Guild Wars 2

I’m wondering if pet/minion/summon mechanics will be improved in HoT. There are a large number of issues with them that need to be corrected:

-Summons being killed by transformations (this is at it’s worst for necromancers) Giving 2 classes the ability to put all the utilities on multiple specs on cooldown.
-AI in general (atttacking targets, following targets properly, bugging out and afking, ect)
-AI not avoiding AOEs (they did in GW1, why has this changed?)
ect

A lot of this is amplified by the fact that engineer’s new elite spec looks like it’s going to have drones. I love classes with summons and pets (spirit weapons, minion master, turret engineer, ranger, ect) so I’ll be really happy. However, if they don’t address these issues, then the new elite spec will fall flat on it’s face before even putting it’s feet on the ground.

It’s been a major complaint of almost every Necro player since the game launched. THE MINION AI IS TERRIBLE! Then again, all the computer controlled monsters, enemies included are pretty glitchy and have programmed reactions that would have been considered sub-par on a PS3 game. In many ways, the monster AI is clearly nferior to the AI from GW1.

The demo videos from all the coventions show faster smarter enemies. Hopefullu they take some of those improvements and apply them to necromancer minions.

my view on this is slightly different. Minions are meant to be stupid brainless things, in my opinion they should be stronger, but remain stupid.

Since half of their problem is they stand around doing nothing, or run in the wrong direction, making them stronger won’t deliver any more damage to the called target. They need to have their AI fixed.

Nate.3927:

my view on this is slightly different. Minions are meant to be stupid brainless things, in my opinion they should be stronger, but remain stupid.

I agree, but there are still some issues that may need to be addressed. I have not encountered half the issues with subordinates (for want of a better universal term) that some seem to be complaining about as game breaking but there are still issues. The main points of concern as I see it are:-

1. AI Target auto-selection on death of current target (or triggering of self defence) – does not seem to be prioritised by proximity properly in all cases.
2. Player auto-targeting seems to have the same issue (probably the same code)
3. AI Pathing and Obstacle avoidance – the AI sometimes does not negotiate some simple obstacles that perhaps they should be able to (could be at least partially down to mismatches between the visual terrain models and the terrain collision models – i.e. invisible wall syndrome).

On the whole, personally I have not found the above issues a major problem but I can see how others might depending on the regions they play in.