The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group

[Tal]

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.

You were right in focusing the attacks on a single mob. When you get a group of elites it becomes problematic so what do you do? Well a pally can peel off and get the second and thirds attention before turning back to the first and helping to finish it off. Keep in mind that your ability to damage it isn't as great as the cloth wearing nukers. That DOES mean though that they have to slow down on the nukes so you can keep the mobs attention. Don't forget also to make liberal use of your seals such as Seal of Fury to generate more hate and if you are planning being the main tank you should be using a two hander. Keep in mind though that as a Pally you're really a secondary tank and have your party let you do the pulling - using dynamite helps with that.

In the SM instance I was not as useful as the main tank with two mages along invariably one would land a fireball before I could get off a Holy Strike and the mob would run after the mage. But then the other would get off an attack possibly getting the attention of the mob and he would turn just in time for me to unload one on him. The tactics Bolty described worked pretty well on times when we had multiple mobs. And when we did have multiples I would go after those the Mages were going after as I knew that mob was going to drop quicker. At that point I would heal whichever mage was getting pounded on and hoped that Bolty and Lissa were healing each other. Most of the time we were okay. ;) When we got to Herod (I think that was his name) the second time we were more successful because I was able to generate a LOT of hate from him before Roane started nuking. Bolty and Lissa took turns healing me and shielding me as I worked on him. He never even looked up at the three of them and instead concentrated on me. I knew as long as Bolty, Lissa and myself had mana that I could survive down there for quite awhile.