Allies need some TLC in the DRM...

I am grateful for the QOL updates for the Dragon Response Missions, especially relating to starting immediately after the pre-event is done.

-I would like to keep leaning on the QOL adjustment of the ally's health crumbling all the time and us having to rez them as well.-If they aid us in the DRM but they are dead in the corner somewhere then they aren't contributing thus making DRMS more difficult.-We also have priorities and rezzing them in the middle of a boss fight is not very strategic especially knowing they will die right afterward.-Their rez icon also gets in the way of us sometimes rezzing our fellow players if they are too close together.-There is also too much consolidation inside the special action key- from using countermagic in PVE, using items (united legions stations), or the new ally abilities. There are simply too many things and we can't use them in the order we want. Consider optimizing multiple special action keys?-I like many of the new ally's abilities but a few seem less efficient. I can understand wanting to change it up and give many forms of help but giving us that Charr weapon or Asuran mech-suit to my knowledge isn't any better than us just using our own weapon skills. If they were solely a "special action" that might have been better but then that brings me back to the above-mentioned issue.

Thank you for listening and for your time! <3

Just tell deads to ress themselves at WP.

@Raizel.1839 said:Just tell deads to ress themselves at WP.

Most likely talking about downed allies

im not 100% sure how they all function now but all the npcs that come as ‘allies’ from the first set of drms (golemancers, sylvari rangers, norn shamans, crystal bloom) besides the watchknights seem to have paper armor and fall over after few hits even with mobs scaled to solo. i am under the impression this hasnt changed

the only new ones ive seen for now are the kitties who litter bazookas everywhere and the flags (/s). maybe i wasnt paying attention but the ebon vanguard seem to have real armour this time, at least they dont die as easily

as for the actual bonuses the allies bring:

• charzookas are similar to ele fgs, #2 deals nice dmg if used correctly and the kit is kinda op in general when used when scaled solo (30k missiles flatten mobs). im sad the kitties dont litter them very close to boss, im sure I would use it more there
• flags are basically warrs banner of defense but worse its static and there isnt one placed at boss. i guess npcs that dont instantly die make up for this
• golem only has one useful skill, its the channel that shoots stuff (#2?). sadly even if it does high dmg, its single target and overkill on trash, and somehow its worse than rotating normal skills on boss
• doggo is situational but i guess serves as an extra source of cc if not already provided/slotted, kinda useless otherwise
• spirit buffs so far imo are mostly useless, compounded by the fact that you have to be within range of the npc who tends to die somewhere else
• im not sure how the crystal works, but the block and regen effect can be useful at specific times. the crystal kind of follows you to boss too (provided you keep the npcs alive? idk)
• watchknights feel like another braham/caithe/kasmeer, they dont die and they do random stuff (like pull enemies away from you) idk how others feel about them

some tlc would be nice but i frankly dont remember when allies have been overly useful

The NPC allies are decently survivable (except against bosses) when you're playing solo, as enemy stats and health are also downscaled basically to an open world level and so the allies can hold their own against them. But go in as a group and basically the allies have zero chance vs the upscaled enemies (except for the Watchknights. The Watchknights are BEASTS.)

I agree that that ally mechanic needs a couple of improvements for them to really feel worthwhile though:

1. NPC allies should res each other (and the player) if one of them goes down. This cuts down on the time players have to spend ressing them if they die in upscaled missions, and NPCs ressing players means that they remain useful even in CMs.
2. Allow us to summon MULTIPLE allied factions into a mission. Currently the ally mechanic only lets us choose which faction shows up, which is fairly pointless (and who would ever call for the Asuras as allies? They are the MOST squishy of all the allies, have useless combat skills, and their bonus ability is fairly worthless as T4/raid comp builds can output WAY more damage than what the Golem suits can provide). If, however, we can summon multiple factions to assist us (and again, from above the allies will res each other so players don't have to go around picking up multiple dead allies), that tilts the balance in our favour simply by providing more bodies and more ressing power. The tradeoff for this is that each additional allied faction costs increasingly more to summon, perhaps a doubling of the previous cost. (So from 5 seals to 10 to 20 to 40 etc.)
3. The Ebon Vanguard allies need a tweak too. The trouble is that if the EV soldier dies, there's no way to resummon him and so for missions where there isn't a banner at the end (most of them), this winds up being one of the most useless factions to ever call for assistance.