Holding Aggro

mrcharlytoo · October 2012

I'm lvl74 and only recently started running as main tank for BH.

Have no problem holding aggro from boss, but it's a different story for the groups of 3-4 mobs. Cooldown on Roar means I can't use that constantly, at best, once every second group.

So currently I run in, Bestial, Frighten, Tangling Mire, Surf impact, sometimes Sunder, Surf Impact, Devour, Frighten, etc.

But one or so of the mobs will run off to attack one of the DDs.

Is there anything I can do to hold the entire group on me? Switch targets and drop Flesh Ream on each of them?

Sakubatou - Sanctuary · October 2012

mrcharlytoo wrote: »

I'm lvl74 and only recently started running as main tank for BH.

Have no problem holding aggro from boss, but it's a different story for the groups of 3-4 mobs. Cooldown on Roar means I can't use that constantly, at best, once every second group.

So currently I run in, Bestial, Frighten, Tangling Mire, Surf impact, sometimes Sunder, Surf Impact, Devour, Frighten, etc.

But one or so of the mobs will run off to attack one of the DDs.

Is there anything I can do to hold the entire group on me? Switch targets and drop Flesh Ream on each of them?

The goal is to do pulls large enough that your roar cools down in between

If you're comfortable with your hp/def then you can stand and use untamed wrath when roar is in cooldown.

Tailor use of tangling mire to your squad. Use of mire when trying to keep aggro off an archer or bm will cause them to get aggro (you increase their damage more than your own). Use of mire to hold aggro off of psys or wizzies is a good idea.

I wouldn't start with Frighten as my first skill. Roar->Surf or Sunder is a good idea then put frighten in during the cooldown. I also will Ream *tab to next mob* Ream *tab to next mob* Ream... Surf whenever it comes off cooldown, and make sure you group the mobs so you can hit them all with surf.

Other than that refine your weapon or stat more into strength for more damage. Remind your squadmates to pls use assist attack, or run with mobs a distance out ahead of them so you can attack a bit before they catch up.

If all else fails then let the dd tank the mobs/die a few times and they'll learn.

mrcharlytoo · October 2012

I don't have 'untamed wrath' yet.

Using tab to select mobs in BH51 is dicy - you sometimes get the ones in the walls, then the squad dies. Happened last night - an archer did it. But I'll use it in BH59.

Does levelling Roar reduce the cooldown? That would be useful.

Sakubatou - Sanctuary · October 2012

mrcharlytoo wrote: »

I don't have 'untamed wrath' yet.

Using tab to select mobs in BH51 is dicy - you sometimes get the ones in the walls, then the squad dies. Happened last night - an archer did it. But I'll use it in BH59.

Does levelling Roar reduce the cooldown? That would be useful.

Tab targets the mob closest to you. So if you have 4 mobs on you then you can tab 3 more times and get the mobs around you. If you do target on the other side of the wall you'll just run towards it. You can either click with your mouse or hit esc esc (untargets everything) tab (starts targeting mobs near you again).

Also, meant to mention if mobs start running away you can stand and Bestial Onslaught them and try to grab aggro back for at least one more attack. This'll give the cleric time to get a heal on the dd.

Leveling roar doesn't decrease the cooldown. It does increase the amount of aggro roar gives (theoretically). Demon roar gives a 100% reflect damage which is nice for adding some aggro on melee mobs. Sage reduces mob magic attack for 10 seconds.

_Mg_Zr - Heavens Tear · October 2012

The most important thing for holding aggro is making sure that the dd's control themselves. Oh another thing as well open with roar because it resets aggro (if you use it halfway through you will reset all the aggro you have generated)
Dont open with frighten, either open with roar,sunder or surf impact. One more thing if you feel confident using it, use armageddon

I always have expel on my genie btw just incase some dd does aggro a mob or a group of mobs. I use expel because it will prevent the dd from dieing (unless its magic mobs lol) and it will seal the dd long enough for you to hopefully grab aggro back.

BloodTyrant - Raging Tide · October 2012

try making a 10 mobs pull, (invoke if needed) bestial rage > sunder > some1 got aggro? if yes use roar, if not keep the aoes like surf impact/arma/slam... basically this is a good aggro keeping combo, when u reach 79 u can get untamed wrath (aoe threat generator skill)

Vindis - Dreamweaver · October 2012

My barb was doing bh51 not 6 months ago.

Pull 5-10 groups of mobs (or however many you are comfortable with and:

Bestial Rage, Invoke, roar, sunder, (solid shield is also a great genie skill to use in place of invoke; as is Tree of protection), frighten if needed, surf, etc etc

Untamed Wrath is a 79 skill that is like a human version of roar. Great for later in the game when you have 3 sparks and can regularly use Arma on pull cycles.

Do as large of a pull as you are comfortable with. Big pulls help you and help make the instance faster. You will not die while invoke is up and Sunder gives additional heals. Just explain to squad you are pulling. And if you have a lot of aoe classes or people that are alts and know each class well they should know to aoe the mobs and kill them all.

Hopefully this is giving enough time for roar to come off cd, if not go for a bigger pull. (I started pulling entire hallways in fb79 with my barb just to keep aggro/limit roar cd)

Conalll - Archosaur · October 2012

There's good advice here so I won't add much to it. Well, nothing except this;

There will be plenty of times where for the basic mobs, it can't be done or it's not cost effecting (in terms of chi or MP) to do it. 51 is pretty much the last dungeon where it's semi-easy to do. At the BH59 stage, the DD's start taking aggro more, and are more able to take care of themselves anyway. Particularly the sins (or BM's if they have Blood Paint).

You will need to use Flesh Ream and Devour a lot more. Forget Frighten altogether in terms of mass mob control. You're better off using the casting time to Ream/Devour other mobs and/or use Surf Impact as it cools down. But again, it's VERY hard to keep aggro of a bunch of mobs. If the DD's won't target your target, then they'll have to accept the fact that whatever they attack they better be able to handle. Personally, I liked to save Roar for times where I needed to get mass aggro NOW! But that's me on that subject. There are a lot of different ways to do it, and there are plenty of good ideas here. Find the ones that work for you.

Also helps to have an ADHD cleric, as most of the good ones are by then.

HrunsPanda - Archosaur · October 2012

Your crowd control skills rely on the incomming chi from bestial rage. Most of your aoe skills cost 2 sparks, so you need a lot of chi. So these aoe skills are mostly for groups of 10+ mobs. (with invoke to stay alive)
With small groups, I just flesh ream each of them once, and then if needed, ream the one that the squad is attacking a bit more. If they dont seem to understand this themselves, you may have to explain your team that they should attack one mob at the time if they want you to keep agro from all mobs. If the DDs are strong enough to handle 1 mob without needing much healing (blood paint) you dont need to bother to keep agro or making them attack the same mob. Your job now is just to make initial contact, make enough agro to save the healer and the DDs can pick their target from you. You can now start saving up chi again.

If the DDs want to do aoe damage to the groups but the groups are not big enough for you to get chi for your 2spark aoe skills, they will have to handle getting agro from the groups. With bloodpaint, seekers and BMs can do quite a good tanking job. If they dont have bloodpaint, they may not be able to tank groups and thus may not be able to use their aoe skills. If you do pull larger groups like said before, the DDs will need to give you a few seconds time to generate enough agro with roar + sunder + surf (+ armageddon, untamed wrath, swell....) before doing lots of aoe damage if they want to avoid getting agro.

As said, roar is an agro-reset button. It is nice to use at the beginning of the battle, but it is also a good option to save it for emergencies. frighten is only good to make some chi really. And sometimes in a really tough bossfight, the damage reduction could be apreciated a bit, but thats usually only significant if the cleric died and you have to tank without healing.

XylolyX - Heavens Tear · October 2012

Well my opinion is the first thing you need to do is educate the DDs. If they don't know how to use assist attack on you, then try explaining it. If they still don't get it...oh well. I used to use Frighten, sunder, and surf impact on any pull of 5+ mobs. Frighten, if you've leveled it at all, gives damage reduction on the mobs, which helps you live longer, it also slows them down a little bit, allowing the DDs to catch up. Sunder aggros everything and give's them a DoT which helps to hold aggro, and it's a nice HP regen bonus too.

I only use roar IF it's an emergency, since it resets aggro not adds to the already established aggro.

Holding Aggro

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