How to play PvE?

mrbilzor

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2007

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?

Alex Morningstar

Alex Morningstar

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2006

Team Asshat [Hat] leader - [GR] Alliance

Mo/

What I did when I still played my Ritualist and I was playing with h/h, was wand my target, use item spell. When I play my monk, I don't really wand a whole lot other than the initial battle and I don't seem to have too much trouble killing off priority targets first. Sometimes heros will pick a shitty target, but usually they seem to go after monks and support, or whomever is screwing your party up the most.

Dawn Angelheart

Dawn Angelheart

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2008

We Bought Plan C On [Ebay]

W/E

maybe flag the H/H into the mob? have them aggro the mob. and then you move in and support.

Ghostcell

Ghostcell

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2006

=VX9=

N/Mo

heroes and henchies aren't stupid, its the person that commands them that makes stupid mistakes.

buy max armor, learn to call targets for the h/h, ping them back and pull groups when you need to.

Murmel

Murmel

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2008

Land of Confusion

[swea]

W/

I'm a resto rit (and have been since I created my rit bout 15 months ago) and never have problems with calling targets. I usually call when I'm casting a spirit, and by then your not able to wand or attack anything. And the heros and hench still attack the mob. WHEN I have ashes in my build, I tend to call the target and quickly press the key that makes you character go backwards. That's an easy way of doing it. Most of the times you don't aggro very much and if you do, as long as you have 2-3 healers you can just stand there and wait for the warrior or some close combat guy to take the aggro.

So, try calling when casting one of your spirits. It works 90% of the times for me. Not 100% as the hench and hero AI is extremely stupid...

Hope that helped anything

Edit: Henchies are kinda cool in the AI, but hero's... They are so horrible. Only good thing really is that you can make their build as you want.

Tyla

Emo Goth Italics

Join Date: Sep 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghostcell
heroes and henchies aren't stupid, its the person that commands them that makes stupid mistakes.

buy max armor, learn to call targets for the h/h, ping them back and pull groups when you need to. 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.

the ruloes

Academy Page

Join Date: Nov 2007

Demented Lair Dwellers

Me/Mo

Needz moar splinter + ancestors.

Shift + Ctrl + Space = "I'm targeting XXX", I.e. you won't run after 'em.

And, of course, buy max armour!

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

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.

Tyla

Emo Goth Italics

Join Date: Sep 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Meth

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. Read again.
I suggested a Ranger with BHA, Volley and Epidemic, and / or a Paragon hero.

Unless you were talking about the first line, basically I'm also describing how retarded melee heroes are. ;o

spirit of defeat

spirit of defeat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2007

Holland

Rt/

question, why do your use shadow song? you can't keep it up, i suppose you use gaze over it?

Oso Minar

Oso Minar

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2006

Zealots of Shiverpeak [ZoS]

Rt/

If I'm playing with Heroes and Henchmen, I don't run a restoration build. It's much less of a headache to just run attack skills.

Dr Strangelove

Dr Strangelove

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Dec 2005

Wasting away again in Margaritaville

[HOTR]

[skill]splinter weapon[/skill][skill]ancestors' rage[/skill]

Everything else is just icing.

Eilo Rytyj

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2008

E/

My Rit's still only a month or so old, I'm about half way thru Proph missions with her, but I've had success not only with H/H but with guildies too with a simple Channeling/Resto build, pretty much straight off Noob Jea Island:

[skill]ancestors' rage[/skill][skill]splinter weapon[/skill][skill]essence strike[/skill][skill]spirit rift[/skill][skill]mend body and soul[/skill][skill]vengeful weapon[/skill][skill]bloodsong[/skill][skill]flesh of my flesh[/skill]

I'll chop and change in skills like [skill]weapon of warding[/skill], [skill]vampirism[/skill], [skill]recuperation[/skill], [skill]protective was kaolai[/skill]+[skill]channeled strike[/skill], [skill]spirit burn[/skill] if the situation demands it. No Elites on this char yet btw.

I don't particularly find it a headache to use resto skills, especially if it's my Vengeful/Warding Weapon/heal that's just saved one of the monkey henchies from keeling over to a huge hulking beastie wailing on them.

I agree that an AI melee toon is more of a bane than a boon, but it does give you easy Ancestors' Rage fodder since they usually end up right in the middle of the action.

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by tyla salanari
Read again.
I suggested a Ranger with BHA, Volley and Epidemic, and / or a Paragon hero.

Unless you were talking about the first line, basically I'm also describing how retarded melee heroes are. ;o
I was making fun of the fact that you would even think about using a melee hero

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eilo Rytyj
My Rit's still only a month or so old, I'm about half way thru Proph missions with her, but I've had success not only with H/H but with guildies too with a simple Channeling/Resto build, pretty much straight off Noob Jea Island:

[skill]ancestors' rage[/skill][skill]splinter weapon[/skill][skill]essence strike[/skill][skill]spirit rift[/skill][skill]mend body and soul[/skill][skill]vengeful weapon[/skill][skill]bloodsong[/skill][skill]flesh of my flesh[/skill]

I'll chop and change in skills like [skill]weapon of warding[/skill], [skill]vampirism[/skill], [skill]recuperation[/skill], [skill]protective was kaolai[/skill]+[skill]channeled strike[/skill], [skill]spirit burn[/skill] if the situation demands it. No Elites on this char yet btw.

I don't particularly find it a headache to use resto skills, especially if it's my Vengeful/Warding Weapon/heal that's just saved one of the monkey henchies from keeling over to a huge hulking beastie wailing on them.

I agree that an AI melee toon is more of a bane than a boon, but it does give you easy Ancestors' Rage fodder since they usually end up right in the middle of the action. That looks like a pretty solid build, though in my opinion you could use [skill]Spirit Light[/skill], which is just an insanely big heal for cheap energy.

Winterclaw

Winterclaw

Wark!!!

Join Date: May 2005

Florida

W/

Quote:
Melee heroes or henchmen are generally terrible, because if you ever change targets they feel the need to change too. You can lock melee heroes on a target.

llsektorll

llsektorll

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2005

Toronto, Canada

R/

How to play PvE?

Why that is elementary my dear Watson...

go to youtube watch leeroy jenkins video.... make a level 20 warrior monk with with healing breeze and reenact what you see in the video.

Terraban

Terraban

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Strangelove
[skill]splinter weapon[/skill][skill]ancestors' rage[/skill]

Everything else is just icing. Quoted for truth.

/thread

mrbilzor

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2007

So, pretty much, play smarter with better armor. And Ancestor's Rage. Got it.

For Splinter and Ancestor's, how do you quickly select the H/H and cast? I don't mean, what do I do? I mean, how do you do it.

Rephrase: What is the mapping of your keys?

Tyla

Emo Goth Italics

Join Date: Sep 2006

You can change it to however you like.

When playing a support role, imo the best keys are the number pad assigned to the party member numbers.

Or just click on them on the battlefield.
Keeping an eye on the field is key to being any good.

Bront

Bront

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2008

Honored Order of Light

W/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Winterclaw
You can lock melee heroes on a target. No, you're thinking of Animal Companions.

Dr Strangelove

Dr Strangelove

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Dec 2005

Wasting away again in Margaritaville

[HOTR]

Quote:
Originally Posted by mrbilzor
So, pretty much, play smarter with better armor. And Ancestor's Rage. Got it.

For Splinter and Ancestor's, how do you quickly select the H/H and cast? I don't mean, what do I do? I mean, how do you do it.

Rephrase: What is the mapping of your keys? I mouse like a pro. I'm used to monking, so I'm fairly good at watching the battlefield and seeing who's in the middle of stuff. Using the keyboard works too, it really depends on you.

Deadshot Seven

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2008

A/

How bout` an elite skill. Like Wanderlust, weapon of quickening, Ritual Lord...
Or you could do what I do which surprisingly works.
Pain, Shadowsong, Bloodsong, Vampirism, WoQ, Summon Spirits, Painful bond, and Boon of creation.
I.E Spirit Spam.

mrbilzor

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2007

Just wanted to update. Played a little more and made a nice build (I think).

Did a little farming, got max armor via collectors. Did a mission in Nightfall, capped Barrage.

So, now I run this:

Channeling: 12+3+1
Marksman: 12
Resto: 3

[Barrage][Splinter Weapon][Dual Shot][Nightmare Weapon][Ancestors' Rage][Spirit Rift]

Triple shot will be added soon.

Two optional slots, usually Flesh of My Flesh and Cap Sig, since elites seem to be so plentiful.

I see a mob, wait for it to group a little bit, and cast Spirit Rift, then Splinter, then Barrage once or twice. By the time the numbers clear away, most everything is dead. Dual and Nightmare for single targets. Ancestor's for a little extra.

Dr Strangelove

Dr Strangelove

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Dec 2005

Wasting away again in Margaritaville

[HOTR]

I used to run splinter barrage, until I went thought about it too hard.

The damage from the barrage doesn't matter, only the splinter really does. So, if you have physicals in your party (not hard to pull off), it's more efficient to put splinter on them instead of you, while you do other things.

I'll admit that it does look really cool to see all the numbers pop up.

Trub

Trub

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2006

Sitting in the guildhall, watching the wallows frolic.

Trinity of the ascended [SMS]+[Koss]+[TAM]=[ToA]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Strangelove
I used to run splinter barrage, until I went thought about it too hard.

The damage from the barrage doesn't matter, only the splinter really does. So, if you have physicals in your party (not hard to pull off), it's more efficient to put splinter on them instead of you, while you do other things.

I'll admit that it does look really cool to see all the numbers pop up. It's more fun to splinter barrage imo...
For my teamates...I just load a nice Great Dwarf Weapon to shut them up, then they can keep up with my kills...

Bargamer

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2006

Rt/N

One of these days, I want to see how a Splinter Barrager and and a Minion Bomber would play together.

Nightow

Nightow

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2006

Kindred Order of Souls [KOS]

Saw it last night with my hero as a jagged bones MM. Worked fairly well, especially when the environment caused them to bunch right up.