Melee Positioning
 

Does positioning yourself behind a mob, as a meleer, do anything (with the exclusion of backstabbing)? Are mobs unable to, for instance, dodge, parry, or riptose from behind?

dodge/parry yes, riposte no (this is huge for raid mobs come velious and lol-enrage mobs D=)

Riposte is a frontal 180 degree arc I believe, so yes you avoid ripostes if in the rear half of the mob. Dodge and Parry I can't recall if they are reduced when in the rear or not, but I tend to think they were. Ultimately DPS is on average higher when attacking from the rear than in the front is the short answer, and as the above poster mentioned, on raid level mobs that Enrage (Basically a 100% riposte state) you don't want to be in the front unless you're the tank which you obviously turn off auto attack during that time.

Good times on raids include tank stepping forward just enough to cause the mob to do a 180 during ENRAGE status to see how fast your melee are turning off auto-attack and/or who's AFK auto-attacking. =) If you aren't fast you could be laying on the floor fast.

But so does it only make a difference starting when mobs get riptose? Not that it's that big a pain to just get behind the mob, but I'm curious.

The MT in my old live server's guild had the surname Rageeater for a reason :)

block/dodge/parry/riposte should not occur behind the mob.

And that is how it should work here too. If it doesn't let me know, because that would be a bug that should not exist.

Haynar

Huh, I was fighting Aqua Goblins in DC today and as one was trying to get away from me he dodged from behind. Might have been my angle, I will watch for it now.

they can dodge, just cant riposte from behind

i had many lols turning aow during enrage to kill everyone.

Dude, that is evil...ALOL