| Partying Help e |
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| Tactics |
| Group Roles |
| Primary Function |
| Secondary Function |
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| Related |
The main assist is the player in a raid or party who specifies the mob which should be taken down next by the DPS classes. This player is 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 must switch targets frequently to keep aggro up.
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 suitable as main assist
Paladins, from level 22, have Seal of Justice (and its Judgement of course). Judgement of Justice prevents mobs from fleeing when they're low on life. As runners are anyone's worst nightmare in an instance, Judgement of Justice should be considered enough to make the paladin main assist. However, some paladins play off-tank and work to protect the squishies from certain death by using other skills such as Hammer of Justice which stuns the target.
Warlocks are also good main assists for a similar reason. Starting from level 14, they have Curse of Recklessness which also prevents mobs from fleeing when they're low on life. There are other side effects, too. It increases the mob's attack rating by a small amount, but decreases their armor by a larger amount. It also blocks them from fear and horror effects. Similarly, some warlock players may switch targets and curse several mobs with the various curses.
Hunter is well suited, as the Hunter's Mark helps to identify the mob which is "on" to the party.
Rogues are also good main assists.
- Classes that should not be main assist
Classes who change their target often are not particularly useful Main Assists. Classes dealing ranged damage usually have more oversight. Mages sometimes have their sheep targeted, all healing classes also tend to target something else from time to time. Warriors must keep taunting mobs around them to make sure they don't run off and go kill a squishy.
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. On the other hand, this eliminates one skill on your bar that you might otherwise use.