The Hall of Heroes

This is the crown of the Heroes' Ascent tournament in Guild Wars, where the best teams fight for the treasures that are waiting for the ultimately victorious heroes.

The Hall of Heroes is a King of the Hill, Capture Points, or Relic Run (randomly chosen) map for 2-3 teams that lasts eight minutes. Hall of Heroes matches start every 12 minutes. Matches are usually 3 teams (red, yellow and blue with blue being the holding team) or 2 teams (red and blue). Each team has a base with a resurrection shrine. At the beginning of the match, the gate to each base is closed. The holding team has a slight advantage (or disadvantage) because their resurrection shrine is closer to the central altar.

King of the Hill
The defending team that last won the Hall of Heroes starts in possession of the altar, giving them an advantage. Besides that, this functions the same way as The Courtyard. The holding team will resurrect on the shrine while other teams and their ghost will resurrect back at their bases. A point is awarded to the holding team every 30 seconds. The Ghostly Hero uses Claim Resource to claim the altar provided no other team's Ghost is holding. You will continue to gain points if your Ghost dies provided that no other team captures the central altar.

Relic Run
Each team must carry the relic from their base to the central altar. The relic runner must simply touch the central altar with the relic to score a point. In a case of a tie, the team who scored last wins. The holding team (blue) starts with a slight advantage because the gate to their base is closer to the central altar but their relic spawns closer to their resurrection shrine than the other teams making the distance for relics after the first one the same for all teams.

Capture Points
Like Forgotten Shrines and Alliance Battles, shrines are captured by standing on them. You can cause one pip towards the capture with each person from your team who stands on the shrine. The Ghostly Hero provides 4 pips. Teams vie for control for four shrines: the resurrection shrines of red, yellow and blue teams as well as the central altar. (In the case of a 1v1 match, there are only 3 shrines; the gate to the yellow base/shrine is closed). Every thirty seconds, your team gains 1 point for each shrine they are in possession of. In the case of a tie, the team who scored the last kill wins.

Your team will still resurrect on your shrine even if another team is in possession of it.

Winners
Winners of the Hall of Heroes are awarded 800 faction and can get a drop of high quality loot or a Celestial Sigil from the Chest that spawns after the battle has finished. The chest is also the exclusive source of some weapons and the miniature Ghostly Hero. Additionally, each player that opens the chest also gets a Zaishen Key.

A party winning the Hall of Heroes several times continues to gain more Fame. After a party has won the Hall of Heroes, the name of the party leader or the name of the Guild the majority of party members belongs to is displayed in green text to all players of Guild Wars announcing their victory.

Hall of Heroes matches are also listed on Observer mode.

Prior to August 9th, 2007, the territory of the winning team was used to determine Favor.

Lore

 * The Hall of Heroes is believed to be located deep within the Mists and to be the place where the universe of Guild Wars was first created. As Turai Ossa describes it: It is the center of all things. There are only three known portals to the Hall Of Heroes, two of which are currently inaccessible.
 * Heroes' Ascent - currently the only accessible portal.
 * Tomb of the Primeval Kings - corrupted by the Darkness.
 * Tombs of Drascir - deep inside Charr territory.
 * Statues of Balthazar and Grenth can be found by the entrance to the yellow base while statues of Melandru and Lyssa can be found at the entrance of the red base. There is a statue of Dwayna behind the resurrection shrine in the blue base.

Trivia

 * The name, the 'Hall of Heroes' is possible a reference to a place mentioned in the Arkaine's Valor quest in Diablo I (A game a number of the ArenaNet Team worked on). In this quest, the hero reads a tome starting with the line "Beyond the Hall of Heroes" and continues to mention "Great Treasures within."