Discussion on holding aggro vs groups of mobs post patch.

[Bladewind]

<DIV>Hello everyone,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As we settle into our new skills, I see this as being somehting that needs adjustment relative to the pre-patch playstyle.  Before the changes, I could spam group buffs, self buffs and area taunts to prevent losing aggro.  This was not the case on my test run last night, however.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As I tanked for a small guild group last night, I noticed that dragon advance (my master 2 choice) allowed me to pile on aggro to whatever mob I was targeting, but the old method of spamming group buffs and taunts was no longer sufficient for holding the aggro of other mobs in the target group.  I adapted by hitting them each with a solo taunt and a few punches with dragon advance sequentially at the beginning of the encounter, while still hitting the group taunt and buffs as they were available, much the same as you would usually tank a raid.  This process worked well, but was inefficient as my groupmates were assisting me, and thus their damage arts were spread over the mobs initially as I gained a nice chunk of aggro.  I can see it being no big deal to just start naming a main assist in regular groups, but I am also wondering what others' have experienced so far with group aggro management and if any other techniques have been developed yet <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[Lebr]

A good habit is for people not to target through you. What i mean is tell them to assist you get first target and dont switch unless you call for it. /bow  Then you can taunt punch or whatever you feel like doin to keep everything aggro on you.

[ArivenGemini]

<span><blockquote><hr>Lebru1 wrote:A good habit is for people not to target through you. What i mean is tell them to assist you get first target and dont switch unless you call for it. /bow  Then you can taunt punch or whatever you feel like doin to keep everything aggro on you. <div></div><hr></blockquote> Yup thats the way we do it in our groups.. we will stop and take time to walk people through making a /assist macro if we have to.. simply because with everyone on a single mob it dies faster, safer and with better agro control...</span><div></div>

[Bladewind]

Ah, of course.  I forgot about the subtle difference of using /assist rather than implied targeting.  Thanks for the reminder <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Nehk]

<DIV>Could you explain the difference between assisting and targeting?  Thanks <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[Parrot665]

<P>Well the gist is....there are two ways for damage dealers and anyone else hitting the mob to assist the main tank - one way is just to target the MT, and rely on implied targetting to make sure they're hitting the right mob. The other way (both of these ways assume you don't use a seperate person as the main assist) is to actually create a macro to /assist Tank's Name when the tank calls for assist. This way, the tank (or MA) can call for assist on a mob when they actually want you to assist, you all stay on that mob until it's dead, meanwhile the tank can be bouncing around establishing aggro with the mobs they need to while the rest of the group still stays focused on killing one mob at a time. The second way is definitely the most efficient way to go, but you probably won't see alot of people in EQ2 actually do this. Not sure why, really.</P> <P>Hope this wasn't as confusing to you as it seems to me in reading it <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>Genoshen</P> <P>The Legionnaires of Light</P> <P>Blackburrow</P>

[ArivenGemini]

<span><blockquote><hr>Nehkii wrote:<div></div> <div>Could you explain the difference between assisting and targeting?  Thanks <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div><hr></blockquote> Assist changes your target to whatever the person you assist is targetting implied targetting attackes everything that the person you are targetting attacks with assist, you change targets so you stay on that target with implied if the person swaps targets, you swap targets some tanks will swap targets to do direct taunts of mobs, thus diluting the damage done to the primary mob if some or all people are implied targetting </span><div></div>

[zit]

most of the time i group with a defiler for healer. before combat changes he usually would cast a ward on me before i went to pull. this seems to be a very bad idea now as ward agro no longer is counted towards the tank but towards the healer, same for reactive heals. so if i have a ward on and get hit before i can get a taunt of, the initial agro will be on the healer instead of me. as soon as i started to pull without a heal on me holding agro became easier. the defiler said its less stressful now for him to keep me alive, which i take to be a positive thing. weather it is from improved wards or improved tanking ability i cannot say though.

[Nemi]

<DIV>The reason noone uses assist is because implied targetting is so much easier and we all know the average joe will go the easy route.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If you tank for groups, I heartily recommend you educate your groups to use /assist</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>