Curse

Vhayr · Dec 11, 2005, 08:12 PM // 20:12

I thought that the Henchmen were supposed to have been improved?

Picture the scene:

My Mesmer and his band of merry Henchmen, battling to the final part of the Bloodstone mission, just five enemies left (including that pesky Hablion). All five of them surround us, but we manage to take out the two Abbots just before my Mesmer hits the dirt. I'm thinking, "jolly good, Alesia will resurrect me soon and everything will be just like it was in Barney the Dinosaur".

Nope.

Alesia runs about.

Orion goes down.

Alesia runs about spamming Orison on Reyna and Little Thom.

Stefan goes down.

Alesia runs into Hablion and gets hacked to pieces.

Reyna uses her Rez. Sig to bring back Alesia.

Alesia runs around using Healing Touch and Heal Other.

Reyna and Little Thom go down.

Alesia spams heals on herself.

Dies.

I thought that the henchmen were supposed to resurrect the most important party member (would've thought it was me). Just two enemies left before the end of the mission, I fail because Alesia is not even good enough to resurrect anyone.

I know, there are threads on this, but I think this really needs to be addressed.

Josh · Dec 11, 2005, 08:22 PM // 20:22

And noticed that Orion always casts Fire Storm after the last enemy dies? lol.

Dixie Wrecked2 · Dec 11, 2005, 08:35 PM // 20:35

Yeah this definately gets annoying for me. I like to play alone, or rather i have to because my computer is rediculously slow at times, so i hire henchman. When i die, i figure alesia should resurect me but instead she either stands there and waits to die, or uses orison of healing on either herself or other henchman. The AI of the henchman is rediculous. If anything needs to be changed about this game, although im not complaining about the game overall, it is the AI of the henchman.

Red Sonya · Dec 11, 2005, 08:41 PM // 20:41

Yeah the two monks have some issues on rezzing the main player. They should be programmed to immediately rez you and the others use their rez signets on you. I don't know how many battles I would have won if they had done this. Alesia has to be the noobiest noob of all noobdom when it comes to playing a monk. lol And Mhenlo is just as bad. I was dying and he was right next to me just standing there as my hit points faded and faded at least 6 seconds of time for him to cast any type of healing spell, but, did he? noooooooo, but, as soon as I died he started healing the other henchies. lol

Oh and here's another kicker, when everyone but one of them is dead, if the last one has a res signet they throw it on me, of course I am immediately surrounded and clobbered or try to run away and I've used my rez sig. (If playing a Mo 2ndary this is ok). The main character should be more important than trying to keep another henchie alive, they don't do that much damage as I've seen them just get slaughtered after I died one by one they go down and there might not be but one or two mobs left. Pretty sad.

Vhayr · Dec 11, 2005, 08:44 PM // 20:44

Just makes me angry, you know? Like, I spent the time doing the mission only to fail because the AI isn't up to par. That doesn't make sense.

Red Sonya · Dec 11, 2005, 08:59 PM // 20:59

Really though just like playing with PUGS you have to learn how the henchies play also. I've started paying more attention and I dumped the mage/Cynn for the ranger. Taking away the henchie AOE's has really helped me through missions and just normal play. I also don't bring any of the warriors either since they charge in when I want to pull the mobs to a certain area. Just ranged and healers and the mana battery necro.

Cyn and the mage will get you killed more often than not I've found.

Opeth11 · Dec 11, 2005, 09:46 PM // 21:46

I love the ranger henchies! Aidan seems to have the ability to interrupt, (or maybe it's just my computer just happens to lag the crap out of me and delay the graphics so it seems like they never cast anything at all -_-) and doesn't use AoE spells to knock apart the aggro that was previously focused on Little Thom and Devona and end up killing the little trapper in the back..

About the AI of Alesia..wow. I can't believe how horrible she is. Just last night, my group of [lvl 14] friends were wandering around the desert. Of course, we were bound to die. Nearing Augury Rock, 3 of our members have fallen and no one had a Rez sig left. So there I lay, waiting for Alesia to come save my poor soul. I decide to double click on her name.

Bad decision.

For some STUPID reason, she goes on a running fit across the desert, eventually finding a minotaur boss. Amazing how many laps around the damn desert she did before getting bashed to death in a bully circle.

Oh well, guess it's back to nmy nightly prayers of MUCH BETTER henchmen AI..and even PUG AI =D ..stupid warriors who think they can tank ><

unienaule · Dec 11, 2005, 10:07 PM // 22:07

Nobody seems to have mentioned this, so I will. On the bloodstone, where things like enchants and morale boost normally show up, you will see a little icon that informs you resurrect skills will take much longer to use on the bloodstone. So it is possible that they attempted to use resurrection signets, but it took too long and they died.

Racthoh · Dec 11, 2005, 10:22 PM // 22:22

I believe it's 4 times longer, so in the time it would take for Alesia's 32 second Restore Life she would probably die two times over.

Josh · Dec 11, 2005, 10:23 PM // 22:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by unienaule

Nobody seems to have mentioned this, so I will. On the bloodstone, where things like enchants and morale boost normally show up, you will see a little icon that informs you resurrect skills will take much longer to use on the bloodstone. So it is possible that they attempted to use resurrection signets, but it took too long and they died.

From personal experience, I don't even think that Bloodstone Resurrect longer thing even works...Resurrection Signets still take the normal 3-Seconds (done on my W/Mo about 2 months ago), and my Mo/N, about a week or so ago, I cast Restore Life and it still took the normal 8-seconds...

Red Sonya · Dec 11, 2005, 10:32 PM // 22:32

I think all henchies should have a secondary skill of monk and monk henchies carry a res sig as well as the regular resurrect.

VGJustice · Dec 11, 2005, 11:39 PM // 23:39

I had a bad experience with the henchies out in Elona. Here's what happened:

I set to target a monster for my hplayer helper. Little Thom, being the over-zealous wammo that he is, thought that my called target (Shift+Ctrl+Space) was a called attack (Ctrl+Space), and as such charged right into the middle of the boss group, aggroing the group with a healer right behind that. We flail for a few frantic seconds, and finnally I manage to retreat with Orion. Everyone else is now dead. So, as per the request of my human player, I res him first. As soon as he resses, the boss mob attacks him, and that kills Orion. So, now it's just the 2 of us. He burns his Sig on Alesia, who, without hesitation, runs PAST the boss to res Little Thom, the furthest target out, screwing us in the process. Thanks a lot, henchies.

Oh well, I'd still take a party of 5 henchies into Elona over very nearly ANY player. I'm still very bitter.

lg5000 · Dec 12, 2005, 12:22 AM // 00:22

Incidentally, not too long ago we were complaining that Mhenlo (and Lina?) were ressing half way through battle instead of healing...

Have we figured out what we want yet?

Bane of Mortality · Dec 12, 2005, 12:57 AM // 00:57

I've actually had a time when the henchies acted intelligent. It was just me and seven henchies going throught Spearhead Peak to get to Citidel. About halfway through we aggroed a big mob with lots of ice imps and a warrior boss. We killed about half of the ice imps then me and 3 henchies (Lina one of them) died. While the two warrior henchies and dunham distracted the imps and boss alesia snuck around and would heal until everything was under control, then she would make a quick rez. What surprised me most about this was that the henchies ACTUALLY FOCUSED FIRE on one enemy. I've NEVER seen them do that before. IN fact, I've rarely seen them make a rez or kill anyone after I've died before.

Sadly, none of my guildies believe this story. :P

Vhayr · Dec 12, 2005, 01:04 AM // 01:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by unienaule

Nobody seems to have mentioned this, so I will. On the bloodstone, where things like enchants and morale boost normally show up, you will see a little icon that informs you resurrect skills will take much longer to use on the bloodstone. So it is possible that they attempted to use resurrection signets, but it took too long and they died.

Yes, I am aware of the delay, but it didn't take longer for Reyna to use her Rez. Sig on Alesia, when she could of easily used it on me (it's not just that scrap-for-brains Alesia

).

Sol_Vie · Dec 12, 2005, 01:15 AM // 01:15

I'm somewhat surprised the henchies haven't commented in this thread yet...

Lady Cream · Dec 12, 2005, 05:03 AM // 05:03

improved AI ? lol
you probably mean "temporary anti farm patch, since we won't change any skill till the end of the tournament"

Juhanah · Dec 12, 2005, 05:12 AM // 05:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sol_Vie

I'm somewhat surprised the henchies haven't commented in this thread yet...

hehe when i read this i wanted to go on Joe and say click click or fisssss... but i can't logout for some reason

I am bound to gwguru

coolsti · Dec 12, 2005, 07:29 AM // 07:29

The henchy AI definitely could use more work. Just last night I wanted to see how far I could get with my ranger as beastmaster and with only Lina, Alesia and Thom as henchies in a 4 man SF team. And I was doing actually pretty good until I finally needed to give up. A definite problem is in keeping the henchy monks away from the enemy when trying to rebirth one of the dead henchies. As soon as I would get near enough to attempt to use rebirth, Lina or Mehnlo would rush in trying to beat me to the punch, aggro the enemy, and get themselves killed. This happened so often, I just gave up after a while. My henchy monks worked themselves up to a -60 DP anyway.

What is definitely needed here is a key or something that when clicked will signal the henchy AI to stay back at all costs. With a good listening human team, you an always ask the others to stay back while you go in and aggro or res or something. Why not make this also possible to do with henchies?

Tiq · Dec 12, 2005, 07:33 AM // 07:33

I havent had many problems with henchies so far, mostly in the beginning when I was still getting to grips with the game, but I admit theres definetly room for improvement.