One of the best duos I have been in was with a mage, he was always about 4
levels above me and we really could hunt effectively. We were a great team,
I would be tanking and he would call "just short of boom" do I would switch
to mana song exclusively and then I would hear the standing sound followed
by a boom followed by the words "You gain experience" :o) Being able to back
off while the pet tanked was great as well. Not to mention all those free
goodies, the great dagger for my range slot, bandages, levitate and water
breathing rings, it always felt like Christmas morning *laughs*

On AE in a group for "crowd control", there DOES have to be some point at
which it is more efficient to hurt the whole pull (while focusing on one)
than to mez and take on one at a time, right? The amount of damage you can
do with AE far exceeds the damage you can do to a single (before 38 at
least) so there MUST be some situations where that is a more efficient use
of your abilities (and a mages). The trick of course is staying alive, which
is possible with a healer. But pre-hurting 3 mobs while you focus on one is
a really efficient battle strategy, I used it a lot (with great success) at
the bridge in the Lake.
I could be wrong, but I suspect that mezzing, while clearly a solid tactic,
is not the end-all be-all of dealing with a crowd. I know it FEELS safer,
but I bet in some situations that people are being over-cautious, that using
AE damage you could get a lot more exp in the same amount of time (plus its
more exciting :o)

Tsengu

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