The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group
#35
Threaded view, baby.

I was replying to TheDragoon. Unless I'm on crack, the instance in question was the Stockades. Dragoon was the primary healer, LavCat and I were the tanks, Refrigerator was a level 20 Druid (very young for the instance) and Lissa was the Rogue. The instance TheDragoon describes is the one we were in, where we fell to Hamhock, an elite mob when his side-kicks spawed (or were very well hidden and the came out) on top of us. Since the tanks didn't handle the aggro well enough, the priest got clobbered and shortly after, so did the rest. Since the Priest was felled first, and the Druid was dead in three hits, that left the rogue and two Paladins to handle 4 to 6 elites. I also believe that we hadn't fully rested, or our mana supplies had gone low, so we were at the mob of mobs' mercy. Sure, I made it out alive, but that's not the point.

This is what caused this whole thread: a bad pull exasperated the fact that the tanks didn't do what they were supposed to. That is, we didn't gobble up aggro and take a beating well enough, allowing the healer to do it's job and heal us. If we had spread out our threat to all the enemies, and tagged them all well enough, the priest would have survived longer, allowing the druid to survive longer, thereby making us all survive longer, long enough to win.

It also has to do with faith. I don't think I had any faith in other players' abilities to manage their own classes well enough. I was playing as if I was soloing, mainly looking out for number 1, and using tactics that would be well in line with a soloist's survival method. If I had more faith in the healers, that they would heal me when appropriate, I wouldn't worry about killing as fast as possible. I would instead kill safely; I would make sure the priest is always safe, and he would in turn make it safe for me to keep things that way, i.e. take a beating and keep on living. It's like that post you referred to in the Blizzard forum; instead of hurrying to make the kills, just take your time, do what you're supposed to (in my case, draw the aggro) and it'll be fine. Have faith that the party members will do their jobs.

Sure Paladins are not supposed to be main tanks. But that doesn't mean that they can't be. I've got a penchant for snagging aggro, especially when I use the seals to their fullest potential (there's one that I can increase my threat and one for reducing the caster's threat. I can also seal the casters to absorb some of their damage. Hell, I can seal the caster to make them invulnerable to damage!). So while it's difficult to be a main tank, it's not impossible, and I can do it. That night, since the overall strategy was flawed, no manner of sealing, skill and item use would have saved us from that bad pull.

That mind control skill sounds really interesting. Kind of like "Conversion" or "Mind Blast" in Diablo 2.
"Yay! We did it!"
"Who are you?"
"Um, uh... just ... a guy." *flee*
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Messages In This Thread
The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group - by Tal - 07-30-2004, 06:33 PM
The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group - by Tal - 07-30-2004, 07:37 PM
The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group - by Tal - 07-31-2004, 12:55 AM
The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group - by Tal - 08-02-2004, 09:29 PM
The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group - by Tal - 08-02-2004, 11:35 PM
The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group - by JustAGuy - 08-02-2004, 11:46 PM
The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group - by Tal - 08-03-2004, 10:44 AM
The Role of Melee Combatants in a Group - by Tal - 08-03-2004, 07:46 PM

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