This has actually always been something I haven’t liked which is why haven’t really ‘embraced’ any particular pet/minion build, but this time, I went Forge Guard all in melee and minions and, in no small part due to the amazing addition of Evade, this has become even more glaring to me.
The “Minion Attack Command” should essentially be "this is your target, kill it’ until it’s either dead or it gets redirected.
The problem with the current implementation has always been that it doesn’t actually work completely this way. This is glaringly obvious with certain enemies that ‘jump back,’ like the Meruna Sirens or Gorgons.)
As a melee character you have to be upfront and personnel and you have to carefully manage when to Evade out and when to stay engaged. What happens with the Minion Attack Command (I think default is A but I have it remapped) when I push it, it works as planned everything attacks. But if I’m surrounded by a mob, and I target say Siren, when that Siren pushes back for some reason the Command to “Kill it” gets dropped and the minions stay with the mob attacking it. This is an issue because as the character I can immediately run over to that same Siren if I’m focused on trying to kill her but the minions have lost focus and no longer follow their last command and don’t come with me.
You can see the same thing happen when running though monos. If you target something up ahead and your minions run towards it, if there’s anything between you and the target, they lose focus unless you repeatedly mash the A key until the pass those others.
The A buttons should simply work as STAY ON THIS TARGET UNTIL IT’S DEAD. It should be a lock until the target is dead or the leader (you) issue it another command.