The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group

[JustAGuy]

I'm a man who can admit when he's wrong. I was the highest level Paladin in the aforementioned party, and I was thinking that the instance was going to be a cake-walk (I had plans to solo it). With that in mind, I wasn't employing proper tactics, as had envisoned myself as a massive hit-point tank, invulnerable to death. I was responsible for being the tank, and yes, I didn't do a very good job of it. That doesn't mean I'm not a good player. You see, I'm mainly a soloist or small group-ist, so group dynamics are still something I need to work on.

Excuses aside, you should have voiced your opinion at the time. I was wrong in thinking that we should be focusing our attacks on one mob at a time. The rationale for said decision is that if all players focused one at a time, they would drop faster, leaving the priest untouched because of the high death rate of mobs. You can't be hurt when all mobs are dead, right? It works if they really do drop fast, but on groups of elites, this isn't the case, and I see that now.

We should have been protecting you, and to a certain extent, I was (I healed you on occasion), but healing the healer is indicative of poor group play. I'm not dumb, or slow, so if you were to voice your concerns at the time, I would have adjusted my tactics. Considering that the policy of all-vs-one mob doesn't work when facing multiple elite mobs became clear after the fact to me (it was at the end of night, if I recall correctly, when you left us. It was REAL late!), perhaps you should have spoken up if you knew at the time? That's another sign of poor group play: lack of communication.

I was actively looking for the mob with the least health, and adding to his demise! A wrong tactic for certain situations, but at least I was good at it. Notice, we never had problems with medium sized groups of mobs. We were only over-whelmed by Hamhock and his surprise goons, due to my error in tactics (I say MY, because I was the primary tank).

I should point out that you called it a "Tactic that often doesn't work", but in our case, it was serviceable until the time of our demise. In keeping with my belief of "I was higher level than most, so I'm practically invulerable", when our party was overwhelmed by Homeboy, I managed to escape, preserving the instance and our time spent there. It doesn't justify all of you dying in there, but at least it's something to mention ;)

Our group had eventually whittled down to three due to time concerns, the players left being Refigerator, LavCat and myself. Fridge was way under level for the area. As LavCat and I were taking out small groups at a time, I was keeping Fridge alive by drawing aggro from anyone that attacked him. We were still employing the all-vs-one tactic, but I was responsible for peeling and healing as necessary, as Refigerator could only take 2-3 shots before dying (WAY underlevel!). This tactic worked well until he had to leave (again, it was VERY late).

So the group ended up with LavCat and I, two Paladins left to finish off the instance. And we did. The all-vs-one tactic works as it should in a two-Paladin combo, and we played it perfectly. We killed everything, never dying once (Well, I think Lav died once because of a button-pressing-snafu), handling groups of up to 4 elite mobs at a time. I can't remember what level I was, I think I was 29, and LavCat was 27 or 28 at the time, and we were fighting level 25+ mobs. Two Paladins taking on 4 or more elites and winning fairly safely with good distribution of aggro due to timely healing and stunning, along with use of the "safety/bail-out" skills at the right moments, I'd say is pretty impressive.

So yes, the all-vs-one tactic doesn't work in a 5 player group with healers simply because all mobs need to be accounted for. We know this now. All-vs-one works in a 3 man group, if one person acts as peeler, but that's pushing it, and all-vs-one works when you play in a 2 man group (I'd say it's a no-brainer if you're Paladins that can heal and draw aggro that way when one is getting overwhelmed). I'd imagine that when you have 5 tanks in a group, those players being moderate damage inflicting, high hit point and defense players, all-vs-one would be serviceable since everyone can handle the damage being dealt to them. But even in that situation, having all mobs accounted for would probably be best.