How to keep healer from stealing aggro?

I just dinged L30 last night on GLA. It seems that every dungeon I run, there are several encounters where the healer pulls aggro (usually when there are three mobs).

I mark the targets and use Shield Lob as I run in. When I get to the mobs, I use Flash. I then use RoH combo on the current mob, with a Flash after every RoH. While I'm doing this, I lose aggro on one of the others, which makes a mad dash for the healer.

Should I break up the RoH combo so that each individual attack hits a different target?

If the healer is spamming heals or over healing then they will attract the attention of the mobs. The healer needs to not develop OCD at keeping the tank at 100% but allow them to drop just a little so that when they heal they do not "waste" any healing as that is like a red flag to a bull as far as aggro is concerned.

If the healer does get aggro then they must not panic and run! Just stay calm and stay put to allow the tank to regain the aggro. If needed use fluid aura to knock back a mob and repose another.

The healer (as well as all others) need to keep an eye on the aggro meter - not just the tank.

I'm sure there are significantly more accomplished tanks that can address this, but you might also find it helpful after your initial Fast Blade/Savage Blade/Rage of Halone on the primary target to hit your secondary targets with some of these enmity increasing skills in combo as well, in addition to Flash, Shield Lob, and Provoke when necessary.

Also, as the Olyvar mentions, it is in part the healer's responsibility to also keep their enmity in check. It's really a balancing act in a party, and even though it's largely on the tank to maintain control, they can't do it without the help of the healer and dps.

To answer the OP's question, yes, you'll probably have to either use multiple flashes in a row or break up your combo between the different enemies to maintain a high enough threat level on each one. Assuming you have good gear, mitigate damage via cooldowns and the healer isn't overhealing, then a few attacks here and there should be sufficient after the initial pull to maintain aggro. But not every healer will be careful so you may have to fight some of them.

Also keep in mind that a well placed Sleep can often do wonders if the party isn't using AoE on the enemies. It speeds up the killing of the other enemies and nullifies the threat issue for 30+15 seconds. Very useful indeed.

Too many lower level healers overuse Medica when tossing a few Cures would do the trick instead. They're just lazy. I can count on one hand the number of times I used Medica prior to doing Brayflox and above. The Cure spell is more than potent enough to top off someone that took incidental damage and is more mana efficient.

I think the easiest way to keep aggro at the lower levels as a tank is not only to mark the mobs in sequence of attack, but flash until you're out of MP, then cycle through each mob with whatever combo you have available, one hit each.

While the other comments are true about how the healer or DPS should do their jobs, making yours as a tank easier, meanwhile, flash and Savage Blade do pretty good when you hit mob 1, mob 2 (savage blade, MP refilling), mob 3, mob 1 (savage blade, mp refilling), flash x2, mob 2, mob 3 (savage blade, mp refilling), etc.

And sometimes when the mob runs off to go say hi to the healer, you can shield lob and flash, then hit that one to keep it in place.

As a good rule of thumb, if you have more than 2 targets, throw in a Flash for good measure at the end of every RoH combo. This is one way of handling this problem. As a tank, another responsibility you have is to make sure your weapon is always updated to the level of the dungeon you are currently doing. Aggro is related directly to damage, so don't expect to be holding much hate in Brayflox's Longstop (L32) using a iL10 weapon for example.

On the healer end, make sure they're not overhealing (healing for more health than you have missing), or spamming Medica/Succor (since that generates 4x or 8x the aggro, depending on what party composition you have).

I saw a tip someone mentioned about Sleeping mobs too. That's a really good option if you have it, as disabled mobs do not get aggro'ed from healing actions. And finally, as a last ditch option, you can also Stun the mob, preventing aggro from building for the duration of the stun.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlrikRouge

I think the easiest way to keep aggro at the lower levels as a tank is not only to mark the mobs in sequence of attack, but flash until you're out of MP, then cycle through each mob with whatever combo you have available, one hit each.

While the other comments are true about how the healer or DPS should do their jobs, making yours as a tank easier, meanwhile, flash and Savage Blade do pretty good when you hit mob 1, mob 2 (savage blade, MP refilling), mob 3, mob 1 (savage blade, mp refilling), flash x2, mob 2, mob 3 (savage blade, mp refilling), etc.

And sometimes when the mob runs off to go say hi to the healer, you can shield lob and flash, then hit that one to keep it in place.

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You do not need to spam Flash until you run out of MP. As you get to a higher level, and DPS starts to do more single target damage, Flash's effectiveness decreases. It's bad practice.

You also have Provoke if a stray mob escapes to the healer. Follow it up immediately with Shield Lob however, since all Provoke does is puts your aggro for that monster to 1 above the aggro of the monster's target - this is easily overtaken by that person making any action, especially healing.

The hardest times to keep aggro on all the mobs are when there's lots of them, and that tends to come up with groups of mobs that are (at least individually) relatively easier than normal for the dungeon level. While a healer may have trouble if getting hit by a boss, they can survive a blow or two from the typical trash mobs that come in groups like that. (After all, they have to be tough enough to survive soloing landscape content.) The bigger issue is that it interrupts their heals. So if you're in urgent need of a lot of healing, then you need to keep all mobs off the healer. If not, then you mainly just need to keep powerful mobs off the healer.

Certainly if a mob breaks away and heads for the healer you want to shield lob it back to you, but some people fret more than is really warranted over the mere fact that its aggro started to shift away even momentarily.

p.s. Yes, this is based on low-level dungeons, but I've already seen the attitude crop up that even a minor mob hitting the healer just once or twice is somehow an issue, and no it really isn't. A boss hitting the healer even once would be an issue. Lots of mobs ganging up on the healer would be an issue. But a minor mob getting a blow or two in before the tank pulls it away - so what.

As a healer I have noted that a few tanks were not switching targets to keep generating enmity with all the mobs, in fact a number were basically pulling and then stuck on one... 1 cure 1 later and I had aggro, luckily most of the tanks responded maturely to my suggestion they switch targets often to ensure all the mobs get a piece of the hate.
Thats why the tank needs to mark the DPS targets, you cant simply target the tanks target as the tank should be switching to other mobs to keep the aggro on all the targets.

Of course you do get healers that will just spam heals and expect the rest of the group to defend them, but at the same time healing is a AoE aggro generator and on random tanks you cant let the HP dip too low , not until you learn the tanks personal ebb and flow of damage taken and healing needed... I have had paper tanks that I can barely keep alive with constant spam and tanks that just dont seem to need healing at all nearly, depends on a lot of factors.

following is my routine for party w/o sleep caster

shield lob @ target 1
flash
stun @ target 1 (if healer is slow at healing)
fast blade & riot blade @ target 1
roh @ target 2
flash
fast blade & riot blade @ target 1
roh @ target 3
fast blade & riot blade @ target 1. (repeat)

most likely target 1 will die very soon at this stage

Tonight I tried cycling thru:
Fast Blade
TAB
Savage Blade
TAB
Rage of Halone
TAB
Flash

Worked like a charm! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lujate

Tonight I tried cycling thru:
Fast Blade
TAB
Savage Blade
TAB
Rage of Halone
TAB
Flash

Worked like a charm! :)

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Yea that's basically what you do, cycle through the enemies. I find it harder to keep aggro on a PLD than a WAR, but generally I find opening with Shield Lob>Flash>Flash>Fast blade combo on #1, then cycle through the targets like you said above, while flashing after every (or every other, depending on how the party is attacking) combo.