Hmmmm... I really have to disagree with just about everything you said. Not that you don't have decent reasons. I just think you are overcomplicating things. It might even just be that your use of the terms is a bit different then mine.
I'll say it again: MA stands for "main assist". He's the guy who is going to tell the rest of the group what mob to attack and when to attack it. It does not matter if the MA happens to also be the puller or not. However, it *always* works best if the MA is also the MT. The only reason to have the MA not also be the MT is if for some reason the MT simply can't handle the job (ie: the player is too inexperienced to know how to do it properly).
Latriss wrote:
As far as a CC toon is concerned -- Who is MT is meaningless. I dont care who has aggro and I dont care whose hps are dropping (Clerics/healers --- you worry, Most mobs proc "LOADING PLS WAIT" to an enchanter). I only care about which of the 5 mobs coming back at the group is the primary target. For this reason I insist in ldons that all members of the party target the MA's target (The MA is always the puller).
Ok. You were good right up to the very last bit. Why on earth is the MA always the puller? Yes. I'm aware that you don't care about agro, but everyone else does. If the MT is assisting the puller at the same time as the rest of the group, you are going to get agro ping pong going on for the first half of your fight.
The only way to make this work correctly would be to have the puller(MA in this case) declare the target. Everyone assists, but only the MT attacks. When MT gets good agro (and perhaps after mob is slowed and such), he calls for everyone to attack the mob. At that point everyone attacks. There's a huge problem with this though, and it's what I've been talking about all along. If the rest of your group isn't going to join the attack until the MT says to do so, why not just assist off the MT in the first place? That way you don't ever have the problem where the MA calls a target, the MT attacks, an unmezzable add comes in, the MT switches to the add, then calls for attack, but since everyone assisted off the original pull, they all break mez off the original mob.
It is always best to have the MT be the MA. The puller just pulls. The MA/MT gets his target off the puller, but that's ok. It makes a heck of a lot more sense to have oner person do that and make the targeting call, then rely on 5 people all doing the right thing if a target change is needed. All those other 5 need to know is that when the MA/MT calls for assist, they hit their "/assist MA" button and run up and attack.
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Most often a pally or bard will pull and "hand off" the aggro to a warrior. The warrior is the MT - (Main tank - hes the one doing the dying, at least the rest of the group hopes so). The hand off isnt important for CC. So many times (especially in pickups) the warrior with gadzillion hps says "I'm MT" and everyone assists him even though he doesnt pull and doesnt assist the one who is pulling.
Ok. But if that's the case, wouldn't you as the chanter rather that all the melees were attacking the same target the MT is attacking rather then half the group attacking one target and half attacking the other?
The point is that whether the MT is a complete and utter moron or not, by defintion, whatever mob he's fighting is the mob he's fighting. It's mez will be broken. He will be taking damage from it. Like it or not, his target is the target everyone else should be attacking.
Also. If you are arguing this in a group. You are wrong and the MT is right. 99% of all EQ players know to assist off the guy who's tanking. If you try to argue that they should be assisting off someone else, you are going to cause mss confustion. When I tank, I call for asssists. I don't care what the chanter thinks. It's his job to keep the mobs I don't target mezzed. He may suggest targets, but ultimately, I'm the one initiating all attacks on mobs, so ultimately, I'm the one who everyone needs to be assisting. Attempting to do it any other way will result in problems. I'd suggest that if you get problems with MTs who insist that they be the MA, that you need to let them. Odds are they know exactly what they are doing.
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IMHO the best arrangement in single group situations (NOT RAID) is to have a simple assist the puller strategy and let CC take care of the rest. MT should get the aggro, but as for actually assisting him I'd say outside of good groups with a history of working together (guild or otherwise) thats a hard strategy to make work and not break mezzes. IT IS ESSENTIAL TO ALWAYS HAVE PULLER DESIGNATE NEXT ATTACK TARGET. And one way to guarantee that the enchanter isnt going to have the aggro regardless of taunt is to root a mezzed target just prior to the mez break. That way the warrior (MT) has plenty of time to build aggro even if the taunts arent effective.
Again. Your strategy is actually more complicated and more likely to result in broken mezzes. It doesn't matter who's pulling. The puller should not be attacking the mob. In the case of a "hand off", he wants to generate the minimum amount of agro possible, right? Thus, he's not going to be whacking on the mob all the way along the pull. If he does, you've got an idiot puller. The MT will always be the first character to physically attack the mob (and sustain an attack, bow shots and such don't count). The mob he chooses to attack, right or wrong, is the one that you can't mez. Therefore, it's always going to be the one everyone else should be attacking.
It's not a hard strategy at all to do it my way. Everyone simply assists off the MA when attacking. If the MA is also the MT, this works 10 times better then any other character. I cannot think of a single situation in which it would be simpler and more efficient to use anyone other then the MT as the MA in a group. None. You are welcome to try to come up with one, but I'm betting you can't.
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I have to say that all of the information above is of excellent value, however, as a someone who has to do pickup groups the MA pulls, MT assists MA, group assists MT strategy guarantees a couple of enchanter deaths before everyone works it out.
Then simplify it. Make the MT also be the MA. Then it's really easy: Puller pulls. MT/MA assists puller for target (or selects a different target if needed). MT/MA engages. MT/MA calls assist. Everyone assists MT/MA. Mob dies. Chanter is free to use CC on all other mobs. He never has to worry about any other mob getting hit.
The reason you think it's confusing is because you are insisting on making the puller the MA. Take that bit out of the equation, and it suddenly becomes extremely simple. You, as a CC character do need to deal with the puller and what ever other mobs are there. However, the rest of the group does not. Having the puller be MA is bad for a number of reasons. Often the puller is the last one to know he's got adds and what type of adds. It's extremely common for the puller to get to camp, turn around, and only then see that he pulled a couple extras. Also, it's harder for the puller to target the correct mob. It's hard enough for a chanter to target the right mob out of a crowd of mobs that are clumped together. It's 10 times harder to do that while running and the mobs are beating on you.
The MT, on the other hand, can see the mobs being pulled. He can see that the puller pulled a healer, or a non-mezable mob. He can choose to just use the puller's target, or to target something else instead. That's his job. Sure. That makes his job "harder", but so many people think that tanking is just about standing there and hitting the autoattack button and occasionally mashing taunt. I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but the MT is expected to do target selection as well. That's his job. He determines who's being attacked. Ultimately, he's the one who'll be breaking mezzes when it's time to break mezzes. Thus, he's the logical choice to assist. If you /assist the MT, you will never break a mez. Ever. Any other scheme you come up with that involves someone else calling targets is just introducing another thing that can go wrong into the group.
Um... Speaking of mezzes. What do you expect folks to do about that? Do you have your puller pick the mezzed target to break, then have the MT /assist off him (along with everyone else), then again have a separate message from the MT telling folks when to attack? Again. It makes 100000 times more sense to have the guy who's going to be breaking the mez (the MT) be the one people assist off of for the next target. Do you think we should have *two* assist buttons now? One for pulls and one for mez breaks? That's just dumb. You only need one, and it should always be the MT.
You're literally making it much more complicated then it needs to be. Just have you MT be your MA and everthing becomes really really easy.
Edited, Mon Mar 1 19:04:52 2004 by gbaji