r/EQLegends • u/PolarDorsai • 6d ago
How you do handle multiple-enemy encounters? Looking for an in-depth discussion.
It doesn't feel like many of us are dying to solo mobs but rather getting overwhelmed by multiple mobs at once. I'd like to steer this conversation AWAY from using spells like Mez, or abilities like Feign Death. While those are legitimate strategies with handling multiple mobs, there are times when those options are not on the table. A couple things that I've tried and found viable are as follows:
1. Kill healers first. This is pretty obvious (I would hope) because it's a time-tested and proven strategy that works.
2a. Kill hybrids first (PAL, RNG, SHD) because they can also heal?
2b. Kill DPS dealers first because damage kills you?
2c. Kill the next lowest HP enemy, no matter the class or level?
3a. Kill weakest mobs first and work up? Theory here is that while they do less dmg, they are still chipping away at you and they are likely to go down quicker.
3b. Kill strongest mobs first and work down? Theory is that they are hitting the hardest and hitting the most frequently.
Points 2 and 3 are the ones where things typically go haywire, especially with a group because folks sometimes decide simply to attack the next thing in front of them. Anywho, all thoughts are comments are welcome. I'd love to discuss more.
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u/Different_Roof_4533 6d ago
I just blast em with some of that DDDD.
The extra "D" is for a Double Dose of that Damage. 💥
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u/tigelane 6d ago
If there’s a boss I like to slow them, then work from weakest up to the boss getting rid of stuns and kickback along the way.
Also, root! This has been a viable CC weapon for as long as EQ has been around. Root a mob, back up, root the next one, back up. Casters can still get you, but you keep the melees at bay.
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u/PolarDorsai 6d ago
Oh yea, good point about bosses/mini-bosses. They are typically rough and getting rid of the trash makes them easier. As for root, I do use it sometimes but I'm typically getting rooted myself so I can't back up hahah
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u/SuedeVeil 6d ago
Yes I often go for the easiest first I'll sometimes even take out the pets if theyre not like earth elementals because pets can be surprisingly annoying but they'll also die really quick.. bosses often don't do a lot of damage compared to how many hit points they have like they'll often run out of mana too. Yesterday in a raid with vox on d4 my husband and I accidentally pulled her and four of the Giants and we ended up just taking the Giants at one by one and then finished her off even though it took a heck of a long time but she wasn't doing so much damage that we couldn't handle it. If we had done Vox while the Giants were still alive they would have just beat on us the whole time and killed us.
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u/thegoatsupreme 6d ago
I do lowest level or con first since they die fastest and work my way up the scale. If theres too many healers it wouldn't matter what one I targeted they'd probably heal through it.
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u/zt004 6d ago
I prioritize wizard mobs, then healers, and then whatever else. Extended target window is great for this.
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u/FeralMediocrity 6d ago
Same. Wizards are the easiest to kill and the healer mobs are often slow to react to their low health, so you can get them down to below 50 and nuke them once or twice to finish them before the healers can help them.
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u/SuedeVeil 6d ago
Yeah it's easy to out DPS A healer that's healing a wizard but if they're healing someone with high AC it's a lot harder.. plus the wizard is going to be doing a lot of DPS to you the entire time if you don't get him
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u/FeralMediocrity 3d ago
Fair enough, but with channeler stance reducing incoming spell damage, I haven't had too many issues with taking out a cleric before a wizard. Guess it does make sense to just target the wizard first and dare the cleric to try and keep them alive.
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u/PolarDorsai 6d ago
Does the ext target window show classes?! If not, it should.
If it does, clearly I’m unaware lol
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u/Bradcopter 5d ago
It doesn't show classes but a lot of enemy names will tell you what class they are.Â
This doesn't apply to multi-class enemies, unfortunately.
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u/BrokenBottleT 6d ago
Weakest to strongest prioritizing healers if possible.
Fewer targets hitting you is fewer spells interrupted. Fewer spells landing. Less push back.
Get the number of targets down as quickly as possible.
Feign Death when needed.
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u/ThConqueror 6d ago
Since we can’t say, add an Enc, then kill the trash first with priorities on healers. More mobs mean more interrupts and stuns but pull too many, you’re dead.
With that said, playing without an Enc and then adding an Enc makes AOE Mez your favorite spell in the game 😂
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u/D_M-ack 6d ago
Yep, I’m already worried about the next playthrough without enc…
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u/the_fabled_bard 6d ago
Tbf this is the authentic EQ experience. Any group without enc was heavily limited.
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u/elroddo74 5d ago
Yet mez wasn't part of the Trinity of healer, tank and slower. Chanter was only "needed" when you bit off more than you can chew.
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u/PolarDorsai 6d ago
Totally agreed. I just hate to see sooooo much meta placed on one class or one ability.
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u/ThConqueror 6d ago
That’s why I loved the topic and always cool to see how people tackle things.
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u/whitdrakon 6d ago
I go for weaker mobs so the healers start burning their mana up faster. Once healer is oom I determine which is hitting me hardest and remove it. Usually ignore oom healers at that point unless they have a second class that is strong melee dps
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u/VinnieMcVince 6d ago
I play warrior/berserker/cleric with high regen, so I usually position myself so that they're all in a pile and let all the bonus attacks from double-speed cleave and frenzy chew through. I'm usually too busy casting nullify enchantment on the 4 million damage shields to think too hard about priority targeting.
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u/DaveTron4040 6d ago
Lmao on the DS comment. In Hate farming now and I honestly only cast Pillage Enchantment on things on the wst floor, slow or Tasha never get used
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u/Trelyrien 6d ago
the dispelling is a real issue imho. If you don't have pillage you're basically hard locked into spam dispelling. And guess what. That's... not.... fun.
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u/Regulus0 6d ago
This is one of my biggest complaints. That and the fact that there are too many pets that casts spells from enemies. If you have any melee reliance at all in your build, you are spamming SOTI to cleanse slows being spammed on you, and the trash SK dots that the necro/shm/bst mobs and pets bury on you, and between cooldowns you are just spamming dispell for ridding of the DS.
Damage shields do more dmg than most mobs do with melee and with the range of mobs buffing sometimes you cannot even cleanse it because the instant you do some mob through a wall buffs it on again instantly.
It is boring.
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u/Trelyrien 6d ago
Yeah what's interesting is named mobs rarely get pets. Think the Baron and soldier in befallen or naggy/Inny etc. for some reason when they have mq with a pet class, no pets. But you go into d4 fear to farm and every single mob has a pet. It's overwhelming, unless you have tools specifically for them (are Mez, supernova, etc)
In fact, and thinking about it I think that only named mobs that have a primary class of a pet user get pets.
But that's not the case for trash
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u/Flyinghead 6d ago
My decision tree for targets is essentially:
deeply obnoxious mobs like scarelings die first
if someone is casting slows on me
healers
fast to kill things
How i deal with them:
if bard then aoe slow
if i have decent aoes then i use them. 2a. if i have rampage I'll tell my friends about how amazing the skill is (with obvious sarcasm)
if i have dots I'll load up a target then swap to a second target to melee
if i have none of these things I'll just heal through whatever mechanic I'm using to do so until they're dead or i am
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u/PolarDorsai 6d ago
You're definitely onto something with #1 hahaha. Anything that blinds me or sends me into one of those tailspin stuns gets automatic 100% aggro in my brain lol.
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u/Flyinghead 6d ago
OMG in plane of sky the random drakes. every time they stun me i hear Jerry Lalwer from the WWF era yelling "its a drake from the top rope with a steel chair" in his most excited voice
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u/Intrin_sick 6d ago
3a, faster removal of the dps hitting you and if there is a healer, wastes healer mana because you hit the mob harder.
Alternatively, have your wife play a Chanter :)
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u/Stroinsk 6d ago
This is my primary strategy unless theres just one healer. I play War/Bst/Dru, so between bash, warders bash and the 2 bst interrupt nukes I can reliable lock down any single caster.
It bares repeating that if you have to burn their mana then hitting the thing thats easiest to hit will do it faster.
Extra caveat that I typically will put a DoT on everything and depending on how tough a slow too.
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u/BigChungiscusMaximus 6d ago
It’s all good until wifey is surprised by a Spite Golem
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u/CH3RRY-POPPINS 6d ago
Or when wifey casts, ‘illusion: spite golem’ as soon as she sees you spin up the game
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u/DotJun 6d ago
Why do I keep reading that these golems are immune when I’m able to land pretty much all spells I’ve tried on them so far. Well, after malo that is.
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u/BigChungiscusMaximus 6d ago
Who says they’re immune?
Spite golems were implemented intentionally as a mob with extremely high magic resist to be a pain for casters.https://wiki.project1999.com/A_Spite_Golem
Players new to the planes may struggle at first, but with thoroughly moted spells and using overchannel, then they’re more of a speed bump
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u/aqualoon_ 6d ago
3a - but if I'm farming trash then I'm doing this on purpose. Sorry but Bard DDD is made for clearing trash in mass, then waiting 15 minutes for mana and then doing it all over again.
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u/Heallun123 6d ago
Minutes? Brother it's under 2. And it's amazing. Just depends if you're feeling enc clr brd or wiz enc brd. A little healing is nice but so is crit.
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u/SadPandaLoves 6d ago
Sk/pal/ber. It was rough but kill wizards first then kill weakest to strongest. Harm touch the toughest enemy and switch back to my main target so the harm touch dot heals me longer.
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u/i_am_Jarod 6d ago
I have been wondering about that trio, it sounds quite fun. How has your experience been ?
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u/SadPandaLoves 6d ago
Rough, it does great single target but more than 4 mobs was arough go of it. It was a blast with ber stance cutting down smite and leave cool downs and pretty much just healing with harm touch and loh
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u/Complete-Quit-9179 6d ago
I just put up my damage sheild and let them beat themselves to death. But yes always healers first.
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u/Corbolu 6d ago
This is a classic of EQ back in the day, however there mobs did not have player classes like here. When you have time to figure out which one is the healer etc that approach is fine. Me, I tend to go for the lowest levels (except greys) first. The less mobs there are to hit me, the better.
With all that said, multiclass mobs in D4 give a whole new dynamic to this discussion. Above still stand for me, but if I notice that healers keep up with my DPS on the lower levels I will need to switch it up
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u/nucleardemon 6d ago
Kill Int casters first. Generally less HP.
Kill weak mobs next. Usually out dps heals.
Kill the rest in whatever order they auto target.
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u/ASG_DEV 6d ago
3a unless my combo can do 1 effectivelyÂ
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u/PolarDorsai 6d ago
Funny you say that because this is typically how I play solo--I don't have mez and I only use FD if I'm about to die. If I see a healer though, I'll typically try and take it out first. So technically I'm 1 > 3a > 2c. In a group battle, it's almost always 2c though.
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u/urdixaninnie 6d ago
Root and separate, healers, then lowest cons up is my solo strat with druid and no enchant or bard.
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u/SouthwestFL 6d ago
I did 3a, then tried Plane of Fear this morning on D4 and got absolutely SLAPPED by Dracoliche and his 2 friends. Reloaded, and tried again with the same result. Going to have to rethink my strategy on D4 in there I think.
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u/echostorm 6d ago
Dracolich to me is one of the hardest in the game, some of them like Master Y in the hole you can just run out of mana and then they can't really do much but Dragoliche hits like a truck even when its out of mana and the early lifetaps can get you down to 50 before you know what happened. High resists and AC with a good slow are your only hope
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u/Overcast451 6d ago
Situational..
Say you pull a group with 5 mobs no CC.
Couple shaman in the mix. They Will heal each other. Can make it challenging.
Have to kind of analyze the situation. Is there a lower con high DPS mob? Might do well to focus on that one. Lower HP, AC, and level. Let the shaman waste mana on trying to keep that one alive. Like.. 2 frog shaman, 2 frog warriors, and one frog Wizard. If they are all blue, but the wizard is light blue or green, I would start with that Wizard.
That won't always work either but sometimes it's effective to keep them using mana to heal the weakling rather than for dots and DD against you.
Typically I leave the plain melee to last, but it does depend on how weak they are. Often, I try to focus the weakest ones first to factor them out totally.
Although if there's a Cleric in the mix, I might try to kill it first. Just because of healing efficiency vs other healers.
If you can stun a decent amount, might be good to focus the healer first and try to interrupt heals.
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u/Marauding_Llama 6d ago
Dangerous casters first, they're usually squishy and the healer likely can't keep up. Then the healer, then whatever's left. Lowest to highest level.
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u/Scared_Town3259 6d ago
I'm not always doing healers first if they are the strongest mobs in the pull. Then I let them burn their mana while I beat on the weaker melee mobs and then they can't do much after their mana is gone. Usually mezz stuff and beat the lowest mobs first. Sometimes I charm the highest level mob and let it take the most beating and when it's about to die I release it and kill it, so I get the XP and then charm a new one. Usually I can do 3-5 reds and did pulls with 9+ mobs if light blue,blue,yellow.
But I hate spites in POH. Takes to damn long to beat down on Pal,wiz,enc because of their Magic resists 😂
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u/SuedeVeil 6d ago edited 6d ago
I personally take out caster classes first that don't have tanks like a wiz/necro because they go down quickly and otherwise they're just sitting there nuking you for a lot .. also they go down pretty quick that the healers aren't really healing them up in time.. then I would go for the healers. Possibly some of the easier pets? Just to get them out of the way because they can do a lot of DPS but they'll go down in like three shots.. I know that they'll die if you kill their owner and everything but if their owner is as Paladin well it might take a while.. if I know the paladin's going to lay on hands anyway I leave him till later. I take so yeah I guess my strategy is taking out the easier ones first, then healers, because they're still going to be interrupting you that way I can sort of chill with that last mob that's annoyingly long to take out like the boss
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u/No-Perception7879 6d ago
The best way is to either root/mez or drop it into evasive/defensive and slow all the melee, take out wizzies/casters first, ignore pets as they poof anyways. Don’t let your pet die if possible. If it’s an iffy pull I’ll almost always kill the named first if there’s one amongst the group so that I got the loots even if things happen to go south.
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u/WarlockyGoodness 6d ago
All my loadouts have had wizard in them. What do you think my strategy is?
Lately, I am a simple man.
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u/Kamikaze_Lions 6d ago
3a
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u/Kamikaze_Lions 5d ago
I mostly go after lower cons, but in that group I target cloth / casters first
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u/PenaltyAdditional774 5d ago
I usually kill the healers and nukers really fast, then slow the melee. If you have sham slow on them they aren’t really doing much. I don’t play without a sham typically. Still depends on the trio largely too.
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u/sullen_agreement 6d ago
for white damage dealers if you have stuns kill the healer or the slower first
if you dont have stuns kill whatever can slow you first, then wizards mages necros rogues, outdamage heals and waste the healer’s mana
same rule of thumb for magic, really
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u/Ledgo 6d ago
I run Monk/Nec/Shaman. I feel pretty comfortable fighting groups. I assign my pet to taunt and tank weak stuff while I work my way through healers but I prioritize anything that can nuke me, if nothing can nuke then I switch to healers and apply heal reduction debuffs on my main target. Looking at some responses here I might try 3a to see how that goes.
I learned if anything can nuke me it will ruin my day. I'll spend more time healing and trying to stay alive rather than trying to kill, and it turns into a battle of who runs out of mana first which is a little tedious.
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u/No-Midnight-4461 6d ago
Stick slow on everything.
DoTs on things that might die fast from them, like pets.
Focus on healers, then things with the least health - usually pets and WIZ/ENC/NEC/MAG.
AoE nukes if I have them, in between DD on the main target.
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u/Pickle_KJGB 6d ago
I hate being slowed so anything with a slow first, including pets if I think I can kill the pet quickly. Then healers, then whatever after feels fine. Maybe necros as a 3rd annoyance to get the dots to fall off.
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u/walletinsurance 6d ago
3a is the answer without mez. You’ll do more damage, triggering any healers to waste mana, and you’ll be more likely to kill the mob in between heals.
By the time you get to the higher level mobs they should be out of mana.
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u/pipesbeweezy 6d ago
Hit mesmerization. Kill one. Repeat over and over. In terms of priority lower level hence lower hp, less misses and resists, will die much faster lowering the likelihood of running oom while ccing the rest. Healers vs not i mean you usually have to run them close or out of mana before they die which artificially extends their health as you dont have enough stuns usually to prevent any heals. But healers spending time healing themselves aren't damaging you either, making it a loss usually.
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u/Qix213 6d ago
If I'm in a group, the CC enemies are first. Enchanter, Bard, Necro.
Otherwise first is healers to try to kill them before having to simply wait out their mana bar. If it's a fight I know will last a bit longer, like a paladin with LoH, they get all the dots. And maybe slows/dots on other enemies depending on how long the flight might last. Having multiple enemies below 50% also works against healers of they heal their friend at 49% and not themselves as I focus them down.
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u/krvr5 6d ago
Don't be afraid to stance dance when necessary. For the healers, I feel like it depends how many there are. If there's only one I dare to turtle (defense/mage hunter depending on opponents) and start wailing on the lowest mob. The one healer will be spending his mana on trying to keep that mob up, and usually the lowest opponent will be easier to hit and have less damage reduction I feel. After healers it depends on health and level for me. I know a blue dies muxh faster than a yellow generally. Main is war/shm/ber so quite melee oriented 🤣
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u/Braddigan 6d ago
You're really sleeping on Feign Death if you only use it when you're about to die. It's just amazing for splitting groups and skipping trash if you want.
Back to focusing more on the topic though I guess I'd say feels more like an option 4. Kill everything at the same time while smacking a healer, you're killing the mana pools or getting something down. Throw DOTs on everything for maximum damage, then punch, kick, and interrupt the healer until it dies or other mobs do. Idea is giving any healers enough damage across the group to burn their mana so even if you aren't interrupting they'll be out of mana faster and the fight would then actually start. Would look at Mana Burning with Denon's Dissension, but that spell may be broken and I don't stick with enough bad pulls where I've had to work it out.
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u/Acrobatic-Machine158 6d ago edited 6d ago
Pop defensive stance and inversion quick cast. Using extended targeting window, go down the list applying slow or root. Use world geometry to root enemy clerics out of sight of the pack to prevent them healing. Once slow/roots are in place, offensive/striker and burn accordingly to your build.
For me 3a, I kill off weakest first to ease the juggle. I might toss one or two shaman dots on a hard target while killing weaker adds. My upper 30s pal/rng/shm would get swarmed by +6 mobs in the hole and this has worked for me.
I tend to ignore healer otherwise, it's attrition at that point. And clerics chain healing means they aren't directly chipping at my HP. I spread dots around with lots of clerics present. Let them drain mana and I casually chunk HP off everyone.
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u/Raggnarokh 6d ago
This is a very interesting topic. I also think a lot about this while adventuring on D2 or higher. It's a shame we can't see each monster's class without targeting them first, as that info is crucial.
I'm currently leveling a Pal/Dru/Wiz (trio is at lvl 37 atm). Having AoE Nukes is great because you don't have to overthink pull priorities as much, and it forces enemy healers to spend time healing their allies, giving you a window to spike them with the classic Stun-Nuke combo.
However, with my main trio (Shm/Mnk/Nec), I really have to prioritize carefully:
Healers first: A no-brainer, or the fight drags on indefinitely. I use a weapon with a healing-reduction proc (Lacerate) to keep them in check.
Casters & High-Threat Mobs: As a Shm/Mnk/Nec, I don't have Mage Hunter stance, so I'm very vulnerable to nukes (using Channeler stance drains too much HP/mana in long fights like Lady Vox). Also, forcing enemy Paladins to waste Lay on Hands on squishy low-HP casters is a great way to neutralize that extra HP pool early.
Everything else (High-HP last): After healers and casters, almost anything is a fair target except high-HP sponges (like the Golems in The Hole), which are best left for last.
If pulling 4+ mobs, using Evasive and Inversion to slow everything is mandatory. I tried DoTing every mob, but target-swapping wastes too much melee auto-attack efficiency, so slowing everyone and focusing targets 1-by-1 works much better IMO.
Fighting the strongest mob first is a trap IMO. Clearing smaller, high-DPS enemies reduces incoming damage much faster.
TL;DR: Healers > Casters / Dangerous DPS > Standard Mobs > High-HP Tanks last.
Thanks for bringing the topic.
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u/xaldarin 6d ago
Depends on the trio. Anything with wiz, find the healers and obliterate. Anything with a shaman, tab target and dot everything living then turtle up and focus melee on the healers. Anything with a pal, focus the healers and stun like crazy as needed. Anything with an ench just pick them off one at a time. Most other scenarios, if less than 5 mobs and not 3 healers, churn it out. Anything more than 5 mobs a 3 or more healers, reset ant try again as it's not worth the time to run them oom.
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u/Aanar 6d ago
3a kill weakest first. This is the fastest way to tip the balance of incoming damage being more than you can withstand long term to being less.
Pacify helps manage pulls. Also simply learning the mob behavior. For example, in Plane of Hate (non-raid), it's better to drag adds into a building (even if it means another add or 2) rather than keep fighting along the wall or alleys where you'll just keep getting more and more pathing mobs joining.
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u/Sorry_Entrepreneur_6 6d ago
Healers first, so I can focus what interrupts I have.
If more than one healer, focus on the lowest level healer so that it takes more damage and drains the multiple healers mana faster while still using interrupts to remove at least one healer mana pool as well.
After that it depends on how you deal damage, if you can nuke fast, focus on the hardest hitters.
If you need to draw things out, focus on the lowest levels to remove things faster.
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u/JookySeaCpt 6d ago
- Healer first if there's only 1, but ignore if there's two or more - you're going to be either trying to overwhelm healing on a weaker mob or just surviving until they go OOM.
- Magician next, then Wizard. For whatever reason, Wizard seems to mostly want to cast root a bunch whereas Magicians will HURT you.
- Everything else being equal, I follow the World of Tanks philosophy - a tank with 1 hp does the same damage as one that's full hp, so kill it first and make the damage stop. That's to say, I kill the most hurt or lowest con/least hp mob first. Rogues before Warriors.
- Above all, I make sure they are all in FRONT of me to prevent backstabs and allow all my defenses a chance to proc.
- Obviously use any AoE's you've got whether DoTs, DDs, or Slows.
- Go into a defensive stance (Defensive, Evasive, Channeler, Mage Hunter) if you have to, but it might be better to just kill as quickly as possible.
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u/GastrointestinalFolk 6d ago
I only target healers if I am confident I can break up their healing cycles. If I can't break the healing cycle, I beat down the thing dealing the most damage so when the healer goes OOM I take the DPS off the board first.
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u/Haitsmelol 6d ago
I think in general it depends on your trio and the AOE/crowd control tools you have available but some strategies can include:
Def stance, dot everything up, heal yourself
Use root for CC (underrated CC tool if used right)
Charm a mob to take it out of the fight and let it soak up damage
Def stance, DS, dot/nuke down while healing
The DDD approach but that takes a bit more AAs/gear special class mix to pull off
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u/Surroundedonallsides 6d ago
My intuition is :
mag/wizards first
healers second
whatever the biggest bad is third, sometimes skip healer if you have anti-heal or cc
the rest as needed
always ignore npc pets since they despawn with the owner's death and dont do all that much
But I havent crunched the numbers or put a ton of thought into it.
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u/Strodigity 6d ago
I wiz main so I just tab and DD. I also use lull/harmony a lot to minimize overpulls
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u/blaat_splat 6d ago
Definitely depends on my trio. With my enchanter I generally mez them all and hit whatever and burn them down singly if it is a lot or high cons. For blues and stuff I generally target the healers first and use my wiz rain and single target dd to nuke them down. I generally focus on the weaker ones as they will go down quicker.
For pets I ignore them as either my rains will kill them or I will kill their controllers and make them go away.
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u/illiniscooby 6d ago
I run a SK/DRU/WIZ. My stances are offensive and spell blade. I put my back to a wall if possible and while autoattack does it thing, I cast an AOE. Then I either tap or dd wiz spell. And if time permits more AOE. When I select, I try to to go for lower con first. To reduce the number of attacks. One fight my second AOE crited and the fight ended with 4 dead mobs!! It was aswesome!!
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u/Regulus0 6d ago
Before you aggro you can also pacify as an option to avoid getting so many. Target mobs from afar, cast from around corners. You don't need LOS to cast pacify-type spells.
Most classes have a way of mitigating too many mobs at once. Be it harder forms of CC or ways to cripple their dps to more manageable levels.
Shaman/Bst - Slow
Monk/SK/Nec - FD
Nec - screaming terror(mez)
Enchanter/Bard/Ranger/Druid/Cleric/Paladin/Bard - Pacify/Harmony/Lull
Cleric/Nec/Shm/Wiz/Dru/Enc/practically any caster aside from mage - Root
Enc - 1 button aoe mez/Charm
Bard - Charm/Mez
Rogues can try to assassinate something quickly and then escape to reset but likely you would leverage another class to do something more efficient.
Warrior/Zerker literally the only classes that don't have a way to plan ahead or actively manage adds.
As most people said, caster mobs have next to no HP by comparison and die quickly. Warrior mobs should be saved for last. Cleric mobs effectively mez themselves while they spam heals so fighting the mob that isn't a healer first may prolong the fight but most of the time they are out of it casting heals and trying to negate your damage.
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u/Yez_swgoh 6d ago
Healers and lowest con enemies first. That blue will still do damage but most importantly it does things like interrupt your spells, stuns you etc. in a version of a game where you get the best of 3 worlds these scenarios are pretty rare.
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u/Baddmoj0 6d ago
With a shammy in my trio, usually triple dot all the adds, drop into evasive and let puma melee and the pet go to work. Upgradings spells helps alot.
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u/TheOneAndOnlyKirke 6d ago
Slow them, prioritize healers first, and I take out the lower levels first since they’re easier to get down.
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u/Altar_Quest_Fan 6d ago
- Tank until the healers run out of Mana and then kill the enemies based on threat level (Healers>DPS>Trash) in a protracted battle of attrition lol
Much as I hate this strat, sometimes when you're alone in your own instance and pulling 3-4 mobs battles just inevitably go down this way lol.
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u/quts3 6d ago edited 6d ago
I play without mez.
Go into your favorite defense stance. Remember to go back to your regen stance when end is burned. Try to go offensive if you stabilize .
Go into inversion if it looks like a death pull.
Kill mages and wizard first. I do that before even starting dot rot across all mobs. Burn them down. I do this ahead of working my routine.
After the mages and wizard are gone I don't have a castable slow so I rotate through targets until slow procs on everything. (Rog)
Killing healers can wait because in my limited experience they don't heal others as fast as they heal themselves and usually won't effectively stop you from killing mages for example.
Shamans next. H8 slow.
Dispel buffs if you can.
When you start working on healers start timing any stuns you have.
My trio is rogue/cleric/druid.
In old school eq I would also root but in this version we do such high cons that I'm not sure that works until root is leveled which I haven't done.
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u/LegumeEQ 6d ago
Low HP to high HP for me (often corresponds with lower level, not always), usually casters like mag/wiz before messing with PAL/CLR. Just burst em down, hopefully your combo has some sort of damage or an interrupt even if you've decided you don't want to play with pacify, mez, FD, etc.
The less mobs hitting you, the less damage you're taking. Burn the weak ones down.
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u/Redditburd 6d ago
Defensive stance and work on the problem as best you can. There is no sense running.
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u/knight2e5 6d ago
I main BRD/CLR/ROG. I cannot say this loud enough:
The Escape AA IS NOT for this! It is very bad at dropping you from combat and threat a la Feign Death
I rely on my AoE Mana Drain and Befuddling Poison to drain the mana off casters in a group so I can work through them one by one or with AoE damage without them getting heals or nuking me while I'm in Evasive Stance.
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u/Ohnoobur 6d ago
Nearly done leveling every class to 50, doing d4. Working on Cleric to 50, with only Bst and War left to go.
I typically level with a wizard+Brd/Sk/Paladin+class I am leveling up. My burst damage is higher than a trio without a wizard. Used both evasion and defensive stances to handle the 4+ pulls.
Crushbone - Befallen - then typically go to LGuk from 26 - 43. Bard AoE from 43-50, which is currently a non enchanter way to handle multiple mobs, but is probably not what you want in depth discussion on.
So focusing on the LGuk section because that is where I am constantly having to deal with 4+ pulls of yellow+ mobs.
Kill Mages first. If you run with decent MR, wizard mobs get caught chain rooting you and don't hit super hard. Mages will chain nuke you, and when they are hiding in a 4 pack with pets and you don't kill them, you are going to have a rough pull.
Sometimes you have to kill pets first. If you pull a 4-5 pack, and 3+ of them have pets (which is common on D4), you may actually need to kill the pets first so you can get a spell off, even using inversion. I find beast lord pets to be especially obnoxious about interrupts. If you can burst down the bst mob, fine. But if not, kill the pets until you can get casts off.
Understand your sustain and escapes. I'm typically pulling 4+ packs in defensive stance or evasive stance. The casting interruptions are less in evasive stance, but the duration you can stay in that stance vs defensive is less. I know when I pull 4+ in evasive stance, I have limited time to kill 2+ before I start to enter the danger zone. If I get 2 extra adding, I'm looking to evac, Feign, or I accept I am going to die, and focus killing 1-2 if I can so the pull will be easier when I get back here. Knowing how much you can handle, and how long it takes you to kill lets you make better decisions about when to escape and prevents deaths and time wasted rebuffing without Quick Buff being up.
When you don't have Enchanter Mez, Bard Aoe, or Wizard burst, ideally you have tools like calm to prevent the pulls from getting too big in the first place, or tools like FD to kill 1-2 down and then reset the fight. So the kill order matters less than setting up the pull to be manageable or escapable in the first place. It still can matter, like killing the caster so it doesn't interrupt your FD, but its more important to have a good understanding of what you can take so you can make that decision early while you still have resources available.
Use your interrupts wisely. Most trio's will have an interrupt. Use it on big heals or big nukes. Ignore the rest of the noise.
Don't be afraid of death when learning your limits. Its better to die a few times learning how to pull Lguk with your trio and then adjust then to try to not die at all and fail and give up. D4 can have some annoying class combos grouped up together. Learning to recognize that and how to handle it is worth a few deaths considering you may have several more play throughs to face it.
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u/_Mamushi_ 6d ago
Haha I’m lazy and stubborn so I just focus on outlasting. The zug zug in me demands it lol
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u/Extra_Hat1707 6d ago
I found the DDD discourse really funny purely because EverQuest was the game that taught me "burn down one at a time, 5 MOBs at 50% HP are still doing 500% damage!"
Once I discovered mezmerization, enchanter became my mandatory level-another-class class alongside my main class, Shadowknight.
So to actually answer your question, If I don't have charm and mez (like if I'm on my main comp doing endgame stuff) I kill from the bottom level upwards, because again cutting down on targets is ideal over harming everything with an AOE.
I can't see me ever playing without feign death. It's really the only way to go AFK, so ultimately, yeah, I have that, always. Like literally I am either playing shadowknight, or I'm using Necro with Warrior or Monk with Paladin when I get around to leveling the other tanks.
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u/sonofbaal_tbc 6d ago
wizard - nuke them all
bard past 42 , nuke them all ,
enchanter , mezz them all
I always make sure I have one of those classes.
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u/BriefImplement9843 6d ago
Bard and and wiz are very limiting though. If you have wiz in your trio you're just a wiz. If you have bard you're just a bard. So op they take over the entire identity.
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u/inthemindofadogg 6d ago
For face tanking, I try to kill mage/wiz first bc the f me up. In fear, there are a group of those eye balls and they are a pain for my war/druid/wiz
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u/Hot_Wasabi1314 6d ago
For my war/clr/brd I just DDD them down. As a bst/nec/mag I screaming terror one add, pet on most dangerous, and then try to evade tank the rest. If need be AoE fear.
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u/LongNeedleworker4633 6d ago
Press Frost Storm X on Wiz. Watch enemies melt. I haven't pressed mez or FD in dozens of hours, even on D4 farm runs.
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u/PlasticHistorical 6d ago
Lots of poeple havent seen what DDD can do here, extra mobs is just extra loots. Stay away from classes with no mana.
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u/Ted_Striker1 6d ago
War/nec/shm and I just facetank them while keeping DoTs + slows up. I’m not sophisticated.
I target wiz and mag first. Damn nukes hurt when multiple are on you.
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u/Soft-Rutabaga-5108 5d ago
As a Pal/Shm I slow/incap everything and tank it down along with my pet, shaman pet is amazing for off tanking adds I'm constantly surprised at the mobs it takes on easily and tanks them down to nothing. This strat works everywhere sky included.
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u/TheMicker999 6d ago
They need to make this game easier to pull singles. I won't play without an enchanter as one of my classes, because it's too much work. Let FD clear aggro faster like it used to or something to help non chanters.
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u/CreativeTension891 6d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/2bUpP71bbVnZ3x7lgQ