Curse

Unreal Havoc · Jul 08, 2009, 01:12 PM // 13:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racthoh

Bring a snare.

Hardly rocket science.

Avarre · Jul 08, 2009, 01:18 PM // 13:18

It makes sense that the enemy AI is better than hero AI. Enemies get typically smaller groups and worse skillbars, they need some sort of tactical advantage besides stupidly raised stats.

If they made hero AI perfect it could just roll the game by itself.

SpiritThief · Jul 08, 2009, 05:17 PM // 17:17

H/H parties need the options to set battle formations plain and simple. It's silly and we always run around in a tight little ball.

the_jos · Jul 08, 2009, 06:40 PM // 18:40

I think there are several good reasons for heroes reacting slightly different from enemy AI.

First of all henchies and heroes seem to position them in formation around the player.
And when you flag them with the party flag they all stand there.
Enemies are not tied to one single point (human player or flag) and because of that scatter somewhat easier.
Disabling this mechanism will lead to other very annoying stuff like heroes kiting all over the map aggroing everything in sight (that also happened at some point).

On top of this A-net implemented a scatter mechanism on HM foes (it also used to be on NM foes for a while) for taking repeating AoE damage. That includes but is not exclusive to the skills you mention.

Now this is no problem when doing a single cast on a tank.
Cast and move back before AoE scatter turns on. No problem at all.
It gets problematic when you echo the cast or cast with several others and can't do a clean 3-2-1-spike cast. Foes scatter and the last caster is most likely targeted instead of the tank. So it's annoying but also mainly manageable.

The reason why the behaviour of heroes should not be a problem is because you know what's happening.
Take Gate of Pain for example. Sure those foes hurt when they hit you. Or should I say if they hit you? Because they move in groups of mainly two and maybe three (I think at one point). And there are four at the bonus guys (well, bonus should be a little harder).
Easy solution? Daze and epidemic. That's two skills on a bar and almost complete shutdown of the foes. Bring some additional caster hate to make them hurt more.
Doesn't have to be your own skills. But if you bring your own interrupts you have even more power. A water ele can also do some nice things here. Or a mesmer....

It's not like this is any different elsewhere in the game.
Most of the time simple caster shutdown works and you have roughly 12 skill slots available for that without compromising utility too much. You could find a way to abuse that I'd say.

Sure, yesterday me and a guildie got almost wiped at Ice Caves HM. Wrong aggro and nothing to shut down the elementalists while standing in choke point. That's the risk of using heroes. Or better, not paying attention. But in general AoE never has been a problem and foes go down easily.

hollabackgirl · Jul 08, 2009, 06:53 PM // 18:53

I do flag my heroes against aoe opponents constantly. I am R6 KOABD so ive been around the ups and downs of this game throughout my 4 years. Whilst I COULD flag and strategically destroy my enemy without any problems why should I be expected to? Especially when the enemy AI groups scatter themselves as soon as theyre confronted with aoe, but mine....dont.

Taki · Jul 09, 2009, 04:16 AM // 04:16

The What:

1. Flag/unflag your heroes or

2. Have you heroes setup for the map/mobs/area so that they don't need to run out of AoE or they don't even allow the mobs to get off any AoE skills to begin with.

The Why:

ANet doesn't want heroes to be too effective as they believe this could discourage people from playing with others and unfair for people playing against heroes (PvP)

YunSooJin · Jul 09, 2009, 04:57 AM // 04:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by hollabackgirl

I do flag my heroes against aoe opponents constantly. I am R6 KOABD so ive been around the ups and downs of this game throughout my 4 years. Whilst I COULD flag and strategically destroy my enemy without any problems why should I be expected to? Especially when the enemy AI groups scatter themselves as soon as theyre confronted with aoe, but mine....dont.

I think someone in the thread already said that PUGs don't scatter when hit by AoE, so why should your heroes? Frankly, I think they should force all heroes to be like players. To achieve this, anet should implement skills that heroes must bring, namely:
warriors : defy pain / dolyak signet
monks : healing breeze / orison / UA
necromancers : blood renewal
mesmers: conjure nightmare
paragons: nothing here, paragon bars are just good by default as long as they bring save yourselves!
dervish: avatar of balthazar
assassin: shadow form
ranger: barrage
ritualist: wanderlust

sounds good? sound good.

Sword Hammer Axe · Jul 09, 2009, 08:37 AM // 08:37

Even if they scatter I find them to be quite handy if used correctly. All you need to do really is is find a spot like a wall or something where you can lock your enemies and nuke them with the AoE spells. Even on HM they take a while before scattering. Besides even with only 2 seconds in the AoE they take that damage and if there were a lot of them then the monk of their party suddenly is busy healing that little amount back on it's allies, not to mention that that specific area is off-limits for the duration of the spell.

Just my opinion :P

ZenRgy · Jul 09, 2009, 11:49 AM // 11:49

One NPC AoE problem I see commonly are heroes running back and forth in AoE attempting to get out of it.

That being said, flag.