing in the use of Interrupts, this skill can eliminate the threat posed by Shiro Tagachi's Impossible Odds.
 * Abaddon's Gate (Mission): Light of Deliverance. Party-wide healing can be accomplished in the simple casting of a five-energy spell.

<!-- Gate Heroes has been successfully used for all of the PvE explorable areas and missions in the Realm of Torment, up to and including defeating Abaddon. This Hero team build consists of a untested PvE W/E Flame Warrior, a minor variant on the tested PvE Build:Mo/any Light of Deliverance Hybrid, a minor variant of the tested PvE build Build:E/any Renewal Nuker and a minor variant of the tested PvE build Build:N/any Minion Master.

Using the proven team of Tank, Healer, Nuker and Minion Master it is flexible and strong against all foes encountered in the gate regions without requiring perfect weapons, insignia or runes. It is possible to construct this team using less than 50, making it well suited to new players who lack dedicated farming characters. Backup henchmen provide additional healing (Mhenlo), nuking (Cynn), defense for spellcasters (Herta), and general defense (Sogolon). Without the henchmen, this build is capable of eliminating all enemies in a run to Ghial the Bone Dancer.

The major problem for spellcaster Hero builds is energy management, since their simple logic leads to over-use of spells. As a result, the variations made to the 'stock' builds above mainly consist of making them more energy efficient.

Please see the respective build pages for full details (equipment, variants & usage) regarding the hero builds. Note, however that the real equipment requirements for these builds is far below the ideal case presented, normally requiring no more than equipment from normal drops and cheap (<1) runes & insignia. All credit for the creation of those excellent builds goes to their respective authors. The Flame Warrior is the author's character.

W/E Flame Warrior
This build concentrates on flame damage from Conjure Flame and fast-recharge, adrenal, direct damage skills for high damage output (DPS) and spike damage during Call to the Torment. Lacking self-healing or specialist tanking skills, the build relies on a monk with quick reflexes. The wide distribution of skills allows this warrior to be flexible while dealing out significant damage. Variations:
 * Replace Dolyak Signet and Endure Pain with Bonetti's Defense and Resurrection Signet for better energy management.
 * Replace Berserker Stance with Flail to use skills while in stance while sacrificing mobility.
 * Replace Lightbringer's Gaze, Quivering Blade, and Endure Pain with Sever Artery, Gash and Defy Pain before/when away from the Realm of Torment, or for a more familiar looking skill set.
 * Replace Shock with a warrior interrupt such as Distracting Blow to avoid exhaustion, at the cost of losing knockdown.

Equipment

 * A Fiery Dragon Sword of Enchanting, or other Fiery sword
 * Any 9 Tactics or Strength Shield with Stance or Enchantment bonuses
 * Gladiator's Armor or Runes of Attunement and/or Radiant Insignia to get 25-26 energy
 * Stonefist Gauntlets or equivalent for extra knockdown duration if using Shock.

Individual Usage

 * Use Berserker Stance for it's full duration when possible.
 * In the case of energy starvation, use Conjure Flame, wait for energy to regenerate, then attack.
 * Check that Conjure Flame is up before starting Berserker Stance.
 * Shock must be used with care due to Exhaustion. Primary target spells/skills are Troll Unguent and Healing Signet, although the second one needs good timing.  Use of Shock for generic knockdown is not recommended unless a high priority foe is under heavy DoT bombardment and only in emergencies.
 * The knockdown from Shock is useful for preventing (but not interrupting) Call to the Torment. Timing this requires luck and practice.
 * Quivering Blade and Sun and Moon Slash are good finishers for monsters using Call to the Torment.
 * Enchantment stripping and blocking skills are uncommon for monsters in the later areas of Nightfall, mostly negating the downsides of this build.

Zhed Shadowhoof
Minor variant of Build:E/any Renewal Nuker

Description from the source: This build is used to inflict massive amounts of damage in a small amount of time with an Elementalist. This build is effective almost anywhere in PvE, such as the Underworld and the Fissure of Woe, where there can be many monsters gathered up in a tightly packed space. While there are many versions of Elementalist nukers, this build focuses on high damage Fire Magic skills. This version relies on the power of Glyph of Renewal to cast any spell twice, or possibly even more in combination with other secondary class elites.

Master of Whispers
Variant of Build:N/any Minion Master

Description from the source: There are many versions of the Minion Master, however this version, unlike many, does not use the Healing Prayers line, removing any restriction on secondary class. This version is ideal for Sorrow's Furnace farming, Alliance Battles or PvE.

Dunkoro
Minor variant of Build:Mo/any Light of Deliverance Hybrid

Description from the source: This build concentrates on the excellent party-healing abilities of the Monk elite skill Light of Deliverance. Using additional skills from the Protection Prayers and other Healing Prayers line skills, an extremely efficient and dependable party healer is created.

Group Usage
Tanking (using hero placement and Dolyak Signet) is not strictly necessary, but can help to drain foe skills & spells at the start of battles. At the start of battles, keep your hero casters on "Avoid Combat" and kite yourself, as appropriate. When you have roughly 1/2 of the foes down, change them to Guard mode to wipe out the rest and to avoid new spawns with Call to the Torment.

For killing Shiro, follow the instructions on the appropriate mission page, then, when at the doorway, look for two red marks on the path towards the right of the doorway. When you stand in front of the first mark, Shiro attacks, when behind the second mark, he retreats. With your ranged attackers in position, kite from side to side between the two marks and Shiro takes constant damage from your ranged attackers. Remember to keep calling your target. If he retreats, don't worry because his healing is slow without a target. This is only one of many possible alternatives to completing this mission, but focuses on finishing the mission without a specialist tank.

Call your targets to get your heroes and henchmen to focus on one target at a time and to increase their total damage output.

Counters
Blocking and enchantment stripping are counters for the W/E. With such a caster heavy group, energy denial is a concern, but is not serious enough in Realm of Torment to cause a wipe. Slowing spells (such as those used by Rain of Terror) are not a serious problem for anyone other than the tank in the party.

Henchmen
Cynn, Herta, Mhenlo and Sogolon make effective henchmen with this team. Additional warriors are a liability. -->