Henchmen - Hold Position

[Weylin]

It would be incredibly helpful if henchmen, especially ranged types, could hold position on attack orders or auto engagement. Go To and Follow would override this behavior.

The "Stay" command should be changed into a Stance; while in this stance, they behave defensively, attacking mobs that you either order them to shoot, and failing that, mobs that are aggroed.

The primary difference between Defensive and Aggressive is that they will not move if their target is out of range or obstructed, nor will they move to use a melee attack.

 

This allows you to order them to locations, and for them to STAY at that location no matter what, regardless of their target being too far away or obstructed.

If a henchman in this stance is struck by knockback, they should return to their assigned post once they recover.

There's certain situations where ranged henchmen need to avoid drawing additional aggro and to stay in advantageous spots to minimize AoE to the group and stay out of reach of melee heavy hitters.

It's also helpful to keep them in positions where they will not bodyblock your allies in a chaotic fight.

 

 

Is this possible to add to the game? I hear the henchmen code is rather messy...

 

 

[Steampunkette]

Mag 30 immobilize Pet aoe inherent click for MMs only affects allies...

 

 

[Weylin]

That sounds a lot more doable. If it's a toggle ability, you can just switch it off and the henchmen are free to move again.

[SmalltalkJava]

Yes. AOE immobilize would probably be the easiest to implement 

[Ferrous_Sapien]

I dearly wish I could just completely remove mercenary and robot melee attacks entirely, or make them optional in some way. For the very same reason as a Hold Position command or immobilize toggle.

[Weylin]

I'm not entirely sure how the AI works, would henchmen still approach targets and get in their face if they had no melee attack and all ranged abilities are recharging?