Henchmen Tips

I am playing a E/Mo and so far am only level 11. I am wondering what would be the best henchmen to take that would best complement my profession. I usually just take the Mo, but when I take a full group I choose Mo, W, and E.

Also I am wondering how do I get the warrior to attack first so that he can be tanking most of the damage and so that the mobs don't run around loose as much.

Any other tips would really help as well, ty.

You really won't get a henchman warrior to tank for you. They will follow your lead, attacking what you attack for the most part. Try ctrl+space and shift+space to see how they work for you (target calling).

GW is the only "mmo" I've played, but have heard it said that there is no tanking here like other games. So get used to it.

On your radar there are some hero flags. You can pin your hero warrior flag into the group of enemys, hope he survives a few seconds and run after

Always go with a full group. In your case, the War and Monk should generally always accompany you, and then one of the others.

As has been mentioned above, there is no traditional aggro system like there is in other games. When it comes to henchmen, forget about them holding aggro altogether. Melee henchmen have bad AI and tend to run around a lot. However, once you get close to a mob you can press ctrl-space to call the foe and send the henchmen in first. It's the next best thing.

You can't do this with henchmen. You can only flag your henchmen as a whole, not individually.

edit: boo Marty!

First of all: each area of the game is designed for a full team of players, therefore you should always try to take the full team when you can, this will make the area easier for your team to complete.

The is no way to control individual henchmen positions, you have a henchmen flag but this will move all the henchmen in your party to the flagged location. This means you cannot send a Warrior henchmen into a fight without also sending the Monk and Elementalist henchmen in after him.

Which henchmen you take doesn't really matter a great deal at your stage of the game, as you play and learn more about what works and what doesn't you'll get a better idea of which henchmen to select.

Warrior Henchmen (and heroes to some extent) are not very good at positioning, they will switch targets and therefore easily lose their effectiveness.
Monk Henchmen are ok and will keep your red bars up as long as you control your aggro sensibly.
Elementalist henchmen often carry a lot of Area of Effect (AoE) spells so are good if you can bunch up the enemy.
Mesmer henchmen are useful for shutting down enemies particularly casters.

If you put the names of the henchmen into the wiki then you can see what skills they have and which skills will complement your build.

hmmm actually, I think we mostly take what we need, like a healer at least, a warrior and the rest depends on what you think you like to have. I always likes having a mage around or a disruptor. Sometimes, when I play my ranger, I have another ranger hench or when I play elementalist, i go for another elementalist so that it deals double damage. It really depends on your own play style.

If you do not have NF or EotN, you do not get heroes. With heroes, you can station them or get them to charge and attack before you etc.

Alternatively, to get the henchies to attack you can always pull with a bow. Station them, run up to the mob, pull them and run back to yr henchies and they will fight before you do.

On getting Warrior henchmen to attack first;
If you stand and flag your henchmen just a very small tad outside the aggro bubble for a mob, choose the closest enemy in the mob and call the target (ctrl+space), even if you don't move to attack it yourself and stay put, your warrior henchmen will run off to attack them and be the first to get their attention (however if you start moving backwards, the warrior will turn tail and try to run even after getting aggro thinking you are attempting to flee from the fight, so keep that in mind).

But as mentioned neither hench or hero Warriors can be used to tank really because no matter how many heals or protective chants or shouts you throw on them, once they start taking heavy damage or damage from multiple attackers, they will try to kite - letting the enemies they were supposed to be tanking slip through to your backline. So when playing wth hench/hero, if you want a tank, you'll need to do it yourself (though as an Elementalist, using Earth Magic you are capable of this in many areas).