After having leveled 2 characters through follower dungeons, I’ld figure I’ll throw in my opinion of the system as is. I write this assuming the target audience are casual players with limited dungeon experience, trying to get them to join Normal & Heroic LFG.
While I’m far more experienced than this (assumed) target audience, I’ve become so jaded with the current toxicity of the “go-go-girl” mentality in the average PuG that I would love it if this “Dungeon PuGs 101” also helped alleviate that in new players.
So to start:
Captain Garrick (tank)
Pros:
- Decent tank. Has survivability and seems to grab aggro off of the player when accidentally pulling it.
- When leading, shows a good path through the dungeon.
- Does single pulls at a decent pace. Is as boring a tank as a beginning player needs.
Cons:
- Spams heals as soon as combat ends. Makes it hard to learn a HoT healer class.
I’ld prefer it if he cast his heals before a pull, to give healers some time in between fights to recuperate, while also showing tanks shouldn’t pull with half the party at half health. - The back-walk is sometimes weird. Especially when they run up to a pack, Avenger’s Shield and run back. Why not just pull from max range and wait X seconds?
Score:
- 8/10
Crenna Earth-Daughter (healer)
Pros:
- Good pick as healer class
- Decent output
Cons:
- No feedback for tanks/players on how much healing they need.
Even if it did 5% of overall damage, I’ld make them cast some Moonfires & Wraths rather than jumping about doing nothing. Both shows the healer contribution on damage, and as tank provides feedback that the healer can handle your damage intake.
Score
- 8/10
Meredy Huntswell (ranged DPS)
Pros:
- Brings a ton of buffs (Intellect, Time Warp, Conjure Food)
- Decent damage overall
Cons:
- I really had to find something to pick out here, but I guess; sometimes Time Warps too late. Like that’s the worst I can think of and it might be because it’s waiting on me to use CDs, maybe?
Score
- 10/10
Austin Huxworth (ranged DPS)
Pros:
- Does a large amount of damage
Cons:
- … because he spams Multi-Shot & Explosive Shots the moment combat starts.
- Nope, he doesn’t know Misdirect. Or Feign Death.
- Not even Hunter’s Mark. Or Primal Rage!
- Worst mob awareness EU … by far.
- His pets seem to spend more time in combat having the zoomies than actually attacking things.
- Would genuinely Vote Kick him if I could in certain dungeons, rather play without him most of the time, even with the damage loss.
Score:
- -1/10
Shuja Grimaxe (ranged DPS)
Pros:
- Doesn’t annoy me as much as Austin
Cons:
- Doesn’t do as much damage as Austin.
- Doesn’t buff, haven’t even seen them cast Bloodlust, ever.
- Fights Garrick for post-combat heal spam
Score:
- 5/10
Additional notes:
The DPS doesn’t wait on any threat before DPSing, which is kinda annoying if you want to test out your survivability in a multi-pull as a tank. Granted, they are used to Captain “One-Pull” Garrick, but an experimenting tank could use this feature to test their limits without annoying real people.
Overall, the moving around part in the “AI” seems to bee occurring too often. While Austin is especially bad at this, it’s not uncommon to see Crenna & Shuja jump around instead of casting things. It’s especially annoying as a Preservation Evoker, as they all run away from eachother for no reason, yet still manage to stand in 93% of all the fire.
Side-note: Why are all the DPS ranged anyway?
Potential improvements:
- Shuja would be far more useful as hybrid class if they actually gave you Skyfury and cast Earth Shield on a player (preferring tank>DPS>healer). The Mastery buff especially puts your class/spec-unique mechanic a bit more in the spotlight and the Earth Shield helps new players potentially survive random damage as they learn about defensive tools.
- Austin:
2a. Swap Austin Asspull with a melee character. A Fury Warrior for Battle Shout would be nice for any melee or tank player. And they would have a similar AoE damage profile, plus placement for tanks becomes a thing to learn. If so, I’ld put them as 2nd, or if point #1 gets accomplished, the 3rd DPS follower.
2b. Make Shuja Enhancement. Prio Austin down to 3rd DPS
As Austin provides no benefit other than damage, this maintains the buff-value of the other followers.
2c. Forego the 5th follower all together. Rather, add a secondary spec on Garrick & Cenna:
If a tank is present, Garrick becomes a Retribution Paladin as 3rd DPS.
If a healer is present (solo): Cenna goes Feral.
Both option provide the melee on solo dungeons. I wouldn’t prioritize either of these over Meredy, nor Shuja with point #1 in mind, as Shuja has would have Garrick’s off-healing and a more interesting buff than Cenna. - Add more followers and let us pick a party. Totally not stealing this from FFXIV
