Command Missions gripes

Doing some command missions are it is a lot of fun in some respects, but very frustrating in others. I find myself constantly fighting the squadrones' "AI" and idiocincracies.

* I would like to be able to command the tank, healer and dps separately. Very often i Engage and the tank picks up just that target while all other enemies retaliate on the DPSers.

* I would like the healer to be more proactive in healing. Currently it is pointless to play as a tank role because the healer squadrone doesn't start casting until im low on health (which is too late). It takes up to 10 seconds to receive any heals, often leading me to death. Keeping Regen on me would be a nice start.

* The tank doesn't try to keep aggro on all enemies and only focuses on enemies that attack party members. It is a nice thought but doesn't work at all when i'm trying to AoE, often leading me to just standing there for up to 15 seconds waiting for the tank to get some aggro.

* DPSers don't prioritise AoE. For classes that can AoE the squadrones should be focusing on the highest health targets, thus spreading the damage evenly. Right now it leads to each enemy dying 1 by 1.

* When attacking the squadrones move to the enemy's position they engage at, if the enemy moves in the meantime they have to reposition again until they find the target. Squadrones should be correcting their position in realtime, not after they reach the original destination. This always leads to the tank running around like an idiot and the healer/DPS dying in the meantime.

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Regen is a WHM job ability so the CNJ squad members don't have it.

I agree that the AI needs a lot of improvements. The tanks prioritize their aoe threat move far too lowly.

Once found out the healer doesn't even use raise until the battle is over which means nothing if you die, but if one of the other members does, they're down for the count until the battle is over.

Also the healer doesn't respond to Living Dead as I found out the hard way.

Never did squadron dungeons as anything other than tank, but everything I've heard about tank AI is consistent with the OP.

I've been trying out tanking via the squadron missions and yeah, it has not been smooth sailing. I've died quite a few times because the healer waits til I have a sliver of health left to cast a heal. I'm having fun playing through with the squadron, but it would be nice if the AI was improved a bit.

I did a couple of the lower L 20 dungeons when they first started them and didn't like the way the squad members didn't respond well and ran all over. That was the last time I did any, mine are all 60 now and I only use them to get certificates occasionally..

I found Wanderer's Palace as a tank doing the command missions to be awesome. I pulled wall to wall, and never died. My CNJ kept me alive the entire time.

I've been doing a lot of these on tank and generally had no issues getting heals on time (even if they were in the nick of time.....), though I still needed to use the few cooldowns I have at at that level to give the healer more time to realize that I'm not the AI tank (which seems to have either more health or more defense or both), and I need my heals sometime soon.

However there was one fight maybe 2 days ago that really made me go: I need a "HEAL ME DAMMIT" button.

This is what happened in one of the fights I had.

Health: 50%, no heals, ok, I still got time, let me pop a CD
Health: 35%, no heals...erm..hurry please, in the meantime, next CD
Health: 5-10% ish, no heals..WTF..pop remaining CD's, pop potion.
OMG a heal spell...WAIT WHAT? It's my ACN (DPS) using Physick?!
Health: about 10%, another ACN Physick spell. At least someone's trying to keep me alive. I still have no CD's left to use.
about 2 full seconds later just as I'm about to die (maybe 1% left): YAY finally HEALS!!!!

The fact that I had the time to get 2 PHYSICK casted heals from a DPS AND popped all the few cooldowns available at that level AND potions and was under <50% health for probably about 20 seconds and <30% for about 10 is quite infuriating. Had the ACN not stepped in I would indeed have died.

But note to self: Archers might be the best damage-wise, but until they fix the healer, I'm bringing my ACN to every tank run I do.

Another gripe I have is the AI level. I've done a few command missions already, my AI level (which it already sucks that it seems to level randomly) may not be maxed, but it's not level 1 either. Most of them have theirs at 3. It's also not clear if the AI picked only affects stats, or if it also affects what they do. For tank that seems obvious: Defensive, DPS Offensive, but I wonder if the healer heals more as Independent, Balanced, or Defensive (I picked Balanced). I picked Balanced for ACN as well because the random AI leveling didn't feel like giving me much Offensive, maybe that's why he healed me?

The other issues are all bearable and don't bother me too much.

The tank not always going after the right mobs? I fix that by using Engage (or Disengage+ Re-engage), I'll just go through the monster list. Engage, next monster, engage, next monster. The AI DPS/heals are very strong and can totally handle having 1 monster on them if something stops aggroing.

The AI standing in fire (or other AOEs) and not moving out of the way because a monster is in the AOE area? If they're not taking much damage (they do have OP stats), fine. If they're taking a lot of damage: Disengage (makes them follow me), wait for monsters to be out of AOE area, Re-engage.

DPS not AOEing, eh, as long as we win I guess I don't care if it's slower, this is chill content anyways. If I'm on DPS, I can pretty much let them do 90% of the work while I watch a movie anyway, occasionally glancing to engage/disengage because they're doing something stupid. Only on tank I have to really pay attention.

This is why I only heal squad dungeons. if I'm going to get aggro anyway, at least I can heal myself.