Guild Wars 2

I love playing guild wars 2 and have been playing it for quite a while now, however as much as I love this game a huge thing I have noticed is there is no way to control aggro. Monster aggro seems to be quite random or worse, monsters go after the person with the least toughness or hp. This has been mentioned a million times before, but what is the point of gearing any kind of non-damage stat if you can’t control aggro? You might feel tanky as a PVT guardian in a dungeon but in reality you are less useful than a zerker guardian counterpart. Not only do you deal less damage than a berserker geared guard, but the zerker guard has the same amount of utility you do.

Hey, see a icebrood dog wailing on your elementalist? Normally you would have to hope the ele knows how to dodge, but dodges are limited by endurance and often they are not enough against monsters that consistently go after one person. With abilities that raise monster aggro on yourself, aka taunts, you can temporarily provoke said icebrood dog into attacking you, giving the ele some breathing room.

You might say: “Well Piratoz, this will make guild wars 2 into the holy trinity, let us play how we want!!!!”. While guild wars 2 does pride itself on being a non-holy trinity MMO, having taunts and aggro control does not make it a trinity. Rather aggro control such as taunts could be added as an extra form of utility and support to supplement existing playstyles. They would be on long cooldowns so characters cannot maintain permanent aggro.

You could also say that the current dungeon meta revolves around stacking and burning enemies down with FGS/icebows so there is no need for aggro control. However Anet has shown that they are listening to players. This is seen in the new enemies seen in dry top which have mechanics which reward good positioning and cater to alternative playstyles. New enemy design coupled with the removal of the ability to do ridiculous amounts of damage the FGS “exploit” would help to discourage stack&burn tactics. Of course the introduction of aggro control is just a step toward improving PVE, there are a host of other problems such condition cap and content rewards but those are other topics for another time. My hope is that the introduction of mechanics such as aggro control would provide some additional depth to PVE encounters. I have also made a list of potential moves that could draw/drop aggro. Without further ado:

Aggro Gain

Guardian

• Shield of Judgement (Shield 4)

• Save Yourselves (Utility)

• Signet of Judgement active (Utility)

• Protector’s Strike (Mace 3) – short duration

Warrior

• Shield Bash (Shield 4)

• Defiant Stance (Heal Skill)

• Bulls Charge (Utility)

Engineer

• Static Shield(Shield 5)

Ranger

• Black Bear F2 (Pet Skill)

• Brown Bear F2 (Pet Skill)

• Polar Bear F2 (Pet Skill)

• Murellow F2 (Pet Skill)

Thief

• Scorpion Wire (Utility)

Elementalist

• Magnetic Shield (Conjure Earth Shield 4)

Mesmer

• Mantra of Disraction active – Power Lock (Utility)

Necromancer

• Tainted Shackles (Death Shroud 5)

• Flesh Golem Command: Charge (Elite)

• Shadow Fiend Command: Haunt (Utility)

Aggro Drop

Elementalist

• Mist Form (Utility)

Thief

• Roll for Initiative (Utility)

Ranger

• Lightning reflexes (Utility)

Personally in my opinion, while Anet has shown improvement in recent content, guild wars 2 still has a lot of problems to fix and has so much potential. What do you guys think about the aggro control and the current state of Guild Wars 2?

No.

No. Your generic MMO is that way. ->
GW2 stays here.

No.

Would rather just have meaningful control skills. Not another agro table game.

The last mmo I played with trinity/aggro was Wildstar and that has an appauling combat system. Granted it can work…but it isn’t needed here. The combat system at it’s core is fine (conditions in groups excepting) and often superior to many other mmos. There are better tweaks than aggro that are more needed, like improvements to controls, a wider range of skills and out of combat quick swapping.

I do however admire that you at leats put forth credible suggestions and backed up with skill ideas to support them

Aggro control is not needed in a game where you could just use a knockdown, knockback, pull, blind, aegis, or heal skill.

In a game of self-sufficiency this just isn’t going to work. The game already has a good host of crowd control abilities… instead of taunting that dog on the Ele try using immobilize or cripple to accomplish the same thing.
Also, I think this would make the FGS/Icebow tactics that you mentioned even easier to accomplish.

There is already such control. It’s not guaranteed. It’s an aggression system that goes up and down through the battle.

Enemies switch targets depending on how the actions of individual players that raise or decrease aggression towards them.

But very few people notices such changes.

For example:

• Being closer to an enemy increases their aggression towards your character. You friends is going to be attacked? Use some leap to get right next to the enemy, they’ll often switch targets.
• If you pull an enemy towards you, chances are they’ll forget about their original target and switch to you.
• Enemies too focused on you? Have an ally deal a flurry of attacks on a target while you move away. Your aggression decreases, theirs goes up.
• Want to grab a party of enemies rushing in? Land a snare and stay between them, while the rest of the party stays away. If they can’t reach any other player soon, they’ll switch to you.

MithranArkanere.8957:

There is already such control. It’s not guaranteed. It’s an aggression system that goes up and down through the battle.

Enemies switch targets depending on how the actions of individual players that raise or decrease aggression towards them.

But very few people notices such changes.

For example:

• Being closer to an enemy increases their aggression towards your character. You friends is going to be attacked? Use some leap to get right next to the enemy, they’ll often switch targets.
• If you pull an enemy towards you, chances are they’ll forget about their original target and switch to you.
• Enemies too focused on you? Have an ally deal a flurry of attacks on a target while you move away. Your aggression decreases, theirs goes up.
• Want to grab a party of enemies rushing in? Land a snare and stay between them, while the rest of the party stays away. If they can’t reach any other player soon, they’ll switch to you.

Yes. Ways to peel for your teammates should be far more important than any direct aggro manipulation. The game is more dynamic this way. Unfortunately most people say, “screw it” and wall los + fgs4 instead.

Gw2 agro system is better as other games

Also, if you use a ton of CC while standing right next to a mob, they will most likely always target you. This is why the Rune of the Golemancer is actually pretty strong. He uses the golem Whirling Assault attack that constantly knocks back while walking forward. If he uses that against a target with Defiance or against a wall, he will almost always get the full attention of the mob (unless they have special targeting for some abilities: see Lupicus).

Of course, against trash or mobs around no walls, it’s pretty annoying.

Esplen.3940:

[…]

It also helps that NPCs have by default increased aggression towards hostile pets and summons. They will go after you first if they see you because pets start neutral towards them, but if you can command them to attack, they’ll start hostile and enemies will go for them first.

There is an algorithm for aggro. It’s based upon a combination of player proximity to the monster, each player’s armor value, players with active defenses/blocks, top damage dealers, and who is currently attacking the monster.

Source: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

So you can spec into a full tank, but likely you’re not going to deal enough damage to keep you high enough on the aggro table, especially with nomad’s. I mean imagine being in a fight, and there’s a massive guy tapping you with a pool noodle and a small guy with a knife cutting you constantly. Which makes sense for you to try and take down first?

And if it’s a knife on the big guy and a sword on the small one? Well, you’d have to try and size both of them up and figure it out while keeping both at bay, as the aggro system tries to accomplish with variable systems.

DeceiverX.8361:

There is an algorithm for aggro. It’s based upon a combination of player proximity to the monster, each player’s armor value, players with active defenses/blocks, top damage dealers, and who is currently attacking the monster.

Source: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

Keep in mind, this formula can differ between each mob and even different attacks on the same mob.

i thought this was going to be a thread on CC skills. but then…

i’ll side with everyone else. no.