After 36 Levels and Countless Threads . . .

[Tur]

I have decided that the problem with aggro management ain't us! You know what the problem is?

 

Every class can "solo". Therefore, everyclass can mele. And you know what? THEY DO!

 

Oh, how I long for the days when the caster types stood back, away from the tanks and did the voodoo that they do. Back in the day, if a mob broke off and ran to the healer, everybody could SEE it 'cause the healers, caster types stood 10 yards back. Mouse selecting that lone love-struck orc was no problem. But now ....

 

Every caster class wants to add their melee damage to the fray (bless their little hearts)! So now I have 3+ mobs, me and my whole group on my screen all squished together in a mosh pit of pixils. And have you noticed:

 

The templar is always a gnome?! Somebody says, "On the healer", and I think: "Oh great! I know she's down there somewhere . . . near my feet . . .lessee. . .TAB, nope. TAB, nope. TAB, nope . . .maybe I can mouse the mob out of this writhing mass . . ." lol

 

I'm hoping that LU8 puts the squishy group members back out of harms way. It's not that I don't love you, I just can't FIND you! :smileyvery-happy:

 

************************************************** *EDIT********************************************* **************************

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: FIRST I select the gnome in the group window, bellow my mighty Noble Tomb (Master 1), get the "Not An Enemy" message, scream "DUH!" at the computer, wake the wife . . .well, it gets ugly after that.

 

Message Edited by Turii on 04-26-2005 09:52 AM

[jshari]

lolz you just decribed more than half my groups lol i pull the mob and before i can cast my first tuant there on that thing like a fat kid on a donut. the worst is after that they are like "Navid keep the agro, you gotta tuant more" im like no i gotta just plain TAUNT! grrr but when it works out, its a beautful thing

[Neurax]

Totally true, I play with my wife a healer alot. Recently she got a new skills AE does 180+ damage to all target, but if she casts this before I have done a few group taunts low and behold they all bar the one I'm attacking will attack her. And its hard to pull the aggro off when she start going crazy with the heals in a attempt not to die.

[Boli32]

And its hard to pull the aggro off when she start going crazy with the heals in a attempt not to die.

I duoed with a warden and we tried a new tactic - now this is where the healer has to have COMPLETE FAITH in you. I said: "If you get agro do NOT heal, I'll protect you" ... and you know what... it worked. When he got agro and the entire crowd ran across to him I quickly swicted targets to him - slammed on my ward it only protects against one hit but it generates a lot of agro, then after a single spot heal on him the mobs came running right back just in time for my AoE taunt which had fainlly become activated again. I could never do this is he wern't a good distance away he would have died so fast or resorted to heals and watched as I tried in vain to win back the mob before he finally persished.  In fights against greens I will allow the casters to add their melee damage but in anything higher I try and do my best to prevent it - even so much as  moving round the mob so only I face then and slowly backing away. It just goes to show agro management is a group effort and not the responsiblity of the tank... people have it too easy with guardians and especially berserkers as tanks... they dont loose agro the same.

[MeridianR]

Last night I was MT'ing in CT (Cazic Thule) with the following group: -- 46 Wizard -- 43 Brigand -- 40 Wizard -- 43 Paladin (myself) -- 40 Defiler -- 42 Inquisitor The easiest way to tell if the people in your party get aggro, is to face guard the mob. Run out, pull the mob...hold for a second, use both taunts (AoE and Single)...then run the mob through your party and circle around it... Crude Drawing: x  x  x  x  x   <------- Your Party         O           <-------- The Mob       X           <---------- Us This way, if the mob turns around, then we know that he is attacking another party member. Just thought I would add my idea, since it works pretty well for me   

[Caslav]

Hell even at lvl 21, I have noticed ALOT of gnome Templars!  What gets me is when a caster or healer gets aggro and then RUNS.  I weigh a million pounds with all this armor on!  I can't chase you down, shield slam, group taunt or AoE nuke while my slow butt is trying to chase you down. 

 

It's all fun though. :smileysurprised:

[YourPalAlcoh]

lol whats wrong with the gnome templars? I made one but havent played him  , was just messin around. Also have a 39 Pally as my main and have never ran into one of the lil buggers =)

[GilfalasElaandrin]

The more I play the more I get amazed by these 'cannot control aggro' threads. Am I the only one not having aggro issues when I tank?

Key #1 to tank aggro: BE THE FIRST THING ON THE MOBS HATE LIST. The first person to aggro a mob gets a large aggro bonus. I tested this last night. I had a mage in the group aggro a 'single' group mob in Nektropos castle with nothing but proximity aggro and then I used Noble Tone (Adpet 1) on it. It stuck on him like glue until I came up and hit it with Oath Strike (Adept 3)  as well.

Be the puller. Be the first on the mobs aggro and finish your HO's with taunt. It REALLY does the job.

[Nurta]

---

MeridianR wrote:
Last night I was MT'ing in CT (Cazic Thule) with the following group:

-- 46 Wizard
-- 43 Brigand
-- 40 Wizard
-- 43 Paladin (myself)
-- 40 Defiler
-- 42 Inquisitor

The easiest way to tell if the people in your party get aggro, is to face guard the mob.

Run out, pull the mob...hold for a second, use both taunts (AoE and Single)...then run the mob through your party and circle around it...

Crude Drawing:

x  x  x  x  x   <------- Your Party
 
      O           <-------- The Mob

      X           <---------- Us

This way, if the mob turns around, then we know that he is attacking another party member.

Just thought I would add my idea, since it works pretty well for me   

---

This is an excellent point not just to see who gets the aggro but also that as MT we should always turn the mob away from the party.  There are many mobs out there with AEs and this saves the pasty ones.

[Tur]

---

MeridianR wrote:
Last night I was MT'ing in CT (Cazic Thule) with the following group:

-- 46 Wizard
-- 43 Brigand
-- 40 Wizard
-- 43 Paladin (myself)
-- 40 Defiler
-- 42 Inquisitor

The easiest way to tell if the people in your party get aggro, is to face guard the mob.

Run out, pull the mob...hold for a second, use both taunts (AoE and Single)...then run the mob through your party and circle around it...

Crude Drawing:

x  x  x  x  x   <------- Your Party
 
      O           <-------- The Mob

      X           <---------- Us

This way, if the mob turns around, then we know that he is attacking another party member.

Just thought I would add my idea, since it works pretty well for me   

---

By coincidence I just saw this trick last night! A higher level beserker befriended our little band and took us into Rivervale. My regular group is fawning all over him in /gu: "He's SUCH a nice guy. He even turns the mobs for us!" D'oh! I gotta try this. Thanks all :smileyhappy:

[woo]

expansion off of the guys above strategy --

 

i usually pull the mob back, finishing a HO while running.  and then when i reach the group, i jump over the mob and turn around.  this sets the scouts who are already pre-stealthed and ready to pump out damage, and it helps against frontal AE attacks.

[SanJ]

I tend to pull mobs using a strategy similar to Woode.

It's better to avoid dragging the mob through the center of your group as often times mobs will AOE or turn off onto a party member for high damage or death.  I likewise, approach the group completing my hate HOs and then turn the mob just prior to reaching the group.  I have noticed a much better ratio of avoided group AOE or loss aggro using this method vs. dragging through my group. 

It's likewise much easier to tell if you loose aggro in a multi-mob encounter if you are facing the group members with the mob(s) in the middle.  Don't forget if you have the mob targeted a group members name will appear below the mob name on your target indicating you've lost aggro to the current targeted mob.  A simple ward/prayer/call will snag it right back in most cases.

If other mobs are pulling off on a different group member and you're sure you have built a little hate to start, make sure all the group members have you selected (unless a MA situation) and the group isn't randomly attacking different mobs.

Good luck!

Kalen

[SanJ]

A few more good tips:

 

- Move your hot key bars from the bottom right corner of the screen (the default location) to directly below your group listing in the upper left corner.  Another post mentioned having a hard time selecting party members with so many melee folks including casters right in the mix of things.  It's a lot easier to see someone's health drop (indicating a potential aggro loss) when you can see attacks/taunts and all your party member names in one easy-to-see location.  Another paladin recommended this to me when I first dinged 20 and I am very pleased I made the change.

 

- If you want to target a specific group member to heal/ward/etc. use the function keys to dig them out of the crowds.  You can target each party member using F1, F2, F3, etc.

 

- I notice a lot of players miss out on HOs over and over.  The main reason is the HO window is located in an odd position.  The next time you go out and solo, open the combat wheel and prior to completing the HO drag your combat wheel to the 9 o'clock position on the screen.  It will make it very easy for you to see when someone starts an HO during a heavy encounter.

 

- A default setting that many players change is the ability to target yourself by clicking your toon in third-person view.  An option under EQ2->options .. believe it's labeled as self-picking is not always a good idea.  I've noted a lot of tanks when OT'ing that tendt to click themselves over and over in battle when trying to locate mobs.  This leads to a lot of downtime if the MT is also the MA. 

 

- In very laggy encounters, I higly recommend that you use the function keys to activate your hotkeys.  I'm seeing more and more tanks during laggy sessions complaining of reshuffling their hotkey bars, loosing hot keys buttons because they are super glued to their mouse pointer, etc.  I used to hate this method, but a little practice for mouse clickers (like myself) goes a long way using the function keys during bad lag.

 

Good luck!

Kalen

[MeridianR]

---

SanJun wrote:

I tend to pull mobs using a strategy similar to Woode.

It's better to avoid dragging the mob through the center of your group as often times mobs will AOE or turn off onto a party member for high damage or death.  I likewise, approach the group completing my hate HOs and then turn the mob just prior to reaching the group.  I have noticed a much better ratio of avoided group AOE or loss aggro using this method vs. dragging through my group. 

It's likewise much easier to tell if you loose aggro in a multi-mob encounter if you are facing the group members with the mob(s) in the middle.  Don't forget if you have the mob targeted a group members name will appear below the mob name on your target indicating you've lost aggro to the current targeted mob.  A simple ward/prayer/call will snag it right back in most cases.

If other mobs are pulling off on a different group member and you're sure you have built a little hate to start, make sure all the group members have you selected (unless a MA situation) and the group isn't randomly attacking different mobs.

Good luck!

Kalen

---

I have done it both ways, with jumping and turning, or running them through....mainly its a happy middle solution when I (and only I) run through the group, and jump quick to get to the other side of the mob. Either way, as I stated getting in front of the mob is the best way to tell if aggro is lost....and it also benefits the people behind the mob if they have forward facing AoE's. I run Combat Stats sometimes, when I trio with my fury and swashie guildie, and I get [Removed for Content] if they take any damage...lol, after doing so much duo'ing and trio'ing with face guarding the mob, you will notice it gets easier and easier to do with a group of 6.