Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed that I’ve been drawing an absurd amount of aggro lately.

It first started getting weird in the Silverwastes, where I would just stand still and things from the other side of the valley were coming after me. Then I noticed that simply by running past mobs attacking a monster or monsters, one or more of them would pull off from the mob and go after me.

The latest was loading into a Rhendak event. He almost always attacks me when I participate in the event. However, this time I loaded past the pillar in front of his spawn chest and off to the side of the room. My intention was just to wp out and not participate in the event. However, despite a mob of players attacking him, my idle character, present for only a few seconds, became his primary focus.

Not sure why I’m drawing so much aggro from the enemies in this game. Maybe my characters should stop carrying raw steaks in their bags.

That’s one of the greatest mysteries of GW2, no one really knows.

Not a mystery, we know very well how it works. It does differ depending on the mob/boss however, providing more interesting combat than simplistic trinity games.

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

From what I’ve understood, there isn’t really a traditional ‘aggro’ mechanic, which is why it is basically impossible to tank in GW2. With regards to some of your examples, SW does have a lot of mobs moving about frequently, it could be they were just en-route across the map and happened across you (they are quite aggressive mobs in SW).
I would be interested to know more bout the ‘aggro’ mechanics in place though – I suspect it is a case of dmg caused = ‘aggro’ created.
(I’ve also noticed sometimes that there are just some creatures with a grudge against my character, who stick with me regardless of someone else attacking them and me doing nothing)

Enemies generally attack the nearest player. However they also seem to be programmed to change targets every so often. It depends on the enemy. Sometimes they want to attack the weakest person. Sometimes they are coded to use a specific attack only on the farthest person. Lupicus seems to be programmed to chose a specific target for each ability. He tends to use his bubble on the same person every time, and then he switches to someone else to cast his missile. So there is no aggro statistic. Enemies are simply programmed to try to behave with some level of improvisation.

It’s based on a few factors:

- Range of player away from the mob
- Each surrounding player’s toughness
- The damage dealt by nearby players

DeceiverX.8361:

It’s based on a few factors:

- Range of player away from the mob
- Each surrounding player’s toughness
- The damage dealt by nearby players

There are other factors as well.
- in general having a shield equipped is supposed to put you higher on aggro list (was menioned by one of devs long ago, but not clear if still works, or even how important factor this is)
- reviving generally makes you more likely to be targeted
- quite often not only distance, but positioning will be important as well (whether you are in front or behind mob’s back)
- lot of mobs have their own private sets of aggro conditions. For example, mordrem wolves often will go after people that are not facing them/are running away from them. Most mordrem mobs (but especially wolves and teragriffs) will prioritize downed players over anything else.
Also, there seems to be a random factor included as well.

Karizee.8076:

Not a mystery, we know very well how it works. It does differ depending on the mob/boss however, providing more interesting combat than simplistic trinity games.

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

And because it does work more or less totally random, noone cares about the mechanic.

It fails in matters of teamplay and control. But if you want chaos though, it is perfectly well designed.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Karizee.8076:

Not a mystery, we know very well how it works. It does differ depending on the mob/boss however, providing more interesting combat than simplistic trinity games.

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

And because it does work more or less totally random, noone cares about the mechanic.

It fails in matters of teamplay and control. But if you want chaos though, it is perfectly well designed.

I disagree. I strategically drop and gain aggro all the time. It’s a way of making the AI feel more realistic and reduce dependencies on roles as per the game’s core design philosophy while still promoting ways for players to engage and disengage safely and work with that design in mind. Does shouting at something really gain attention in the heat of battle? Not really, no. Does being the biggest threat? Yep. But if that threat is really far away? Well, only if there’s not a similar threat closer or you’re unobstructed.

@Astral, forgot about the LoS thing and ressing. As far as shields go, I’ve never noticed a difference, and conditional behaviors are simply part of the mob’s AI.