Domain of Anguish question

Has anyone tested how the monsters in DoA react if you don't use area of effect ? So far all I can find are various flavours of fire-elementalis nuking groups.

I'd like to know if a tank can hold aggro while the group kills monsters one by one.

I know the warrior-monsters will run when their health goes down, but if it's just one, the group must be able to handle that and finish it off.
If the rest of the monsters doesn't break aggro (as they shouldn't) then the monks have a much easier time keeping the tank alive since they can get close once aggor is fixed. replacing the aoe nukers with single target damage dealers would make things a lot safer, even if it would be slower I think it would be worth the effort if you can avoid (near) party wipes and don't have to ressurect or restart half of the time.

This is the approach we always take to kill the mobs prior to Mallyx. Usually a mix of Ele Air Spikers and Necro Blood Spikers. It works, but it's much slower than 3 SF eles. The aggro breaking isn't an issue of AOE flee, it's an issue of the mobs trying to take out the eles because of the damage being done to them. If the team positions themselves correctly, aggro breaking really isn't much of an issue.

Generally, aggro scatters only when there is more than THREE MELEE foes attacking. There are no groups that have more than two in all of DoA except in the Stygian Veil. This is why the build we run in the regular areas uses an SS Necro as well as SF eles and things go smooth. Casters will not scatter because of SS or AoE damage.

Killing foes 1 at a time is safer because the problem with SF is that as it damages foes together, it makes them all enraged so that by the time you kill the monk, the Margonite Anur Su (the air ele) is REALLY mad and his Lightning Hammer would kill an ele instantly.

However, the beauty of having 3 SF nukers is that you drop 3 Meteor Showers, keep bruning in between and lay down EoE and the fight is over in 1 tenth of the time it woudl take to take them down one at a time. It's a question of efficiency.

Certain fights you do not want to drag on forever. For example, in the City, the longer the fight drags on, the worst the energy situation gets as the enemy necros will throw Malaise and Wither at you and the enemy Mesmers will throw Feedback, E-Surge and Power Leak at you and the fight will just become ridiculous with your spikers begging for energy.

I don't even know how you would handle the Veil. You'd have to try it and let us know. I personally like the speed of the mass nuking concept. It can get a little risky at times, but I just like to kill faster rather than play it safe.

Thank you for the replies.

I'll try to form a team of safe players next time I'm out there.
The problem I have with the mass nuking is that you need a well organised team and good communication.

Not allways easy to do this with pick-up groups.

Odly, if you are looking for someone to help you test this out my Derv and War stand ready