hireling success stories

[cru121]

People often swear at hirelings. But this thread is where you can share your stories how hireling(s) saved the day or otherwise excelled. I have two!

Laerathor (cleric 7) in elite Partycrashers; myself on my 3rd life sorc. I waltzed into illusionary force traps and promptly died. Laerathor, or Larry how I like to call him, killed all the fake marks while dodging the traps and then heroically brought my stone to shrine.

Lilo Blackstitch (rogue 21) in epic normal Prove Your Worth; myself on a hopeless TWF cleric. She got all the traps with ease, AND she successfully countered all the insults (Diplomacy on hotbar).

[moomooprincess]

On Korthos, the first level Barbarian Hireling. Byron Scoutsword, if I need someone to beat down the bad guys in Cannith Crystal so I can run Misery's Peak(plus redemption) and get to the Harbor.

Just about any of the Paladins when I am running Crystal Cove.

Clerics that have Divine Vitality, just to replenish my spell points. I tend to start hiring them for Xorian Cipher.

I might have hired a Sorceror or Wizard way back when to try them out. I gave up on Favored Souls. I have never hired a ranger, rogue, or bard.

I expect very little of the hirelings. A hireling is a tool in the tool belt, a hireling is not the solution to the problem.

[FuzzyDuck81]

Not a hireling, but back before MOTU, my Arty's trusty dog saved a party wipe when we were shortmanning one of the gianthold quests - someone had ran a little ahead & straight into one of the big traps before i could warn them, causing a massive kaboom that killed everyone except the doggy (yay evasion)..the one who'd set off the trap immediately ragequit, but since there was a shrine right on the other side of the door i had the doggy finish off the few mobs, then just open the door & we were able to continue with no further issues :)

[porkchorp]

Mr. Ormol Soggybottom, I haven't met a finer hire, he chippy-chop the hell out of stinky troggies and took out 3 trog and their shaman while I was knocked prone and helpless with 8 drops of blood left in my veins. I dont remember the place, but i will always remember the day!

[Powskier]

Tarlov does the entire rooms solo! This was b4 champions but still awesome for a hire.He would need 1-4 cocoon spells of course-they pass thu the barrier if u dont know;) If no group back in my 1st lifer days, I found he was only one surviving in the rooms ... so ,Vilgo and I would let him do dirty work.

[96th_Malice]

I use hirelings quite a bit

Luna the Favored Soul is horrible ..... Always has been always will be

Often when I don't need the hireling I will bring her along just to watch the wacky stuff she tends to do.

I think she wants a pay raise !

[Powskier]

I was in a heroic von3 elite long ago; party had no chaotic whepons! and one player geeked out and was outside the battle...it looked bleak...but ...then...out of the DDO STORE it CAME! the 9th lvl paladin Hire! saved us for sure...leader thanked after " a hire,nice move...woulda never thought of that''

[Grandern_Marn]

I guess it's my general play style but my default hireling is the magically offensive Favored Soul. My absolute favorites are:

Favored Soul Level 12 Tanya Brightstone
I'm not exactly sure of the spell she rains down but on a run with her support in Ghola-Fan today she had all of the ogres and bugbears on their butts while I just went through and picked them off. She made this great comment when we stopped off at the rest shrine, something like "Whew, I get pretty tired after a hard day of destruction!"

Favored Soul Level 19 Caraneth Myar
Her Herzou summon is a great bonus and her penchant for dropping comet falls on anyone is a great for back up support. I always laugh when she utterly crushes individual scorpions with a comet fall as they are try to hide from their imminent death.

Of course you have to watch their SP as they obviously are not. Ultimately however, as many have pointed out before, it is the player who controls the hireling. I'll gauge how far to the next rest shrine and if there is breathing room let the FvS go mental, if things are tight I will park them and just call them when I need them, parking them again after a quick heal.

[hp1055cm]

Hardly ever need to rely on hirelings anymore but Tarlov (ML25) is the best hire available by far for Epic levels.
Larafay (ML15) is handy (if you throttle her SP use) in the high heroic levels; especially for explorer areas where you can round 'em up. Would be nice if you could share Mnemonic pots with her...

Nimeth (ML8) and Tanya (ML12) are also reliable while leveling.

[96th_Malice]

Nimeth (ML8) and Tanya (ML12) are also reliable while leveling.

There we go ... after many years I now know why I needed to name my toon Tanyaa

[Sunnie]

A long time ago, could be 2 years even, I was in a group doing the LoD chain in the harbor. We'd breezed through the eponymous first quest, but taken quite a beating in Servants of the Overlord before making it through. One player of the 6-man party decided they needed a break and quit, so we figured we'd bring in a hireling for some extra healing in Spinner of Shadows.
Enter Ayron Staliya, Prepared to Heal, Mass Heal and with Divine Vitality in case some caster pew-pew'd too much.

We repair, get our buffs on, and head into the quest, making our way towards the spiderlady when suddenly the server crashes. Yep, the game server went down, only time I've seen it happen like that, too. 5 minutes later we're all back in the game with a partial rollback. Previously repaired equipment was damaged again and such...

And Ayron Staliya is leader of the party, still in the quest, cannot be dismissed, and we're all unable to enter or reset it.


I like to imagine that upon seeing her employers disappear she figured it was up to her to save Eberron, blocked the dungeon entrance to avoid scaling, and that she went on to give the Spinner a smackdown of divine proportions.

[brian14]

Just about any of the Paladins when I am running Crystal Cove.

Not just Crystal Cove -- in all kobold challenges paladins are the best hirelings. I just wish they came in more level choices.

[schelsullivan]

Iessin the 24 rogue is invaluable The Haunted Halls. Beyond all the rogue stuff, he tanks Miior like a boss!

[BD_]

Not just Crystal Cove -- in all kobold challenges paladins are the best hirelings. I just wish they came in more level choices.

I'd say Mikayl the Pious is the best hireling by far in most collection challenges and CC...

[Andu_Indorin]

Hardly ever need to rely on hirelings anymore but Tarlov (ML25) is the best hire available by far for Epic levels.
Larafay (ML15) is handy (if you throttle her SP use) in the high heroic levels; especially for explorer areas where you can round 'em up. Would be nice if you could share Mnemonic pots with her...

Nimeth (ML8) and Tanya (ML12) are also reliable while leveling.

Four of my five workhorses. Missing is Caraneth Myer (ML19) ... yet another FvS who often performs better than some epic hirelings. Good one to keep in your hireling folder until you have access to Tarlov Snowtrack (ML24), who once soloed a Gianthold dragon with only spot healing.

[Dorian]

The level 11 fighter hireling with d-door is great for Rusted Blades.

[Hazelnut]

With augment summoning, the permanent Elieri and whatever non warforged fighter type I can get at level, I have been able to pike almost every quest up to and including level 8 on hard.

[Hazelnut]

A long time ago, could be 2 years even, I was in a group doing the LoD chain in the harbor. We'd breezed through the eponymous first quest, but taken quite a beating in Servants of the Overlord before making it through. One player of the 6-man party decided they needed a break and quit, so we figured we'd bring in a hireling for some extra healing in Spinner of Shadows.
Enter Ayron Staliya, Prepared to Heal, Mass Heal and with Divine Vitality in case some caster pew-pew'd too much.

We repair, get our buffs on, and head into the quest, making our way towards the spiderlady when suddenly the server crashes. Yep, the game server went down, only time I've seen it happen like that, too. 5 minutes later we're all back in the game with a partial rollback. Previously repaired equipment was damaged again and such...

And Ayron Staliya is leader of the party, still in the quest, cannot be dismissed, and we're all unable to enter or reset it.


I like to imagine that upon seeing her employers disappear she figured it was up to her to save Eberron, blocked the dungeon entrance to avoid scaling, and that she went on to give the Spinner a smackdown of divine proportions.

Best hireling story ever. Even if you can only imagine what happened.

[jellyfish21]

My shield dwarf, defender hireling soloed the end fight on elite, in Tomb of the Unhallowed, because we were locked out of the battle by a force field.

[phillymiket]

Just did the 'protect the sailors' quest in 3BC (cant recall the name)

Happen to have Anthem, lv 6 Bard, in my folder so I popped him.

He was awesome!

Healed himself, did DPS, got some kills, and locked down entire spawns by himself!

He never went below 90% health.

Were the hirelings buffed with the patch?

[Powskier]

A long time ago, could be 2 years even, I was in a group doing the LoD chain in the harbor. We'd breezed through the eponymous first quest, but taken quite a beating in Servants of the Overlord before making it through. One player of the 6-man party decided they needed a break and quit, so we figured we'd bring in a hireling for some extra healing in Spinner of Shadows.
Enter Ayron Staliya, Prepared to Heal, Mass Heal and with Divine Vitality in case some caster pew-pew'd too much.

We repair, get our buffs on, and head into the quest, making our way towards the spiderlady when suddenly the server crashes. Yep, the game server went down, only time I've seen it happen like that, too. 5 minutes later we're all back in the game with a partial rollback. Previously repaired equipment was damaged again and such...

And Ayron Staliya is leader of the party, still in the quest, cannot be dismissed, and we're all unable to enter or reset it.


I like to imagine that upon seeing her employers disappear she figured it was up to her to save Eberron, blocked the dungeon entrance to avoid scaling, and that she went on to give the Spinner a smackdown of divine proportions.

wow, that sounds familiar;)