Thread: Is twisting mobs lowers damage taken by a tank?

Assuming there are no melee dps to annoy, if during a pull a tank runs in small circles, does it lowers damage taken because mob autoattacks have small range and they spend more time chasing him rather than attacking? If so, why not many tanks use it technique, because it should be as effective as having permanent Sentinel up.

No, auto attacks will go off regardless. Alot of newer tanks make the mistake of over reaching when it comes to evading aoe's. Instead of moving just to the right or left slightly then moving back, they tend to clear it by a wide margin or go around the back. It's just a reaction and is usually corrected with a respectful tip or query.

If they respond badly... then theres no helping them.

No, it won't help, auto attacks will still hit. The only reason kiting works at all for ranged classes is because they can still do about 66% of their attack power while moving at full speed.

Not only does it not work, please don't be that guy. I recently had a new player doing that in a group with a monk who knew how to position, and the newb tank refused to stop running tight circles around the mob. After about half the dungeon of this, we had to simply boot him because he was "a tank in every other MMO and this lowers damage".

I think once a mob has aggro that it's always facing you no matter what. I'm basing this on not being able to get positional bonuses despite being on at the rear/flank of a target. Stunning seems to keep them in place. I forget if their channeling animations keep them in place though ( like when they stop attacking put a red danger zone on the floor to signal a big attack)

If you run behind a mob and it's facing the other way, it's still facing you, so it doesn't do anything. Kiting works because the mobs physical attacks can't reach you, but this isn't a smart thing to do as a tank.

Whether or not autoattacks can hit you is based on proximity rather than positioning. Tanks moving and shifting around in a big pull even in the absence of AoE's are probably just repositioning the mobs to keep them clumped up. Mobs, unlike players, have collision with each other. Some of them shove each other around a lot (I'm looking at you, annoying Jagd dolls in A2S wave 7... =.=) and keeping them positioned so none of them are hitting your back or are too far out to the edge to AoE can be kind of a pain in the ass in a big pull. Add a few AoE telegraphs into that and yeah tanks move around a lot. There's absolutely no reason to spin a single mob though, unless you just feel like making that poor monk in your party cry.

Small circles? No. Big circles? No. VERY big straight lines... a tiny bit.

Mob Auto attacks have a fixed range just like everything else, but typically that range is large enough that constant movement during a fight isn't going to effect the incoming dmg (though it might lower your outgoing dmg). If you want to test this out yourself, do a very large pull in an older dungeon. Say, the entire first set of Mobs in the Lost City of Amdapor up to the first locked door. During such a pull (and assuming you do not stop or pause at all), there is a short stint between the first mob you pulled and the next mob in which you won't take auto attack dmg, because you're outside of their range (until they clue in and start chasing you). However, if you do this, you notice that you are still receiving auto attack dmg for quite a while before you outpace the enemy. They have a very good range. The only way to reliably get out of it is to sprint, but then you cant attack at all.

It does the opposite in most cases, since you won't be facing the mob and can't parry/block if you aren't facing the mob. Also, your own auto-attacks won't hit as often as they otherwise would.