Pawns assigned Maister Skills become almost brain dead

[Skyward]

Seriously; why is the AI so completely useless when managing these simple skills?

[Shift]

I don't disagree. Pawns are at their best when using the most simple and less flashy skills. I think the only exception is the thief maister skill, I see no downside on them abusing that skill.

[Dollmaker]

Originally posted by Shift:

I don't disagree. Pawns are at their best when using the most simple and less flashy skills. I think the only exception is the thief maister skill, I see no downside on them abusing that skill.

Could also mention Mages.

Celestial Paean is very simple in its usage, its basically a "go crazy" buff.

[Dollmaker]

Originally posted by p00se2:

my archer loves using heavenly shot on small gobbers and wolves

like the AI dont know how to prioritize skill per targets
it just starts blastin :summeryeti:

The wolves deserve it.

Videogame enemy dogs deserve nothing but painful deaths.

[Raven]

I wish we had the old inclinations back. (some of them) Utilitarian would have been great for this game too!

[Asphe]

Originally posted by Damien Scott:

Maybe that's why the AI feels like it tanked HEAVILY after level 30 or so. It's blatantly noticeable how awful they are after a certain point.

I did notice to never, ever use Straightforward on a Caster though. they will eventually attempt to climb flying monsters and punch them.

Somehow, both my DD1 and DD2 sorcie pawn likes to climb griffons when given a chance. My bad though.

While sneaking past a sleeping drake near the excavation site, we got ambushed by gobbers. After the Fighter pawn staggered one, my Simple Sorcie picked it up... looked around and all the other gobbers were already dead... so she threw the gobber at the drake. My simple pawn, blasting at crates killed off an entire NPC party (she hit them with a bolt, they reacted and fired at me... one Maelstrom later... no more Augustin quest). She even sits down at the hot springs... by the side of the pool, not in it. By the side.

Thing is, too many of us expect the AI to be... an actual AI. It's probably just a simple algorithm where inclination / gear / skill / augments and "flags" set by acquiring badges, witnessing player / pawn actions are then affected by type of mob, mob health and player condition, pawn condition/etc. Just like in DD1

It's not that smart and never will be, even if it looks like it is. But players can be smart and adapt to it. "Teach" the pawn to behave in certain ways or experiment with different loadouts and recognize that some things and skills are way beyond the pawn "AI"

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3224432929

My Archer pawn did about 2/3 of the dmg with Heavenly Shot, Deadly Shot and Tempest. Every time the drake started casting, DS to the heart. Griffon goes up? Manifold to the wings. Tempest once it's down. I was pleasantly surprised. She still sits outside the water at the hot springs though. Did having both badges make a difference? Did she see some other Arisen do something like that in another world? Does the AI actually 'learn' that sort of thing? I dunno...

[Soul]

Originally posted by Keldrath:

Goblins master! Pray keep them at bay while I incant a Maelstrom!

well.... if my pawn did that I couldnt complain.... since that exactly what I did as a sorcerer.... HAHAHAHAHA

[risbolla]

Originally posted by Keldrath:

Goblins master! Pray keep them at bay while I incant a Maelstrom!

completely correct usage of maelstrom, i thought we were talking about braindead pawn AI

[AvG]

when you have run the game++ so many times i bet most people will change to simple inclination just so they can see something funny.

[miki]

My archer kept hitting goblins with the full drawn shot. After that I had to get rid of it. lol

[The 5th Seraph]

Originally posted by saice:

I can sort of agree. They often try to use them at the worst time. Most of them it does not matter but man Sorc will bust out the big guns when it just two goblins with a rock.

I don't think they are totally useless but the AI just does not seem to handle some of the ult skills very well.

This is a lesson we DDDA players learnt early: Sorcerer pawns prioritise BIG spells even against small enemies, and in doing so they leave you to solo pretty much all small-scale fights.
My advice: Fit your Sorcerer Pawn with Augural Flare, High Levin, and two other small spells of your choice. I find High Frigor and High Thundermine to be effective lately. Fire magic just isn't that great.
Anyway, Augural Flare is the real breadwinner, since no matter what class your Arisen is, you can focus on attacking the Flare to trigger it for massive damage. And it casts a LOT faster than Maelstrom or Meteoron.

[miki]

Originally posted by The 5th Seraph:

Originally posted by saice:

I can sort of agree. They often try to use them at the worst time. Most of them it does not matter but man Sorc will bust out the big guns when it just two goblins with a rock.

I don't think they are totally useless but the AI just does not seem to handle some of the ult skills very well.

This is a lesson we DDDA players learnt early: Sorcerer pawns prioritise BIG spells even against small enemies, and in doing so they leave you to solo pretty much all small-scale fights.
My advice: Fit your Sorcerer Pawn with Augural Flare, High Levin, and two other small spells of your choice. I find High Frigor and High Thundermine to be effective lately. Fire magic just isn't that great.
Anyway, Augural Flare is the real breadwinner, since no matter what class your Arisen is, you can focus on attacking the Flare to trigger it for massive damage. And it casts a LOT faster than Maelstrom or Meteoron.

I think the Maister skills are excellent on Sorc. I would skip using Augural on pawns. The reason for this is that the pawns cast spells randomly, which means that most of the time you aren't ready when the pawn casts the Augural.

When I played through with a Sorc pawn, she rarely went for big spells when there were only few enemies. Best setup what I ended up running was High Levin, High Hagol, Maelstrom and Meteron. The pawns can't use a lot of spells effectively. Like they never get any value off High Salamander even though it's one of the best spells if you are controlling the Sorcerer. They are also bad at using High Thundermine and I would avoid using it.

[zmanbuilder]

Originally posted by miki:

Originally posted by The 5th Seraph:

This is a lesson we DDDA players learnt early: Sorcerer pawns prioritise BIG spells even against small enemies, and in doing so they leave you to solo pretty much all small-scale fights.
My advice: Fit your Sorcerer Pawn with Augural Flare, High Levin, and two other small spells of your choice. I find High Frigor and High Thundermine to be effective lately. Fire magic just isn't that great.
Anyway, Augural Flare is the real breadwinner, since no matter what class your Arisen is, you can focus on attacking the Flare to trigger it for massive damage. And it casts a LOT faster than Maelstrom or Meteoron.

I think the Maister skills are excellent on Sorc. I would skip using Augural on pawns. The reason for this is that the pawns cast spells randomly, which means that most of the time you aren't ready when the pawn casts the Augural.

When I played through with a Sorc pawn, she rarely went for big spells when there were only few enemies. Best setup what I ended up running was High Levin, High Hagol, Maelstrom and Meteron. The pawns can't use a lot of spells effectively. Like they never get any value off High Salamander even though it's one of the best spells if you are controlling the Sorcerer. They are also bad at using High Thundermine and I would avoid using it.

Do not sleep on high decanter, it is great on pawns, at least my calm sorcerer can keep her health topped off without me doing anything and no mage.

[BillDrat]

Still not as dumb as most people in online games.

[AfLIcTeD]

When I said I wanted a simple pawn, that's not what I had in mind.

[LongTimeNoSiege]

Originally posted by Vinnolo:

Originally posted by zmanbuilder:

Example?

ever seen a sorceror use maelstrom to destroy a crate?

I haven't because I don't hire sorcerers that only have long cast skills.
Every one I've hired uses levin or frigor for crates.
As for meteoron on goblins, that's due to them prioritizing elemental weakness over anything else.