Keeping aggro

dillermann · 07-21-2009, 04:31 PM

Hi all.

I recently started playing a bruiser and was wondering what you guys do to keep aggro.

Today i was grouped with a fury and an assasin. I didnt have any problems keeping aggro over the fury, but often the assasin took aggro from me and it was hard to get it back.

I'm currently lvl 32 and with adepts as a minimum, got a few masters too. i'm wielding these blessed fir cudgel :: Items :: EverQuest II at ZAM and
imbued briarwood cudgel :: Items :: EverQuest II at ZAM

When i keep the aggro abilites down it usually goes ok, but then i find myself holding back on dmg abilities to make my power last longer as i often ran out of power long before the assasin and the fury(I have about 1600 power atm).

Would some other weapons help? Better gear with more power? Should i just focus on aggro and let the rest of the group do the damage? Is it possible to hold aggro via dps only too?

Am i doing something completely wrong?
Any thoughts and suggestions are more than welcome.

Thx

Pinski · 07-21-2009, 04:33 PM

Get a Bard and/or Enchanter in your group. Drink Drink, use Out of Combat Power Totems. Other than that, there is nothing you can do to worry about power.

But yes, it is very possible to hold aggro via dps, but you should just hit everything at level 32 and hold aggro and just waste your power, it doesn't take that long to kill mobs and get a mini-ding. But follow the first 2 tips, Bard/Enchanter or Drinks/Power Totems.

Crabbok · 07-21-2009, 04:59 PM

Your taunts aren't going to account for much aggro sadly. There really is only one way to hold aggro and that is DPS. In your 30's, you really just want to spam CAs, as Autoattack doe svery little damage. Upgrade your CAs as often as you can, try to at least get adept 1's if money is short. At a bare minimum, every 10 levels at least get the handcrafted armor of that tier, Mastercrafted if you can afford it.

Watch your hate meter. The little yellow number below your big 100 is the relative hate of the closest person behind you on the hate list. If this number is low, that means you have a clear lead in hate, and maybe , just maybe you can slow down on the CAs if you need to. If the number is high, that means someone is getting close to pulling aggro.

I'd suggest saving Rescue for when your healer gets aggro somehow... typically an assasin can take a few hits and be ok. Also, save Sucker Punch for when a scout pulls aggro, and the mob spins around. Often times, a hard hitting sucker punch can pull it right back.

And if you are not specced the STR line yet, I highly suggest it. The Crushing debuff you get lets your crushing hits deal more damage, (More hate too naturally), and Chi is amazing even at low levels.

Sadari · 07-21-2009, 07:58 PM

You can also ask your DPS friends to learn to manage their aggro better -- even if it means backing off a little bit, waiting a few seconds before starting DPS, or saving some of the 'big hit' abilities until the end of the fight.

At your level, a competent DPS *should* be able to pull aggro from you unless you use your special abilities, especially if the DPS'er starts up before you really get started. It's worse with an assassin; they have some hard-hitting CA's on longer cast timers. If they're dropping those early in the fight and get them recharged before the next pull, they can do great DPS.

Sadari
80 Illusionist

Azraël · 07-21-2009, 10:29 PM

If your assassin opens up the fight with his most deadly attacks and didn't invest into some descent aggro transfer, he's screwed.

foozlesprite · 07-24-2009, 01:38 AM

Also on the power issue...mid 30s is a great time to invest in a Manastone! Best HQ EVAR!!!

I'm biased since my first two mains were priests and I used it all the time even at 80 but it's still nice to have.

lightcloud · 07-24-2009, 10:28 AM

at low level's spam ho's. when i was leveling my alt. i was keeping agro of mentored 80's. start all the fights with a ho.

Crabbok · 07-24-2009, 10:35 AM

I bet you those 80's blew.

lightcloud · 07-24-2009, 02:30 PM

nah. just werent dps. troubs/healers arent amazing arent amazing at stealing agro

Daekan · 07-30-2009, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightcloud

at low level's spam ho's. when i was leveling my alt. i was keeping agro of mentored 80's. start all the fights with a ho.

got to love them ho's

The trick is to let DPS die more often. Eventually, their gear will break, and holding hate won't be an issue at that point. Seriously, though, unless you're grouped with people mentoring from a high level, you shouldn't have too much trouble holding hate. It helps to have people with hate transfer in your group. You shouldn't be surprised to lose aggro once in awhile if your group consists of eager DPS dealers like someone was saying earlier.

If a mentored Lv80 rips hate from you, just let them tank it--chance are that they can't get [that much] hurt than you would.