What do you think is the best/most accessible hero comp for general play?

to me heroes are such a big factor that they are the biggest priority in the beginning of a new character. and there really isnt all that much to do:

-Gwen is basically free and instant once you go to EotN

-Xandra isnt very difficult, just walk to gunnars and do the championship (that you don't need heroes for)

-then you can (get) run to gadds camp and do the livia mission (probably the most work out of these 3, you could wait until you have more NF heroes for that)

thats all the important ones from eotn, olias is basically free too and then you can easily just play through NF campaign and pick up master and norgu along the way.

as far as builds for the other professions go, i'd say monks can still heal, eles can do typical ele stuff which should be good enough for normal mode. you could also give your eles mesmer skills if you are so inclined and probably an ele could do a scuffed version of some rit build (but since xandra is easy to get i dont see the point). I think i saw a Peter Kadar Video on youtube on the topic of hero builds that, while mostly focused on the meta stuff, showed some alternatives too. i dont think theres THE heroway for the (considered) less optimal classes, you just gotta experiment a bit. not all skills are equally good/strong and not all skills get used by heroes well, also you might not have all the skills.

Use what you have to get the important heroes, it should be easy enough.

When thinking about hero builds, I try to categorize the individual hero by what it's trying to accomplish. For me the important "roles" are melee/caster shutdown, support, and damage. The meta builds you will find on pvx are very efficient at fulfilling multiple roles per hero (E-Surge is damage and caster shutdown) When trying to create a passable team for nm you have a lot of options available using all different heroes.

Damage: Can be most ele builds or Gwen as a free E-Surge like @trademeimfamous mentioned. At the start of eotn you get Gwen, Vekk, and Ogden, I normally run Gwen as E-Surge, Vekk at either Blinding Surge or Thunderclap (benefit is that you can normally just swap the elite to match whatever area you are in) and Ogden ends up being an sos hero with smite condi and hex and if you are running a melee character you can slot strength of honor onto the bar pretty easily.

Support: Also as @trademeimfamous mentioned Livia is pretty quick to get for a BiP hero. For most content in the game, a BiP plus one other healing/prot hero will be enough to be comfortable in nm. Some good support type heroes to look for would be;

Xandra: SoS resto or ST hero

Ogden, Dunk, Tahlk: Monks can still be passable healing heroes especially if you have a BiP to help with their energy problems or make them /Me for inspiration

Master of Whispers, Olias: Necros are actually very solid healers when made /Rt with energy management in the form of soul reaping, low energy healing skills like "Spirit Light" and "Mend Body and Soul" consider "Pain of Disenchantment" and "Icy Veins" for the elite skills.

Shutdown: If you dont have access to 300 mesmer heroes it is a good idea to bring a hero or two meant to deal with specific threats. "Panic" or "Visions of Regret" can be powerful if you only have 1 mesmer at your disposal, and Thunderclap for Ele can provide interrupts for dealing with casters. "Unsteady Ground" is a great option for keeping melee threats knocked down especially in HM as everything will be moving faster to meet the requirement for the KD. Some profession specific heroes are also required for progression through nf. Koss can be set up with "None Shall Pass" and various stances to just stick around on the field giving knockdowns to moving enemies.

There are so many other options for how to run your heroes but these are just some of my thoughts on early progression. Of course if you have access to merc heroes then a mesmer, rit, and necro are amazing options to have available on each character. Good luck and have fun!

I came back a few years ago from GW2 and ran Discordway with the three Nec heroes, I had been running that since I stopped playing in 2012.

Within the last 6 months i switched over to the 3 mesmers heroes with Xandra as Soul Twisting, Livia as BiP and Olias as 7 hero non merc MM(maybe, its non merc, not sure, just check PVXwiki for the 7 team MM that has a P secondary

The difference is night and day , so much easier, it's worth the effort to get Norgu, Xandra and even Rahzah.

Equipping the 3 mesmers isnt all that bad if you utilize collector weapons( there are some good base 20/20's that can have adept added.

Adjust builds to fit your play style.

Hello. These are the builds I use with my fairly new character

Gwen (the usual)

[Build=OQlkAkC8gZezO+EkDmemuhQGAnC]

Ogden (or) Dunkoro (UA is very helpful when anyone dies)

[Build=OwUTMwnC5hhcR6i1j7aLJDs8BA]

Vekk (yes, 1 Searing Flames is not so good, this is just for nostalgia. Feel free to swap to Lightning)

[Build=OgljowMpZO74dBdbsiMoF4iaMA]

Olias (a good mix of offense and defense)

[Build=OAhjYghqIPXzyJGrqKNncDzLGA]

Xandra (also a mix of offense and defense)

[Build=OAOjAyhDJPYTr3ZbzBNdmtkLGA]

Hayda (she is just here to look pretty and shout "Fall back!")

[Build=OQWlIwDbZYaoyIDuA5AcqpLD0y2x]

Livia (the usual)

[Build=OANDUshvSyBUB4BKgbhVVaR3VA]

And, my own build (enjoying a Monk at the moment, still exploiting AP as usual)

[Build=OwcT4UP/RaBaX0mMmUR06LCitBA]

I did have to progress / finish EotN for Livia, Hayda, and some PVE skills

early on, I used a generic Any/Me build with MOX, Kahmu, Tahlkora, or even Koss

[Build=OgWjIwDM7MygLQOAna6GCZgWGA]

Most playthrough seemed easy. Hope you find these useful.