Guild Wars 2

I’ve had this occur on multiple occasions and it’s really frustrating.

A group of players will take on a mob (commonly a boss, veteran or champion) and he’ll commence to kill the melee characters. That’s fine and all.

But at times the mob will decide that an already downed player really needs to die. And that’s annoying and doesn’t make much sense. Surely a crippled or downed player is the least threat to a mob, and thus should take the lowest position on his/her threat table.

Simply being focused to death for no apparent reason, and with nothing you can do about it, is really frustrating. Surely this cannot be intended because….well why would it?

My thoughts on this is:
It sucks when its happening to me too.
But, it only makes sense. I focus fire on players who are in a downed state in WvW, why wouldn’t an NPC do the same.

I can only say it’s a bit more random. Some mobs, vets, and champs operate just as you say and others operate quite differently. A friend and I two manned a champ spider (she being a melee guardian and me being a mix warrior). It was a long battle and the spider would go after her and eventually she would go into downed state and then I would open with a burst and she would come after me and I would drag the champ away from my friend and let her rally and we did this over and over until the spider died.

If I see a friend go into downed state I try to let out a burst to grab the mobs attention and then kite the mob away to allow rally to occur.

Doesn’t always work but often times enough does.

yeah, some people say ranged mobs favour players with low health or players in downed state… which is something I tend to agree on, but it is kinda random at times,

It’s logical. I loathe the ‘trinity’ system because it makes no sense. This is a tactical game and the enemies are attempting to kill you, not just knock you out.

Garenthal.1480:

It’s logical. I loathe the ‘trinity’ system because it makes no sense. This is a tactical game and the enemies are attempting to kill you, not just knock you out.

Rubbish,

I’ve seen them ignore downed player just as often. In fact they ignore them more often than not. So why do some mobs seem to make an exception…for no apparent reason.

PS: I agree that the aggro system has some sort of (this guy has been the most dangerous over the last 5 seconds) type of mechanic. But that doesn’t help explain the “I’ll continue beating on a downed players for lolz” behavior.

Lewzephyr.5281:

But, it only makes sense. I focus fire on players who are in a downed state in WvW, why wouldn’t an NPC do the same.

Because foremost a game should be fun. The best way to make a game fun is to help the players feel like a boss, and the best way to achieve that is through a positive narrative of events.

This also means there are certain strategically logical things which only cause frustration and/or break the narrative.

1. Stun locking a player to death
2. Downing a player and IMMEDIATELY finishing him off with no way to make a final stand
3. Forcing a player to respawn and run back

The first two only generates frustration which can sour an encounter. Especially if the encounter ultimately results in a wipe. The latter causes serious narrative breaking. Games tell a story, but you cannot reconcile respawn mechanics and death with storytelling – not in the GW universe anyway.

In short, if you’re going to take a player out, make sure you leave the player with a good narrative, there’s nothing wrong with a player going down fighting. But nobody likes to be the red shirt on Star trek

One time a champion mob chased only me around for like 10 minutes while I only dropped an aoe attack behind me to hit him….Not sure what the agro system is because I was hardly attacking in comparison. However the 20 people there were probably laughing….Someone even cheered me on in chat haha.

I noticed that sometimes enemies will switch focus onto you while you’re trying to bring yourself or a fellow player out of the downed state. I wonder if it’s the healing values that causes them to attack.

Dee Jay.2460:

I’ve had this occur on multiple occasions and it’s really frustrating.

A group of players will take on a mob (commonly a boss, veteran or champion) and he’ll commence to kill the melee characters. That’s fine and all.

But at times the mob will decide that an already downed player really needs to die. And that’s annoying and doesn’t make much sense. Surely a crippled or downed player is the least threat to a mob, and thus should take the lowest position on his/her threat table.

Simply being focused to death for no apparent reason, and with nothing you can do about it, is really frustrating. Surely this cannot be intended because….well why would it?

For one thing, there is no threat table. Another thing, is that once focus has been shifted off of you, then you can easily get up on your own by channeling #4. Once you’re up again then you are a ‘threat’ once more. If they coded bosses so that focus shifted once you are in a downed stat then people might not even bother dodging or avoiding abilities. Why bother dodging when you can just channel #4 for a few second and be back in the fight? Right now with the boss focusing you, people have to make think about their situation. Do you try to teleport away (if you have that ability)? do your teammates come in and help revive you even if there is some danger from a boss right next to you?

… because they don’t want you to rally? It’s pretty much that simple. They ARE your enemies, you know?

Maybe they have monthly achievement too.

I’ve taken to building in more durability to kit and traits rather than more damage. This had reduced the number of times I’m downed, decreasing the likelihood I’m defeated. I agree it’s no fun being defeated, but it’s also less fun for me if I don’t have to outsmart the AI — I like it that the foes are smart enough to go after low health and downed targets; that’s exactly what players do to reduce threats in PvE and PvP.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I like it that the foes are smart enough to go after low health and downed targets; that’s exactly what players do to reduce threats in PvE and PvP.

Agree – I think the AI is better the closer it is to how human players would play. That’s not only good for the challenge, but also because you can more easily imagine that the opposition represents a real threat and in the long run that’s a lot more fun than feeling the mobs are just there to be punching bags or coconuts at a coconut shie. Whilst Mob AI is hardly perfect in GW2 (those centaurs&bandits have an unnatural death wish most of the time they should try to flee & group together more often) they do seem to have made some progress over past games.

NPCs do it because that’s what MAKES SENSE. A downed player is the easiest possible target — play WvW or sPvP … a downed player gets swarmed by every nearby enemy player.

It sucks, but the moral of the story: avoid the downed state.

If you went down and mobs just decided “okay, that’s enough” there wouldn’t be much incentive to keep from going down, there would be no reason for other players to protect you or help you up, and PvE would be just insanely easy.

Down is supposed to give you a chance to recover from failure, and to give your friends (or random other dudes) a chance to help you recover, and a chance to pull off a satisfying play to snatch life from the jaws of defeat. It is not, however, supposed to guarantee these things. As a theif one of my most satisfying group fight plays in PvE is to drop a shadow refuge on a downed player, and then get him up while we’re both stealthed. This is a fun play because I actually get to save someone and because the use of my skills matters. If mobs ignored downed players, none of the traits,runes, or skills that are especially good at reviving downed players would have any use, nor would 1-3 on your downed bar.

Aggro targeting in GW2 is a lot like aggro in the first game, its not supposed to be something you can predict or game (even though it was very easy to break the system in the first game with distance, corners, or just a squad of necromancer minions) in order to make you time your defensive cooldowns and consider your positioning and health at all times. If mobs laid off you as soon as you were down they would be awarding your failure.