Stronger henchies please!

I am playing this game since christmas, and I am kinda stuck in the middle of the game. As lvl20 healer, it is very easy to form a team, but very difficult to keep them alive. There is no communication whatsoever, and everybody is in a hurry. Talking strategy seems to be a waste of time, and tanks (warriors) act like scouts. They skip 5 or 6 monsters, just to attack the one at the rear of the pack (Probably the caster of the pack). When I want to heal him/her, I end up running to the center of all the monsters, which is a very bad place to be for a healer. I waste time to tell the tank that s/he has gone to far, and in the mean time I neglect my other team mates while typing and keeping myself alive. I notice that allot of players run around with the cheapest armour possible. I know we can't all have fissure, but please buy the best you can get. You'll be doing yourself, and the healer, a big favour. Mesmers, necromancers, elementalists and Rangers, please don't tank. I can't keep you alive! In short, mission failed, because we all die.
Programmers, please make the hench men and women stronger, so I don't have to team up with foolish strangers. At least give the Henchies better armour and more life. I have done many quests with them, and it just need a little tweaking. Not much, just a little, so that I can even descent with them. It is hard to form friendships for parties in town, because of all the trade spammers.
I have noticed that Fractions henchmen are much stronger, and look cool too.
I am tired of teaming up with pugs who think they are invincible, and blame the healer when they aren't.

The Canthan henchies are dumber than a box of abyssal turd. Playing a monk with henchies is hell. Henchies are too stupid to focus fire unless I target an enemy with an attack, but then of course all enemies aggro my monk.

At least, before, I could aggro and run behind the henchies, and henchies would stay and tank, but NOW henchies just follow you within 1 foot range, and will just run back with you. It is completely impossible to get the tanks in your henchie group to stay in front while you can stay back and heal.

I feel your pain! Playing as a Monk, I've had my share of morons in PUGs trying too take on the world and expecting me to keep them alive. What I do when I see a player charging in where he/she shouldn't be, I drop them to the bottom of the priority list for heals. I'd rather keep the other 6 alive, as it helps the group's chances of getting though the mission/quest. I wait until the battle is over and then I explain to the idiot what he's doing wrong and why he got himself killed. I will also warn him/her that if they do it again, I won't even TRY to heal him/her. A tank going after casters in PvP may be all well and good, but for PvE it doesn't work well at all.

When I used henchies, I took Alesia and loaded myself up with smiting prayers skills. It seems to work better that way.

Lol, monks are always the primary target. I Factions you walk around with 3 hench on front and 3 behind you. Seems very logical to me.
Ít should be possible to call a target for the henchies, so the healer can stay behind them to heal.

I don't think they have to get stronger, just a little more intelligent
They should give us more control over the henchies.
If I call a target and get attacked I try to move my ELE away and take some steps back, but ALL henchmen stop attacking the target I called and follow my movements like an Olympic team for synchronous dance.
I am running away with 10 hitpoints left, but none of my two healers is able to heal me, as I am running away (but still in the healers range) and they are following me. So I have two choices: Keep running without getting healed, or I stop running with my 10 hitpoints left and two lvl 28 warriors on my neck and start praying for some blue numbers to appear above my character.

The Canthan henchies are great. Anyone saying that they are 'dumb' doesn't take henchies in Tyria. Some of their builds might be a bit mangled, but otherwise most of them are all you could ask for.

You just have to get the right henchie combination.

And henchies are great in Tyria, too. You can do -anything- with them except UW and FoW, for which you are forbidden.

Some minor AI tweaks would be great, though.

That is all I am asking. Orion is very fast casting Fire attunement, but his meteor storm always comes after battle. Alesia is a good decoy, but sux at healing. She simply doesn't stay on the back.
The ranger constantly panicks, and Little Tom doesn't know when to retreat
I should be able to call for targets, so I'll never become the mobs primary target by doing something stupid as attacking (As healer).

=>I don't think they have to get stronger, just a little more intelligent <=

I would like just more control.

I'd just like to see these commands:
-Stop
-Atttack
-Wait here

And a way to individually set targets for each henchie to go after.

And maybe have them get an offhand item? The casters anyways. I mean warriors have shields but the casters only have starter rods, wtf is that?

From the new Canthan henchies, I can safely say only Guardian and Avicara are decent/smart/good. The monks... well lets say Alesia and Lina look like gods compared to them.

Boy... I hope they don't remove the large chicken.

You can call targets if you want. Instead of using Control+Space to call, press Shift+Control+Space. If you are close enough to a mob (still outside aggro-range), the henchies will start attacking, and thus taking the aggro for you. This works pretty well if you are playing as a Monk, at least for me it does .

Cantha monks are about as smart as a stick. They stand in the middle of the mobs and use *rebirth*. There you are, surrounded by mobs with no health or energy. Real intelligent.

The other henchies are decent, and I really like that large chicken.

The avicara henchman is awesome... shields up, charge, etc.

The monks however... if mhenlo was the bottom of the monk class, these are the dropouts.

The avicara, illusion, and a few other henchies are devastating however.

I'm going to try a MM necro next, at least in Kyrta my minnions are smarter than henchies.

I'll try that, thank you
Of all characters, I like being a monk the most. I'll report back how it works.

It works, when i first went through the game with my monk thats how i beat all the missions. I used henchies then sent them in first, works easily.

I never had a problem using henchies with my monk. It's fairly easy as long as you can heal and command them decently.

Orion has Meteor Shower now?

OMG OMG XD

Sorry, never played an elemental. Orion has these fiery thingies falling out of the sky. It only works if the fight drags on, otherwise he's always to late.

I have tried the Shift+Control+Space, and it worked
Now all they need is a little more armour and life, so they live a little bit longer. Making them lure would be nice too. At least they imediately start running when I resurect. That is a good thing

Fire Storm

They need to make the healer henchies smarter too, they rez during combat, who does that?! Especially right in the middle of a group. I know as a monk, I used to rez during battle, I got yelled at alot for it, for some reason, even when I was quick to get them back to full health. The henchies need to concentrate on keeping people alive, not rez'n, there's time after combat for that

I've noticed a little bit since the update that the henches act a little different now than before, in some cases they were outlasting me, but that doesn't say much (this is only in areas, not missions or anything). When they fight by themselves without me (when I'm dead) they seem to take on different characteristics.

I still don't understand what is going on with Alesia and Lina (or Mhenlo and Lina) combinations sometimes. Alesia runs right over to where the mobs are and starts healing everyone while she's getting pounded on (not like she's using symbol of wrath or anything), and as soon as somebody dies, it's ressurect time, bad idea. Because then both healer and protector are dead, then the tanks or me if I decided not to run. There are some missions where the bonus is completely un-do-able because of the way henches act and really don't seem to be infused, example iron mines. As soon as it comes to a boss as well sometimes, forget about it. Also, Alesia will not ressurect anyone without Lina, or Mhenlo without Lina and vice versa. This is extremely annoying in those rebirth type situation where you can't get close, but you have a couple of henchies that could be ressurected to help fight to the rest. I agree also with the armor situation, their health bars look like a graphic equalizer, and if I was playing my monk I would be going crazy. I try not to take to the protector hench anymore due to the problems with ressurect, and how they sometimes act like they can't ressurect without the other. Then once they are together it's like watching Lavern and Shirley. They both try to ressurect one person, one beats the other to it, then they start once again on the same person. So dumb. Please make the henches a little more smarter and stronger armor. I agree. I think the way they are setup at the moment, is to ressurect and protect once ressurected in a battle situation, not a passive one. So, if one fails at ressurecting, the other still has a chance. But still, it's bad. Lina always seems to be the one left alive too sometimes, which is pointless, Lina goes to ressurect and you have to sit there and wait till she's dead to respawn.

Better henches please

That is average pug behaviour. Some people, while seeing that I am really strugling to keep the remaining fighters alive, still spam that I should resurect them. At least henchies never beg to be resurected. They lay there patiently, knowing that I am busy
My henchie combination never resurect, but than again I never take Alesia. Alesia is more a damsel in distress, when I tag her along with my (ex)warrior. She should be way back on max healing range, but instead does her best to make the monsters attack her. Very often I have to stop fighting my own battle, to help the healer hench as fast as possible.

My henches so far have been great. I use the Zurzick protect hench and the new Healer hench. They seem to work just fine. I noticed that you have to cal targets for focused fire now, among other things. They made the henches smarter, I think, than they were before. I've never seen them res in battle, and I've suicided myself before in a mob, to see how the henches work, and they won just fine.

Maybe I'm just lucky....

The henchies are a little easier to control if you have 2 real people in your party. On can hold them back by moving back and forth and the other can attack and pull targets. But for the most part you are correct. We should be able to control them better and change their skills and make sure they have eight.

I just wish the healer henchies would kite. I can't even begin to count the number of times they've died on me because they just sit there and let two or three warrior enemies beat on them.

I love the domination henchie in Factions, though. We're finally getting one that does interrupts.