Managing Aggro in Fellowships

This is a blatant ripoff of a post in the LOTRO lore-book, but an excellent way to learn how a fellowship should work. Read on!

Originally posted by Bodha at https://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=55821.

Just thought people should know that the guardian community has several good posts on threat management in case people want a few tips on making their group experience better.

Here are a few of the more common tips/concepts:

1. If you pull aggro from the tank run to him.

2. Let the tank build up a little aggro by getting through his attack chain before dps starts. Why? because thats the padding to prevent you from getting the aggro. Please not tanks will lose aggro even with that padding if they miss several times or get stunned and you keep building up threat on the mob. My personal attack chain is sweeping cut, vexing blow, shield bash/blow, and then guardians ward. I think if most tanks used this attack chain it would let the rest of the fellowship know when to attack. Its easy, watch for when your guardian attacks with his shield. At that point he should have made 3 attacks which all generated a decent amount of threat. If the guardian misses with the first couple of attacks he can forego the shield attack until he is ready. Thus people don't have to watch a chat window.

3. This isnt WoW. The guardian class has no taunt that will instantly get aggro back unlike WoW. This is very important to remember for WoW players. Tanks here generate better aggro over time but b/c of the lack of an instant aggro taunt peels are very difficult to get back.

4. Peels. Peels are mobs which are no longer attack the tank. Typically they run over to the healer or the hunter. If you have a champ in the group and he is doing his aoe melee dps ask him to be the peel chaser. He can simply turn and use his taunting shout to get the mob to come back over. Guardian can then get the mob back.

5. Unless you have a good reason (such as being rooted), stand up close to the melee types but behind the mobs or just outside of melee range. This may sound dumb, but if you take the few moments to this you won't notice the time waiting on the guardian to build aggro and if peels happen the chase is much shorter.

6. Once your guardian is out of power he is out of threat generating ability. That means that hopefully your champ can take over the late fight tanking duties if there are peels. No matter what though don't expect a guardian w/o power to regain aggro. He can't use skills, so its a no go on the taunting.

7. Take the time to read your class skills. Threat appears to be generated on a point to point basis for every point of damage and healing. The exception is when you have things which specifically enhance or reduce your threat generated by skills, auto-attack hits, or heals. Healing generates hate on all nearby mobs. I'm not certain, but I think stunned mobs if near the healer or healed will build hate on your healer. So try to stun mobs fairly far away from where you will fight. This way when they come out of the stun they don't have a bunch of hate for your healer.


CLASS/ROLE SPECIFIC COMMENTS:
HEALERS.. please note that AOE heals generate lots of hate. If you AOE heal would heal 100pts per party member and you have 6 members you will generate 600pts of hate on each nearby mob. Thats a lot. Avoid AOE heals whenever possible. Also please note that the guardians usually don't notice if a ranged mob adds. If that happens usually it goes for you. Please let us know ASAP. Also ask the champion to watch your health b/c they can usually get the add off of you quicker than the guardian. Last thing. If you are trying to heal multiple people, stop. You need to focus on keeping your main tank up and possibly your champ if he is doing some off tanking. Do not make it a habit of healing loremasters or hunters. Tell them kindly that you know that they get hit but if you let the tank(s) drop the group will wipe. If you are in a good group the tank(s) will get the mobs off the hunters, loremasters, or you before anyone gets seriously hurt or defeated.

Hunters, you guys get a bad rap sometimes b/c of your auto attack and stances. Some of this is the rest of us don't understand your class and some of if is b/c many hunters solo and don't take the time to learn threat management techniques. If you could please don't pull or if so use one normal shot and no more. Please stay out of stances which increase your threat. I know there are discussions about this on your forum so please read up and know that when grouping you have a preferred stance that will save power and reduce hate. This will let you live, make the rest of the party like you, and hopefully make you a person they look for when they want a hunter in a group.

Captains. I'm not well versed on your skills or threat issues, so if someone else could post tips here for them I would appreciate it.

Burglars, you guys don't seem to have problems with threat. Keep that up and please don't spam your conjunctions. Save them for when they are needed and you will be much loved. If anyone has any tips for the burglars please share b/c I barely know anything about what they can do beyond stealth and create conjunctions.

Loremasters, let someone else pull and you do a mezz on one of the mobs after they start reacting. Its typically best if you mezz a ranged mob, but if none are present get something else. This is particularly effective in keeping your mezzed mob out of the AOE fest that champs, hunters, and guardians love. If your group is really good and the pull involves 2 ranged mobs, suggest the guardian pull, you mezz a melee and the the group go melee the ranged mobs. This is a little more complicated so be sure to communicate clearly. One more thing. Watch the minstrel and the guardian burn through power. Figure out which will need it and try to anticipate that need before they have to ask. You will be loved for it. I have seen loremasters save a group by the simple fact that they gave the minstrel enough power to keep the heals going. I ran out of power but when the champ started tanking the last mob the minstrel has the heals to keep him up. One last thing keep the bird out when fighting the undead. Many of them do some shadow damage and that bird will save the healer a lot of power healing the tank.

Champions. Guardians love you guys b/c we know we can't survive big pulls for long w/o you killing some of the mobs very quickly. You excel at that and we like you for it. However, please let us get aggro and build up threat before your AOE begins so that the healer doesnt get mad at both of us. Also please realize you are much better than us at getting a peel b/c you have that ranged taunting shout. Use it if something peels out of the melee to go for the healer. Use it if the guardian is about to die. Use it if an add gets on the healer. You are an off tank and need to remember that. I know that when fervour is turned off your dps goes way down and power regen goes way down. That sucks but if you have to tank late in a fight do it. Also consider it a blessing in disguise that your are doing less dps. Usually after a moments rest the guardian will have the power to take aggro back from you. Then you can go back to fervour and dps the mob down. Something else to consider is that guardian keeps you alive, minstrel keeps guardian alive, and you can keep adds off the minstrel. Believe it or not your ability to tank a single mob is practically as good as the guardians and can potentially be better. The guardian is better than you at mitigating damage but it only really shows when he has multiple mobs going for him. Let him keep the mobs and you will both be happy. That said, take the time to learn the skill animations of the guardians. If you learn them you will quickly be able to see how many skills he has used before you begin dps. That will let you be that much better at your task.