Curse

Magus · May 25, 2005, 03:55 AM // 03:55

Do they really not suffer the death penalty?

It might just be me, but the henchmen seem to die much faster once they've been killed a few times before.

wonderworm · May 25, 2005, 07:03 AM // 07:03

Well i think they do suffer death penalty, too. You can nicely observe this at hydras where alesia dies after like 2-3 shots for the first few deaths and in 1 shot later

Henchmen can be superior to some retard party. They won't rush into hordes of mobs unti you direct them there. They concentrate on one target. The tanks often seem to do their job better than human players blocking the foes that run up to you.
The main disadvantege is that it's hard to retreat from battle (although many players fail to do so, too

)
Another problem is the res. I play elementalist/mesmer and when i get taken down the fight is over most of the time since they often won't manage to kill the mobs by themselves fast enough.
If you play tank you might be lacking damage output a bit with only henches.

uigrad · May 25, 2005, 02:06 PM // 14:06

Actually, henchies are probably hardest to use when you are a monk primary, because you are the first one to step into battle.

When you are with henchies, you have to lead the way, and take the first agro. I would think a tank would be perfect for that. You absorb all the blows, while the firepower comes from behind you. I will agree that they do suffer the death penalty.

Goldjas, no one has said thanks for the pics yet. I think you did a very nice job with them. My attempts at taking good screenshots has not been so successful!

Magus · May 25, 2005, 06:41 PM // 18:41

I was able to reach the part with the portals with all henchmen, but what exactly are you supposed to do there? (as in how do you beat it?)

I tried to lure small groups out, one at a time, but more groups kept coming out from the lava, and I wasn't able to kill them faster than they were appearing. Eventually there were so many monsters that we weren't able to stay out of their aggro range and we got killed.

Xypode · May 25, 2005, 07:27 PM // 19:27

I beleive that henchmens don't have a Death Penality, Test it out on ur own, I'm pretty sure myself about that after fighting from lvl 13 to lvl 20 with them

Unusual Element

Shots · May 26, 2005, 03:08 AM // 03:08

ARGH! Stupid hencies. I get to the end of the last mission, where the portal are. I killed almost everything there except for 1 wandering group of ... oh not the burning ones, but the smaller boulder ones... and just as were fighting them, what do the hench healers do? They agro a group of phantoms.

I wouldn't say that henchies have AI because that would imply intelligence. No, they are as stupid as it gets. On the same mission, I've had healers bring whole groups of monsters to us because THEY wanted to res some party member in the middle of a battle. Said party member just happens to be sitting in another group of monsters just outside my radar... but that shouldn't matter eh? I mean, if you want to res someone you should be able to do what you want.

God how I loathe the henchies.

Lewick · May 26, 2005, 08:51 PM // 20:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xypode

I beleive that henchmens don't have a Death Penality, Test it out on ur own, I'm pretty sure myself about that after fighting from lvl 13 to lvl 20 with them

Unusual Element

They absolutely have a death penalty. After dying twice, Stefan is completely ineffective in battle and dies almost immediately. Same holds true for the healers, and with death penalties, the healers tax Claude health heavily because he has to cast Blood Ritual on them so often.

They recover just like players do though, so eventually, after fighting piles of stuff, they'll eventually recover.

The death penalty for henchmen is painfully obvious when trying to kill everything on the Galrath quest. If you don't get a decent chunk of it killed before one of the henchmen dies, it becomes very very difficult to clear out the front yard of Galrath's area (not that you actually HAVE to, but it's part of the challenge I took when I did the quest.)

Arlen · May 30, 2005, 04:02 AM // 04:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magus

I was able to reach the part with the portals with all henchmen, but what exactly are you supposed to do there? (as in how do you beat it?)

I tried to lure small groups out, one at a time, but more groups kept coming out from the lava, and I wasn't able to kill them faster than they were appearing. Eventually there were so many monsters that we weren't able to stay out of their aggro range and we got killed.

In that case you would want to move farther away from that spawn location. I'm trying to avoid giving too much away, but would suggest you spend a minute or two watching the pathing of the mobs in the area. It's relatively painless to clear that area with a little tactics and a lot of patience (which is a rarity in most teams, so good luck =) ).

And, having done 90% of the game solo, I'll add my nod to the fact that henchmen definitely suffer from DP like normal players.

baranovan · Jun 02, 2005, 06:35 PM // 18:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by uigrad

Actually, henchies are probably hardest to use when you are a monk primary, because you are the first one to step into battle.

When you are with henchies, you have to lead the way, and take the first agro.

Sorry to break it to you but you don't have to take the initial aggro. CTRL + SHIFT + Click ( or just CTRL + Click, but this will attack instead of just target) just before you are in range and the two warriors will charge in first.

ratatass · Jun 03, 2005, 02:32 AM // 02:32

1. Good job! Way to go!

2.Henchmen gets death penalty just like you.
3. Focus Fire is better with Henchmen, which sometimes can give you and advantage when soloing.
4. Yes if you call target your warrior henchies will tank for you.
5. No - no missions are balanced to henchmen. He beat this mission fair an d square. Very impressive.

Again, way to go!

Mitsu Bishi · Jun 06, 2005, 08:46 AM // 08:46

Good job with henchies, that sounds pretty difficult to pull of. Guess I'd have a hard time as a monk because of the missing firepower.

But I beat it yesterday with only six players (started with eight, second monk had to leave for dinner early (before the seer), one stupid warrior left because of that - but he was more a pain in the ass than any help, so it was no big deal). I was the only monk and yes, it got hard to keep everybody fresh and one of us finished with -60% DP because I was healing the others first (to keep them from a DP). But with awesome teamplay (thanks to you guys if you happen to read it, one of the best PUGs I ever was in) we beat it. Two rangers lured out single mobs which we could take down easily. We even did the bonus on our way. When we got to the portals, we also took out every single mob apart from the wandering group (the boss was trailing) before we tackled them (and we did it with only one death, the -60% guy). Portal wraiths are easy thereafter and the rest was even easier. Rurik is a joke (sorry to say that, but without his minions he fell very soon) and the Lich was not too difficult either. He died on the Bloodstone so only one time we had to kill him.

When our second healer left, I thought the mission was lost. But once we got in a groove, I simply knew we would beat it against all odds. In case you want to know our setup: 2 Warriors (one of them W/N, the other one I can't remember but no monk), 2 Rangers (one R/E, other one I can't remember either but no monk as well), 1 Me/N and myself, a Mo/Me. Now I'm eager to try it with four people

Sentinel · Jun 06, 2005, 03:54 PM // 15:54

I finished it yesterday with henchies too. I mean it's realy hard to find a PUG
that realy knows what they are doing and they have the right combo of stats
for this mission.

I had to do it over and over until i tweaked my atributes and skills set just right for the mission and the enemies involved. I'm W/M and i found my hammer was way more useful than my sword. A couple of knockdowns with it and another smiting knockdown interspaced with skills than panish after knockdown and i was turning 'rocks on fire' to sand..

You have to understand that you control the henchies aggro with your positioning. If they aggro something you don't want then YOU are out of position. And even if they do aggro or auto attack something all you have to do is back pedal hard and long enough for the enemies to disengage.

You really have to pull each and every mob away from where they are
otherwise a neighboring mob will be on you sooner or later. It takes time and patience but it's doable.

On the portals all i did was pick on single enemies, pulled them away towards the lava and killed them. Btw, at some point they stop coming out of the lava. I cleaned it all up but the patrolling mob. I didn't have to do anything with them to close the portals. Positioning and good timing was all it took.

I was a bit stressed with Rurik cause I didn't want to hit him too hard until at least I got the elite from him. Also the pulling was kinda tricky with him and his 2 imps. Many times the W hench would auto attack the imps and I had to save his ass by running away. That's right.... if you run back far enough he will disengage and follow you. After Rurik was alone and away from the rest it was easy to get the Elite and kill him.

The lich was easy to kill but it was a weird encounter. With him teleporting away a few times and then teleporting me into the lava kept things interesting.

I was kinda dissapointed with the ending. I mean that was the END of the game. Couldn't the devs be more creative than that. And why in the world I ended back at the forge. I guess that was as good a choice as any but was there another reason?

Anyway, on with the grind of Elite hunting.