The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group

[TheDragoon]

As a warrior when a bad pull such as what you described happens it is my job to tag each mob and taunt them to get their attention. I will then switch back to the most deadly opponent and focus on him only switching to the other two to keep the taunt up.

Yeah, that's what I was basically trying to say about Warriors. They can do a really good job of tying up multiple mobs via Taunt but of course they're going to concentrate most of their effort on the most deadly. :)

I see where you're going to with this TheDragoon - just wanted to clarify that I think the problem has more to do with people not knowing how their classes can maintian aggro and how to work as a team in keeping the cloth/leather wearers safe.

I'd say that's part of it, but the other main point was situational awareness. If not all mobs are accounted for in some way (be it taunting, sap, polymorph, etc.) then they'll end up attacking the healer the second he/she tries to cast even the smallest of heals. Basically, people need to have a plan for engaging the number of things they need to. If not, the first healing spell paints a big red bullseye on the caster. :)

It sounds like you've had some bad players in your party TD.

Some have just been bad. But others I'm sure are good players but they just weren't thinking.

I should also point out that in higher level instances the plan of dividing to conquer (ie each player try to solo an elite mob so the priest, etc can heal) is the quick route to a dirt nap.

Unfortunately, since I've split my time between servers and characters I've only seen the instances up through Gnomeregan. Therefore, my concrete examples only really ncecessarily pertain to those instances that I've played.

But even in upper level instances, doesn't the party have some way to lock down (so to speak) the mobs so that they don't go butcher the healers when they cast? If not, then perhaps that's one reason why there are so few Priest players around. ;)