DwarvesR
03-22-2007, 03:20 AM
<p>Today I was in a 5-person group that was doing the Nest for one of the Hoo'loh updates. The group was me, a wizard, a ranger, a warden, and a warlock. We couldn't find a tank to save our lives. After it looked like the gorup might be breaking up due to lack of available tankage, I said "I can charm a tank pet for us in there."</p><p>The wizard is a friend of mine and knows a bit of what coercers can do, so she immediately said "Sounds great!" The rest of the group wasn't too sure about it, but decided "Why not? We'll give it a go. worst that happens is we die and have to come back alter when we can find a tank."</p><p>It was rough at first. Most of the group hadn't played with a coercer before, and so didn't realize what I was doing at 1st. I mezzed a group and started charming a mob out of it to use as a tank and the warlock steps up and blasts my target. I got it charmed before he killed it, then we killed the other part of the group. But then, no one was really sure who to assist, we got a couple of bad pulls, and with no "real tank" to pick up the adds, even though I was mezzing them, the group mates wouldn't focus on 1 target, would break mezz all over the place, and. . . we had a couple of wipes early on. Frustration began to set in, until I told was able to educate everyone that my pet was "tank" and they should target through it and only it. I made a big deal that "adds are mine, don't touch them!" and that I would be mezzing groups at a time and we'd just need to pick them off 1 mob at a time. The warlock had a "light bulb moment" and everyone else went along with it.</p><p>The next fight was a smashing success. And the next, and the next. . . . you get the picture. Once everyone got used to the idea that I would control the mobs while they burned them down, instead of everyone trying to "do it all" themselves, it became a grear experience. </p><p>About halfway through I lost my original tank pet, charmed another that turned out to be a warlock, and it still tanked fine plus would regularly nuke for 2K-ish too, so that helped some too. I was sad when I lost that pet <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Since we had the group targeting through my pet, when charm broke, the pet was now the target, so it tended to die fast if when "de-charmed."</p><p>Sure, it would have been easier with a true tank in the group, but you know what? It worked. We finished the zone with a single healer and no tank. Or I suppose you could say I was tank. I even body-pulled most mobs before sic'ing the pet on them, since I had to move them out of social aggro range. The other nice things were that I got a Possession Master I and the fabled robe off the end mob out of it too.</p><p>Had I not been along, though. . . that group wouldn't have been able to do any of that. Was a lot of fun, and now a few more people know what a coercer can really do too!</p>