Dunham and Claude

There should really be a FAQ about hench, because they are the less stressful way of playing and I choose them above pugs 90% of the time.
What do Dunham (Enchanter) and Claud (Cultist) do? I usually just tag them along, because they lessen the chance that I'm attacked. I am currently in Maguuma Jungle. I know that later in the game Claude starts casting Well on corpses, but in Maguuma he is just to low lvl. I don't think that hench are supposed to be just decoys. Dunham casts Distortion, but is that all?

I would point you to guildwiki, if it wasn't down at the moment. The skill lists for the henches are quite complete there, I think.

Claude likes to put stress on the healers by spamming Blood Ritual whenever possible (only time he doesn't do this is when you actually need energy). I've even witnessed him sacrificing himself to death once. Other than that he deals a little damage with Deathly Swarm. He's always my last choice.

I find Dunham actually quite useful, as he casts Empathy and on occation he can tank quite well, using Distortion. From Dragon's Lair on iirc he has Crippling Anguish instead of Imagined Burden. And yes, he does divert a lot of enemy attention from the monks.

I think Alesia is a much better decoy, as she tend to run around like mad, randomly spamming heals and Reversal of Fortune on herself.
Claude is my last choice too. Actually, I choose Alesia over him, though I am playing healer Mo/Ra at that moment.

Dunham is da man he saved my ass lots of times (on accident ofcourse)
His skills could have been better but he is a nice guy once you get to know him.
And about Claude he gives you a blood ritual from time to time and ofcourse heals the enemy with Grenths Balance.

*drinks some coffee*

For the longest time, I have always had a spot in my party for Claude/Eve.

Reason: Blood Ritual. With these guys battery necroing you, and your healers, you will rarely run out of energy. It is usually triggered when your energy bar drops down to 10 or less.

Dunham amuses me, because as far as I know, he's the only hench who will aggro friendlies on the map... namely warthogs. He apparently has some terrible and deep-seated fear of them, because whenever the friendly little guys wander too close he throws an Empathy up on them. Self-fullfilling prophecy? I'd say so.

I bring Dunham along when I have the chance, mostly because then I have an excuse to not bring along certain mesmer skills. I let him cast Empathy, Crippling Anguish and Drain Enchantment, leaving me free slots to drop in different spells than his.

And I can corroborate what Jenosavel said ... Dunham does attack random friendlies for no reason. I've seen him Empathy lynxes and warthogs just out of the blue.

Lynxes and warthogs deserve what they get. Always running around setting off traps prematurely and leaving little presents on the lawn that of course I step in with my nice clean Knight's boots. Vermin I tell ya vermin.

I do love Claude though. Spam your energy and he'll hit you with BR. Good looking out there Claude.

Useally grab both fighter/brawler, heal/prot, mage than the cultilist depending if I am a caster profession.

Ditto.

Claude can be a decent battery. I always take him when I'm playing a caster. Also, he casts Deathly Swarm which helps out, too. I'm not sure what else he does. I rarely take Dunham.

lol. I just saw this over the weekend in Dragon's Lair. We were in the first section where you're constantly losing health. He died, and when Lina rezzed him, he cast something and died again. Hilarious.

My preferred group is Stefan, Little Thom, Alesia, Reyna, and Claude (for a party of six). I rarely take Orion since he doesn't help much, IMO, and tends to die often. Though when the party is bumped to eight, I add him and Lina.

Reyna seems to be the hardiest--if a disaster happens, she's often the last one standing. Even when I'm playing my ranger, I take her. When out with all henchies, Alesia tends to stick near the human player, I've noticed.

there is a guide to henchies ill get you all the link in a min

Not true actually.

Anet has done a pretty good job of picking skills for the henchies that interfere with player builds as little as possible. I know as a MM it would really stink to have the necro henchie using corpses, yet it is nice to have them for the energy boosts.

It was nice in the Factions preview to have a henchie interrupter archer, I hope they remain in the game. It was cool to have multiple rangers to choose from actually.

Dunham doesn't do much at all. Most of the time, he spams distortion, even if he isn't being attcked. Sometimes, if you're lucky, he may just throw up an empathy on a caster mob. In extreme cases, if he hasn't drained his energy to all heck with distortion, he may just cast crippling anguish. Dunham is the reason why people think mesmers are worthless IMO.

Claude will BR you which is always nice. Other than that, I think he uses deathly swarm and occasionally grenth's balance. The BR is the only thing that really matters

That's the squad I take also. 3 physical fighters, a healer and a battery for the healer and me.

Claude is actually a really good hench just because of his spamming of Blood Ritual. He KNOWS when party members are low on energy, and only casts BR when you are very low. Apparently he already has the much desired 'party-energy readout'.

Take a party to a difficult area and see how long your hench healers last with and without Claude. He makes a big difference, endurance-wise.

It's true. There's just that unfortunate side effect of the warriors thus being the first ones to get a BR often times. If you're unlucky, his quick run to the front lines to sac will get him killed fast; however, he still manages to be useful even with those suicidal tendancies.

Claude is definitely useful... but just imagine what you are going to do in Cantha O.O.

Sooooooo many henchmen in some areas. Its insane.

Claude is... special. I recently did Defend Denravi with a couple of guildies. We had a warrior, ranger, mesmer, a monk (me), Claude and Reyna. The plan was for the warrior to catch and hold aggro while the rest of us killed stuff from a distance. Claude was right up front with our warrior, casting Blood Ritual on her. Rather than say, me, the monk.

._.

Oh, Claude <3

I never take Cynn/Orion anymore because they still carry Firestorm. Dear Anet: please please please PLEASE take Firestorm away from them. Please. I'm begging you here. I'd like to take Cynn a long because she's a fairly solid damage-dealer, but I can't, because her damn Firestorm will make the enemies run every which way.

I love Claude, only because he carries Blood Ritual.

I always take Claude or Eve, and not just cause I have a giant cardboard cutout of Eve in my room that I got from some store >_>

Dunham isn't too bad. I know he spams empathy and illusioned burden/crippling anguish (unfortunately one is Domination and the other Illusion, meaning neither is very strong), and of course he's permanently Distortion'd.

Claude, yes, he does keep the team with energy quite well. You can signal to him to give you an energy fix by clicking a spell you've not got energy to cast - that'll usually trigger a blood rit from Claude.

Their downsides are that either he or Dunham are always the first to die, but as they're basically support it doesn't hurt too much.

Reyna is always my last choice, but she's not bad either. Like someone said, she's usually last woman standing, presumably thanks to Troll Unguent, and I *think* she do decent damage with those Ignite Arrow shots. I'm also pretty sure she's got some interrupt, although she does so way too rarely. The interrupt hench will be everyones darling in Factions.

A story from yesterday... I was going through Sanctum Cay with a new avatar, and died in the final battle. The ship surfaced, the henches kept fighting, and died, one by one. Eventually only Reyna was left, and I was watching in what I knew was a vain hope that she'd rez me so I could run aboard. I knew of course that she wouldn't, she'd fight until she died and the mission would fail. At best she might use her rez-sig on Alesia, who'd then die trying to hard-rez Dunham.

Then, out of the blue, she rezzes me. I run aboard. Mission accomplished!