Guild Wars 2

I like my minions but they never seem to act right, or how I would want them to. The flesh golem is the worst of them. Whenever I attack something it just stands there, and when I don’t attack anything it aggros everything (not all the time, but sometimes this does happen).

I think they really need to work on this, right now minions are just cripplingly dumb.

I would also like to be able to unsummon my minions. Sometimes when they are low on health I just want to get rid of them so I can begin the cooldown on the spell, but I can’t and they just have to be useless in the next battle I go to.

Anyone else finding minions to be too much trouble?

I am also having the same problems with my minions.
When I enter combat some of them just stand there. I have found the two bone minions do this the most. By the time they act the combat is over. I have also found that when exploring they just stray to far from me and agrro mobs.

Minions definitely need an overhaul. Maybe something like the Ranger pet UI. Not as advanced of course, but I would like to be able to call them to me and have them attack a target I call reliably.

The fact that they just stand around a lot has already been mentioned, but it would also be nice if they could regen health out of battle so I don’t have to tediously resummon them after every fight.

I wouldn’t say too much trouble, but I am finding them to be frustrating. As you said, the Flesh Golem has it’s own agro and just follows you around rather than your other minions. It’s still nice for the knockdown charge, but that can get stuck on the scenery too often.

The other minions are much more responsive, most of the time they seem to target enemies as soon as I tell my necro to attack. However, they need to add the Flesh Golem’s out of combat regeneration to the rest of them.

And then there’s the Jagged Horrors. A minor trait I can barely avoid taking if I want staff or minion traits that does absolutely nothing. It can only spawn once every 30 seconds and dies 5 seconds later (apparently before all it’s health is gone if the continued health ticks are any indication). I don’t want regen on these guys, it makes perfect sense that they don’t get it, but I would like them to not lose health without outside help.

And finally they need to revert the Blood fiend. Having it go on cooldown when it dies on it’s own is just silly. How are we supposed to make any use of it when it runs into combat and gets itself killed before we need the heal?

my only problem is bone fiend dies too easily

The bone fiend is ok for me, since it does attack (most of the time). But bone minions .. They just stand there doing nothing most of the time, you can’t even explode them since they’r standing nowhere near your target.

I’d love being able to command them like rangers,.. or atleast get them to attack.

Same trouble with the bone minions and flesh golem here, it’s very frustrating. And I’d also like to sign the petition for a “dismiss” or “unsummon” ability for our pets that does not involve having to swap skills.

Just like turrets, minions need to not attack until you attack, are being attacked, or they are being attacked.

We also really need the option to dismiss.

Yitsul.8342:

my only problem is bone fiend dies too easily

That’s my only complaint about that one as well, between it’s high damage and crippling ability it’s an absolute aggro magnet. I find most of my fights as a MM come down to protecting the bone fiend while everything charges it.

I find the Shadow Fiend is a good compliment to it as you can usually draw aggro off of the squishy bone fiend by haunting your target with the shadow first.

BeardRex.6739:

We also really need the option to dismiss.

Oh yes please.

I also have problems with minions like many other necros I talk to either on server or on forums. Just a little bit of tweaking to their AI would be so appreciated by the necro community.

Much love,
Madame Moorshade Teknomancer.

Oh I almost forgot Jagged horrors existed even though I have that trait. The only thing they serve to do is make my necro mock about how he needs to make another. Literally the most useless trait. Maybe if the automatically exploded when they die and the cooldown was dropped much lower. but right now they are useless beyond belief.

The minions need to scale with gear, they don’t not at all. Try it remove all your gear and check your minion dmg, still the exact same -_-

All my issues has been sayed here. exept that the flesh golem charges through your target. Sometimes when u charge a group its good, but sometimes when u just press the button it charges through the target and pulls everything within 1200.

Minions doesn’t look cool, like at all. They don’t look menacing, they look pathetic.

.. Here’s the big bad necromancer that can even turn himself into a lich. BEWARE of his undead servants !!

Oh, wait those are just undead rabbits. Never mind what I said. Carry on.

Where are the basic infantry minions with blades instead of hands? I belive they were called “animated bone minions” Did necromancers just forget how to make them? And instead wanted fluffy (albet smelly) unliving bunnies as pets? What gives?!

Yes the minion AI is horrible, how do the other classes get actual pet AI and we are left with pants-on-headkitten minions. If my Flesh Golem is only going to attack the target 1/4th of the time I want its damage x4 so make up for it (not really but it would make me feel better at least.)

All of the above posted issues with minion AI, traits and scaling apply, but my absolute favorite is running around Orr with the Flesh Golem elite. Nothing like needing to wait 60 seconds each time I cross a stream. Even better is when I need to make a beachhead assault tuned for land combat and he’s (of course) on cooldown.

So i got to level 30 on my necro now, and yup. Everyone here is right … the flesh golem is the worst one of them all… and that for an elite >.>
They should really look into this because the minions as they are now just aren’t worth using.

I’ve basically given up leveling my now 24 necromancer with the pets I was so excited to get. He’s going scepter/dagger with lots of AoE skills now.

Everything people are saying is accurate. Necro pets need some loving. Regen out of combat would be huge. Making them more responsive is absolutely necessary—the Shadow Fiend just derps near me when I’m fighting a lot of the time.

I don’t think we need a UI for our pets; the bugs just need to get worked out. They could also use more health, or scale off the necro’s stats so they’re tougher, or do more damage based on how you spec (beyond the traits that do those specific things).

It’s nearly impossible to PvE with pets, since they just die to equal level mobs so easily, and prove untrustworthy when you start a fight.

I would like to see:
1) A control (like pets have in other MMOs) where I can set the minions’ stance.
2) The ability to tell the minion which target I want it to attack.
3) The ability to unsummon them!!! (they make it really hard to see things around my necro, like when I am trying to climb something for a vista point; also the CD is so long I want to unsommon them when they are nearly dead so that I can summon a new one that will be able to fight)
4) I really want my necro to stop whining each time a minion dies. “Guess I’ll have to make another one”, “NOOOOO! I raised that minion”, etc.
5) Minions (e.g., the flesh golem) that don’t just stand around doing nothing while in a fight.
6) Jagged Horrors that are actually worth akitten They usually degen before they can even attack anything, are easily used by others to rally.

id really like to hear something from ANET about this. I am a minionmancer (glutton for punishment) and having my pets act this buggy is pretty lame. It essentially makes some of my utility skills absolutely worthless. What good is an elite skill that DOES NOTHING (flesh golem, just standing around)

minions are a huge No-No at the moment.
to be honest, anything but conditionmancer is a huge No-No, given the current state of the necro

ANet has had months to fix them and they have failed at every turn…I start wondering if they should just call it a day, admit they cant get the AI right, remove everything related to minions and replace em with new skills and traits that maybe finally fix the class

I agree that the AI of the minions is a bit weird sometimes, and that it’s annoying that the Flesh Golem’s charge goes off even if he’s stuck behind a boulder or something. If I walk back three paces, he suddenly follows me properly again, but then his charge is on cooldown. Despite this, I quite like him and named him Lurch. He’s my best friend when I gather stuff with mobs nearby, since he seems to intercept mobs before they attack me :D

I don’t think the Jagged Horrors are completely useless though – if nothing else, they can give a ‘free’ 3s poison field every 30 seconds. It’s not a lot, but they’re usually close enough to a fight to give a combo effect for one my allies – minion or otherwise.

Yes, pet ai and control interface is in dire need of an upgrade.

They either need a better AI, or allow users more manual control. I prefer to be given the control, as it raises the skill cap of necros.

Unsummon is also a good idea. Both for combat and role playing purposes.

Since we only have F1 occupied, perhaps F2-6 could be for selecting pets so that manual commands could be given.

As others have mentioned the flesh golem’s AI is atrocious, agroing anything I don’t set my eyes on. I can’t tell how many times my bone fiend immobilize skill has failed to apply to the target I need. Either he doesnt even bother to cast it, or it didn’t target what I did, or it chains itself but not the target. The Shadow fiend ability takes slightly too long in terms of casting time/animation.

I love it, really. They are frustrating, annoying, sometimes they are completely useless, standing there doing nothing, sometimes they just go and charge mobs you’re not interested in fighting. They take a while to use their abilities when you tell them to, and all in all, they seem to be giving you the middle finger most of the time.

Exactly how I expect some monstrosity I raise from a grave to act. Completely love it.

EmpyJon.4561:

I love it, really. They are frustrating, annoying, sometimes they are completely useless, standing there doing nothing, sometimes they just go and charge mobs you’re not interested in fighting. They take a while to use their abilities when you tell them to, and all in all, they seem to be giving you the middle finger most of the time.

Exactly how I expect some monstrosity I raise from a grave to act. Completely love it.

Oh you’re so laissez-faire with your little ones. If mine don’t work as they should, i release them (by slotting another skill and using it) and let them stand there all on their own. That’ll teach them!

I don’t really know why there needs to be a 4 second cast time on a 2 second blind. (2 seconds for you, 2 seconds for your minion) it kinda defeats the purpose of the blind outside of massive-really-long-animation-single-blows.

omg new patch and they didnt fix necro minion AI again come on.Every1 suffering from it…

The minions are just so unreliable, their AI is stupid. Half the time they don’t attack, other times they walk into an AoE and just die. Their whole issue with attacking things is the real problem though.

I’ve given up on using minions as well, except underwater, where they serve as fodder and aggro distraction. On land, they’re just not reliable. Considering their cooldown, they don’t tank well enough, if they even choose to be involved in a fight. Or they start pulling aggro from additional foes and refuse to fight the one I’m attacking.

I think they need to implement a mechanism to automatically replace a low-health minion outside of combat.

Yes, yes, for the love of gods, YES! This!
The general idea of necro minion master build is to be as annoying as possible, and achieve that via our servitors. Nothing less, nothing more, but this. Don’t forget that.
Now, basically all minion masters need to take traits giving their minions more damage, more HP and the trait to summon them faster. At the end of our journey we are supposed to take traits like death nova, which somehow justifies the jagged horrors even in their current state. Also, health siphon skills, for both me and that of a minions. We are to have minions, they are to heal us, they are to annoy the enemy as much as possible and we are to summon more once they die (which is very soon, and it is good since they would be fairly imbalanced if changed).
The thing is, this build is almost viable, even for PvP. The thing that makes this build totaly useless is minion AI. Suddenly all your plans to annoy fall apart as your bone minions just stand arround, flesh golem decides it is better to beat a doe on its own rather than help you with the enemy, shadow fiend loves to stand arround and watch the scenery … The only minions working as they should are range minions, bone and devourerish ones are quite ok for now. All melee minions sometimes attack, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they just decide to move a bit closer to the enemy but they don’t hit him, probably deciding to stare him to death or something. And this is where all your strategy dies. Without them hitting the enemy, no siphon. Without flesh golem being close to the enemy, you can’t stun him. Shadow fiend can’t blind, he is too far away. Bone minions can perform a “poof of doom”, yay! Pity they aren’t in the distance to cause any damage at all. So, no siphon for you, no being annoying and the only minions skill that works just fine is sacrificing your blood fiend.
Minion master is a great build, it is fun to play and even challenging, somehow versatile and all, but it all rises and falls with minions doing their job, no matter it is just standing there, hitting the enemy a few times and dying shortly after. This needs to be fixed, for other than that you are just a bellow-average necro who uses unboosted death shroud. Not a fun thing to realise once you hit 80 and expect the build to behave in some way.

A few things I’ve noticed with minions

• I like to play with a staff but I have to get much closer to my target then I would like with the staff in order to have my minions attack. If I stand a full range of the staff the minions just stand with me.

• The flesh golem has a mind of it’s own. It randomly runs away from me and attacks things that aren’t even near me but won’t attack the things I want them to.

• Minions don’t go underwater with you so you have to keep casting them. They should just go into the water and then back out again.

• Overall compared to the other classes, running minions with a staff or scepter/axe with a focus deals way less damage at the same level.

• To be able to fight solo with minions in an area that is designed for your level, they really need to have more toughness/hp and hit harder.

I understand that by using minions we aren’t putting traits into our power, so in return the minions should pick up the slack so that we can kill more than one foe at a time. Running anything with minions seems to work best when fighting with a group of friends.

There’s only a few issues I have with minions atm, namely:

*Their AI needs a lot of work, minions going unresponsive during a fight is unacceptable and the Flesh Golem needs to not aggro things of it’s own accord.

*Jagged Horrors being so overwhelmingly useless, they only become mildly useful once you get Death Nova and can start doing something productive with their remarkable ability to die 5 seconds after they are raised. We shouldn’t need a 30 point major trait in order to make a 5 point minor trait useful.

In all I think controls matching the ranger pet controls are unlikely. From a logic (granted logic in a fantasy game is dangerous), a necromancers undead minions are bound to be less intelligent than a ranger pet and the necromancer doesn’t have an empathetic connection to them like the ranger does to his pet. However the control to unsummon would fit this “logic” as it just means the necromancer is finished with his minion.

What I would like to see is improved AI…minions don’t have to be intelligent to know to attack when master attacks or is being attacked. Nor does it need to be intelligent to know not to attack if master is not being attacked or attacking.

Finally, Jagged Horrors need revisited so they are at least somewhat useful and not detrimental and annoying. I’ve given plenty of suggestions on threads specifically for Jagged Horrors and won’t repeat them here, but c’mon A.Net, give us a bone here.

I agree that having the flesh golem stand around is annoying, but that’s about the only complaint that I agree or sympathize with. Minions aren’t animals like a ranger’s pet, they’re an animated collection of dead material. Why would they be smart beyond the ability to respond to basic ideas beyond “charge” or “blind” etc? Oh, I love the idea of un-summoning and an amphibious flesh golem. otherwise I think necro as it is is great, and completely playable if you know what you’re doing.

Chidori Cross.1748:

A few things I’ve noticed with minions

• Minions don’t go underwater with you so you have to keep casting them. They should just go into the water and then back out again.

When you go under water you get a new set of slot skills. If you don’t have them set as the minions, they’ll die. Next time you go under, set your slot skills for the minions you want (I have more while under than out of water) and they’ll jump right in with you. Not the golem, though.

I have to agree with most of the things being said in this thread. The minion AI is functional, but very frustrating and sometimes unpredictable. And the jagged horror is pretty awful even if it has something to attack it can only get 2-3 hits of bleed in before it’s health draining makes it die. While I’m at it +10 toughness for every minion is pretty mediocre as well, because if you forego having anything but minions you could get a max of about +70 with a jagged horror. Which is better than nothing, but whenever I take death magic traits I feel pigeon holed into using minions.

I would like to say that I really like where bone minions are though. Really fun too detonate, some of the biggest burst damage a necromancer can do, and can even set off combo fields. One of my favorite utilities right now, well that is when they decide to stand next to what I’m attacking. Flesh golem as well actually… of course with that same asterisk of when it works as intended, because charging and it’s AI can be pretty wonky.

Wombatt, Thanks for the tip. It seems this has changed since the release. I had my bone minions on skill #7 on ground and on skill #8 under water. Every time I went in the water my minions would leave and my skill would reset. I changed them to both 7 and they go in and out of the water now. I also tried to put them back onto skill 8 but now when you go underwater it switchs your #7 and #8 skill and they skill stay with you.

why dont they just copy/paste the pet ai from WoW? i dont get it.. the WoW pets work nearly flawless in every way.
Idk they should pay blizz a few bucks for the ai code or w/e.

i also highly criticise that a net doesnt even respond here, cuz mmm necros have a huge disadvantage over the other classes.
I mean are those guys lazy? The ranger pets work, the turrets and the mesmer illusions work too.
shouldnt be a big deal to fix our minion ai…..

cmon guys we make u rich give something backkitten#8230;

Yea I have to agree with the minions needing an overhaul. I cant tell you how many times i have had to mash all my minions skills just to get them to engage in a fight thats been started 30 sec ago. Not just the Flesh golem but the shadow thing too sits a lot. Also seeing as how we brought up the issues with underwater…. So far all minions can swim but not the flesh golem…. so why cant we fix this as well?. I would rather the ai to be fixed first tho

There are a few things I don’t like about the minions.

The AI – we all know this needs work
No out of combat heal or unsummon – you can change skills but thats just a pain
No increase to minion stats based off traits
Reanimator – totally worthless all around
Rigor Mortis – this works like 10% of the time in pvp since everyone is moving. He needs to be able to move into range and use the attack.
Blood fiend – Should heal on his death. Also should actually give you the correct amount of healing which it does not currently.
Bone minions – activate death nova on death

About minions appereance. I just noticed: there are grunt, fighter, shade, shooter and caster. Hey, I have my own little dead Destiny’s Edge!

Ok, ok. I’ll try to be serious.
As I already said in another topic: I find nice the main theme of minions appereance (deformed surrealistic spiky flesh things), but something wrong with each minion appereance in the details, and I can’t figure what. I can’t explain why, but necromancer surrounded by minions looks comical.
Of course, it’s just my opinion and I understand that ANet have more inportant things to do than redesign minions.

There’s a whole host of issues with Necromancer minions right now. Let’s go down and make a summary, shall we?

• The Flesh Golem will attack enemies that get close, despite not targeting them.
• Minons stop attacking when you enter Death Shroud and will not begin until you exit the shroud.
• Minions do not have any “AoE avoidance” AI routines, so they die in a heartbeat to environment effects or monster AoE.
• Minions cannot be ordered to attack a target.
• Minions get one-shot by dungeon enemies, except the flesh golem, which takes two hits.
• Jagged Horrors are utterly useless except to grant a rally to downed enemy players.
• Activated minion skills require the target not move out of the way of them. Given their long cast times, actually landing these abilities is a gamble at best.
• Blood Fiend doesn’t heal for the correct amount when sacrificed.
• We have no way of dismissing a minion short of leaving combat and changing the skill.
• The 20% reduced cooldown on summoning minions doesn’t work on the Flesh Golem.

I cold keep going…

hey guys.. on the upside my jagged horror doesn’t give me rallies in PvP! only in WvW.. so I stay away from WvW

Can this post be re-visited please, because all of these issues really need to be addressed. Minons need a total overhall. Less standing around, more reacting to fighting, less aggro while traveling, more customization of behaviors, an unsummon option, and some kind of health regen after combat.

Can you not Necro 8 month old threads when we get this exact same topic every week at the least?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Pet-Control-Window/first#post2072837

If you really care about the necromancer class, comment on this thread about having a box to control your pets better.