Character and gear suggestions

[Xen]

The way I've always played is - never respec a hero class, it's just simply not worth it in my opinion. You're better off having the enjoyment of playing the game from level 1 again through to 52 and then going Hero this way you loot more (you're going from normal -> hard -> ragnarok) and imo going through class to then rank it up to hero is a lot more rewarding that just respeccing it.

Respeccing costs gold (unless you're a donator) and it removes the fun of having more variety to choose from when playing.
If you're worried about being able to gear more characters well think of it this way, you can get stuff that fits all for that one class and then have some specific items for the hero classes for example on my commando classes I have a bidenhander and stone maul for my zweihander. Illustrious, plum (or shield) and stone maul for my legionnaire. Aegis, DWP and stone maul for my royal guard. But the then I use the same armour across all of those classes. (Another example is my halberdier it has the same weapons as my marauder does but different armours.)

Look at Winter for example he has nearly 2 of each hero class.