A question about hero point

As it is, karma is shared account-wide, so are currencies, masteries, dungeon trophies and achievements. So my question is: why can't hero points be shared as well?

ANet isn't going to answer. All you'll get is speculation by players mixed in with the usual disdain and make-wrong. So, sure, I'll speculate.

ANet has gone further with accommodation for alternate characters (alts) than any other MMO I've played. However, with the exception of the waypoints (WP) unlocks, ANet has drawn the line at exploration objectives. While WP are also exploration objectives, the buy option is also character rather than account bound. Finally, the Hero Challenges are a currency to unlock Elite Specs, which are not only current, but which also don't apply to every character on your account (unless, for some reason, you only have multiples of the same profession). Finally, ANet has to leave something for players to do. MMO's are -- after all -- about being a time sink.

The main reason is that hero points are considered part of character progression, specifically post-L80 leveling to get new skills & traits.

Making them account bound would require ANet to change underlying mechanics: they'd have to add more points or decrease the ration between challenges and specialization costs, because as it stands now, there aren't enough HP to teach specializations to even 3 toons. They'd have to add other content to fill in the time gap currently spent gaining hero points. They'd probably have to reduce the rewards on PoF/HoT h-challenges, since people wouldn't need to repeat them as often, and the incentive should be moved to something else.

In short, it would be a huge amount of trouble and without all that much net benefit: it would reduce time spent "leveling," but without doing much else for gameplay.

Speaking as someone who generally hates leveling up and shortcuts the process as often and as much as possible in all games, I see why you might want this. I just don't see how it makes sense for this game.

PS You forgot masteries, which are also account wide.

@Noa.7490 said:As it is, karma is shared account-wide, so are currencies, masteries, dungeon trophies and achievements. So my question is: why can't hero points be shared as well?

Simple answer: Hero points are tied to character progression, not account progression.

Complicated answer: I'm a simple man, and don't like complicated answers.

You can buy/earn Notaries in WvW and any character on an account can use them on hero points. Using them also completes random Hero point challenges.

@Noa.7490 said:As it is, karma is shared account-wide, so are currencies, masteries, dungeon trophies and achievements. So my question is: why can't hero points be shared as well?

I am with you, but it's something which keeps players busy.I am glad that i play only 1 toon ( maybe 1 alt depends what wvw needs ).

I understand the thing about character progression, but since Anet ins't bothered with a build-saving option, I do create alts of same professions albeit with different builds/armors and such. Having a shared hero points system would save a lot of time and hassle.

@Noa.7490 said:I understand the thing about character progression, but since Anet ins't bothered with a build-saving option, I do create alts of same professions albeit with different builds/armors and such. Having a shared hero points system would save a lot of time and hassle.

That's an argument for ANet adding a build-saving/loading system, not for entirely revamping an existing system that works.

If hero points are tied to character progression then so are masteries, karma and various trophies. The system works, yes, but it could benefit from a small overhaul.

Maybe, but making HP account wide would be anything but "a small overhaul". It would be a major rework of how they work, how much is given, etc.

I'd be annoyed if it weren't possible to redo the hero points with alts. They're a big part of the content, even the 'commune' ones since getting to those usually requires killing whatever is guarding it. Getting the map completion would be more boring without those.

They're really good content and if you want a lot of them WvW proof of heroics/etc are a good way to get them for alts.

@Noa.7490 said:If hero points are tied to character progression then so are masteries, karma and various trophies. The system works, yes, but it could benefit from a small overhaul.

Masteries are tied to account progression, not character. Karma is a currency earned for the account, from a variety of methods, only a few of which are character-driven. What trophies are character driven other than certain PvP achievements (and those are governed by prof, not by toon)?

Plus as noted before, even ignoring all the other issues (rewards, replayability), it's not a 'small overhaul' to change hero points to become account bound. Basically, you're asking that post-80 skills & traits be treated as masteries: earn once for the entire account. That's a massive change to the underlying systems.

@Noa.7490 said:If hero points are tied to character progression then so are masteries, karma and various trophies. The system works, yes, but it could benefit from a small overhaul.

Masteries should be character progression, imo.

When announcing it they said:"We want to introduce a new framework for endgame progression and a meaningful way for players to grow their characters and their experience once they’ve reached the maximum level in the game."

It was disappointing that right in the next line they completely contradicted themselves by saying it will be for account."Through Masteries, players who’ve reached level 80 will have the opportunity to continue their journey by acquiring powerful new abilities for their entire account."

Many collections should be tied to characters too. So that if I want to replay them, I can. Or maybe not be achievement. I think the only such collection we can do more than once is Mawdrey.

Karma used to be per character and it never bothered me. It's not like there's any important use to it anyway.

If it was account bound they would have to make hero points repeatable with repeatable hero points acquisitions, from this point on, who's to stop me from spamming the commune in the centaur area of Queensdale....

In WvW, you can get account-bound Proof of Heroics and Testimony of Heroics currencies. These can later be spent on any character to get character-bound hero points.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Noa.7490 said:If hero points are tied to character progression then so are masteries, karma and various trophies. The system works, yes, but it could benefit from a small overhaul.

Starting as level 1 and leveling to 80 as a Mirage/Deadeye/Dragonhunter...Hmm... YES PLEASE!

@Ayumi Spender.1082 said:Starting as level 1 and leveling to 80 as a Mirage/Deadeye/Dragonhunter...Hmm... YES PLEASE!

Mirage leveling is bad leveling. It would be nice to mirage it.

In my opinion games need character progression as well as account progression. For those of us who actually play characters, every time they take something away from playing that character, that character becomes less of an individual. There's nothing for him/her to work on. This would be a problem for me and players like me.

Even stuff like gold in the bank, when that change was made, some people (not many) complained about each character not having their own gold. Just about every form of progression in the game has become account bound. The only things left seem to be story, hero points and map completion. I think it's good as it is. The balance is tipped way toward account progression already.

@Vayne.8563 said:In my opinion games need character progression as well as account progression. For those of us who actually play characters, every time they take something away from playing that character, that character becomes less of an individual. There's nothing for him/her to work on. This would be a problem for me and players like me.

Even stuff like gold in the bank, when that change was made, some people (not many) complained about each character not having their own gold. Just about every form of progression in the game has become account bound. The only things left seem to be story, hero points and map completion. I think it's good as it is. The balance is tipped way toward account progression already.

I'm glad they made the gold account based because in the end of any game, while yes I usually left the money on certain characters... when it gets to a certain limit (let's say in a game one character has 90million on it... I might take all the money off her when she gets 100mil and place it in my account bank/storage and she can slowly work that money back up again as she won't be the only one using that money), in this situation... the money is right there from the get go whenever I need it on any character and I find that wonderful.

No more tedious of, "Okay I made a new character, and the starting items suck and I can get some better stuff right from the NPC right here... oh wait... no money... ugh let me log out and get on another character and put some money on her."Nope... just make the character, go to the NPC, get the gear, done. That kind of set up is wonderful.But yes, I do agree on the other things you've stated though.

I like reading all of your opinions on the matter and I want to thank everyone who shared their insights on the subject.

IMO HPs should be "Profession Bound". So if you make another toon of the same profession, you don't need to unlock everything again. At the same time, you can't use the points you unlocked with your Ele main to train the specs for the Revenant you barely play.