Guild Wars 2

I understand that the whole idea of the game was to be more social but being a night shift worker most of my play is between 1am – 6am. There is just no-one around at that time.

Some areas especially orr are just too hard for me to complete as a solo player, I just don’t see me ever being able to complete them without at least 1 assisting.

So I am wondering if Heros/Henchmen will be available to use at some point? even if its only a summoned ally.

Thank you for any replies.

Someone actually asked about this during the recent AMA with Chris Whiteside.

Question:
43. I am L26, and it is reaaaally slow going, as the maps and events are deserted, and everything you designed for crowds in mind, I have to solo. Is there any chance of getting heroes/henchman to offset this, at least until L80?

Chris’s answer:
I love the idea of henchmen and this is something we would discuss, however the problem you raise initially would be complemented by this feature rather than fixed. We are going to ensure full use of the world by not polarizing content. This has been a huge topic of conversation today. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and questions.

Source: http://dulfy.net/2012/11/26/gw2-chris-whiteside-ama-on-reddit/

I solo a lot as well, and have been hoping Anet will implement some features that will make the game a little more friendly to solo players. This is especially a problem with story mode dungeons, which absolutely require a PUG in their current state. I would love to see story modes scale to the number of party members or, as you suggest, get to have henchman/heroes (or at least buff the NPCs who are already allies during the story modes).

This is obviously a hugely complex issue in terms of mechanics and game balance…but I was really encouraged that Chris didn’t totally dismiss the idea! Maybe there is some hope?

Henchmen? hell no. They weren’t even meat shields, they were just something to pull aggro at the wrong moments.

Heros? yes please. Hell, even just one hero would make the game better. Make it so they can only be used in pve and not in spvp or www. Too many zones are empty and a lot of events cannot be soloed. Especially in zones where these events are key to accessing vendors.

I hate the idea, I would like to solo when I want and not be forced to use them like in GW1, and quit Because the AI is so stupid. If we do get them, I fear whenever not playing with people I’ll be forced to use these and that would suck.

There are other better ways to fix the issue of not enough players in a zone.

You wouldn’t ever be forced to use them, I believe the game difficulty is hard enough to warrant the use of 1 hero/henchman as it currently is.

A possible happy medium could be buffing the NPCs who are already programmed to accompany you. For example, when you do Ascalonian Catacombs in story mode, Rytlock could get a buff based on the number of people in your party. If you go in by yourself, he would be a powerful sidekick. With a full party, less powerful as he currently is.

I have to say I am more a fan of this idea in instances (i.e. story mode dungeons) than in the explorable areas, where henchman could create balance issues, or explorable dungeons, where the devs and players want a lively dungeon running scene and frequent grouping. But for personal story quests and story mode dungeons, I don’t see why this would be a problem.

Henchmen were originally in the game for solo play, but they were dropped about two years before launch. I assume that they were removed so the balancing element was level scaling.

Lady Vireo.5189:

A possible happy medium could be buffing the NPCs who are already programmed to accompany you. For example, when you do Ascalonian Catacombs in story mode, Rytlock could get a buff based on the number of people in your party. If you go in by yourself, he would be a powerful sidekick. With a full party, less powerful as he currently is.

I have to say I am more a fan of this idea in instances (i.e. story mode dungeons) than in the explorable areas, where henchman could create balance issues, or explorable dungeons, where the devs and players want a lively dungeon running scene and frequent grouping. But for personal story quests and story mode dungeons, I don’t see why this would be a problem.

This would actually be a very good idea.

Lady Vireo.5189:

A possible happy medium could be buffing the NPCs who are already programmed to accompany you. For example, when you do Ascalonian Catacombs in story mode, Rytlock could get a buff based on the number of people in your party. If you go in by yourself, he would be a powerful sidekick. With a full party, less powerful as he currently is.

.

Rytlock couldnt be less powerfull than he currently is, im sure he was chosen as a plushie because in game he’s just a big fluffy thing with a flaming sword that sits there and looks pretty.

Perhaps a rent a toon system i have an 80 guardian 80 ranger and 80 thief for 5 ectos and hour ill follow you any where