DPS, Mob Pins, Positioning and YOU

[Ssark]

Mob Pins and Attack Arc

Please review the Mob Pins web page.  While the page (written by Furro) has been around for a long time, it is still quite relevant:

• Though a number of our events resist the use of pins (Chelsith and Zlandicor being fine examples), others do not (Grelleth, Evantil).
  
• More importantly, to DPS, notice the position is always to the rear or flanks of the boss mob.  This not only improves our ability to land hits on the mob, but also lowers the damage we take from ripostes from the mob, aiding the healers.
  
• This positioning includes pets.  You will maximize your pet's effectiveness if you can get it to attack from behind the boss.  I know this is more difficult on non-pins mobs, but it is still doable.
  
• The section on early engages is also important, in particular, when the mob moves and wipes its aggro list a bit like the first boss in Chelsith.  Engaging early often leads to dead characters.  And while the dead do 0 DPS, the recently rezzed have just 95% haste for 3 minutes, which sucks almost as much (not to mention the loss of endurance and mana, as well as wasting time on the healers/buffers).

Positioning is key on a number of these fights.  Even though pet push is not a problem like it used to be, PC push is still real, and we can all help the MT position the mob appropriately to maximize our DPS.

By the way, with strikethrough and such, it is very easy to tell if you're not positioned directly: EQ will tell you that you are striking through your opponents' defenses.  If this happens, you are positioned incorrectly.  Strafe or adjust your position accordingly to flank or get to the rear of the mob.  It does not matter if you're a monk, rogue, or paladin, if you're not the MT, you shouldn't be taking ripostes.


AE Rampage, Hit Box, and the Sweet Spot

In addition to pin positions, please consider AE Rampage and the Hit Box, defined as follows:

• AE Rampage - a particular ability of a boss mob to, on occasion, hit everyone within a certain range, called the AE Rampage range, with a melee attack.*
  
• Hit Box - a distance from the boss mob in which melee characters can land a hit.  Note that the term is a bit of a misnomer; original, it was defined as a cylinder, although these days it is like a sphere.  Within the Hit Box range, melee characters can strike at boss mobs.**

Often, the AE Rampage range is less than the Hit Box.  In other words, there's often a small sweet spot just outside of AE Rampage range but inside the Hit Box where a melee character can strike at the mob without fear of AE Rampage.  If the mob is held at a steady position (not always easy), one can literally find the sweet spot and park one's character right there and attack away.  In practice, the boss mobs move, meaning you may have to reposition constantly to stay within the sweet spot.



In the diagram above, the the blue Smart DPS'er is in the green Hit Box, but just outside in the AE Rampage Range.  You can think of the green ring there as the sweet spot.  The dark black DPS'er is about to get an earful from the Raid Leader.

For some boss mobs, the sweet spot is larger making this task easier; for some it's really small, so it's a challenge.  For others, the AE Rampage range is greater than the Hit Box of the boss mob, in which case we often will call for a ranged fight rather than try to heal through the AE Rampage.  (This depends somewhat on the class makeup of the raid.)

Your goal as a melee dps'er is to find that sweet spot and stay in it as much as you can.  You'll often hear the RL or the RAs say "max melee range!" which is another way of saying too many people are in the orange sphere and not enough in the green sweet spot.


* There is actually Full Rampage damage and Mitigated Rampage damage, the latter being a reduced melee damage amount.  Sometimes Rampage will hit you for the max, sometimes it is mitigated, but either way it needs to be healed and is not optimal.

** I have found that some special attacks, like Flying Kick, will actually land at a greater range than my melee attacks.  However, for the purposes of this discussion, since one wants to land full DPS, one needs to be in the closest range to land all of one's attacks.