Stronger henchies please!

I am playing this game since christmas, and I am kinda stuck in the middle of the game. As lvl20 healer, it is very easy to form a team, but very difficult to keep them alive. There is no communication whatsoever, and everybody is in a hurry. Talking strategy seems to be a waste of time, and tanks (warriors) act like scouts. They skip 5 or 6 monsters, just to attack the one at the rear of the pack (Probably the caster of the pack). When I want to heal him/her, I end up running to the center of all the monsters, which is a very bad place to be for a healer. I waste time to tell the tank that s/he has gone to far, and in the mean time I neglect my other team mates while typing and keeping myself alive. I notice that allot of players run around with the cheapest armour possible. I know we can't all have fissure, but please buy the best you can get. You'll be doing yourself, and the healer, a big favour. Mesmers, necromancers, elementalists and Rangers, please don't tank. I can't keep you alive! In short, mission failed, because we all die.
Programmers, please make the hench men and women stronger, so I don't have to team up with foolish strangers. At least give the Henchies better armour and more life. I have done many quests with them, and it just need a little tweaking. Not much, just a little, so that I can even descent with them. It is hard to form friendships for parties in town, because of all the trade spammers.
I have noticed that Fractions henchmen are much stronger, and look cool too.
I am tired of teaming up with pugs who think they are invincible, and blame the healer when they aren't.

The Canthan henchies are dumber than a box of abyssal turd. Playing a monk with henchies is hell. Henchies are too stupid to focus fire unless I target an enemy with an attack, but then of course all enemies aggro my monk.

At least, before, I could aggro and run behind the henchies, and henchies would stay and tank, but NOW henchies just follow you within 1 foot range, and will just run back with you. It is completely impossible to get the tanks in your henchie group to stay in front while you can stay back and heal.

I feel your pain! Playing as a Monk, I've had my share of morons in PUGs trying too take on the world and expecting me to keep them alive. What I do when I see a player charging in where he/she shouldn't be, I drop them to the bottom of the priority list for heals. I'd rather keep the other 6 alive, as it helps the group's chances of getting though the mission/quest. I wait until the battle is over and then I explain to the idiot what he's doing wrong and why he got himself killed. I will also warn him/her that if they do it again, I won't even TRY to heal him/her. A tank going after casters in PvP may be all well and good, but for PvE it doesn't work well at all.

When I used henchies, I took Alesia and loaded myself up with smiting prayers skills. It seems to work better that way.

Lol, monks are always the primary target. I Factions you walk around with 3 hench on front and 3 behind you. Seems very logical to me.
Ít should be possible to call a target for the henchies, so the healer can stay behind them to heal.

I don't think they have to get stronger, just a little more intelligent
They should give us more control over the henchies.
If I call a target and get attacked I try to move my ELE away and take some steps back, but ALL henchmen stop attacking the target I called and follow my movements like an Olympic team for synchronous dance.
I am running away with 10 hitpoints left, but none of my two healers is able to heal me, as I am running away (but still in the healers range) and they are following me. So I have two choices: Keep running without getting healed, or I stop running with my 10 hitpoints left and two lvl 28 warriors on my neck and start praying for some blue numbers to appear above my character.

The Canthan henchies are great. Anyone saying that they are 'dumb' doesn't take henchies in Tyria. Some of their builds might be a bit mangled, but otherwise most of them are all you could ask for.

You just have to get the right henchie combination.

And henchies are great in Tyria, too. You can do -anything- with them except UW and FoW, for which you are forbidden.

Some minor AI tweaks would be great, though.

That is all I am asking. Orion is very fast casting Fire attunement, but his meteor storm always comes after battle. Alesia is a good decoy, but sux at healing. She simply doesn't stay on the back.
The ranger constantly panicks, and Little Tom doesn't know when to retreat
I should be able to call for targets, so I'll never become the mobs primary target by doing something stupid as attacking (As healer).

=>I don't think they have to get stronger, just a little more intelligent <=

I would like just more control.

I'd just like to see these commands:
-Stop
-Atttack
-Wait here

And a way to individually set targets for each henchie to go after.

And maybe have them get an offhand item? The casters anyways. I mean warriors have shields but the casters only have starter rods, wtf is that?

From the new Canthan henchies, I can safely say only Guardian and Avicara are decent/smart/good. The monks... well lets say Alesia and Lina look like gods compared to them.

Boy... I hope they don't remove the large chicken.

You can call targets if you want. Instead of using Control+Space to call, press Shift+Control+Space. If you are close enough to a mob (still outside aggro-range), the henchies will start attacking, and thus taking the aggro for you. This works pretty well if you are playing as a Monk, at least for me it does .

Cantha monks are about as smart as a stick. They stand in the middle of the mobs and use *rebirth*. There you are, surrounded by mobs with no health or energy. Real intelligent.

The other henchies are decent, and I really like that large chicken.

The avicara henchman is awesome... shields up, charge, etc.

The monks however... if mhenlo was the bottom of the monk class, these are the dropouts.

The avicara, illusion, and a few other henchies are devastating however.

I'm going to try a MM necro next, at least in Kyrta my minnions are smarter than henchies.

I'll try that, thank you
Of all characters, I like being a monk the most. I'll report back how it works.

It works, when i first went through the game with my monk thats how i beat all the missions. I used henchies then sent them in first, works easily.

I never had a problem using henchies with my monk. It's fairly easy as long as you can heal and command them decently.

Orion has Meteor Shower now?

OMG OMG XD

Sorry, never played an elemental. Orion has these fiery thingies falling out of the sky. It only works if the fight drags on, otherwise he's always to late.

I have tried the Shift+Control+Space, and it worked
Now all they need is a little more armour and life, so they live a little bit longer. Making them lure would be nice too. At least they imediately start running when I resurect. That is a good thing

Fire Storm

They need to make the healer henchies smarter too, they rez during combat, who does that?! Especially right in the middle of a group. I know as a monk, I used to rez during battle, I got yelled at alot for it, for some reason, even when I was quick to get them back to full health. The henchies need to concentrate on keeping people alive, not rez'n, there's time after combat for that