Trial 2: in Ragefire Chasm, fights held back and fewer deaths

What was happening

Of the day's 228 Ragefire Chasm runs, only 23% were finished, with 9 deaths per run on average:

• fights kept growing: the tank aimed at a group of 1 to 3 monsters, but each engaged monster calls its neighbours for help, in a chain; the biggest fight of a run had 6 monsters at the median, and more than half of the deaths came against 4 monsters or more;
• nearly half of the deaths happened in the troggs' cave, crossed by three patrols;
• enemy shamans and warlocks fleeing at low health brought back reinforcements;
• warrior tanks without a ranged weapon walked into the middle of the group of monsters instead of drawing it to them;
• the enemy warlocks' summoned servant was not counted in the group to face.

The level, on the other hand, was not the cause: level-18 characters died as much as level-15 ones, for lack of gear.

The fixes

• The fight is held back, on the path already walked, away from other monsters: the tank shoots from afar (or shows itself, then backs off if it has no ranged weapon) and lets the group come to it.
• The tank no longer runs ahead of the monsters: it waits in place for the one coming at it.
• The group to face is counted in full, step by step, summoned servants included.
• Fleeing enemies are finished off before they fetch help.
• A weak group facing an elite waits until it has its health and mana, as in front of a big group.

For now, these rules only apply to Ragefire Chasm: they will be extended to the other dungeons once tested there.

On the test server

Forty level-16 characters geared like the trial's population, the same playing time before and after: deaths went from 35 to 9 and wipes from 6 to 1; one run was finished with its 4 bosses in 28 minutes, with no deaths. The sample is still small: the trial's figures will tell whether the effect holds.