Guild Wars 2

What determines aggro in this game? This is not a topic for players helping players, kindly do not move the thread.

From the wiki

Aggro refers to gaining, controlling and losing the aggression of hostile NPCs. The aggro system is simple—NPCs will select targets primarily based on a range calculation, meaning the character or pet closest to the NPC will hold its attention.¹ However, there are additional factors such as which characters are doing damage, and how much each character has done. In addition, not all creatures use the same AI for aggro; some creatures will have unique aggro mechanics ²

My question is has anyone quantified how this works specifically? Which mobs are different and why?

Will there every be pure logic to the randomness of PvE in this game?

It isn’t random at all. It’s all there in the wiki. The trick is knowing which mobs/bosses attack who and when.

Generally they will attack whoever is closest. But as it says in your quote, certain mobs have other determining factors.

There are certain champion mobs in orr for example that will totally ignore my elementalist if somebody wearing heavy armour is around, totally ignoring proximity.

I guess it’s possible to provide a detailed list of unique aggro determining factors for certain mobs, but it would be a pretty big undertaking.

Essentially, from what I understand, it isn’t possible to produce a formula for agro that would apply to all enemies, due to some having extra determining factors affecting who they target.

I’m not giving a real answer, but its more based on how GW1 worked and how I think I’ve read GW2.

Aggro “should be” based on mob intelligence. If you are in range and the mob is smart enough to define you as a threat, you will be the threat. Dumb mods will attack the immediate threat, smart mobs will attack the target of opportunity.

The method used in GW1 worked well in my opinion, I am hoping they expanded on it in GW2.

AesirValkyr.7418:

I’m not giving a real answer, but its more based on how GW1 worked and how I think I’ve read GW2.

Aggro “should be” based on mob intelligence. If you are in range and the mob is smart enough to define you as a threat, you will be the threat. Dumb mods will attack the immediate threat, smart mobs will attack the target of opportunity.

The method used in GW1 worked well in my opinion, I am hoping they expanded on it in GW2.

I liked that about GW1. :P I can’t say for any certainty, but I felt like my Ranger was hardly ever singled out or deliberately targeted, which meant… HEY!

Using CC is a sure-fire way of getting anythings attention in this game.

Most creeps seem to have different agro patterns, and some even have different ones on different attacks. Lupi, for example, will bubble whoever has the highest toughness (most of the time) and machine gun whoever has the lowest HP.

I think bosses are even dumber, some times when they down someone, they dont keep and try to kill it (something someone smart would do!) instead they fall on the trap of the other guy trying to lure the boss out so the downed can ress.

I would really really love more improvements on aggro, not talking about making it boring like WoW where obviously there was always 1 tank and the boss always attacked the same, but instead make them smarter switch targets a lot and so on.