As a long-time player and supporter of Conan Exiles, I truly appreciate the work and passion you’ve put into creating such an immersive and challenging survival experience. However, I would like to raise an issue that significantly affects gameplay — namely, the behavior of thralls during combat.
The main problems:
Thralls frequently block the player during combat, getting in the way between the enemy and the player. This creates situations where the player is physically trapped — unable to attack, dodge, or retreat — often resulting in an unavoidable death. This isn’t immersive or fun, it’s frustrating and feels unfair.
When setting thralls to maximum chase distance (e.g. 40 meters), they tend to ignore nearby enemies and instead run toward targets that are further away. This breaks expected AI behavior and undermines tactical control in the heat of battle.
Suggested improvements:
Implement smarter pathfinding and positioning logic for thralls to avoid blocking the player, and introduce behavior that prioritizes giving the player space during combat.
Improve targeting logic so that thralls prioritize closer threats, not the furthest one detected.
Add more customizable thrall behavior options, such as:
“Keep distance from player”
“Do not block movement”
“Attack only on command”
“Hold position unless attacked”
We appreciate all the hard work your team continues to put into the game and recognize the complexity of AI systems. However, improving thrall combat behavior would greatly enhance the tactical depth and enjoyment of the game, especially for solo players.
I assume you are on PVP because on PVE I attack right through my thrall.
Not saying they wont block a doorway, or sort of trap me in a corner when not in combat.
You told your thrall to prioritize distant enemies. I only set long distance for archers.
Not disagreeing that thralls need better pathing. Been repeated times I’ve had thralls caught on a rock while I’m fighting. Or they are lost trying to find an easy way to me while I’m dealing with 4 or 5 NPCs.
E is your attack command; but E does far too much in this game.
And hold position is an option on the radial dial; hold E{?}.
I’m not playing on PvP servers — I only play PvE. And yes, I’m well aware of what the E key does. In fact, I often support my thralls actively in combat.
However, when I get suddenly surrounded by enemies — like if I miss some coming up from behind — my thralls sometimes end up trapping me in place as they re-target those new attackers.
So no, I’m not standing behind them — I’m in the middle of the fight, literally surrounded — and because multiple enemies are attacking in sequence, I can’t land hits, dodge, roll, retreat, or even jump.
And just like that — dead. With 14 sigils.
Sorry, but your remark doesn’t really apply in such situations.
In my opinion, fixing thrall pathfinding would resolve many of these issues.
And that’s not even touching on how thralls sometimes sink halfway into the terrain mid-fight and just stand there. Two of them. At the same time.
Or how they simply vanish during battle and casually reappear after it’s over — as if nothing happened.
How? I can attack through my thralls, I honestly do not know how your thralls are trapping you when I can walk right through them in a fight. I’m not saying you are not having the issue, I’m saying I don’t understand why you would and I wouldn’t.
Ya, that has nothing to do with thralls and everything to do with the enemies knocking you attack with their’s. Been there done that a few times. Love to figure out why, even when I get in the first attack and it’s heavy it doesn’t knock their attack, they can still get that attack off and knock your next attack. Oh I curse long, loud, and repeatedly about that.
By knocking I mean voiding you attack with theirs, knocking your attack back and ending your combo.
I don’t play on Siptah so sigels mean nothing to me. I bought it when it first dropped and it was a complete cluster fornication. Never went back.
Sorry but I have never, in 7 years had a thrall trap me in a fight. When I’m fighting they are like a ghost I can attack right through them.
Path finding wouldn’t solve as many thrall issues as moving to a better server host. A good portion of stupid AI is due to server crowding; more active thralls the less ram for AI.
I’ve had big enemies shove thralls in to the dirt but I just need to draw the fight away from then for them to pop back out. I’ve only seen it happen with dragons and rhinos.
But we run thralls much differently I don’t do the baby sitter build. My thrall is a side k… hero support, they are just there to keep the boss occupied while I heal up and jump back in. Other wise as soon as the boss loses aggro they immediately start to heal and can heal full in a matter of seconds. I think this is some sort of bug, need to file it. Bosses are acting real strange.
I also often get trapped between thralls and environmental objects (doors, rocks, etc). I’d love to see better path finding to prevent this. This happens more frequently when running war party which I do often in order to level up 2 thralls at the same time. I can usually attack thru my thralls but I cannot always turn to face the enemy and I can’t jump or dodge out when needed. So death happens.
Even when I’m not in combat and I’m just building thralls trap me in corners and doorways.
Another pet peeve is when I’m out adventuring and kill a npc, they crowd the body making me either direct them to move out of the way or I have to maneuver around them to loot the body. So annoying.
They just seem to be obsessed with teabagging the enemies. In some games that’s considered toxic behaviour - here it’s coded in so even the npcs do it…
This reaction seems to be in many things annoying, the part that this may cause death is part of the risk of taking thralls with you.
When I FIGHT, i want NOTHING between me and my prey, NOTHING! Thralls are “violating” my space and this is the part we should start this conversation.
The word violation may sound goofy, but that’s exactly why i don’t fancy using them anymore.
Thralls are going over the prey annoying you to harvest it.
Thralls decide not to fight in the middle of combat.
Thralls don’t use weapons or weapon combinations logical.
Thralls stagger extremely easy.
Thralls no matter their gear or lvl, are weaker than many npcs.
Thralls (except Liu) are not in a good position some years now (after age of war started).
They are not companions anymore, they are burden.
Yes they can be annoying. Yet thralls are still a part of the game and I still want to take them with me and level them. And I assume I’m not alone. So they really should be fixed.
You’re fully welcome to ditch them entirely. I don’t blame you at all for making that decision. But not all of us will make the same decision. Personally, I liked the idea when I was not “the hero of my own story” and had to enlist the help of others to do harder content. That made it different than a lot of games.
When we started the game years ago thralls were companions and pets…
Especially pets. My very first greater hyena… I was so exited with this performance, i was feeling safety walking around with this animal.
Then my first bearer teach me how to use war axe. Thralls back then were teachers in some weapons.
They didn’t have the hp they have today and a serious mistake would cause their life, i remember loosing a relic hunter on black keep.
But they were companions my friend, true companions!
I kinda wish back then our thralls not to be so static while i was resting the night on campfire, i wish i could eat, drink and why not dance with my friend, because they were giving the feeling that they were friends.
Or my pet, i wish i could feed it and pet it all night to thank it for the safety it provided me.
It’s sad that after so many years thralls do not give the same feeling and their moveset and general reaction hasn’t been improved.
I had good time with thralls in this game, not anymore.