new to group finder and flashpoints

[CoryCross]

Hi there I'm new to MMOs altogether and was wondering what DPs suppose to do in flashpoints was told to hang back tank pulls the aggro then attack what the tank pulled does that sound wright swtor is my first mmo ever totally lost

[DarthDymond]

Hi there I'm new to MMOs altogether and was wondering what DPs suppose to do in flashpoints was told to hang back tank pulls the aggro then attack what the tank pulled does that sound wright swtor is my first mmo ever totally lost

That's fundamentally right, you should let the Tank class be the one to "Pull" the group of enemies or the boss. As a DPS you should never be the first one attacking a group / boss (unless there is some special mechanic for a boss, in which case someone who knows the fight should be explicitly telling the group that's the case).

 

Each player has a "Threat" level on an enemy (also called "aggro"), and the enemy will attack the player with the highest Threat (that's the general rule, certain enemies may have unique abilities that also target other players). A player's Threat is determined by how much damage they've dealt to that enemy and how much healing they've done nearby, and a lot of a Tank's abilities directly generate additional Threat and increase how much Threat they generate from the damage they are dealing.

 

The whole idea is that the Tank needs to be keeping the highest Threat on the enemies so that the enemies are focusing most / all of their attacks on the Tank. If a DPS player jumps in first or does too much damage too quickly at the start of the fight before the Tank has had a chance to build up enough Threat, then the DPS's Threat level may go higher than the Tank's and enemies will start attacking the DPS instead.

 

As a general rule, you want to let the Tank initiate each fight, and with Group Finder groups it might not be a terrible idea to wait a couple of seconds before jumping in yourself.

 

Two other important things to remember when DPSing in a Group:

1. If someone has used a Crowd Control ability on an enemy (usually referred to as "CC" - something that stuns the enemy for a good amount of time) it is very important that you do not deal any damage to that enemy, since damage will break the CC and the enemy will no longer be stunned - if someone took the time to CC an enemy, it was probably an important enemy to keep out of the fight for as long as possible. Be careful of your abilities that damage all enemies around you or in an area (called Area of Effect or AoE abilities) as these can often break CCs without meaning to.
   
2. As a general rule, DPS should focus their attacks on the weakest enemies first and then move to the stronger ones: Weak -> Normal -> Strong (silver border on the enemy's portrait) -> Elite (gold border on the enemy's portrait) -> Champion (platinum and gold border on the enemy's portrait). Unless someone specifically mentions that there is a particular enemy in the group that needs to be taken out first, which is often the case if one of the enemies is able to heal other enemies.
   

 

 

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Edited March 21, 2015 by DarthDymond

[CoryCross]

Thanks hwps a lot I was doing it all wrong

[JediQuaker]

This depends a bit upon what sort of FP you are doing,

 

For non-tactical FPs (and OPs, etc):

The tank should agro the enemies and try to hold agro on them. The DPS should attack any stragglers that the tank didn't grab, and then kill the rest of the minor enemies, and them finally attack the boss (if there is one), unless there's some special mechanic in play. If it's your first time, you should tell the group, and ask if there's anything special to know.

 

For Tactical FPs:

Tacticals are setup in such a way that the normal tank, dps, healer triad is not actually needed. You can get tactical groups - particularly through group finder - that have any combination of roles - often it's just 4 DPS. In tactical FPs it's more of a free for all. If there is a tank in the group, hopefully they won't be all anal about things, but I have seen tanks rage quit tacticals.

 

In both cases you should heed the above advice about CC'd enemies.