let's help Anet improve hero AI!

Let's help Anet improve hero AI by noting some of the skills that heros just don't use properly.

I'll go first:

The Paragon skill bladeturn refrain:

Energy: 5
Casting time: 1
Recharge: 8
Type: Echo.

For 20 seconds, target non-Spirit ally has +10...34 armor against slashing damage. This Echo is reapplied every time a Chant or Shout ends on that ally.

First of all, this skill works on allies, but I have never seen my heroes apply this skill on anyone but themselves. Plus, heroes seem to just spam this skill everytime it recharges, even though it lasts 20 seconds, and recharge is only 8. If they reapplied only when it expires, then the echo aspect of the skill could really be useful!

Perhaps allowing us to use a combo system in conjunction with the heros

For instance:
Olias has 45 energy at the moment
Somehow I set a priority combo if there's enough energy to do so:

Just pseudocode, probably completely irrelevant to the actual code but you may see my idea.

if(TotalEnergy > skill1.getEnergy() + skill2.getEnergy()){
execute skill1
if(TotalEnergy > skill2.getEnergy()){
execute skill2
}

My thought is something like an echo+SS combo like normal SS necros do.
}

Signet of Devotion. My monk heroes barley ever use it, even when they have very low energy.

I have a fix that will fix a number of skills.

if (conditional activation == bonus effect) perform skill any damn way
else do not perform skill

Ran into that problem today myself.

I've noticed that as well Lord Xeshm. I chose to replace the skill w/ another one. I mainly used that for my Protect builds since they don't have much in a pure heal.

- Ryo

The monk heros don't use the skill [wiki]Zealous Benediction[/wiki] on themselves. I have sat there laughing while a prot monk hero let himself die from degen after all enemies were dead. Dunkoro did this with his energy half full.

Heros/henchmen really shouldn't use the prot skills except maybe zealous benediction on minions. I see all the time, a hero monk with only 10 energy cast protective spirit on a minion. Not only does he cast prot spirit on a minion to spend the last of his energy,he does it whenno enemies are around. This makes energy gain on a hero monk difficult even with blood ritual on them.

When I have just finished clearing a mob of enemies sometimes I accidentally hit target closest target to attack but quikcly cancel my attack. Devona is the worst at going after a far away target that I was about to go after. On one occasion she almost went out of my compass area to chase after the target that was patroling away from us. Of course this can simply be cancelled by flagging the henchmen but I was enjoying see how far she would go.

It would also be nice to have the henchmen and heros stay tighter to me while traveling a long distance. After running a long distance I have to stop and wait for them. This isn't so bad but a little bit annoying when I'm trying to sneak past a mob while they're following me so slowly and get caught by a patrol pattern.

I would like to see better skill order usage. For example a curses hero will use barbs before mark of pain and cast mark of pain right before the enemy dies.

I'm seeing a lot of times an enemy casting a slow activation spell like [wiki]Mark of Protection[/wiki] while my heros just stand there with 1-2 mesmer interrupt skills unused on their bar. This seems quite odd to me concidering that I get interrupted all the time by enemy mesmers while I'm casting 1/4 second prot skills.

It is almost useless to run any adrenal skills in combination with [wiki]Wild Blow[/wiki] on a hero. They will first use wild blow and by the time it recharges only whirling axe can be used in time before they use wild blow again to kill all adrenaline built up. I suggest making wild blow only used by heros vs. an enemy that is in stance. No biggie though I just always run Koss with all energy attack skills combined with [wiki]Warrior's Endurance[/wiki].

In a post above mine Jecht Scye has a great idea that I've also thought would be nice. skill priority labeling
will add more later

The only things that bother me about the AI are very minor, and I can live with them actually since the heros seem to do such a good job by themselves. I can literally flag my hench/heros leave for a drink, go to the bathroom, have a snack then come back for the drops.
As far as the issues I have with them:
1. Smarter Warriors - the warriors do pretty much the same thing as the enemy warriors. They blow past other warriors, and attack casters. As a mesmer solo/hench/hero gets pretty dangerous when the heavy hitters get through the line and start smacking me.
2. Tighter aggro control - I would love to be able to write diffrent lines that order your hench/heros not to cross as you move through paths, or around large groups. This would be extremely helpful in making sure everyone is where you want them. The flags put them where you want them, but there is no control as you move.
But these are very small things I actually love my henches/heros.

I'm normally running around with my warrior, but my favorite character is my primary mesmer so I couldn't wait to get Norgu and set him up for interrupts. I quickly found out he won't case Power Block (elite) even when I tell him to and he has absolutely no concept of how to use Shatter Hex, although he will use it if I make him. He works best if you lock him onto an enemy caster but if you don't he doesn't stay on the target I call and instead goes after one of the other casters normally. That's fine unless the target I call is a monk.

What I'd really like to see is for the hench/heroes to stay on the target I've called even if I get killed. I understand they have their own set of priority targets, that much is blatantly obvious. It would just make it much easier for me if they would kill my priority target first.

Elejna

I wish they would come up with skill linking so I can get Dunkoro to use headbutt then spam aegis!

LOL!

One thing I've found funny is how VERY effective he is in the hall of hero's with a sword and fear me amped to drain 3 energy along side melonni doing the same while still proving to be an effective prot monk. They're going to be all over a monk anyways so why not have the monk go after them? It's intimidating too and they may not know what to think other than to run from the monk that's draining their energy.

Or they can use a similar feature like Final Fantasy 12 AI.

It was called the Gambit system that allow us to tweak the characters behavior when using skills and spells.

Check the link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_F...#Gambit_system

I think meteor shower would be better u.u

My Talkora spams Prot spirit even if theres no ennemies around and i just forgot my vamp bow equiped....

they shouldnt use it AND aegis if there is no external factor harming us.

Uh .. headbutt causes dazed on person using it so it interrupts any spells cast after it. Hence Dunkoro using headbutt then spamming aegis would be leet. It is my new favorite useless warrior skill. Works great on hero healers

here's another:

epidemic ... heroes love epidemic.. they just spam it like crazy... seemingly even when there are no conditions on the mobs (I haven't experimented with this, so this may not be 100% true)

Have the focus command works on ally as well. So if you focus say Rurik they will have him as primary focus for healing and protect.

Fire attunement - They don't cast it when it is down and available.
Flesh Golem - Sometimes they don't cast it when there's a corpse available and no fleshy active. Instead they pick a different minion type.

Whatever you do, do not give Koss or Goren the shock axe warrior build.... or throw dirt for Jin or Margrid...

I had Flesh Golem and one other minion type on my Necromancer and there was constantly a Flesh Golem up.