So I returned from a longish hiatus (8 months) to discover that my flesh golem Elite has been rendered almost useless. what happened? Other than when I command to him to knock down he just stands there and does nothing for a good 70-80% of my entire playtime. Although the knockdown is the primary use for him in Tpvp him hitting for 1k is rather nice too. Anyone else experiencing this issue?
It’s so frustrating but I swear i played a while on release and it was never that bad, It’s really noticeable now. And another thing, after guild wars 1 and all the experience with Heroes/henchman they would of nailed AI. Heroes were pretty great after a few updates, been more reliable then some players.
Exactly. Furthermore, they’ve already nailed the Ranger’s pet AI; I don’t see the issue with extending that to the Necro’s minions. But of course what do I know, I am not ANet’s engineer.
And to sidetrack a little: Henchies and Heroes, along with all of their possible combined build combinations, were what made the original Guild Wars the legendary game it was. The ‘party of eight’ system, with each class having their own roles, gave GW1 the magical RPG-esque feel that this game never managed to capture.
Don’t get me wrong, this game is still good in its own right — the environments especially never fail to impress — but the change in combat system from team-based to solo-based play, as well as the lack of avenues for build experimentation, are to me some of the game’s biggest letdowns.
Yeah, The first game was amazing and introduced me to the genre, I really do miss it. After over 4 thousand hours put in someone hacked it and deleted all my armor. I was well gutted i never logged back in after tech support told me they don’t restore items..I loved creating party builds/farming with a friend in underworld. The good ol days. This is still a nice game but I don’t think i’ll settle into it for more than two months at a time.
Aggressive minions that go ape kittens all over any foe that crosses their line of sight is far better then minions that don’t do anything. I’ve wanted to build a minion build after the introduction of Nomad armor, but seeing as they literally DON’T DO ANYTHING I can bring myself to bother with it.
I suppose I should chime in here as well. I used to run Flesh Golem before the Lyssa runes were nerfed and occasionally noticed it just standing next to me watching me fight. After that balance/features patch this happens about 90% of the time. Even with no pathing issues it’ll stand next to me like a Ranger pet on passive eating popcorn and watching the fight. At least make it clap when it’s all over.
~An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.~
Minion master isn’t an esports build, and is frowned up generally. Therefore, Anet does not give a total kitten.
This isn’t remotely true; just because some people on the sPvP forums dislike MM builds doesn’t mean ANet doesn’t make any changes to MM. Death Nova has been buffed since launch, VM has had ratios added to it, as well as fixes to bugs that happened in that. Minions have had some improvements to AI (not in consistency, but when they do work it is much better than how things were at launch), a massive HP buff in PvE, plus indirect buffing via the DM minor reworks. There were also some minor QoL fixes like mobs in PvE not aggroing off of minions being nearby.
They haven’t fixed AI yet because they don’t know how to without breaking all AI in the game (all AI inherits from a singular source).
Flesh Golem (and all minions) have AI issues that need to be fixed, but you can generally work around them.
Hi care to share your workaround? My main gripe with the Golem is that when I use its Charge attack it will travel the full length of its Charge — oftentimes ending up a fair distance away from its target — and then just stand there without moving until I disengage from combat. An ELITE skill as mechanically broken as this is incredibly frustrating.
I never found a satisfactory solution to this issue other than not using Charge and diligently leading mobs to within melee range of the Golem to make it fight. It’s a terrible pity, as the Golem really does good damage and tanks like a beast when it actually bothers to fight.
Hi care to share your workaround? My main gripe with the Golem is that when I use its Charge attack it will travel the full length of its Charge — oftentimes ending up a fair distance away from its target — and then just stand there without moving until I disengage from combat. An ELITE skill as mechanically broken as this is incredibly frustrating.
I never found a satisfactory solution to this issue other than not using Charge and diligently leading mobs to within melee range of the Golem to make it fight. It’s a terrible pity, as the Golem really does good damage and tanks like a beast when it actually bothers to fight.
From your comment I assume its PvE, in which case I very sparingly use his charge. The AI currently bugs out over pathing issues, stuff like moving over terrain that he can’t and sending him a ways out with Charge are really prone to messing things up.
I’d suggest not using charge except against a wall, because it is a loss of DPS unless it is used as a gap closer for him, or it hits multiple times (like against a wall). Also try to not summon him if you don’t really need him when moving around a lot.
All they have to do is make any kind of pet just like the risens in Orr , cause apparently those risens will just follow anything that even looks like it will move and never go away
All they have to do is make any kind of pet just like the risens in Orr , cause apparently those risens will just follow anything that even looks like it will move and never go away
Minions, especially flesh golem, used to be insanely hyper aggressive. Trust me it was a massive pain in the kitten . He’d attack literally anything in sight, until it or he died, or he teleported back to you, and his leash range was almost half an sPvP map.
I’ve found that the only way to mitigate the bad AI’s damage to your fights, is to only summon them when you need them, then put them away when the fight’s over(hugely assuming you won, if in wvw).
Maybe that explains it. I just started a Necro MM in Wvw and could not figure out why my minions just stood there half the time. When they attacked it was very effective. When they stood there it was not.
I figured there something I doing wrong. I took to manually clicking on their special attacks which seemed to get them involved in the combat.
Flesh Golem (and all minions) have AI issues that need to be fixed, but you can generally work around them.
I’d like to know the work around when I’m in melee range of my foe attacking with a dagger, getting hit as my minions are literally standing there NOT DOING A GOD KITTENS THING! Flips a table At the same time the Human racial hounds of balthazar attack my target and don’t have any bugs that I’m aware of or if they do, I haven’t noticed them.
I’ve noticed that LITERALLY other people running MM builds have better success than I do with running it. I’ve tried running that build and they don’t attack a single thing 90% of the time. The other person I fight in spvp or tpvp with MM builds seem to have pets that DO SOMETHING. it’s like a kittenkitten monkey trying to judge if the banana is edible or if it’s a butt scratcher.
May the path of Grenth forever yield the death of your enemies. Necromancer, death brings us closer.
Hounds of Balthazar don’t generally run into issues because they don’t live very long, and they don’t have a secondary active that causes a lot of buggy issues. Almost all duration-gated summons do slightly better because they don’t have much time to screw up.
Here’s the key. The minions have a high tendency to bug out if they are moving when you launch your attack. As such, MM’s work best when they remain largely stationary, such as holding points or defending. They don’t work so well as roaming cappers or gankers. If you are running minions in PvE or WvW, try and let your minions come to a stop first before attacking. It’s not always possible, but if they get bugged, luring your enemy right next to them (stand next to your golem) sometimes gets them attacking.
I’ve noticed that LITERALLY other people running MM builds have better success than I do with running it. I’ve tried running that build and they don’t attack a single thing 90% of the time. The other person I fight in spvp or tpvp with MM builds seem to have pets that DO SOMETHING. it’s like a kittenkitten monkey trying to judge if the banana is edible or if it’s a butt scratcher.
It won’t be long before someone posts an amusing video of two opposing MM’s soloing each other as their minions all glitch out and watch the fight by the side.
Hounds of Balthazar don’t generally run into issues because they don’t live very long, and they don’t have a secondary active that causes a lot of buggy issues. Almost all duration-gated summons do slightly better because they don’t have much time to screw up.
except the minions are screwing up as soon as they are summoned.
Yes OP, I agree this is a pain in the kitten. I tried using this elite but far, far too often it doesn’t help me at all. So I just use anything else. No minion master for me. I usually use wells, spectral walk and change up the elite to whatever I need at the time.
When you are standing at the hill…
overlooking the wonderfull scenery and the impending frustration you are about to embark on for a gold star next to your name.
Fleshy is your only friend.
he does not have to work. just be there. mindlessly lurching along ..
I must say, I do miss the old, hyper-aggressive minion AI. I could just afk near hearts and he’d run around, destroying every pile of Ogre Supplies in the outpost, bravely rushing to defend embattled Seraph, and just generally having his own merry adventures in my general vicinity. Sometimes me and a buddy necro would just summon our Flesh golems and stand around to watch what exciting adventures they’d go on today.
