Emnity's Guide to Anchor Pulling and Mgmt.
By
deadboy_champion,
Posted on: 2005-06-22 16:28 in Player Guides
Damn good guide. Really good job of driving the concept into my thick skull.
@Deadboy
I live again!
Anything about this needs to be updated for the new issues? Hmmm... ED... effects on holds... yeah... I need to update it.
A good way to identify the anchor in DN is by looking at the clouds underneath their feet. The Anchor has a "3D" cloud that goes up their knees... everyone else just has the flat part underneath them.
-ASYLUM- (nsfw)
St. Lucifer: lvl 50 D3 Defender
Satanicus: lvl 38 E2 Blaster
Diabolus The Dark: lvl 36 SS/DA Brute
Old Man Death: lvl 33 TH/DM Mastermind
Misses Claus: lvl 33 Ice Controller
Great post, finally to enlighten the melee happy guys, as well as those who think they can pull more than us darks! A few additions though:
1) If you have established a good chokepoint+killzone, it is a *good* idea to have the anchor run away once in a while to aggro others. It saves you time from having to pull! Even better, it's fun to fly 3-4 groups away and aggro the furthest guy, to pull them all in! Warning: do NOT do this with a dark servant in tow. It gets terribly confused, tries to attack, and dies. And as an MM (me) you must leave pets behind with the rest of the team.
2) Anchor pull is best done with immobilize/slow/hold powers. Best thing is caltrops or tar patch because they congeal but get closer together. It's *better* than a controller ghold because gholds aren't guaranteed to have optimal distance. Technique: once you disappear behind a corner, drop the tar patch at corner. Then they all gather at the corner. Then you AOE kill, or order your blasters/corruptors to fire. This also lets the team avoid having to get into melee range to be safe - the enemy stays in place and can only hit you with ranged attacks. You put the killzone away from the team buff zone. Some brutes/scrappers get bored though.
Emnitys Guide to Anchor Pulling and Management
A very short guide as a result of having to explain this to teams so much. I fear only folks who know anchors and their capabilities in and out would be perusing this forum, but on the off chance a new player comes by, here is how an anchor defender of controller tanking for your team works, how to help them and how to do it yourself.
What are anchors?
Just to get it out of the way, an anchor is an AoE debuff placed upon an enemy and remaining there until the enemy dies. All within the radius of the debuff on that enemy are affected. Killing the anchored mob (usually referred to as the anchor) ends the debuff for all, often leaving the one who killed the anchor in a hot spot of pain.
Which anchors are we talking about here?
Well the two acc debuff anchors, Darkest Night and Radiation Infection. When slotted for accuracy debuffs, both powers center an AoE effect upon a foe which renders him and his surrounding friends unable to swat a fly.
Part I: The Anchor Layer
The tanking defender/controller
First off, youre not really tanking. This irks tanks to no end when you say you are taking. You are managing aggro, yes, but a good AoE blaster or any sort of heavy attack will pull that aggro off of you in a jiffy: hope it doesnt pull the affected mob out of the anchor. You can pseudo-tank you moderately maintain mobs attention through the anchor ticks and your own damage: the whole thing rests on you and your team keeping those mobs inside the debuffs
Heres How It Works:
Pulling with an anchor works like any other pull, but most of all like using a tanker taunt to pull a whole group. You can pull single mobs with an anchor, but there is little point in wasting a massive acc or dam debuff on one mob. Usually anchors debuff groups (ideally) and so it is best to pull the group where you want it with the anchor.
There is one key point in anchor pulling: Line of Sight. (LoS) If a mob can stand at a distance and shoot you, then they likely will for a while. If you remain in the open and lay an anchor on a distant group, some will stay where they are and snipe from range and some will rush you for melee. The anchor will remain with either group, but thats half the group no longer anchored and you, my friend, are probably dead.
But if you break line of sight with the mob after laying the anchor, then the entire mob will rush to the nearest point which reestablishes LoS with you. How handy is this? Thus, the anchor pull:
Select a member of a mob group you wish to pull in a tight-knit group to your location. The mob should be central to the group or near it: you want the anchor debuff area to blanket as much of the mob as possible because, unless you are very quick in getting out of sight, the first thing the mob will do is shoot at you. All inside the anchor will likely miss. Those outside, however
Once you have laid the anchor, quickly break LoS move behind the nearest corner, box, etc. The best objects are slightly talker than you and have only one corner to deal with: columns arent ideal in that mobs will split around them to surround you and those on the wrong side of the column will be out of the debuff.
Once out of LoS, the entire mob, save for maybe a straggler or two, will join you at that corner. Ideally, you want to be right there in melee range... as soon as they hit you, they will all group and begin to pile up in an attempt to get near you. Often occlusion causes mobs to stack atop one another in the same space: ideal for AoE damage dealers but a broken game mechanic and likely to be fixed in the future love it but dont rely on it.
Are there mobs I should not anchor?
Most certainly. The key to dealing with an anchored mob is keeping them together. It follows that you dont want to place the anchor on a mob which can disappear at the drop of a hat. For different teams this means different things, but there are a few no-nos no matter what the team: never anchor a teleporter, i.e. some Rikti, Sky Raider Porters, or any Sorcerer, etc.. If it teleports, and you anchor it, rest assured it will choose to teleport only after all of the mobs have gathered on you, thus leaving you with all the aggro and none of the love. If you did anchor a porter and it ported away, then turn off that anchor ASAP; I detail this later, but anchors aggro everything they touch, including the mob a quarter mile away that the anchored Sorceror just ported into. Look... here they come now.
As far as situational: you want the anchor to last until the end of the fight so the debuff will as well. For scrapper-heavy teams this will mean placing it on a minion: scraps tend to deal with minions after bosses and lieuts. For AoE teams it is often best to place it upon a boss or lieut, as the minions will be mown down fast. I usually place mine on lieuts as a middle ground unless the team situation demands otherwise. Pay attention to what your teams priorities in arrests. If they off minions first, anchor lieuts or bosses, and vice versa.
Which mobs in a group are the best to target with my anchor?
The fast ones. Anchor pulling is low risk if done right, but a slip up can mean the difference between life and debt. Anchoring the slower mob in a group, such as a Vaz zombie will mean your anchor will arrive after the Reaper and Mortificators do. While he is on his way, they get the pleasure of pounding you with impunity.
It is doable but unsafe to anchor fliers: they have a tendency to zip out of melee range periodically if they take damage, usually just far enough to make your anchor useless.
As far as mob drops, like Mushrooms or Quartz usually not a good idea. Your team will be trying to take out that FF generator or Cairn first and also your anchor.
Why would I anchor pull?
Many reasons, but #1 being corner pulling with an anchor always results in a tight group, all within the debuff. Thats a whole group of mobs whiffing. Do you need the other reasons?
What if they are already bunched?
Well, if they are alone (far from other groups) and already bunched, then lay that anchor and jump in the middle of them. Thats the key: If you anchor from a distance, then some will run towards you after taking their first shot. If you arent pulling them, then always rush close after laying the anchor; it will keep them bunched in the debuff.
Where is a good place to pull?
Corners corners corners. As I mentioned before, columns or stand-alone boxes can be done with finesse, but simply walking around the corner of a hallway gives them only one route to approach you and, so, only one place to bunch up.
But you can pull almost anywhere:
Columns: Drop anchor and move behind the column. Half the group may go the other side to get to you once they are bunching move to the side where the anchor is standing. Most of the others will follow. Remember, the key is line of sight. Keep breaking LoS around the column on the anchor side and they will keep chasing you until all are in the debuff area.
Rises: (Like in caves, wherein if you top the rise you see a mob before you) Messy and hard, caves can be rough for corner pulling as there are usually few effective corners. Get to the lip of the rise. Que the anchor, then hit jump. As you top the rise then fall back, you will place your anchor and be out of sight. All the mobs will rush you, and here is where it gets hairy. Let them get as close as possible, then move to the anchor. Once he melees you, he will stick with melee (usually) and you can safely drag him about to the other mobs, until you have them all in the debuff area. It sounds complicated, and it is as risky as it sounds. Corner pulling or even pulling to the edge of a small jutting rock is always the better option.
Cargo Boxes: Cake. Lay the anchor and jump in a box. (Boxcar) Watch what they do. (Remember: jumping into that four foot high hollow crate does nothing: the edge of the container of any sort into which you leap must top your head a good bit in order to block ranged attacks!)
Walls: Outdoors, you can que the anchor on a group over a wall, hit jump, and use the same trick as with the rise. The mobs will generally all hop the wall and land next to you. The risk runs in that some mobs stay on top of the wall. If you are unlucky, one of them is your anchor. Wall pulls that arent in corners can be messy, and jumping mobs will land all sorts of places on your side. Be ready to move about and group them on you with melee attacks.
Other: Hey, if you can break line of sight, they will come to you. Try it with anything. Just understand that the best pull locations allow only one means of entrance: one corner to deal with, one doorway, etc. If there is another way to reach you then some of the mobs will find it.
When should I drop an anchor?
If an anchored mob begins to run off down a hall/ down the street/ what-have-you, then turn off that anchor. Why? Because anchors are sticky aggro and the anchor aggros everything it touches. Any groups that anchored mob runs past will come gunning for you, though after a time the anchor will exceed its distance limit and turn itself off. In door missions, forgetting your anchor just ran off can be disastrous: imagine an anchor sprinting through 3 groups spawned for a team of 8 on invincible.... see I don't need to imagine it because I did it I... I... the horror....
Tricks of the Trade:
Well there is only one trick I consider important enough to list: being out of sight when the anchor lands, thus denying the mob their initial volley. With suppression it is more difficult but certainly doable. You dont even really need a travel power, providing you wont be left exposed after laying the anchor until they group on you. Like so:
Stand next to the corner/box/etc. you will be using to break line of sight. Turn on sprint or Super Speed. Target the mob you wish to anchor. Face the direction you need to run to get out of site. Now do the following almost simultaneously:
Hit forward.
Hit the anchor.
Ideally, you hit the anchor button juuust before passing behind the corner. If you hit it too late you wont get the animation and you lose nothing. But if you hit it: It takes a moment for anchor animations to activate. The anchor is not laid until after the animation nears completion. You will find yourself laying the anchor from behind the corner, out of sight. Niiiiice.
Also, hop pulls are good for this: Stand behind the box or wall, cue the anchor, then jump. In the air the anchor animation will start, but it wont complete until you hit the ground. Again, anchor placed with you out of sight.
I have stragglers! They are outside the debuff!
Easily dealt with and no need to chase them all down trailing a hoard of debuffed villains. Simply snipe them with something to get their attention and move back out of LoS. They will run right to you and right into the debuff. If battles are going extremely well and I am working with an experienced team, I usually am pulling new groups as they finish off the old, all the while leaving the original anchor alive. It is possible to drag an anchor along for an entire floor in door missions... indefinitely outside...
Controller vs. Defender:
Well there is a big difference between the two in doing the same thing, if only in that the controller will be much more effective in keeping the mobs in the debuff once bunched just by laying down some holds. The defender will have more issues unless they are Dark/* and have its controllerish abilities. If you are a controller: well, your team will love you; youve debuffed and rendered the mob helpless. If you are a defender, your team will love you but they will also steal your aggro. I usually spam damage for the initial team salvo on the mob as it helps keep the mobs attention on me longer. This isnt because I want to take the damage, it is because I want to keep the aggro; if the blaster takes it from me and it outside the debuff, then the mob will join him there.
If you are an anchor defender with well-slotted acc debuffs, then make sure your teammates, all of them, blasters especially, understand that within the AoE area of the debuff is the safest place to be. Blasters may not believe you: they have spent their lives running out of melee range (except the admirably insane Blappers), many of them, and it goes against the grain. But one fight of standing literally within the center of a mob of 15 and spamming fire ball over and over while never being scratched will bring them over to your way of seeing things.
My team keeps killing my anchor!
Hmmm usually only encountered in the early game. You can do two things only to rectify this: One, make an anchor bind. Heres mine:
/bind p team, The $target is my anchor leave it be
Every time I smack the P key I shout out my anchor to the team. Then they know to k ... arrest it last.
Two, explain explain explain. The only concept I have had more difficulty drilling into a newer player's head is that of Kinetic heals versus Dark heals. You start talking about anchors and its like someone stole everyones brain and replaced it with coleslaw. Be patient. This is a new concept for many people in the game, and a new concept even for many veteran MMO players.
If all else fails, dont pull with anchors. Let someone else pull, place them as you can, and resign yourself to replacing them if they die. Then gracefully depart that team when the mission is over or keep plugging away at bringing anchor education to the masses.
My team just doesnt get it.
Then why are you stressing? Either they can survive without the anchors and you get to play on or they cant and you need to move on. Just be polite whatever you do.
Part II: For the team
What can I, the scrapper/tanker/blaster/etc/ can do to help?
Well first and foremost you must understand the most simple thing about mobs in CoH. Once they notice you, they fall in mad love until you break their heart, by which I mean you do a bit over half damage. They simply cant stand to be away from you until that point. If you break LoS with them, they will always always always come to you. But this is a double edged sword: If you remain in the line of sight of that mob while the Defender or Controller lays and anchor and breaks LoS to attract them, then some of them, inevitably, will aggro to you instead of bunching on the anchor layer, and those mobs wont run where they need to.
So rule #1: If the anchor layer is pulling, GET OUT OF SIGHT OF THE MOB UNTIL THE ARE BUNCHED.
That is so important, and has ruined so many anchor experiences, let me say it again:
GET OUT OF SIGHT UNTIL THE MOB HAS BUNCHED ON THE ANCHOR.
Oh noes! I stole aggro before they bunched!!
What!?!? Oh well, it happens and it is as simple as anchor pulling to fix: go stand with the anchor layer. The rest are coming to him, and now yours will too.
The anchor layer is getting pounded by mobs that wont come into the debuff zone!
Ah, then you can make him/her your friend for life by aggroing those mobs, then breaking line of sight to the anchor zone and bringing them where they belong. Conversely, kill them, but remember that arresting a mob draws aggro to you from other mobs as well: arresting outside the debuff zone is asking for undebuffed company.
Anything else I can do?
Pay attention to the anchor: Many anchor layers call them out but some dont. With radiation infection, this is no biggie: the bright green cloud is easily identified as being centered on one mob. Kill him last.
With Darkest Night, it is harder: the debuff is dark, like Tar Patch, and hard to see, and the animation effect it has on the debuffed mobs is irritatingly similar to the animation of the anchor itself. If they laid tar patch as well, then lord help you and I hope they had an anchor bind...
Here is a tip: Scroll out your view a bit to maybe ceiling height (use the home and end keys to scroll you view in and out) and rotate your camera up so you are looking straight down at the battle field. This has two effects: one, suddenly you have 360 degree field of vision and better command of the battlefield, and two, the anchor becomes much, much more apparent.
Be ready to jump in: This is not a Wait for the tanker to say OK before attacking situation. Anchors, especially anchor six slotted for acc debuffs, are mighty things, but there is always that 5% percent chance of getting hit, no matter the debuff. In the early game this is no big deal. But once you hit the late 20s and the 30s once those Freak Tanks starts working their metal-clad mojo then you really dont want that defender or controller tempting fate by standing in the middle of the mob any longer than they have to. Once the mob bunches in the debuff, jump in the middle and make them pay attention to you.
Any final points?
Just one, and it is one we all have a hard time with, especially blasters (blappers excluded). Inside the debuff is the place to be for you, the mob and everyone. Sure, mobs standing in the debuff area will be debuffed as they shoot at you from distance, but they wont be once they switch to melee and come running at you. This is most important for AoE blasters: your attacks will take that aggro off the def/troller faster than you can say Oh crap Im held. If you unleash them from a distance, then expect much undebuffed pain in your near future.
[bold]To sum up: The best place to deal with a debuffed mob is within the debuff. Thus, any aggro you attract will be aggro that is highly unlikely to do a thing to you.[/bold]
If you are out of the debuff, a squishy, and some bad bad mob is chasing you with a one-shotmelee kill in mind, then run into the debuff. He will follow you and you can deal with him at your leisure.
There is nothing sadder than watching a blaster standing two feet outside a debuff zone getting meleed while spamming heal heal heal! at a rad defender. Move inside the debuff zone and watch those worries disappear.
**************************************************
Well thats it and I hope you gained something by it. I will add tidbits as I think of them, and I welcome you to bring to my attention anything I might have neglected.
Anchor pulling and management is almost a game within a game in CoH. Once you get good enough, and once you gear your powers for it, it is possible to run to the far end of a mission, drop an anchor, and bring an entire floor of mobs back to one corner. (It is silly, grandstanding, and a waste of time generally, but it can be done and makes for a wonderful oooooh noise from your group. Especially if you are a controller and you then lock down that entire mob.)
Used correctly, anchors can be one of the most effective powers available. Used incorrectly, anchors can result in a team wipe. But I promise you this:
If you master anchors, you will never lack for a team. And you will never lack for a good time.
Cheers and See You In Game!
Emnity