Hireling

From DDO wiki

[edit] Hireling

Hirelings are NPCs you can add to your party to help it through tough adventures. Vendors sell contracts for various levels and classes of hireling at key spots around Stormreach.

You summon a hireling by using his contract once you're in the dungeon or wilderness adventure area. You must be near the zone's entry point. You cannot summon a hireling in town, if the party is full, if the hireling's level is higher than yours, if you're playing on Solo difficulty, or if another player in the party already has an active hireling with the same name. You may only have one ordinary hireling active at a time. Hirelings take up a party slot just like a live player would, so you cannot use hirelings to bring a larger party than normal into a quest.

Contracts vanish 60 minutes of play time after their first use. You can summon a hireling any number of times while you still have his contract, though you must wait at least five minutes between uses. Nothing happens to the hireling himself if he's active when his contract expires; he keeps serving you until you dismiss him or return to town. Contract expiration timers don't count down while you're logged out, and a contract that's never been used lasts indefinitely. Contracts cannot be sold or traded.

You can dismiss a hireling by clicking his name in the party list, then right-clicking and choosing "Dismiss" from the pulldown menu. You do not need to be the party leader to dismiss a hireling you summoned.^[unverified]

[edit] Gold Seal Hirelings

Gold Seal Hireling Contracts can be bought with Turbine Points. Gold Seal contracts, and the hirelings they summon, differ from normal ones in the following ways:

• A player is not limited to one Gold Seal hireling at a time. He may summon any number, possibly even in addition to an ordinary hireling. He still may not exceed maximum party size or summon a second copy of a hireling already in the party, however.
• Gold Seal hirelings may be summoned anywhere in the zone, not just near the entry.

[edit] Hireling Hotbar

1. Stay/Follow switch. Controls whether your hireling follows you or stays in one spot. Press to switch between modes.

2. Call Hireling. Tells your hireling to come to you. Automatically switches the hireling to "Follow" mode as well. If he's too far away or there is terrain that he can't navigate between you, he'll warp directly to you.

3. Aggressive Mode. Your hireling will freely engage enemies and use his abilities as he sees fit.

4. Defensive Mode. Your hireling will freely use buffs and healing on himself and on you, but will only attack enemies that attack him or you first.

5. Passive Mode. Your hireling will take no automatic actions.

6. Interact With Your Target. Your hireling's actions and this icon's appearance depend on your target. (Right-click things to target them, or cycle through possible targets with the Tab and Q keys.)

• If your target is an enemy, hireling attacks it. Icon switches to a blue sword.
• If your target is an object (switch, shrine, etc.), hireling uses or breaks it. Icon switches to white gears.
• If your target is a teammate, hireling defends him or her. Icon switches to a blue shield.

7-10. Hireling-specific actions. Manually orders your hireling to use one of his skills, spells, or abilities on your current target. Icons and abilities are different for every hireling.

[edit] Hireling Strategy and Other Notes

• Hirelings are subject to most of the same game mechanics as player characters, including buffs, debuffs, healing, and saving throws. Spellcasting hirelings even have limited spell points (unlike enemy spellcasters).

• To resurrect a dead hireling, lead his ghost to a resurrection shrine. You'll have to pick up his soul stone first unless the shrine is close. Target the shrine and use the Interact command. You may need to lead the ghost very close to the shrine, click the button multiple times, or both since hirelings often get hung up on the furniture and rubble commonly found around shrines.

• If you die but your hireling survives, you can tell him to pick up your soul stone. He'll follow your ghost closely enough to let you roam anywhere. He can even open shrine room doors for you.

• Hirelings cannot swim or use ladders or portals. Use the Call Hireling button once you're on the other side to get them across.

• You can give a hireling manual orders no matter what mode he's in. He'll go back to that mode's behavior once he's done.

• There are no Rogue hirelings.

• Different hirelings don't only have different abilities. They also have different behaviors, even when in the same mode. Some are more aggressive than others, or follow you more closely, or may even go after barrels before attacking enemies.

• You can use a hireling to make a quest map reset faster:

1. Leave the map you want to reset.
2. Enter some other zone where hirelings are allowed, like a wilderness.
3. Summon the hireling.
4. Go back to town.

Your original map should now be reset since your party composition changed while you were outside it.

[edit] List of Hirelings in game

• For level 1 Hirelings, see Jevan Solidus in Korthos Village
• For level 1 to 3 Hirelings, see Groodug Meathands in the Harbor
• For level 4 to 6 Hirelings, see Draithon Aurelius in the Marketplace
• For level 7 to 10 Hirelings, see Kaeless in the Marketplace
• For level 11 to 13 Hirelings, see Raissa Gnomeslayer in Gianthold
• For level 11 to 13 Hirelings, you can also see Dibber Malone in the Marketplace
• For level 14 to 16 Hirelings, see Kyrian Flamewarden in Meridia
• For level 14 to 16 Hirelings, you can also see Crimson Annja in the Marketplace

Most normal hirelings are now also available from the guild hireling vendors in House Kundarak, along with a few additional hirelings not sold by the normal vendors.

• Casamir Vindberg sells melee hireling contracts to members of guilds of level 12 or higher.
• Azalia Verne sells arcane hireling contracts to members of guilds of level 14 or higher.
• Petrina Alsorn sells divine hireling contracts to members of guilds of level 16 or higher.

[edit] External Links

• ddo.com Game Info: Hirelings
• A Beginner's Guide to Hirelings (forums.ddo.com)
• compendium.ddo.com Hirelings category