Henchmen idiots

Beautiful. Some days I would love to push that "Ultimate Sacrifice" button.

I think this is would be a great way to get around bugs that happen.

Make a button to kill the henchmen. It should be a couple of clicks long and involve a, "Sure you want to do this" window, but either the programers will have to find all of the bugs, or we can just click, respawn, and go about our business.

The monk henchman is the only one whose AI I get frustrated with. I'm only familiar with those up to Lion's Arch, so I don't know if it gets any better... But I've played this far solo, and there's been many occasions where I've sat and watched the warriors, other party members, or even the monk herself die because she is casting resurrection on another henchie as opposed to healing the rest of the party. Heals first, woman. Rezzes when the tanks aren't at 25% hp.

The rest I don't have any huge complaints with, although I agree that commands would make the entire experience much easier. I see splitting groups of mobs becoming much easier with a "sit! stay!" command for when they're overzealous.

On a similar note, the only way I have found to actually assign a target is by beginning an attack (default shift key?) with a weapon. Simply casting a detrimental spell doesn't seem to do the trick. Am I missing a command somewhere? I keep thinking one would be useful, for those missions where you always seem to be carrying a torch or something around and can't actually wield a weapon to "attack" with.

Henchies aren't bad, but there are many occasions I've cried out "idiots" myself

-If you are attacking at target and for some reason the other tanks can't get to that target they will just stand and wait :/
-Monk has a high tendency to want to tank it out, this is very bad, she needs to stay back behind the group!
-Numerous times I've wanted to pull back, regroup and maybe lure a few mobs out because we were outnumbered. I run back to where we came from and they don't follow, the monk henchie usually does, but a few others always lag far behind - and die.
-Sometimes I am left with a few tank henchies and I need to res some henchies who are near mobs. But when I go near the mobs (they don't notice me) the tanks like to take things into their own hands and charge :/

I would like:
Stay command
Protect command
Retreat command

Having said that I am glad they included henchies, several times I completed missions with them - although they are still far short of a good player group. One particular event was when the sole monk was left alive, fortunately she decided to res me and died soon after, I managed to back up and res and we continued.

Or, they could make them pass the Turing Test with the following strategy:

1. When not fighting, run in a random direction until you have at least five enemies aggro you. This direction need not be the same direction as any allies.
2. At this point, start fighting and spamming HELP!!!1!1!!1!
3. If you survive, immediate resume running (despite allies' requests to rest); if you die spam "*** u n00b u let me die".
4. If you are a tank, run away whenever you get below 50% health. If you are a healer, only use smiting skills and if an ally dies, don't ressurect him until there's an enemy right on top of him.
5. If you fail the mission, spam "u *** u made us loose." When you get back to the outpost, spam "dont pt with [playername] he's a n00b who make you die!!!!1!1!oneone1one!!".

AMEN TO THAT

Henchies do need some commands like said because thats why their there to help and follow your orders.

I think I've had the worst luck on some of them. I had an Archer Henchie rez the Brawler hench even tho everyone else was dead and I'm a War/Monk, ofcourse we all died right after since the Bralwer stops using its Healing Signet after all human players die even tho if he would have he'd have won, kinda retarded if you ask me since all henchies have rez signet.

I've had my fair share of problems with henchmen and definitely agree that some aspects of their AI could use refining...

... but, in their defense, they have yet to shout "OMFG U R SO DUMB U ----ING RETARDS" and log out halfway through a mission.

yes, that is true. I've had times where Henchmen have been proven better than some of the people I've played with, and whats worse is the guy I played with was like 6 levels ABOVE the henchie, and atleast the henchies attack what your attacking and all. Though I've had trouble since I'm a War/Monk and my friend is a R/Mo with traps, they follow me around and don't protect him since he can't take care of himself like I can with my final armor set I just think afew AI commands would be the best upgrade for the henchies!

The henchmen are just as smart as the enemy AI, just like the enemies all units attack, move into poor possition, and worst of all, do very little to escape if they are dying. Adding greater AI system would be for the enemies and the henchmen, and honestly, I'm not interested in playing against a computer who will auto target all of my teammates with hexes in 5 seconds and hit all of of with AOE wile pin pointing my healer every time, on top of the processing power it would take up.

there are so many bugs with hench usually they are either stuck or the seem to FLY away to someother place

fix archer..it is the most retarded out of ALL the henchies...i just made a new character and was playing Bolis pass...and the archer (after we all died) just ran back and forth between a wall and teh healer and never stopped to res...just back and forth for a good 3 or so minutes before i said "@%#$ IT!!!!" and logged...the archer is extremely stupid compared to others...and as for suggestion, the hench should always attack the weakest enemy within a certain radius of them (so they dont get too far from the team) as well give them BETTER PATHFINDING so when they go to attack an enemy they dont get stuck on a different enemy and do nothing, i have seen it too many times where there are 2 enemies close to eachother and the hench gets stuck on the closer one when set to attack the farther one but doesnt even attack the closer one...just runs into the guy intill he can get to the other guy.

Suggestion: "Attack To...": Player set marker on the map where all henchmen will fight until they reach that point, they will nto stray to engage other enemies unless attacked first and assault any enemies on direct path to the target location. This allows for a more "quick" approach since the AI wont simply follow you rather they will find their own path and can move ahead of you and almost lead the way. Henchmen should be "knowers of the land" and should know the fastest route to areas anyways, so why not let them lead you the right direction sometimes?

that also adds a simple NON henchie suggestion of player set markers for directions etc.

it seems to me that a really simple way of dealing with henchmen would be to have a "behavior" profile selection attached to them.

What I'm trying to say is that you should be able to tell each henchman what priorities you expect him/her to adhere to prior to leving a city for a quest.

For instance you could have a "Fighter" profile that prioritizes killing enemies first, followed by protecting other members, followed by healing others if they have the ability. Have a "Healer" profile who's first priority is to heal/resurect the other members, a "Support" profile who's first priority is to protect everyone else, etc...

That way, you eliminate the need to constantly tell your henchmen what you expect of them in battle, and you could assign whatever role you want to whatever class of NPC you want. It would make things more flexible, and would allow some degree of strategy from the get go.

Plus, maybe the henchies wouldn't get so confused!