On Sun, 3 Oct 1999 ambient@... wrote:

>
> I am finding as I am going to more and more grouped dungeon settings that
> the monsters are concentrating on me more than anyone else in the group.
> Everyone is asking if I am singing chords or dissonance (which I don't use
> for that reason) because it is so obvious the monsters have it out for me.

Between L10-15 is the worst time for this as a bard. It
continues to be bad if you use Lullaby liberally after L15.
Starting at L20, it starts to ease off as the other melee
classes start getting their damage bonuses and extra attacks.
At L25 the problem was pretty much gone for me, and I was
actually having to use certain taunt songs (usually Chain) to
get stuff off the tanks to attack me to better distribute the
damage. I spent Saturday night in Sol B at L35, and between
me, an enchanter, two tanks, a druid, and a monk, I was taking
the least damage.

As you advance, you will find the taunt ability of the
different classes shifting as the amounts of damage, new
spells/songs, and different situations all change the
dynamics. Most of the discussion among the L30+ people in my
guild lately has been about this in fact. We were having
problems with multi-mob pulls, and the puller coming in
damaged. The cleric would heal the puller, and all the extra
mobs would come close to killing the cleric before the
enchanter could mes the extras. At these levels, the damage
the mobs do, and thus the hatred the cleric earns by healing
the puller, far exceeds the taunt of even your area effect
songs, at least for a few rounds. Our solution was to have
the paladin (who at L39 gets the 300 point greater heal) heal
the puller, so the extra mobs all attack him. It's worked
great.

Anyhow, because each class' taunting ability is constantly
changing, you have to keep experimenting with different songs
and combinations, to figure out just where the "edge" is so
you can keep the mobs off you, or pull them off another party
member who's taking too much damage. That's actually one
reason I like charm so much - it wipes the hate list so if I
charm something, unless someone nearby is almost dead, the mob
*will* attack me. I can almost always use it to pull a mob
off someone.

--
John H. Kim
kim@...