Well, I have spent most of the last week playing around with a Ranger and a Warrior/Necro characters in Pre-Searing checking the game out. I recently made the jump to Post Searing with my Warrior/Necro and was able to experience the party based play with henchmen. It is very fun, and reminds me of Dragon Age in a way (controlling one character at a time with 3 others AI controlled). After playing with a group of henchmen for a couple of hours I got to thinking.
Is it very viable to create a "Battle Commander" character (say a Monk/Mesmer, Necro/Mesmer, or something of the like) and play the game that way. Basically my inspiration behind something like this is in SP games I enjoy playing the army wielding necro throwing curses and such (ala Diablo 2), or the Healer/Buffer of the party in Dragon Age. And, with my freaktastic work schedule I am often times playing when I have little time to play, or on at off hours of the night. Don't get me wrong I thoroughly enjoy grouping with other, but I just do not get the good blocks of time that allow me to do that.
Is this even viable to just play the character that supports your henchmen (who incidentally would be doing all the damage), and actually make it through a campaign this way?
Any incites on whether this type of play would be viable would be appreciated, or if others have tried it I would be rather interested in hearing your experiences.
Thanks!
~Rathmaker~
A Battle Commander...would it work??
Rathmaker
Dzjudz
It is not ideal to play a character like a healer, because the AI of heroes and henchmen kind of relies on you to lead them into battle.
Rathmaker
I was wondering if that was going to be the problem in the idea...
Mr. G
Theres an easy fix. It you ping your target the henchies will lock on. I run a hybrid monk as my main so I'm used to it, it's perfectly viable. The AI will occasionaly hiccup - But I'd rather they did so on the frontlines where I can fix them, than them messing up when they're supposed to be fixing me 
The standard team build will have 2 support roles anyway so you won't need to work much harder as a monk or N/Rt or whatever.
In other words yeah, its perfectly fine to play like this - I'm not saying it will be any easier, but you won't suffer for it.
The standard team build will have 2 support roles anyway so you won't need to work much harder as a monk or N/Rt or whatever.
In other words yeah, its perfectly fine to play like this - I'm not saying it will be any easier, but you won't suffer for it.
Yasmine
If you have nightfall, you could try running a para maybe. Not sure what you mean by "battle commander" but it seems to be quite close to what you describe.
Eragon Zarroc
commanding the actions of ur henchmen is somewhat difficult. best u can do is flag 'em around and call targets for them. heroes, however, u can determine their bar and control them fully if u want to, using their skills for them while supporting them with your own character.
Silmar Alech
I don't understand what you mean by the term "battle commander", but I try to explain the first steps in commanding your heroes around.
If you play with henchmen or heroes (heroes are customizable henchmen you get in the Nightfall or EOTN campaign), it is essential to command your heroes in some way. Usually, you tell them to attack the same target. It is either the most dangerous enemy or the weakest enemy.
How you do this: You do a "default attack" with your weapon. That means you hit the space button to attack an enemy. Your henchmen will attack that enemy as well. Additionally you can explicitly "call" the target by pressing the CTRL key while you activate a skill or attack with the space button. This will leave a note in the chat window. Simply activating a skill upon an enemy don't call it to your henchmen, only activated using the STRG key does it.
Usually, it is easier to play an offensive build while playing with henchmen, since all you need to do is to attack or activate your offensive skills on a target. Something you do anyway. Just press the CTRL key while doing it.
If you play a healer or another supporting role and don't attack the enemy directly, your heroes don't know what you'd like them to attack, so they chose their own target. Not always the best target. So you need to occasionally call an enemy, although you don't intended to attack yourself. It works as well, but somewhat disturbs and interrupts you in your supporting role.
A necromant who is hexing foes is an offensive player and is able to naturally call enemies. The only real support character is someone who never attacks an enemy and never uses a skill that is targeted at an enemy. A healing monk is such a character.
If you play with henchmen or heroes (heroes are customizable henchmen you get in the Nightfall or EOTN campaign), it is essential to command your heroes in some way. Usually, you tell them to attack the same target. It is either the most dangerous enemy or the weakest enemy.
How you do this: You do a "default attack" with your weapon. That means you hit the space button to attack an enemy. Your henchmen will attack that enemy as well. Additionally you can explicitly "call" the target by pressing the CTRL key while you activate a skill or attack with the space button. This will leave a note in the chat window. Simply activating a skill upon an enemy don't call it to your henchmen, only activated using the STRG key does it.
Usually, it is easier to play an offensive build while playing with henchmen, since all you need to do is to attack or activate your offensive skills on a target. Something you do anyway. Just press the CTRL key while doing it.
If you play a healer or another supporting role and don't attack the enemy directly, your heroes don't know what you'd like them to attack, so they chose their own target. Not always the best target. So you need to occasionally call an enemy, although you don't intended to attack yourself. It works as well, but somewhat disturbs and interrupts you in your supporting role.
A necromant who is hexing foes is an offensive player and is able to naturally call enemies. The only real support character is someone who never attacks an enemy and never uses a skill that is targeted at an enemy. A healing monk is such a character.
snaek
in gw, they're called "callers", i.e. a discord caller. it would very much work with a curse necro, i.e. barbs calling, but not so much a healing monk--smiting monk would be fine though.