Guild Wars 2

There needs to be a special circle of the underworld dedicated to the dev who decided it’d be a SWELL idea to micromanage scruffy between follow and defend modes. It was obnoxious and janky to switch him mid combat with enemies that dropped half your health in a single hit, which good luck dodging while you have the dialogue box opened up blocking half your screen.

Couldn’t we have had it make sense like every other NPC helper throughout the entire game.. where it defends you when you enter combat on its own?

shrugs was easy enough for me.

Step 1: Set to follow
Step 2: Kill everything yourself in <3 seconds (zerker gear ftw)
Step 3: Done

How is this even something to complain about? Less than a second to switch him between modes, done. Sohrd.

Eh? It worked fine for me, and aside from a vet that ran away after half health, the enemies weren’t problematic.

I found it inconvenient. Would have rather just liked to pilot him but it was what it was and finished it well enough. Hardly had to fight at all.

AntiSaneity.3628:

How is this even something to complain about? Less than a second to switch him between modes, done. Sohrd.

It’s a janky interface to do while in combat. You basically say “screw having the NPC that’s supposed to help you actually help, I’ll just kill them myself”

I had no problem. It reminded me a little of my days in GW1. I honestly would like to see the dev’s bring more of this kinda stuff into the game.

Micromanaging Scruffy isn’t so bad. Put him into defensive right away before fighting, kill the stuff with him and just talk to him afterwards. What’s so difficult about that?

I didn’t even bother switching him and just killed everything normally

Scruffy should have replaced your skill bar, give you two self attacks and then his commands for the other three slots. The system itself was inconvenient. Could have easily done it without the help and that’s the problem. If you’re capable of doing something without the aid, someone just wasted a lot of time trying to force the mechanic on the players to begin with.

It’s great if they want to make a new interesting mechanic, my advice however is to make it intuitive.

ArtemusHunter.9521:

I had no problem. It reminded me a little of my days in GW1. I honestly would like to see the dev’s bring more of this kinda stuff into the game.

Micromanaging Scruffy isn’t so bad. Put him into defensive right away before fighting, kill the stuff with him and just talk to him afterwards. What’s so difficult about that?

Heroes in GW1 defended automatically, or were you literally disabling all their skills and inputting them manually?

this didn’t bother me at all. it was quite easy to switch modes, even in battle.

Nilkemia.8507:

Eh? It worked fine for me, and aside from a vet that ran away after half health, the enemies weren’t problematic.

That vet is designed to work that way (to make the achievement harder). He becomes attackable again halfway to the exit, so you have to stop him there and kill him.

Devildoc.6721:

AntiSaneity.3628:

How is this even something to complain about? Less than a second to switch him between modes, done. Sohrd.

It’s a janky interface to do while in combat. You basically say “screw having the NPC that’s supposed to help you actually help, I’ll just kill them myself”

So basically the same as every other NPC “helper” in the game.

Lasica.5068:

Nilkemia.8507:

Eh? It worked fine for me, and aside from a vet that ran away after half health, the enemies weren’t problematic.

That vet is designed to work that way (to make the achievement harder). He becomes attackable again halfway to the exit, so you have to stop him there and kill him.

Oh…I did try chasing, but couldn’t kill them. Should’ve realized it was for an achievement though…oh well.

Khisanth.2948:

Devildoc.6721:

AntiSaneity.3628:

How is this even something to complain about? Less than a second to switch him between modes, done. Sohrd.

It’s a janky interface to do while in combat. You basically say “screw having the NPC that’s supposed to help you actually help, I’ll just kill them myself”

So basically the same as every other NPC “helper” in the game.

The other NPC helpers automatically defend if you’re in combat. Hell, Kasmeer spams time warp pretty much.

He barely does anything in attack mode anyway (basically does a breath attack every 20 seconds, then sits around being useless). I didn’t even really fight anything in that part. I just ran past all the mobs.

The Veteran Mordrem Wolf was annoying. Scruffy didn’t pull aggro and didn’t do any damage, so I just ranged and jumped up and down from the rock so it wouldn’t be able to attack while I did DPS.

Lol I actually enjoyed this mission quite a lot. Managing Scruffy was fun and something else to think about other than slaughtering mobs.

Devildoc.6721:

ArtemusHunter.9521:

I had no problem. It reminded me a little of my days in GW1. I honestly would like to see the dev’s bring more of this kinda stuff into the game.

Micromanaging Scruffy isn’t so bad. Put him into defensive right away before fighting, kill the stuff with him and just talk to him afterwards. What’s so difficult about that?

Heroes in GW1 defended automatically, or were you literally disabling all their skills and inputting them manually?

I believe the poster was talking about NPCs who would follow you like the Ghostly Hero in the Crystal Desert missions or more specifically the golems in EotN. Those golems you could ask to follow you or stay put and in one part even ask them to switch between range, melee in defense (Against the Destroyers, I think it was… and in that one you had 3 golems you could manage.) (also, you could put heroes in Avoid Combat mode, fyi. )

I too was reminded of GW1 and thought it was a nice nod, nor did I have any problems managing him.

I thought that Scruffy operated just fine. We had a limited area that was not very complex and Scruffy had no issues.

If you want to experience troublesome or problematic “friends” in a game, look up the Daikatana Sidekick debacle from 2000….

C’mon, Taimi has been working on the waypoint network scanner so far. Once she’s done with it, she’ll go back to improving her golem.

Actually, I would like to see MORE of this, but expanded upon. It was fun figuring out where to place him, then setting him to combat mode.

I will admit, the interface could’ve been handled better.

Also, I didn’t like how he wasn’t able to deal much damage. He inflicted 4 stacks of vulnerability on foes, whoopiedoo… <__<

As a more general critique: ANET needs to not be afraid to make instances more difficult, and give us stronger AI companions. And while at it, they also need to stop holding our hands so kitten much in every mission, with overused scripted events… Is this what modern gaming has turned into? Follow the leader and a braindead player?

I understand the current instances are great from a story telling standpoint, but ArenaNet needs to learn when is the time for story, and when is the time for gamplay. NOT handholding!

Missions in GW1 had ZERO Green Stars. The ones which did have green stars (dungeons), generally had a large puzzle and path to follow. In fact, most of GW1 missions had a very simple premise: Reach the end of a dungeon-like area while completing special objectives, sometimes they were optional. But more importantly, we never had a stupid NPC holding our hands through every single, annoying step like we do in GW2. And even when we did have an NPC following us, they actually helped out a bit (Master Togo would have powerful AoE using Spirit Rift, for example. Brother Mhenlo healed, and even Gadd in EoTN would use Air Magic skills…)

ArenaNet needs to do less hand holding. Give us more challenging mobs to fight through, and give us multiple ways of approaching a problem.

Making us fight only a single ooze mob for this entire instance was a total waste of mechanics I spent a long time reading to control Scruffy. And making players able to solo that mob was an even bigger waste of time.

I just left him at follow and killed everything myself, it’s not like those mobs are remotely difficult that you require an npc to help.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Step 1: Set to follow
Step 2: Kill everything yourself in <3 seconds (zerker gear ftw)
Step 3: Done

This is my plan. Just got to this part last night then DC’d. I’ll be finishing tonight using this logic.

Kain Francois.4328:

And even when we did have an NPC following us, they actually helped out a bit (Master Togo would have powerful AoE using Spirit Rift, for example. Brother Mhenlo healed, and even Gadd in EoTN would use Air Magic skills…)

Kormir says hi… and then proceeds just to stand there. :P

Setting Scruffy was annoying, but what is really annoying was the veteran ooze that had the insane crowd control skills with each attack. I was playing on a thief so stability doesn’t exist as far as I know. As for projectile nullification, it can only last so long before going on recharge.

It really was a clunky mechanic. His three settings should have been

Passive (follows, never fights back)
Defensive (follows, fights when attacked)
Scan (same as normal)

The “defensive makes him stand around after combat” mode is just poorly done, bad form.

Lothirieth.3408:

Kain Francois.4328:

And even when we did have an NPC following us, they actually helped out a bit (Master Togo would have powerful AoE using Spirit Rift, for example. Brother Mhenlo healed, and even Gadd in EoTN would use Air Magic skills…)

Kormir says hi… and then proceeds just to stand there. :P

Kormir didn’t count, since she wasn’t an ally for most missions. In fact, she wasn’t even there for majority of the campaign!

Besides, sexy, sexy Koss and his sexy afro, make up for any kitten we had to deal with Kormir.

Devildoc.6721:

There needs to be a special circle of the underworld dedicated to the dev who decided it’d be a SWELL idea to micromanage scruffy between follow and defend modes. It was obnoxious and janky to switch him mid combat with enemies that dropped half your health in a single hit, which good luck dodging while you have the dialogue box opened up blocking half your screen.

Couldn’t we have had it make sense like every other NPC helper throughout the entire game.. where it defends you when you enter combat on its own?

Don’t bother with defend mode. Since when EVER has an NPC in this game shown any real intelligence or capability in this regard? As soon as I saw that option I was like “NOPE. Fight ’em all myself, thanks.”

ozmaniandevil.6805:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Step 1: Set to follow
Step 2: Kill everything yourself in <3 seconds (zerker gear ftw)
Step 3: Done

This is my plan.

This is what we did as well.

-Select “Follow”
- Carry on

I know we’re probably supposed to swap his modes, but to me this wasn’t any different than the mission in GWEN where we had the golems either (Attack, Heal, Defend options). I stuck 2 on defend, 1 on heal, and forgot they were there.

“Moving on”

biggs.4702:

Devildoc.6721:

There needs to be a special circle of the underworld dedicated to the dev who decided it’d be a SWELL idea to micromanage scruffy between follow and defend modes. It was obnoxious and janky to switch him mid combat with enemies that dropped half your health in a single hit, which good luck dodging while you have the dialogue box opened up blocking half your screen.

Couldn’t we have had it make sense like every other NPC helper throughout the entire game.. where it defends you when you enter combat on its own?

Don’t bother with defend mode. Since when EVER has an NPC in this game shown any real intelligence or capability in this regard? As soon as I saw that option I was like “NOPE. Fight ’em all myself, thanks.”

The point isn’t the instance itself, the point is they throw this mechanic at you and didn’t do a very good job of it. That’s what I’m criticizing, and that’s what I think could have been done a hell of a lot better.

The only situations where I found it worth switching his mode from follow to anything else were 2 achievements:

1. The one where you have to kill everything from all the traps: I set him to “defent” before activating the “Inquest fleeing to door” trap so he kept aggro while I took a stroll to the door to kill the Inquest group. Same for the wolf so I could nuke it more or less without any stress.

2. Where you need to avoid every trap. There I did some occasional scanning just to be sure.

It’s true that the in combat handling of the options is stressy and not very comfortable. That’s the only thing I could see as a minor problem. But since you can see the traps beforehand I don’t see a reason to even switch modes in combat…

And to finish the main storyline, there is no reason to switch modes at all.

I never bothered to switch his mode. There was no way his DPS could match mine.

If you are relying on an NPCs damage in a fight, you got bigger problems than ‘micormanagement’.

Even the term ‘micormanagement’ is laughable.

This is what micro looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdSKD3LRHV8

I didn’t mind it, and it seemed like a Ranger pet management system at its barebones. F1 for defense mode, F2 for the scan, F3 to follow.

I never took Scruffy off of follow mode. My pet already does the work for me in open world PvE.

It’s the main reason to have a Ranger, honestly.

ArtemusHunter.9521:

I had no problem. It reminded me a little of my days in GW1. I honestly would like to see the dev’s bring more of this kinda stuff into the game.

Micromanaging Scruffy isn’t so bad. Put him into defensive right away before fighting, kill the stuff with him and just talk to him afterwards. What’s so difficult about that?

gawd, dont compare the crap golem in gw2 who is just as dumb as the rest of the AI to the golem mission in gw1 who were actually helpful

If we had F5-F8 slots to equip consumables for use in combat, during this mission, Taimi would give you 3 items to give the orders. You equip them in the consumable slots, and give the orders fluently without talking.

I don’t like Scruffy
I hope he gets a blue screen of death and dies lol
I didn’t have this problem though
just set him to follow and slaughtered everything myself with my Hybrid Necro
was a cake walk

I liked the “follow” in that he wouldn’t stop in the middle of a group and start attacking.

You could completely ignore the air elementals because of this.

It seems very much like the promised, but ultimately not implemented, Companion system.

I’d very much like them to fully implement the Companion system (with a decent UI, which would probably be the hardest part).

Let us take one of Destiny’s Orphans with us into Dungeons.

My pet peeve with it was that when Scruffy was following you, he would always stop -JUST- outside of speaking range. If you could just hit F and switch his modes in the middle of combat, that’d be fine, but he always stops somewhere you have to stop, turn around, look for him and move to him to switch him in defend mode. Too much effort, thus I did what most people did and just kill everything myself without him.

The only time I used defend mode was when I tried to solo the achievement where you have to kill two traps in two seperate places, hoping he would at least keep the assassin occupied while I killed the door. Yeah, that didn’t work out. Making Scruffy even more useless.

Minos.5168:

I liked the “follow” in that he wouldn’t stop in the middle of a group and start attacking.

You could completely ignore the air elementals because of this.

It seems very much like the promised, but ultimately not implemented, Companion system.

I’d very much like them to fully implement the Companion system (with a decent UI, which would probably be the hardest part).

Let us take one of Destiny’s Orphans with us into Dungeons.

I’d take a companion with good AI over pugs in a lot of dungeons haha.