03-01-2006, 02:19 PM
One of the biggest problems I've seen lately is aggro management. In BWL, aggro management is the biggest reason that causes fights to go south, but it can also cause other fights to go south as well as we've seen numerous times in Onyxia and occasionally in MC and to lesser extents UBRS and other "end game" instances.
A number of you are probably going, "WTF, Taha lecturing us about aggro management when Taha's been one of the worst offenders in the past?" Well, I've learned and I've seen a lot of things from others that mean people need to learn them as well.
Pulling aggro in some fights just doesn't affect you, it affects everyone. Ask yourself this, how many time have you seen Onyxia yank to one side off the main tank and flame said side and 5 to 6 people go down because someone pulled aggro? How many times have you seen a mob rip off a tank and head straight into the main part of a raid? It happens way too often and it shouldn't happen at all.
I can talk from authority for Warlocks which conversely does lead to a lesser extent to Mages due to similarity in how the two classes function during Raids. I have also played a Hunter in several raids and have also seen things from the prospective of a Warrior Tank on MC runs. While I have never actually played a Priest in 20/40 man raiding instances, I did play a Priest up to level 60 during beta and did play in the end game instances as both a healer and as a DPSer (being shadow speced). I will leave talking about Druid aggro management, Pally aggro management, and to a lesser extent, Rogue aggro management to others.
From the perspective of the Warlock, the only way you have of managing your agro is through turning DPS on and off. While the Warlock does have some bonuses from certain builds and items sets (threat reduction by being a Master Demonologist with Imp out or having 8/8 Nemesis which none of us in the alliance are near yet), the only thing that can be done is to just stop DPSing. Because we have no way of shedding aggro like other classes, we have to be mindful of just how much we can do. What I've found that really helps is to wait every so often and not cast. Case in point, during Broodlord fights, I will wait a couple seconds after the DPS call before I start casting and during the fight itself, I will stop casting every 10 seconds or so for about 5 seconds to allow my aggro to lessen. The only time that I go full tilt out on trying to do as much damage as I possibly can is the one fight where aggro doesn't matter for range, Ragnaros. This is the one fight were not paying attention to aggro you can get away with, but all other fights, you have to watch just what you can do.
A lot of what I just said above also fits for Mages, but at least Mages do have a couple options available to them, one being the talent Ice Block which sheds the Mage's agro. The second is the Arcane Talent Arcane Subtlety, but this does not mean you should be going full out if you have these skills. These skills should only be coming into effect as a last resort, not as a crutch to be able to garner more aggro than the Tanks. Stop every so often and let your damage cool off a little so that you don't pull aggro because pulling aggro can get the raid maimed or even destroyed with particular bosses.
Hunters have the most amazing form of aggro reduction afforded to any class in Feign Death. This skill totally and completely wipes you from the aggro table of all mobs you're engaged with. This skill also refreshes every 30 seconds. Because of how useful this skill is, it allows a hunter to go full out during the entire fight. Hunters should be using this skill every time it refreshes so that they don't pull aggro at all. Although if the Feign Death gets resisted, turning off auto-attack and waiting for a bit for the cool down on Feign Death to get closer to a new use it highly recommended.
For Priests, especially shadow priests, the mind blast spell should be used very sparingly. This spell will cause huge amounts of aggro with the target mob in question. This is a spell that can easily cause catastrophic problems in a raid if used improperly or without fore thought. While you have talents that lessen aggro and have spells to temporarily lower your aggro, you must be extremely careful when using this spell.
For Rogues, Feint is a godsend. The one problem that arises with Feint, like the Hunter's Feign Death, is that it can miss and this allows you to fall back on to your other skill for shedding aggro, Vanish. These two skills combined should allow a Rogue to never take aggro or get rid of it quickly.
As a Warrior that is tanking, nothing angers me more than when I have to taunt or go chasing off after a mob that I thought I had locked down between using skills like Sunder Armor, Revenge, Shield Bash, and Heroic Strike because someone was careless or wasn't using skills to get rid of their aggro. The only other character that should take aggro from a mob off a tank is another tank. Every time a Warrior is not the main target for a mob, the more the healers have to work and there's the chance that someone may end up dead. A dead character brings nothing to the raid.
One of the worst offenses I've found to cause lack of aggro management is use of add ons like Recap and Damage Meters. Add ons like these make people ignore good game play in an attempt to be "first" in damage. While it's fun to see what kind of damage you're doing, it leads to sloppy aggro management because you keep thinking you can push for more damage and more damage, but you're not thinking about the raid. If you do something dangerous, you risk not only yourself dying, and a repair bill, but others in the raid dying. Repair bills are not fun, so it's better to either turn off those add ons, remove them, or keep them minimized so you don't see how you're doing and check at the end.
In the end, aggro mismanagement leads to one thing, a repair bill for someone, and no one likes that. So managing you aggro better leads to you paying less of a repair (they're still going to happen), but at least it won't be as big if you ignored your aggro management responsibilities.
A number of you are probably going, "WTF, Taha lecturing us about aggro management when Taha's been one of the worst offenders in the past?" Well, I've learned and I've seen a lot of things from others that mean people need to learn them as well.
Pulling aggro in some fights just doesn't affect you, it affects everyone. Ask yourself this, how many time have you seen Onyxia yank to one side off the main tank and flame said side and 5 to 6 people go down because someone pulled aggro? How many times have you seen a mob rip off a tank and head straight into the main part of a raid? It happens way too often and it shouldn't happen at all.
I can talk from authority for Warlocks which conversely does lead to a lesser extent to Mages due to similarity in how the two classes function during Raids. I have also played a Hunter in several raids and have also seen things from the prospective of a Warrior Tank on MC runs. While I have never actually played a Priest in 20/40 man raiding instances, I did play a Priest up to level 60 during beta and did play in the end game instances as both a healer and as a DPSer (being shadow speced). I will leave talking about Druid aggro management, Pally aggro management, and to a lesser extent, Rogue aggro management to others.
From the perspective of the Warlock, the only way you have of managing your agro is through turning DPS on and off. While the Warlock does have some bonuses from certain builds and items sets (threat reduction by being a Master Demonologist with Imp out or having 8/8 Nemesis which none of us in the alliance are near yet), the only thing that can be done is to just stop DPSing. Because we have no way of shedding aggro like other classes, we have to be mindful of just how much we can do. What I've found that really helps is to wait every so often and not cast. Case in point, during Broodlord fights, I will wait a couple seconds after the DPS call before I start casting and during the fight itself, I will stop casting every 10 seconds or so for about 5 seconds to allow my aggro to lessen. The only time that I go full tilt out on trying to do as much damage as I possibly can is the one fight where aggro doesn't matter for range, Ragnaros. This is the one fight were not paying attention to aggro you can get away with, but all other fights, you have to watch just what you can do.
A lot of what I just said above also fits for Mages, but at least Mages do have a couple options available to them, one being the talent Ice Block which sheds the Mage's agro. The second is the Arcane Talent Arcane Subtlety, but this does not mean you should be going full out if you have these skills. These skills should only be coming into effect as a last resort, not as a crutch to be able to garner more aggro than the Tanks. Stop every so often and let your damage cool off a little so that you don't pull aggro because pulling aggro can get the raid maimed or even destroyed with particular bosses.
Hunters have the most amazing form of aggro reduction afforded to any class in Feign Death. This skill totally and completely wipes you from the aggro table of all mobs you're engaged with. This skill also refreshes every 30 seconds. Because of how useful this skill is, it allows a hunter to go full out during the entire fight. Hunters should be using this skill every time it refreshes so that they don't pull aggro at all. Although if the Feign Death gets resisted, turning off auto-attack and waiting for a bit for the cool down on Feign Death to get closer to a new use it highly recommended.
For Priests, especially shadow priests, the mind blast spell should be used very sparingly. This spell will cause huge amounts of aggro with the target mob in question. This is a spell that can easily cause catastrophic problems in a raid if used improperly or without fore thought. While you have talents that lessen aggro and have spells to temporarily lower your aggro, you must be extremely careful when using this spell.
For Rogues, Feint is a godsend. The one problem that arises with Feint, like the Hunter's Feign Death, is that it can miss and this allows you to fall back on to your other skill for shedding aggro, Vanish. These two skills combined should allow a Rogue to never take aggro or get rid of it quickly.
As a Warrior that is tanking, nothing angers me more than when I have to taunt or go chasing off after a mob that I thought I had locked down between using skills like Sunder Armor, Revenge, Shield Bash, and Heroic Strike because someone was careless or wasn't using skills to get rid of their aggro. The only other character that should take aggro from a mob off a tank is another tank. Every time a Warrior is not the main target for a mob, the more the healers have to work and there's the chance that someone may end up dead. A dead character brings nothing to the raid.
One of the worst offenses I've found to cause lack of aggro management is use of add ons like Recap and Damage Meters. Add ons like these make people ignore good game play in an attempt to be "first" in damage. While it's fun to see what kind of damage you're doing, it leads to sloppy aggro management because you keep thinking you can push for more damage and more damage, but you're not thinking about the raid. If you do something dangerous, you risk not only yourself dying, and a repair bill, but others in the raid dying. Repair bills are not fun, so it's better to either turn off those add ons, remove them, or keep them minimized so you don't see how you're doing and check at the end.
In the end, aggro mismanagement leads to one thing, a repair bill for someone, and no one likes that. So managing you aggro better leads to you paying less of a repair (they're still going to happen), but at least it won't be as big if you ignored your aggro management responsibilities.
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset
Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.