Curse

greyf0x_f0x · Jan 15, 2007, 06:30 AM // 06:30

I'll start us off with a quote:

Quote:

The order in which skills are placed in the hero's skill bar can greatly affect the Hero's effectiveness. The hero AI prioritizes the left-most skills in their skill bar, so you should put your hero's strongest skills on the first skill slot. For example, for a Monk Hero, put Healing Light to the far left and support skills like Orison of Healing further to the right, to improve the hero's energy management and healing potential.

This is taken from guildwiki's hero entry. Now as we all know, guildwiki is far from reliable on such subjects, and has been known in the past to spread nasty rumours, as much as it does disprove them. However, this belief that the position on the skillbar somehow prioritises skills within the hero's AI, seems to be common.

After a few tests with some heroes today, I can honestly say, I couldn't seem to see it. I tried a few different assassin attack chains, a MM build, and a monk, and the position of skills on the bar did not appear to make a difference.

Now I can't remember ever reading an official source on this topic (I did a quick hunt through old threads, and the closest I found was this). So what I'd like from the lovely Guru community is proof, one way or the other, about this subject. But before you folks with itchy typing fingers rush to reply, please, take a moment to consider what you are saying.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SomeRandomDOOD

I setup my koss with dragon slash on slot 1, and he kills WAY faster now than he did with it in slot 8

The above example proves absolutely nothing. It could be that he is using it more often yes, but it could also be that the monsters you are fighting now, are slightly weaker. Or koss has leveled up etc. There are a massive amount of variables to take into consideration. So, ideally, when replying to the topic, provide some tests, that are repeatable by anyone with the correct skills. Provide skill bars, locations, numbers, data!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SomeOtherRandomDOOD

I setup my Zenmai with a 4 hit attack chain, we went for a quick test in the Great Temple. She has 2 possible lead attacks (Skill X and Skill Y) when placed in slot 1 Skill X was chosen as the initial attack every time, when placed in slot 8 Skill Y was chosen as the initial attack instead.

This second example, would be far more believable, and more importantly, anyone with the hero in question, and the skills unlocked, could go test it themselves to varify it.

I'll follow up my initial post with some of my own tests sometime tomorrow. But from what I've seen so far, I'm highly sceptical about the idea that skillbar positioning has any influence on hero AI.

gogoblender · Jan 15, 2007, 03:03 PM // 15:03

heh, I asked this same question a few dayz ago, as frustrated as I think you seem to be.
I received a pretty good answer and hope that maybe it can help you as well.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10104123

good luck

gogo

Paperfly · Jan 17, 2007, 09:12 AM // 09:12

Even if there's some kind of heuristic emphasising skills on the left of the bar, it's relatively mild when compared to the inherent priority rating given to the skill itself.

...For instance, there's nothing on heaven or earth that can stop a necro hero from keeping Tainted Flesh up, even at 0 Death Magic.

Flightmare · Jan 17, 2007, 10:14 PM // 22:14

Well let's take a closer look at the way the AI is programmed.
Since the AI can't look up all the skills at the same time it has to start it's check somewhere, most likely on the left. So I think it starts out with checking the skill on the left, "is this skill usable for this situation?" with some percentage of using the skill or checking out the next skill. Then checking the 2nd, 3rd and so on, looping back to the first. So I don't say it IS like this, but it can be... So the chance of using the skills in the left of the bar might be some bigger.

My Olias plays MM veary well, when looking at energy cost and the skill being elite, it ended up using flesh golem too much (wich results in a waste of corpses). After dragging the skill somewhere in the back, it seemed like it chose the animate skills with more variation (vamp horror, bone fiend and golem) with blood of the master in the veary first slot.

I haven't tested it, but it seemed to work better than before.
I might be all wrong, but how else would the AI work anyways? Computers have to read their code bit by bit, they can't take on everything on the same time...

RoadKill97 · Jan 18, 2007, 03:39 PM // 15:39

The AI looks first at the situation, and then what skills it should use, not the other way around. The skillbar positioning has absolutely no effect in this.

Those who think the positioning matters can go test themselves. Put the skills you want test in the 1st and 8th slot. Then go kill stuff and observe, how the AI uses these skills. Then switch the skills to the opposite places and observe again, how the AI uses the skills. You'll see no difference.