The environment is primarily cooperative in the open field (at least within your own faction), where players are aligned against the monsters that stalk Azeroth. Whether soloing or grouping to accomplish this, there are ways to keep from stepping on other people’s toes. Beyond that, it’s good to know when someone else is doing something that is genuinely disrespectful so that you can advise them (at first), avoid them if they continue, and ignore if no change occurs.

You Took My Mobs

Mob ownership is often a point of contention during PVE hunting. Soloists and groups run into this situation where other characters will come through and kill some of the same targets in the area where they were already hunting. The first point here is to use a cool head; everyone has a right to go after monsters. Even when a higher level person is attacking a beast, they may be after trade items that are useful, doing a backlog of old quest, or just farming something for their allies.

Instead of reacting with a negative attitude, see what can be done for both sides from the beginning. If you are on kill quest, offer to bring the other person/people into your group - everyone benefits from this. By the same logic, if you are on a collection quest and someone else is going after the same targets for different reasons, it is STILL faster to group together and hunt. Take the time to ask them first before immediately moving to invite them: players often respond more favorably and happily to a verbal request for a party than if you ambush them with an invitation box.

For whatever reason, an alliance may not be an option. This happens often enough. No problem; you can state what you are doing and see if the other players are willing to give you the space to continue with what you were already doing. If they can’t outright help, at least they can give you enough mobs to maintain the same kill rate and excitement. Fair enough for everyone concerned.

By asking people nicely and making your needs clear, you have every chance to get more of what you want if the other people are nice. Also, acting politely is less likely to trigger their obnoxious side (the side that might get them to intentionally stay longer and be even more obtrusive).

Most groups and confilcts are settled by the first two options. However, there are times when another group doesn’t want to join with yours and is not willing to share anything in the region. That doesn’t make them grievers - it’s till within their rights to kill as much as they can within the area (that is your right as well). If the other group refuses to have a comfortable attitude,you may try another camp of the same creature (this DOES NOT mean that you are backing down or acting like a coward); there are often several camps of important monsters in a given region. Rather, it shows that you are sensible enough to have good time and keep from wasting your night, experience points, and energy fighting for meager kills on a single quest. You can always come back later. Your fun, experience, and trasure are more important than making sure someone else ISN”T getting those things.

Okay, so is there any griefing at all that occurs in regard to mob ownership? Well, yes. Even with the tapping system in place, there are ways for people to make life difficult for many other classes. Someone with a real chip on their shoulders can use fast abilitties to tap a monster just before your anticipated pull. This negates the experience and treasure you receive from the kill, so it’s a bad situation. If someone does this once, ignore it entirely (it was most likely an accident). However, a person who follows your party around and does this multiple times is absolutely trying to get in your way. ASk the person what they are doing, then report anything foul in their response to a GM. If they ignore you and keep doing it, find a new place to hunt and ditch the offenders. Even at this stage, they may simply be too young, inexperienced, or otherwise hindered to know what they are doing.

It is still useful to know how to combat the people who try to tap “you” monsters. Note that your DOTs and debuffs aren’t useful for tapping. You need to deal damage to a target, and deal it quickly. Find your fastest ranged ability and use that for grabbing monsters. If you are a melee class, see what works best out of your existing options. For a Rogue, a fast thrown weapon or missile attack may be ideal. With Warriors, a Charge and immediate Hamstring. Obviously, Hunters and magic classes have the edge in doing this, but any skilled player who knows their class can learn to tap quickly and get the monsters they want.

One very useful thing to be aware of is the ability of certain classes to immediately lose aggro. Rogues and Hunters especially are able to grab creatures and then get them onto you (whether they are members of your faction makes no difference in this.) What happens is that these characters gather the aggro, move over to you, then use de-aggro abilities, such as Vanish or Feign Death. This puts the aggro onto you even if you haven’t touched the monsters. Damn! Most often this happens by accident when someone gets too many mobs at once on them and needs to escape; you are now the closest target for monster aggression and in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, a few nastier players of the community make an art form of doing this on purpose - and they are not usually subtle about it. IF you see suspicious/aggressive person gathering mobs into a tight group and then making a direct line toward you, prepare yourself for escape or an attck of your won against the monsters. Report those of your faction who do this consistently for griefing.

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