Curse

Oso Minar · Jun 28, 2006, 10:55 PM // 22:55

I'm new to Guild Wars. I'm not new to MMORPG's. Now, in most every other game I've played, it was the tank's job to "round up" all the enemies so that squishy classes can gun 'em down. It was a job that I liked, but grew tired of, as in most games the demand for "uber equipment" became too great for my time constraints.

Enter Guild Wars. The refreshing presence of Henchmen is fantastic, and I love the fact that obtaining the "best equipment" (stats-wise; looks are irrelevent to me), you don't need to farm any more. I played a Ritualist to this level of "completion" and very much enjoy the style of that class. But I'd like to try out a Warrior.

My problems came early. I cannot find a way to "round up" all the enemies! I can grab the attention of two or three, but in a large group my attempts to grab all aggro never seem to work. Without a way to attract the attention of many enemies at once (A 'taunt'-type spell), how do you group up the enemies so that the nukers can knock them all down? Or am I not in the right frame of mind, and should be thinking that the squishies in the back line should be bringing survival skills to help them stay alive? Do I just smell bad?

How do you tanks get every enemy grouped up all nice and pretty?

Thank you very much in advance for your input.

Aisius · Jun 29, 2006, 04:40 AM // 04:40

Hi,
I'm fairly new to guild wars also, but have found from my experience that if I damage mobs before anyone else does and try to continue damaging a few of them I won't get straggler mobs running to the back lines of my group.

Skills are usefull to counter some of this, I use tripple chop which is an area effect type of melee skill and hits for +34 .
None shall pass- could have a use also to stop mobs running back to attack at the necromancer or monk. Bull's charge may slow a mob down. Fear me - for energy drain on mobs nearby.
From what I have found interupts on mobs tend to hold a bit of aggro and sometimes healing allies has helped.

Maybe someone else knows or can link some data for this but as yet I haven't found anything.

Asundai · Jun 29, 2006, 05:48 AM // 05:48

Aggro management in guild wars is kinda bad... it doesn't use a hate list, which i suppose is more realistic in that mobs wouldn't all go for the heavily armored warrior who's doing about 1 damage to them.. but still, it sucks when you're used to tanking in "proper" MMOs.

Anyway, i'm not 100% sure on this stuff, but as far as i know it works something like this: Mobs will attack the first thing they aggro on, and will keep on that person (hopefully you) unless you lose aggro. You can lose aggro by either moving too much (maybe even at all, i'm not sure) or if someone casts a damage over time AoE spell that causes the mobs to run (when they stop running they'll choose a new target, and if multiple people are within aggro range they'll go for the weakest. ie the monk).

Note that if someone else enters the mobs aggro radius whilst they're running to you (or you're running to them) they'll probably go for that person instead. So the only real way to ensure you get aggro is to have everyone else hang back, then run up to the mobs / aggro them and have them run to you, then when they're attacking you everyone else can join in. But good luck with that in a PUG.

The only way to reacquire hate when the mobs have decided to start beating on your monk is to get them to flee (DoT AoE) and then make sure the monk etc get out of the way or to use body blocking (the char they're attacking runs around you till the mob gets "stuck" and aggros on you). Doesn't work on ranged attackers.

If i'm wrong on any of this feel free to correct me

S0larius · Jun 29, 2006, 12:32 PM // 12:32

I may be smoking and not sharing, but I belive I've read that Shouts call aggro to you. It might be my imagination but I find that I get focused on by enemies in the area the minute I cast 'Watch Yourself'. I'm not sure about this and I wouldn't mind some confirmation one way or the other as well.

Kern Wolf · Jun 29, 2006, 12:42 PM // 12:42

If you're doing a lot of quests/missions with henches, you might want to rethink the aggro a bit, especially if you're going as a warrior. My suggestion would be to take on a quest, and practice the aggro--see how those henches "behave". From my own experience, I've found that, if I'm running with henches, I usually want to aggro no more than 5-6 at a time. practice drawing the baddies in your aggro circle, then moving backwards, trying to divide large mobs into smaller groups. I'm sure that there are a number of ways that a lot of people could tell you how to approach this...

frickett · Jun 29, 2006, 12:51 PM // 12:51

I guess the reason that we don't really have any taunt skills, is because they wouldnt necessarily work in pvp. But maybe they could be implemented. I would enjoy some taunt skills.

Amity and Truth · Jun 29, 2006, 12:57 PM // 12:57

Aggro in Guildwars is quite easy with only a few things to know:

First:
Watch your radar. Really. The white circle in the center of it is your aggro bubble. Touch an enemy with it and he will notice you.

Second:
Mobs go for the targets with the lowest AL and when deciding between several low AL targets, they will decide based upon the health of the target.

Third:
Nearby players will break aggro. Either from an allready running foe but as well as from a mob who had a target lock before.

Fourth:
If enemies get hit by more than 2 AOE Attacks during a period of 3 seconds, they will run from it.

Fifth:
Blocked path leads to finding a new target.

Sixth:
Enemies based upon hexes will break their aggro to apply them. No way to hold their aggro. Includes Mesmers and Sins.

Seventh:
Movement breaks the target lock. If a tank just does a small sidestep the enemies will allready be searching for a new target.

Ideal concept of tanking:
The tank (usually a warrior but could also be an elemantalist (24/7 Obsidian Flesh Geomancer Tanks ftw) goes in to aggro the mob. While he does this, his team MUST be outside of his Aggro Bubble. If they're in, the enemies will ignore the tank completely and thus, ruin the aggro completely. So just stay out and wait for the enemies to lock on their target (the tank).

The easy way to tank from then on is, just wait until everything just bashes on you and give your team the signal to attack. Endure the hits, rinse, repeat. Win 98% of PVE easily.
The somewhat more attempt at tanking is to block the path of mobs so they can't reach the squishies. This is ideally done by using natural corners in the map.

I hope my post was of help, if not, just tell me and i'll go more into detail (maybe even write a guide about this)

Avarre · Jun 29, 2006, 01:10 PM // 13:10

^What he said

makosi · Jun 29, 2006, 01:36 PM // 13:36

Yeah, that's like the ultimate, conscise guide to tanking/aggroing. GJ indeed.

Aisius · Jun 29, 2006, 08:07 PM // 20:07

Thanks Amity and Truth very useful info and will hopefully help me to play a better Tank and Monk in the game.

I'd like to see your post added to the game mechanics area of warrior informative posts as I think after looking there I couldnt find this info.

S0larius · Jun 30, 2006, 01:40 PM // 13:40

Yes - great info and I've already put it to use. I think this deserves a sticky.

Koning · Jun 30, 2006, 04:14 PM // 16:14

Yes, definatly a sticky when u write a guide about it! I see way too many tanks in FoW (and also other hard area's) who don't know how to tank, but maybe the most important thing is I can't convince 'the squishes' to stay out of my aggro, thus almost always losing my aggro after 2 secs. Maybe a guide of tanking with a sticky will change this (hope more ppl read it then

)!

Amity and Truth · Jun 30, 2006, 08:24 PM // 20:24

I've actually written one yesterday, over there in the Ressource Section.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3067338

I'll give it a re-work tomorrow and it should be fine then.