Greetings and a newb question on henchmen..

Hi guys, I just had a question for the vets. This is my first time through the game and I was trying not to spoil too much, just taking it in, but I am having a slight problem. I am to the point of Yak's Bend and the Iron Mines. I have been doing so many quests, that I am level 13 at this point and have only done 4 missions or so. It has been very fun but now I have reached the point where I can actually use a lot of henchmen if I want to and actually have to choose my party. That is why I liked this game to start with. It is kind of like Dungeon Siege (single player) or Everquest (MMOG) as you can go either way and have fun.

Anyway my problem is my mage henchman. He dies a lot even though no one else does unless we all go down with the ship so to speak. I thought they were great dps. The cultist does not get near the agro he does. Should I just not take him?

I am leaving the enchanter and ranger at the camp when I do these solo quests. Should I take one of them?

I dunno it seems like I concentrate on taking one or two mobs out and the adds kill him every time. Maybe I just need to start helping him quicker, but then I don't take one or two mobs out quick. What do you think? My party is me, brawler, fighter, healer, cultist and mage. My main is a water elementalist primary, death magic necro secondary if that helps. Like I said I have just started.

He always dies for me a lot, too. I find him pretty useless in general. Best bet is to try a new henchmen. You already got the "better" of the henchmen in your group. The mage, mesmer and ranger henchmen I don't find as helpful. But out of the three I usually take the ranger, so that's my suggestion. Of course, maybe try giving other players a chance? Hmmmm?

BTW, if you're at Yak's Bend, why are you a water elementalist and not a fire elementalist? Fire goes a long way in this game PvE-wise, and this coming from someone who hates using fire.

I will. I was just playing through one time myself for kicks. I played everquest religiously since 1999 so it is not like I am antisocial at all. As for the water elementalist. I just wanted to try what I wanted after reading all the classes. It really is just a template I thought was going to be fun with the water and the death magic as my main picks. Obviously I have not even thought about PVP at this point.

Next time just get to the point, there other forums to talk about what you think of Guild Wars. Right there a run down of how henchmen are targetted, and how to use them more effectively:

1. Mage and Healer Henchmen have lower armor, like real players. And Mobs will always go after them first, if they aren't being blocked.

2. Mage and Healers, like other hench follow you character very closely and tend to take, thus they get attacked... see number 1

3. Hench Armor and spells get better in time, at Yak's ben they are still a tad weak.

4. The cultist is good, the enchanter is useless, never seen him do anything worthwhile. The Ranger is better later in the game, as the one at Yak's ben lacks good skills.

5. Fight and Brawler hench have the highest armor, and are good for tanking and blocking. Being Cannon Fodder basically.

6. Lastly try to play with real players, they tend to do better sometimes. However arggo is still an issue.

One last tip...

When attacking something hold CONTROL and click the health bar of the monster (On the top by default), this will force your henchmen to attack that target.

I play a lot with just henchmen, depending on my mood, and I find great success with the warrior, the brawler, the cultist, the monk and either the ranger or the mage (for a party of 6 total). I don't usually take the mage, though.

Just like when playing with humans, I think you need to work tactically also with henchmen. Alesia, the healer, will tend to stay back and out of trouble if someone in the group (i.e. you as elementalist) is also keeping a distance while the warriors run on ahead. If you let the enemy gather close to your weaker henchmen, and I suppose this would include the mage, then they will have problems. Try retreating some distance during a battle, or at least (to keep in range) changing your postion if it seems your henchmen are in danger.

While playing with henchmen, I do a lot of lure and retreat, and the henchmen do tend to move back also, including the warriors. This way, it is possible to lure parts of a larger group of enemy, even though you are playing with computer warriors.

Thanks for the tips and again I will get to playing with others. I just wanted to try some things while learning the mechanics of this game first time through. Oh and sorry for the longwinded post. I get like that sometimes.

Will do that thanks. I am glad to know my party is about like most would do.

The key word here is "sometimes".

Sadly, I'm usually more successful with henchmen than with human PUG's.

Human think they are smart, so everyone has his own plan to follow, they don't stick together, they run off straight into battle, aggro 20 foes at a time, get themselves killed, then get frustrated, blame it on the party and quit.

Henchies are dumb like a loaf of bread, but at least they are patient, persitent, and they follow my orders and follow a common plan: MY plan.


I usually play missions with humans, but between missions I prefer henchmen.

Was that really necessary?

You have a good selection of the henchies but I have a queston since you're using Water as primary?
Are you attacking at range or getting in close for the "hexing" abilities that Water offers? I learned early on with my 1st build (War), since the henchies are tied to you, they all get too close if you're in the middle of the mix. With my Ele's I target a mob, and hit space for attack to get the Fighter henchies zoned in but then immediately Cast a spell so that I and Mage/Healer/Cultist henchies stay at ranged distance.

I'd like to know how you can protect henchmen in PvE. I play a Warrior/Elementalist (Earth), so I want the bad guys to attack me. But they zoom in on Alesia, even before any attacks have been made. They really, really, really hate healers.

For now, I've been forced to carry Hamstring with me when using henchmen. I hate clogging my skill bar with an attack that does no additional damage, but it does stop one enemy from running past me and molesting Alesia, at the cost of half my energy bar. :/ I wish there was a better way. Blocking them only works in very narrow areas, but most fights take place in areas too wide for a single warrior to block.

I start with my wand and stay out of range until the fighters get on the main mob. Then I use my death magic spell vampiric touch I believe it is to get me on that mob. Then the water spells come out AOE style. It works rather well. Let me say this I do have to change about half the time if 2 fighter mobs other than first choice get on the cleric. It is not usually a problem though.

The only real problem I have is my mage evidently overagroing. I play a wizard in EQ so I know about agro, I learned how not to get it "most" of the time. With henchmen, obviously they are not programmed that way Hehe. I may just have to watch out for him more instead of the cleric, not typical, but like I said I am new to this game.

I mostly take Alesia, the fighter, the brawler, the ranger/archer and the mesmer.

To start battles (when I have the choice) I pick my first target and attack it then back away and the Archer, alesia and the mesmer will follow. The fighter and brawler will engage immediately. I then stay next to Alesia the entire time and fight at range. Anything that comes all the way to her I will engage long enough to bring my pet back to it then switch back to range. Sometimes all of the henchies will wind up in a knot around me and I will back away again getting the proper spacing for my troops. Just have to think for them a bit.

I actually take the Mage Henchman *because* he dies so much.

Several monsters in this game have the nasty habit of ganging up on the weakest target in the party. One of the big goals of controlling aggro in this game is to keep the aggro off of your Monks, and if you're running with henchies that means protecting Alesia the rambo Monk. But, I've noticed, if the Mage henchie dies first, then his DP will draw all the soft-target seekers straight to him, meaning they aren't attacking the Monk.

Back before you could add a second healer to your party in the desert, I'd joke about how success and failure in the desert hinged upon whether or not you could get your Mage or Necromancer henchie to die first. If one did, then you'd have a nice sacrificial lamb to keep Alesia at full health - of they stayed up and Alesia died, you'd best just quit out and try again before Alesia gets DPed out.

Peace,
-CxE

I'm with Ensign on this. Orion is practically a sponge for damage. Alesia wants to fight way too much, so you need to get someone even more eager to deal damage and willing to take it. Orion is a perfect fit for that. Notice that he often doesn't actually DEAL much damage, but as long as he keeps those enemies off Alesia and (later) Lina, I have not problems.

But it is true... Orion dies a lot. And I do dislike sitting and waiting for Alesia to resurrect him after every crowd of enemies.

The poor, erstwhile "Wayward Wizard" never gets any respect. I tend to take Orion when I need lots of damage (my two main characters are a Necro/Monk and and Mesmer/Necro, neither of which are major damage dealers). Sure, Orion is a one-trick pony, and he misses with his trick as often as not, but there have been several fights (especially in the Southern Shiverpeaks) where I've been able to get groups clustered and Orion smote them with fire.

Yeah, he does die a lot, too. Largely because he spends entirely too much time trying to cast his Firestorm, I think. With my Necro/Monk, I don't really care, since I always carry Resurrect. My Mes/Nec typically leaves Orion at home simply because he can't do multiple raises on the poor schmoe.

I typically don't start off an engagement with my wand/staff. I'll start with a spell, which has a couple benefits: a) it doesn't immediately mark me as an aggro source (thereby drawing the monsters right at me, and by extension, the other soft, squishy members), and b) the fighters don't immediately rush off to engage. (b) is important, as it gives me more time to judge where the incoming aggro is headed, so that I can then pick an appropriate target that I do want Little Thom and Stefan to engage. If it goes well, then the baddies will begin clustering around the Dynamic Duo (since they are the only real "aggro triggers" at this point), whereupon Orion can start unleashing his Firestorm, and it will actually help. If anyone breaks through to the rear, I'll usually prioritize it as a target (unless it's just one creature, and/or the health bars don't appear to be decreasing too rapidly; for the most part, the henchmen seem to be able to handle themselves against single targets).

If all doesn't go well, and I find myself with more monsters around me than party members, I will attempt a retreat, in order to re-establish the front line. As long as the fighters are up, I'll fall back and re-engage, while trying to res key people. If both of them are down, I will usually flee, hoping the monsters will take out their aggression on one or more of the henchmen while I make my escape. Assuming they finally spend their rage and proceed to wander off again, I can go back and res the party at leisure. Yeah, it's callous and cruel, but this has gotten me through most of the game with henchmen only.

I had a competition going to see who died the most: my elementalist or Orion the mage. Think I am winning. (You should watch 5 targets chasing me around even when I haven't fired a shot ignoring the others who are blasting away at them. hehe.

Orion's definitely the Nancy of the group. I kinda like the Enchanter, though. He throws like a girl, but at least he doesn't squeal like the Mage.

The Necro isn't my favorite Henchie, either.

I think who you bring depends on what profession you are.

For example, with my ranger and warrior, I always took Stefan, Alesia and Orion. But for my mage, I take Stefan, Reyna and Alesia. Having 2 mage and a monk in a PvE group is already too "soft" in my opinion.

Between the cultist (Claude?) and the enchanter (Durnham?) I will always pick the enchanter. In fact, it kis very rare that I take the cultist.

My two cents...
At this point in the game, take Stefan, Little T., Alesia, Claude (cultist), and the archer lady (brain fart, name?).
I do not like Orion, for he tends to spend most of his energy and recast time smiting corpses with is fire storm. Also there is the fact that he dies too fast. He is a damage sponge, in some regards, but can rarely hold off agro for more than a few seconds before he joins the worms.
Try casting first rather than attacking with your wand, for this will hopefully prevent Stefan/Thom agro (they tend to have a nice agro chain). The spell will bring them to you... once this happens you can ctrl+click to call the target and have your fighters hit it, and have claude do his wonders with necro skills.
In short, Orion is pointless (little damage, even though he is a mage), both fighters to hold agro off you/healers, the cultist guy for his effects on the baddies, and the archer for extra ranged damage. And of course, the healer for obvious reasons.
My oppinion.

What does Claude(cultist) really do except from spamming Deathly Swarm? Is he death, curse or blood necro? I assume he's a death necro as he uses Deathly Swarm but I've never seen him raise minions or something like that.

I take out the cultist almost always as part of my henchy group. I haven't noticed exactly what he does, but I do notice that after each battle he casts whatever those necro spells are that give you more hp regeneration. So in a way, having him in the group is like having an additional healer to supplement Alesia.

Was your post necessary since you added nothing to the thread at all?

There is other forums for telling everyone's personal story of Guild Wars...

Anyhow dawtide there is one last thing to consider when uses henchmen, they share your gold, and take their share of item drops. So the less you can take with you the better, as it means more goodies and gold for yourself.

Claude rocks! not only does he cast attack spells in battle.. he will cast Blood is Power on fellow groupies - this can be especially handy with Lina/Alesia as when they start casting spells a lot Claude will BiP them.. which lets them keep the healing & protection spells comming.

he's also BiP'ed my W/Mo quite a lot mid-battle which let me quickly spam energy based attacks while BiP was in-effect.

I never, ever go anywhere without Claude... I'd take him if thats all he ever did.. because BiP has definately saved my bacon on more than one occassion. In fact i've watched him... he will very often stop attacking something to BiP someone.. and do multiple party members with a BiP (and thus zapping his health... poor guy!). About the only time he doesn't is if he has a melee critter wholloping on him... although if alesia is paying attention and healing him.. he will stop defending himself and try and BiP her...

My henchies b4 desert are Claude (necro), Reyna (archer), Alesia (healer), Stefan (fighter) & Thom (brawler). In the desert I swap out Stefan and put in Lina (protection) instead.