Once the thralls stay inside the base then it makes a difference. Friendly Fire makes a difference. Target lock makes a difference. It was all strategy before (farming). Now, my toon feels like the hero since he has not been overpacked or needed another thrall to drag around.
Is there any way to find the right balance between overpower and underpower? And actually whether thrall was strong in the past or not, it is not the right direction to bias the patch.
I want to quote this for emphasis, because @Graywarden is not merely posting a hyperbole as a joke here. This is a serious statement.
The strongest thralls in the past were Dalinsia Snowhunter and the like. They came out of the gate with 5 digit HP where 10,000-12,000hp was common and she boasted a 4.7 melee damage modifier.
That meant if you gave her the old Sword of Crom, she was hitting upwards of 500-600+ damage a hit.
Sounds like a great follower to use in PVP right? Nope.
She would die in a few seconds and all the effort to find her, level her, and equip her went down the drain. You were much better off using the Greater Sabertooth which had a more reliable attack and did a little more damage and was much easier to find. Because of their modifiers to damage and their ease of leveling up, you could more reliably use these in PVP since they were easily replaceable.
Thralls and Pets will never be that great in PVP. Their AI is limited to the same AI they have as they are NPC/Mobs in the wild. So don’t expect this to be chaning anytime in the near or even far future.
Thus Authority builds are pretty much doomed to PVE where their primitive AI can somewhat do something against itself.
This has been an issue back and forth for some time.
For a span, as mentioned above, Thralls were, perhaps too impactful.
Currently, this one feels the pendulum is in the opposite direction.
Rather than just raw numbers, which are somewhat used as a stop gap against the AI limitations, this one would rather see further development along the lines of the Archer Post
Perhaps a Pike thicket, or stationary location from which they can jab at approaching enemies. This could make climbing or navigating rat nests more difficult.
Shifting numbers is always going to be an awkward issue, and having distinctly separate settings for PvE and PvP seems to be a hard no…
So adding a guarding emote or placeable that keeps them stationary but attacking may do something to improve at least defensive utility.
Also, with the realities of living settlements, a more controlled way to protect the home with it’s door gaping open would be nice.
We could prefab the crafter, or the crafter could use prefabs for placement. I like that interaction that is possible before someone’s head explodes. Single-page apps may be a worthy investment for the regression. Anyways, more pvp with A.I.
Authority build in pve is very useless thralls begin to punch and dont use weapons or begin brainless stopped in mid of nothing
They just know the mace combo all other weapons combos are very bad in thralls and throwing weapons or shields in thralls are joke too , in purges they die very fast is much best use pets with big health like rhinos and horses to distract enemys or explosive golems in last case zombies are much best of thralls with gear and weapons because you wont lose nothing with zombies.
