07-30-2004, 09:05 PM
I don't think the examples I give were caused by "wrong lessons" that I've learned. Rather, I believe it to be the result of the groups that I've been in recently.
I thought about it some more, and I think most of the times I've experiences problems with this was in Warrior-less groups. Both your comments and many of Tal's comments assume that there will be a Warrior around to taunt. However, this isn't always the case (and hasn't been the case for me in the last couple days). Instead, I've been seeing a lot of Paladins trying to handle the role of the tank. The problems have been cropping up because the Paladins don't really have any way to draw aggro other than straight up attacking. Thus, in the end, when they all attacked a single target and left two more to come and attack me, we ended up with lots of bad situations. :) In those cases, it was best for the Paladins to spread out their damage (while the mage/rogue unloaded on one of the targets to do as you say and drop the mob quickly) and keep things off the rest of us.
But you are correct that in almost every case, we've managed to pool most of the actual damage being dealt out in order to cut down the number of mobs we were facing, but not at the expense of leaving attackers unaccounted for. :)
A couple other responses:
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As for your thoughts on target selection and Gnomeregan, I'd say you're dead on. :) If the Lurker Lounge adopts this game, when it comes out, I think we should put together a FAQ for dealing with combat. There are a lot of people out there who this sort of thing isn't real clear to and could use some advice.
I thought about it some more, and I think most of the times I've experiences problems with this was in Warrior-less groups. Both your comments and many of Tal's comments assume that there will be a Warrior around to taunt. However, this isn't always the case (and hasn't been the case for me in the last couple days). Instead, I've been seeing a lot of Paladins trying to handle the role of the tank. The problems have been cropping up because the Paladins don't really have any way to draw aggro other than straight up attacking. Thus, in the end, when they all attacked a single target and left two more to come and attack me, we ended up with lots of bad situations. :) In those cases, it was best for the Paladins to spread out their damage (while the mage/rogue unloaded on one of the targets to do as you say and drop the mob quickly) and keep things off the rest of us.
But you are correct that in almost every case, we've managed to pool most of the actual damage being dealt out in order to cut down the number of mobs we were facing, but not at the expense of leaving attackers unaccounted for. :)
A couple other responses:
Quote:Also, you seem to lightly dismiss Fade, and you shouldn't.Well, it must have just been how I wrote it. I use Fade all of the time and it helps tremendously. However, it does have limits. It tends to only offset 1-3 heals worth of threat for me and so if that's not enough to last through the stage when things are less than certain, then people start dying...
Quote:If your warrior still doesn't taunt the rest of the mobs during that 15 seconds, you need to get a new warrior.Again, it kind of assumes a Warrior in the party. Perhaps my argument is that it shouldn't be REQUIRED to have a Warrior and a Priest in the same group but I'll save those thoughts for the /suggest in game. :)
Quote:In addition, as I often tell my groupmates when they sometimes over compensate and try desperately to "save" me from a mob to the group's detriment, "I'm not that fragile." Heck, I've had group members who think it's a good idea to assign me a bodyguard, which is just silly. Priests can be pretty good tanks as long as they have mana.I would agree to this to a certain extent. However, the times when I usually have problems with this is when the group is taking a beating and so I'll end up expending most of my mana healing up other group members. The added cost of keeping myself alive often leaves me dry for mana mid-way through the battle.
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As for your thoughts on target selection and Gnomeregan, I'd say you're dead on. :) If the Lurker Lounge adopts this game, when it comes out, I think we should put together a FAQ for dealing with combat. There are a lot of people out there who this sort of thing isn't real clear to and could use some advice.
-TheDragoon