As a healer:

I heal when needed, If I see that there is rapid damage being taken then I will adjust as needed. However "toping off" early in the fight is a bad thing to do in most cases as healing generates a huge amount of threat. I generally wait until the tank or DPS in my group I can predict will take damage causing them to go down to 75%- HP. In between that I do damage either as a mystic by placing dots on the boss/trash or as a priest just doing a basic auto-attack. I've generally had no issues with aggro unless the warrior I'm healing is in offensive stance and doesn't remember that he/she/they need to be in defensive stance...


As a Warrior tank:

Trash:
I round up mobs basically attacking the outermost trash mob in the bunch then circling them using my basic attack to feed me MP as I spam torrent of blows whenever it's up. If it is a large pull then I'll use my aoe shout taunt while using torrent of blows and doing the same thing. I've only had one problem with this method and thats when people choose to run in before me so I don't get a chance to round them up in to a close bunch.

When that happens I just say screw it torrent of blows in the middle or whatever spot allows me to taunt the most if not all monsters and weave in and out as needed.

Bosses:
Torrent of blows again every time off cooldown, saving my shout and "shadow" for emergencies while using my damage abilities to debuff the boss and maneuver from side to side and or back.(standing at 45 degrees-ish on one side then moving to the other when/if i have to).

I've never had anyone pull off me before unless they've done one of two things:

1)Pulled the boss before me.

2)Kept spam overhealing me when I hadn't taken any or very little damage. This is not referring to those moments I screw up and get hit hard, but rather when healers are paranoid and heal when they had no need to.


Warriors get a good amount of +threat glyphs for abilities that cause it so I use them. early on though I will use threat crystals in my weapon though.

As a sorc I'm constantly keeping an eye out for the hate icon above my head. When I see it, I know it's time to move. I've not had a lot of opportunities to run with warrior tanks, but most of them keep aggro pretty well. Their stacked +dmg debuffs are stronger than a lancer's, so I do more damage. That's good for pewpew, but also makes tanking a bigger challenge. Generally, I trust my tanks and try to keep my armour up to scratch, but I'm mostly concerned with maximizing my damage. If I'm not removing HP from mobs by the bucketful, there's no reason for me to be there.

I will pull aggro off anyone now and then, especially in AoE situations, but also with bosses. My priority is then to avoid taking damage until the tank is back in charge, and sorcs have abilities that allow us to do that. No one's going to hold it against an overchannelled FB rear crit, so I watch my numbers. They're a better predictor of something big and angry heading my way than icons, and something I pay a lot of attention to anyway.

Then you've always had bad tanks.

Thanks for that breakdown, Zenatsu. I like to know how things work on the tanking side. I think healers should know how their tanks operate.


Quote: Suroh on 04/24/2012, 04:34 PM - view

I may not have worded it very well, my apologies. I was just wondering what everyone else did to either keep aggro or get rid of it to see if I was missing something. Looks like I should just use the lock on a little less frequently.

Really helpful input, guys! =)

Quote: Zenatsu on 04/24/2012, 04:48 PM - view

If you're on Arachnaea, I'll take that as a challenge.

Zenatsu, thanks for the great info.

Up to where I'm at now which is level 30 I rarely lose aggro on bosses. I always spam my taunt when it's up on bosses and I have glyphed for better threat generation.

During general combat like clearing instances of regular mobs I don't spam my taunt as much. The healer is usually the one that pulls aggro the most so obviously healing generates a lot of threat.

Quote: rocdog on 04/24/2012, 05:17 PM - view

Vally of Zergs actually...

You'd be surprised (i was) how many people I've come across that kiss my shoes about being a good tank

I've held pretty good aggro as a warrior so far, though I've only "tanked" Basiliks. I usually buff up with the defensive stance, and use my two key skills that state in their description they're used for gaining aggro from mobs. The healer(s) we had with the Basiliks didn't seem bothered with how I was doing nor did it seem their HP dropped.

Quote: Lunaus on 04/24/2012, 06:03 PM - view

cool story, now go do an instance.

I never really understood the aggro system really. I kinda grasp it but I don't know it. I read all the other posts and I'm still confused. I know what aggro is, but getting or relieving it is what I don't understand.

I noticed that on some BAMs, when I used focus heal on party members they barely take notice of me, but others (like the Ovoliths) ALWAYS charge at me whenever I do ANY kind of heal. Is there a meter or something that shows how much aggro a mob has on me? Because the only meter I see is the one under the HP of the enemies, and that meter is a foreign language to me. I have no idea what it is. The help menu in game didn't even mention it. I assumed its was like a defense break like the on in FFXIII but I could never find a correlation between that meter and the BAMs actions.

So just 3 questions. Is there a meter for how much aggro you have on a mob? How do you relieve the aggro without having to run away and letting the mob reset? and, what is that meter under the BAM's hp bar?

I'd appreciate it if people answered that for me.