How do you use Allay, Sentinel etc effectively?

[FunkerVo]

<DIV>Id appreciate to hear from those of you that understand these abilities to the full how the best way to be using them in the different situations, and also how many of them you can keep running on different persons.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1) When you see a healer take aggro, do you instantly cast, say, Allay on the mob (which will then be directed at the healer) or do you have to manually target the healer directly?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2) Can you use Intervene on one person, and use Sentinel, Allay etc on others in emergencies?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3) Which of the stances are most effective?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4) Does Stand Firm protect all group members, or just a single individual?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks in advance for any answer <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[Fable_E]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1) When you see a healer take aggro, do you instantly cast, say, Allay on the mob (which will then be directed at the healer) or do you have to manually target the healer directly?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>I always target the healer but I do not do it instantly.  Usually I will try to regain agro .. if that fails I will Allay.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2) Can you use Intervene on one person, and use Sentinel, Allay etc on others in emergencies?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Assuming you have the concentration you can keep things up on party members yes.  As main tank though you really want to keep to Allay as the others will have you soak dmg.  MT should concentrate on holding Agro throughout the fight and usuing Soldiers Stance for defense eats up 3 of 5 concentration.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3) Which of the stances are most effective?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Not sure I understand this question.. they are designed to be very similar (Knights, Soldiers, etc)... So far at 28 Guardians get only Soldier Stances which I keep up all the time.  The difference is noticible from a Dmg mitigation standpoint.. if you are not the MT (ie. Zerker with constant agro).. then I would click Stance off.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4) Does Stand Firm protect all group members, or just a single individual?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Stand Firm I believe (I need to look at my info) is a small AE range .. I never found this one incredibly useful but maybe I will give it a look again and let you know.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Of the items mentioned I keep SS up and only Allay is on my main bar.  Thats not to say situationally I haven't used the others.. I just don't call on them that often.</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>

[FunkerVo]

<DIV>Very nice answers, and although I formulated one question kinda bad, you answered it in the others together <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[Benderla]

<FONT color=#ffff00></FONT><FONT color=#ffff00></FONT><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Fable_EQ2 wrote:<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1) When you see a healer take aggro, do you instantly cast, say, Allay on the mob (which will then be directed at the healer) or do you have to manually target the healer directly?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>I always target the healer but I do not do it instantly.  Usually I will try to regain agro .. if that fails I will Allay.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2) Can you use Intervene on one person, and use Sentinel, Allay etc on others in emergencies?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Assuming you have the concentration you can keep things up on party members yes.  As main tank though you really want to keep to Allay as the others will have you soak dmg.  MT should concentrate on holding Agro throughout the fight and usuing Soldiers Stance for defense eats up 3 of 5 concentration.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3) Which of the stances are most effective?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Not sure I understand this question.. they are designed to be very similar (Knights, Soldiers, etc)... So far at 28 Guardians get only Soldier Stances which I keep up all the time.  The difference is noticible from a Dmg mitigation standpoint.. if you are not the MT (ie. Zerker with constant agro).. then I would click Stance off.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4) Does Stand Firm protect all group members, or just a single individual?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Stand Firm I believe (I need to look at my info) is a small AE range .. I never found this one incredibly useful but maybe I will give it a look again and let you know.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Of the items mentioned I keep SS up and only Allay is on my main bar.  Thats not to say situationally I haven't used the others.. I just don't call on them that often.</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>1) When you see a healer take aggro, do you instantly cast, say, Allay on the mob (which will then be directed at the healer) or do you have to manually target the healer directly?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>I always target the healer but I do not do it instantly.  Usually I will try to regain agro .. if that fails I will Allay.</FONT></DIV> <P><FONT color=#ffff00>One can actually cast Allay on the healer before the fight if you are not pulling from a large distance -  a good use of this is if the healer has to enter the room with you because you are doing an advance and kill routine instead of a pull out the door and get all the mobs stuck in the cieling routine. As you can guess -this is useful.</FONT></P> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV> <DIV>2) Can you use Intervene on one person, and use Sentinel, Allay etc on others in emergencies?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Assuming you have the concentration you can keep things up on party members yes.  As main tank though you really want to keep to Allay as the others will have you soak dmg.  MT should concentrate on holding Agro throughout the fight and usuing Soldiers Stance for defense eats up 3 of 5 concentration.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> <FONT color=#ffff00>Again - if you have allay on the cleric/regular add target allready, casting another spell will just add more of their damage to you, and give you the other parry, etc benefits.  Many people are still stuck thinking about the whole thing as if its EQ1 - where the only way to "help" the caster/healer that gets aggroed is to aggro the mob off.  Well - taunt has a refresh time - so if allready have allay on the target, and have smashed both your taunt and taunt attack, you might as well "Intervene" on their behalf while the taunt refreshes.  I like to think of the shield helper abilities as buffs, and the others as actions you take during combat.</FONT></DIV></DIV>

[Taurcl]

<DIV>I tend to keep soldiers stance up all the time for the defence bonus as well.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As for stand firm / allay / sentinel I tend to only use those in certain situations.<BR><BR>If the mobs we are fighting do not AE (Barrage) I dont usually use them at all because I can hold all agro and take all beats. If someone else DOES get agro its rare and these take too long to cast to be worth it imo. If its the healer who gets agro and its a big mob I might drop sentinel on them but I wont bother with allay / stand firm due to cast time and the need for me to get back to taunting.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If we're about to do a large pull or particularly mean mob I will drop sentinel / allay / stand firm on healer. Allay / stand firm on secondary tank.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If we are fighting average mobs but ones that AE... since AEs can drop other people pretty fast I tend to drop the allay / stand firm on casters and healers to prevent them being interupted (in the case of healers) or just pwnd (in the case of casters). Also .. mob positioning helps alot. If you set yourself up right the mobs AEs wont hit the casters or healers anyway so youd only need to do that in situations where there will be alot of moving around or you have to fight in a very tight area to prevent getting adds.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>my 2cp</DIV>