PUG’s are good for lots of laughs. Mostly I’m impressed how well people play, but naturally there are occasional duds.

But I have to admit I have the same concerns as Todd and Kahl, my brigand has a couple attacks that only can be done from in front of the mob. And those, in this scenario, will add to my hate rather than decrease it. But they are few, so it might not hurt scout types to much.

Crusaders on the other hand that depend on dmg/aoe to keep there hate/aggro more than taunting might suffer from this if that isn’t taken into account.

Everyone is always doom and gloom when there is a change that may make players change the way they initially play the game. In an ever changing environment such as EQ2, the player must change with it. I also SERIOUSLY don’t understand how it will effect a Zerker in a bad way at all. What it sounds like is someone doesn’t know how to play their class at all.

As for Swash and Brig’s who have positional attack in front AND behind…meh. They have 1! Count them 1 attack that requires them to be in front or to the side of the target.

It’s just funny how some don’t really know how to play and then try to sound like they know what they are talking about.

As for PuG’s…I do ‘em all the time, however…I must say Domino…you have ALOT more patience than I. I probably would of switched my Brig to Tank mode, and took over as MT…or….left the group.

“Back in my day we did not have imbues and hate mods on our weapons…. I had to walk 7 miles through 3 feet of snow to build aggro on the mob.”

Seriously I think its a good idea… remember its optional and you can always macro swap your weapons.

Second, for me at least I like the idea of the added hate to imbues. But from what Todd says it might make life harder for the Beserkers. I guess just from reading your description that is not possible to say yet and the best thing might be just to wait and see how it will affect gameplay.

I’ve a Swashbuckler who has Walk the Plank. I don’t ever get behind the mob, I dps from the front due to that AA ability. I play my Swash like a tank also because I duo with a Warden, so I AM the tank. Also, Eye Gouge MUST be from the front, it will NOT work from the back or flank.

There’s a problem with the behind/front hate loss/gain: in a perfect group, the mob is turned, the mages and priests and scouts are behind the mob while the tank(s) are in front. Thing is, realistically, that’s not how it is. Mages will position wherever they must to get a good attack spot. Priests are either with the tank or where the mages are. Some scouts play frontal or flank. When that new hate proc goes off on those in front, it’ll give the tank a harsh time to hold aggro. Todd makes a very good example.

As a tank, I’ve been in situations where the group has spread out a bit and someone gets aggro. When I run to them and arrive, the mob usually has its back to me. With this new hate to imbues, I’d have to take extra seconds to position in front to get its attention. I’d not be able to just attack and taunt from behind as I usually do to gain its hate.

There are many situations where a mob will have its back to the tank during a fight. Walk the Plank that Swash/Brig have must be done from the front. Monks/Bruisers have Eagle Spin which also spins the mob around so they can use their back attack. The hate to imbues will negate those.

You’re restricting the flexibility in how to arrange the mobs. And you’ll also guarantee that imbues won’t be used by a majority of players. There’s already many who say mc’d gear is trash, this will just add another bit of ammunition for nay-sayers.

Really, please think about this. Not all tanks are like the one you experienced. This “training” idea really is not a good one. It really does come across as though you want people to play the way you feel they should.

But I’ve reservations. I know scout types that position in front because they’ve got attacks that only work when in front of the mob. And as a berserker I can see where it’s going to really screw with proper tanking. If I’ve got the mob properly positioned, it’s going to turn it’s back to me if anyone else pulls aggro. When that happens I’m going to target it and smack it with an attack to get it’s attention back. But with this imbue, that attack just killed my threat level with that mob. Now it’s stuck to the cloth-wearer even tighter, and I’ll have a harder time getting it back because 90% of the tools I’d use to get it back (my attacks) now do exactly the opposite. And I hate to think how this is going to interact with classes that have a *melee attack* that decreases hate, the first thought is that the instant they use that attack (to help me get aggro back) the imbue’s going to be backwards for them too and going to again glue the mob tighter to them.

Having hate gain/decrease work based on position sounds like a good idea, but if it goes in then as a tank I’ll avoid it like the plague and I’ll have one rule for any group I’m tanking: weapons with that imbue on them stay home, or I stay home.

I’ve seen it all… horrid tanks, healers that don’t live up to the name (though most times that’s not too bad of a problem, just makes me have to work a bit harder to solo heal ), and DPS that either doesn’t (one run I, as a heal-spec’d warden, was out DPSing a wizzie) or manages to die constantly and/or grab extra mobs.

The only downside is when you get a PUG as a sort of last-resort and actually need to get something done. Then they can be a bit more painful, hehe.