AoM - Guide to winning

[Kannkor]

Just seemed fitting to make another post with little tid bits of information, that may help some people be more successful with AoM.

First, if you haven't, read my ToV Instances - Guide to winning here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=57
The managing campspots is EXTREMELY important. I will be referencing things explained in that post.

Lets get the boring stuff out of the way.

Proper Group Make up.
You are welcome to use any group make up you desire. If you want 6 swashbucklers, you go right ahead. But don't expect to be successful, or have an easy time.
I still hold the opinion, that the most successful group make up, for ANY content, is as follows:
Tank
Bard
Enchanter
Priest1
Priest2
DPS
When I say any content, I mean the hardest content you are facing. If you only want to do the super easy stuff, then who cares. But if you change from this, chances are, you will have a more difficult time on the more difficult instances. How many botters could do Vulak's Dominion with 1 priest in the first month?
Try to keep the classes so they help each other. For example, if you want your DPS to be a scout, you should use a Dirge for the bard, and a Coercer for the enchanter. If you want to use a mage for your DPS, you should use a troubadour as your bard, and an illusionist for the enchanter. These aren't required by any means, but they do make more sense.

Buffage
I'm only going to very briefly touch on this. Make sure you are using all of the buffs available, and putting them on the most correct people. Don't expect someone elses profile to have every buff listed. Once the bot is done buffing, open the spell book and look at every single buff, are they all being used that can be? If not, add it in.

Itemization/Loot
I should probably say, this section is very opinionated. So do what you want, but here's my opinion.
First, resists are #1 most important thing. more resists means less damage you take. If you're having people die due to resists, get more, period.
Assign items to your toons, based on mobs you CAN'T kill. If you've already killed a mob, then any loot upgrades don't matter for that mob. You should be focused on why you can't kill a mob.
For example, if you're fighting a mob and the AE is chain killing your bard, guess who should get any usable scout loot? While yes, your ranger would probably gain a few DPS from getting that upgrade instead, but will it help you kill the next mob? No, so stop wasting worrying about your epeen, and use your head... the other one.
If your tank is dying, that means you need more survivability. More mit/block/hp on your tank, and better healing/wards/reactives/hots/etc on your priests. Again, giving an item to your ranger over your shaman, when people are dying, isn't going to help you.
On the flip side, lets say you get to a fight, and you are failing a DPS check, in this case, you want to give items to anyone who can improve your DPS.


Okay, now for the real information.
It really depends on how far you want to take your group, how much of this applies to you. If you're happy killing whatever just happens to die with the least amount of work, you probably don't need to read anymore. But if you want to kill everything, continue along!

Abilities
You need to learn and make MCP buttons for ALL of your non-standard abilities. What I mean by non-standard abilities; death prevents, damage reducers, bladedance, stoneskins etc. Important abilities that can change a fight, you should not have being spammed in the bot. Again, this is more for "min/max"ing to get the most out of it.
Make sure these abilities on easily accessible on your MCP. If they aren't on your main page, you won't use them. Get into the habit of using them!
P.S. For those with a coercer, Coercive shout is probably the #1 underused ability in the game.
Don't be afraid to use these abilities. They don't go away... Make use of them! For example, if something bad is about to happen, and you know it, use a group death prevent/damage reducer if you have one!

Campspot and OgreFollow
Between these two movement options, you can complete the majority of zones. Add in the ability to turn off move behind/move into melee range, and you have a lot of movement options. Need your group to move a specific direction? Use North/East/South/West. Need them to move to you? Use ChangeCampSpotToMe. Want them to just follow you? Use OFollow. Need a mix of them? Do it! The options here are nearly limitless.


At the time of writing this, there are what, 15 new heroic zones within AoM. 14 have been cleared without a single piece of code. That's right, they just used tactics available for anyone, at any time. How? Well, that is the million dollar question.
You will be REQUIRED to "manually" do some things. You may have to move 1 toon away from the group so they don't blow up. Pause them, and move them. Once it's safe for them, just hit "Resume". You also don't need to pause. If you aren't using campspot at the exact moment. You can use no move, then move them. This allows them to continue casting.
There may be times where you have to pause 3-6 toons and move them/do something with them. Will it be absolute chaos? Yes, yes it will. But some times chaos is the road to victory!

The more effort and time you put into it, the more you will get out of it. Learn and try things. Read the forums, read the wiki. A lot of people are willing to share tricks.

* Edit *
Campspot.. again.
I feel this is worth mentioning again. ChangeCampSpotToMe is one of the most powerful options available. If you are not familiar with campspot, you should re-read the Guide to Winning ToV and learn it.
Lets use a real example of how and why this option is so important.
First named in Ossuary: Sanguine Fountains, is The Sanguine Fiend. He puts red stuff down all around him, or in front of him, or behind him. Start off by campspoting your group (but not your tank). I start buffing up (getting wards going etc), then run towards him. When I hit the middle of the room, I hit CCSTM (ChangeCampSpotToMe) and keep running forward on the tank. This will move your group to where you hit the button. Since you kept moving forward, the named will more than likely be between you and the group. Giving the group his back. Perfect!
Now, when the named puts the red stuff on the ground, move your tank to a safe location, and hit the CCSTM button again. Note: You don't have to wait until you get there, you can press it every few steps, this way they start moving right away.
You can easily dodge almost every single ground spawn a named does this way, in every single zone.

If you have a mouse with extra buttons on it, you should consider adding this button to your mouse, for easy pressing. This post may help you. viewtopic.php?f=15&t=92