Tips for using archer thralls.

[DarkFire]

I've been experimenting with the archer thrall AI, and so far it's been an unmitigated disaster.

The thrall in question was initially armed with a bow & stack of arrows, a short sword and shield. I had them in guard mode, used cloak on myself and spawned in a boss crocodile to see how the thrall coped with it.

Obviously the three basic combat options are "guard position", "prioritise melee" and "prioritise ranged."

Guard position: the thrall stood rooted to the spot being repeatedly hit. The thrall failed to use the sword, instead using the shield and *punching* the target when it got in to melee range. I removed the shield at which point the thrall decided that they could in fact actually use the sword I gave them, though they still stood rooted to the spot.

Prioritise melee: the thrall immediately swapped to the sword and charged in. This was as expected.

Prioritise ranged: This was a total disaster. The thrall started shooting arrows at the monster. So far so good. However, when the monster got within melee range instead of swapping to the sword the thrall tried to move away at about half walking speed, I suspect trying to get back to ranged combat range, while being repeatedly hit by the monster. Utterly ineffective.

Does anyone have any tips for using archer thralls or is the AI simply broken? Melee thralls are awesome (Cimmerian berserker FTW) but archers appear to be utterly pointless because the AI simply doesn't work properly.

[wildbill]

I've only used thralls as archers to defend a base. I used them this way before the update to the AI. At that time I found you had to make sure they could not move to engage with melee and stayed at a good distance from the target. I would put them on a balcony with no exit from it.

BTW, you don't have to give them arrows if you are fine with them using the default worst arrows.

[DarkFire]

Originally posted by wildbill:

I've only used thralls as archers to defend a base. I used them this way before the update to the AI. At that time I found you had to make sure they could not move to engage with melee and stayed at a good distance from the target. I would put them on a balcony with no exit from it.

The balcony idea sound like a very sensible solution. I'll give that a try.

[Thumper]

i set my archers up with 200 poison arrows each, and have about 20 x level 20 archers, all firing poison arrows at the enemy

fun times!

[Mercenaru]

I guess "prioritize ranged" means ranged-only mode. That's why he is trying to get out of melee range, and keep firing arrows.

It's like those games like RPGs where you set a companion to have a "tactic" but it's not dynamic - it will always stick to just one ; so something like prioritize ranged will mean full-time and only ranged.

[Duneman]

Personally I set them up as: Guard Me, Prioritize Ranged, Follow Distance Highest, and give them a weapon that matches the type that they spawned with. That last one might be the culprit for the AI not switching to melee mode. When a weapon matching their default type is in their inventory they will switch in melee combat.

[DarkFire]

Thanks everyone for the tips. Finally getting to grips with the finer points of archer thralls. I still think they're outclassed by melee thralls, and the AI could be a bit more flexible, but I'm getting there now.

[RogeHen]

Originally posted by Duneman:

Personally I set them up as: Guard Me, Prioritize Ranged, Follow Distance Highest, and give them a weapon that matches the type that they spawned with. That last one might be the culprit for the AI not switching to melee mode. When a weapon matching their default type is in their inventory they will switch in melee combat.

My experience exactly. If they didn't come with a shield off the wheel, giving them one just seems to break them, even melee fighters for me. And I use those same settings for follower archers during leveling, then park them on a tower for defense/decoration around my base. Melee does seem best for actual functional followers.

[fmalfeas]

From what I can tell, the key to archer thralls is using yourself as bait.

Spec for tanking, get your best shield, ideally a weapon that will cripple without having to go to the end of combo, and aggravate things and then keep them on you as you block.

Thus, the archer should shoot them silly.

But given how insanely tanky a melee thrall can be, seems it's a better idea for *you* to be the archer.

[Rokalm]

if you fill a thrall's inventory like this
meleeweapon shield bow X Y
they will bug out while swapping to melee + shield combo unless you leave one spot open
prioritise ranged is working ok and the thrall is trying to get out of melee range, give them daggers and they will flip
guard position means do not move

with an archer you can kill all bosses easily by having them just keep swapping aggro between you and the archer, neither you nor will your archer will take any damage unless it is a boss with very long ranged attacks

[DarkFire]

Originally posted by Rokalm:

if you fill a thrall's inventory like this
meleeweapon shield bow X Y
they will bug out while swapping to melee + shield combo unless you leave one spot open
prioritise ranged is working ok and the thrall is trying to get out of melee range, give them daggers and they will flip
guard position means do not move

with an archer you can kill all bosses easily by having them just keep swapping aggro between you and the archer, neither you nor will your archer will take any damage unless it is a boss with very long ranged attacks

Thanks, that's very useful info for setting up archer thralls.