User:Tennessee Ernie Ford/Builds/Whydirt's no-elite heroes

[edit] Whydirt's no-elite heroes

Original source: User:Whydirt (Quoted from 26 February 2012 ) (Verbatim quotes appear with this background/font; rephrasing appears using the default style.)

[edit] Beginner's Guide to Heroes

I'm going to start posting some beginner hero builds that don't need elite skills to function so that I can just link people to them and hopefully get them in the OP. All the skills listed should be available as a default skill from a new character or newbie "free skills" quest (so you can get them by doing the secondary profession quests tied to those classes), equipped as a default skill on a hero you can get, or easily accessible from an early-game vendor.

Fire Elementalist Nuker

This hero has good energy management, deals strong AoE damage, and has a constant stream of small self-healing from Aura of Restoration. This build stacks great with itself, so feel free to use multiple heroes with it! If you do so, you should try to get the Mark of Rodgort spell to trigger lots of burning.

Fire Magic 12

Energy Storage 8+

Fireball

Liquid Flame

Lava Arrows

Glyph of Elemental Power

You can sub in Flare for Lava Arrows until you can buy it, but the latter is strictly better. This is one of the few builds that doesn't change much to be end-game usable. Just pick up the elite skill Elemental Attunement and add Rodgort's Invocation for a super strong AoE attack (use GoLE with Rodgort's though).

Glyph of Lesser Energy

Aura of Restoration

Fire Attunement

Elemental Attunement

Beginner Healing Monk Hero

Healing Prayers 12

Divine Favor 12 (just spread these equally until you hit level 20)

Protection Prayers 3

Orison of Healing

Heaven's Delight

Signet of Rejuvenation

Signet of Devotion should be replaced ASAP with a better energy management skill.

Beginner Protection Monk Hero

Protection Prayers 12

Divine Favor 12

Or replace Antidote with Resurrection Signet.
Signet of Devotion should be replaced ASAP with a better energy management skill.

Beginner Ranger Hero

They're not the fastest killers, but pet rangers are great for beating the storyline quests in normal mode. Pets make great tanks, especially with the cheap shout Call of Protection. A good reason to use pet rangers early on is that by leveling your pets to 20 and dropping them off at the Zaishen Menagerie, you can get pre-leveled pets for other heroes or yourself later!

The best weapon for these heroes is the Poisonous Nevermore Flatbow, which you can get for free by using the /bonus command (you can get multiple copies by equipping the first bow to a hero). Flatbows have the best rate of fire and the Read the Wind preparation makes your arrows fly faster, removing its biggest drawback.

Beast Mastery 12

Expertise 8

Marksmanship 10 (at least enough for your bow stat requirement)

Wilderness Survival 2 (or whatever points you have free)

Poison Tip Signet is available in Boreal Station

Beginner Dervish Hero

Melee hero AI is not the greatest, but since you get two dervish heroes super early in the game, I want to include a build for them. The build below keeps your dervishes at range and still allows them to contribute well to the fight. It also shares a lot of skills with the ranger build above, making it efficient to collect skills. They even bring a great single target heal to the party with Imbue Health.

These guys can also use the Poisonous Nevermore Flatbow from the /bonus command as listed above.

Beast Mastery 10

Mysticism 11

Marksmanship 10 (at least enough for your bow stat requirement)

Faithful Intervention

Heart of Fury

Imbue Health

Antidote Signet

Beginner Curses Necromancer Hero

Here's a support Necromancer that will help your Rangers, Dervishes, pets, and minions deal more physical damage. If you only have one Necro and are running more casters than physicals, I'd use the summoner build below.

Curses 12

Soul Reaping 12

Barbs

Blank

Option 1: Remove Hex or Envenom Enchantments
Option 2: Parasitic Bond or Resurrection Signet

Beginner Minion Master Necromancer Hero

Here's a minion master build. I don't normally recommend using two different minion summoning skills on the same bar, but I think without an elite like Jagged Bones or Aura of the Lich that the two skills in this build work fine with each other. This hero has skill slots and attribute points to play with, so feel free to turn this guy into a secondary healer or add in a few Curses skills from above if you only have one necro.

Unlike the previous builds, I will explicitly recommend a piece of equipment for this dude - a Bloodstained Insignia, which you should put on the gloves.

Death Magic 12

Soul Reaping 8+