From Good to Great....

[GastonPhoebus]

<p>What does it take? What separates a Good Coercer from a Great one? Quick reactions, superbly timed used of certain spells, just what is it that makes a Great Coercer, one that will do credit to any raid, group, or Guild?</p><p>Please be specific as I really, really want to know....</p><p>Vekks 64 Coercer, LDL</p>

[Norrsken]

<cite>GastonPhoebus wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>What does it take? What separates a Good Coercer from a Great one? Quick reactions, superbly timed used of certain spells, just what is it that makes a Great Coercer, one that will do credit to any raid, group, or Guild?</p><p>Please be specific as I really, really want to know....</p><p>Vekks 64 Coercer, LDL</p></blockquote>One that has quick reactions, a good overview of the battle, a cool head. And knows every other class in the game, if not good, then at least well enough to know the most common spells.

[Chog]

Being able to use the correct ability at the correct time.

[Catsy]

Two words: situational awareness. You can play a coercer like a generic DPS class--we can certainly churn out the damage, especially with Perpetuality and on longer battles, and you will help the group even if only by dint of being a buffbot with nukes. But when your group suddenly finds itself in the middle of half a dozen yellow heroics, and within a few moments you have to decide what to mez, what to stun, and what debuffs to use, you will quickly find out whether you're great... or dead. Here's a thought exercise based on the above. Your group is an SK (MT), Conjy, Fury, Swash, and Warlock. You are positioned about 20m from the MT, which is engaged with a yellow-con ^^^.  You spot another ^^^ roamer pathing towards your group, which MT taunts to save the fury. The taunt socials another nearby ^^^, which starts toward the group. Suddenly, a group of three linked ^ repops right on top of you. Setting aside the question of reaction times, what do you do? One possible solution below, highlight to read: <span style="color: #000000">This actually happened to me yesterday. We survived, and this is how. First, I single-mezzed the ^^^ that socialed, and rooted it so that it was parked outside of the group's AE range, taking it out of the battle. I cast my PBAE stun, which got most of what was in range and lightened the load on the tank/healer a bit. I then encounter-stunned the group of linked ^ repops, cast single-stun on the ^^^ add, and put the stun-proc debuff on him. This gave me around 20 seconds of him being almost constantly stunned, which was enough time to burn down the first ^^^. Tank switched targets to the stunlocked ^^^, by which time the three linked ^ had unstunned. I took them out of the fight again with encounter daze, and refreshed my mez/root on the third ^^^ that I parked. During spare moments I threw up mana cloak and did mana flow on the MT. Because I was keeping almost everything stunned rather than mezzed, the one healer plus the SK's lifetaps were able to keep up with the damage while the conjy and warlock burned the adds. When everything except the parked mob was dead, I kept it parked while we regained a little power and then finished it off. </span>

[TuxDave]

Sotanyavejin@Guk wrote: <blockquote>Two words: situational awareness. You can play a coercer like a generic DPS class--we can certainly churn out the damage, especially with Perpetuality and on longer battles, and you will help the group even if only by dint of being a buffbot with nukes. But when your group suddenly finds itself in the middle of half a dozen yellow heroics, and within a few moments you have to decide what to mez, what to stun, and what debuffs to use, you will quickly find out whether you're great... or dead. Here's a thought exercise based on the above. Your group is an SK (MT), Conjy, Fury, Swash, and Warlock. You are positioned about 20m from the MT, which is engaged with a yellow-con ^^^.  You spot another ^^^ roamer pathing towards your group, which MT taunts to save the fury. The taunt socials another nearby ^^^, which starts toward the group. Suddenly, a group of three linked ^ repops right on top of you. Setting aside the question of reaction times, what do you do? One possible solution below, highlight to read: <span style="color: #000000">This actually happened to me yesterday. We survived, and this is how. First, I single-mezzed the ^^^ that socialed, and rooted it so that it was parked outside of the group's AE range, taking it out of the battle. I cast my PBAE stun, which got most of what was in range and lightened the load on the tank/healer a bit. I then encounter-stunned the group of linked ^ repops, cast single-stun on the ^^^ add, and put the stun-proc debuff on him. This gave me around 20 seconds of him being almost constantly stunned, which was enough time to burn down the first ^^^. Tank switched targets to the stunlocked ^^^, by which time the three linked ^ had unstunned. I took them out of the fight again with encounter daze, and refreshed my mez/root on the third ^^^ that I parked. During spare moments I threw up mana cloak and did mana flow on the MT. Because I was keeping almost everything stunned rather than mezzed, the one healer plus the SK's lifetaps were able to keep up with the damage while the conjy and warlock burned the adds. When everything except the parked mob was dead, I kept it parked while we regained a little power and then finished it off. </span></blockquote><p>I'm not sure how rooting the single ^^^ that social would help anything in regards to AEs.  If you single mezzed it, it won't take AE damage unless directly targeted.  I probably would have single stun the add (in case the MT is attempting to continue pulling hate by attacking which would break a mez), single mez the social, AE mez the repop, single mez the add (assuming that's not the new target now) and go on my merry way and cycle mezzes whenever  I need to.  </p><p>I think you need more adds and people who break mezzes because they're stupid, to make the question more interesting.  </p>

[Momolicio]

My Vote: #1 Situational Awareness. This though is true of nearly all classes. There is a second aspect of this as well. Your group. I have had a group meltdown with me being the last one standing juggling mobs. Charm an sac pet to reduce the crowd till 1 pet left to keep. Combat over, res stone the healer, and keep going. They thought I was a diety. I said Less chillin more killlin. You an I have done that countless times while soloing to save our rears. They see it and are in awe. More importantly, they should have never gotten you to the point you were soloing. It is all perspective. In the end it is a group game though an you will only be as good as the company you keep.

[GastonPhoebus]

<p>Before I read the "possible solution" I worked it out in my head that I would have done the following:</p><p>If I knew my tank well enough to know what he would do with wanderers in this situation I would have Daydreamed the possible social add first. But if I wasn't fast enough or did not see the signs, and knowing I was in a max ae dps group, I would have single mezzed the social add, ae stunned the ^ pops, then single stunned the taunted wanderer. Then I would have evaluated how everyone was doing, hit some debuffs on the tanked mob and waited until something changed, probably dazing the ^'s as you did to buy a little more time. By that time I figured the Conjy and Warlock would have annihilated the ^'s and done some serious hurt to the single-stunned add. Re-stun/stifle/daze as needed...</p><p>Very similar to what you did, Sotan, and did well, it appears.....</p><p> I think the one thing that your scenario makes clear to my way of thinking (please correct me anyone if I am mistaken) is that stunning is better than mezzing since there was so much ae power in the group. Another group make up would have me mezzing the single social add AND the three ^'s. </p><p> Oh, and I always root a mezzed add that is close to the group in case someone breaks it... just habit from soloing and mitigating Charm break disasters.</p>

[Chog]

Also remember rooting a target that is not in melee range yet allows you to mez a target in melee range without having to wait on recast timers. This allows you to concentrate on containing the situation within melee range (Stun / Mez / Charm / etc) without worrying about 1 target for the moment. Can always throw a mez after the initial anarchy is contained on the rooted target.

[Evariste]

<p>in a mess, instant pbae fear is great.. mob that are not doted or taunted, are just moving away, you can single mez root them, and focus on cc stun daze silence. </p><p>That is one good way to split the emergency mobs to care of. </p>

[chily]

<p>In that situation? hmm... Way 1: SK to defence, shield and 1h on casting deathmarch -> 50% faster casting and and shout "aoe em" all down if you fail blame the healers lol.</p><p>Way 2: The SK should had fd'd after the bad taunt and got back up again ( aggro loose for a sec )</p><p>Way 3: Mezz social one, Aoe mezz the pops mind bend on 1 mob or maybe mezz it. </p>

[Fawlyn]

Go do nizara in under 1 hr, that includes all 11 named. If you can get that done in a group you are an uber coercer. If you get it done in under 1 hr 30 min you are a great coercer. IF it takes more then 2 hrs you need to seek a new profession.

[TuxDave]

<cite>Fawlyn wrote:</cite><blockquote>Go do nizara in under 1 hr, that includes all 11 named. If you can get that done in a group you are an uber coercer. If you get it done in under 1 hr 30 min you are a great coercer. IF it takes more then 2 hrs you need to seek a new profession.</blockquote><p>But I don't want to get a new profession. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  </p>