AI issues thread

Heroes are a great thing. I'm still suprised by how they can handle some complex builds and sometimes even do better than human players. However I also noticed strangeness sometimes in their behavior, and saw they are unable to properly use some skills, or don't use them for the best. So I post this topic to make a list of these strange behaviors with some skills, that may eventually help GW programmers improve the AI (which is already great) if they feel like doing so.

Please, post only about how skills / builds are used by heroes, not about heroes themselves. Try to be realistic as well: I don't think a hero will ever be able to use a complex and weird build like 55hp, so no need to post about that.

Here we go:

Confort Animal: ranger heroes will use it even if the pet is out of range. As they can't rez the pet, they just keep using this skill until they run out of energy.

Mending and order necros: I tried mending on a warrior (soz) and it works well (erm as well as it can work on a warrior): the warrior hero use mending on him and on nobody else, and recast it as soon as it's shattered. But a necro refuses to cast it. When I manually make him cast Mending on him, he cancels the enchantement immediatly.

Echo / Arcane Echo / Glyph of Renewal: that's not a bug but heroes will use those skills on random spells. Even if you give your hero 3 skills: fire attunement, echo, and meteor shower, he's as likely to use echo on fire attunement. That's random. I think having heroes using echo / glyph of renewal on the skill in the next slot would make a lot apprentice hero nukers happy


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PS: Stab me in the face if such a thread already exist - I could only see a thread about general bugs since the last update, so I thought it would be neat to have a specific topic.

Well I gave Melonni, Grenths Balance and she didnt' use it ever, I had to manually do it when I could pay attention to her. That's the only thing I've noticed so far for me.

Seriously I thought this was gonna be another repeat AI issue thread.

hehe, same here; which is a sure sign something is wrong with it.

I've noticed Dunkoro and Talh will sometimes refuse to use certain spells unless "all" it's specific conditions are met. Words of Comfort for example; they refuse to use this one unless there are at least two conditions on someone, and will never use it on themselves unless I click it for them.

Also, the warrior Heroes seem to enjoy stances and switching stances as often as possible. Rather than waiting for one stance to end, they will often enter a stance, then instantly enter a new one, which cancels the previous. They will repeat this as often as possible.

The AI also can't/won't use Cyclone Axe, which is a pain considering Nightfall is designed as a target for multiple monster attack skills.

It doesn't wan't to use/use at all blood of the master, sig of devotion, crude swing.

The AI will plant ranger spirits, like winter, immediately instead of waiting till planting them near/in combat situations like ritualist spirits. This is manageable though with the skill shut-off/activate options. I haven't played around with a trapper build yet, but I imagine it follows the same story as ranger spirits.

The AI will also infrequently use dissmiss condition, as it seems too "conditional" for how it is supposed to work.

The AI will almost always prot spirit its self following life sacrifice, instead of following enemy based pressure. I doubt this is can be or will get adjusted, as i imagine the AI can only interpret dps, which could also be why sig of devotion rarely gets used due to the long activiation time.

There is more, but i just can't think of the rest at this time. A lot of it can be worked around anyhow, but it can be considered annoying all the same.

Concerning Blood of the Master: I gave BoTM and Heal Area to my MM, and indeed he never uses BoTM when he can use Heal Area (and he spams it): he only use it either when he runs out of energy, or when an ennemy is too close to use Heal Area. The best would be of course to use 1 or 2 BoTM, then 1 Heal Area to heal himself and the minions but well...

My monks also refuse to use Heal Party unless I manually make them cast it, even when it's by far the best healing skill (when the 8 members have taken damage).

EDIT - yeah ^ trapper builds are awful: even with 0 in marksmanship they keep using their bow (I didn't give them a staff - I imagine they'd wand the ennemy) instead of trapping.