Possible a stealth fix that forces melee pets in melee? Even after the "supposed" fix that removed recharge bonuses from affecting pets.
If something was changed to actually affect melee pets AI recently. I promise you the official word will be the recharge change is what fixed the problem.
I'll have test my thug MMs and my Necros to verify for myself. I however saw no change in AI with the removal of the recharge bonuses from pets. Only change I saw was it lowering the DPS of all my MMs, and controllers.
The first thing I noticed when I logged in after patching was that my ninja's seemed to be finishing fights a lot faster. Though I couldn't really tell if they were going into melee more then before.
REALLY!? Maybe a 4TH try as a Ninja/Storm will be the charm ..
Shigeru Miyamoto "A delayed game will eventually be good, a bad game is bad forever."
I sent a PM to Castle just one day before the new patch came out about possible bug with Jounin's AI. I've noticed that Jounin does not cycle Gambler or Sting after he uses Soaring Dragon. And if I put the first upgrade while he is fighting, he won't cycle Soaring Dragon and just use Gambler and Sting.
I have not played my Ninja after the new patch (too excited about Dominator buff!).
I will try him tonight to confirm if Jounin still has that bug.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
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Suddenly my Ninjas are meleeing things without me going through annoying work arounds to get them up close to the enemy. Did this happen with I15? I'm suddenly slaughtering things much faster as President Evil.
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I would have thought this happened a while back, when the Bruiser got fixed too, and other AI got tweaked, but maybe not.
When was the last time you played your Ninjas?
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The first thing I noticed when I logged in after patching was that my ninja's seemed to be finishing fights a lot faster. Though I couldn't really tell if they were going into melee more then before.
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if you have purples in your ninjas, the better dam could be from you enhs actually working
Shenanigans
LotD - JaL - POWT/SMD - SoCo - AJs
I doubt anything has changed. I can check it tonight. I too have encounter the jounin only wanting to spam soaring dragon even when the other attacks are ready.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
I did more testings last night. I think Jounins cycle attacks a bit more properly now but there are still many "pause" moments especially after the first Poison Dart. It's like they don't know if they should throw Caltrops first or just run in. Comparing to Grave Knight, Jounin's attack cycle is very "rough". Is it because Castle got rid of Grave Knight's "sword draw" so they use Dark Blast and Gloom easily at melee range? It would be nice if Jounin gets the same treatment.
The problem with Ninja's AI is when you set a target for them. If you don't set targets for them, they would choose their targets and cycle more powers. Like Jounins would actually change target and shoot Poison Dart and then go in. But if you set a target, one of the Jounins usually stands on the back especially if Genins are out.
But I think the bigger problem is actually in Oni. Oni has the weirdest AI in the game if you observe him carefully. I think his current AI is pretty messed up. It seems fine when you have all 6 ninjas out but when he is alone, he is pretty awful as a Boss pet.
To give you an example, if you don't upgrade Oni, he would only use Fire Blast at range and won't go him for melee. Ok, this makes sense to me.
If you give him the first upgrade, a lot of times he would only cycle Ring of Fire + Breath of Fire (he no longer opens the battle with BoF!!) and not Ring of Fire + Fire Blast + Breath of Fire. Oni seems to cycle more attacks when you don't set target for him because he might change target with different attacks, like Ring of fire the first target and then fire blast another target.
If you put two upgrades on Oni, he rarely uses Fire Blast. He would only use Ring of Fire and Char and if he draws out his sword, he won't use any other attacks unless the set target is dead.
In comparison to other Boss pets:
Lich: He cycles EVERYTHING when he is at close to mid range. He can't use TT if he is further away from the target which is understandable.
Commando: He also seems to cycle everything when he is at mid-range. At long range, he can't use Buckshot (lack of range).
Assault: I believe it cycles everything because all the attacks have the same range? Somebody may need to verify this since I don't have high lvl Robot.
Brusier: He used to be annoying when he only wanted to throw rock but I believe he goes in pretty easily now and when he is in, he cycles all the melee attacks.
So basically, Oni is the only one that is stuck with different "modes". He either cycles only Ring of Fire + Char or two Fire Swords and then randomly throw out BoF and Rain of Fire.
Is Oni too powerful if he cycles all range attacks? Fire Blast + Ring of Fire + Char? Maybe...
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Right now, Ninja seems to be doing fine because Genins are doing a lot of damage as Tier 1 pets. If I lose Genins, I lose out a lot of damage output. Ninja puts too much emphasis on tier 1 pets IMO.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
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Suddenly my Ninjas are meleeing things without me going through annoying work arounds to get them up close to the enemy. Did this happen with I15? I'm suddenly slaughtering things much faster as President Evil.
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I would have thought this happened a while back, when the Bruiser got fixed too, and other AI got tweaked, but maybe not.
When was the last time you played your Ninjas?
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Maybe it's been longer then I thought or I just didn't notice it last time I used him. But I was used to it seeming like only two of my ninjas would go into melee range if I clicked the attack button. While the rest would stay back pelting the enemies with shuriken and the Oni never used to get close enough to hit with most his attacks.
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So basically, Oni is the only one that is stuck with different "modes". He either cycles only Ring of Fire + Char or two Fire Swords and then randomly throw out BoF and Rain of Fire.
Is Oni too powerful if he cycles all range attacks? Fire Blast + Ring of Fire + Char? Maybe...
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I noticed the oni spams ring of fire and char (with the odd fire bolt) at long range. At medium to close range he uses all of his powers.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
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So basically, Oni is the only one that is stuck with different "modes". He either cycles only Ring of Fire + Char or two Fire Swords and then randomly throw out BoF and Rain of Fire.
Is Oni too powerful if he cycles all range attacks? Fire Blast + Ring of Fire + Char? Maybe...
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I noticed the oni spams ring of fire and char (with the odd fire bolt) at long range. At medium to close range he uses all of his powers.
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At mid-range, he is mostly stuck with just Ring of Fire and Char and Breath of Fire and Rain of Fire with 60s recharge. He rarely uses Fire Blast.
At close range, he uses the same thing but if he draws out his sword, he only cycles 2 attacks.
I am happy if Oni just cycles Fire Blast, Ring of Fire and Char and occassionally BoF/Rain of Fire.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
[ QUOTE ]
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[ QUOTE ]
So basically, Oni is the only one that is stuck with different "modes". He either cycles only Ring of Fire + Char or two Fire Swords and then randomly throw out BoF and Rain of Fire.
Is Oni too powerful if he cycles all range attacks? Fire Blast + Ring of Fire + Char? Maybe...
[/ QUOTE ]
I noticed the oni spams ring of fire and char (with the odd fire bolt) at long range. At medium to close range he uses all of his powers.
[/ QUOTE ]
At mid-range, he is mostly stuck with just Ring of Fire and Char and Breath of Fire and Rain of Fire with 60s recharge. He rarely uses Fire Blast.
At close range, he uses the same thing but if he draws out his sword, he only cycles 2 attacks.
I am happy if Oni just cycles Fire Blast, Ring of Fire and Char and occassionally BoF/Rain of Fire.
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Me, I'm happy when he's cycling BoF, Rain of Fire, ring of Fire, and char. When he's doing that... Well... Me and my oni have held a few EB's so far.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
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So basically, Oni is the only one that is stuck with different "modes". He either cycles only Ring of Fire + Char or two Fire Swords and then randomly throw out BoF and Rain of Fire.
Is Oni too powerful if he cycles all range attacks? Fire Blast + Ring of Fire + Char? Maybe...
[/ QUOTE ]
I noticed the oni spams ring of fire and char (with the odd fire bolt) at long range. At medium to close range he uses all of his powers.
[/ QUOTE ]
At mid-range, he is mostly stuck with just Ring of Fire and Char and Breath of Fire and Rain of Fire with 60s recharge. He rarely uses Fire Blast.
At close range, he uses the same thing but if he draws out his sword, he only cycles 2 attacks.
I am happy if Oni just cycles Fire Blast, Ring of Fire and Char and occassionally BoF/Rain of Fire.
[/ QUOTE ]
Me, I'm happy when he's cycling BoF, Rain of Fire, ring of Fire, and char. When he's doing that... Well... Me and my oni have held a few EB's so far.
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My, my Oni, and my Dark Servant have held some AVs... Poor Nemesis.
Something has changed at least for the jounin. Now the swords a perma-stuck to their hands. They even fire the dart with the sword out now. While deals with the redraw problem they still dont always to melee like they should. I think the final fix for them needs to be this. Pretty much all melee critters do one thing if too many of the critters are too close to the same target they tend to spread out or just attack from range. My guess this was done because back in the day we used to be able to aoe an entire map with one nuke, so now critters know to stay the hell back if you dont want to die fast to aoes. For mastermind pet AI this part needs to be changed, this would definately get rid of the melee shyness issue. Overall this is an improvement but I still have to use bids and macros just to get them into melee and not use their darts. Also I am still getting the issue where the jounin only wants to do soaring dragon or just golden dragonfly but none of the other attacks.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
Suddenly my Ninjas are meleeing things without me going through annoying work arounds to get them up close to the enemy. Did this happen with I15? I'm suddenly slaughtering things much faster as President Evil.