Post by Doc on Apr 7, 2009 20:52:25 GMT -5
This is universally accepted as THE guide to successful grouping. This is not just for clerics and barbs, every class should burn this into their mind.
#1 The Art of Tanking and Grouping on bosses - 01-30-2009, 03:45 PM
When your in a party with a Tank, be that tank a Barbarian, a Blademaster or a Venomancer with a nice pet there are some things you should do.
The Tank should inform the party of what damage he/she is doing. I.E. (blademaster) My stream strike is doing 800 damage and my normal attacks are doing 500 damage. (veno) My pet is hitting for 600 damage per tick. Etc.
The party members should ALWAYS wait to attack the mob until it is at LEAST 1/4 of the way down (3/4 life remaining) UNLESS they are support damage like second barbs/blades in which case they wait till the mob has ticked off 1/5 of it's life and then attack with NON AGRO gaining attacks such as a base attack w/o magic. Their job is not to tank but to add DPS.
Casters & Archers... The tank has informed you of their damage, you now have a reference to watch. You nuke and do 4000 damage. Don't nuke again until you have ticked off the Tanks damage EXCEEDING yours in your mind. I.E....
Nuke 4k damage. barb tanking... tick (one thousand one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand four one thousand five one thousand six one thousand seven etc..) until you have ticked off approx the damage you did -vs- the damage the tanks doing... error on the side of caution.. it's better to wait a second or five longer before firing again, than to pull agro from the tank and get yourself and your party wiped.
ALWAYS Call out adds. If the cleric gets attacked... turn your attack from the boss to whatever is attacking the cleric. Keep your cleric alive.. they can rez you, you can't rez them and if they die, unless you have another cleric, that is a whipe.
Critical Hits... These REALLY piss off a mob. You get a Crit I strongly suggest that you add 1/2 again to the damage countdown to clear hate. I.E. A normal attack means waiting 7 seconds.. a crit means waiting 11 seconds etc.....
Finally.... Squad positioning...
DO NOT EVER run ahead of the tank. His/Her job is to take the agro of the mobs ahead of your squad, if you run ahead of your tank... you just became the tank. If you die, the fault is your own, not the tanks, not the clerics.. all yours.
Caster positions should be along side the cleric.. this includes Wizards, Archers, Venos and support clerics. Casters should stay near one another so if someone grabs agro.. you will ALL see whats happening.
support Barb/Blade... your job isn't to tank.... it's to add dps to the fight and to WATCH FOR ADDS and take them on, especially if they are going after the casters (i.e. your cleric).
Don't focus your view on the boss.. click your attack and then start rotating your view to keep all the other mobs (if any) in your view.
Tanks.... Your job is simple.. Piss the mob off. use all your agro gaining/Hate gaining attacks, constantly. If you need spark and a veno is around.. hopefully they will have the skill to share a spark with you ( Lending Hand ). don't hesitate to ask for a spark if they do. Keep the mob pissed at you. Spam your agro attacks constantly. Also.. keep an eye out for adds.. If your the only tank.. your gonna have to grab them while the others switch off to kill them. If you can keep agro on adds for a few seconds, that is often enough for the casters and support dps to grab them and take them out.
Finally... Venos.... If your the tank.. heal your pet, watch for adds same as a "normal-traditional" tank... if your NOT the tank watch your pets damage.. if it starts to out tick the tanks damage, pull your pet back for a few seconds. Watch your casting as well. If you have foxform skills like amplify damage etc (your curses) USE THEM. If not then use Ironwood Scarab to debuff the mob.
I commonly go to foxform and hit the mob with Amplify damage, then after it's almost ticked off I use Soul Degeneration, switch to normal form and hit with ironwood Scarab.. tick off till foxform is available again and go back to foxform and wait for Soul degeneration to tick off, then hit with Amplify again and rinse and repeat.
For non AOE bosses this works real well. For AOE bosses not so well.. i'll skip foxform and just use ironwood Scarab and maybe a DoT attack every now and then like Parasitic Nova etc... Again.. keep a VERY close eye on your damage.
*edit* Tanks that have a hp recovery skill. Save this skill. If a party member gets killed (hopefully not the cleric) inform the cleric your skill is avialable for use so they can stop healing you long enough to rez the party member that has died (if there is only one cleric in your party, if there are two, the support cleric should rez and allow the primary cleric to continue healing the tank.).. Also tanks.. you have HP charms available, Potions, Powders etc... you should be using these as well to help save the clerics mana.
Clerics... Ya'll know your jobs, even the FAC clerics. If your a FSC (full support cleric), heal don't do dps. If your a FAC (full attack cleric) INFORM your party of this so they know that your skilling is more for dps than healing so things can be adjusted accordingly. FAC's... if your a second cleric (and you often are) don't turn your nose up at healing or rezzing. Granted your heal and rez may not be on par with the main clerics.. but ANY heal and ANY rez is better than a full squad wipe.
FSC's... As an FSC you know your job is to heal, rez, and buff. Save your charms where you can by using pots dropped from mobs, powders you make or buy etc... You heal the tank. Keep them alive. If a party member other than the tank pulls agro or an add somehow... If and ONLY if switching a heal to them won't kill your tank, toss a heal their way if possible. If not.. let them die or survive as they can... your tank should be heading towards that add anyway to grab it so chances are they will survive if the tank is doing HIS/HER job right. besides... You can always rez them when the tank pops their HP recovery skill, pots and powders to give you those few seconds you'll need to rez them. Better one party member die than all of you die because your tank dropped while you were healing someone who grabbed agro or an add.
ALL party members... Charms, Powders and Potions are your friends. Use them. Often. learn NOT to depend on a cleric to keep you alive, even when your the tank and you need them to do just that. Remember this: Lag. Disconnects. REAL LIFE emergencies that have to be dealt with NOW and no time to type about it (example... your small child injures themselves.. sorry guys, my kid comes first.).
Finally.. if you grab agro or an add finds you... DO NOT go screaming off and away.. run in a close circle near the party (but not near other mobs) so the tank can grab the agro (hopefully) before you die or the cleric can toss a heal your way (use your pots, charms, powders here). If you run off... chances are the cleric is NOT going to be able to heal you, and you can bet the tank isn't gonna be able to chase you down and grab agro from you either. More squads have been wiped because someone grabbed agro and tore off through a mess of mobs or their squad (aoe bosses suck here) and dragged the mob/mobs through them or agro'd far more mobs than several squads can handle. If your a barb/blade that has grabbed agro and you run...... you should hang up your weapons.
Hope this mini guide helps you.
Saitada DeGrief - Contagion Leader