Awareness

This is the where you can see who is experienced and who is not. How aware are you of the situation around you. Do you only watch your own health or the health of others in your party. Do you see when you have to move in order to let another fighter in. How wide is your concentration-circle. Typical hunting situation. The surround and pound ring. A pack of fighters surrounding a beastie and pounding on it till it´s dead. Sometimes, the ring is too tight - so one fighter are not able to swing. It´s in the other fighter´s interest to move around so all are able to swing, since this means faster kill, and less damage. Some fighters just stand there though, like logs - and are not able to see that they are blocking another out. The most experienced fighters dance around the beast, positioning themselves so that all have space, and if more than 5 fighters they will move away when they see another fighter moving in. To see, and understand what you see - is what makes a good fighter better. This also applies to the overall situation. Don´t only concentrate on the one beast you are attacking, but keep your concentration wider than that. How is the healers health, the rest in your party. Are there any other beasties lurking? Is there a beast that the party should rather kill first, instead of the one you are attacking right now? Are there any beasts threatening the healers? That beastie moving down on you, will it block your path or your escape? If you see a death vermine on it´s course to a nearby healer, do you wait till it has hit the healer - or do you interfere and kill it before it reaches the healer. Experienced exiles will usually understand a situation faster than a newling - because they have been in this kind of situation before. That doesn´t mean that you can´t train in it. Why in Gaia´s name did I let the beasties surround me like this..... Usually, you have some time to move and step away some in order to prevent the trapping. You can see how the beasties are moving, and adjust your position too. Of course, other times you are just unlucky and are trapped the minute you step inside a sne´ll. I don´t remember if that was the case here. But you can see that the more experienced exiles have avoided that and set up a nice little fighting line near the edge. With a retreat option. I´m on the other hand dead meat... To understand a situation takes experience and time. I don´t do this kind of thing anymore... Being aware of a situation also applies to how you move around and or away in a battle situation. Some beasties, like this Xar´Noth, jumps around a lot, and eventually will stand next to a tree, a rock or something. Fighting it against the tree is unnecessary. There is room around a beastie for 5 fighters. Moving it to a spot where you can see that all can surround it is much better. If you are closest to a beastie, and standing next to a tree - you know you are in the wrong spot. Lead it away. I don´t think a word was said in this situation. We all just moved quietly away, and made room for the healer-brick to back up. Dividing damage is always good. Although in this situation , with healers like Axell and Thuja we are.. hmm pretty safe.. But we divide the damage nevertheless. One Sarnoth is occupied with Yoshida, while the other has taken an interest in me. In these kind of situations I will usually hit the one we are killing, and then turn to face the beast I am bricking while I regain some balance, then turn and swing on the other again etc.. They are luckier from behind you know, and this saves me some luckhits. Personally, I can´t stand the tag feast that so many exiles are engaged in. I want to kill beasties, and I want to kill them as fast as I can. In huge spawns, the best thing to do is to go after one beastie and kill it, not letting all fly around like butterflies, buzzing and tagging. When all do this, there will be no need to tag all the others beasties in fear of losing a tag. Because you will never lose a tag again, as all go after the same one. First after that is killed, will the other beasties be pummeled. I do engage in this tagging dance, but I grumble a lot then....And then after a time I ask if we can´t do it this way. And if that can´t happen for many reasons, I go back to tag dancing, grumbling again...