Guild Wars 2

Anet hasn’t said anything about minions getting functional AI any time soon so I can assume they’ll continue to be totally worthless and stand around ignoring your target rather than actually fighting.

Why is nobody upset about this? I understand the CC change left the necro with no good heals (maybe vampire signet?) And the class still has terrible elites (Lich form nerf…lol) but had everyone just 100% given up on minions being a thing? They were supposed to be an iconic part of the class.

AI builds are generally cheesy and don’t always require any amount of skill to usem making them somewhat unfun in comparison to our non minion builds. I imagine nobody is really talking about minion builds because people would rather the class be good without relying on AI.

Not to mention there’s no news on the bad AI of Minions.

MMs can get all the buffs they want, but if they don’t attack…

Cecilia.5179:

AI builds are generally cheesy and don’t always require any amount of skill to usem making them somewhat unfun in comparison to our non minion builds. I imagine nobody is really talking about minion builds because people would rather the class be good without relying on AI.

I feel like minion builds could be very high skill if you could control them to some degree. Micromanaging a pet’s health, skills, target, and position is a big part of playing ranger well, why not give MM necros the same opportunity rather than 6 of the class’s most unique skills go totally unused.

I feel like an actually competent dev team would have taken the opportunity here to make minions a valid choice rather than a casual PvE trap choice on the level of racial skills.

I think that, sadly, ANet just keeps our non-utility minion skills for sheer flavour and funsies.

With the new Blood traits , minions will be op
That’s why they will still be statues

If an AI based build became good (or even good at beating noobs like turrets), then there would be an outcry among the entire player base to nerf it to hell.

Minions can’t be good. Anet will not let minions be good.

All we can ask for is that pointless minion traits (necromantic corruption) get removed so our other builds can work.

I will make them OP, don’t worry. I’m just not prepared to discuss my plans for world domination. Good luck everyone!

Valderius Rex.4108:

Anet hasn’t said anything about minions getting functional AI any time soon so I can assume they’ll continue to be totally worthless and stand around ignoring your target rather than actually fighting.

HoT is our best chance for this. They are making other AI better, hopefully they adjust minion AI.

Cecilia.5179:

AI builds are generally cheesy and don’t always require any amount of skill to usem making them somewhat unfun in comparison to our non minion builds. I imagine nobody is really talking about minion builds because people would rather the class be good without relying on AI.

You’ve never played MM then, or if you did you sucked at it. MM is only easy to play against idiots.

Bhawb.7408:

You’ve never played MM then, or if you did you sucked at it. MM is only easy to play against idiots.

I’ve given up trying to explain this to anyone… People have this god awful stigma that if it has its own name tag its brainless. Just accept it and move on. :/

I can’t give it up and move on, my minions are keeping me in combat

Bhawb.7408:

I can’t give it up and move on, my minions are keeping me in combat

Sacrifice some and then jump in a lake. That’ll fix it.

ronpierce.2760:

Bhawb.7408:

I can’t give it up and move on, my minions are keeping me in combat

Sacrifice some and then jump in a lake. That’ll fix it.

But he’s got minions specced for underwater too… and they’re aggroing a giant fish (somehow).

I main a Necro and play a Death Nova Minion Master/Condi build.

Since our Minion AI is usually unpredictable the build works well for that, since I want my minions to die.

I’ve also found that as a Death Nova Necro, it’s all about positioning and getting your minions into the thick of things which sometimes also means your in the thick of it as well.

It may not be Meta or as proficient as a powermancer, but its hella fun.

-Jasper Necro

As someone mentioned in another thread, minion masters (and probably to a large extent all transforms including Lich) are right now hardcountered by engis running the aoe moa toolbelt skill. If they take the trait where they recharge a toolbelt skill on evade, then they can actually SPAM AOE MOA ON A 20 SEC COOLDOWN.

Cecilia.5179:

AI builds are generally cheesy and don’t always require any amount of skill to usem making them somewhat unfun in comparison to our non minion builds. I imagine nobody is really talking about minion builds because people would rather the class be good without relying on AI.

You can imagine whatever you want.

It still doesn’t justify minions being broken — especially after they were largely fixed for a while before being broken again.

Rationalizing unfixed game bugs is far more cheesy than any build.

Cecilia.5179:

AI builds are generally cheesy and don’t always require any amount of skill to usem making them somewhat unfun in comparison to our non minion builds. I imagine nobody is really talking about minion builds because people would rather the class be good without relying on AI.

Cecilia I gotta agree with the others there. Against skilled opponents the minion mancer is far from brainless. And involves one of the most complex CC comboes in the game as its primary method of damage mitigation and application. You can brainlessly kill new players with ANY build. Its only when fighting equal opponents (assuming BOTH combatants are skilled) that you see how much skill a build really takes.

Valderius Rex.4108:

Anet hasn’t said anything about minions getting functional AI any time soon so I can assume they’ll continue to be totally worthless and stand around ignoring your target rather than actually fighting.

Why is nobody upset about this? I understand the CC change left the necro with no good heals (maybe vampire signet?) And the class still has terrible elites (Lich form nerf…lol) but had everyone just 100% given up on minions being a thing? They were supposed to be an iconic part of the class.

I am upset about it. I’ve been an MM since guild wars 1.

I haven’t given up though, being A Minion Master is way too much fun for me.

On the bright side, the minion master build is getting buffed to hell and back from this patch, and the death nova centered style of minion play is finally being brought back into the lime light once reaper hits.

Bhawb.7408:

Valderius Rex.4108:

Anet hasn’t said anything about minions getting functional AI any time soon so I can assume they’ll continue to be totally worthless and stand around ignoring your target rather than actually fighting.

HoT is our best chance for this. They are making other AI better, hopefully they adjust minion AI.

Cecilia.5179:

AI builds are generally cheesy and don’t always require any amount of skill to usem making them somewhat unfun in comparison to our non minion builds. I imagine nobody is really talking about minion builds because people would rather the class be good without relying on AI.

You’ve never played MM then, or if you did you sucked at it. MM is only easy to play against idiots.

Thats not true. MM is a typical brainless ai spec.

As for whether it becomes good. There is no chance with engi moa killing them all

I’m pretty pumped for minions actually…the movie.

Lordrosicky.5813:

MM is a typical brainless ai spec.

The AI is definitely brainless.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Bhawb.7408:

Valderius Rex.4108:

Anet hasn’t said anything about minions getting functional AI any time soon so I can assume they’ll continue to be totally worthless and stand around ignoring your target rather than actually fighting.

HoT is our best chance for this. They are making other AI better, hopefully they adjust minion AI.

Cecilia.5179:

AI builds are generally cheesy and don’t always require any amount of skill to usem making them somewhat unfun in comparison to our non minion builds. I imagine nobody is really talking about minion builds because people would rather the class be good without relying on AI.

You’ve never played MM then, or if you did you sucked at it. MM is only easy to play against idiots.

Thats not true. MM is a typical brainless ai spec.

As for whether it becomes good. There is no chance with engi moa killing them all

It wouldn’t be if we actually could micromanage the kitten things. That would propably even band-aid their aggro problems. Giving us “attack”, “move there” and “guard me!” commands would already help a lot. Or even a simple “go aggro”/“don’t aggro” switch.

Shiki.7148:

It wouldn’t be if we actually could micromanage the kitten things. That would propably even band-aid their aggro problems. Giving us “attack”, “move there” and “guard me!” commands would already help a lot. Or even a simple “go aggro”/“don’t aggro” switch.

I totally agree.

Shiki.7148:

It wouldn’t be if we actually could micromanage the kitten things. That would propably even band-aid their aggro problems. Giving us “attack”, “move there” and “guard me!” commands would already help a lot. Or even a simple “go aggro”/“don’t aggro” switch.

Micro would increase it yes, but it doesn’t change it. If you think MM is brainless, the simple reality is you’ve never played the build well. You have to track minions, as their abilities all launch from their locations, so in the “simplest” of minion builds you have to track 4 extra bodies on the map at all times and their position relative to the enemy. You also need to be actively using CC in order to make sure they aren’t kited. Then you’ve got defensive CDs that you use in order to keep the minions alive, which also involves tracking their HP.

And all of that is on top of playing a “normal” Necromancer build.

Minions aren’t going to survive 2-6k burn ticks.

Bhawb.7408:

Shiki.7148:

It wouldn’t be if we actually could micromanage the kitten things. That would propably even band-aid their aggro problems. Giving us “attack”, “move there” and “guard me!” commands would already help a lot. Or even a simple “go aggro”/“don’t aggro” switch.

Micro would increase it yes, but it doesn’t change it. If you think MM is brainless, the simple reality is you’ve never played the build well. You have to track minions, as their abilities all launch from their locations, so in the “simplest” of minion builds you have to track 4 extra bodies on the map at all times and their position relative to the enemy. You also need to be actively using CC in order to make sure they aren’t kited. Then you’ve got defensive CDs that you use in order to keep the minions alive, which also involves tracking their HP.

And all of that is on top of playing a “normal” Necromancer build.

[joke]

Oh I assure you it is brainless, you don’t need to pay attention to your minions position as the next AE coming your way will wipe them out anyway. No minions, nothing to look out for!

[/joke]

No, I know it isn’t brainless even now. Problem is, you can’T really do anything about your minions going where they shouldn’t or not doing what they should. You simply have no control. And the bugs with their active skills still aren’t fixed either, so even if you are perfectly aware where your flesh golem is standing, it doesn’t help you if he decides to randomly run AWAY from the target instead of at it… Hell, bone minions don’t even run towards the selected enemy before exploding, meaning if their AI gets one of its many hiccups, they’ll just stand at your feet and never get positioned where the explosion could hit.

ronpierce.2760:

Minions aren’t going to survive 2-6k burn ticks.

Yay for new Flamethrower Engi, stacking 21 Burning stacks with #1!