Henchman AI Behavior Issues

Hmmm, with the PvE Tombs Monks, the only frustration I have with them is double casting the same spell on the same person and running off to rez. I would assume they have the same AI as Alesia/Mhenlo?

I do feel they're more useful than fodder and less useful than decent GW player. It's sad, but they're probably more useful than what I feel to be the average GW player. Henchmen take a certain skill to use, just like setting up your skillbar and developing new builds. You have to learn that to pull with henchmen, you don't want to attack and how far you need to pull back with them. How to get them to step out of AoE spells more effectively. And you have to setup your skill bar with them in mind.

Since GW claims they read these forums, we could suggest an upgrade skillset for the henchmen, as well as AI improvements (such as not casting healing touch on anyone but yourself, at least I always use it as a self heal only). Do all of the henchmen even have elites? The monk and warriors do, I really don't know about the others.

For the necro & mesmer henchies, adding the AI to target different mobs and spread multiple hexes would be beneficial. Perhaps give the ranger the ability to use apply poison and cycle through the nearby mobs poisoning them all? The ele has some nice nuking ability, but I'm torn between removing firestorm or not from them. Perhaps switch it with meteor shower? Changing the warrior elite to something other than charge? 100 blades/Eviscerate, Glads defense or I think someone even suggested using a few attack skills & Flourish (don't those annoying bird people do this?). Perhaps giving the necro spells like well of blood/power, additional hexes and maybe even Spiteful Spirit? I don't know mesmers very well, though some interupting ability would be nice. I am about sick of being hit by multiple interrupts in Tombs And of course, the double healing/ressing problem that appears if you have both healers, they should be bright enough to recognize what the other is doing. Perhaps add in heal party?

They take their fair share, just like a human player. How often do human players do what you want? How often do they even listen?

meh. Henchies aren't great, but they don't suck either. I think anet would like to make them a second choice to playing with other people and used mostly for filler slots. I somewhat agree. As it stands it's better to play through the whole game using nothing but henchies and never have to say a word in local chat. But until there's some real consequence for being an asshat to your own teammates, that's not likely to change.

And since the game is supposed to be about skill, I don't mind having it take some skill to control henchies. I think they're pretty good right now if you've got a good mix of people who want them better and people who think they're fine/too strong. If a person can beat every mission, bonus and probably quest with no live teammates, then I don't see henchies as being too underpowered.

This has more to do with the cast time than anything. Many eles do the same. If you're going to do something about this, you'd have to script him to not cast if an opponent's health is down around 10% or less, or at a specific # of health. This might be unfortunate, though, if you end up in a situation where someone's equally matched with, say, a monk boss who's healing exactly as much damage as is being put on him, or if you get down to that 40 health and he hits Aura of Faith + Mark of Protection. In that situation, you'd be cussing at Orion for not casting.

Resurrection duplicity and running-into-aggro-to-rez must both be addressed. The latter will be more difficult to do satisfactorily, as sometimes you will need the henchie to get in there. But the henchies don't need to stand on the body to rez....

Yesyesyesyesyes. Someone also mentioned lava and poison. Of course, we don't want them to react as erratically as the beasties are currently doing. Warriors, for example, should stay on the target regardless of aggro. Casters and rangers need to know how to step aside, and get back to their original battleplan outside the AoE.

This is what's making the enemy pattern so erratic. The henchies need to remember not to step back into the area, or sidestep it to achieve the original objective. In other words, they need to detect the area of effect, not react afterward to an AoE-specific type of damage that's hitting them.

They're already overpowered, though, unless you're unsure of what you're doing or not used to taking henchies. We don't want them to make things too easy. It's already more practical to take henchies much of the time, rather than other players. So be careful with trading up skills.

My only other comment not yet stated, albeit with reservations (as I just said, I don't want the henchies to make things too easy):

I'm elated that Eve brings Blood Ritual, but she's erratic with it. Perhaps a more intuitive use of it, or having her use it on the player if they ping their energy might help. Of course, doing so might spoil us rotten....

Has anyone else noticed a change in henchie behaviour since the last couple of updates? My casters used to be able to briefly break from a fight and run to a safe distance, without the henchies following. But now, the instant the caster runs, the henchies turn and run, too. It's very annoying. I'd love a set of basic commands to issue to henchies, like "stay on target" or "stay here". Just basic, nothing fancy, that would make them so much more useful. ("Get out of the damn swamp, idiot!" would be useful, too. So would, "Healers, don't rez until all opponents are dead")

I also had a weird thing happen to me on Saturday. I was out with henchies and my monk. We were waging a pitched battle and were down to one opponent, who was quite a distance from me. All of a sudden, I'm taking major damage. WTF? Who the heck is hitting me? There's only one red dot on the mini-map, and it's way over there. I turn around, and Little Thom is whacking the crap out of me. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed. He stopped the moment that last opponent dropped, and it hasn't happened again.

Stefan has balanced stance in ascalon, he uses it throughout the game but doesn't bring it to augury, where hydra meteors rain down constantly, someone explain that to me please.

I don't seem to have that problem. Call target for henchies (ctrl+shift+space), switch your target (Tab), use number keys to cast at other target and henchies will stay on original target, unless you actually attack (spacebar).

Thanks. I'll give it a try.