Grouping with Players or Henchmen!?!?!

Hi there,

okay, so when I first started Guild Wars, I always grouped with players. I did not even know Henchmen existed! Once I did learn about them, I still grouped with players because I thought to myself: "Why hire lower level henchmen when I can group with higher level players?"

So just yesterday, I wasn't able to find anyone to help me with a quest. So I decided to give the henchmen a try. I grouped with 3 henchmen. I was level 10 while they were all level 6. I thought I would die.

Hell no! I lived through the entire mission! Not only that, I found it much easier grouping with henchmen! I mean, when I clicked on a mob to attack it, my tank would attack the same target. My healer would heal us when necessary and never forget to do so. I gave up using a Mage since he would always cast Fire Storm at the wrong moment (Replaced with an Archer instead)

All in all, I got the same results as grouping with players, except they were much more competant!

Grouping with Henchmen did not seem to decrease the amount of XP I got per kill. All gold that was dropped was still seperated the same equal way as if I were grouped with players. I still looted dye and rare items every now and then as much as I was looting when grouped with players.

If grouping with Henchmen is just as good as grouping with players, and in most cases BETTER, why should I ever bother grouping with real players ever again?

- I die more often cause our main healer forgot to heal us!

- No one is assisting the main tank and attacking their own mobs!

- We had a full group, someone was too stupid to plan out their time and have to leave for real life reasons and ruin the whole party.

- We're taking breaks all the time cause one person needs to go to the bathroom, another one needs a cigarette break, another one is on the phone, etc.

- There's always this long ackward pause in between each battle where the main tank is always asking: "Ready?" and unless everyone answers back, he won't attack. Then the casters get impatient and start tanking themselves, thus killing off the entire group.

(sigh)

Please tell me grouping with henchmen has it's disadvantages!!! It doesn't seem to reduce my XP. It doesn't seem to reduce the chances of looting rare items! It doesn't seem to be bad whatsoever. It just seems better to rely on a computer AI to do missions rather than take the chances of grouping with idiot humans.

No offence, I've grouped with several great people. But there will always be times where you group with idiots and wish you never did to begin with.

i only go with my friends, or if i feel bored and need to tlak to sombody, but all ina ll people are idiots. oh afnby the way, later on meaning like 15-20 henchies start to look realy crappy.

It does have some disadvantages, but it depends on the mission in most cases. Some times human players are a better choice since you cant tell your henchies to "stay here a moment" and thier always following you. I cant even begin to tell you how many times i wish i could tell my henchmen to stay in one place so i could pull a limited number of MoB's back to that location (it's possible to pull still but it's more difficult). Not being able to get them to run like all get out when your overwhelmed is also a downside meaning if your the only survivor you have to zone to get them back to life if you've used your res signet already and that means having to fight the map again.

Basically they'll take a blunt beating to the head over turning tail and running when theres a chance to survive any day of the week. Stratigic retreats do have thier place in this game sometimes. Crossing swampish areas (hint cough hint) with mobs on the other side are a major downside as well (a certain mish comes to mind here).

In short, just like every other aspect of the game it can be situational.

when i cant find a group to join, that's when i form my own group with henchmen. they are pretty good. i completed the mission at Kryta with only henchmen.

u could mix human players and then add one healer henchmen to your party
that is what i always do

Madjik summed it up pretty well. Henchman are more competent *usually*, but in some situations they can ruin a mission just as well as any bad player. They usually are very good about focusing fire, but severly lack in the positioning, prioritizing, and any other strategic element.

Most missions are easier with henchman, just for the fact that you don't have to worry about teammates dropping out, and can control your strategy yourself without having to adapt to uncooperative teammates. Having said that, pick up groups are like playing the lottery. You can end up with a team that completely falls apart, or a team that makes henchman look truly useless. A good pick up team will complete a mission much quicker and easier than a group of henchies. Later on, you'll most likely come across a couple missions where you run into a few problems with henchies, when a decent PUG could've done just fine. Most of the time, though, henchman get the job done well, and make it much less of a gamble.

So far I have yet to find a mission that you cannot do with Henchmen (Inc all the ones we played in Beta). But you have to think about what henchmen you will need for each mission. Sometimes a fighter is great, other times he is going to get you all killed.
This is usually the problem with it comes to a party of real people. They act like every battle is the same. All go charging in, laying smackdown on anything they see! Then when they are all dead they blame the medic! lol!

If your going to use a lot of henchmen then you need to play part monk and have the spell to ressurect. Don't be afraid to run off and let your henchies die then come back at a later time and res them. Real players don't like it when you do this but your going to win missions with henchies if you do!

Also, if you find a few good players. Then don't worry about taking a healer henchie with you. They don't forget to heal and they can be a great support to any player healer in the party. If the real player monk is upset at you taking an NPC monk also then they are a fool.

Also don't knock the npc mage. There are many missions where firestorming everything in sight is a boon. But mix him with a fighter so that you keep the enemy at bay and then firestorm them.

The only major downside to npc's is that they will all attack your target. Sometimes that is vital but you lack the option to have more than 1 target a fight. So you need to pick your targets in each fight, that can be a learning experience all of it own!

i've normally grouped with henchmen because of the surprising number of idiots in your painfully created group. Though it's hard to pull with henchmen, it's flabbergasting how some people leveled to twenty running into every mob they see.

Heh, like i said its situational. All I can really say is if your gonna choose to group with people, try not to mess with PUG's, stick with friends and people you know for the most part unless your the type that likes frustration

Just remember that the henchies are not without thier own brand of it.

The henchmen have thier faults. Especially the warrior type. They agro anything in their path. Sometimes you can pass by a group or let them fight among themselves, but the warrior just likes to go in and get a piece of the action. For that reason I have grounded the warrior types until they imporve their behavior.

For my playstyle I find it easier to separete groups or beging the fight with a longbow. Sometimes the target is death before it reaches the group leaving the remaining mobs for a faster kill If I take a warrior type, he would usually run towards the target and get both groups instead of letting me separete the groups with the longbow pull.

Also will find that mr fighter runs off to attack a mob in within a certain distance

And ur healer henchie is prime bait every time

Most of my fights involve killing something that the monk girly is getting slapped by, mobs run past me to get to her - ignoring me and others

I like the henchmen. But I am an explorer most the time, so I don't really need people. If I come across my quests cool, if not oh well. I just take the henchmen because I know I can't survive alone, so I use them as fodder if need be, but the healer makes sure that they don't die. Everytime I group with someone, we all seem to die because there is that one moron that just runs far ahead and attacks a mob of 5 that are 4 levels higher than him... lol. Idiots.

Thats because some monsters - like players - kill the monks first, then spell casters. They can often leave the tanks until last. It only makes sense that they do this, as this is what your doing to them!

If you play a monk and take henchies and start the battle by laying down some nice healing, you will find your swarmed by everything and trying to heal yourself.
So if you take a monk npc and are a fighter, expect to be beating things off your monk, not the monk support healing you as you tank the enemy. - The mobs are not that stupid!

Yeah i dont mind actually that they go for her, i feel all brave and heroic rescuing a nice looking toon.

And yes very true although did come across a named mob being healed by shaman type guy who was in turn being healed by another shaman type guy who kept running in from outside the fight.

needless to say i only figured this one out when I was lying on the floor dead and i had the birdseye view of what was happening.

hehe -was good fun though fight lasted for ages...

hehehe aye, there is more than 1 fight where I am failing to bring down the mob for ages then suddenly notice that 2nd red dot is a healer hiding behind a tree

I hate to say this, but at least 70% of the people I've partied with can't complete a sentance without saying the classic words that make them look incompetant. "y r u w8ing" "plz rez me now" "wtf u suk". Need I say more? I find myself grouping with Henchmen more than half the time.

The only mission I didn't Henchmen was Thirsy River, and that took me about 20 tries for a party to actually listen to me and wait for the 2 minute marks where they ressurect. Instead it was "omg fuking hury up!"

/end mini rant
/slap incompetant morons

To all the guys who find other grpin with players a nightmare.

Grp together or

Grp with me - god knows i need some guidance out there. Im a noob but i do actually listen and would really appreciate the advice as its all new and sparkly to me at the moment.

Or create a guild i'd join, im good at taking directions!

Well all I can say is that I have a UK based guild (Guild tag is infact UK) and we have amazingly few members. This is due to the fact that soooo many players seem to be crazed suicidal maniacs that think everyone else in the party is there for their own personal entertainment - hehe!

And thats just PvE.

Don't even get me started on PvP!
The best I have heard yet is: 'I don't need to use a res-sig as they will not kill me!!!' Even if that were true, your not going to take 4 vs 1 and if we are all so nooob as to die before you, YOUR the one who needs the res-sig to bring us back!
And I know we all love those crazy suicide runners who come out of the starting gates, rush the enemy on their own, no matter what tactics are being drawn on the map. Then die 3 seconds into the battle and wonder why your not rushing to res them! lol!

I was brand new to Guild Wars and finally got invited to a co-op mish. I hit leave on the bottom thinking that would send me into mission. (Remember, I was BRAND NEW to the game). I sent a whisper to the leader of the mission and he calls me a "f---ing retard". I proceed to apologize and let him know I'm new to the game and trying to get used to the mechanics. He continues to belittle me with colorful language. So, the next 6 missions in a row I decide to use henchmen. None of them called me a "f---ing retard".

I have found good groups lately though. Yet, there is someone who always runs ahead after a fight to initiate another one when we're still down to half health and a quarter energy. I still can't figure that one out.

It really depends on who's in your group and how well they know their characters' attributes. I still prefer henchmen 85% of the time. But I'm still scarred from that name-calling I got.

Well i could start one im not bothered and we can all be noobs together if want?

I got enough cash and know where to go and what not

Take it with a grain of salt tuck. Dont matter what nobody else thinks of ya, ignore it since they are only proving that they are not worth playin with. I have a habbit of putting said people on my ignore list so I dont have to deal with 'em later on down the line.

When I do quests I always take henchmen.. it's easier, you have 1 quest to focus on and you do that one only.

In missions, I prefer players and the parties are pretty easy to get. Only once I got a party that I didn't like.. I got invited, took 5 minutes to start the mission because everyone just noticed their inventory was full.. then.. ohh the skills... enter the mission.. sorry guys, afk 3 minutes, i'm hungry... thristy need to go to WC.. come on.. it's been 20 minutes in that group and we fought 1 group only ! We finally finish the bonus objective.. and one of them just leave, he just wanted the bonus...

But 99% of the time, the parties I got are great

So in summary : Quest = henchman, Mission = players (with 1 or 2 henchman sometime)...

Henchmen are nice but stupid, on my E i'd always attack a group and I could usually take out the whole group myself, with humans I can tell them to attack the lone wolfs off to the side who might flank me or whatever, and all your problems are solved by playing with mature non idiots :P

- I die more often cause our main healer forgot to heal us!
Find someone mature and competent who either doesn't smoke or is old enough to smoke in his own house :P

- No one is assisting the main tank and attacking their own mobs!
Thats me but i'm more than capable

- We had a full group, someone was too stupid to plan out their time and have to leave for real life reasons and ruin the whole party.
Things happen, while it would be nice if it was avoidable I run into this quite often, a guild mate of mine(long time friend in other games) has kids who let the dog out on atleast a weekly basis, his son also does stupid things such as firing a crossbow bolt from a cheap bow through his hand and going off to shoot a shotgun off a moving motor cycle in the trees

- We're taking breaks all the time cause one person needs to go to the bathroom, another one needs a cigarette break, another one is on the phone, etc.
Get good planners and don't party with women having thier super happy fun time :P

- There's always this long ackward pause in between each battle where the main tank is always asking: "Ready?" and unless everyone answers back, he won't attack. Then the casters get impatient and start tanking themselves, thus killing off the entire group.
I solve this as well, I refuse to wait in most situations seeing as how I can take out most mobs by myself with my aoe spells and such, but even if I couldn't I'd rush in, standing around wastes time



all in all I suggest you find a better guild

sometimes i play with random people, and if they are mean to me i just be as annoying as possible back to them, and make them madder then i am, i was in one group the other day where someone was mad that i didnt know the way to the next town so he kept drawing arrows to every single enemy on the map(i was the tank) so i would get every enemy after me, and i was repeatedly called a noob, and lots of other names, so eventuallyi just walked behind him, and kept whispering him dumb questions, eveentually he quit, and then we were able to go on peacefully

ive found henchmen to be pretty stupid, its nice that they can all res, but if you die and theres more than two enemies left, forget it, they will throw themselves headlong into them until they are all laying beside you

my favorite way to play is with my guildmembers, and the people on my own and thier friend lists, that way we arent fighting all the time, and we dont call each other names for asking questions

I use the henchmen. Nothing wrong with it, much like there is nothing wrong with partying with real people outside of my guild. This does not mean I am in a bad guild. It means everyone is either busy doing something else, or not on at the hours I play.

I will say this much... the henchmen SEEM to me to get smarter as they go up in levels, as well as more powerful. The can say for sure that, like the 3rd lvl fighter tends to aggro and get stuck much more often than the lvl 6 guy.

Of course, being a healer, I trust NPCs more than most non-guild pick up groups, for the simple reason that WAY to many people just run up WAAAAY ahead of me, ESPECIALLY warriors, (seeing that I can heal well) and just start whacking everything in sight, end up dying, and THEN having the nerve to yell at me for not being able to heal them half way across the map .

And they wonder why it is hard to find a good healer


Jana

If you group with henchmen then yes your drops seem to be on par with having a group, but try to solo a mission that is a lil lower than you and you can handle it. You will notice a great increase over being grouped with henchmen or other PCs. In this case you get alllll the drops not just the ones that don't go to group members and imaginary group members....henchmen. I also wanted to comment to the fact that you can get your henchmen to run. When they see you take off they follow, but try to slow the mobs to keep them off of you, which is pretty smart. The warrior can also be used with pulling too...you just have to use your range and start to run right away. The henchmen follow and so does the mob.

I agree. SInce there really is no Death Penalty (you clear it completely by getting wiped out and / or heading back into any town)... always TRY to do a quest solo (or in the case of a full time non-damage healer like me grab just the fighter), then figure out how many more bodies you need if you run into major opposition along the way. Better in the long run of getting good drops this way.


Jana

I went as far as Yak's Bend with the Fighter and Healer henchmen and it was a bit of a tough slog. We got there but it took a while. I started hooking up with PUGs at that point and it has pretty much been smooth sailing since. But I've been lucky...the groups I've been with were mostly courteous, in it for fun, and patient. In fact, I've found that even rare loot drops will occasionally get shared around to characters who can use them when the owner does not need it. A good experience so far, all in all. Haven't played with the same person twice yet though so I'm looking forward to grouping with my new guild...