| Partying Help |
|---|
| Tactics |
| Group Roles |
| Functions |
|
Leader |
| Related |
The player in a raid or party who specifies the mob which should be taken down next by the DPS classes. Not to be confused with a Main Tank who manages the aggro. The Main Assist's job is to have one specific mob targeted at all times, whereas the Main Tank may switch targets freely.
Any Party with more then one attacker should have a Main Assist. It is important to reduce the damage being dealt to the party. Concentrating on one mob at a time reduces party damage faster than every one killing their own mob.
Ideally the Main Assist will be familiar with the instance and must be able to prioritize the targets at hand. Prioritizing targets is very hard to quantify and depends almost always on the specific circumstances. However as a general rule of thumb you must ensure your squishies are ok, and then take down the healers, summoners, nukers, and then the rest. This is where knowledge of the instance comes in. For example, if there is a mob who can nuke your whole party in two shots, take him out first; this is what separates a good main assist from a wipe.
Having a Main Assist makes both Tanking and Healing easier. Since most mobs will not have too much aggro, the Main Tank just has to keep an eye on healing aggro, and mainly concentrate on the Main Assist's target, and it obviously helps the healer since they don't have to heal everyone who accidentally gets aggro.
Classes who change their target often are not particularly useful Main Assists. Classes dealing ranged damage usually have more oversight. Hunter is probably best suited, the Hunter's Mark also helps to identify the mob which is "on" to the party. Rogue and Warlock are also good Main Assists. Mages sometimes have their sheep targeted, all healing classes also tend to target something else from time to time.
What the Main Assist wants You to do.
If a party has a Main Assist, then other members of that party should be helping the Main Assist to take that target down. Obviously this should not get in the way of other roles such as healing etc. It is a good idea to have a macro set up saying
/assist Playername
where Playername is the name of the main assist.
For example, it's much better to type 2 3 than F3 F 3
Where,
- F3 is the party member
- F is the assist target button.
- 2 is the assist macro button.
- 3 is a nuke.
Just think about trying to type F3 F 3; your fingers are all over the place. It's easy to hit the wrong buttons and that's no help.