When do you want villains scattered apart in a fight?

[DougGraves]

I am tanking.  I still herd to a corner.  As far as I know, no character wants the villains scattered to best use your hero's power - it is just better when the villains are clumped.

 

But what times do you want the villains in a fight scattered?  I assume there are some villains that are tougher in a clump.

[Machariel]

I'd say the only reason you'd want villains in a fight scattered would be if/when you're taking them on one at a time.  So this would be things like. . . soloing tough content at low levels, I guess.  Or if you're a character without very much AoE, like a Martial Arts Stalker, it's probably not worth the time to worry about them getting clumped up since you can't use the situation anyway. 

 

This is pretty much how I remember playing Goldside - tons of tough enemies that are scattered evenly around large maps.  😕 😅

[Dragon Crush]

Yeah, if you have loads of single target damage/debuffs and are low on AoE, or you can't survive entire group at once then scattering works well. Otherwise herding is usually the way to go.

[Snarky]

I can think of exactly one example. You are in an ITF. Running through the 5 generals mission. 
you leapfrog the team to gather agro at the next General. He is surrounded by 20 surgeons.  Grind.  To. A.  Halt

 

scatter that group. But really far or they still heal.  
 

no. Even then smart move is on judgement footstomp and anything to knock them down fast.  It would just be nice if we could knock them all to the next map

 

there is no regular combat situation that is better knocking targets everywhere

[Lines]

It's a viable strategy for when you hate your teammates.

[Dragon Crush]

Not so much "viable strategy" as "amusing to watch" would also be when fighting on top of a tall structure and sending them all flying to the ground below. Shame they don't take fall damage.

[siolfir]

They aren't challenging, but Cimerorans have Phalanx Fighting and get higher defense when packed tightly together. It's just not enough to matter since by the time you're running ITFs you usually have all of your accuracy issues sorted.

 

The general with all of the surgeons is one Ionic Judgement away from being just a general. The AI on surgeons doesn't pack tightly anyway.

 

Hm... I wouldn't recommend herding and curbstomping a large group of Freakshow Super Stunners unless you run Electric Armor or otherwise think that Malta Sappers are the cutest little things - their end-drain-on-death is autohit and carries -recovery with it. But you'd have to be bringing multiple groups together and leaving the Super Stunners for last to get enough to completely toggle-drop someone.

Edited December 14, 2019 by siolfir

[Redlynne]

Scattering is useful while soloing and fighting $Targets that "do stuff" upon being defeated ... like Nemesis Lieutenants casting Vengeance or Ghouls in Praetoria doing that PBAoE heal/buff thing that they do when they're defeated.  The Ghouls especially are better to deal with scattered so they don't heal each other upon being defeated.  However, that kind of thing is pretty rare, when you think about it.  Usually scattering winds up being counterproductive relative to herding, especially in a team context.  There are edge cases where scattering is "better" but it's definitely a minority subset of situations, even when solo.

[Extor Prime]

End of the ITF, you most assuredly want Romulus separated from his balls.

[siolfir]

4 hours ago, Extor Prime said:

End of the ITF, you most assuredly want Romulus separated from his balls.

Well, yeah, as long as the Nictus Essences are still there with him. They're easy to AoE to death, and with a lot of debuffs you can take them out with him so that he might only rez once.

[boggo2300]

When I am dancing on their cold dead er I mean arrested bodies!!

[Techwright]

I don't recall the groups exactly, but I've found a scatter effect pretty useful when the NPCs start showing greater effectiveness when clumped together, like say peeling 25% chunks at a time quickly off the tank, or causing major endurance loss to several of the team.   I find it usually better to accept the scatter and use it to heal and regroup your team.  Pretty sure the Nems were in that list, like Redlynn mentioned.  It's also great when your team is actually overwhelmed, and members start dropping, leaving big holes in your defense.

 

Lastly an AoE or conical knockback is a real joy if you're fighting high up and they've not been noticing that nearby edge that lacks a safety railing.  Certainly, they'll find a fire escape staircase and run back up, but the stairs essentially act as a chokepoint, and you'll more easily pick them off one by one.

[tidge]

Can we take a few minutes to describe the groups which scatter that cause the most aggravation?

 

For me it is the Knives of Vengance, specifically in the second mission of Heather Townshend's arc in Dark Astoria. I usually run this arc at x8, and the cursed RNG always allow a few to escape  being hit...and so they will run (or fly) to the literal ends of the map. This unnecessarily prevents completion of the defeat X, as long as one of them is hiding somewhere else.

[THEDarkTyger]

23 hours ago, Dragon Crush said:

Not so much "viable strategy" as "amusing to watch" would also be when fighting on top of a tall structure and sending them all flying to the ground below. Shame they don't take fall damage.

Got a guy in our SG that insists on running missions teamed with melee fighters with his repulsion field on, then barrelling into spawns of mobs to scatter them everywhere. Irritates the hell out of me every time. I try to avoid teaming with him.

[Leogunner]

Most enemies people are willing to fight are basically just dumb mobs with brawl.

 

If I were "modifying" mobs, I'd have the abilities they have access to would change depending on the number of teammates + another secret factor.  Give them on-death pseudo-pet summons (auto-hit) that decrease status protections, debuff auras that lower damage and movement speed, inherent ally close-range +ToHit and +dmg buff auras, damage auras with low damage but high accuracy and I'd create a unique enemy-only version of Placate-type control that disables the next power from use for a certain amount of time that a player attacks them with.

[Replacement]

On 12/15/2019 at 3:42 PM, Leogunner said:

Most enemies people are willing to fight are basically just dumb mobs with brawl.

 

If I were "modifying" mobs, I'd have the abilities they have access to would change depending on the number of teammates + another secret factor.  Give them on-death pseudo-pet summons (auto-hit) that decrease status protections, debuff auras that lower damage and movement speed, inherent ally close-range +ToHit and +dmg buff auras, damage auras with low damage but high accuracy and I'd create a unique enemy-only version of Placate-type control that disables the next power from use for a certain amount of time that a player attacks them with.

We'll call it Leotoria.

[Haijinx]

On 12/14/2019 at 5:54 PM, Extor Prime said:

End of the ITF, you most assuredly want Romulus separated from his balls.

Where is the SMDH button?

[Haijinx]

On 12/15/2019 at 3:42 PM, Leogunner said:

Most enemies people are willing to fight are basically just dumb mobs with brawl.

 

If I were "modifying" mobs, I'd have the abilities they have access to would change depending on the number of teammates + another secret factor.  Give them on-death pseudo-pet summons (auto-hit) that decrease status protections, debuff auras that lower damage and movement speed, inherent ally close-range +ToHit and +dmg buff auras, damage auras with low damage but high accuracy and I'd create a unique enemy-only version of Placate-type control that disables the next power from use for a certain amount of time that a player attacks them with.

Make them able to call their friends over to help.

 

You know the guys standing 100 feet away pretending there isn't a massive fight going on.