07-30-2004, 03:53 PM
So far, my time spent playing World of Warcraft has been primarily split between playing either the Warrior or Priest (with a little of time spent on Mage). In this time, I've noticed that a lot of players just don't understand how it is to play a Priest in a large party entering an instance dungeon. I'm going to detail some of the things that I've seen work and others that I've seen fail miserably thus far as far as tactics goes so that hopefully everyone who reads this will be able to better play their role when they've got a Priest to protect so that the Priest will be able to keep everyone healed and happy.
As you normally wander the map in World of Warcraft, you will usually encounter mobs one at a time. Occasionally you'll have to fight two at a time. If you have some bad luck or aren't careful enough, that can balloon up to three at a time. But usually small combat is the name of the game. Instances are a different beat entirely. It's fairly common in instances to have 2, 3, or 4 mobs all chained together so you can't separate them. With more mobs running around, you've got to change your tactics or your group will probably die time and time again.
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Why it's different
Taken individually, the number of mobs running around is of little import. Melee combatants will still only attack one mob at a time. Mages (for the most part) focus on one mob at a time. The same goes for Warlocks. Individually, all of these classes will target one mob, kill it, and move on to the next. That's not really any different to having a single mob at a time except that they might take more damage during the combat. However, for Priests, AoE-using Mages and Warlocks, and healer Druids, more mobs often means more pain.
For a Priest or Druid, every defensive spell should be treated as an AoE spell. All heal spells, shields included, cause threat upon every mob in the area. This means that if any single mob (but usually groups of mobs) does not have a reason to focus attacks on someone else, the smallest healing spell will cause that mob to turn and attack the caster. To this end, the Priest healing spells are no different than a Mage or Warlock's AoE nukes and they should be treated as such. Fortunately, Priests have one "out." Fade allows a Priest to reduce the threat against him/her and make the mobs stop attacking. However, you generally only get one use of that during a fight, so it's not something that should be relied upon; it's more of a panic button in case things go horribly wrong.
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Tactic that often doesn't work: Focus on one mob at a time
From what I have seen, usually people like the idea of focusing on a single mob out of a group at a time. This allows them to pool their damage and kill that monster quicker, reducing the amount of damage they are taking. Superficially, it would make sense that this would benefit a healer class since they don't have to heal as much. However, in practice, this is usually the #1 reason why my priest gets killed in battle.
Focusing on one mob at a time means that a wise Priest or Druid will be MUCH less likely to heal during battle. The second you cast a healing spell, every non-engaged mob will turn and attack the caster. For Priests, this means you can really only cast a single healing spell until such time as they have killed all but one mob (then the Priest casts Fade to get out of the attacks). Druids, however, as far as I know have no comparable spell to Fade (though I might be wrong since I haven't played one past level 10) and so would be completely out of luck and unable to heal AT ALL or face a good chance of dying.
Last night, several of us went into the Stockades. Throughout the ordeal, Refridgerator (playing his Druid) and I (playing my Priest) died several times in situations that should have been well within our group's control. The problem was that the three melee combatants of our group were attacking a single mob. Thus, every time either of we healers cast a protection spell, the other 2-3 mobs immediately turned and attacked us, often killing us. The problem with this approach was particularly apparent when we engaged Hamhock and had to initially face 3 mobs (Hamhock and 2 croonies). All three meleers engaged Hamhock, killing him and bringing another 2 mobs. The Druid had died before Hamhock went down (since he tried to heal someone and got attacked by the other two) and my Priest died shortly thereafter when I had everything turn and attack me for casting a healing spell followed by a shield.
Usually, this lack of healing means that there's a good chance the melee combatants, themselves, will fall in battle and usually they then whine, "Why didn't you heal me! You were at full mana!" to the healers. Last night, no one complained, but it was true that, generally, shortly after the healers fell, so did the meleers (unless they were able to escape due to being a very high level).
Obviously, this is a bad situation, but is there a solution?
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A better tactic: Engage every mob
A much better way to approach a multi-mob group when you've got a healer class available is to make sure that every mob is either taken out of combat or having threat generated by some other class. In simplest terms, this means that if you've got a Warrior, a Paladin and a Rogue in your group vs. 3 mobs, have each character engage a different mob. This means that you won't be able to quickly kill one of the mobs to get the odds more in your favor, but it also means that your healer can cast all of the spells he/she wants and keep you at full life through the entire encounter.
However, engaging a mob doesn't necessarily mean in melee combat. Really, I just mean that each mob needs to be accounted for. Mages are particularly good at this, being able to Polymorph mobs or cast Frost Nova to temporarily delay fighting a given mob. Warriors are perhaps the best at this, though, being able to taunt entire groups of mobs, keeping them from turning and attacking the healer. Plus, Warriors have the best defense in the game (generally) and so are able to take the abuse best. About a week ago, I entered the Deadmines with my Warrior, TheDragoon, with a group of a Rogue, a Priest, 2 Mages and me. Up until the battle with Van Cleef, we had absolutely no problems whatsoever since I was able to taunt all mobs we faced and keep the casters from getting targetted. Everything went great until we reached Van Cleef and, rather than target his minions, the mages started unloading on Eddie, himself. When he spawned more mobs toward the end of his life, it was too much for my then level 20 Warrior and I couldn't keep them all taunted and everything fell apart with the Priest dying, followed shortly thereafter by me and finally the rest of the group. But up until then, things went great.
But an even better example is the group that we took into the Deadmines last night, thoroughly destroying everything in our path to get Bolty his victory. In just about every case, the Warrior and both Rogues would engage different mobs, allowing me to get off my healing spells without fear of retribution. In particular, against Mr. Smite and Van Cleef, himself, the melee combatants quickly engaged every mob, allowing Bolty to unload on the minions first and then finally on the bosses, themselves while I kept everyone healed. Van Cleef, himself, was somewhat of a joke. At the end of the fight, my Priest had more than half of her mana left since things had gone so well. No one even came CLOSE to dying against Van Cleef. Every mob was accounted for and we took them down one by one.
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The Big Finish
If you are playing a non-healer and you find that your healers keep dying, you should probably re-evaluate your tactics. Most likely, mobs just aren't getting accounted for and so the healers are getting annihilated when they try to keep you or others alive. In every instance I've played, the good groups protect their healers and are usually successful. The not-so-good groups tend to attack either without a plan or simply don't bother to engage every mob and soon find themselves stranded without a healer.
Protect your healers and they will protect you. :)
As you normally wander the map in World of Warcraft, you will usually encounter mobs one at a time. Occasionally you'll have to fight two at a time. If you have some bad luck or aren't careful enough, that can balloon up to three at a time. But usually small combat is the name of the game. Instances are a different beat entirely. It's fairly common in instances to have 2, 3, or 4 mobs all chained together so you can't separate them. With more mobs running around, you've got to change your tactics or your group will probably die time and time again.
-----------------------------------
Why it's different
Taken individually, the number of mobs running around is of little import. Melee combatants will still only attack one mob at a time. Mages (for the most part) focus on one mob at a time. The same goes for Warlocks. Individually, all of these classes will target one mob, kill it, and move on to the next. That's not really any different to having a single mob at a time except that they might take more damage during the combat. However, for Priests, AoE-using Mages and Warlocks, and healer Druids, more mobs often means more pain.
For a Priest or Druid, every defensive spell should be treated as an AoE spell. All heal spells, shields included, cause threat upon every mob in the area. This means that if any single mob (but usually groups of mobs) does not have a reason to focus attacks on someone else, the smallest healing spell will cause that mob to turn and attack the caster. To this end, the Priest healing spells are no different than a Mage or Warlock's AoE nukes and they should be treated as such. Fortunately, Priests have one "out." Fade allows a Priest to reduce the threat against him/her and make the mobs stop attacking. However, you generally only get one use of that during a fight, so it's not something that should be relied upon; it's more of a panic button in case things go horribly wrong.
-----------------------------------
Tactic that often doesn't work: Focus on one mob at a time
From what I have seen, usually people like the idea of focusing on a single mob out of a group at a time. This allows them to pool their damage and kill that monster quicker, reducing the amount of damage they are taking. Superficially, it would make sense that this would benefit a healer class since they don't have to heal as much. However, in practice, this is usually the #1 reason why my priest gets killed in battle.
Focusing on one mob at a time means that a wise Priest or Druid will be MUCH less likely to heal during battle. The second you cast a healing spell, every non-engaged mob will turn and attack the caster. For Priests, this means you can really only cast a single healing spell until such time as they have killed all but one mob (then the Priest casts Fade to get out of the attacks). Druids, however, as far as I know have no comparable spell to Fade (though I might be wrong since I haven't played one past level 10) and so would be completely out of luck and unable to heal AT ALL or face a good chance of dying.
Last night, several of us went into the Stockades. Throughout the ordeal, Refridgerator (playing his Druid) and I (playing my Priest) died several times in situations that should have been well within our group's control. The problem was that the three melee combatants of our group were attacking a single mob. Thus, every time either of we healers cast a protection spell, the other 2-3 mobs immediately turned and attacked us, often killing us. The problem with this approach was particularly apparent when we engaged Hamhock and had to initially face 3 mobs (Hamhock and 2 croonies). All three meleers engaged Hamhock, killing him and bringing another 2 mobs. The Druid had died before Hamhock went down (since he tried to heal someone and got attacked by the other two) and my Priest died shortly thereafter when I had everything turn and attack me for casting a healing spell followed by a shield.
Usually, this lack of healing means that there's a good chance the melee combatants, themselves, will fall in battle and usually they then whine, "Why didn't you heal me! You were at full mana!" to the healers. Last night, no one complained, but it was true that, generally, shortly after the healers fell, so did the meleers (unless they were able to escape due to being a very high level).
Obviously, this is a bad situation, but is there a solution?
-----------------------------------
A better tactic: Engage every mob
A much better way to approach a multi-mob group when you've got a healer class available is to make sure that every mob is either taken out of combat or having threat generated by some other class. In simplest terms, this means that if you've got a Warrior, a Paladin and a Rogue in your group vs. 3 mobs, have each character engage a different mob. This means that you won't be able to quickly kill one of the mobs to get the odds more in your favor, but it also means that your healer can cast all of the spells he/she wants and keep you at full life through the entire encounter.
However, engaging a mob doesn't necessarily mean in melee combat. Really, I just mean that each mob needs to be accounted for. Mages are particularly good at this, being able to Polymorph mobs or cast Frost Nova to temporarily delay fighting a given mob. Warriors are perhaps the best at this, though, being able to taunt entire groups of mobs, keeping them from turning and attacking the healer. Plus, Warriors have the best defense in the game (generally) and so are able to take the abuse best. About a week ago, I entered the Deadmines with my Warrior, TheDragoon, with a group of a Rogue, a Priest, 2 Mages and me. Up until the battle with Van Cleef, we had absolutely no problems whatsoever since I was able to taunt all mobs we faced and keep the casters from getting targetted. Everything went great until we reached Van Cleef and, rather than target his minions, the mages started unloading on Eddie, himself. When he spawned more mobs toward the end of his life, it was too much for my then level 20 Warrior and I couldn't keep them all taunted and everything fell apart with the Priest dying, followed shortly thereafter by me and finally the rest of the group. But up until then, things went great.
But an even better example is the group that we took into the Deadmines last night, thoroughly destroying everything in our path to get Bolty his victory. In just about every case, the Warrior and both Rogues would engage different mobs, allowing me to get off my healing spells without fear of retribution. In particular, against Mr. Smite and Van Cleef, himself, the melee combatants quickly engaged every mob, allowing Bolty to unload on the minions first and then finally on the bosses, themselves while I kept everyone healed. Van Cleef, himself, was somewhat of a joke. At the end of the fight, my Priest had more than half of her mana left since things had gone so well. No one even came CLOSE to dying against Van Cleef. Every mob was accounted for and we took them down one by one.
-----------------------------------
The Big Finish
If you are playing a non-healer and you find that your healers keep dying, you should probably re-evaluate your tactics. Most likely, mobs just aren't getting accounted for and so the healers are getting annihilated when they try to keep you or others alive. In every instance I've played, the good groups protect their healers and are usually successful. The not-so-good groups tend to attack either without a plan or simply don't bother to engage every mob and soon find themselves stranded without a healer.
Protect your healers and they will protect you. :)
-TheDragoon
