Heroes Using Skills

I am probably some kind of loser, but I never really monitored my hero's skill bars during game play. I have finished all campaigns, mainly with H/H and I have a pretty strong group for most quests. I have only two master level quests left undone, The Troubled Keeper in Nightfall and The Last Heirophant in EoTN. So I have taken some time to collect and practice with the best skill combos for myself and my heroes. So as I got Ray of Judgement for Talkhora, I noticed that she almost never used it (it is a pretty obvious spell). I started to bring up their skill bars which I never really bothered to before. Then I watched Livia and noticed she almost never used her attack spells, mainly just her three summoning skills. Talkhora hardly uses anything except her healing. Well no wonder I am having such a hard time with these two (I realize these two quests are very challenging). My question is will all heroes treat the same same skill sets in any differing way? Or do different heros of the same type do the very same thing (like any monk, etc.)? During very hard quests, do you need to go in and actively manage your hero skills. That is tricky with the Keeper quest as I have to switch between both sides. Suggestions? Insights? I guess I am a newbie in terms of actively managing my heros....sigh.....Thanks.|||Have you checked to see if your monk is set to "Passive" (the little dove icon in the upper right-hand of her skill bar)?

If she is, she'll pretty much never use offensive spells like RoJ. If you set her to "Guard", you'll be just fine. No idea about Livia, though.|||check your stances for them, if you want them to be using skills on foes, gaurd is the best one to have selected, fight they'll Leeroy anything in range, and avoid is self descriptive...that said, Sheild of Judgment would probably be a better elite for Tahlkora, as heroes aren't great at using RoJ.

All heroes have the potential to use skills the same way, some skills are used randomly, so results may appear different.|||Quote:








I am probably some kind of loser, but I never really monitored my hero's skill bars during game play.




To be honest, you shouldn't have to. I monitor their bars in rare cases only, usually if (1) I want to micro certain skills like maintained enchantments, or (2) I want to see if there are problems with a given build like energy management etc. Otherwise, I leave those bars closed.

I don't think that different heroes (of a same profession) use skills differently. It could vary with their equipment, with their aggressivity level (passive/attack/etc), but not their persona.

They'll prioritize certain skills over others... and usually I don't think they're too bad at it. There are skills that they have difficulty using well, but those tend to be skills that require some smarts. Overall though, they're pretty good.

I do use the flags a lot when attacking AoE foes, to spread up my team. Otherwise I rarely micro my heroes.|||Quote:








check your stances for them, if you want them to be using skills on foes, gaurd is the best one to have selected, fight they'll Leeroy anything in range, and avoid is self descriptive...that said, Sheild of Judgment would probably be a better elite for Tahlkora, as heroes aren't great at using RoJ.




Really? I haven't had any troubles with it...heck, most of the time, they'll even cast Glyph of Swiftness before it, and use it even more often...|||My biggest problem is timing with RoJ, either you micro it, or they spam it and end up casting on a dead/near dead foe...Shield is more useful to me,could just be a playstyle difference...or proof of inconsistent AI|||Quote:








Shield is more useful to me,could just be a playstyle difference




It probably depends on whether your character is melee or you run a melee character on your team. The AI is ungodly good at some things: interrupts and keeping physicals buffed (smite buffs, rit weapon spells, etc.). In that case, Shield of Judgement would work well.

I mostly have caster characters and run caster-heavy teams. Tahlkora is my standard smiter for all characters, and I use RoJ without micro management. Yes, she will use it inappropriately at times, though that is partly due to the long cast time, where a foe is going from having a fair amount of health to near death in the time it takes to get RoJ off. She can't abort the cast like a player might in those cases. But, in the long run I find her performance is adequate.

I don't give my smiting heroes any direct healing duties, though, other than a hard rez. I prefer to set them up with a couple of signets, Smite Condition, Smite Hex, and Smiter's Boon. AI is great at timing Bane Signet for KD, as well as Signet of Judgement if you want to replace RoJ.|||Quote:








To be honest, you shouldn't have to. I monitor their bars in rare cases only, usually if (1) I want to micro certain skills like maintained enchantments, or (2) I want to see if there are problems with a given build like energy management etc. Otherwise, I leave those bars closed.




This. Every now and then you might have to mirco your heroes, but in general you just load their bars and let 'em go.



Your end of the bargain is to make sure you fully understand the skills you give them, as well as knowing how their AI works, and what the situation calls for.|||Uh, I always have the three bars open and watch it with the corner of my eye. It's interesting and helpful to identify skills they use like idiots or not at all.

But I don't usually micromanage them at all, unless you count that hotkeyed protective spirit that one of the heroes wields. "Select party member #1; make hero X use protective spirit" is very handy.|||Heroes seem to prefer healing spells over offensive spells if you give them both (as they should, if someone needs healed, please heal them.) If your party is taking a lot of damage, Tahlk may not have the time or energy to get RoJ off.

After that, if she has other offensive skills, she mostly likely chooses one at random, so factor in the percentage you would expect to see a RoJ based on number of other skills, recharge and energy cost.

I find that heroes also prefer to have a minion shield up before they start attacking from behind it. The minion raising skills take a really long time, and there are always new bodies present, so they will spend a lot of time replenishing the minions.

So I have no proof, but from experience I think the AI prefers healing and minions over straight offense. Which I am absolutely fine with.