Wayfarers of Veeshan

Ladies and Gentlemen, please forgive me as I again climb aboard my soapbox and begin Preaching.... The semi-honorable Chadopro Newfather at your service.......

Rule #2 from our Wayfarers of Veeshan Rules state:

"ASSIST your guildmates whenever possible; above all else we are a family."

This is a very impotant rule......

It also has another under-utilized meaning in the Raid Scenario. Whether raiding Crushbone or Raiding Plane of Time, the term ASSIST is a very valuable and much needed function.

So WHAT does use the ASSIST function mean?

It means programming a hot key (a Social Macro if you will) that automaticly targets whomever you specify and makes you begin attacking whomever they are attacking.

So WHY use the ASSIST function?

In both High End Groups and Raid Scenarios, 1 player is deemed to be the Main Tank (or Main Assist). The puller will bring mobs to the Main Tank who will then select 1 mob and begin taunting and attacking that mob. The idea is this....Hopefully the attacking and taunting will make the mob mad at ONLY the Main Assist and not everyone else. After the MA feels that the mob is sufficiently mad at him only, he will have a hotkey that says, "ASSIST ME NOW WITH a Goblin". At this point, everyone hits their Hotkey for ASSIST and wail away until the Mob is dead. With this method, the healers then only have to worry about healing the Main Assist because everyone else should be taking minimal damage.

If you begin attacking before the call is made, the mob may turn and attack you instead of the Main Tank......Bad Thing, because the mob may start hopping person to person attacking you, the Healers, Enchanters etc. NET RESULT -> Death and Mayhem.

OK , so say the Puller brings 5 mobs, and the enchanters work feverishly to Mezzmerize all of the mobs but the one that the MA is attacking. And you hit attack at the mob nearest to you which breaks the mezz of the enchanter. 1st off the, mob will head directly to the enchanter and swack him a few good shots....then he will turn on you and begin swacking you also....Either way you look at it, the Healers will have to take their attention off of the Main Assist and begin focusing their attention on you, the guy who didnt listen... NET RESULT -> Death and Mayhem.

If you are in a Raid setting and there are more mobs than you think you can handle.....Tis far better to kill each mob repeatedly hitting your Assist Hotkey after each mob dies...so that the MA controls the targetting...than to freelance anything.....It feels pretty good to Assist your way out of a Big Time Melee Battle.

WHAT does an ASSIST Hot key look like?

Assist 1 This is the name of the hotkey.

/assist Salyon
/g ASSISTING SALYON with %t
/rs ASSISTING SALYON WITH %t

Line 1 tells the computer to target Salyon's Mob and begin attacking it.
Line 2 tells your grp that you are assisting.
Line 3 tells your raid that you are assisting.

Note ~ %t will automaticly fill in the name of the mob that Salyon is fighting....


OK Im through preaching. Just remember that this technique is absolutley mandatory for successful Raiding and Grouping as we all progress....

The semi-honorable Chadopro Newfather steps down from his Soapbox.......

Rule #2 from our Wayfarers of Veeshan Rules state:

"ASSIST your guildmates whenever possible; above all else we are a family."

Good point Preacher Chadopro....however; rule 2 actually means to help out guildies if you can....i.e. hey I need some help with this green moss snake...can someone come help me please???

In raid and such situations, Chadopro's point is very valid and we all should practice using hotkeys no matter what the situation.

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Keepers of the Elements

*Wonders what inspired this one*

ummmm..... a pertinent question here for Lac

Do we REALLY want a guild wipeout on that moss snake? I mean they are a serious undercon

Min

Answer to Min is....the bite is worse than the undercon and don't EVER be fooled by those green slitherin slimy reptiles....so yes, assistance would most likely be a priority.

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Keepers of the Elements

Where is Soapbox Preachings Part I? One might infer that there is equally good advice to be found there. :)

I'd like to make a few points on this.

Specifically, I'd like to address this statement: "...this technique is absolutley mandatory for successful Raiding and Grouping..."

First, a true RAID is something that, aside from that train of terror in Najena, I have not experienced. The rules for such an organized multi-group action however, seemed pretty clear.

But as someone with a lot of GROUP experience, I feel I can, and should comment on some things Chadopro said, so that others who are just looking for good advice can add this: In a hunting group, the idea that there must be a main puller, a main tank, and that the /assist key must be used, are not by any means the only strategies that work.

For example, I've found that the main tank can be the main puller, and this avoids the step of swapping aggro via taunt. The aggro is on MT from the get-go. Also, as I play mostly INT based casters, I find that my job is not to just /assist and kill the main tank's mob. Rather, I tend to find a safe, high spot, away from the "pull point", and watch the battle progress, and do what is necessary to keep things under control. If the MT accidentally brings 2 or more mobs, I find that a Root+DoT action on mob#2 is highly effective strategy BEFORE I turn my attention to helping the MT with mob#1. In some cases, 2 independent DoTs on mob#2 means that by the time mob#1 is actually dead, mob #2 is at 10% health, or even dead itself.

Also, even when the MT has a solid aggro, and is constantly using Taunt, there have been plenty (I'll guesstimate 20-30%) of the mobs that don't take kindly to my DoTs laying into them, and they ignore the MT and come pound me on the head. So taunting and damage by the MT are by no means 100% effective ways to keep the mobs on the MT.

I guess what I'm getting at, on my own soapbox, is that, at least in the GROUP scenario, SoP works TO A POINT, but in addition to that, the ability to read and adjust to any situation, including purposefully NOT assisting the MT, are essential parts of my own arsenal.

Drex

P.S. Having said all that, I am all for a military style RAID. With so many people, you need very set plans, and do NOT need people breaking from SoP. But I disagree that it must be done that way with just a hunting GROUP. Hope this wasn't too soapboxy.

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Drexxell , 71st GNecrOMancEr -- Wielder of ()
Druul , 60th Troll Shaman () + Wielder of and
Driss, 51st Dwarf Priestess of Brell Serilis
Dralia, 36th Erudite Enchantress

WOOT! Thanks Chadopro for laying this out in a clear and simple way. I have one thing to add from a cleric's point of view. A blank assist key is also a must have for any healer. While sitting you hot key your /assist salyon button, then immediately hot key your /assist button. This will show you who is currently being wacked on by the mob. Of course it should be the MT, but the extra second or so you get seeing who it really is just might save the casters life that aggro'd him. But please note I'm not implying that in every case that means you heal the person with aggro. That opens a incredibly complicated point of mana conservation which is an endless learning experience. So come join the raid and practice practice practice

Polusia Consilio

Tis true Lac, perhaps the only similarity between Rule # 2 and the above Sermon is the word, "ASSIST" are used in both. It just seemed like a great Starting block for the discussion.

I would be interested to hear any other Hotkey strategies and oppinions from other classes as listed above in regards to both Raiding and Grouping situations....

Knowledge is Dangerous, But ASSISTING is Deadly!

Drexxel, unfortunately you have noticed one of the big tradeoffs in EQ. The taunt key is not the most effective aggro holding tool available to the main tanks. Paladins and Shadowknights can compensate for this with their various spells since the constant casting of these spells pretty much insures that the mob will ALWAYS stay on the main tank. Warriors don't get this luxury, which often results in having to chase the mob around some, at least in my experience. It's unfortunate that the class best built for tanking is also the class that has the most difficulty in holding the creature's attention. So then comes the tradeoff. You can have a warrior tank, who has more hitpoints and AC plus a nifty defensive discipline, but you may have to worry about them losing the mobs attention. Or you can have a paly or sk play main tank, which insures the mob will usually only be beating on one person, but that poor hybrid can literally be torn to shreds by the higher level encounters. (we don't get any nifty defensive disciplines, and our hp totals tend to be lower)

As a chanter I agree, I'm usually the one that dies when the mezz is broken wether it be a raid or a group this is something to live by.

Even in a group senerio this is valid if there is a good chanter present. Unfortunately the root and dot senerio that Drexxell mentions is also deadly to the chanter, as we don't know the critter is rooted, and dotted, and then we try to mezz, oops we just became number one on thier hate list when the root breaks. Been there done that died horribly.

This can be even more fun for chanters when a stupid Druid such as Aaeluin pulls multiple ctitters using dots (just ask Cattikie) . BTW the druid usually dies first then the chanter in this senerio .

Ohhh and I forgot to mention certian Bards (Iro) and thier AE songs those are fun to

Actually it really depends on the situation when grouped, if the chanter knows what is going on its good. If he does not then people are going to die, usually the chanter first in my case cause I'm to stupid to run while getting whacked.

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Ggnarl Lvl 54 Enchanter
Dnarl Lvl 35 Monk
Ezzqar Lvl 11 Mage


Live Well, Die Spectacually!!!!!

I have to agree with Dnarl's comment, as it pretty much sums it up:

"Actually it really depends on the situation when grouped"

With the group I'm used to (Necro, Druid, Cleric, Warrior) we have
a real standard kinda SoP that works well (root and DoT, as mentioned,
helps in taking out mobs 2 and up). I recall VERY distinctly the first
time an enchanter joined our group like 20 levels ago...it was a new
experience, and we didn't at first adjust our strategy, and general
mayhem and death did occur. Then, we talked about it, and adjusted
and found ourselves even MORE deadly than before. It really does
DEPEND on the classes played and the mobs pulled. I learned the
power of mezzing well, that day and took it to heart when I started playing Dralia.

I've seen Sirailaden's group message when mezzing:
"/g Mezzing %t. You touch it, you handle it" (or words to that effect).

I took that a step further, because I got frustrated with the chaotic
nature of combat and my mezzed critters being accidentally woken
up, so I made a mezz hotkey like this:

/g ***** MEZZ MESSAGE TOP ************
/g Do NOT Attack %t, it is MEZZED!!!!!!!!!
/g Do NOT Attack %t, it is MeZZED!!!!!!!!!
/g ***** MEZZ MESSAGE BOTTOM ********
/cast 2

It's a bit overkill, but I'll tell ya what...it's hard as heck to miss, even
in the fast scrolling text of combat

Drex

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Drexxell , 71st GNecrOMancEr -- Wielder of ()
Druul , 60th Troll Shaman () + Wielder of and
Driss, 51st Dwarf Priestess of Brell Serilis
Dralia, 36th Erudite Enchantress

Hmmmmm I wonder if I can make one a tad bit more obvious than that one. I like that one Drexxell And yes every senerio is different. I've never really grouped with out a chanter so I'm clueless there.

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Ggnarl Lvl 54 Enchanter
Dnarl Lvl 35 Monk
Ezzqar Lvl 11 Mage


Live Well, Die Spectacually!!!!!

Hehe, the bard get's blamed for more than his due

I nearly never use an ae spell that affects mobs in a raid. pbbbbt!

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70 Bard, at your service
Elder, Wayfarer of Veeshan

Also, , , Irodanise (52 Pal), Irodanes (31 Rog), Iroardanis (19 BL), Sinadori (25 SK), Dreminal (32 Dru)

Baaah Iro I've busted you a few times for AE's you forgot about Sides bards make easy targets

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Ggnarl Lvl 54 Enchanter
Dnarl Lvl 35 Monk
Ezzqar Lvl 11 Mage


Live Well, Die Spectacually!!!!!