Hero behavior

Modes
Pets belonging to Heroes will use the same combat mode as their heroes.

Fight.png Fight
Heroes will aggressively confront enemies:
 * They will attack (in priority order) called targets, selected targets within spirit range of the hero, enemies actively engaged with the party, and non-selected enemies within the hero's aggro range.
 * They will separate from the party, as necessary.

Guard.png Guard
Heroes will guard the area near a flag or the controlling player (whichever is closer), refraining from combat until actively engaged.
 * They will not attack enemies unless forced to use a skill, the target is called, the foe actively engages the party, or the enemy enters the party's aggro circle.
 * They will not move beyond the guarded area unless forced to use a skill and the target is out-of-range.
 * They will return to the guarded area after using a forced skill or the enemy moves far beyond the area.
 * They will often go out of their way to attack a spirit, despite being in "Guard Mode",

Avoid Combat.png Avoid Combat
Heroes never attack and will attempt to avoid enemies when attacked, kiting as needed. They will not attack selected or called targets unless forced to use a skill.
 * They generally will not use skills that directly target foes or cause Point Blank Area of Effect damage.
 * They will use skills that indirectly affect the enemy:
 * Damaging skills that target allies, such as Smite Hex, Balthazar's Aura, or weapon spells.
 * Ward and well spells that inflict detrimental effects on foes.
 * Trap setting skills.
 * Summoning skills that bring forth minions or spirits.
 * Item spells, that require activating urns and dropping them.

Detection

 * As would be expected, heroes can "read" health bars, and can detect the presence of hexes, conditions and enchantments.
 * Heroes appear to be able to detect all buffs and debuffs, as they will not try to apply an enchantment, hex, condition or weapon spell on someone who is already affected by the same enchantment, hex, condition or weapon spell.
 * Heroes appear to be able to detect party members' energy, as they will not use skills such as Blood Ritual on characters with full energy pools.
 * Heroes can detect enemy skill activation, and will only use interrupts which are appropriate to the skill type; however, they cannot prioritize high-threat skills, and sometimes waste interruption skills in failed attempts to interrupt skills with short activation times.

Formation

 * Heroes will not always line up ranged characters at the rear, with melee characters in front, as you might expect.
 * Heroes will change formation when the player changes from a melee weapon to a ranged or a ranged weapon to a melee.
 * Heroes wielding item spells will be in the front with the melee wielding heroes.

Healing

 * Heroes will pick the ally with the least health as target.
 * Heroes are unable to tell when battle is about to start and will thus protect allies far from combat.
 * Heroes are able to tell which dead allies have usable resurrection skills, and prioritize them when resurrecting an ally.
 * Heroes generally only use full party healing skills such as Heal Party when multiple party members need healing.
 * Heroes generally use multi-target healing skills such as Healing Ribbon and Healing Burst the same way they use single target healing skills.
 * Heroes can use Life Sheath as efficiently as Reversal of Fortune.
 * Heroes are indiscriminate in their use of Protection Prayers as they will use spells like Protective Spirit, Spirit Bond, Shielding Hands, and Shield of Absorption on targets hexed with health degeneration even in the absence of direct damage.

Forced skill use

 * Heroes can be ordered to execute skills by clicking on the appropriate skill on the hero skill bar.
 * When a hero is ordered to execute a skill during the activation of another skill, the hero will cancel the activation of that skill and proceed with the ordered skill.

Use of specific types of skills
The hero AI sometimes behaves unexpectedly. This section identifies specific types of skills with unexpected uses that are beneficial/neutral or harmful to the player. Please assist the community in keeping the advice current and accurate.

Preparations

 * Heroes will spam Apply Poison upon any foe within range and not already under the effects of poison; as a player in PvP is likely to do so. Whether this is a desirable behavior is a matter of opinion/circumstances.

Spells

 * Reusable resurrection skills are activated regardless of whether or not other party members are already resurrecting the same ally.
 * Heroes will run into combat to activate PBAoE direct damage spells, including ones designed for self defense, such as Whirlwind.
 * Heroes seem to use AoE direct damage spells only if there is more than one enemy in the effect-range of this spell, such as Earthquake.

Enchantments

 * Heroes use skills such as Conjure Flame and Ebon Dust Aura based on their weapon’s current damage type when effects changing the damage (such as Winter or Staggering Force) are active.
 * Heroes will not use Blood Ritual or Blood is Power on allies wielding martial weapons.
 * Heroes will never use these enchantments on martial professions unless they are holding a bundle, or wielding a wand or staff, and they reserve the use of these enchantments until a martial ally drops to ~20 energy or lower.
 * Heroes will always use these enchantments on caster professions regardless of their weapon type equipped, and they reserve the use of these enchantments until a caster ally drops to ~30 energy or lower.

Maintained enchantments

 * Maintained enchantments are generally only used during combat and are dismissed outside of combat, and heroes will quickly dismiss any maintained enchantment they are ordered to activate unless that skill is set to deactivated. The only exceptions are Blessed Aura, Divine Boon, Unyielding Aura and Mending.
 * If a maintained enchantment is disabled, the hero will neither cast nor dismiss that enchantment, so a player can order the hero to cast the enchantment on a selected target and it will not be dismissed.
 * Heroes sometimes improperly use maintainable enchantments by removing them shortly after casting. To mitigate this behavior, disable the skill, select the desired target, and manually trigger the enchantment.

Hexes

 * Heroes in general are very efficient with hexes.

Interrupts

 * Heroes don't seem to be able to prioritize which skills to interrupt. For example, a hero could waste an interruption skill to interrupt Flare while letting another foe cast Rodgort's Invocation.
 * Heroes will use Disrupting Dagger to interrupt spellcaster profession enemies rather than use it frequently against non-spellcaster targets.

Item spells

 * If an urn causes an effect when dropped, heroes will drop the urn when the opportunity presents itself, otherwise, they will hold the urn for the spell's entire duration.

Weapon spells

 * Heroes will overwrite weapon spells with other weapon spells (unless noted otherwise).
 * Heroes will cast offensive weapon spells such as Brutal Weapon, Guided Weapon and Splinter Weapon on attacking allies with priority to those with enhanced attack-rating and/or striking multiple foes. They are also known to cast these spells on passive characters and characters holding bundles, but will only use such spells on targets who are engaged in combat.
 * Heroes will cast defensive weapon spells such as Resilient Weapon, Spirit Light Weapon, and Weapon of Warding to overwrite non-defensive weapon spells when the target's Health is at critical levels.
 * Heroes will cast supportive weapon spells such as Weapon of Quickening on spellcaster professions regardless of weapon type equipped, with priority to those frequently casting the most spells and/or currently activating binding rituals.
 * The AI now uses Splinter Weapon on minions.

Status-effect cleansing

 * Heroes generally know how to properly use hex-removal and conditional-removal skills.
 * On the downside, they also remove hexes/conditions on team members where it is beneficial, for example under Melandru's Resilience, or where it is unavoidable, such as Cultist's Fervor.

Touch skills

 * Heroes will run into combat to activate touch skills. This works well for well-protected martial heroes, but can cause caster heroes to move from the mid- or backlines with unfortunate timing for themselves and the party. For example, monks will put themselves in harm's way to use Healing Touch.

Binding Rituals

 * Heroes consistently activate and maintain Soul Twisting during encounters, outside of encounters, before activating any Binding Rituals and after all other binding rituals are recharging. If heroes Spawning Power ranks allows them to use Soul Twisting for 3 binding rituals, and they use only 2 during a battle, they won't renew it to 'refresh' the counter when out of battle. Aside from forcing heroes to use Soul Twisting when it's available, they arent anymore likely to cast Binding Rituals intelligently when sharing the skill bar with Soul Twistings; if you give a hero four spirits (or spirits that die rapidly), they may end up summoning one without the benefit of Soul Twisting.

Shadowstepping

 * Heroes will use Death's Charge to close in on enemies even if the heal effect isn’t needed.

Skills associated with unwanted behavior
These skills are used by heroes in ways that harm the party or at least provide less benefit than expected. Please assist the wiki-community in keeping these issues current and accurate.


 * ''Note: If you've found a bug and would like to see ArenaNet address this, please report it at the Guild Wars Support Forum.

Unused skills
Unused skills are those that heroes never use or never seem to use; consider these carefully before including in heroes' builds, as you will have to manually activate them.


 * Heroes do not seem to use Falling Lotus Strike or Falling Spider on their own.
 * Heroes will not use Steady Stance to prevent self-induced knockdowns from skills such as Drunken Blow.
 * Heroes will not use Rage of the Ntouka or Deadly Paradox.
 * Heroes under enchantments that cause them to deal earth damage will not activate Ebon Dust Aura unless they are already wielding earth-damaging weapons.
 * Heroes will not use Moebius Strike on enemies above 50% health, even if they have a charged dual attack ready to use afterwards.
 * Heroes won't cast Dark Aura on other party members who are sacrificing health and are under attack.
 * Heroes do not activate Mystic Sandstorm regardless of their available adrenaline.

Misused skills
Misused skills are those that heroes use in odd or improper ways; carefully enable/disable them according to the situation.


 * Heroes have never used Echo or Arcane Echo correctly except by chance; these skills should always remain disabled.
 * Heroes will use Throw Dirt on Spirits.
 * Heroes will use Rotting Flesh on non-fleshy foes.
 * Heroes will use "For Great Justice!" in combat whenever it is recharged, rather than waiting to get close enough to attack.
 * Heroes will use "To the Limit!" whenever a single foe is within range, even if more foes are barely out of range. This generally means that they will only get one strike of adrenaline when they use it at the start of combat.
 * Heroes will use "I Will Avenge You!" whenever a single dead party member is in range, even if others (especially pets) are taking damage and close to death. This generally means that they will only get 10 seconds of health regeneration and IAS for a long recharge.
 * Heroes will only use Assassin's Promise on low health targets, even if it is vital to their attack chain.
 * Heroes will use Renewing Memories even if they do not hold bundles.
 * Heroes will use Agonizing Chop when the foe doesn't have Deep Wound, even when they can use Dismember, they'll use Agonizing Chop first.
 * Heroes will use Power Drain as an interrupt, not to intentionally manage their energy.
 * Heroes will use Ritual Lord prior to any skill and not necessarily a Binding Ritual. They will not use it prior to all binding rituals.
 * Heroes will use Healing Ribbon as a single-target heal and even when cheaper heals are available and would suffice, which tends to lead them to energy problems
 * Heroes will waste energy recasting Aggressive Refrain when it's running out, even though recasting a shout/chant would refresh it before it expires.
 * Heroes will use Well of suffering after all foes have been defeated
 * Heroes will use Fierce Blow even when the target isn't weakened

Limited-use skills
Limited-use skills are those that heroes do not use to their full potential or use inconsistently with general hero behavior. Use caution when including them in hero builds and consider enabling/disabling them according to the situation.


 * Destructive Was Glaive is only used when there are foes adjacent to them. Heroes are likely to drop rather then hold when there are foes adjacent to them.
 * Energetic Was Lee Sa is only used when energy is below 50%. Heroes immediately drop upon casting it, rather then holding for full effect.
 * Death's Retreat is only used for healing.
 * Glyph of Lesser Energy does not encourage heroes to use higher-energy spells; Glyph of Energy does not encourage heroes to use exhausting spells.
 * Renewing Memories does not encourage heroes to take advantage of item spells.
 * Ancestors' Rage is used on characters who are within range of more than one foe and taking damage. Unlike most damaging skills which target allies, heroes will not use Ancestors' Rage while set to "Avoid Combat".
 * Patient Spirit is cast as a heal, but the hero will cast another heal before Patient Spirit ends if the ally still needs health immediately, thus most of the time over-healing that ally.
 * Panic is not used to its full potential upon recharge when spreading around large groups; this is problematic if it half-recharges, as they go after the same foe if its not dead and before it runs out.
 * Heroes will not use Heal as One to apply the life stealing to their pet.
 * Heroes do not seem more likely to cast Signet of Rejuvenation on allies who are attacking or casting spells.
 * Heroes do not seem more likely to cast Dwayna's Kiss on allies with hexes and/or enchantments.
 * Heroes do not seem more likely to cast Mirror of Disenchantment on enemies in groups sharing the same enchantment.
 * Skills that end on actions such as Feigned Neutrality are used inefficiently because the end effect isn't noticed. For example; a Hero can use Feigned Neutrality and then instantly attack, ending the Enchantment.

Inefficient skills
Inefficient skills are those which heroes use too soon or not soon enough because they cannot correctly identify when best to use them. Skills used to often can lead to poor energy management or emphasizing short recharge skills over more powerful other skills. Heroes use other skills too rarely leading to wasted opportunities. In both cases, you can compensate by temporarily manually triggering skills or temporarily disabling them. For overly spammed skills, you can provide heroes with more energy through skills or equipment.


 * Inappropriate spamming
 * Heroes overuse Reversal of Fortune, draining their energy.
 * Heroes will repeatedly use Healing Whisper over others heals, probably because of its short recharge.
 * Wastrel's Worry and Wastrel's Demise are spammed constantly over other skills and can drain energy rapidly.


 * Chaining
 * Heroes are unable to chain skills properly, such as glyphs and spells, or Ritual Lord and binding rituals. If their order of execution is not determined by the game mechanics (such as for Assassin attack combos), they will use such skills randomly, most probably forfeiting the combo's advantage or at least not using it to its full potential.


 * Wasted opportunities
 * Heroes will not reapply an enchantment or hex before it expires, even if doing so would be advantageous. For example, Necromancers will not recast Aura of the Lich to create more minions if the enchantment is still active.

Recent update
The article was changed as noted, as a result of the February 2011 update:
 * This overhaul of the Dervish profession has led to unpredictable Hero AI behavior.
 * Experienced players are encouraged and to assist the wiki-community in keeping these issues current and accurate.
 * Further improvements to heroes are planned, including changes to melee heroes, that may very well address these issues.

Previous update
The article was changed as noted, as a result of the March 25, 2010 update:
 * Changes to these skills have not been analyzed for their impact on hero behavior:
 * The AI will now use Blazing Finale on allies.


 * Changes to these skills had little impact on hero behavior:
 * The AI will now use Boon of Creation more intelligently.


 * Changes to these skills are believed to have been improved sufficiently that heroes use them as expected; they have subsequently been removed from the "Specific skills" section.
 * The AI will now use Soul Twisting more intelligently.
 * The AI will now use other skills while in Dwarven Battle Stance.
 * The AI will now use Spirit to Flesh more often.


 * Changes to these skills have resulted in unexpected hero behavior; the skills have been added to the relevant section.
 * None (in this update).

Patches (Historical)

 * Heroes behaviors/mechanics/skills were significantly updated with detailed explanations in these patches.
 * The hero AI does not always change as skills evolve; heroes use some skills (e.g. Healing Burst) as if using a previous version of the game.


 * 22nd October 2009 update: Heroes removed from PvP.
 * 18th June 2009 update: PvP/PvE skill balance tweak.
 * 7th August 2008 update: Dramatic PvP/PvE skill split.
 * 31st August 2007 update: New heroes introduced via Eye of the North expansion.
 * 25th October 2006 update: Heroes introduced to Guild Wars via Nightfall expansion.