Online private, PC running server, I am not admin
Bug
PvE, no mods
NY USA
Thrall archers will not use their bows. They wait until the enemy is in melee range and pull a sword. This behaviour started with the most recent patch.
After the next purge, can provide a screenshot of 5 archers in a tower just standing there.
Prior to the patch, they would engage at range using arrows.
This makes an archer pretty much useless.
Regards
jim
Can confirm this. If you make it so they’re stuck up on a tower and can’t get down to melee, they will eventually use the bow. It’s stupid that they spend so long trying to use a melee weapon though. Taking it away and leaving them with just a bow helps, but it’s still not great.
Hey @Jim1
Thanks for letting us know. Sending your feedback to our team so they can look into it.
Im not sure its related ot your case, but in general guardian thralls are REALLLY passive and slow to react to enemies. I wondered if in OT the thralls simply didn’t react to enemies until they were in melee range and then naturally drew swords…
Good point, @Smoketreader, but I observed archers moving from one post to another closer to the attack. My only conclusion can be that their AI is aware of the attack causing the movement. They group up at a tower closer to the enemies and mull about as if at a dull party.
@SylenThunder, thank you for the suggestion. I will do that immediately and watch the results, reporting their actions here.
If relatively unpopulated, I may be able to convince the server owner to admin-start a purge, using the commands here.
Regards
jim
Initial test completed with the sand reaper queen. Freya was alone on a tower and was effective at purge defense before the latest patch. Here is her inventory.
I kited the queen close to the tower and ran to the roof behind her. She was shooting and got off 16 arrows, determined by her inventory before and after. She still had 3 arrows left in this pic.
Oblivious to the threat, she was joined by two other thralls, one of whom is an archer. Lissa never fired a shot.
During the encounter I removed her sword to no effect. Range was certainly not an issue, but perhaps she got bored? The behaviour is similar during a purge, but I did not notice if she got off any shots.
During a purge, there are around 10 T4 archers that crowd to the same tower and just watch. I will attempt to capture it during a purge.
I feel certain this is not intended behaviour and make this sort of setup useless.
Regards
jim
I have actually found that they will stop shooting at a target if they run out of arrows during a purge. To improve the archers lethality, I have been equipping mine with poison arrows and hardened steel arrows. I have actually found that the purge will not move out of the gas cloud. As for the Orb throwers, do not give them orbs since they will damage your base and other thralls.
Copy, and good advice, @Cattibria.
If you notice in Freya’s inventory, she carries star metal arrows, and I will make this recommendation to the guy whose base I was testing with. Don’t think I would do it with my own, do you ? 
She did have 3 arrows left; could that have been a problem, ‘insufficient resources’ ?
We have actually been using the Sep captains with truncheons in case of an NPC purge and they tank quite well with animals, grouping them up so we can AOE with arrows or melee weaps.
One captain was in ‘time out’ for bad behaviour. I took her armor and weapon away and kited the reaper queen to her. Between her and another armored captain that decided to join, they tanked her, losing around 80% health before I killed the queen. That should teach her a lesson.
Regards
jim
This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
