Non-compliable Henchmen?

I'm currently trying to vanquish Joko's Domain and it's becoming very frustrating, mostly in part due to my Henchmen/Heroes taking some time to stop and look at the scenery. There are several patrols near worm spoors, large patrols, and it's almost guaranteed that I'd be wiped if I tried to kill off the group, and as such I'm going for the spoors when the patrols are out of range. The problem? Heroes and Henchmen are randomly deciding that while following me it'd be nice to stop and enjoy each other's company. 3 times now I have I missed and almost gotten sent back to the resurrection shrine because the Heroes/Henchmen just stop moving while following me, and it takes them a good 4 or 5 seconds to get moving again at which point the patrol is back and I've missed the opportunity to get to the spoor.

I'm not sure if this is lag, or just henchmen doing what they do best, failing to be able to comply with orders that even a PUG could follow. Is this happening to anyone else?

I presume they stop just out of range of a spirit that the patrol put down?

If so, then yes, it's a somewhat recent AI change, where AI will refuse to move past a spirit.

Either kill the spirit (agros the patrol), or let it expire.

It always happens to me, specially if I have a hero MM (Olias) and he and his Minion Union (I call it the MUGW => Minion Union of Guild Wars) decide that they do not want to fight and instead just sit back and enjoy some coffee and talk about the latest GvG fight they saw on GWTV. GIMME A BREAK!!!

Got an MM and someone with death nova? Cos they will constantly keep it up on minions. This has also happened to me and i just zoned but since you are vanquishing.... Just try and cope or try again.

I don't have to kill the spirit, they'll still walk past it, it's just like they don't want to. You said it's an AI change, so is this purposeful or an unintended side effect that Heroes and Henchmen cower in fear before the terrible might of...Quicksand?

I have seen this a few times recently, and not just with spirits.

It seams the AI is trying to avoid agro by not following my into agro range. This is great when I use my war, not so great on any of my casters.......

On the topic of aggro, are we ever going to get AI that avoids engaging non-engaged enemies? i.e. moving out of the damn way when there's a patrol coming.

Ugh, There's no way I'm going to be able to vanquish this. There's too many Acolytes/Cavaliers so it's impossible to get them down before one gets resurrected back up, the necromancers use vocal minority, so my healing skills become completely unavailable due to one single non-elite skill, and if I try to lure them to the edge of the sand where my henchmen are waiting in Junundu, they just leave the Junundu when they see me. Failed AI.

I was having this problem. Coupled with the problem that sometimes, clicking the Flag Button fails, I have bound the Flag All key to F5. If I have any problem, I hit F5 and force the hench to run ahead.

its happens to me some times, hench and heros stop behind and stay, no move no spells... its weird... sometimes they run and help fight sometimes they let me die...

before someone say... no flags... no defend set... normal play...

i use flags to pull them to close and help in fight...

i think its a bug... not a major bug...

I have noticed the henchmen and hero AI behavior degrading in the last 2 weeks since they all started to sound like Assassins.I have noticed a few other things as well.

I noticed this alot more when EOTN first came back (not seen it so much now though). It was as if a chest was blocking them in a narrow area.. except it was thin air in an open snowy field..

I've notice this with Olias recently, he hangs back using spells on his minions rather than moving forward into battle. Several times I've aggroed expecting the undead cavalry to swamp the enemy when Olias and his chums are at least an aggro circle behind me and my squishy caster h/hs. However I put this down to my recently changing his build rather than Anet changing his AI.

Regarding the problem you mention, I feel this can be solved by close attention to the mini-map and dragging the lazy ****s to where you want them by flagging. Even if u get four of them into wurms, this should be enough to take out the undead.

However, having read your post there is another problem you are likely to run into; it sounds like you are relying heavily on wurms to vanquish the undead in NF. This isn't always possible, for instance in at least one place in the Alkali Pan and all of Poisoned Outcrops. Minor changes like changing your targeting priority (cavaliers > acolytes) or adding some rituals like EoE or Frozen Soil might help, but you might have to change your builds in a bigger way.

This is the problem with minion bomber build, and reason why I dislike death nova. Depending on the rate with which your minions die/spawn, he may be way too busy putting death nova on them, and won't follow.

You are of course, correct, he moved from Golem/BotM --> Jagged bones/death nova/BotM and it has raised (pardon the pun) merry hell. Those enemy mobs do die more quickly though. At least when the minions can be arsed to turn up.........

I noticed this last night in Melandru's Watch. The shrine priest (who you can get to follow you around) would stop at the spirit the rit hench drops and not go past til it disappeared.

Your saying you want an Ai that can intelligently avoid further aggro when already engaged? Lazy much? Honestly, multiplayer in GW is so optional, doing something so advanced to teh Ai like that would utterly destroy Multiplayer PvE... seriously.

Be more aware of surroundings yourself, flagging works wonders. Hardmode pretty much requires it if you H/H alot. MrSlayer has it right, if you have issues with mouseclicking the flags, keybindings ftw...

To the OP, take taht advice also. Flag flag flag flag... It will solve about 75% of your problems. For example, when approaching an area with a several patrol mobs, just be smart about aggro. Flag your whole H/H party way back along the route you KNOW is safe, and use a bow to pull 1 group at a time. The flagged team should be far enough back so that as the aggro is pulled if they run around they wont be around any other patrols.

In essence, play smarter, not harder It will be way less fustrating in the end. GL!

cheers

Slightly off topic, but in the same mission the worms would simply NOT take my olias on board...it kinda sucked.

I've had Stefan run off the radar map. While flagged. Margrid will go out of the way to engage pretty much anything a couple aggro circles away sometimes. Death Nova on a MM hero will sometimes pause the entire lot of them an aggro circle behind and they wont come join in the fight. There's countless things like that.

As relates to worms, sometimes heroes and/or henchmen are slightly out of range and wont get into a worm, which is annoying when you dont notice and they die out in the sand. I've also had an instance where one of my heroes would not get into a worm (like pamelf) so I simply let him die and left him (forgot who it was).

Fun times with AI. All things considered, have been pretty much able to do most everything with them anyway.

Slighly on and off topic, jokos is a pain, but I can offer small advice.

Do the area in three chunks

East side Junundu
Middle on foot
West side Junundu

use a powerstone after one of the Junundu areas since heroes accumulate lotsa dp in those things.


Dont take an MM, they fail, your better off with a well of darkness hexer.
If your playing any type of physical other than a ranger, take expel hexes on your mesmer. (btw a mesmer is a good idea, helps a lot vs the ele boss you have to face out of the worms)

Paragon with Save Yourselves = win