Aggro is no longer the issue used to be back in the pre-Wrath days, but still people seems to like stealing aggro from the tank as much as getting loot. So when you're healing a party (specially a PUG party) it drives me mad seeing someone's plate outline flashing in red when they're not the tank and there's no splash damage from the mobs.
There're two classes of aggro-stealing: the pull steal and the overaggro steal when fight is already going on. While the first one tries to be the most common (gogogogo! pull pull! let's do it faster!) the second one is still there, hiding in the shadows, ready to strike when you lower your guard.
So, what class do you fear most when you're healing? You hop on a PUG and when you see that class as dps you start getting cold sweat and the certainity of an unavoidable incoming doom. For me it's the retribution paladin. Traditionally the aggro-stealers were the hunters and the rogues, but both have ways of avoiding aggro, either by feign death/vanish or redirecting it to the tank wit missdirection/tricks of the trade. Other caster classes can lower the aggro: warlock (shoul shatter), shadow priest (fade) or wipe it completely like the mage (ice block, invisibility). But while other classes don't have lowering threat tricks (dps warriors, cats, death knights, etc) the retribution paladins seem to be the perfect aggro magnet. Maybe because holy damage can't be mitigated and when their hits land, they land with full force, but in every party I've healed with at least one retri paladin in it I've always seen how he gets aggro once the fight starts (so it's not pull steal but overaggro steal). Of course I have to watch him more than the tank.
And you? What's your most hated aggro-monkey?
Post soundtrack: Aggressive - Tribuzy
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11 years ago
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Ones I heal a pug with 3 Ret Pallies, and 1 Prot Warrior Tank. And the end of it, tank go Arms, and we finish it without a single Tank and all the plates sharing the aggro. It was a LOT of fun.
ReplyDeleteWarlocks without a shadow (no pun intended) a doubt - all that semi-suicidal self-harm. Followed by rogues, they're so fragile and IN THE MELEE!!! AIEEEE!
ReplyDeleteErknost: Full melee groups are a nightmare, specially if I'm not healing with my druid or shaman (haven't healed with my disc priest for ages), but your combo was maybe the worst possible. Ouch!
ReplyDeleteTam: strange, haven't found any suicidal warlocks lately (mine tries to go suicidal sometimes, but even when I snap aggro I just pop Soul Shatter and all ends well). Agree on rogues, even with their high dodge they seem to eat of lot of damage. If I'm on the pally I usually put Beacon of Light on them instead of another melee.
I am a Holy Pally main spec and Ret second. On the healing side, DK's and Warriors are who i am healing the most (Beacon and Bacon Rock!). I rarely end up with a Ret pally in my groups, on the other hand, when I am DPSing I find myself stealing agro and dying often. I wait 3-5sec on boss fights before I engage, it doesn’t seem to help. I will admit I don’t DPS often so I am trigger happy in that I push my DPS to the limit to see what I can do but I have to agree, I pull agro a lot, even from well geared/skilled tanks. I never bitch when I die, I know it is my fault.
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