Do the Shining Blade Recruits attack?

The WIK areas now have allies that spawn at the beginning of the area and follow you around and help your part. One of these allies is a group of 3 Shining Blade Recruits.

Are these guys supposed to attack? It seems that the Warriors that spawn always stand around on my back line and don't do anything unless I run into the fray so they follow me and then they start attacking. I know they're "recruits" but shouldn't they still be attacking on their own? They definitely don't act like the other allies that spawn.

The Ranger seems to attack fine and I don't think I've gotten an Elementalist to spawn yet but the Warriors just don't want to do anything.

All of the melee allies are fairly diffident - apart from Carlotta (presumably she shares aggro with Shadow) - to the point of being useless for casters.

Of course some are worse than others (Snakebite actively kites when he doesn't have the adrenaline to heal ), but in general if you're a caster and you want/need ally contributions it is best to leave & return until you get a ranged one.

I've never really had a problem with the other melee allies. They seem to attack fine. Maybe somehow these guys are attached to the Ranger who stays back and fires arrows and it is preventing them from moving forward.

I actually like when one of the melees spawn for me because I don't carry one in my group.

my problem is alari...she NEVER attacks even when I am being attacked (caster)....she heals herself and RUNS AWAY....I like it when I get the casters---necro and mezzy---they DO stuff even before I am attacked....even carlotta likes to get squished before I get attacked...the warriors (and sometimes the rangers) rarely attack unless I am almost dead (and then they try to run away)

They are also nice to have when you're trying to kite, and they auto-rez and pull the mob you just lost directly at you again. They're also nice to have when you're trying to UA and rebirth people from a safe distance, and they aggro mobs and pull them at you. (sarcasm intended)
They would be much more useful if they followed the party flag.

Got Alari one time, at first she didnt seem to attack at all.
Later it was more like she attacks when she or I takes (to much) damage.

Somthing must have gone wrong in her coding, she is to weird.
She uses skills from 3 classes.
She looks like Ranger primary but uses mostly Assasin skills.
And then she uses 2 swords for a pair of daggers.

a) I believe that they only auto-attack when *they* get into aggro (from my experience)

b) Have you tried calling targets? It helps with minions, so it may help with NPCs as well.

As far as I know, calling target never helps with anything except other human party members.

Actually, I call targets all the time. Olias always sics his minions on my called targets, and my Rit's Spirits always attack my called targets too.

I can't, however, speak for the Shining Blade Henchies...

You're still calling targets for allies controlled(somewhat) by party members in that scenario.

Maybe we should get the charr to train these guys instead of the ebon vanguard!

Yeah Alari doubleblade is friggin braindead, im SURE there's something wrong with her AI... As for the others, Shadow is pretty decent, Snakebite is ok. The falcons are all fine too.

I call targets for my heros/hench, the shining blades seem to follow when I call.

I've often found that various "Allies" will not attack until I (and/or they) get within about shortbow range of a target. With my Paragon and Ranger, this is not a problem because the spear has shortbow range and I use a shortbow with my ranger. With other classes, I move to less-than-spellcasting range to start them attacking.