So I was in the following situation the other day. My group consisted of a guardian tank, sage healer, gunslinger dps and sentinel dps (me). We had a pull, which had 4 mobs, all the same in strength, but fairly strong, so killing one takes quite a lot of time.

Battle starts, tank goes on one of the mobs, starts tanking him and only him, I CC another one. Since I read that when the mobs are equal in strength then you should focus attacking the same target, I go for the tank's target and so does the gunslinger. When the first heal happens the other two mobs obviously start going after the healer. Healer is starting to take quite a lot of damage, is having difficulties keeping his health up. Tank still is on the same target. So question is what do you do as mdps (or even rdps) in this situation? I kept attacking the tank's target, but when the healer was at around 20% I switched to the other two. The healer didn't like this and kept shouting to attack the same target. So what would you do in this situation, what is the right thing to do?

I know that ideally we should've CCd three of the mobs (we could've done it with this group) and down them one by one, but it didn't happen, so let's concentrate on the current situation.

I find myself a lot in some kind of variant of the above situation. If the mob(s) going after the healer is a weak one, then it is obvious that the dps should attack and down that one(s) immediately. But what if it's not?

Do what the healer says, he is the one who knows if he can handle the add´s or is in need of a DD to help him deal with them.

Healers in this game are not as fragile as they are in other mmo´s.

I've been in a group like yours except as I was a marauder and kept saving the healer because the tank only tanked 1 mob out of 4.... 1 was CCed and the other 2 went for the healer almost killing him so I ended up tanking those 2... as a marauder....

Some tanks just don't know what they're supposed to do.... it's not like it's hard to keep aggro on 3 mobs.

My preference as a healer would be to see the tank handle one or two of the mobs, one to be Cc'ed out of the fight, and the DPS to focus on dealing with the loose mobs as fast as possible - probably on the same one, if there's only one loose. It's a lot easier to focus on who needs healing when it's not you. I don't expect dps to start on the tank's mob(s) until everything else is cleared. On the other hand, in this case the healer was sure he could deal with the problem, so let him. If he drops regularly, he/she will change their mind.

In that situation? I would either stop attacking completely and have words with the tank, or I'd leave the group.

Was the tank guarding the healer? Was the healer in range of the guard?

On the other hand, in this case the healer was sure he could deal with the problem, so let him. If he drops regularly, he/she will change their mind.

 

Well, it didn't seem like he would've been able to deal with the problem, since like I said in my post, his health went down to about 20%. Not sure if he's survived if I didn't aggro the other two mobs.

 

Edit: Maybe I'm wrong on this, getting down to 20% health doesn't necessarily mean he can't handle it, using force mend + bubble could've saved him, but it still didn't feel that way. We also don't know whether he already used these abilities already.

 

Was the tank guarding the healer? Was the healer in range of the guard?

 

I don't remember if the tank was guarding anyone. But if I understand mechanics well, then a guard on the healer would've been almost useless in this situation.

Edited March 25, 2013 by TheDuge

In that situation? I would either stop attacking completely and have words with the tank, or I'd leave the group.

 

Leave the group and wait another 1,5 hours till I manage to get a PUG as dps? No

Get yourself an active guild

Tanks can't generally grab hate on everything. They should be getting as many as they can though. DPS should be killiong stuff from weakest to strongest. In a good setup the healer would not get hit that much. But on my healers I've had the tank that just attacks the strongest mob and ignores everything else. Most groups are pretty good though it's just the rare baddie.

As others above, this was a tanking issue. As a DPS best practice would be target the tank's target , that keeps it simple for the healer.

 

If the DPS are doing that then it should take more than a light slap or an aoe from the tank to get threat from all 4. At last resort mass taunt.

 

In the situation, I'd probably do the same, take threat from one of the mobs and use either short stuns and defensive cool downs to reduce damage taken.

 

Lack of knowledge in tanking is a common issue now, there are some very well geared people via BH comms without even the basics. While levelling this is even worse, I've seen more than a few 'tanks' who don't even have a shield generator.

As a Healer, I sometimes demand the DD to protect me, especially when the situation becomes too critical for me (as a Healer).

 

I have been dying as a healer a few times meanwhile the rest of the group managed to take out the boss without my healing and ressurrect me after that.

Was the tank guarding the healer? Was the healer in range of the guard?

 

Seriously stop with this "guard the healer" nonsense already.

 

Guarding the healer would not help at all in the situation he described.

 

Healing threat is very low to begin with, but healing threat is divided among all the mobs you are in combat with.

Tanks and dps however generate threat only on those mobs they are attacking.

 

If the tank or any dps are hitting the mobs any damaging attacks what so ever, then they are always going to have higher threat than healers. Healer will not need guard to stay below their threat.

 

If there are mobs you are in combat with that nobody is hitting at all, then healing is the only thing that causes threat on them. Those mobs will always attacks the healer and having or not having a guard makes no difference what so ever. Guard would lower the healers threat by 25% but it does not matter if he has 200 threat or just 150 threat, if everybody else has 0 threat, then the healer is still on top of the threat list.

 

Guarding the healer in PvE is almost always almost completely useless thing to do, with only very few rare exceptions.

As a DPS, I always go after a mob that goes for a healer. Bad practice? Maybe. But Tanks lose aggro, it happens and you have to adjust. I can at least kite the mob back to the tank and aggro dump so he can grab aggro again.