Sunday, April 4, 2010

Tank Etiquette

Okay, this is a question to the tanks out there. (I guess that means Souldat, but you never know who else might be reading.) When a monster drops an AoE on the floor -like the Reanimators in Drak or the Maiden of Grief in HoL- is it considered proper etiquette to pull the monster away from the middle of the floor? I've seen in several runs this past week where the tank just lets the monster or boss sit there while they wail away, but I have to split and then watch remotely after unloading my distance attacks. I know Soul will pull them out of the center, and I've seen plenty of other tanks that do it too, but the batch I got this week either don't understand that melee DPS can't stand around in the black stuff on the floor or don't care. Or maybe they have tunnel vision and don't notice, which is something I've been guilty of when I've done healing.

7 comments:

  1. Yes, please move away from voids. Makes life as a healer easier. =P Not that its hard to heal through that stuff now...

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  2. The first time it happened, I thought that maybe the tank didn't notice because of the HP he had (50k). But the next three who did it this past week were in the 30k range; maybe they could handle several seconds of staying in the voids, but I sure couldn't.

    The last time it happened (Gundrak) I was a bit slow in pulling myself out from the green goup and dropped pretty low on HP. I, however, didn't go hollering for the Healer to boost me but used Lay on Hands on myself; it was my own damn fault I stuck around too long.

    That's when I started wondering if there was some unspoken tank code out there ("Thou Shalt Not Keep Thy Enemy in the Middle of the Green Goo") that I could use on some of these tanks.

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  3. In my mind, there are 3 different kinds of players. Those who get tunnel vision and focus solely on what they are doing, the player who is just inexperienced, and the vigilant who are always trying to make the experience pleasant for everyone.

    Ideally, you want to group with the vigilant players who are trying to get the best results and make the experience pleasant for everyone.

    To these vigilant, experienced, and skilled players, its just common sense to move the target out of the goo or void zone so that the death of a player or a complete wipe is avoided.

    I don't know if there is some unspoken code for this type of thing... If there isn't, maybe you can be the one to pioneer this ;)

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  4. For the fight you're referring to, you actually DO want to be in the black stuff for part of the fight. She casts a repentance spell in the Tank, but taking damage removes the effect. If the tank is not standing in the black stuff when she casts it, the tank gets stunned, and the boss goes off to wreak havoc with the rest of your party.

    That being said, I'll move out of the stuff, and back in when I see her casting it, or at the very least position the boss so DPS doesn't have to take damage.

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  5. For the fight you're referring to, you actually DO want to be in the black stuff for part of the fight. She casts a repentance spell in the Tank, but taking damage removes the effect. If the tank is not standing in the black stuff when she casts it, the tank gets stunned, and the boss goes off to wreak havoc with the rest of your party.

    Which makes perfect sense; the tank can get away with that by absorbing the damage. But until last week, most tanks I'd seen in the Maiden of Grief would pull her to one side, allowing the melee DPS a chance to get within melee range. The same thing with the Reanimators in Drak, or the stuff on the floor in The Oculus.

    (I do know that the tank in The Oculus was new, and kept apologizing for it, so I didn't mind so much. That Healer in The Oculus, though... I swear he was baiting that tank and let his Red Drake die twice in the final boss fight.)

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  6. It is surprising how many people do instances these days and don't even know the fights in Northrend on the Normal settings. I was healing a Drak fight and it wasn't the tank standing in the black circles, it was the DPS. After a while watching that kind of stupidity continue, I stop healing them.

    If you don't know the fight.. ASK! I would rather have you be stupid and admit it than be stupid and get everyone killed. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask that gets the group killed.

    But this is how the game has become. People are so use to doing the heroic version and it being easy that when they run an alt through they get complacent and end up getting everyone killed. Drak at 73 is hard, so pay attention and stay out of the circles. lol

    I hope my input was of some use. lol

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  7. If you don't know the fight.. ASK! I would rather have you be stupid and admit it than be stupid and get everyone killed. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask that gets the group killed.

    Amen to that. When I start running my mage alt through instances, I fully intend to ask about them. It's one thing to know an instance when a high level character runs through it with you, and another when you do it soloing as a high level character, but as a correctly leveled character? That's going to be entertaining, to say the least.

    But this is how the game has become. People are so use to doing the heroic version and it being easy that when they run an alt through they get complacent and end up getting everyone killed. Drak at 73 is hard, so pay attention and stay out of the circles. lol

    It's a farming for emblems thing, and I'm as guilty of that as the next person. You get that T9 equipment, or you get emblems to get your alts kitted out with gear, and you forget that the stuff is hard when you're not at 80 and properly geared out.

    Oh, and your comments are always welcome, man. I still learn something everytime I play, and I read your stuff as well as a bunch of other folks' stuff too.

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