Vanguard Team Fighting Guide

Vanguard Team Fighting Guide by Dreadcraf

You got a:  Warrior, Paladin, Sorc, Necro, Ranger, Shaman in TK (Trengel Keep)

OK, so I assume you know the strengths of each class, so…..

The shaman, instead of letting the MT (main tank) pick and get the target, decides not to wait and rushes into a mob.  He draws two accidently, so the tanks run over and try to produce enough hate to draw the mobs, but just then the Ranger opens up with his mega dps volley that draws one of the mobs out.  Afraid of the mob, Ranger Rick decides to Kite the mob in the middle of the dungeon.  This draws in a few more mobs.  It’s at this time the sorc panics and hits his AOE (Area of Effect) attack.  now the party has 10 mobs hacking away at them.  So the necro yells,”pull in on me and ill evac!”.  Now this is a 6 second cast, so the healers need to help those who are getting hacked and the tanks need to pull whatever they can.  Instead the healers take off running with the ranger.  the tanks follow after to rescue them.  The sorc keeps AOEing on the move, puling in more mobs and finally the necro makes it out, alone and confused.

Moral of the story.

Edited from conversation below from Alanni:
1) Communication.  Communication is key.

2) There needs to be one designated leader and it is generally a good idea for that leader to be the puller.

3) No body but the puller should be aggroing mobs.

4) DPS folk need to wait a few seconds to allow the tank time to get aggro.  Best is when the tank is the only one on the mob and tells folk when to join the attack.  But if you just cannot wait to get your 2 coppers in, at least start off with smaller damage attacks.  No nukes until the middle or end of the fight.

5) No heavy damage attacks until the middle or end of the fight.

6) Healers do attack in Vanguard but they need to make sure their obligation to keep the tank and rest of the party vertical and fighting is their number one priority.  Healers should communicate regarding who is primarily responsible for healing or who is healing which party members.  If there are two healers, it is nice to have one primarily healing the tank and the other watching out for the rest of the party with spot heals to the tank if needed.

7) Everyone, watch your posterior!  I don’t know how many times adds are drawn into the fight cause someone gets their rear too close to them while paying attention to the fight.

8  ) DPSers DO NOT KITE!  KITING IS BAD!  Unless there is a specific tactical advantage and it is clearly spelled out and understood beforehand, that is.  Nothing makes a tank madder than blowing a rescue on a dpser who has just run out of range.  If you draw aggro and you are away from the tank, run to the tank.  The tank cannot get the mob off of you if it is outside of melee/taunt/rescue range.  Same rule applies to AOE’s.  There are times and situations where the AOE is a useful tactical tool.  But that should be something worked out beforehand so the crowd control, tanks, etc. know it’s coming.  Otherwise, NO AOEs!

9) DO NOT BREAK MEZ!  This is the cardinal rule of groups with crowd control.  If someone has announced that a mob is sleeping, mezzed or any number of amusing ways to tell you that it is locked down, DO NOT BREAK MEZ!  This is where DOTs and AOEs can cause huge amounts of grief.

10) If you are main tank, make sure you are in defensive stance and TAUNT!  If you are off tank, announce your target so no one tries to take it from you.  If you are a tank class who happens to be dpsing in that group, turn off your taunts and go into offensive stance.  But if you are not the tank, remember that the tank has strategies and tools to build hate, but with the exception of the now very limited rescue, the tank has no instant aggro button.  Controling aggro is a group effort and every member of the group must work to keep aggro where it belongs, on the tank.
Some useful group commands / macros:

1)  /target [MT Name]
2)  /assist – if you have the puller or main tank targeted, this will target their target for you.  Nukers should /assist the MT not the puller to give the MT a chance to establish hate
3)  Healers can add `/group healing %td` (is it td) to the beginning of their heals so everbody knows who is being healed.
4)  Evacs should have the line `/group evac in 6 seconds, please get close to me`, added to the spell macro.

Class Roles (In Progress, post below to add additional info):

Class                               Primary Role                               Secondary Role
Warrior                           Tank                                             Puller
Paladin                           Tank                                             Puller, Healer
Dread Knight                  Tank                                             Puller
Ranger                            Ranged DPS                                  Puller, DPS
Rogue                             DPS, Puller(Mez)                                  Scout
Bard                                DPS                                             Buff (song)
Monk                               DPS
Cleric                              Healer                                           Tank, Buffs
Disciple                           Healer                                           DPS
Blood Mage                     Healer                                           DPS
Shaman                          Healer                                           Buffs, DPS, Pet
Necromancer                   DOTs, Pet, DPS                             Buffs, Puller(Mez), Evac
Psionicist                         Puller(Mez), Crowd                       DPS, Buffs
Sorc                                 DPS,  AOE DPS                              Buffs, Evac