Raiding aggro

[Zebsen]

<DIV>Well, I thought I'd seek some wisdom from people that raid far more than myself.  Some background:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I raid maybe once/week, mostly T6.  I recently dinged 70 and have about 25 AA points.  All of my damage spells are the highest level master except abolish hope, construct of reason, and brainburst, which are adept 3.  Synergism is at master 2.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I do pick-up raids on the Nek server, mostly raiding T6 zones at this point.  This isn't hardcore T7 raiding, but fits my schedule.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We've done the Courts T6 raid (at Shim Cit mirror) several times now (maybe 4).  The first 3 times we did this zone, I was in my 60s for level, while our tank and raid leader was at level 70.  I was able to unload full DPS on these raids and not pull agro about 90% of the time.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The last courts raid we were at, several things changed.  The dirge that was with the MT didn't attend, so the tanks taunts were less effective.  Also, I had just dinged 70 and scribed my new solar shower master, prismatic chaos master, and abolish hope Ad3.  I was grouped with a troub with the proc song on, which usually doesn't happen either.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The bottom line - I couldn't stay alive.  Period.  I even changed my AA from fast casting to the stamina line to deagro myself.  The troub sent a deagro song my way.  I didn't cast as frequently.  The only way I could stay alive was to basically avoid casting solar shower completely and then only cast my other spells at a reasonable pace.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I don't run a parser, so I don't know what DPS I was doing.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Again, I don't raid frequently.  When tank calls for assist, I usually do something like:</DIV> <DIV>Tribulation, shim beam, abolish hope, shim beam, Prismatic chaos, shim beam, solar shower, shim beam, brainburst, shim beam, tumor, shim beam...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I start off slow to let the tank get some additional agro then I usually unload pris chaos and solar show as frequently as possible later on.  I try to time my construct pet after AoEs go off to maximize it's life.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Any thoughts on how to help myself stay alive without crushing my DPS completely?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Zebsen</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV><p>Message Edited by ZebsenChanter on <span class=date_text>04-20-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:49 AM</span>

[Pins]

<DIV>Welp, sounds like either a bad tank.  Or it's the lack of dirge/coercer for extra hate, which is probably it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As for us pulling aggro, it's mainly because of the secondary affects on Solar Shower.  The stifle creates a lot of hate, probably more than the actual damage part.</DIV>

[zit]

<P>sounds like bad raid set up and / or weak tank.</P> <P>dirge arent the only class that can help a tank to keep agro. </P> <P>also if its always been the same tank and he is used to have the dirge in group he might have become a bit lazy and simply didnt adjust to being without dirge this time.</P> <P>i am usually much more aggressive on dps than what you describe you are casting and cannot remember having drawn agro in a long time, not with troub in group and even less without and i am using mostly master spells also.</P> <P>you can try to start out with the dots first (brainburst, abolish hope) before you cast tribulation and then continue in your used routine, but maybe this only makes a difference if you were getting agro very early in the fights.</P>

[Zebsen]

<P>Thanks for the insight.</P> <P>The tank is a good tank and the raid leader.  It's a lot easier though to get all my illusionist masters than it is to get a ton of guardian masters, so in my eyes, I'm probably just a little better tiered for DPS than he is for agro control.  Raid make-up is probably the biggest factor in my eyes, and he had no help with agro control - no dirge and we've never even seen a coercer at a pick-up raid.  </P> <P>What I was really looking for is confirmation that my agro control via my casting method isn't suicidal.  It sounds like most of you are more aggresive in your casting, but your raid is probably significantly better geared toward agro control.</P> <P>As for when I get agro - usually not immediately, but about the time I lay on solar shower for the first or sometimes second time, I was getting it.  I realize my casting isn't as aggresive as it could be, but given the kind of raid we're doing with mostly casuals and not a consistent agro control setup, it seems to be a good mix.</P> <P>Thanks again.</P> <P>Zebsen</P> <P> </P><p>Message Edited by ZebsenChanter on <span class=date_text>04-20-2006</span> <span class=time_text>11:07 AM</span>

[zit]

<P>if you cannot get hold of a coercer and the dirge isnt on, try to put an assassin or swash into the MT group if agro control is an issue.</P> <P>unless the MT is a pally, then just give him someone for amends who isnt lazy and generates good hate.</P>

[Belizarius]

Yeah sounds like a group makeup issue for the MT group.

[Manyak]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> zitha wrote:<BR> <P>if you cannot get hold of a coercer and the dirge isnt on, try to put an assassin or swash into the MT group if agro control is an issue.</P> <P>unless the MT is a pally, then just give him someone for amends who isnt lazy and generates good hate.</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>when in the right group in a raid, its possible for us to generate enough hate that if a pally has amends on one of us he can steal aggro from a guard, even one with a dirge buff, without taunting. i swear ive seen this happen and i nearly couldnt believe it.</P>