Curse

Solstace · Jan 10, 2008, 02:26 PM // 14:26

I generally go with the standard HM group - OF tank, HB, bonder, SV/SS necro, 2-3 SH eles and we can generally finish the dungeons.

Same basic strategy everyone is used to -> tank goes out and aggros large group, they cluster around him, then the nukers wipe enemy group.

However, recently, it seems that the enemy AI no longer clusters as much. Sure their melee chars run up to engage tank, but the healers seem to hang back out of range. Occasionally the OF tank will try to walk over to them and bring the mob with him/her, but it doesnt always work -> the healers will run further away.

I usually nuke and hit the mob with glyph sac -> MS, then arcane echo and 2 SH. If the healers are inlcuded in my AOE, the mob goes down in about 5 seconds, if not, then it gets complicated. Often times, the massive damage our group does overwhlems the enemy healers and we can still wipe most of mob then clean up the healers at the end.

Unfortunately, occasionally their healers will keep most of the enemies up and then aggro breaks down and all hell breaks loose.

Any tips on this?

Solstace · Jan 10, 2008, 02:28 PM // 14:28

Forget to mention, rest of group varies, but we always have someone with FS -> usually a splinter range.

BTW, rangers always seem to be the culprits in attacking before tank gets full aggro!!!

bifter · Jan 10, 2008, 02:33 PM // 14:33

I did Duncan HM at the weekend with a couple of guildies and heroes. We went with 3* SF (1 was a hero) and an ob tank (+ some random classes). It worked totally fine - the healers did run up to use their touch range healing skills about 50% of the time, so landing in the SF AoE. When they did not, then the 3 SF easily overwhelmed the healers ability to keep the frontline up - we killed the mobs clustered round our tank, then moved on to the casters with no real danger to our backline. I've never tried the SH build in Slavers and I must admit I'm not sure why it would be seen to be better than SF, considering that SH breaks aggro - undermining the point of taking an obsidian tank.

Solstace · Jan 10, 2008, 02:38 PM // 14:38

I love my SF build as well and prefer playing that, but most teams request that I do SH. SH works ok if the tank uses grasping earth and you hit them with MS FIRST. Then I use arcane echo and use 2 SH's. The mob is usually stuck there for the duration.

But I agree that SH by itself seems to make enemies scatter fast. SF is nice because it is not location dependent and recharges fast.

Jaceb · Jan 10, 2008, 03:25 PM // 15:25

As far vloxen & shards goes yeah, they rarely need to be in touch range. At least in the Defender & Healer duo which can heal from a distance, they can keep at it for hours if not interrupted but then they start to kite (Titan's Heart: Anyone remember these? - so SO annoying). Priest & Defender is exactly like in Slavers - they usually end up in the fray, since Priest is the only one with Healing Touch.

Damned & Chained Cleric can heal from a distance, no touch skills. The only thing you can do is pull and hope that the healers run infront of the group and not behind, corner trick usually works. They pile up together and have nowhere to run/flee/kite. Clerics however do not fall into this little trick, they're slower than the others. Heck sometimes a single Defender can pull out a miracle save.

Also in HM most melee monsters tend to "scan" faster for better targets during the fight if they notice that their original choice isn't going down (the new target is always without doubt, the monk). Almost seems that it's pretty wide area where they look from "outside" aggro bubble. Doubt there is anything you can do (during fighting that is).

For the scatter, yeah they do it very quickly. They do it even without AoE - minion damage cause them to scatter (everytime for me), casters and melee all do it. Sometimes it seems glitchy since i've had them scatter even without taking damage an example: an aoe spell that did not even hit them, it barely landed.