Overview
Guide for improving your experience of playing with Bot on all difficulties.
Introduction
This is a very wordy guide. Most of the mechanics are explained in the Part 1. If you want TL;DR version, read Part 0 if you don’t know the setting/mod, use builds in Part 2 and read Part 3.
All information in the guide are from my personal play experience. I have no reliable way to check bot behaviours in code. If you have a reliable source or find anything worth mentioning, feel free to leave a comment and point out my mistakes!
Part 0: In-game Setting & Mods
The bot shares host hero level/build/equipment. Levelling up all your characters is essential for any good bot run.
Without in-game setting, bot will use Markus – Bardin – Kerillian – Saltzpyre – Sienna as hero priority. Without any mods, the bot will choose the last career you played for that hero, and use the build you equipped currently.
Press ESC, under Option – Gameplay – Bot, you can choose the Bot Hero Priority. This will decide which hero (not careers) you will have for your bots.
[link]
Require Vermintide Mod Framework and Simple UI too.
All these mods here are sanctioned, which means they can be used in the official realm.
This mod allows you to lock your bot career choice/build for that hero.
To save your bot build & career of choice:
Step 1: Go to the inventory page of your career of choice for that hero, change talents/equip equipment that you want your bot to use. Then click an empty loadout slot.
[link]
Require Vermintide Mod Framework too.
All these mods here are sanctioned, which means they can be used in the official realm.
Change the behaviour of Bots. Not stirckly improments at current patch.
Part 1.0: Bot Behavior
- Offence Behaviour
- Attack Order:
They follow a quite restricted attack priority: Close ~ Medium Range Specials > Monster > Elite > Horde > Distant Specials
– This means if there are Monster + Horde on the field, they will focus on the Monster
most of the time, while attack Horde occasionally.
– This also means if there are only Long range Specials left on the field, they will chase
after them.
However, they won’t go after something on the edge of the map that you can’t even Tag.
– They will never attack non-aggroed enemies, including specials (e.g a just spawned
Blight Stormer). - Attack Pattern – Melee weapon:
Bot uses melee weapon for Monster, Horde, most of the Elites, and few Specials (or when they run out of ammo). Their attack pattern, however, is different from weapons to weapons. And Vanilla Bot uses a different attack pattern compare to Modded Bot on the same weapon. You need to equip them with different weapons depends on if you are using Modded Bot or not. - Attack Pattern – Range weapon:
Bot uses range weapon for most of the Specials and few Elites. With Drakegun and a lot Sienna weapons, they sometimes do some crowd control attacks too. They never do friendly fire damage. However, they only use their range weapons in a very limited range, so most of the time they will choose to run towards Specials in distance and then shoot. Their headshot rate is moderate, but they don’t really miss bodyshot, so give them a range weapon with a proper breakpoint setup is important.
- Defence Behaviour
- Against Horde:
Bot never dodges against Horde. However, their block/push timing is very on point. If they have infinite stamina they will barely take damage from Horde. - Against Elites:
Bot does dodge against multiple Elites but still tends to block attacks 90% of the time. Again if they have infinite stamina they will barely take damage from Elites. - Against Specials:
Bot does not dodge disablers like Life Leech/Hook rat. If they cannot kill them before getting disabled, Specials will 100% grab them. They also stay inside gas cloud/blight storm/gun rat firing line quite often. In general, their best defence against Specials is killing them, which they do a very good job at the current patch. - Against Monster:
Bot can fairly efficiently dodge dance Rat Ogre/Bile Troll. Sometimes they will be grabbed by Chaos Spawn. Minotaur will crash them easily, but since if they got aggro they won’t attack, the Minotaur tends to switch aggro very quickly.
- Career Skill Usage
- General Usage:
Bot rarely uses career skills against low density/threat units. But when there are multiple roaming trash units/Elites, they will use it immediately without recognizing if those units can threaten the team. For Specials, they do tend to use the skill but only when they get into close range. - AoE career skill (Mercenary/Ironbreaker/Witch Hunter Captain/Unchained):
Due to AoE career skill range is a sphere rather than a circle, they can accidentally pull enemies next to the wall/on other floors. - State Buff/Power Shot career skill (Huntsman/Ranger Veteran/Waystalker/Shade/Bounty Hunter/Pyromancer):
They never use State Buff (invisibility) skill for defensive usage. Power Shot skill can let them delete dangerous Elites/Specials, but it can also aggro patrol easily. - Displacement career skill (Footknight/Slayer/Handmaiden/Zealot/Battle Wizard):
They never use them for buff (Slayer/Zealot). And they never use it if the displacement will make the bot be far away from the other bot. They do however charge into an unreturnable situation time to time (e.g hookrat in the horde). Not as bad as pulling patrol often like Power Shot skill, but definitely not as ideal as AoE skill.
- Support Behaviour:
- Revive/save teammates:
Bot knows how to revive while blocking, but doesn’t know how to revive and use career skill. However, they do tend to use career skills before revive. - Spontaneous Item Pickup/Usage:
Bot will only pick up healing/potion/bomb if human players have full inventory (e.g if not all human players have healing, they will not pick healing up themselves without command). They will also pick up Tome spontaneously, but unless it is commanded by a human player, they will replace the Tome with healing items immediately when they see one.
For bombs & potions, Bot will never use them but will give it to a human player as long as they have the inventory slot.
For healing items, they will heal wounded player/bot first, then low green health(<40%) player/bot.
- Interaction with human players
- Social Wheel:
Bot only reacts to Item Pickup and Drop Grimoire command. You can give Item Pickup command by Tag and press the Social Wheel button at an item (including all healing items, potion, bomb, ammo pouch, ammo box, Tome, Grimoire), and give Drop Grimoire command by press the Social Wheel button at your Bot. - Distance:
Bot will stay fairly close to a human player when there are a lot of aggroed enemies. However when they are ordered to pick up an item, they will try to get the item rather than get closer to human players. Or when there are Specials in distance and they will tend to abandon human players and get closer to the Specials.
- Noticeable Unusual Behaviour
- Teleportation
When Bot is too far away from the human player, they will teleport to him, regardless if they are engaging with enemies or not. It doesn’t overwrite players’ command though, so if a human player commands a bot to pick up an item and keep running forward, Bot will try to run back for the item and teleport back to the player and then run back again, wasting a lot of time. Sometimes bot can use teleportation to save other players that are controlled by specials before an unreturnable dropdown. - Forced item pickup
If the Bot is forced to pick up an item before an unreturnable dropdown (E.g the bot is commanded to pick up the 2nd Tome in Righteous Stand during the cannon event), they will pick items up without physically reaching the item. - Ledge/Dead corner
Up until this point, bot can still fall off a ledge and stuck at some weird corner/complicated terrain easily. If bot got ledged, do the revive yourself since other bots will most likely get ledged when they try to revive. If bot got stuck, run forward/backward as far as possible to force them to teleport.
Part 1.1: Vanilla Bot vs Modded Bot
Functionally of Bot Improvements – Combat
All three options in Bot Improvements – Combat mod work separately. They change different aspects of the Bot behaviour.
- Improved Bot Melee Choices
Change melee attack patterns & some range weapon behaviour. Different weapons will have different results. For some melee weapons, which option is an improvement, but some is a downgrade. This option will also reduce Bots’ ability to use crowd control range weapons, such as Conflagration staff and Drakefire pistol, they will use the crowd control attack on these weapons less frequently. Turn this option on/off accordingly.
In the build section, Vanilla build means this option is turned off, Modded build means this option is turned on.
- Bots Stay Closer
Force Bots to stay closer to human players. However, this will limit their Special sniping ability dramatically, since it seems they will prioritize positioning when this option is turned on.
- Bots Ping Attacking Elites
Currently, this option is broken.
Suggested setting
Turn off Bots Stay Closer and Bots Ping Attacking Elites for better Special sniping ability.
For Improved Bot Melee Choices, depends on the melee weapon you choose for your bots. Recommend weapons will be listed in the build section.
Part 2.0: Bot builds – General Properties/Traits
General Melee Weapon Properties/Traits:
Help bot crowd control and block, since blocking is their most-used defensive ability.
General Necklace Properties/Traits:
Help bot tank damage and block. Blocking is their most-used defensive ability, and bot usually ignore gas/blight storm so Barkskin is always a good choice on them.
General Trinket Properties:
Help bot on defensibility. Block/push is their most-used defensive ability so Stamina Recovery is a must-have. Curse Resistance increases their tackiness a lot on Legend full book runs, otherwise use Crit Chance to help them trigger Swift Slaying for more crowd control.
Part 2.1: Bot builds – Markus Kruber
Recommend Bot Hero Priority: 2nd
Recommend Grimoire Pickup Priority: 3rd
Mercenary is an all-around bot with good damage and good survivability. From horde control to elites damage to special sniping, he can do basically everything. The only small downside is that he has no natural damage reduction and block ability on his melee is not the best, so not the best option for Grimoire.
Legend full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Legend full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
THP on cleave is way more consistent on bot.
LVL 10
The most important job for bots is to survive. Limb-Splitter will help Kruber crowd control and generate more THP. If you prefer your Bots doing more damage than sustaining, use The More the Merrier.
LVL 15
Help Elites damage.
LVL 20
All bots are mainly focused on melee combat, so Strike Together works fantastic for the team.
LVL 25
Bot barely dodge. Damage reduction helps them better.
LVL 30
Bot never actively save career skill for a true emergency, so cooldown reduction is generally the best choice.
Xsword has great balance between crowd control and elites damage. Its attack pattern also suits bot very well.
Sword & Mace is fast and reactive, a very safe and versatile weapon for bot with good horde clear and decent enough elites damage. Though it has monster damage problem since bot only use light attack with this weapon on them.
Handgun has good bodyshot breakpoint across all difficulties. With proper setup Kruber bot can kill specials very efficiently since bot never misses bodyshot.
Range & Charm Property/Trait (Legend)
Breakpoints: One shot-bodyshot all specials and Storm Vermin/Bestigor/Monk/Savage
Range & Charm Property/Trait (Cataclysm)
Breakpoints: One shot-bodyshot all specials and Storm Vermin. Also allow Xsword one shot-headshot Storm Vermin
Part 2.2: Bot builds – Bardin Goreksson
Recommend Grimoire Pickup Priority: 1st
The best bot you can have. Ironbreaker bot is so good that if you play Bardin yourself the win rate of bot only game will drop dramatically. His weapon combo allows him to crowd control and sniping specials very efficiently. His insane amount of tankiness makes him the best choice for Grimoire. Only downside is that he doesn’t do any elites/monster damage, but taunt can save you from patrol way more often than other bots.
Legend full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Legend full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
THP on stagger is super good on Shields and Dual Hammers.
LVL 10
Provides some extra damage. Essential for breakpoints on Legend.
LVL 15
Depends on your Bot melee weapon choice, choose different talent.
Dual Hammers: Smiter helps Elites damage.
Axe & Shield: Enhanced Power increases weapon cleave and reaches certain breakpoints.
LVL 20
Save bot from specials and knockback all types of units including Monster.
One trick to do is that when you want to stagger boss (say Chaos Spawn grabbed someone) without any career skill/bomb, you can friendly fire Ironbreaker to trigger this talent to stagger it.
LVL 25
Get bot more ult charge.
LVL 30
Bot never actively save career skill for a true emergency, so extra duration and duration is generally the best choice. However, it also increases the chance that Ironbreaker bot accidentally pulls the patrol, so Drengbarazi Oath is also a choice.
Axe & shield has amazing block ability. And after the update, vanilla bot will use shield bash on high density enemies, providing tons of crowd control. With Opportunist and some other properties, bot can also use axe & shield push to stagger most elites out of their overhead animation. However this weapon has very low dps in basically every situation.
Dual Hammer has insane crowd control over on horde and above average block/dodge/elites damge. Only downside is that its monster damage is not great since bot only light attacks on monster with this weapon.
Crossbow can one shot most of specials on body on Legend. With only Globadier/Life Leech/Blightstormer need one teammate nearby to trigger Blood of Grimnir.
Handgun has way better bodyshot breakpoint than Crossbow on Cataclysm. Bot can use Handgun more consistently than Crossbow since Crossbow requires a lot headshot on this difficulty.
Range & Charm Property/Trait (Legend)
Breakpoints:
One shot-bodyshot most of specials. Globadier/Life Leech/Blightstormer need headshot or 1 stack of Blood of Grimnir.
Range & Charm Property/Trait (Cataclysm)
Breakpoints:
One shot-bodyshot all specials and Storm Vermin.
Part 2.3: Bot builds – Kerillian
Recommend Grimore Pickup Priority: 4th
Kerillian bot’s power highly depends on how many DLC you own.
Character wise, Sister of the Thorn is currently the best Elf bot, and performs better than Saltzpyre/Sienna bot in general, due to her strong special sniping ability/strong team heal buff/fairly tanky/ low CD AoE stagger and high damage. However, since she is a DLC character, I will still list Waystalker bot builds here as a replacement. Even Waystalker is generally considered the least used bot, since she is super squishy and doesn’t provide a lot useful team buff, but her special sniping ability is in fact in the top tier, with huge ammo pool and good headshot rate with Piercing Shot.
Weapon wise, Moonfire bow from Forgotten Relic DLC gives Kerillian bot infinite ammo and all special bodyshot breakpoints. Longbow is still useable but just beaten by Moonfire on basically every single perspective when used on bot. I will list longbow builds for both Kerillian bot at the end of the Kerillian section.
Legend full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Legend full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
THP on cleave is way more consistent on bot.
LVL 10
Increase moonfire bow efficiency.
LVL 15
Mandatory for breakpoints.
LVL 20
Brings health regen to the whole team. Most of the time bots will be below 50% health, so this talent has a very high uptime.
LVL 25
Reduce cooldown is the most consistent talent in this row.
LVL 30
Kerillian bot has very good headshot rate with this talent, and it reduces bot’s chance of pulling patrol.
1h sword has good cleave on its light attacks and high single target dps on its heavy. Bot can use this weapon’s combo efficiently under vanilla settings.
Sword & Dagger has fairly low stagger from its attack. However, its push/push attack only consumes half stamina shield, making it more efficient at stagger horde than it looks. Its elites/monster damage is also top tier.
Moonfire bow is currently the best elf sniping range weapon, with amazing breakpoints and infinite ammo.
Range weapon + Charm
Legend Breakpoints:
Moonfire bow: One shot-bodyshot all specials and all elites except Chaos Warrior and Bestigor/Wargor with charged arrow.
Piercing Shot: One shot-headshot all specials & elites.
Cataclysm Breakpoints:
Moonfire bow: One shot-bodyshot all specals and Mauler except Wargor with charged arrow. Two shot-bodyshot rest of elites except Chaos Warrior with charged arrows.
Piercing Shot: One shot-headshot all specials & elites.
Legend full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Legend full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
SOTT bot has multiple ways to trigger critical strike, THP on crit is very consistent.
LVL 10
Increase dps in general. With her perk is talent can be triggered very consistently inside horde.
LVL 15
Help melee Elites damage.
LVL 20
Powerful DPS boost, also increase crit chance to help to farm THP.
LVL 25
DPS boost, also help to farm THP.
LVL 30
Kerillian bot doesn’t really know use normal Thorn Wall, but can utilize this version very well, also brings high damage and stagger.
1h sword has good cleave on its light attacks and high single target dps on its heavy. Bot can use this weapon’s combo efficiently under vanilla settings.
Sword & Dagger has fairly low stagger from its attack. However, its push/push attack only consumes half stamina shield, making it more efficient at stagger horde than it looks. Its elites/monster damage is also top tier.
Moonfire bow is currently the best elf sniping range weapon, with amazing breakpoints and infinite ammo.
Range weapon + Charm
Legend Breakpoints:
Moonfire bow: One shot-bodyshot all specials and all elites except Chaos Warrior and Bestigor/Wargor with charged arrow.
Cataclysm Breakpoints:
Moonfire bow: One shot-bodyshot all specals and Mauler except Wargor with charged arrow. Two shot-bodyshot rest of elites except Chaos Warrior with charged arrows./u]
Legend full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Legend full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Legend full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Legend full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Part 2.4: Bot builds – Victor Saltzpyre
Recommend Grimore Pickup Priority: 4th (WHC)/2nd (Zealot)
Saltzpyre bot choice really depends on personal flavor. WHC does almost everything better than Zealot. Better synergy with rapier means better crowd control (from half shield push and stamina regen talent). And due to Zealot bot always heal himself, WHC actually deal higher damage on all types of enemies except super armour units than Zealot because of Flense and Tag. And crowd control AoE is always more useful than dash on bot.
However, Zealot is way tankier, and can eat multiple overhead with his LVL30 talent and passive. If the human player can deal enough damage, and only need bots to frontline/soak damage/attract specials, Zealot is better. Beside, Zealot bot is the 2nd best choice for bot Grimoire carrier other than Ironbreaker bot.
Legend full build[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build[www.ranaldsgift.com]
THP on cleave is way more consistent on bot.
LVL 10
Flense damage comes out very easily without requiring headshot, providing huge damage bonus to horde and Monster.mixing in horde.
LVL 15
Help Elites damage.
LVL 20
Crit chance bonus applies to the whole team, boosting team DPS.
LVL 25
Block/push is bot most-used defensive ability.
LVL 30
Bot never actively save career skill for a true emergency, so cooldown reduction is generally the best choice.
Rapier has great synergy with WHC talent Flense and Assassin. It also has the best block/push/dodge ability among all Saltzpyre melee weapons.
Crossbow can one shot most of specials on body on Legend. With only Globadier/Life Leech/Blightstormer need headshot or Tag.
Brace of Pistol has way better bodyshot breakpoint than Crossbow on Cataclysm. Bot can use BoP more consistently than Crossbow since Crossbow requires a lot headshot on this difficulty.
Range weapon + Charm (Legend)
Breakpoints: One shot-bodyshot most of specials. Globadier/Life Leech/Blightstormer need headshot or Tag.
Range weapon + Charm (Cataclysm)
Breakpoints: One shot-bodyshot assassin, two shot-bodyshot rest of specials, three shot-bodyshot hookrat.
Legend full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Legend full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
THP on cleave is way more consistent on bot.
LVL 10
Unlike human player Zealot bot won’t maintain high THP low green health, so Castigate is very unreliable. Smite provides consistent damage and allows you to choose more defensive properties on equipment.
LVL 15
Help Elites damage.
LVL 20
Extra health regen is better than damage reduction.
LVL 25
Block/push is bot most-used defensive ability.
LVL 30
Feels Nothing helps Zealot bot to survive insanely long in patrol fight. Since taking damage will reduce career skill cooldown, he will eat an overhead, dash, being invincible, eat an overhead again, and dash again. Plus giving bot cooldown reduction on dash ability is very dangerous.
Flail has amazing stagger power and horde damage/control. The downs side is on bot its single target damage is fairly low.
Axe and Falchion has the best bodyshot damage and has amazing elite/monster dps. Although block/crowd control wise it’s not the best, Zealot bot can restore stamina by taking damage, and it regens THP very fast with his talent.
Crossbow can one shot most of specials on body on Legend. With only Globadier/Life Leech/Blightstormer need headshot or 1 stack of passive.
Brace of Pistol has way better bodyshot breakpoint than Crossbow on Cataclysm. Bot can use BoP more consistently than Crossbow since Crossbow requires a lot headshot on this difficulty.
With LVL10 talent Smite, Crit Chance becomes meaningless. Use Revive Speed to increase the chance of a successful revive.
Range weapon + Charm (Legend)
Breakpoints: One shot-bodyshot most of specials. Globadier/Life Leech/Blightstormer need headshot or 1 stack of passive.
Range weapon + Charm (Cataclysm)
Breakpoints: One shot-bodyshot assassin, two shot-bodyshot rest of specials, three shot-bodyshot hookrat.
Part 2.5: Bot builds – Sienna Fuegonasus
Recommend Bot Hero Priority: 4th/5th (Replace Waystalker if you want more tankiness)
Recommend Grimore Pickup Priority: 3rd
Unchained bot has very good tankiness from her passive and LVL20 talent. However the damage is inconsistent plus the special sniping speed is at the bottom tier. But she never use ammo, and has good crowd control ability from melee/AoE THP regen to help team stay alive.
Legend full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Legend full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Vanilla[www.ranaldsgift.com]
Cataclysm full build – Modded[www.ranaldsgift.com]
THP on cleave is way more consistent on bot.
LVL 10
Unchained bot stay at high heat quite often on Cataclysm. Attack speed provides more crowd control.
LVL 15
Mandatory for breakpoints.
LVL 20
Blocking is bot most-used defensive ability. And it prevents Unchained from blowing up by a lot.
LVL 25
Prevent Bot from exploding & die too often.
LVL 30
Increase bot tankiness.
1h sword has good cleave on its light attacks and high stagger on its heavy gives a lot thp to your bot. It is worse than Flail in general, so only equipe your bot with it when you don’t own the dlc.
Flail fits the bot attack pattern very well, has good cleave and high stagger on all types of units. Provides very strong crowd control ability.
For specials, bot use beam staff like a laser pointer: it only uses beam mode, and as a result it kills them fairly slow, but helps you to locate their position since bot don’t Tag specials. And sometime Unchained bot will use blast to clean horde, which is very efficient.
You can also use bolt which can oneshot all specials with full charge even on Cataclysm. But there is a huge downside: Bot sometimes keeps charging it even there is no valuable target, making Unchained Bot always fall behind the team. And even if the Unchained Bot decides to charge & shoot, other Bots would probably kill the target already most likely, since weapons like Handgun/Crossbow are way faster for Bot to use.
Range weapon + Charm (Legend/Cata)
Legend Breakpoints:
1/2 shot-body shot slave rat/fanatic with Blast
Two shot-bodyshot all specials with Instant Snipe
Cataclysm Breakpoints:
2/3 shot-body shot slave rat/fanatic with Blast
Two shot-body shot assassin with Instant Snipe
Two shot-headshot or three shot-bodyshot rest of specials with Instant Snipe
Part 3: Strategies when playing with Bots
- Strategies during pushing
During pushing, Bots won’t attack ambient enemies that haven’t got aggroed yet, so it’s fully up to you to decide whether they should be pulled or not. There are couple elements you want to consider.- Will these enemies be pulled when the horde comes? And if so, can you kill them before the next weave of horde comes?
If they will be pulled by the horde and you can kill them fairly fast, pull the ambient, otherwise leave them alone/avoid them. - Are these enemies on the path of a potential Patrol?
If so, pull them at a safe distance and kill them as fast as possible, since Bots might run towards them when the Patrol comes.
- Will these enemies be pulled when the horde comes? And if so, can you kill them before the next weave of horde comes?
- Strategies during a Horde fight
Bots are more than capable of handling Legend/Cataclysm Horde. As a human player, you can help them do their job better with some strategies.- Choose a good terrain/position for Horde fight
Generally, choose a place where you and your Bots don’t get surrounded. A tunnel/entrance where Horde can only come in one direction and can’t go behind your team will be ideal. Fighting against a wall is worse but not horrible. And try your best to avoid fighting in a completely open area.
The reason for that is that Bots only do block/push during a horde fight. If they get surrounded, their stamina will be drained very quickly and start taking damage. - Focus on bursting/stagger when there are Elites inside the Horde
When there are Elites mixing inside the Horde, Bots will change their melee attack pattern, using more high single target damage focus combo than crowd control focus combo. So depends on the build, it is your job to either help them burst down those Elites fast or stagger the Horde units that they temporarily gave up. - Depends on your tool kit, use different strategy for Specials
Specials can interrupt the Bot gameplay the most, after the update they can really focus down on Specials. So if your career is mostly focus on Crowd Control, try to leave most of the Specials to your Bots and stagger Horde for them. If your career is mostly focus on single target damage, try to help them kill the Speicals ASAP so they can back to melee action and block/dodge.
- Choose a good terrain/position for Horde fight
- Strategies during a Monster fight
Due to their restricted attack order, when there is a Monster + Horde + Specials scenario, Bots will focus on chasing down Specials first, then Monster, ocationally hit Horde once or twice. So it is your job to handle other units. When there are Specials nearby, either kill them fast, or grab Monster aggro away from your bot. When there are Horde nearby, leave the Monster to Bots and stop the Horde/Elites from getting close to them.
Pay extra attention to Storm Fiend, Chaos Spawn and Minotour. For Storm Fiend, Bots will pressure it and sometimes force it to climb walls and spray, making Bots die slowly from the flame. At this point, you need to pull your Bots away from Storm Fiend by running away. For Chaos Spawn, try to save your stagger career skill/bomb in case of Bots get grabbed. For Minotour, try your best to kill it before Horde shows up, use your potions & bombs generously. - Strategies for Patrols
Patrols are usually the biggest threat for a Bot run. Although Bots have to get much closer to aggro the Patrol compare to human player, there is a very high chance they just run into them. Here are some tips for you to avoid Patrol when you are playing with Bots.- It’s ok to do a full retreat when you notice a Patrol. Until you figure out their exact pathing, stay as far away as possible.
- Stop aggro more new ambient when you notice a Patrol. There is a high chance your Bots will try to run towards those aggroed ambient and pull the Patrol.
- Kill distant Specials as soon as possible when you notice a Patrol. Bots will also run toward distant Specials to try to kill them because even they have ammo, they only use range weapons in a very limited range.
- Hiding behind the structure is not a generated Patrol-avoid. Since Bots use their career skill without recognizing the necessity, they might pull the Patrol when they try to kill low threat enemies with a career skill like Mercenary shout/Ironbreaker taunt.
- If somehow the Patrol is pulled, try to fight them in an open area. Let your Bots take most of the aggro, and you take care of a few Elites a time.
- Strategies for Specials
The best-case scenario is that you can kill all the Specials. But since it’s very likely not gonna happen, here is a Specials sniping priority for playing with Bots.- Blightstormer, Globadier
Blightstormer and Globadier are most likely roaming at a range that Bots won’t use their range weapon. Beside Bots ignore the threat of blight storm and gas most of the time, so as a human player you should focus on these two first. - Warpfire Thrower, Ratling Gunner
Warpfire Thrower and Ratling Gunner can be a threat to Bots if they are firing at a fairly long distance, and Bots will try to run into and melee them while they keep firing. But sometimes Bots will get close enough to use range weapons before the specials can attack. - Assassin, Hookrat, Lifeleech
The three crowd control specials can only threaten your team when they are in a very close range. Bots will most likely use their range weapon/career skill to kill them. And if it’s possible, try backward and let the Bot tank the crowd control special attack. It will be more reliable to let you save Bot than other ways.
- Blightstormer, Globadier
- Strategies for Books/Items collect
- Healings/Potions/Bombs
Bots only start to pick up these items spontaneously after the human player’s inventory is full. So fill up your slots first.
Try to pick up a Medical Supply yourself and let the Bots take Healing Draught. So Bot can heal whenever they want and if they didn’t heal at a critical state, you can go heal them. Also at the current patch, healing others with a Medical Supply will clean the wound of both players, while Bots might just use Medical Supply on themselves. And always heal your Bots when there are excess healings.
Remember to let Bots pick up ammo with Social Wheel when you see an ammo box. They sometimes will not pick up ammo without commands. - Ammunitions
Bot now will never pickup ammo pouch unless human players have absolutely full ammo. So if you are only 1~2 ammo short, make sure to use the social wheel command to make them pickup some ammos. - Tomes and Grimoires
Always use Social Wheel commands to force Bots to pick up Tomes and Grimoires. Bots will not pick up Grimoires without commands. And if they picked up Tomes spontaneously, they will trade it with a Medical Supply/Healing Draught as soon as they saw one, dropping the Tome at some corner.
Try to pick up some weird location books at complicated terrain(e.g the last Tome in Athel Yenlui, last Grimoire in Hunger in the Dark), since Bots have a high chance got stuck at a weird corner.
- Healings/Potions/Bombs