To hench or not to hench

[Haven]

After last nights somewhat tepid performance I thought I'd see how many of you I can convince that henchies are a bit poo nowadays

When I started playing guildwars a few months ago henchmen were critical - you cant do missions early on without them unless you have a few good mates who you can group with. At that time there werent many of us playing so grouping wasnt really feasable so I took the henchman option.

Since then I've played with other groups as well as regular THN players and I've really enjoyed the games that we've played. There have been the occasional instances where someone has dropped early in a mission but on the whole these groups have been really nice people who played well toegether.

Recently I have played a lot of games with henchmen again, in part due to a lack of real players when I've been online but mostly because I have been re-playing the lower levels with shadow and our new characters, and I have noticed that the hencman AI appears to have lost its "I". Henchmen previously were masters of keeping the party alive and choosing sensible targets to attack. They would hold back and not aggro until you moved with them and they would defend themselves when left to their own devices. Up until a few weeks ago that is ... Since then healers have stopped healing, warriors have turned into aggro monsters and self defence as a concept appears to have gone out of the window. Elementalists also now often choose to use their biggest spells shortly after the target has died. I've sat and watched henchmen surrounded and being pummeled and yet refusing to defend themselves. Instead they blindly target whatever you happen to be targetting.

The point of this little rant is to encourage people to group with real people when they can. If you have to group with henchmen then its unfortunate but given the choice lets not have any in our parties at higher levels please as they are a hinderance more than a help at the moment.

 

[Gopha]

true but what brought this on?

 

[Haven]

Getting my ass handed to me repeatedly as monks stopped healing, warriors started aggro'ing and elementailists just sat there

 

[T-Bone]

Last night's attempts at Abbadons mouth :/

 

[KillCrazy]

I think the aggroing that was caused last night by the henchman was the lack of proper cooperation with our human team. We did not all agree on which targets we wanted to hit. I'd played that mission twice before, so I used what tactics I had used then. At the start, before entering the fort, we killed everything up on the tower before destroying the seal and opening the gate.
Our two human members decided to destroy the seal first, causing our targeting calling of the enemies on the tower to be taken by the henchman, resulting in them running into the fort and consequently agroing almost everything in the fort.

I use henchman for quests when there's no one else around on the guild to do them with. I find it stressful getting a human team together and usually annoying as I have met some idiot players, and players who like to argue as their tactics differ. I use henchman for some missions too, and I have found that it is possible to complete the missions with them, it's just a skill in itself to get them to behave how you want them to.

 

[T-Bone]

Unfortunatley Abbadons Mouth is the only mission I consider un-henchable. I have comepleted every other mission in the game with henchman but not this one. The way the forts are layed out make it very difficult to control the henchman and if at the point where theres two bosses, one is a monk. It becomes impossible to hench.

 

[Carth]

Yep, I have seen henchmen get steadily worse. They are almost useless now IMO, hinder more than help. I have had excruciating experiences with them.

The healers quite simply can't handle health degen, it messes with their little AI minds. If the whole party is poisoned, Alesia will spam Orison of Healing again and again. On 6 party members, she just runs out of energy and we die. Ridiculous. One healing breeze would solve it, and I know the bitch has the spell.

They choose the worst possible times to resurrect you as well. If you get back into the battle, they actually run off - a long way - to resurrect someone. Really infuriating because you can't stop them. Alesia gets herself killed time and again. And not only that, I get big death penalties because they res me in the middle of a meteor shower or a large battle. Just leave me! Carry on fighting or die!

And the warrior aggro, as you said. Little Thom can single-handedly get every monster on the map after him. And it's annoying that you can't change targets. When I played my mesmer character I had to keep switching targets regularly, and they leave someone who is one hit from death to attack the same. Infuriating! Not only that, sometimes if I need help with a target, the warriors won't change target.

But really, it's the healers that get me. They actually don't heal! As I said, degen seems to be the main problem for them. But they choose the wrong person to heal as well. In one situation I had 75% health, and hadn't been in battle for a while, so was healing of my own accord. Stefan had less than 25% health, and was poisoned. The battle was over, and we were standing there for quite some time, and I watched Stefan's health fall as mine rose. Then Alesia turns round and heals me; Stefan dies. Unbelievable.

There have been other situations where it's reversed, I'm in trouble, and I run to Alesia, she heals everyone who isn't in any danger, and I die. Or sometimes she just plain heals nobody.

Sorry about the rant, but you really opened up a can of worms with this one, it's really annoys me how stupid they are. I very nearly sent this video to NCSoft:

HOW ANNOYING

I had got really far with a quest, was near the end, and most importantly, not near to any outposts. Look at her! She has res, but she won't use it! She can't decide or something. Even if she'd just attacked that Maguuma Spider I would have been happy. But she wouldn't res us, she wouldn't die, she just runs backwards and forwards!

I've seen Alesia doing the same before. I've seen Alesia torn between healing someone or resurrecting someone, and she runs backwards and forwards between them, but she ends up doing neither! Did they program that indecision?!?

In my eyes, missions and quests are futile with a healer henchman. Anything but the early missions and you'll have a hard time of it. And to think that I did the exact same missions just fine with henches a few months earlier. It seems like they dumbed them down

Btw, the title of that movie is "still doing it 30 mins later". As it happens, I wanted to finish the long quest so much that after I made the movie, I went to Tesco to buy some food, brought it back and she was still doing it. Many hours later.

 

[KillCrazy]

I managed to complete the quest Defend Droknar's Forge first time with an entire group of henchmen. I watched proudly as the henchmen fought, healed, ressurected and triumphed against every difficult group of enemies we came across. I died on three occasions and the henchmen were able to fight the group off and ressurect me.

I think it's more on the situation at hand that will decide wether or not henchmen are a good idea. The game is too random at times.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

You know, its a heck of a lot easier just to disregard Henchmen altogether. Ive never ever used henchmen in a mission, I just join a party of humans and off we go. You dont need to have decent mates on, either; just advertise yourself in the outpost and youll get recruited.
Occasionaly I use henchmen if I want to complete a quick side quest but thats about it.

 

[BiG D]

just advertise yourself in the outpost and youll get recruited.

Let me guess... You're a warrior/monk?

 

[T-Bone]

I agree with him, the first time I played through the game the only other active player in the Guild was SASniper. When he wasn't on I just said "Me/E LFP for Mission + Bonus" for example. Got a group in no time. I also completed Thunder Head Keep with the bonus first time when the missions used to be a lot harder than it is now.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Let me guess... You're a warrior/monk?

R/W, one of the shantiest combinations going :/ But I was so Pro they let me in anyway

Aside from that, its not the W/Mos that get snapped up, its the Mo/Ws. Monks are hot property because they are so valuable in a team, yet so boring to play as.

 

[T-Bone]

I disagree R/W are one of the most powerful classes in the game and I would also say that playing as a monk is enjoyable, I like it.

 

[Gopha]

im a r/mo very powerful gets annoying in close quaters tho

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

I disagree R/W are one of the most powerful classes in the game

I hate it really. The only W skill I sometimes use is frenzy, which is kinda handy because you get the +25% attack speed, but your at the back so the -33% armour doesnt affect you much. Aside from that, I find it pretty crap. Id say its mostly because the warrior attribute points focus on improving a weapon's useability, but going a ranger you might as well use a bow, so the warrior attributes are useless.

Tbone, if youve found a nice build for a R/W could you post it up please? My ranger isnt bad the way he is, but if i could take advantage of anything Ive missed then thatd be a help.

 

[Carth]

Let me guess... You're a warrior/monk?

LMAO

Getting into a party for missions or anything is nearly impossible with my mesmer. People refuse me on principle. Or worst of all, they accept you, then see a "better" class wants a group, and kick you from the party to let them in. I was forced to do nearly every mission with henchmen. The later in the game, the harder it gets, because the missions are harder, and people get serious ideas about the "ideal" team to do it with.

Any other class will get accepted easily, warriors because they can soak up damage, monks because they can heal, rangers because they don't die easily and are good damage dealers, necromancers because they can be minion masters (and people accept them if they aren't for some reason too), and elementalists because they deal big damage.

It's actually them who are noobs. Their warrior/monks are just based on good armour and the ability to heal themselves. I work hard to come up with good builds, such as massive lightning spike damage builds, using mesmer abilities to subvert recharge times and casting times etc. And a mesmer makes a caster or healer so much easier to deal with. The few times when I do get accepted, the mission always goes perfectly smoothly, because the people willing to accept me are the people who realise the value of a mesmer in your team. They get one warrior, a couple of eles, a couple of monks, a ranger and me as a mesmer. A well rounded team that can deal with any situation.

However when playing as my warrior or ranger, I've seen the mission fail time and again at one point, because it has a weakness.