Pulling the correct next mob pack isn’t that hard in a heroic which is just a tunnel.

I’m leveling a DK tank at the moment and run all the BC 5 mans again before and at level 70. I miss these instances where one wrong pulled group causes a wipe.

I miss “difficult” to pull pats (Blood Furnace, Strat undead), stacked mobs (Mechanar, Botanica, LBRS), mobs with tons of annoying abilities like fear, stun, charge (as long as they don’t stun the aggro lead and switch to the next target) (Mana-Tombs, Shattered Halls, Sethekk Halls). Mobs where you had to do something to survive (The two guardians in front of the doors in heroic slave pens with adequate gear.)

The DK has a talent (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49039) which removes and makes you immune to fear for 10 seconds on a 2 minute timer. My first reaction was “This is great! I need that!”. The guid tells you “This is a PvP talent, in PvE nobody fears.”. And I mentally went through the list of WotLK instances… yeah… there is the raptor…

Tanking is fun.

Walking along a tunnel producing AE threat is just tanking-light.

Same with healing. If your mana doesn’t matter it’s either boring (iLvl 200 heroics) or just SPAM-heal-or-die (all TBC heroics, HoR) which isn’t really funny either.

I’m sitting on 31k unbuffed health, and if I chain pull such that two groups are up at once, I take enough damage that the healer gets a little less bored – which I see as a positive advantage. Also, I get to see if I can out-DPS the DPS.

Thing is, I usually *do* end up top DPS. I’ll be beaten out by someone in mostly 232s, who knows their class – but that’s about it.

And, of course, if the healer takes an unannounced AFK, I’m fine (might have to blow a cooldown if they do it at the start of a pull).

I’ve certainly swapped to my raid tanking gear (the high-avoidance set, of course) and just carried on with the instance sans-healer before.

I wouldn’t voluntarily do every boss that way, but I managed it vs. the final boss of AN+, with no off-healing or cleansing support, and that has to be one of the worse ones.

So… yeah. I out-DPS the DPS, and I don’t need the healer. Guess I feel pretty important. The fact that queue times for tanks are near-zero, and people regularly seek me out to tank for them helps to reinforce that.

So yes, I usually am top DPS – but along the way, I’ve glued every mob going to even rather mediocre tanks – and I’ve avoided both aggro and all the avoidable damage I can.

I know I think of rogues as the *least* squashy melee – just because of all the tools they have to hand (rets would win out – but the number you see bubbling to avoid raid damage is way too small. I guess they just never needed to learn, unlike rogues.)

Not all are any good, of course – but it’s the fault of the players not the class.

I am, I like to think, a pretty good healer with some fancy acheesements and so on to ‘prove’ it [or that I can fake it well enough to get carried] and I used to play a mildy decent Hunter and can fake a days work as a ‘lock….but put me into Elemental spec on my shammy and I apear to me a aggro monkey who gets shouted at by tanks [Sorry] or worse lets well geared tanks drop when the less well geared healer gets swamped [Sorry Spinks!]. And as a tank…well there’s no other way to say this:- I’m just BAD. But I’ll jump into an instance to heal or pew pew with behind the undergeared alts of several tanks I know ‘cos I know they’re that good. Player>Character gear

I’ve played a healer and dps well enough to have guildmates REALLY want me along on 5 mans and raids. Despite that, and a lot of nice comments, I know my real value by the amount of failures I’ve had in pugs. I’ve probably been spoiled irreversibly by the knowledge of the 1 or 2 folks I am thinking of now where I am willing to go into an instance completely unprepared if they are along.

The knowledgeable one can easily and quickly explain the key elements you need to know for the fight. If you can do that quickly, politely, and have enough patience to deal with people who may not even realize they need help… you can take almost anyone through an instance regardless of skill. We just took 3 people who struggle a lot (despite having gear) through PoS where I was 2nd for dps as the healer (3 below 1k dps) with no wipes. That wasn’t healing skill, that was someone being willing to handhold everyone through while understanding their capabilities (and limitations).

So most important role? Has to be the knowledgeable one. I’ve not finished instances with a great tank, a great healer, and also with great dps… and in my experience the most important role is that one person who is capable of understanding both the encounter and the limitations of those he/she is playing with.

The games are from different eras even–auto attack was a mainstay ability for warrior and there was little strategic use of cool downs. Most abilities were so basic and simple that you spammed them when they came off cool down without thought.

That said, managing the melee push was interesting and lead to constant thinking. Every physical attack in EQ pushed the mob a little bit and if the tank weren’t careful his back could end up in a wall, and DPS dropped, and sometimes DPSer dropped due to parry/repost.

Raid tanking was based on a 3 minute duration ability–defense IIRC–that cut agro and damage taken by 30%. 10 minute cool down so most raids needed at least 3 tanks.

The way the game was structured very differently. You would “camp” some part of a dungeon, pulling the same sequence of mobs, usually on a 42 minute respawn timer, and get to know you party and group mates. Combat was slow enough itself that most classes could chat in combat and you would see the same people zone after zone leveling up.

I would expect that modern EQ, 5 years later, is a more active, involved beast, though I hope managing the push is still something tanks have to do.

Just think of Rogues. As a healer I hated them with a passion. Every rogue wants to be top dps, and take so much damage because of all the aggro that it makes a healers job twice as hard as it should be.

After all my experiences in games I think a Tank is the most important. An experienced tank can make a run that much smoother.

DPS is the most unappreciated even though without them you wouldn’t kill anyone. It is like they stand back, and do their job, but its not hard to spam a spell rotation.

Sometimes through fight mechanics specific to particular encounters you WILL be the most important person in the group, not because of the role you fill, but because of a Buff or Debuff you happen to have obtained (“You’re the Bomb! And I don’t mean the good kind!”), or because the Boss has singled you out, such as Kara’s Big Bad Wolf confusing you with Little Red Riding Hood.

If you’re DPS, the Healer and the Tank are the most important people in the group. I’m not saying you’re not important, because obviously if Mobs & Bosses aren’t taking damage they’re not going to die, but you’re not the most important people in the group. Yes, the Boss won’t die if you don’t bring the pain, but if you out-Aggro the Tank you risk wiping the Raid so if you’re DPS, the Tank (& their Aggro) is (usually) more important than you.

Now, in an apparent contradiction to my previous statement, if you’re the Tank, the Healer and DPS are more important than you. It’s your job to Tank the Mobs and ensure they stay off the Healer and DPS, and if you do lose Aggro, it’s your Job to get it back (except when it’s to a CC’d Mob). But while you can hold that Boss’s attention all day, without DPS and Heals he (or she) is not going down, so if you’re the Tank the Healer and DPS are more important than you.

Finally, if you’re the Healer, contrary to what the Tank & DPS think, you’re not the most important person in the group. If you’re the Healer, the Tank and DPS are more important than you, because the Tank & his/her Aggro are the only thing standing between you and a world of hurt, and (do I have to say it again?) without the DPS the Mobs are not going to die.

In summary, regardless of your role, the most important person in your group is (almost) always someone else.