The woes of agro (just because I poked em' in the back)

[Darkewo]

<DIV>Greetings,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>    In a previous life I hugged trees and worshoped the earth goddess ... but since Tunare abboned her children, my soul has come to see the power of the dark side. My entire guild left the realm of light and now forever dwells in the darknes of the abyss. I LOVE IT!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>    My new (more furry with a twitchy tail) incarnation has rapidly progressed up to the 32nd circle of "stick em in the backside".  I have learned many amazing things but still need to know more. One of the things I discovered the hard way, was that my favorite meat shield has a much more difficult time keeping the baddies facing the correct direction!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now for the questions...</DIV> <DIV>For duo's, groups and raids, which attack combinations can you get away with and not gain agro with a skilled even-con tank?</DIV> <DIV>Which skills seem to generate the most hate tword the poor lil' back stabbers?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I thank you for delving into your tomes of knowledge for lil' ole me =)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Rudder the (ranger is dead) Assassin</DIV> <DIV>Postatem Obscuri Lateris Nescitis</DIV><p>Message Edited by Darkewood on <span class=date_text>07-19-2005</span> <span class=time_text>08:16 PM</span>

[khalysta]

<DIV>Remember its often a two sided story with aggro.  When in doubt the dps blames the tank but you also need to do your part with aggro.  I know lots of assassins open up with one of their shadowblade line skills which is a good way to make sure you get really high on the aggro list early.  Keep to some low key attacks early like shrouded strike + ambush lines as the tank builds a bit of aggro and then use stalk to set up some of the bigger attacks(ebon blade/assassins blade) by lowering your aggro before making that big hit. If you go easy early for a sec early like that and use stalk you really shouldnt have many aggro problems unless the tank is truly horrid and I can usually unleash whatever following that strat. </DIV>

[scivias]

<span><blockquote><hr> <div>Which skills seem to generate the most hate tword the poor lil' back stabbers?</div> <div> </div> <hr></blockquote> Mobs hate anathema and assassinate ^^ apart from that..  simple autoattack seems to draw me agro far more often then anything else, if its a longer fight remember to use our de-agro styles as they come up</span><div></div>

[dparker7]

<P>In an epic encounter, I use my stalk line whenever possible.  By doing this and following a progression of ambush line to defuff and waiting till a fair ways into the fight to hit the assassin's blade line, I've been able to burn through power without stealing agro.  I dont always use my biggest attacks when they refresh, but I generally am chaining combat arts.   </P> <P>I mostly try to follow a somewhat similar pattern while xping.  The only time I'll open up with AB or EB lines on a mob is if its a set of mobs with no arrows or down arrows and I want to immediately cut down on the DPS on the tank.  But generally, in a full group the mobs die so fast if I draw agro and hit my defensive skill, its not generally a big deal.  If worse comes to worse, snare the mob and kite it the last few percent.  In less than full groups, you definitely need to pay more attention to your agro management.</P>

[WhispersEdge]

Until they make fighter taunt a good deal better, we are going to be getting a lot of agro. This only becomes more and more pronounced as you get better gear at higher levels, where the agro gap between you and fighters (specifically guardians) gets larger. Evade is not even a shadow of its former self from eq1 <span>:smileysad:</span> Since they're supposed to be replacing several spells that are on the same line, assassins more than any scout needs a skill that not only lowers threat number but placement on the mobs hate list, which means <i>threat level</i>. Considering we do more damage than rogues (which should be even more pronounced when the combat changes go live), we need those abilities just as much as they do. Not saying they dont need them, as I know they have some +agro spells, but I think all scouts need that kind of agro reducing ability. What is the point of being a high damage dps class when we have no real way to limit our agro, self-control is one thing, but I can't tell you how many times I can pull agro with just haste + autoattack + poison. I wish they would replace that snare from Splitpaw with an ability for all scouts that lowers threat by 1-2 levels. Anymore I just stand on my own side of the mob away from everyone else so I dont get people killed. I've played a guardian main tanking on raids before also, and let me just say their agro abilities aren't so great. More than anything I feel it is a combination of the two (taunts lack of effectiveness and our lack of deagro) that makes such a big problem right now. I have faith that this will all get addressed in the spell revamps and combat changes however, so we will have to hope they see this problem also. <span></span>

[NocteBla]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> khalysta wrote:<BR> <DIV>Remember its often a two sided story with aggro.  When in doubt the dps blames the tank but you also need to do your part with aggro.  I know lots of assassins open up with one of their shadowblade line skills which is a good way to make sure you get really high on the aggro list early.  Keep to some low key attacks early like shrouded strike + ambush lines as the tank builds a bit of aggro and then use stalk to set up some of the bigger attacks(ebon blade/assassins blade) by lowering your aggro before making that big hit. If you go easy early for a sec early like that and use stalk you really shouldnt have many aggro problems unless the tank is truly horrid and I can usually unleash whatever following that strat. </DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Waiting to execute your bigger hits until after your smaller attacks will also result in that bigger hit landing for more damage, since a lot of your smaller attacks have a piercing debuff built in.