12-30-2004, 05:43 PM
I must preface my statements here with the disclaimer that I have never really played a tank class in a party setting. I have very little clue how to use things like assist. Because I have been playing a priest pretty much exclusively my perspective of any battle is skewed...
For any battle in a group setting (more than 3 characters) my eyes are firmly planted on the top left corner of the screen and those little green bars. I only occasionally glance at the action to see who is being targetted and watch for adds. (It's ironic that this mentality can occasionally get me killed because it is harder to see my own health and debuffs... oh how I wish I could have a mini portrait and bar for myself...)
On to the actual content of my post. It seems to me that most of the time mobs come screaming at me and get me in trouble are in bigger pulls where each tank is responsible for different mobs and there isn't one big assist party. In these situations if a tank does not keep his targets glued to him then any secondary targets that aren't taking direct damage are prime candidates for aggroing on me due to my healing. Targets that are directly taking damage rarely aggro on me.
Artega mentioned in his post skills like Thunderclap that work as aoe aggro drawing effects. It seems to me like these are absolutely critical to the life of a cloth wearer in large situations (the final battle of Uldaman comes to mind). I see some tanks who don't seem to understand that even though they are concentrating on dropping a mob that if they don't hold the aggro of secondary mobs my healing will draw them to me. My only reservation is that I have never played those classes so I'm not certain how accurate my view is.
In the end run my egotistical perspective is that if the priest goes down everyone's life becomes exponentially more difficult, even with a secondary healer. When I die with another 2500 mana in the bank that is a big loss. Leaving that primary mob alive for an extra 2 seconds whacking on you because you redirected to hit the secondary mob to save aggro is so much better than losing your priest because that secondary target wasn't getting whacked enough. If you keep that target off the priest (s)he can easily heal back the 2 or 3 extra hits you have taken.
Wow, that was a bit long winded and I'm not certain if I got my point across... Basically, knock everything across the head (or taunt it or whatever) on a regular basis so that you decrease the likelihood of healing drawing a mob to your priest.
- mjdoom
p.s. If you have a paladin with Blessing of Salvation always remember to use it when big pulls are inevitable. This will also help immensely and can be more useful than the mana regen of Blessing of Wisdom. And for gosh sakes don't put Blessing of Might on a priest (yes, I've seen it done!).
For any battle in a group setting (more than 3 characters) my eyes are firmly planted on the top left corner of the screen and those little green bars. I only occasionally glance at the action to see who is being targetted and watch for adds. (It's ironic that this mentality can occasionally get me killed because it is harder to see my own health and debuffs... oh how I wish I could have a mini portrait and bar for myself...)
On to the actual content of my post. It seems to me that most of the time mobs come screaming at me and get me in trouble are in bigger pulls where each tank is responsible for different mobs and there isn't one big assist party. In these situations if a tank does not keep his targets glued to him then any secondary targets that aren't taking direct damage are prime candidates for aggroing on me due to my healing. Targets that are directly taking damage rarely aggro on me.
Artega mentioned in his post skills like Thunderclap that work as aoe aggro drawing effects. It seems to me like these are absolutely critical to the life of a cloth wearer in large situations (the final battle of Uldaman comes to mind). I see some tanks who don't seem to understand that even though they are concentrating on dropping a mob that if they don't hold the aggro of secondary mobs my healing will draw them to me. My only reservation is that I have never played those classes so I'm not certain how accurate my view is.
In the end run my egotistical perspective is that if the priest goes down everyone's life becomes exponentially more difficult, even with a secondary healer. When I die with another 2500 mana in the bank that is a big loss. Leaving that primary mob alive for an extra 2 seconds whacking on you because you redirected to hit the secondary mob to save aggro is so much better than losing your priest because that secondary target wasn't getting whacked enough. If you keep that target off the priest (s)he can easily heal back the 2 or 3 extra hits you have taken.
Wow, that was a bit long winded and I'm not certain if I got my point across... Basically, knock everything across the head (or taunt it or whatever) on a regular basis so that you decrease the likelihood of healing drawing a mob to your priest.
- mjdoom
p.s. If you have a paladin with Blessing of Salvation always remember to use it when big pulls are inevitable. This will also help immensely and can be more useful than the mana regen of Blessing of Wisdom. And for gosh sakes don't put Blessing of Might on a priest (yes, I've seen it done!).
Stormrage:
Flyndar (60) - Dwarf Priest - Tailoring (300), Enchanting (300)
Minimagi (60) - Gnome Mage - Herbalism (300), Engineering (301)
Galreth (60) - Human Warrior - Blacksmithing (300), Alchemy (300); Critical Mass by name, Lurker in spirit
ArynWindborn (19) - Human Paladin - Mining/Engineering (121)
Flyndar (60) - Dwarf Priest - Tailoring (300), Enchanting (300)
Minimagi (60) - Gnome Mage - Herbalism (300), Engineering (301)
Galreth (60) - Human Warrior - Blacksmithing (300), Alchemy (300); Critical Mass by name, Lurker in spirit
ArynWindborn (19) - Human Paladin - Mining/Engineering (121)