Shiverpeak Stragglers - now a kamikaze mission

Hello all;
Going through Tyria with a Warrior/Ranger this time, I came upon a "patched" mission that appears to be messed up: (it worked fine before)

This mission is(was) relatively simple; go out from Yak's Bend, find a missing party of Ascalon refugees, and return them to Yak's Bend safely.
The party is nearby, but it requires you fight into the area they are at.

All well and fine, and I reached them no problem, and their leader (forgot the woman's name) says, "We'll follow you."

No problem right? lead them back to Yak's Bend for 500xp...
Wrong.

It appears these stragglers now have a death wish:
They follow you until any enemy units appear on your map, then immediately hightail it to them in hopes of committing suicide ASAP.

To add a little comedy, they yell things like, "Help us!" "Oh no! It's the dwarves again!" "Save us!"

I even went back a second time, (after they had all earlier fallen on their swords..repeatedly...) cleared the entire radar area around where they are found, and then attempted to lead them back down the cleared path - with the same results - they went bolting off down a path I hadn't even explored yet - to find glorious oblivion at the hands of several ice ettins!
"I'll follow you." She says?
I'd rather gut her and her party myself.

Anyway, beware there may be missions out there that aren't intended to be completed, but rather provide some comedy relief!

Regards,

Talesin

Just finished that one 2 days ago with no major issues but a) I cleared the path to them so that we wouldn't have any issues and b) they have always been kamakizes. Any time they aggro anything the settlers always took off on me. Remember they don't go off of your aggro circle but rather their own which you can't see. The best solution though is step a. Clear the path to them and return the same way.

Yeah that quest took me a long time to finish because they love to run off and get in fights. It's still doable though, it's just really annoying.

They are crazy ... funny thing is the new quest just outside Lion's Arch have the opposite AI were they just stand there doing nothing, Mhelo is the only that actually goes around healing.

Best way is take the back road and clean the path, they sould be OK.

They've always done that in Stragglers, as long as I can remember. I really enjoy the shouts of "Save me!" as they bum rush the Stone Summit.

And I seriously think Devona and co. have some issues they aren't willing to discuss, between their complete inaction in the Lion's Arch quest (unless aggroed, I've actually seen Cynn defend herself) and their desire to traipse through a horde of about 20+ hydras just to LOOK AT A BIG ROCK. ('Into the Unknown', quest from Augury Rock)

But hey, how can a group with a Ranger who looks like the white Mr. T ever do wrong?

Same thing happened to me in the Stragglers quest. I cleared the path and took the same way back. The stragglers still managed to find enemies. "He'p meh! Oh noes!," etc. I basically ignored them and looked after my henchmen, marching steadily back to base. Quest completed.

I couldn't stop laughing at the Augury Rock thing. This is IT?? LOL. On the way there, I stood back and enjoyed myself as they calmly nuked the crap out of the hydras. Now those guys would make good henchmen.

*SPOILER*

They actually will be later:P

_Zexion

Works for me, unless they all transform into Alesia clones.

That would be cool. Especially as I'm really trying to immerse myself into the story and not get into a disconnect from it.

Yeah, I just got there, and I love having them as henches. When I saw them there, it forced me to do the mission with them right away, even though I almost never use henches. I lost almost right away because the stupid guy died, but it was still fun to have them on my team.

(By the way, yes that was intentional vagueness, I'm trying not to spoil anything).

I Just remember doing that quest just the find them under attack before I even got there, By the time I was in range to save them they where already dead. Rezone and try again. (Happened a few times before I got lucky)

I had that same problem numerous times. And I've had that problem with many NPCs in the game. Some of the pathing/spawn points seem poorly planned. Randomness isn't always your friend I suppose.

kinda like Seeking The Seer, eh? Took quite a few zone-outs before the Avicara and Stone Summit left Korg alone.. (or is it Krog..) haha.

"Oh no! It's the Dwarves again! Please save us" (rushes headlong into the fray)

Having a monk who knows the key person in the mission and players who can do for a short while without heavy monk support helps...

Erm, did this quest lastnight, it is easy, simple tactic.
You have to clear a route to get to them.
ONCE you have them return via the safest route, i.e. the Path you have cleared.

If you mean the ice elemental and the 2 dwarfs that spawn near to their location, well there are 3 routes to them , some spawn the ice elemental / dwarfs before you have time to get to refugees and some don't. If the refugees get into a fight you have failed, basically it has always been like that. If you don't do it first time, try a different route to them.

I have done this with henchies every time, and henchies will not a, protect the refugees and b, they will most certainly never get healed by the henchman healer.

since playing the monk, I've not failed, even if they start fighting before you get there

you just have to spam heal elsa

I did it this morning with no problems. In fact, I wasn't even intending on doing this quest, but I had it in my log so I thought I might as well. We cleared the path and Elsa just stayed with us the whole way back, so yeah, I don't know why she'd run off.

I always got to them and used them as extra members of the party, they really helped me clear out the area @_@.

From some of the descriptions given above it sounds like their aggressive radius is set way too high. I have no idea of the data format the imps use, but I'd imagine there's a variable for that and someone might have typoed and change a (for example) 5 to a 50 or something.

Probably something that should be bug reported if it happens again, so some imp can check the quest's variables.