Henchmen Mini-guide

excellent excellent guide. i never even TRIED pulling with henchies. i may never party with humans again....

Well... He uses Empathy and Crippling Anguish on everything which moves, and those are useful skills, but yeah, he's not too useful. One'd wish he had shatter hex and power drain too.

Especially that moron bird Talon. He simply _will not_ let you pull enemies with bow, he rushes them immediately and will not back off until dead. Also he seems to have been severely nerfed since the PvE event, as he doesn't seem to do much damage or be able to tank as well as he did back then. Talon is my last choice among all the henches; Panaku the assassin is also a mad rusher, but at least he does serious damage.

The problem isn't that their firestorms are late (although Orions usually are) but that they scatter the enemy. Sometimes that's a good thing, but normally it's just a problem. Also, being fire eles they don't do enough damage to carry their weight in the team, IMO.
I typically try to avoid them, unless for some reason I want the enemies to scatter (e.g. that's the case in Thunderhead Keep).

Except Eve and Lina. Both of them are veeeery useful.

Actually, I've been wondering what the canthan protection hench do? When I'm out with Lina I see protective spirit and other protection skills pop up during battle, but when I'm out with Redemptor Karl I don't see him do anything but wand and res?

That reminds me - I gotta check guildwiki for a complete skill-listing of all the henches.

seemed interesting and good but suddenly:
mesmers are weak in PvE eh? bah noob. i stopped reading after that..

Additionally, your suggestion to never bring assassin henchies is just wrong wrong wrong. If you're an mesmer armed with Epidemic or Fevered Dreams, the assassin hench's conditioning attacks are a godsend. The tight, narrow areas of the city are especially useful for this, since Epidemic has a small AOE range. It drops mobs fast.

I kept seeing the word 'always', which to me, is kind of silly


in regards to the article:


1. I disagree stongly on the 'need 2 warrior hench' If you are playing a warrior, assassin etc you really should not take anything but ranged/support Having too many frontline fighters is not good, if you are playing one too-

2. Personally, I "almost always" take the cultist- the blood ritual is nice no matter what

3. I agree with the general consensus- Illusionist Hench is stupid... probably a reason many people dont accept mesmers into their groups in missions/quests etc....

4. I also agree that the writer of this whole thing is biased toward his own characters' usage, and that this guide - while interesting and well written - is not really a good 'universal' template for henchie usage.

5. Id take Lina over Alesia any day if i had to choose

6. I never take the archers- I hate them. Just like I hate all rangers.

Sure they do... all the time...

Annoying and repetitive

Although I don't agree totaly with your guidelines (most of my exceptions are mentioned by others so I won't repeat them all) I do think it's a great idea to let players know that henchman are viable, and to give some ideas on how to use them. I use the "back in/touch/run out" method of pulling as I find that most of the time hench warriors will rush the target as soon as you release the bow string. Also, using "ctrl/shift/space" rather than just "ctrl/space" will call target without you actually attacking. Playing as a caster this lets me establish a battle line and scope out the enemy without calling attention to myself by actually attacking at that moment.

To people who remark that henchies are stupid, my reply is that they are as smart as the person using them.

I don't really play by targetting damagers first but by killing healers first.When monks and ritualists are died, it's more easy to fight the damagers but not warriors first.Mesmers and elementalists are my second choice to kill..I always finish by warriors

So in my case, i stop (1)healers, (2)interrupters (mesmers, archers, elementalists) and then at last (3) warriors (and (4) boss if there is)

I've read your guide but i don't really choose each time same henchies. It depends on map. I take assassins only if there's nothing else. If you look attentively, at the last parts of factions there are too much necros in henchies (3 or 4 i think).

When i play monks, i really don't choose assassins...They took too much energy and it becames difficult to heal others.

In fact,each one plays differently so everyone must try a perfect combination to know what's better for them.

[QUOTE=TAZTG;1588983]I would like to know how you control Cynn's Firestorm. It always seems to me that they use it right after the last enemy dies.

QUOTE]

I think the problem is Fire Storm is just slow, and so it often rains down after the last MOB falls, even though Cynn or Orion actually called it well before.


***mod edit--you do realize this thread and the last post are more than 5+ years old---mod edit***

I was researching Henchies, and posted a few stray thoughts that might be of interest to other new players doing the same research that I am; Obviously I did not expect the original author(s) would reply after 5 years.

That said any one who thinks the subject I'm addressing is moot, simply need not respond; I mean really what a load of snobs.