Henchmen are overpowered!

Henchmen would take over GW if we could assign them their skills per area lol. They already get most of the items as it is.

Seriously though, I dont understand some of the henchmen's skill choices/oversights in the way they are set up. I kind of wonder why the henchmen healers seem to heal each other while I am running around trying to heal myself and they only pay attention when I die. Then it dawns on me oh, its that way in many of the PUGs I have played too.

the warriors have "Charge!" which is pointless, unless your a melee attacker, LvL 20 reyna, and Aidan have Practiced stance, one of the most usless skills when its merely used for kindle arrow, if they had choking gas then they would be almost a staple in every henchmen configuration. I see that the necro besides dealing a small smount of dmg mostly is used for its Blood Ritual. But I have never seen it use Grenths Balnace as the prima guide states.

If the warriors elites were diversified they would be easier to chose from. Give Devona: Dwarven Battle stance.
Stefan: Hundred blades
Little Thom: Cleave, or Eviscarate.
Aidan: either replace kindle with choking gas or make his elite Malandrus arrow.
Eve/Claude: Well of Power.
Cynn: either prodigy
Dunham: get rid of hex breaker, and make his elite energy surge
Alesia/Mhenlo: word of healing is nice, but not when its all they can really heal with, word+orison+dwaynas kiss and throw in remove hex
Lina: needs mend ailment. I have seen henchmen die from bleeding yet lina and alesia didn't heal them. But if she was like those dwarf monks jeez she would be good.

Indeed. What is the point of single player RPGs? What is the point of anything that's not what you play?

[/sarcasm]

arenanet needs to nerf 90% of it's player base

Henchmen team actually pack a lot of fire power. Of course, again, not as good as a good human team, but a lot better than most average pugs I've been with.

Mobs were dying faster in THK mission with the henchmen team I created than any PUGs I'd been in.

I like to take Duham the enchenter (mesmer) because he uses emphathy. in PvE, that's a ton of damage. Necro henchmen is very useful too, he does a lot of DoT damage. Ranger henchmen is just so so, but since ranger is my favoite class, I always bring one.

I agree, with a good team, it's more fun. Even with a not so good team, it can be fun too if we finally get to win after some close moments. I was playing my lvl 12 ranger and was in a pretty long mission in the snowy mountain area. The team was not the best but that mission wasn't too hard neither, just long.

So we reached the end of the mission after about 45 mins, just a few mobs away from completing, a few team members decided to do bonus. No way to change their minds so the team ran all the way back to the middle of the mission area for it. Seeing packs and packs red dots on my mini map, I said to group "take it slow". Next thing we knew was the elementalist rushing into middle of two mob groups. people started dying and yelling "rez me!" "rez me!" "rez me!". I knew I had to save my rez for the monk in case he died, so I we ignored them.

we killed a few until 2 healers and a boss showed up. I asked the mesmer in team to help me interrupt/shutdown the healers but not much success. team died with my ranger alive by herself.

I ran away and regened. rez'ed my pet and went back in to attack the mesmer boss since he was alone. Had to stop attack and just healed myself and pet due to emphathy, with occation disrupting shots to interrupt the boss, at the same time letting my pet chew on the mob.

after some close moments I killed the boss. went in and rez the monk.

at this point, the group agreed with me that let's forget about the ---- bouns and just finished the mission.

It was a satisfying moment when the commonly called useless ranger saved the group and the mission, with the commonly called useless pet.

This thread reminds me of the Thirsty River Mission. After being the last one alive in the Dunes of Despair, and completing Elona with an all hench team, all that was left was Thirsty River.

Since I had tried this mission with henches before and failed, I decided I should find a group for this one. After several days of people who said "I've done this mission hundreds of times", then charge two groups at once and wipe out the whole party, groups that got destroyed by the first group of devourers, charging warriors, elementalists who had never heard of maelstrom, and groups who had never heard of mesmers, I started to get desperate.

After seeing that a new henchman, Lina, had been added to the desert, I decided to retry the mission one more time. The result: Completing the mission with +10 morale for the whole group.
I think buff was the word your looking for. Most players are nerfed enough.

Can something be overpowered in PvE? I'm not quite sure I get that.

Do the mobs want a more balanced game so they don't lose all the time?

I think human players are severely underpowered. ='(

I've guess I was one of the lucky ones since i've finshed Thunderhead Keep on the first try, but I do agree with you. Henchies are strong and I always take em when I wanna cap a skill.

Not enough attribute points in Intelligence.

But yeah, I dunno, I haven't had too much difficulty with missions when I am the one making the group. That way I can pick a well-balanced group and maintain a sense of order.

Kinda sorta going OT with this but...

IMO GW is to easy as it is. Difficulty needs to be at least doubled. While this will make finding a competent group even more difficult, while it may make the game more frustrating(due to the incompetence of PUGs), it would make winning a battle much more meaningful. It would make you feel as if you have actually accomplished something.

agree, I got that feeling when playing Everquest, but not much from GW.

GW is still fun though, espcially now I don't have hours and hours to play every night.

"After seeing that a new henchman, Lina, had been added to the desert, I decided to retry the mission one more time. The result: Completing the mission with +10 morale for the whole group.
"

Thing is, that both monk henchies are the best of all, with Elementalist being close second - even though some of his/her spell choice are awkward. Only thing monk lack are hex/condition removals.

Oh i forgot to mention they took my friends lv 12 ranger/mesmer i think thats his secondary... well anyway He took henchmen on the Ice Caves of Sorrow and Iron Mines of Moladune missions and beat them in 1 try for each.

then i power leveled him and his pet to lv 20 easy. GAH THEY NEED TO BE MORE DUMB AND DISOBEDIANT

Henchmen are more useful than human players because they always follow your orders; henchmen are also LESS useful than human players because the scope of their orders is so limited... All you can tell them to do is basically 'attack my called target'. Everything else depends on their pre-programmed AI, and you can't give them instructions for complex tasks, like 'keep the enemy engaged while I go around and activate these pedestals'.

In some missions, henchmen can be more of a liability than an asset. (The Bloodstone Fen bonus comes to mind...) I WISH there could be orders to tell the henchmen to NOT attack/follow me/stand your ground. Then again, if they did that, I'd probably stop playing with other players altogether.

"GAH THEY NEED TO BE MORE DUMB AND DISOBEDIANT"

So, you're telling me you never tried to pull with henchies?

Edit: Oh yeah, I suggest someone try finish Titans quest with henchies - not the first one Lvl 10 goes down after single chain lightning

I bring a long bow; i shoot and then i click the ground; normally they stay.

plus it was only a joke = /

now... if I can make one of them stay with the high prisst in the SF quest... I failed when i was going after the final crystal because priest died to one of the may attacks which I saved him in time but that one...

people before the patch complained about how they sucked. and they did. but now they are SOOO much better than 99% of the pve players out there that there is really no reason to find groups. i think that people should rely on other players in most missions but should use henchies when necessary. i agree they might be a little too good now (alesia is a beast lol), so might want to encourage some more cooperative play.

What, patch changes henchies in some way? Last thing I remember is getting Lina on desert mission(which still doesn't change the fact that they're all lvl 17).

Though I hate having to use real people when doing missions and tend to rely on hench a lot more... people do have their uses. For example I was never able to complete Thirsty River or Dragon's Lair with hench, but was able to with people. Simple fact being when people actually follow orders... its amazing what you can do with them.

Hench however are my all time fav grouping buddies. I don't have to spam "LFG experienced people to group with" when in towns... nah the hench just come along with me. I can map around, drop from the group and they don't complain. Using hench and pulling can be hard, so what I try and do is get one in my circle, then pull back as they charge in... sometimes I'm lucky and sometimes not. But for power leveling, nothing like lv20 hench to help you get around when your less then lv20. Hench need the following functions though to be totally awsome

#1: Run Away (basicly as implied... run away if being mass attacked and the rest of us are dead... come back when its clear and res us)

#2: Stay (as implied... click on them and they will remain still while you go pull or what not)

#3: Be Generious (Basicly hench will take less gold from drops and maybe give you all those keys and dyes you know they are hording.)

#4 Follow the Leader (in single file right behind you then will run and exactly in your path so as to not run in a group behind you all spread out and aggro mobs)

Thats it

The good thing about henchmen is that they will stay with you and do what you tell them to. Unlike some NPCs. If you call a target they will attack it. They won't go running off down the stairs on Thunderhead and get slaughtered. Me and 2 friends have done all the missions with henches.