Have the hench gotten worse?

Has anyone else noticed a drop in henchie competence or is it just me? It seems to me, particularly with the Interrupt henchie, that they just aren't as effective as they we're a few weeks ago. I remember that int henchie nailing interrupts like crazy across the entire enemy party, as though tabbing through them constantly. Now he will sometimes miss interrupts when there is only 1 target on the screen. o.O

I can say that the healer henchmen are complete idiots now, compared to how they were in Prophecies. It's definitely noticeable.

Last night while doing the Masters of Corruption quest, a tank teammate and Jaimei were the only two left alive fighting the last remaining afflicted in a group. Jaimei chose to charge in and attack rather than heal the tank. She also let me die of the plague several times while we weren't being attacked.

Another time, Panaku charged right past the target I had called and attacked a boss in another group. Teleported and disoriented himself, maybe?

I really want to play the game on the Luxon side but i can't... the reason?

Sister Tai. That thing will not heal me. That thing will not res me. That thing will not do anything except stand 2ft away from the battle. I have actually had a little more success on the Luxon quests when i don't take Sister Tai.

The rest of the hench are ok in my opinion, they have their downsides but for the most part are quite reliable.

The thing is, I can remember back in the beta, and soon after the factions release, Daemon (the interrupt henchie) was SO GOOD! I swore up and down he was better than 90% of the people I have seen. But lately, I've watched, and he seems to have lost his abilities.

So, I'm not even referring to the hench in factions versus prophecies but rather the hench in the original factions and the factions henchies nowadays ...

Definitely Daemon was godly in FPE. He was able to shut down a boon monk with ranger interrupts, freakin awesome. And the CoF from the Kurzick side was able to catch those tricky .25sec Rof's, but now all I see to see cof'd are troll unguents or healing sigs...

Guess inputting those phantom reflexes made the henchies too powerful =\

I wonder if the henchmen bring res anymore. Back in the FPE people complained about henchmen resing mid battle, so it seems like now, henchmen only res after everything is dead and they've had their break.

This is a bit of a problem because sometimes *you* need to be resed in the middle of battle, and henchmen don't seem to respond to "I'm dead!" any more.

Sometimes when for example I'm dead and all others in group are henchies & alive, it takes 5min before they start ressing me. They just stand there photoshooting. >_>

yeah... nothing like a seven hench stand around while I'm madly spamming "I'm DEAD!" for 5 mins before something happens. Yes the hench are certainly dumber in Factions then they were in prophecies. I was so happy to see my sweet healer hench when I got off the boat in LA. Why I even rushed over and gave that stupid ele hench a hug and took him along to cast firestorm on the dead... ah... happy times.

Absolutely agree with it. Henchies now are really retards, especially those called "Healer Henchman". They don't heal much and they don't frigging rez, even a Spirit Henchman rez better than they do. I have died hundred times because they were standing at the back doing nothing and watch how I die. Why don't Anet just cut the crap of talking henchies and make them a better healer instead!?!? I'm sure everyone will definitely more appreciate a better healer henchman than a talking retard.

The only problem I have is the ressing, because of the spells they use. I suspect it's because the amount of health/energy they res you back with is based on their amount so they wait until they're completely full before doing anything.

Which is really dumb, because the protector henchmen not only does this but will stand on your body and use Rebirth.

Other than that, no problems.

i love how the healer hench is the last one alive and then runs away randomly and gets stuck somewhere. or just runs back and forth between me and the spirit hench for 5 minutes before rezzing someone. yea the hench suck self heals and 3 stances FTW. until i get killed by the 3 jade brotherhood mage groups. :/

... I've been finding them better :-/ I have done the following with hench;
-1st two missions
-Both 15 atr. quests
-and unvailed 20% of the map (still on first island)

All of this with only four of them; the fifth being some guy who was paying me.

I have one advice. Do not take melee henchies when there's a group of 8. Especially Emi and Pikachu; the assassin henchies. They will aggro everything in range. Just take casters and a ranger. In my opinion, the healers are okay. They seem to be better than the rest. At times they seem to be smart and brain dead at other occasions. This is my usual henchies setup:

2 healers
2 eles
1 ritualist
1 necro
1 ranger

The healer henchies, in my experience, only find ressing useful if a corpse is surrounded by 5 or more enemies in which to aggro and suicide.

Otherwise, if there are no enemies left but there are dead allies, standing around doing nothing is the best thing to do.

Gg henchies, gg.

All of the problems above, yes ive had and they annoy the living daylights out of me. However what really aggrivates me is when the henches only use their sigs once they are the last ones alive. What kind of good is that? They often end up getting owned themselves or just adding 15% more dp on a healer hench. gg

The canthan Ranger Hench is actually very very good IMHO, its like a human player playing a survivor(avoiding deaths), as she will actually run away from attacks and lead them to tanks and res in battle when needed or res someone who should be ressed. Its those damn healer henchies that are very frustrating. I was trying to kill Wing and his jade lackeys and they were spamming triple chop and cyclone on me(warrior). Not only did Tai(think thats the one, in brown canthan cloths) no heal very well, but she actually decided to stand next to me(where she is at range for those oh so hurtful triple chops and cyclones) and just stood there, she ended up spamming heals on herself cause she kept getting AoE'd. I never understood why henchies think all heal spells are touch range

The protector henchman is even worse, atlest in kurzick missions. The domination henchie.. I have no idea what Anet was thinking when they made him, does he even actually have a working build on him? I was thinking domination hench would have something like Backfire, CoF, powerblock, diversion, shatter enchant, res sig, empathy, etherfeast. I mean he only really spams 1 skill, CoF and he doesn't use it very effectively, his other skill >_< I wear he put like a anti caster spell on warrior.

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I honestly don't think the healers are all that bad. When you're in the city I'd say they do a pretty good job considering. I mean, if you're an assn it is your job to take as little damage as possible. You do not have the armor of a war and therefore should hop in and out of battle. In the city you only get one monk char. When I'm running around with my assn she does a good enough job when I'm careful. If I'm going to act dumb and aggro two or three groups then yeah, we're going to get Dragon Stomped to death. I've noticed when I'm on my monk in the city and I bring the other monk too, things go well. I can pretty much aggro as much as I want and she and I do just fine.

I just beat the mission where you first encounter Shiro and his constructs last night. It was the first mission that I'd used a PUG for. (The PUG was amazing by the way- 2 assns, 1 war, 2 eles, 1 rit, 2 monks. The rit and I are in a guild and the two monks were in another guild.) My rit friend and I got pretty far using only henchies.

Although I will entirely agree with Racthoh. The way they res people is just annoying. Totally defeats the purpose of Rebirth and any res spell that can be activated from a distance.

It's as it always has been. Henchies aren't great, that's why they're (sometimes) a second choice. However, they can be quite useful- it all depends on the human players ability to control them and gauge what they are going to do and what they are capable of. Even then there are some surprises but well, if there were no surprises that'd be no fun.

Lol one thing i've noticed is that healer henches like to aggro. If I'm in a party made up of me and 7 other henches I might run away from a group of afflicted that's pwning us, and the rest of the party follows me. Except the healer. She stays behind becuase apparently she's either too lazy to run or she thinks she can solo those enemies. Either way, she kinda screws things up. I rez her as best i can (It's not like I have rebirth!) and then she dies again soon after, bringing her dp even further up. By the time we're at the end of the quest/mission, which is ususally the hardest part, she dies every time she gets hit or spam heals herself and no one else. Either way we're without a healer, which, needless to say sucks.

So, in conclusion, I have decided to petition Anet to deport Alesia to Cantha. She's not great but she's definitely better than Tai and Jamei.

I've just recently henched Mineral Springs to cap SoJ.

I just have to say this. OMG, the new henchies are so much better.

Honestly, go back to Tyria and try playing with Alesia, she does nothing! She resses mid battle while 10 dwarves violate her.

The interupt hench does a fine job although not the caffine/speed induced reflexes of old. Danika and the Kurzik Prot hench removes conditions and are almost autonomous. I almost had nothing to do really. I alt tabbed out once to check a map, had the sound off, and was attacked while alt tabbed.

Came back and the floor was littered with bodies. They are autonomous.

The Situation i hate:

Jamei(cant remember shit healer hench name)
And the ranger hench is still alive
Me (The Only With Brains) Spamming IM DEAD like all the time, but Jamei keeps healing ranger until she decides to use Signet of Devotion on the Ranger ONLY not other healing spells.

(Me Im still spamming screen)

Healer Hench thinks: " Oh WTF DIE WITH HONOR" And rushes into the group while the ranger gets his ass kicked. THe healer hench takes the aggro and dies Immediatly. Ranger Uses Res sig on the Healer hench AND NOW THIS IS WHAT REALLY P*SS*D Me off. That God damn healer hench Resses ranger and Dies.

I look at the screen while remembering " Hey Didnt that ranger just use his Res sig!!!!"
Start thinking off calling Healer-hench a noob but im not that stupid (Sure was close to)

Ranger Dies and im like. OMFG ANET!!! Give EM brains..
Give em RESSING POWER. GIVE EM AI.. PLZ GIVE EM SOMETHING OMG.. *Cries while on my knees begging for Anet spirit to pop up and let me give 100 gold to give the henchies the AI/HENCHBRAINS!!!!"