Hench/Hero Intelligence + Hard Mode

Yeah I used to think that Hard Mode was just insanely OP, but when my girlfriend got on and we both got our heroes out, she noticed that they didn't kite/run away no matter what setting they were on.

I just finsihed clearing out the sector west of Kamadan (I forgot its name - the one with Sunspear Great Hall in it), and I noticed this behavior as well. There a few times I had to double check to make sure my heros did not have their attack mode set to aggressive because there were acting stupid.

i am a R/Mo,

I have Zhed a E/R (equiped with a bow and air attackes)

I have Dunkoro a Mo/E (so he can use his fire damage weapon effectivly)

I have Goern a W/R.

yes thats alot of rangers and not much party mix, but it works for me.

In anycase, dunkoro got himself killed by running into the group, i had to physically hold him back with a flag to ensure he didn't commit suicide all the time. Goern would run up to random groups and start engaging them. Those groups where outside my agro range, i doubt they were in his. This behavior got us killed on more then one occation.

I never had seen Dunkro and Goern make such fools of themselves so readily.

I have noticed that Razah likes to hang back alot. Often times outside my aggro circle. I use my Razah as an mm and therefore I need him to be closer to me so that his minions attack the enemy. Its quite weird because even though I set him to 'aggressive' mode, he still hangs back. Its quite annoying because often times, someone will be dead because of getting ganked before Razah actually moves forward to 'help'. Not sure if its only me though that is experiencing this.

Would make sense for a ritualist to hang further back.

Yes, I notices alot of the things some of you have said too and the one thing that I can say for sure is that you are right about the heros and henches.

They have become as stupid as wash boards and about as helpfull as the people that work at the DMV. Sure they still heal but, they take their sweet time doing it.

Healers, when set to avoid combat will attack and often run out to targets you call rather then around in circles like before. They also tend to stand still while Charr and other cretures hit them only to wait tell their Hp is super low then heal someone elce before dieing.

I spent 2 Hard mode missions hold my monks hand, casting his spells for him, and leaving him in the way back only to force him to move up into agro range of an enemy to even do anything.

Calling the Ai smarter is iffy at this point, it is however super agressive and has the perks (cheating buffs) that make them harder. You can however still use your monk to hide behind walls and watch long ranged archers and casters in agro range start shooting and ignore everything around.

Monk+wall+ human player = everything will die from being stupid. If you are not convinced try it and then go dance near a group of achers as they pound away at a wall if you are a monk stand behind a way after agroing some rangers and send your warrior friends to go dance near them. Although they Target better as a group once you figure out the order they attack in you can pritty much lead them around.

Warrior Henchs seem to have had some Brains taken out of them too ( or added however you want to look at it) because alot of their more agressive nature has seem to be nurfed. Warrior Heros and henchs will run from Aoe damage and if hit enough, will spend more time running around trying to avoid the spash damage then hitting the target. Also setting them to not attack will also make them stand there like a tree. It could be just a bug with the patch but if you change the stance back to attack they take a good 20 seconds sometimes to even start hacking and slashing.

The only hero that has seemed to work for me is the Assassin hero. While my warriors were busy running around like my monks should of been doing from Aoe damage. the Assassin droped 3 enemys before dieing.

So yes I think the Ai for heros has been droped big time to make hard mode even more hard (or annoying) but this could just be a way to get people to play with each other and not their Ai.

but I have to Ask, Has anyone tryed setting hero monks to smiting sense they have become so agresive in aviod combat -.-

If you brought any spirits with you, Razah is going to spend the next 3-5 seconds in place casting them as soon as he spots an enemy, while you are busy charging into battle.

Talkhora insists on spamming RoF when Charr Warriors are wailing on her instead of using Guardian.... WTF

For you guys who get tanking monks: if they're your heroes, get rid of touch spells.
What happens is they run up to the tank, use the touch-range spell - and stay.

As for the henchmen... well, they are like they've always been.

Formations would be hugely useful, though. It gets kindof old to have all your casters bunch together and get killed by ONE maelstrom. Or even more annoying: one chaos storm. The "TAKE TWO STEPS TO THE SIDE YOU FOOL!" factor.

I also lost my first try in Hard mode because of the AI not kiting. It went all well until we reached the char warrior boss. Talkhora then decided to stand still and let them hack at her ... of course using Spirit Bond and/or Guardian at this time was also out of the question.

I have a huge problem with the way the AI handles determines how to stand around you which leads to a number of my aggro problems.

If you have a wand or a bow equipped (any ranged weapon I believe from testing), which I typically do when my warrior is pulling a group of enemies, the AI will run ahead of you. You're seen as a player who would typically not be at the front of the battle because of the weapon you use instead of the level of your armour. This becomes a huge problem because the enemy AI targets you based on your health and armour, not the weapon you have on. You can test this yourself by standing around with a group of henchmen, and swap between a melee weapon and a ranged weapon. You'll notice how the NPCs will rearrange themselves around you.

This is a real pain for my main two toons; warrior and monk. Monk usually has a sword/shield set on so the heroes/henchmen go behind him, whereas the warrior pulls with a wand or bow so the heroes are in front of him.

One word: flag

the heroes are really needing a buff to their ai, as hard mode in itself is not overpowered if you have human players, or even 2 human players + 4 heroes ( i only been playing in tyria , so far to elona reach were the max party size is 6 ).


i have kitted my heroes out with the best runes/armour and items, and i have tried and INSANE amount of builds and tactics, i spent 7 HOURS trying to pass sanctum cay on hard mode using only heroes and hench, i nthe end some kind soul helped me and he brought 2 heroes of his own to replace the ABSOLUTLY RETARDED AND AWEFULLLLLLLL tyrian henchies .. and guess what, we passed it first time .. but it was stil challenging and fun.


im really not a bad player at this game, i have an excelent sense of wtf is going on and making build and tactics , but when your spending 50k+ on heroes items, and 12+ hours to pass missions that are only in the middle of prophecies and STILL not being able to do it all, then there is a huge problem

until they fix this i would be happy to play with anyone here thats currently playing thru prophecies in hard mode, right now im at elona reach but i would gladly come back to sanctum cay or so to team up with someone who wanted to play thru the campaign