Melee DPS Mercs Disengaging

[Vekaras]

For the last few weeks I've been seeing my Melee DPS mercs engaging the mob, then running away, standing around for up to 10-30 seconds, then running back on a loop.

Example:
09/26/24 11:43:08 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:44 PM Kiekan activates Thief's Eyes.
09/26/24 11:42:44 PM Kiekan's eyes gleam.
09/26/24 11:42:44 PM Kiekan is surrounded by a holy light.
09/26/24 11:42:44 PM Seeil healed Kiekan for 0 (18287) hit points by Arms of Holy Wrath V Recourse. (Critical)
09/26/24 11:42:45 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 16929 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:45 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 35664 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:45 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:45 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 37226 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:46 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 38787 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:46 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 29419 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage. (Riposte Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 34103 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 38787 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:56 PM Your Elemental Earth VI spell did not take hold on Kiekan. (Blocked by Elemental Earth VI.)
09/26/24 11:43:04 PM Kiekan activates Pinpoint Liabilities Rk. II.
09/26/24 11:43:06 PM Kiekan activates Jugular Hew Rk. II.
09/26/24 11:43:07 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 38787 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:43:07 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:43:07 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:43:07 PM Kiekan backstabs a blood bat for 150519 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:43:08 PM A blood bat has taken 7833 damage from Jugular Hew Rk. II by Kiekan.



So you'll note that Keikan just walked away from the mob for 15 seconds, activated two abilities, then reengaged. This is happening on the regular. Merc is a 125 Journeyman Dark Elf (with max AA) on burn, but I've observed the same behavior on several other DPS merc on Balanced as well

Given the tendency for melee mercs to commit suicide, this run-away-and-stand-around behavior is a bit odd.

 

[fransisco]

Were you fighting a single mob? Or was there several in camp?
Mercs do have behavior to run away in fear if there is a bunch of mobs there.

 

[CatsPaws]

Were you fighting a single mob? Or was there several in camp?
Mercs do have behavior to run away in fear if there is a bunch of mobs there.

Or even if one mob is way over his capabilities.

My healer merc used to do a say "This doesn't look good" or something of that nature.

And then I explained to her that as I was a Ranger she would need to up her game and stick around. We get along ok now.

 

[Vekaras]

single blue con mob.
The other thing I'm noticing is they're very slow to follow Main assist. (sometimes refusing to switch at all) I've never had this problem in the past. Wondering if its maybe because I'm running a pet tank now

 

[Endiment]

I've noticed that mercs prefer to attack whatever is on xtar1. And setting a group assist and then setting everyones xtar1 to be group assists target seems to help.

 

[fransisco]

I've noticed that mercs prefer to attack whatever is on xtar1. And setting a group assist and then setting everyones xtar1 to be group assists target seems to help.

aye, setting someone as assist is pretty important for non-healer mercs

 

[Soulbanshee]

single blue con mob.
The other thing I'm noticing is they're very slow to follow Main assist. (sometimes refusing to switch at all) I've never had this problem in the past. Wondering if its maybe because I'm running a pet tank now

Def what is up, the logic for "is group attacking" goes wonky when pet is top hate, you can also see mercs disengage if a swarm grabs top hate from a player tank. It's why I end up going with a caster merc as a mage so I don't have a merc jumping around.

 

[Gialana]

Is there someone out of group that gets the mobs attention? Unless someone in your group has top aggro, the mercenaries won't attack.

 

[Vekaras]

I dont think thats the case since my mercs are quite happy to charge out to attack stuff on their own (even before the mob gets to the group)

It might be the swarm-pet thing, I'll try to be more observant. Will also try a caster merc, but in my previous experience they're just perpetually out of mana.

 

[Egot]

For the last few weeks I've been seeing my Melee DPS mercs engaging the mob, then running away, standing around for up to 10-30 seconds, then running back on a loop.

Example:
09/26/24 11:43:08 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:44 PM Kiekan activates Thief's Eyes.
09/26/24 11:42:44 PM Kiekan's eyes gleam.
09/26/24 11:42:44 PM Kiekan is surrounded by a holy light.
09/26/24 11:42:44 PM Seeil healed Kiekan for 0 (18287) hit points by Arms of Holy Wrath V Recourse. (Critical)
09/26/24 11:42:45 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 16929 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:45 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 35664 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:45 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:45 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 37226 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:46 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 38787 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:46 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 29419 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage. (Riposte Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 34103 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 38787 points of damage. (Strikethrough)
09/26/24 11:42:47 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:42:56 PM Your Elemental Earth VI spell did not take hold on Kiekan. (Blocked by Elemental Earth VI.)
09/26/24 11:43:04 PM Kiekan activates Pinpoint Liabilities Rk. II.
09/26/24 11:43:06 PM Kiekan activates Jugular Hew Rk. II.
09/26/24 11:43:07 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 38787 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:43:07 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:43:07 PM Kiekan pierces a blood bat for 41910 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:43:07 PM Kiekan backstabs a blood bat for 150519 points of damage.
09/26/24 11:43:08 PM A blood bat has taken 7833 damage from Jugular Hew Rk. II by Kiekan.



So you'll note that Keikan just walked away from the mob for 15 seconds, activated two abilities, then reengaged. This is happening on the regular. Merc is a 125 Journeyman Dark Elf (with max AA) on burn, but I've observed the same behavior on several other DPS merc on Balanced as well

Given the tendency for melee mercs to commit suicide, this run-away-and-stand-around behavior is a bit odd.

I see this a lot while in PvP and the merc decides to not attack another player

 

[Schadenfreude]

I dont think thats the case since my mercs are quite happy to charge out to attack stuff on their own (even before the mob gets to the group)

It might be the swarm-pet thing, I'll try to be more observant. Will also try a caster merc, but in my previous experience they're just perpetually out of mana.

I've been watching my Rogue merc closely recently and it appears to struggle on any surface that isn't perfectly flat. I guess it's trying to find the rear of the mob and when that fails for whatever reason you get the coffee break where it might cast Thief's Eyes and then tries again.

 

[Velisaris_MS]

Terrain and levitation have a huge impact on mercs. In Hero's Forge, one of my rogue mercs will regularly just take off running across the zone during a fight because either I'm standing in some sort of funky spot or the mob is slightly on an incline. Make sure the merc doesn't have lev and try to fight on a level area.

 

[fransisco]

Terrain and levitation have a huge impact on mercs. In Hero's Forge, one of my rogue mercs will regularly just take off running across the zone during a fight because either I'm standing in some sort of funky spot or the mob is slightly on an incline. Make sure the merc doesn't have lev and try to fight on a level area.

i love that huge straight line pathing. Run all the way over there out of sight then run back and engage. Favorite is with gargoyals on my mage. Lose half the duration of the pet due to pathing.

 

[legeon]

its swarm pets taking agro

 

[Elroy]

Check your settings. My healer merc was not keeping up on the heals to the tank merc like they used to and I was getting ready to dismiss it and get a new one when I noticed the tank merc was set to "auto assist" . I had apparently hit that button instead of "set active". Once I took that off, then the healer merc started healing correctly.

 

[legeon]

the mercs are coded to dissengage when someone not in your group or an npc takes agro because otherwise you could potentially have other groups mercs helping or ks'ing you. I assume this is the main reason for this behavior. Problem is the mercs arent 'seeing' that the group members swarm pets are 'part of the group'.

 

[Hegsheoshed]

the mercs are coded to dissengage when someone not in your group or an npc takes agro because otherwise you could potentially have other groups mercs helping or ks'ing you. I assume this is the main reason for this behavior. Problem is the mercs arent 'seeing' that the group members swarm pets are 'part of the group'.

A huge drawback to this I found is that Tactician Perak in Sarith summons two adds to help instantly as soon as there is aggro. The melee dps along with the tank merc both stand there watching butterflies and the caster dps merc eats it along with it's patron. As soon as one of the adds died they snapped out of it. So those 2 adds are like swarm pets and mercs can't tell the difference between PC and NPC swarm pets.

Captain Dahlena also was up but since the Captain does the same summoning of 2 Lieutenants to help in the same way I decided instead to take a break. Beast Master Ganelin summons a couple something. A little delay would be nice. Made some merc stance hotkeys just in case.

 

[Kenuven]

You need to set a Group Assist for the merc to follow. Mercs will all disengage melee if a PC is not the main aggro.

 

[Hegsheoshed]

You need to set a Group Assist for the merc to follow. Mercs will all disengage melee if a PC is not the main aggro.

Did this. I do this. Also you are only partly correct. It is about swarm pets getting first aggro. I am glad I made the stance hotkey because the mercs almost let me down again. Captain Dahlena was still up the next day. Engaged and instant npc proc of his two Lieutenant helpers. So they are counting as swarm pets and not attacking and it is just bizarre. I understand the swarm pets getting aggro from the player side and mercs not attacking but the swarm pets from the npc's is just a bad idea if it makes the mercs start moon calving. Beast Master Ganelin has a little delay before he summon's his war beasts.

This was in a group with no pets or pet classes. No cleric pet pulling.