Monk Tanking

[Sabien8]

I have a question.  I'm a level 26 Monk, and I work good as a tank.  I tank for my wife alot, who is a 26 mage.  When with her, I don't normally have any problem with keeping agro.  I'd say 99% of the time I keep agro.  Probably due to the fact that she pauses and waits for my taunt to hit, and I get a few hits on.. then she unloads, and I randomly retaunt to keep agro.. She's a damage dealing woman, and it's no contest as to who wears the pants in our group..  She and I work extremely well together.  I taunt, and she ASSISTS me, not going off and just randomly attacking one of the creatures in the group. By doing that, she allows me to keep the agro of ALL grouped creatures. The problem I have is this.  When getting into a group of people we don't know, it gets increasingly harder to keep agro of grouped MOBS.  The problem Is I have one decent group taunt, and a semi ok group, and the others are singles..  The biggest issue I see is that each party memeber just randomly selects a target.  Even if they are different targets.  It makes it very difficult to keep the entire group MOBS attention focused on me. Case in point.  Last night my wife and I grouped with a level 27 Conjurer, l27 Necromancer, and a 26 Wizard (Wife).  We were fighting Owlbears in the Nek forest.  I would throw a dagger, to get the group of 4 a running, then use my area taunt (hand clap).  I'd start beating on a bear, and randomly attempt to click another bear, and use my single taunts to keep them taunted.  Problem was everyone was beating on different bears, and my area taunts were taking too long to allow reuse.  We all managed to survive, but there were a couple close calls.  I will say that the Conjurer class can hold their own quite well.  How does everyone else manage to keep grouped mobs agro'ed on you??  I'm thinking it's just something I have to deal with for the time being until I get a few more taunts to use, but I would use my taunts, and be waiting on my reuse timers and loose agro on 1 or 2 of the bears.  Thanks, Sab <div></div>

[Morrolan V]

<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=3>That will happen to any tank if the group is randomly fighting separate MoBs.  (It is also horribly inefficient and more dangerous, as it keeps more MoBs alive longer, doing damage to the party.)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=3></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=3>Coach your group to assist you.  Tell them it will help you to keep them alive.  :smileywink:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=3></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=3>Also, cast Wisdom of Zephyl at the beginning of large group fights (after AoE taunt).  Group buffs generate a lot of hate.</FONT></DIV>

[zabor]

If every group member attacks a different mob in the encounter, it's definately not your fault if you loose aggro. Any Mage not assisting the tank has earned the beating he will get.

[ArivenGemini]

<span><blockquote><hr>Sabien852 wrote:I have a question.  I'm a level 26 Monk, and I work good as a tank.  I tank for my wife alot, who is a 26 mage.  When with her, I don't normally have any problem with keeping agro.  I'd say 99% of the time I keep agro.  Probably due to the fact that she pauses and waits for my taunt to hit, and I get a few hits on.. then she unloads, and I randomly retaunt to keep agro.. She's a damage dealing woman, and it's no contest as to who wears the pants in our group..  She and I work extremely well together.  I taunt, and she ASSISTS me, not going off and just randomly attacking one of the creatures in the group. By doing that, she allows me to keep the agro of ALL grouped creatures. The problem I have is this.  When getting into a group of people we don't know, it gets increasingly harder to keep agro of grouped MOBS.  The problem Is I have one decent group taunt, and a semi ok group, and the others are singles..  The biggest issue I see is that each party memeber just randomly selects a target.  Even if they are different targets.  It makes it very difficult to keep the entire group MOBS attention focused on me. Case in point.  Last night my wife and I grouped with a level 27 Conjurer, l27 Necromancer, and a 26 Wizard (Wife).  We were fighting Owlbears in the Nek forest.  I would throw a dagger, to get the group of 4 a running, then use my area taunt (hand clap).  I'd start beating on a bear, and randomly attempt to click another bear, and use my single taunts to keep them taunted.  Problem was everyone was beating on different bears, and my area taunts were taking too long to allow reuse.  We all managed to survive, but there were a couple close calls.  I will say that the Conjurer class can hold their own quite well.  How does everyone else manage to keep grouped mobs agro'ed on you??  I'm thinking it's just something I have to deal with for the time being until I get a few more taunts to use, but I would use my taunts, and be waiting on my reuse timers and loose agro on 1 or 2 of the bears.  <div></div><hr></blockquote> Two things...  1) the owlbears are borked..  most of the time when you kill the first one the rest break off and go after random party members regardless of your AOE taunting... best solution?  try to personally do damage and individual taunting to each bear before the first dies.. and ideally all should die close together in time... 2)  I usually make it clear to pickup groups to NOT just target random mobs and NOT just target me but to use /assist...   and you have an ideal situation in that you work with your wife all the time... so tell your pickup groups to target HER.. then let HER pick the targets... and the indirect damage all goes through to one mob, it dies faster.. you are good to go to work taunts up on everything and when you are ready to go back to the mob she is directing the group on you hit your hotkey with the macro that has: /assist WifeName   <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </span><div></div>

[woo]

<P>Before going out make sure to explain to your group to not run unless you do, not to break encounter unless you do, not to evac unless tank or healers down or the main tank calls, and of course to assist.</P> <P>The first few fights--click some of the players to see who they have targeted.  if its no one (you) or the mob you were fighting -- good.  if not -- /kick or explain to them.</P>

[Timaarit]

One easy solution; if the wizard declines to assist you, simply assist the wiz. This way you are sure to attack and taunt whatever he attacks. Downside is that anyone who actually knows something about grouping will have hard time as they cannot assist the mt. <div></div>