Fear dropping aggro

[Drehar 2]

I just looked through the Bug reports and I haven't seen anything about Fear dropping aggro. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure on Live Fear did NOT drop aggro, I remember the biggest threats being when the tank got feared he would run into other melee getting them all 1 shot cleaved, and taking crushing blows while facing away from the boss.

I could be wrong about this, it was 10 years ago. Does any one else memory serve them better?
My experience is from Raiding End game content at progression cap on Live. MC/Onyxia Clears before BWL, BWL clears before AQ ect.. There is a possibility that fear changed at some point after patch 1.11, I didn't play much Vanilla at that point.

[Mahtan 15]

https://youtu.be/oXFjVHqXCi0?t=3m22s

[Drehar 2]

Thank you for the clarification. Did this apply to all fears? Onyxia / Nef included? I played Horde and we had Tremor totem, so its not like our tanks were unfearable. Maybe it just didn't seem like that big of an issue because the fear would only last for 1-2 seconds before the totem would kickin and wipe the fear.

[Mahtan 15]

The spell that Ony and Nefarian use is called Bellowing Roar and applies a common fear effect, similar to the warlock spell.

An old WoWwiki entry of Aggro gives us more insight regarding your question:

Quote

If certain abilities apply a debuff to a character that cause the mob to consider the player an invalid target. Usually these debuffs have a chance (or certainty) to break on damage, but there are some that don't but still cause the mob to consider the character an invalid target. Examples include Polymorph, Gouge, Fear, Conflagration, etc.

 

I played Alliance and dwarf priests were pure gold for encounters like Nef due to their Fear Ward racial priest spell. But of course, a Warrior can just stance dance to neutralize the fear effect, just like explained in this old Nefarian guide:

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Nefarian casts an AOE fear roughly every 30 seconds. The ground shakes immediately before this occurs, giving the MT time to stance dance and use berserker rage. Alternatively, if facing Nef as the Alliance, have any dwarf priests cast fear ward on the MT. It's worthy to note that his fear has limited range of about 35 yards, so ranged DPS and healers can completely avoid it by proper positioning.

 

Here is an example of a classic Nefarian raid as alliance, using fear ward and stance dancing to prevent chaos. Here is another example of a classic Onyxia raid as alliance - look at the fear ward rotation! Easymode ;)

I guess it's in the nature of humans, not to share failed raiding attempts. I was not able to find a classic Nefarian or Onyxia raid, where people are not dealing properly with the dragon's fear.

[Drakbak 3]

Stance dance is a partial solution.  As it stands, the timer for Nef's Bellowing Roar is random between 25000 and 30000 milliseconds.  Even with optimal timing, horde warriors will miss a fear due to zerker's rage being on CD since the fears are on a faster CD.  We are then subject to the pulsing effect of the tremor totem.  Alliance get easymode with dwarf priest.  Not a complaint, just a fact that's been well known since vanilla retail.