Drasca Wrote:1) Newbies never do what they 'should' do, or even have a clue.
2) They swarm because all early outland areas were highly infested. Spawns stunk too.
3) Fear adds mobs, sure, but when I was a young warlock mobs patrolled everywhere off on their own. Many many interlaced patrol beast mobs.
4) Positioning's never optimal for lowbies. Aggression radius is just that high.
5) Nope, can't see that many adds coming. They come from behind...
6) Running is not an option. Running only led to more mobs. Running means being chased down and attacked and killed. Warlocks are nowhere near fast.
7) Pets don't steal aggro very well early on.
Lastly, anything's possible.
None of these points make the argument that running doesn't work in WoW. The first, fourth, fifth and sixth points say that running doesn't work if you lack experience, which is true enough. The second is true but not relevant, and the third and seventh are true but misleading.
1) Acknowledged. By level 19, you should, however, have at least the beginnings of a clue.
4) You don't need to have optimal positioning, just decent positioning. Experience teaches this.
5) Learn to look behind. Hold the left mouse button, move mouse to rotate camera. Always swing the camera or use the reverse camera hotkey to take frequent looks around.
6) Running only leads to more mobs when you don't know the area. In all the early areas, there are large clear spaces within each zone with no or nonaggro mobs. Water is also a guaranteed way to lose aggro from anything not in the water.
2) Yes, there are lots of mobs in early outdoor areas. This is a good thing, as your quests will be of the "kill X of these" or "kill these until you collect X number of Y item" type. Having a lot around, however, doesn't necessarily translate to having a lot to fight.
3) Mobs have a set patrol loop. Especially in the early areas, it's a simple back-and-forth path. Watch them for a while, figure out how they move, get single pulls. Keep the Voidwalker close and pull with a curse.
7) They don't steal aggro from the primary target well. They steal aggro from adds just fine. One hit and they've got it.
Quote:Running away is simply not possible without help or a huge football stadium sized advantage.
This strip of pavement on the ground is called the road; it's a guaranteed safe zone and frequented by guards which will come running to help you out if you bring a mob near. Everything starts at the road. Clear towards your objective, and always retreat towards your safe zone. If you run out of safe zone, get to the road and run along the road in any direction. This holds true even in mid-high zones like Stranglethorn Vale, though there aren't guards past the newbie areas.
Quote:This is why running away does not work. Ranged spells get 'extra range' even after you've run away, and go through objects they normally wouldn't. The enemy is often able to run/attack while you run away. If you're at melee range, running will not help you. There is no speed or attack penalty for attacking melee and running.
So you get hit a little. You should survive it.
Running away is not a decision to be undertaken when you're below 25% health. Then yes, you'll die if fleeing from two or more mobs. Running is a decision you make the moment an add hits. You ask yourself - can I handle this? - and if the answer is no, you head for clear areas immediately while you've still got most of your health.
Quote:
My early problems were due to spawns and patrols that popped out of nowhere and could chase me down. They're simply too close to run away from, especially considering a lag difference between the server and my computer.
Spawns on your head are problematic, I agree. However, if you keep a vigilant eye out, they're not too bad. Their shadow appears about three seconds before they spawn, and they don't aggro anyone for another five seconds after that. As long as you start running immediately, you can clear their radius before they even know you're there. As for patrols, once you get into the habit of looking around they stop seeming to pop out of nowhere.
If the lag's really bad, yes, I can see how that contributes to your problems. I fail to see, however, how an individual player's lag is an argument that running doesn't work in WoW.