History Main / HerdHittingAttack

* In TeamFortress2 this can be an effective tactic, since you need to capture specific points or push a cart, which by nature causes players to bunch up. The best ways to take them out is using a bunch of sticky bombs from a Demoman or sendinging in an ubered medic with either a Heavy, a Demo or Pyro. To avoid this, teams might try having a few people (especially Medics) stand just off the point, so they can move in if their teammates are killed.

* ''{{Starcraft}}'' has quite a bit of this. The Science Vessel can use Irradiate on enemy units, causing damage to them and any nearby units until the afflicted unit dies, the Mutalisk can chain attack up to three enemies, the Devourer's attack causes a damage effect that splashes to nearby airborne units, the Valkyrie's rockets scatter around nearby enemies, and the Reaver, the Infested Terran, the Firebat and the Siege Tank in siege mode all have area-of-effect attack -- and in fact, the Firebat is a great defense against a ZergRush thanks to its powerful attack, its area of effect and its ready availability. The Arbiter unit has an AOE debuff which freezes everything in a radius, taking it out of the battle. The Protoss Corsair is an interesting example; it can only attack air-to-air, and its rapid-fire attack has an AOE radius so small it requires several units to be basically on the same spot in order to hit more than one; rather conveniently, air units in Starcraft can pass through each other and tend to bunch up on a single spot when given an attack order, so swarms of enemy flyers will generally form clumps at a single point.

* [[RatchetAndClank Ratchet: Deadlocked]] has weapon mods that cause attacked enemies to send out electrical shocks to their nearby allies. These actually first appeared in ''Going Commando'' as hidden mods to certain weapons, but ''Deadlocked'' allowed you to add the mod to ''any'' weapon.

* [[RatchetAndClank Ratchet: Deadlocked]] has weapon mods that cause attacked enemies to send out electrical shocks to their nearby allies.

* ''{{Starcraft}}'' has quite a bit of this. The Science Vessel can use Irradiate on enemy units, causing damage to them and any nearby units until the afflicted unit dies, the Mutalisk can chain attack up to three enemies, the Devourer's attack causes a damage effect that splashes to nearby airborne units, the Valkyrie's rockets scatter around nearby enemies, and the Reaver, the Infested Terran, the Firebat and the Siege Tank in siege mode all have area-of-effect attack -- and in fact, the Firebat is a great defense against a ZergRush thanks to its powerful attack, its area of effect and its ready availability. The Arbiter unit has an AOE debuff which freezes everything in a radius, taking it out of the battle.

* an attack involving an area of effect (AOE), like an explosion (the most common), or an attack that "rains down" or "spreads" over an area. Sometimes the AOE is a melee attack that hits multiple targets in a circle around the attacker.

** Special mention should go to the Assault Rifle powerset, which, has 3 out of the nine attacks be AoEs

* Tactical RPGs tend to feature these. FinalFantasyTactics had, as a standard magic pattern, a 5-panel area. {{Disgaea}} even gives you the trade-off: you can get combo attacks if you stand near each other, but watch out for someone who wants to nuke the three panels you're all standing in..

** Loken is considered the worst five-man boss in ''Wrath of the Lich King'': he has Arc Lightning, a spreading debuff variant which can hit a party endlessly if the members don't spread out. But he also inverts this trope with Pulsating Shockwave, which does more damage the farther away you are from him and occurs frequently. Either you spread out and get zapped or stand right next to him and get zapped.

* ''Left4Dead 2'' introduced the Spitter and its gobs of acidic spit to discourage the survivors from standing in a tight formation after skilled teams completed ''Left 4 Dead'' that way. There's even an [[CosmeticAward achievement]] in VS mode for hitting all four survivors with one spit attack.

* The ChainLightning spell in ''DungeonsAndDragons''. After hitting its primary target it arcs to the nearest target (losing 1d6 of damage), doing so again and again until it runs out of energy.

** The Shaman's has Chain Lightning like the Farseer in ''Warcraft III''. Watch out for it in PVP.

** Thaddius's Polarity Shift randomly gives each party member a positive or negative charge. Standing near players with the same charge gives a damage buff, while players with the opposite charge (or no charge at all) causes damage, with both effects increasing in potency with the number of players in range.