What happened to Acolyte of Kelemvor?

pwpuck

I haven't played in a little while, but she used to fight the enemies. I could get flanking with her and actually use my class abilities.

Now she sees I am about to move in to flanking and she says "oh no you don't!" and runs a few feet in some random direction so the enemy follows and I can't attack. Maybe it's not a random direction as she seems to always drag us into another group of mobs.

She's not just useless now, she's actually dangerous to have around. Is there some way to make her not work *against* me?

iambecks1

The white cleric you buy for 2 gold also trolls whoever summons it by backpedaling its way around the map and into every possible group of enemies it can .

pitshade

Probably got the same AI change that the CD follower got and the Renegade Evoker came with, kiting mobs rather than facetanking them. In Mod1 my TR used her CD as a tank. In Mod2 the follower became a liablity because the mobs wouldn't stop long enough to let her hit them.

angrysprite

Non-striker Companions tend to avoid direct contact with the active encounter, hence they will withdraw or "retreat" slightly to do so. Their retreat direction is usually backwards (the idea being: from whence you came, where it should be safe to do so) - however, "backward" to the Companions seems to be "backward from whichever direction you-the-player are facing at the moment".

So if you get turned-about during combat and end-up facing the already-cleared area you cam from, "backward" might be into a fresh mob.

Hence the favorite and highly recommended word of the day is: Tactics.

In other words, consider your positioning when initially engaging new encounter mob. I have been practicing this technique ever since the AI change with great success. Companion pulling new encounter mobs is very rare for me. Get to understand the Companion AI then with that understanding work WITH your Companion, not with disregard for them.

Just my too sense, your mileage will vary.

pwpuck

Pulling fresh mobs aside, she is still awful as she constantly rotates the mob out of flanking or pulls it out of range. The only tactic to use is to leave her on the shelf.

This is not how it worked when I spent cash to purchase it.

two30

You can, with some effort and luck, get ranged companions to stay in flank position. You need to back the companion up against a wall or cliff. It's generally not worth the trouble.

As has been suggested before, it would be nice to be able to select the companion's behavior from a list.

pwpuck

I could go on a rant about the wonderful pet controls in City of Heroes/Villains, or the adequate pet controls in Champions Online, or Star Trek Online. I'll not do that though lest I suffer an aneurysm.

It's also a little beside the point. Though some control would be very nice, I'd settle for a pet that does not HATE ME.

bioshrike

The Acolyte of Kelemvor companion has never attacked enemies - her abilities consist of a damage resist buff and a lifesteal buff, both of which she only ever casts on you. If you were to rank her up to 30, her damage resist buff also becomes a heal.

pwpuck

True enough that she does not "attack", but she generates aggro as though she were. She did used to stand and cast though instead of running around like a headless chicken while casting. I had ranked her up to 30. She was a very useful companion for a Rogue with the buffs and the constant little heals.

Now she is a liability.