AOC Combat Grouping Tips

Positioning is Everything - This is not a new concept in the MMORPG genre, but it does take a little spin in Age of Conan (AoC). When engaging enemies the tank should be face to face with your foe and everyone else should be at his back. The reason for this is that in AoC when an enemy swings a weapon, everyone (not just the tank) in the path of that weapon is hit. This can in some cases cause your healer a lot of unnecessary work, so by positioning yourself strategically you can minimize the damage and your healer will thank you for it. Keep in mind that if you don't and it comes down to you and the tank needing a heal at the same time, the tank takes priority. Save yourself the dirt nap.

The One Puller Per Group Policy - In each group you will often times have one person that pulls. If you are not that person...DON'T PULL! Anyone from past games can tell you that having more than one person trying to play the groups puller is a recipe for disaster. This will lead to cross pulling, split aggro, and in harder fights a potential group wipe. You may feel that you can solo an enemy and maybe you can, but don't. This will annoy your fellow group members and if your healer is like some of the ones I know you might be counting grains of dirt before you get a heal for doing so. Work with your group. If you want to solo, leave and go do so.

Assisting - One good thing to always practice is assisting your main assist for the group. This will keep you from splitting your damage which will take down enemies much slower. Not assisting also causes aggro division and in some cases can interrupt some of your group mates attempts at crowd control. You should always assist unless told otherwise. In some cases you may be called to offtank an enemy, but unless told to do so make sure you assist.

Know Your Role - There are a few universal constants in the MMORPG world. One of those is that people have certain expectations of a class. Recruiting a healer for example... When a group recruits a healer they will expect them to, well heal. In some rare cases you will run across healers who believe they are dps classes. If you believe yourself to be one of these classes tell your group up front. Chances are they are expecting a healer and not someone that is going to blow their mana on healer nukes. So if you have no intention of being a healer when recruited, state it up front.

Aggro management is the responsibility of the whole group.

Aggro Control - Many people have for a long time been under the mistaken impression that aggro control is the sole responsibility of the tank. This is however not the case. Aggro control is the responsibility of the whole group. They must work together and not against each other. The greatest tank in the world with the highest allowed aggro skills will still lose aggro to a nuke happy caster or an over attacking dps class. There are a few things you can do to aid your tank in maintaining aggro.