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It has been suggested that this article, Henchman Skill Bar Contest, be moved to Henchman skill bar contest because: "lower case". |
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We've listened to the voices of many players and are removing heroes from Guild vs. Guild and Heroes' Ascent play. In order to give all players the ability to participate in those formats (even if they can't form a full party with other players), we're replacing heroes with a selection of new henchmen.
Do you have ideas for great, competitive henchmen skill bars? Enter your best skill bars in our Henchman Skill Bar Contest!
— Official page
During August and September, 2009, ArenaNet ran a contest that allowed players to submit skill bars for the henchmen that would soon replace heroes in Guild versus Guild and Heroes' Ascent. Players could submit their skill bars to Dizhou [Xunlai Pollster] in the Great Temple of Balthazar. Out of over 30 000 entries, the Guild Wars Live Team selected forty skill bars that the new henchmen would use.
[edit] Prizes
Forty winners (twenty GvG winners and twenty HA winners) will receive one of each of the following prizes:
- Name a henchman; a henchman named after the winner's character or an appropriate name of the winner's choosing. Names must abide by the Naming Policy and are subject to the approval of the Development Team.
- Everlasting Henchman Tonic; one Everlasting Henchman Tonic. These unique items will grant the winner the ability to temporarily transform into the image of the henchman that they are named after.
[edit] Winners
[edit] Guild versus Guild winners
- This henchman was initially named Etron, but was changed to Errol Hyl in the November 19, 2009, update.
[edit] Heroes' Ascent winners
[edit] Controversy
Many players have become upset at the outcome of this competition for a variety of reasons. A majority of the builds were a part of the GvG or Heroes' Ascent Metagames either historically or at the time of the announcement of the winners. As such, the bars could be found on many build documentation sites, most notably PvXwiki. Many have argued that builds that can be found on PvXwiki are in violation of the Originality condition in the official rules and thus should have been disqualified. A comparison of many of the builds and their "PvX counterparts" was posted here.
In response, it has been argued that, due to the limiting nature of the AI and the vast difference in power between "good skills" and "bad skills", it is very difficult to create builds that have not been made public without sacrificing significant amounts of effectiveness. However, as community representative Martin Kerstein stated that these henchmen builds "are not meant to replace human players", it can be argued that maximum effectiveness should not be required of these builds (though by no means should effectiveness be disregarded).
In addition, Martin Kerstein stated that "niche meta builds" were unwanted and "common gimmicks" were unlikely to be picked, and they were avoiding builds that "made use of certain AI advantages." Many players argue that most of the winning builds fall into those categories.
Others have taken issue with the fact that the AI at this time cannot utilize the winning builds effectively. ArenaNet has, however, stated that there is a possibility that the AI would be "tweaked" to improve performance with these builds. One common complaint points out the enormous amount of work required to make these changes possible as compared to the size of the current live team. In addition, it has been claimed that some skills - for example, "Make Haste!" and Song of Concentration - can never be properly utilized by the AI and are thus "wasted" in henchman builds.
[edit] External links
Pudash 
Dirk Shadowrise
Vincent Evan
Errol Hyl1 
Tannaros
Kah Xan
Narcissia
Redemptor Frohs 
Zen Siert
Blenkeh
