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Tuesday Tip: Using Weaknesses

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Guide to Aggro
Management

style="font-style: italic;">by Dalmarus

Special thanks to Ten Ton Hammer Forum Member, Talaen

Source: href="http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?topic_id=33947"> class="maintitle">Combat Positioning and Aggro Control Tips



QUESTION

Is there a way to avoid continually pulling aggro off the tank in my
group?

ANSWER

Obviously, there are going to be times where everyone is going to get
more attention from their group's target than they particularly want,
but as a general rule, yes - it can be avoided. If you find yourself
continually getting more attention than the tank in various groups you
play with, it's time to take a good look at your playing style and give
this guide a thorough reading.

Imagine this situation:

You and your
group are in a tough dungeon.  You've cleared a few groups of
4-dot
mobs and are pulling a 5-dot mob.  Halfway through the fight,
3 more
4-dot mobs add and suddenly you're just trying to survive. 
Someone
overaggros, and now two of them are on the healer.  If you're
lucky,
the evac goes off and half your party doesn't have exp debt.

How did this happen?

Being
able to get through a fight without adds comes from being able to
properly position the mob and your party members during the
fight. 
It's a skill.  It's something you learn and everyone always
can be
better at it than they are.  So I wanted to provide some tips
for
everyone to think about while you're adventuring.  Doing these
things
can help make sure that you don't get adds as often.  Please
feel free
to discuss or add things that work for you.

  • ALWAYS let your
    tank build up aggro first.  This goes doubly if someone else
    is
    pulling.  A good guideline is not to jump into the fight until
    your
    tank has knocked the mob down to about 95% health and had a chance to
    get a few taunts in.

  • Tanks should TURN the
    mob so that their
    back is to the group (or at least 90 degrees in tight
    dungeons).  This
    allows rogues and others to be behind the mob without them having to
    move away from the group to do it (and potentially aggro more)

  • ALWAYS apply debuffs
    first.  Debuffs help your tank stay alive
    longer, help you do more damage later, and don't cause as much hate
    early in the fight as opening with your high damage abilities would.

  • High damage abilities
    don't start fights, they end them.  Save your
    biggest nukes and crit chains for when the mob is under <50%
    health
    if you can.  By this point the tank should have solidified
    their
    position on the hate list, and even if the mob does switch, it will be
    almost dead.

  • USE your
    detaunts!  If you just landed a
    massive crit chain, the next thing to do is detaunt if at all
    possible.  Throttle your damage output so that the tank can
    maintain
    aggro.

  • If you do ranged
    damage, keep your DISTANCE!  Hate
    from high damage attacks decreases the farther away you are from the
    mob.  So, high-damage ranged attack classes like rangers and
    sorcerors
    should be as far back from the mob as they can be without increasing
    the danger of adds.

  • If you are getting hit
    do not run. 
    Running only makes it harder for the tank to catch you and fire off a
    rescue.  Rooting and backing off a few steps is ok but always
    make sure
    the group knows you're going to do this before you start the fight AND
    that you announce it when you do it.

  • Announce your
    abilities.  Mezzing, rooting, debuffing, Charming, and so on
    are all
    great abilities but your other group members are not going to know what
    you're doing unless you TELL them.

Conclusion

If you can do these things, it
should help you and your groups in your adventures.  Good luck!



I want to give a special thanks to Talaen for his efforts in gathering
this information in the attempt to shed some light on problems players
in the community may be having, especially if they've moved over from
another game that may not have the same general combat mechanics to
keep in mind. For the source of this guide (and the discussions there
in), please click href="http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?topic_id=33947">here.
For our own discussions on the Ten Ton Hammer Vanguard forums, please
click href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=31932">here.





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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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