Quote:
Originally Posted by mrbilzor
All,
Just walked through Prophecies with a MM necro (Barbs is nice), and have moved on to the Factions campaign. I'm running a Ritualist, I like the utility and versatility of the class.
I just got off the Island, ran to Kamadan, this is my build:
[skill]Mighty Was Vorizun[/skill] [skill]Channeled Strike[/skill] [skill]Spirit Burn[/skill] [skill]Essence Strike[/skill] [skill]Shadowsong[/skill] [skill]Bloodsong[/skill] [skill]Gaze of Fury[/skill] [skill]Flesh of My Flesh[/skill]
Use Mighty for the energy, the next three for damage and energy, spirits to power the channeling magic, and Gaze to annoy other PvE ritualists.
The main problem is this: I'm using heroes and henchies, and they iz stoopid.
All mobs come tearing right after me, since I don't have max armor yet. So I run around a bit, get away from the four assassins crushing me. Now all my henchies are running around, too, trying to stay in formation. So I hit control+space, and tell them to attack who I'm attacking. Ooops, I'm holding ashes, so now I'm just running back into a mob, and my crew is right behind me.
I'm not using Resto skills because my crew doesn't attack unless I am. And unless I keep calling targets, they run around and slap random mobs, if I'm lucky.
So I'm in a bit of a pickle. Do I just spirit spam and drop flags and kite mobs into my sidekicks? That seems like a craptastic way to play. If I drop a flag and send the crew into a mob before me, they all get wiped more often than not.
So, Rit experts, how do you work around henchies AI in order to run a support build?
First off: you need max armor. Chances are as soon as you get it you will be just fine, but without it you are horribly gimped and have to deal with a much harder game then normally.
I would recommend you change your build into a channeling/restoration hybrid. Rit's have a few very overpowering skills in each of those attributes, while the rest are fairly so-so. Splinter Weapon and Ancestor's rage are your main sources of damage, very cheap for their high damage output and spammability. Spirit Light and Mend Body and Soul will provide cheap and effective healing. Then take Life and Protective Was Kaolai as good party-wide healing. Protective was Kaolai will also give you some armor which should help take the "KILL ME!" sign off your forehead. When you get later in the game I would recommend you get Offering of Spirit, which provides huge energy and really lets you spam everything on your bar.
You don't tell us what henchies or hero's you have. Since you said you went to kamadan I am assuming that you have dunkoro, tahlkora, koss, melonni, and either sousuke or jin.
I would suggest you go to tyria and get Olias, then run him as a MM. Minion masters just rule PvE, no question. I would then suggest either sousuke or jin, as ele's and rangers are very flexible in dealing with enemies. The 3rd hero could be koss or a monk, though both probably aren't the best choice. With you as restoration, a hero monk isn't that great when the hench monks would do fine, and koss is just plain stupid. I would stay away from melonni, Dervish heroes just seem to have rather poor AI in determining their skill use.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tyla salanari
So does that mean when I run a melee hero and s/he aggros everything in the map *with or without flags* like some sort of crazed wammo who usually spams "Tank lfg" pre-Ursan in ToA it's my fault?
Sometimes H/H are beyond your control.
@The OP -- Fit Ancestors' Rage and Splinter Weapon into that bar. Take a ranged hero / hench (Ranger (preferably BHA Epedemic with Volley) or Paragon). Put in some resto skills like Protective was Kaolai for party healing, Weapon of Warding for an unremovable block ect.
You run melee? 
Melee heroes or henchmen are generally terrible, because if you ever change targets they feel the need to change too. Or if you decide to kite, the heroes decide they need to come with you. It goes on and on. There also isn't all that much reason to take a melee hero over a hench hero. Why? Even if a warrior had no skills or terrible skills like hench's do, they will still do 60-70% of the damage a warrior hero would deal out by virtue of auto-attack damage. So the gain be bringing a hero melee over a hench melee is far less then offensive casters or midliners, who just plain suck all around compared to the specialized builds a player can make up.
Sometimes henchmen or heroes do get overaggressive, but a quick flag will always save you before they can aggro a second group. And even if you do overaggro, a well thought out hero/hench group has as good a chance of beating any 2 given mobs as a PuG has of beating 1. |
