Respec the hirelings

[Smitey]

Due to the update 9 changes to sorcerer and wizard elemental damage lines the hireling casters are actually missing action points where they previously held a pre-U9 enhancement.

I would suggest one step further when fixing this - that the various prestidge enhancements be applied to some of the classes (not just wiz/sorc) because currently hirelings, by design when introduced, are nearly all vanilla builds and give little flavour to the class summon nor insight into the extended class features for anyone unfamiliar.

Selecting a hireling should also then become easier rather than having to examine what spells they possess and allow you to tailor the summon to the quest undertaken, knowing that it is a fire savant for the frost giants or ice savant for the fire mobs etc.

At the moment the hirelings are all pretty generic and underwhelming in their class - this may be ok for random mediocre quests but right now they are chosen for knowing to possess extended haste or heal spells rather than, say, being wilderness-appropriate like having a cold-based caster for searing heights or Paladin Hunter of the dead in Orchard.

As another example, if the cleric is going to stick close to me I would rather he were a radiant servant as they are invariably unable to keep themselves alive let alone heal me in the thick of action when called from their park point. Having a pale master summon would lessen the wizards likelihood of quaffing potions or being healer-dependant if non-warforged too.

I appreciate some prestidges are going to be too hard to implement/too many hotbar buttons/undesirable in a hireling (asassin for example) but they do need refreshing - spellsinger II for the bards who have level I and angel of vengance for the melee type Favoured souls are recent changes that would be beneficial improvements.

If the summons lasted much longer and subject to a wide variety of quests then a multi-tool would be appropriate but when doing a known quest; wilderness area or a themed chain and using a hireling then he/she being mob-appropriate with a known PRE would be beneficial.

Right now I rarely put a hireling caster into 'attack' mode because I know they are too weak to kill the mob or use a underpowered area spell that won't kill so it's just unwanted aggro leading to their own quick demise - having their enhancements using a prestidge class where I know they will use an effective range of single-target/damage over time boosted elemental spells I might actually use this mode (right now I were rather this button were replaced with something more useful as the toolbar space is limited)

Side note: The Compendium is lacking the Bard; Favoured soul and rogue hirelings:
http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Category:Hirelings

[Asketes]

All I have to say:

Respect the time limit

[TPICKRELL]

/signed on respec of hirelings. Not sure PRE's can be added quickly, but they should be added.

Clerics need to learn to stay back a bit, unless they are battle cleric builds. Oddly, it seems that Bard hirelings are generally a lot WISER about keeping a bit of distance between themselves and the action.

Also, any healer who is going to throw themselves into the action needs to have Quicken.

[skunk]

/not signed.

To much other stuff needs fixed to worry about hirelings.

Sorry this is just a minor annoyance. It is in no way game breaking.

Most of the hirelings i use work pretty well, and most are much better then pre U9. Try to find other hirelings, maybe they will be better for you.

[Smitey]

I don't believe I said it was game breaking - this is the suggestion section so if they repair the enhancements it made sense to me they choose appropriate ones taking advantage of the work they already put into the spellpass and new prestige lines.

Right now for example the lvl 16 sorcerer Mekwi only has 27 AP assigned out of the 60 they should have; as a result their repair spells and damage spells are only boosted by feats, not by any enhancements.

As all the wizards and sorcer hirelings are lacking any damage enhancements there is no selecting 'better' ones in the damage/repair category.

Of course if all you require is haste+displace bot then this doesn't matter but if Turbine wish to sell more contracts then they need to make them more viable to all players.

This is mainly a request to bring them in line with the damage they should be doing rather than currently well below average - a PRE would give structure in most cases.

[dragonmane]

/signed

I like using hirelings, but I hate that when it gets tough all they do is stand there. Theydie mostly from stopping in the traps. There should be a way that when they are taking damage that they move or something. I hate having to stop what I am doing and move them away from the traps. Its also very frustrating having them run the long way around when I jump down from a cliff. Arg lol. Anyways, hirelings are important and should be looked at a little more carefully.