ArenaNet talk:AI bugs/AI Issues Archive 1

Control Panel issues

 * Chik En 23:48, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I've never had this problem, can you provide more details on how to reproduce this bug? They do switch targets to spread hexes like Parasitic Bond around and will also attack any target that blocks them, but otherwise they seem to follow their target just fine with or without a party flag. --Draikin 16:47, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I specifically noticed this with Koss. If I set the All party flag (keystroke 9) and he is on guard mode and then I select an enemy and set him to target that enemy ONLY till it is dead. He will ignore this directive unless I remove the all party flag. This has happened with him as well as other Hero's but mostly I have seen him do it because I usually bring him. Chik En 20:55, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Even if I set the all party flag and give a hero a specific target like you said, he still never attacked other targets. Unless someone can verify that this bug really exists, I think this should be moved to the Unconfirmed issues. --Draikin 23:18, 6 January 2008 (UTC)


 * --Draikin 12:08, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
 * This is intended functionality. It may not makes sense for more competitive play, but the intent is to make it so that if a skill is selected, that it will eventually be used. I personally have a hard time trying to track the actions of all my heroes, while playing my character. If I manually select to use a hero skill, it means I really want it used. The fix described seems like it would cause more frustration if the player was not aware that the hero was interrupted, the hero would seem to just fail to cast. Let me know if you think the majority of players would want this change. We can look into it more. Ben Kirsch 19:04, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I'll ask the community about this. I guess another solution would be to somehow alert the player that the skill was interrupted, perhaps by displaying a certain effect on the skill icon. With the current implementation it can be very annoying when you order a hero monk to use a skill and he gets interrupted, since by the time you realize the skill was interrupted he could already be dead because he stopped using skills. --Draikin 16:57, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm going to archive this since I assume this mechanic is here to stay. --18:35, 3 January 2009 (UTC)


 * --Draikin 23:24, 27 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Are you still seeing this? I tried to reproduce the issue, but haven't had any luck. Ben Kirsch 22:06, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
 * It doesn't happen all that often so I have no idea exactly what triggers it. I'll ask around and see if anyone encountered this bug recently. --Draikin 01:15, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Going to archive this since it probably doesn't occur anymore. --Draikin 18:35, 3 January 2009 (UTC)


 * --Ronduwil 00:46, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Just like a player, the hero will still lose the energy if the skill is canceled mid cast. In most cases, the player will benefit more from casting the spell then simply losing the energy. For long casts, or skills that have a particular disadvantage against a given foe I could see this being an issue, but for the majority of skills the benefits of completing the cast seem to outweigh having the skill canceled. Ben Kirsch 20:02, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
 * That makes sense. If you really don't want them to use the skill you can always flag them to a new location to force them to cancel it before disabling the skill. --Draikin 16:57, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I went ahead an put a check mark next to this issue since it has been discussed. If anyone thinks a change is still needed, feel free to remove the check, and leave a note describing what you think needs to be changed. Ben Kirsch 22:10, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I used a different check mark icon for this kind of problem so people know it can still be debated. --Draikin 16:29, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Going to archive this since there's been no response for a while now. --Draikin 18:35, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Flagging and Movement Issues

 * This is intended behavior and not a bug. Changing it to your version would make the game completely unplayable with heroes. --Draikin 18:27, 20 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Razah doesn't have a special AI, whatever caused this would have happened to any hero. --Draikin 13:00, 2 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Hey, I put the "not considered an issue but up for discussion" icon on this one because I'm not seeing this problem myself. Is there some specific situation where your melee henchmen and heroes aren't running up to attack an enemy? What do you mean by previous installments of Guild Wars? Is this only happening in a specific campaign? If someone could please respond with a little more information I would be glad to look into this further. Thanks. -Kim Chase 22:37, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Sounds like the (resolved) bug that used to cause henchmen and heroes to stop moving when they encountered spirits. --Draikin 00:25, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I think this can be archived. --Draikin 22:04, 3 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Yukiko [[Image:User_Yukiko_Sig.png]] 05:17, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually a lot of Hero Battle players use this to their advantage, once you get used to it this really isn't a problem. Changing it to the "correct" behavior would actually make it more difficult to control heroes (once you set the main flag you can't have one hero follow you around anymore). --Draikin 02:19, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I think this can be archived. --Draikin 22:04, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Assassin

 * --Draikin 23:24, 27 November 2007 (UTC)


 * --Draikin 23:47, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Now that the functionality of the skill itself has changed this is no longer a problem so I'll archive it. --Draikin 21:48, 5 April 2008 (UTC)


 * --Tashiro 07:58, 4 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Duplicate issue that only needs to be posted in the warrior skill section, so I'm archiving this. --Draikin 17:32, 4 October 2008 (UTC)


 * --Draikin 13:00, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
 * This issue has been reported. --Andrew Patrick 23:19, 14 May 2008 (UTC)
 * In the end this really is a non-issue, unless anyone objects I think this can be archived. --Draikin 18:45, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Dervish

 * --Draikin 19:20, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The problem here is the 8 sec recharge time. If you use it too soon, it may not recharge in time to cause the DW when the target gets to <50% health. Overall, I think it's okay. -- Hong 01:29, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
 * That's a good point, you can't really expect the AI to use it more effectively than they do now. I think I'll just archive this. --Draikin 19:24, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Monk

 * --Draikin 00:36, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * After testing this again it seems they do use Guardian just as often as Shield of Absorption so I archived it. --Draikin 18:02, 24 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Spirits are not affected by Monk heals, or Enchantments, so there shouldn't be an issue here. As far as Monk heroes healing minions, I personally like this functionality. I generally have a minion master hero, and have found that they are much better when assisted in healing the minions. I can see how in certain party setups where there wasn't enough healing this could be an issue, but a change here really doesn't seem warranted. The negative impact to players currently counting on Monk Heroes healing Minions seems like it would outweigh the current complaint with how Monk AI functions. Ben Kirsch 22:56, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The issue here is that a minion master is always going to bring Blood of the Master to heal his minions, and it's far more efficient for the monks to heal the necro instead of healing minions individually. Since minions constantly need to be healed, the monks often won't be at full energy when the team goes into battle again. The ideal solution here is to not let the monks heal the minions anymore and simply let the AI use Blood of the Master more often than they do now. That way the minions won't die and the monks don't have to spend nearly as much energy healing the necromancer. --Draikin 00:14, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Another issue is that some of us use minions as nova bombs. In that scenario, healing the minions is not simply a waste of energy; it's counterproductive to boot.  I also second  Draikin's statement.  It is much easier for the MM to use Blood of the Master to heal all the minions in the area at once than it is for the healer to spam his bar down to zero in a vain attempt to keep a group of 10 minions at max health.--Ronduwil 07:10, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

We can't assume that someone with minions is "always" going to bring Blood of the Master or Veratas Sacrifice, or that they will never want to use monk heals on their minions. Some players use skills like Heal Area to keep their minions alive, and they should be free to make a N/Mo MM with Heal Area if they want to. If we force the AI to not heal minions, we remove these kinds of options entirely. -Kim Chase 17:58, 10 July 2008 (UTC)


 * --[[Image:User_Timeoffire45_sig.jpg]]  Timeoffire45  22:25, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I tried for about an hour now in PvE and PvP, but could not get this to reproduce. Do you have any more details as to how you noticed that? --Golgarit Raven 19:45, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Sadly, no >_< It wasn't my hero, so I can't be sure of too much, but the player MAY have had the hero flagged. In fact, after doing testing of my own, I can't get the hero to cancel UA until they get fairly close in the first place...ugh.... So, my original bug is a dud, I suppose >_< I feel pretty stupid now....
 * As a side note, a hero will not resurrect a player when they are flagged just barely outside of cast range and, even when not flagged, will not resureect a player until they move well into cast range (as in, move within agro range of the corpse as opposed to the edge of agro/cast range). If that made sense, I will do a little jig...and, again, sorry for the basic waste of time >_<
 * No problem, I'll just x it out for now. --Golgarit Raven 18:26, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Elementalist

 * --Draikin 23:49, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I've been noticing that the Ai choose their attacks for blindness, dazing, anti-spell and attack hexes etc based on the weapon their target is carrying, I've tested this with heroes and enemy ai, with myself and just watchem them attack each other, it appears to be the case. --Ckal Ktak 14:09, 5 December 2007 (UTC)


 * --FunnyUsername 14:16, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I think the current AI behavior for this skill isn't that bad: when they can only hit one target, they'll use it when it's at 10% health. When they can hit multiple targets, they'll use it normally (on recharge if it's their only skill). I guess they could change it so that the skill is "less likely" used on single targets, that would basically make them use the skill more on single targets if they have no other attack skills available. --Draikin 18:46, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
 * It doesnt matter how many enemies are around the main target, the hero will only use this skill if his target has less than 1⁄4 of their health left. I tested it on the Isle of the Nameless, locked Saousuke on the Practice target, wich has 5 more tagets Nearby that can be hit by Rodgort's Invocation, and he didnt use it unless its main target health was less than 25%. Go and try if u dont belive me :). --FunnyUsername 19:48, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I believe you, but heroes won't use AoE skills correctly on the Practice targets for some reason. They do use the skill correctly against normal targets, you can verify this in PvE. --Draikin 21:42, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
 * That same thing applies to many tests of AI behaviour. Who really cares how the AI responds to practice targets. What matters is how it responds to hostiles that fight back; unfortunately, that currently remains fairly screwed up. -- Inspired to ____ 21:51, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Yep, just checked with "real" foes and they use it properly, kind of strange that they use their skills in a different way with a barrel ...--FunnyUsername 22:21, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
 * To be clear...I am not a fan of the AI and am as near to quitting playing this game as I have ever been since the recent changes seem to have helped the HM enemies and hurt heroes & henches; however, the AI has always seemed to take into account the threat level, etc. when deciding what to cast or if to cast helpful enchantments vs damage causing spells as talked about below and this is not a bad thing. So it's only obvious that a barrel would be dealt with differently then an attacking foe, or that whether to reenchant would be based on the threat level, nearness to death of the enemy, etc. -- Inspired  to ____ 00:51, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
 * The below issue is a different case, it happens regardless of what kind of enemy or number of enemies, the AI will simply spam some spells before refresh the attunement and it doesnt matter if its target is either an Oni, a Warden, a Barrel or a Spirit, at least of what i experienced. Im aware that in some situations, it may be more usefull for example to use an Eruption to blind a bunch of meleers foes rather than refreshing an attunement, but that happened to me on counted situations while playing the game compared to the amount of times that left me with a burden elementalist with almost no energy.
 * Its just that i think that energy management is quite important, and that its best to spend 2 seconds casting an enchantment so they dont run out of energy during a combat. Anyway, heroes already use Glyph of Lesser Energy over an offensive skill, why not apply the same to attunements?. --FunnyUsername 09:44, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Mesmer

 * --Draikin 23:24, 27 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I wasn't able to reproduce this issue. Has anyone noticed this problem recently? Leah Rivera 19:53, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Will check on this today, would ruin my build for her if true. --Golgarit Raven 08:03, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I have Power Spike on Gwen more or less constantly along with other interrupts and I have never noticed this problem. The AI does sometimes prefer other interrupts such as Cry of Frustration, but I'd think that is for logical reasons. Vili &#x70B9; [[Image:User Vili sig.jpg|User talk:Vili]] 12:01, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Seems to run just fine, as intended. Even on the Isle she uses it perfectly. Can be closed. --Golgarit Raven 14:04, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Agreed that the AI uses this equally often as other interrupts, I'll go ahead and close it. --Draikin 17:09, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Necromancer

 * --Draikin 21:29, 18 November 2007 (UTC)


 * --Draikin 23:24, 27 November 2007 (UTC)


 * --Draikin 13:00, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Now that the functionality of the skill itself has changed this is no longer a problem so it can be archived. --Draikin 22:03, 11 April 2008 (UTC)


 * --Ronduwil 02:32, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * This is something that is working as intended. All of these skills are useful in a Minion Master build and if it causes the Necromancer Hero to fall behind some, or force us to manually flag them where we want them to be located, its because the Ai is doing its job attempting to keep a minion pack going. You could disable the skills when you are on the run as an alternate to flagging the hero though. Elijah Miller 19:24, 9 July 2008 (UTC)


 * The AI does use the skill. --Draikin 15:54, 2 January 2009 (UTC)


 * The AI does use the skill on Jagged Horrors. --Draikin 15:54, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Ranger

 * After doing some testing they don't seem to prefer using other interrupts, so I'm not sure what's causing them to ignore the skill in your case. --Draikin 17:25, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
 * My Jin has no issue with this skill, but it seems you have to put it on the far left on your skill bar. Mine is on slot 2, next to Archer's Signet. The use of this elite might also be the reason for which she tends to use it more frequently. -- 81.246.250.214 20:45, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
 * My hero was actually using this skill quite well. I tried it with the skill on the far left and far right, and he always did a good job of determining when to use this skill vs another skill. I'm going to mark this as won't fix, but if someone can give a specific circumstance where their hero uses (or doesn't use) this skill in a less-than-ideal manner, I will take another look. --Andrew Patrick 21:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

big Common skill issues

 * --Draikin 23:49, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * You cannot assume that you will never want a hero to cast a spirit or binding ritual outside of combat. In fact, it is common that you will want to stack spirits before the enemy reaches you, or so that you can pull enemies into an area. -Kim Chase 18:49, 10 July 2008 (UTC)


 * --Draikin 21:29, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
 * On second thought this probably isn't such a good idea after all, the main reason I asked for this change was because I was tired of seeing my elementalist heroes ignore their target lock and attack pets, but that's a different problem altogether.

frvwfr2  (talk · contributions) 00:40, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * They do use their skills on their target, they'll only end up attacking your target when using skills designed to ignore target lock (Like Parasitic Bond). --Draikin 22:50, 2 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Well then blackout needs to have its ignore-lock removed. [[Image:User Frvwfr2 signature.jpg|User:Frvwfr2]] frvwfr2  (talk · contributions) 15:30, 25 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Skills like blackout are just too complex for the AI to handle correctly, I always disable it. You could argue that the ignore-lock should be removed for this skill but they'd still be doing more harm than good when spamming it. --Draikin 16:22, 25 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I was using it in spikes in hB, till I realized that they target your spike, instead of their target... [[Image:User Frvwfr2 signature.jpg|User:Frvwfr2]] frvwfr2  (talk · contributions) 21:25, 25 July 2008 (UTC)
 * That's basically a common problem with the AI, skills that ignore target lock don't prioritize locked targets (I don't think I actually posted that issue here yet). That means they might end up using Parasitic Bond and Faintheartedness on a pet while you actually locked the R/P instead. On the topic of Blackout, you'd actually have a strong case to argue that it should only be used on the locked or otherwise called target. It's not a skill that can be spammed on multiple enemies and there's no conditional effect that would warrant this behavior either. Currently the AI doesn't use it on non-caster targets while the skill is actually a solid counter to adrenaline based builds. --Draikin 20:57, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Combat and Behaviour Issues

 * &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by Erasculio (talk &bull; contribs) 15:02, 8 September 2007 (UTC).
 * Unless someone disagrees I think this problem should be archived as well. This is basically intended behaviour, since (in PvE at least) heroes will only attack when you order them to attack or when they are under attack. If you don't call a target or lock them onto one, they will not attack unless something attacks your team. In this case the monk boss probably wasn't attacking your team because he was low on health, causing your team to stop attacking as well. --Draikin 23:18, 6 January 2008 (UTC)


 * --Ronduwil 01:11, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually they'll only stop attacking (as far as I know) when nobody is attacking the team, which is probably why Erasculio's heroes stopped attacking that monk boss since it didn't attack when it was low on health. As long as somebody is attacking your team, your heroes will continue to select their own targets and you don't need to call anything. Of course if your heroes stop attacking while your team is still taking damage then that would be a problem, but I've never actually seen them do that. --Draikin 03:43, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Here's why I might be confused: I almost always bring a minion master, so if my minions are engaged, I consider my party to be in battle.  It could very well be that none of my party members were directly under attack, but my minions were.  My perception, however, was that Talon Silverwing was running back to my side in the middle of a fight.  I didn't even notice the problem until I started trying to work my monk through Eye of the North.  I generally don't attack while I'm monking, so the problem becomes more pronounced.  This could be a sticky issue.  On one hand I don't want my party to attack distant targets that are attacking my minions because the minions are brain-dead and I often leave them to die while they run off to attack something I have no intention of engaging.  However, I do want my party to attack targets in their aggro bubble even if they are only beating on the minions.  --Ronduwil 07:42, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * That would explain the problem. Minions attack whatever enters their aggro bubble but heroes don't consider them as part of the team. The problem here is that the heroes' "attack" status is triggered slightly beyond their aggro bubble (it's about 1.2 x aggro bubble range). Any ally under attack within that range will cause them to attack as well, except for minions. It's really up to the player to call targets in this case, because otherwise the AI just doesn't know whether you want to abandon your minions or attack instead. --Draikin 12:38, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm going to archive this, I don't think this behavior is actually a problem at this point. --Draikin 22:39, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Independent NPC issues

 * By selecting a target you are simply chosing where he will shadow step to. he Ebon Vanguard Assasin is not intended to lock onto the target, and it can choose to select a new target. -Kim Chase 18:57, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

General & Miscellaneous issues

 * If you're referring to the Saltspray Dragon Hatchlings and the elite warriors, rangers and elementalists, it's not a bug, they're supposed to follow players. -- Gordon Ecker 08:31, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Katherinezoltin 06:06, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I think this is intentional. They're ranger trappers, it makes sense for them to hold their position and force melee attackers to walk into their traps. The Brooding Thorns in Urgoz's Warren are another example of stationary trapper monsters. -- [[Image:User Gordon Ecker sig.png]] Gordon Ecker (talk) 06:13, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Like Gordon explained, this is intentional. I think this can be archived. --Draikin 22:51, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 89.139.108.169 (talk).
 * This I have noticed with Vekk today. When I don't call target he will cast from the back line, but once I call target Vekk will run in as if I smack them with his face.  It's really annoying. 000.00.00.00 22:04, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
 * If anyone wants to see I used Xfire to capture footage of him running in after calling target. I have all ranged skills and a staff on him. 000.00.00.00 22:09, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll check on this today, it would be helpful if you posted your skillbar code in here. I only noticed this behaviour with melee skills and skills like Phoenix, who is ranged and melee at the same time. But we'll see. Wanted to test Phoenix more anyway. --Golgarit Raven 09:25, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Tested with and without calling, using all 3 Ele heroes. Does not happen when skilled correctly. In case of using Phoenix I'll have to check more thoroughly, as Sousoke did not use it at all. This one can be closed. --Golgarit Raven 17:33, 18 June 2009 (UTC)