Lies About Solo Play

Umm, isn't this a contradiction. If you've gone throught the whole game with NOTHING but henchmen, how do you know they're any better or worse than bad parties.

Try this with the henchies Navaros...don't click on an enemy. Clicking on an enemy will often make your henchmen run to attack it.

If you are still clicked on an enemy after you rez the henchmen will run after it immediately.

Learn the AI of the henchmen and you will have better luck with them.

Don't call people liars. I have seen numerous screen shots from various people on this forum who walk the walk, hence they can talk the talk. Just because you haven't taken the time to *understand* the AI of the henchmen doesn't mean they didn't.

Take a look at that picture above of a player, 7 hencies and a level 30 lich thing. The lich thing is half dead. The party as a whole is barely damaged. Time to apologize for calling people liars.

I'm an aeromancer. No nukes here. The only healing spell I have is healing breeze.

Some people have shown that they've suceeded with henchies, and arent' nukers at all... One person defeated Glint with henchmen and he was a warrior! People have also posted up screenshots as well.

I also think that some these people aren't liars. I don't think they're 'fans' of game that think that everyone's wrong.

Some people have had bad and good experiences with henchmen. There were a few times I've died, and all the NPCs rushed to their deaths. Henchmen are worse than players, because they're limited to their AI.

However, all I do, is just shrug it off, take a deep breath, and try again. It makes you learn a few things about how to use them, how to avoid certain mobs, and how to manage a situation.

"understand" does not appear to be the most precise word to describe the techniques now being described. seems to me more like, and i suppose i can add this as a (3.) on my list above:

3. search website forums for obscure, convulted keyboard tricks that allow you to use complex micro-management to compensate for the henchmen's terrible AI by making them run in erratic ways, although at least in the proper general direction for once

i admit i have not employed such obscure tricks so far. however, none of these mentioned things in any way diminishes how horrible the henchman AI is. and the average joe gamer probably would not realize that such tricks exist, either.

[QUOTE=Hell Marauder]Let's not flame people who don't know how to use henchmen well. It took me a bit of practice to learn how to manage them too. The most important key is to lure the enemies, click on the enemy you intend to draw AND RIGHT AWAY slowly back up by hitting 's' key, QUOTE]

what i do (and it has not been mentioned on a forum yet ) is to use a longbow which has more distance than a casting.

WHILE the arrow is still in the air i am already running away (i am an elemonk) and the henchies that were charging in suddenly turn to follow me and draw a minimal number of enemy which i then ambush

if there are too many following i keep going until some of the red dots give up and then wait for the enemy to catch up and be killed

I *am* Joe Casual Gamer! I have yet to reach 20. I didn't play the beta. I play other games more than this one. I have learned the basics of how the AI on the henchmen work.

Learning curve isn't that steep Navaros.

it's not a matter of "steep" so much as it is a matter of not knowing that such tricks exist

certainly in the manual, it does not list such things

this is not a flame

all i did was watch the disasters the henchmen caused and simply planned on how to avoid them.

example of the fighter problem

he will charge in so i leave him home and take the mage or archer in his place which gives me an all distance party which is easier to handle

or if i want some ambush bait i can use him to stand and be attacked while the rest of my henchmen hit from a distance and if he is killed he at least held them in one place for the AOE attacks to thin them out and i can still run if needed then i can come back and rez him

....I must be awesome at being a warrior. No problems with henchmen here. How long until this flame thread gets closed?

Someone mind explaining how to beat the mursaat/jades with henchies? They aren't infused meaning that spectral agony kills them extremely quickly and when half your team has -10 degen and is taking over 120 dps just from that spell alone it is rather hard to complete the mission. I've done everything else with them because they actually focus fire and aren't rambos (to some extent) but the 3-4 mursaat missions I didn't even bother after I saw how fast they dropped.

It's not 100% reliable, but if you can manage to pull only one or two of the Muraast, the two Monk Henchmen can nearly do a good job of keeping someone alive with Spectral Agony on them. But again, that's only if you can get one or two of them pulled, otherwise it's guaranteed death for them lol.

Poor Navaros!

Rather than learning how to play a wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable game he seems stuck in some rut wher all he can do is spew vitriol and untruth.

I do understand where he is coming from however. At one point a couple of weeks ago I was not understanding things either. But unlike Nav, I just through up my arms in frustration and went off to play WoW for awhile. A few days later though I came back here determined to give GW another try. I looked at things differently, tried new things, understood the working of the game better, and now I am HOOKED!

So, Navaros, a bit of advice if you are game to take it. Take a break from the game. Give it a rest and do something else for awhile. Then, when you are ready to give GW a fair chance come on back with a new perspective and see if the game isn't more enjoyable for you.

Sometimes a little separation from what frustrates you can make a world of difference. Best of luck to you!

I solo'd until level nine. Then I wised up and started using henchmen. I had bad experiences with PC parties at the beginning. Then I wised up and started being more careful about which parties I joined. (A few choice whispers can reveal a lot about a player.) I guess my advice would be: don't give up, wise up!

Dalia

I didn't even know the henchmen were there until AFTER I nearly quit the game for being too difficult . Going straight outside with no backup and basic weapons at only level 7 the second you enter post-searing Ascalon isn't such a good idea if you've never played the game before .

I guess that's what you get for only reading game instruction manuals after finishing the game...

Hardly. I would never do anything that would cause more people to decide to play this game. The fact that GW includes PvP while there is no monthly fee already attracts too much gutter trash as it is.

But that rant aside,I have completed the entire game with nothing but henchman (Elona Reach was a b****!). They can be a bit buggy at times (ie: getting stuck in terrain, running through the terrain to their previous death spot post rez, etc), but I find them to be far more tolerable than their PC counterparts.

My Henchies never tell other players in the group to "Suck A c***!", They don't draw boobies on the map, they don't drop group out of the blue, and they all have, know, and fullfill their inteded roles.

That and well...Mhenlo is a hottie.

Lol. In another thread you are ranting how bad the other players are in GW. Now you can't get the henchmen to work with you either. You crack me up. It's not you bro. Really, *cough*, it's not.

My tips for working with henchmen:

1) Map the "Q" key to "autorun"
2) Map the "E" key to "turn around"
3) Observe mob pack roaming behavior in the area, and be patient until you're not going to get flanked/back-stabbed/surprised by additional packs of mobs
4) Press "Tab" or "C" to get the most dangerous mob in your target "pack" selected (healer, nuker, etc.)
5) Inch forward until your "aggro circle" on the map touches a mob
6) Hit "E", then "Q" and run a ways back
7) When the incoming mobs are in a "safe" area to kill them, hit CTRL-SPACE to sic the henchies on the same target
8) Do your "class" thing (mesmerise, heal, hack, shoot, nuke, etc.)
9) Press "C" and CTRL-SPACE until your "pack" of mobs is dead
10) Pick up loot
11) Rinse, repeat
12) Press "N" and add "Becca Bellows" to your friends list. If you don't suck, she might enjoy grouping with you.

One of the things I did during the alpha was make sure that it was possible for a good player to solo with henchmen in the later areas of the game- I managed to clear the entire southern shiverpeaks with nothing but henchmen. I wasn't playing an elementalist for any of it- mostly with a necro which I changed between minions and hexes depending on what I felt like playing at the time. This includes areas like Ice Floe and Thunderhead Keep, with large numbers of Mursaat and other nasty enemies.

It's not always easy, and you're not likely to be able to do everything without dying a couple times(especially in a couple EA's with very nasty hordes- 2-3x any group size you might see in a mission). No, you won't be able to go completely solo through areas balanced for 8 level 20 characters, and you'll have an extremely hard time in many other areas earlier in the game if you try to go without henchmen. However, I have yet to see a mission that can't be completed with henchmen, or an explorable area that can't be cleared with henchmen, given some persistance, patience, and strategy.

Hm...why would you play an Online RPG without other players...That's what offline RPGs are for?

Yes, on multiplayer games I want to play with other players. Henchmen are just there to fill up slots and bring as cannon fodder if you need to explore an area alone.

I bet I could finish missions with only henchmen, and I actually killed that guy by the wizard tower (south of Kryta by the floating tower, wassisname) with only henchmen after hours of trying to get a decent party together. But they didn't talk or anything... so it was rather boring. I'll play with the AI in other games. In multiplayer games I prefer to actually play with other people.