This is a post about how dumb companions can be. And, about a fix that I would like to see happen.
I regularly group with my wife and her mother in our little 3 person group nightly. To fill the void of the last spot, we use a DPS companion which works out pretty good, for the most part. I am a trooper tank matched with a sage and guardian(DPS). I use Aric for his ranged DPS since I am usually in the middle of a group of mobs doing my AoE's and other close ranged skills.
In a typical pull, the order of kill usually goes: regular > silver > gold > multicolored star. We CC as many as we can, which is usually 1 and then depending on what kind of mobs they are, I usually either grapple pull 1 out or charge in. When I do this, my wife runs around and kills the regular non elite mobs which only takes are a couple of seconds to do and takes little to no damage doing so as I am holding the aggro. Meanwhile, Aric is plowing away on one of the silvers or golds that wasn't CC'd and dies within a matter of moments, thus leaving us with just a healer who is working her butt off trying to keep me and the wife alive because my companion was dumb enough to tank a mob by himself and the have that mob target the healer, which in turn, has to now work like mad to keep herself alive as well as the group now.
I know how to tank. I have only ever had tank characters in MMO's. I know I have manual control over all companions that I own.
I feel that companions need a better AI. They target the SAME target that their owner is targeting and attack the same target their owner is attacking. Also, I feel that the abilities for the companions should be able to be taken out of their skill menu and placed onto the player quickslot bar for a 1 click or 1 press button instead of having to press both Ctrl + 1 each time you want them to target the same thing you are targeting.
