Guild Wars 2

As far as I know, the usual AoE attacks indicated by red circles of bosses hit up to 5 targets. I was wondering what would happen if we had some minions, in lets say Subject Alpha. When he casts his large AoE attack, will the minions count as targets? If so, would they be prioritized to hit by the attack or the attack randomly chooses 5 targets? If I had all 6 minions with me, could the group effectively negate the AoE attack? Thanks in advance

In theory, yes. Same with mesmer clones.

Minions are pretty bulky compared to mesmer clones, and even bulkier when traited. In the Subject Alpha example, if I had a Hammer Guardian that keeps them under Protection at all times and Weakness on boss (I dont suppose it works in special attacks though), they could survive one or two more hits. Would this be effective on insta kill mechanics on lets say Fractals in which the death of all minions (I am looking at Blood Fiend, Bone Fiend, Shadow Fiend and 2 Bone Minions) can be used in an Aegis like way for the group every 24 seconds, or am I assuming too much?

pets/clones/minions count as targets but I believe that players are prioritized over them.

Maybe I should head over to CoE and see it for myself I will let you know of what I will have learned.

In theory, yes. However, not all boss abilities have AoE limits (to my knowledge), and they will also count to scale-up certain things.

I don’t think they prioritize players but idk.

Bhawb.7408:

In theory, yes. However, not all boss abilities have AoE limits (to my knowledge), and they will also count to scale-up certain things.

I don’t think they prioritize players but idk.

To expand on this, Subject Alpha has an attack where he targets everything with AoE’s. Minions each get their own target.

And so far as I can tell, AoE only has two priorities:
1. Selected target
2. Proximity to center (nearest targets are hit).

These two priorities are listed in-order.

hmm. i’ve been standing at 1500 range on alpha (it was an alternative tactic because people couldn’t do the stack), and there were times when i had no aoe on me at all, even though others did. maybe it’s just that his range isn’t that long, but i don’t think so. it seemed like there was a finite number of aoe’s. i’m not even sure my pets were getting hit all the time either (but that could speak for players being prioritized).

would love to see some tests!

Minions will not keep you from an AoE attack but they will draw aggro. Minion CD (when they die) is the penalty for running them. Also, there are minion kitten s that are part of the equation.

I am pretty sure they are counted as targets, so if there is an attack made that hits up to 5 targets and minions are in it, they will get hit. If all 6 of the minions are in, only 5 should be hit. Same goes for minions + players, so theoretically minions can keep you from an AoE attack.