Guild Wars 2

stated on the wiki aggro is at the moment a list of factors, in most important order
1)closest target to them
2)who is dealing damage
3)top damage dealers
4)who is using a shield / has more toughness and overall armor
5)others

honestly i think aggro is very wonky at this state of the game
1) closest target doesnt nessesarly work when everyone is stacked up, since everyone is taking the brunt of the attack (cept if its single target)
2) who ever is doing damage is just about anyone in the area doing the event/other (imo this one is probably the most stable of the factors)
3) top damage dealer…. Wait? so ur tellign me that, that zerker build-whatever who is doing a truckload of damage but squishy as hell is generating more aggro then a person who actually built themselfs to be able to take a hit? this just doesnt make any sence to me
4)shield/defence honestly this should be up in the top 2 or 3
5) other is a finiky subject: sometimes reviving people is an aggro magnet, sometimes not so much

this also feels annoying when some mobs completely ignore some of the guidelinesr
for example the wurms (vines whatever) in exploration of TA, i’ve noticed that they love attacking the furthest player. though this may be cuase they are rooted in place. i’ve noticed this with a lot of other mobs also. i’ve also noticed that occasionally DPS is out done by high defence melee players, other times not so much. from my experiance the guidelines feel like they work on a RNG style basis vs actual aggro mechanics.

Some monsters have their own discrete aggro patterns.

For example lupicus in my experience always targets the player with the most HP during phase 2. And then the player with the most toughness during phase 3. Every time we’d do lupicus he’d shadowstep to warriors and necro’s if they were alive. When he hits phase 3 he’d suddenly change his mind and go right for the guardian instead.

This, in combination with his AOE abilities that mean the other party members cant just afk it, makes him one of the best bosses in terms of aggro. I’d love to see more bosses utilizing his aggro system.

I want to know where the wiki gets its aggro info. During champ fights in trains sometimes I’ll pop a healing turret outside of range to heal anyone, and laugh as the champ screams “shiny turret!” and turns its back on 3/4 Queensdale’s population to run across the cave/grove to oneshot the poor machine. Or how I start pulling a champ out of a train after joining late (25% remaining), applying 11 vuln, burn, 1 bleed, and poison in 2 keystrokes (maybe weak as well).

Wonky is an understatement…