Soloing Groups of mobs

[Karlen]

I'm level 28, solo most of the time, and have tended to focus on fighting mobs one at a time.  Lately, two things have changed: 1.  There are a lot more "solo" groups of mobs about.  Usually these are a combination of "regular mobs" and "down arrow mobs". 2.  I respeced to take the +5 defense racial trait.  Combined with Knight's Stance, this means that green mobs (especially lower green) can rarely hit me.  This has allowed me to start fighting heroic green mobs and heroic groups of green mobs.  This has raised a situation that I would like some advice on: If you are fighting a group of mobs where one of them is ^ and the others are normal, do you kill the ^ one first (because he can hurt you more than the others) or take down his buddies first (so you have less mobs attacking you, reducing the chance of getting interrupted and overwhelmed)? I generally go after the big guy first, but have noticed that ^ mobs tend to take a lot longer to kill and the time spent killing his buddies wouldn't appreciably add to the length of the battle.  On the other hand, once I've finished the bad guy I can usually mop up the others with little difficulty -- I'd sooner run out of power with only weaker guys to fight. What opinion to people have on this situation?  Kill the big guy first or go after his buddies?  In the case that raised this issue with me, it didn't really matter since I wasn't really taking many hits, but if I try to move up to harder ones it will become more relevant. <div></div>

[Neko]

<P>I tend to focus on the weakest first.   Less chances of interupts, additional damage, etc.  </P> <P>Those weak hits can add up alot faster than some of the big hits from the Boss.</P>

[RiotActer]

I always save the ^ or ^^ for last.  Use the damage ward if the ^ is hitting hard.  But focus on the regular mobs first.  Biggest mistake most make is using high power attacks when soloing...  I'm still using wild swing / taunt HO's at lvl 44 <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>

[trout]

I also tend to fight from weakest to strongest and stay off the high power atacks until the end. The exception I have to this is with any healer type MOB's. If I have one of them in the group I take them down first, hitting hard and fast. This seems to shorten the overall length of the engagment.

[SanJ]

<P>The general rule of thumb is to take down no arrow mobs first, one ups next, two ups last and finally named mobs.</P> <P>Why?</P> <P>1. The concept is to remove incoming DPS as quickly as possible.  You can kill no up arrows the fastest reducing incoming DPS the quickest.</P> <P>2. Lower level mobs, especially those grouped with a boss mob -- I call them minions, typically will heal and ward the up arrows and named.  It's no fun to burn a little mana to get a named or up arrow into the orange only to watch his/her/it 's health jump back to green due to minion support.</P> <DIV>Exceptions to the Rule:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>C-A-S-T-E-R-S</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Depending on the group of mobs incoming, the largest threat to a Paladin is usually a caster that just rips right through AC/Mitigation/Avoidance/etc.  Keep your resists as high as possible through good equipment to resist as much as possible.  I always kill mobs with "mage/warlock/healer-like" titles first when all else is equal.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Another poster made an excellent remark regarding burning all your mana.  We are heavy armor wearers and therefore don't always need to "button-mash" to stay alive.  I have become very relaxed during battle, especially solo battles, and do only HOs.  I let that expensive armor take the blunt of the force while I'm waiting for my HO timer to reset.  Likewise, our DOF-like wards burn a lot of mana.  Experiment with several mobs and you'll likely find that warding, I'm talking solo here, isn't always the best route to take.  The fastest way to be OOM is to spam your DOF ward.  Sometimes its required, sometimes not!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks,</DIV> <DIV>Kalen</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Karlen]

Thanks, everyone for your input.  I think I will adjust my strategy and go after "minions" first.   I agree that casters and healers need to be taken down fast. >>>>Another poster made an excellent remark regarding burning all your mana.  We are heavy armor wearers and therefore don't always need to "button-mash" to stay alive.  I have become very relaxed during battle, especially solo battles, and do only HOs.  I let that expensive armor take the blunt of the force while I'm waiting for my HO timer to reset.  Likewise, our DOF-like wards burn a lot of mana.  Experiment with several mobs and you'll likely find that warding, I'm talking solo here, isn't always the best route to take.  The fastest way to be OOM is to spam your DOF ward.  Sometimes its required, sometimes not!<<< I usually focus on HOs.  I rotate between Righteous Anger, Divine Vengeance, Faithful Swing and sometimes my new Oath Strike (although I reserve it for when I need to do a lot of damage fast -- such as when I am fighting a healer.  It also misses a lot).  To finish the HOs, I usually use Blinding Light once (to get the debuff) and then stick to the single-target training taunt (which I can't remember the name of, but it refreshes fast).  Depending on how much I need to conserve power, I also sometimes throw a Charge in from time to time while I'm waiting for my HO button to come back. I like to use my ward when I am fighting things that can cause me damage (such as white or yellow mobs), or when there are a lot of mobs (as it seems to help prevent interrupts).    In particular, I like to have my ward on at the start of the battle since the first swing of my enemies tend to be really bad ones for some reason. <div></div>

[Neko]

<P>Also, when dealing with healing minions, I simply put of DoF and melee against the mobs.  I might fire off one HO just to get the minion to start casting healings spells.   </P> <P>I then simply melee until the healers burn up their mana before I start hitting them with my Power Moves (so they heal over the damage).</P>