Guild Wars 2

Hi, I am a GW2 player and I like long walks on the beach an—oh, wrong intro.

Anyway, I was wondering if there was any official statement about the hate/aggro mechanics on GW2.
I play a guardian and I have 2 full exotic sets and an ascended ring/back piece. I have a MF set and a full tough/vit/pow set with runes of the soldier in them and 2 sets of accessories.
Nooooow, what I’m wondering is if someone else noticed that the person with the highest armor rating is the one that seems to get aggro’d the most?

Reason I ask this is because when I often do dungeons, CoF in particular. If I put on my MF gear and there’s another warrior or guardian in the party. I hardly get hit by the bosses or mobs. Put on my WvW set and they’re on me like I’m made out of chocolate or something. Not sure how much armor I have with MF gear, maybe somewhere in the 2k’s but with WvW gear I get close to 3.2k

Another thing I have experimented with in path 2 of CoF is the final boss fight. If I put on my MF set the ghost-boss will normally not aggro me. If I put on my WvW set he will NOT aggro anyone but me. No matter how far away I run from it or let someone else aggro it first. It WILL go after me.

So is aggro mechanic really just as simple as who has the highest armor rating? Or is there a known formula? I would love to know either way. I’ve heard players say it’s Armor dependent but I really couldn’t find any confirmation other than their word on it.

Thank you in advance for any answers

I somehow doubt it. I play a ranger, and I run dungeons with a group of friends. Two of them play a War and a Guard, and I notice I get aggroed a pretty good chunk of the time.

There seems to always be a a bit of random aggroing but in my case I can tell that the mobs bounce to someone else but after a few seconds they are focused on me.

Or a test I did with friends where the group initially aggros the mobs I would stand away from them and the mobs would ignore the group and run to me.

There’s a bunch of variables from equiped weapons to traits afaik

On my guardian, I can end up with most or all of the aggro if I try, most of the time. I’m positive I’m not doing as much damage as most of the people I group with, cuz like the OP I have mostly defensive gear on my dungeon-running set. I do have pretty high precision, and pass out a lot of boons.

It’s not a simple formula, no matter what it is. Because I can shed aggro to a glass-cannon type sometimes. In terms of fractals, the end boss for the collossus and the dredge are on me forever. But the jellyfish beast doesn’t seem to notice I’m even there. The eye-beam one seems to be 1/5 chance, regardless.

Honestly, I don’t know how it works. My belief is there’s several different aggro mechanics that bosses and other mobs may follow.

nawrasz.6219:

There seems to always be a a bit of random aggroing but in my case I can tell that the mobs bounce to someone else but after a few seconds they are focused on me.

Or a test I did with friends where the group initially aggros the mobs I would stand away from them and the mobs would ignore the group and run to me.

This happens to me on my thief all the time. I could be standing near a node, and 4 people will be fighting a Vet or champ, and out of nowhere, he bypasses the damage done by the others and heads straight for me. Maybe because it calculates the damage I -could- do and makes a code decision based on that. No idea why it happens, but just know that it seems that aggro is something that ALL players will have to learn to deal with.

im not sure if im right but i think it depends on how much dps u dish out?

@Nero. Problem is, is sometimes I don’t deal any damage, and I still get aggro. I test this regularly on Vet/Champ mobs. Of course, I then attack and maintain aggro, but it’s silly that I ever get it to begin with. I normally wait for a Guard/War to go zerk the mob before I spike, but even then, sometimes they b-line for me first. I really wish there was a mechanic description of why this is, as it baffles me. Although! I do think it’s fair that all players have to experience some sort of fear.

At no point has anyone stated that there is no aggro mechanic. Bosses have stuck to me like glue before.

However, there is no one overall encompassing aggro mechanic, such as in other games. There is no ‘hate’ mechanism that a single character can use in order to maintain aggro and act as a tank. That’s the only thing they’ve said. So thus, it breaks from other games in that there are no taunts, etc.

How do aggro mechanics work?

It varies on the monster. I can’t remember but the post is floating around where a dev said that different monsters have different mechanics. Some go for ranged characters, some go for the heaviest armor, some go for the lightest, some go for X, some for Y and some for Z. That’s all we really know now about the aggro mechanics is that it varies between enemies and it’s not linked to one single factor throughout the entire game like DPS or armor class in other games.

This is shown by the fact that sometimes the heavy armor people are the ones who are munched on while sometimes the lighter armor ones are getting their butts handed to them.

It’s just more noticable the times when you are being chased around the entire fight.

There seems to be a number of factors and different mobs have different aggro behaviours.

For example the champion abomination at the end of the plinx run appears to lock onto the target that does the most damage and then sticks with them unless someone else grossly exceeds that. While the champion abomination in CoE p2 appears to randomly switch targets every so often.

In most encounters you can usually grab a mobs attention by being the first to strike them and staying near to them. Range seems to be a big factor it’s very rare you see mobs peel off and chase ranged attackers if they already engaged in melee for example.

Then you have invisibility which is an instant aggro drop… and these are just what I’ve observed there’s got to be more going on too. I like that we don’t know all the details; games with precise aggro mechanics are too predictable, it turns into a game of “don’t exceed the aggro meter”

EndlessDreamer.6780:

At no point has anyone stated that there is no aggro mechanic. Bosses have stuck to me like glue before.

However, there is no one overall encompassing aggro mechanic, such as in other games. There is no ‘hate’ mechanism that a single character can use in order to maintain aggro and act as a tank. That’s the only thing they’ve said. So thus, it breaks from other games in that there are no taunts, etc.

How do aggro mechanics work?

It varies on the monster. I can’t remember but the post is floating around where a dev said that different monsters have different mechanics. Some go for ranged characters, some go for the heaviest armor, some go for the lightest, some go for X, some for Y and some for Z. That’s all we really know now about the aggro mechanics is that it varies between enemies and it’s not linked to one single factor throughout the entire game like DPS or armor class in other games.

Thank you for clarifying, and I wasn’t implying that there was no mechanic, just that I am absolutely clueless as to how it operates. And I will say, I do like that everyone has a fair chance to be the target.

cNcHellShadow.7691:

EndlessDreamer.6780:

At no point has anyone stated that there is no aggro mechanic. Bosses have stuck to me like glue before.

However, there is no one overall encompassing aggro mechanic, such as in other games. There is no ‘hate’ mechanism that a single character can use in order to maintain aggro and act as a tank. That’s the only thing they’ve said. So thus, it breaks from other games in that there are no taunts, etc.

How do aggro mechanics work?

It varies on the monster. I can’t remember but the post is floating around where a dev said that different monsters have different mechanics. Some go for ranged characters, some go for the heaviest armor, some go for the lightest, some go for X, some for Y and some for Z. That’s all we really know now about the aggro mechanics is that it varies between enemies and it’s not linked to one single factor throughout the entire game like DPS or armor class in other games.

Thank you for clarifying, and I wasn’t implying that there was no mechanic, just that I am absolutely clueless as to how it operates. And I will say, I do like that everyone has a fair chance to be the target.

Oh ya, I was trying to be as specific as possible. I didn’t think you said there weren’t aggro mechanics, but I just wanted to clarrify in case someone interpreted it as such. It’s a good question.

But ya, aggro mechanic depends completely on things. I have an exorbinately high toughness stat for being a ranger (like around 2,000) and some bosses can’t get enough of the tasty tasty ranger. However, in other fights, I sit there and watch the poor elemenalist get constantly attacked.

And sometimes they switch. That Champion Karka near the rich ori vein LOVES people who are mining, to the point he’ll just go “… Eh.” to those who have been wailling on him. :P

I think one thing to keep in mind is that going down doesn’t ‘clear’ their dislike of you, thus you’ll probably a lot of times find yourself the aim of their animosity quite a bit even after you’ve hit the ground. :P

Hahaha, I know that “downed” situation all too well. It’s just funny, because my thief seems to take a good chunk more aggro than my Guardian. I know the damage numbers obviously help the mob decide who dies next. But my CD thief has no issue with aggro while my crit thief HAS to cloak regularly to reset aggro, and sometimes AS SOON as I become particular matter again, the mob doesn’t like that I fooled him. ^^ And most of the time it ends quite badly for him.

cNcHellShadow.7691:

Hahaha, I know that “downed” situation all too well. It’s just funny, because my thief seems to take a good chunk more aggro than my Guardian. I know the damage numbers obviously help the mob decide who dies next. But my CD thief has no issue with aggro while my crit thief HAS to cloak regularly to reset aggro, and sometimes AS SOON as I become particular matter again, the mob doesn’t like that I fooled him. ^^ And most of the time it ends quite badly for him.

Ya. I think there are certain parameters in this game that, once filled, you get the monster’s full attention. So it’s not like other games where it’s purely a “Okay, your Damage is higher than this person, so I’m gonna chomp on you”. It might literally be tactics that you are using, such as getting up close, etc. Of course, there has to be some sort of “sticking” or else we could bug out bosses by constantly changing their aggro.

It’s actually pretty fascinating. I hope ANet at least gives a teaser as to some of them eventually. Would be prettty cool to read.

Here’s the word on Aggro from the official Wiki:

The aggro table of a hostile NPC changes dynamically depending on a number of factors, in order of importance [citation needed] :

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 (see Tanking tactics below)

As a consequence, to lose aggro, the player moves to be further from the NPC than other players or allies and ceases all attacks. A typically effective Guild Wars 2 technique to lose aggro is to roll away (dodge) from the hostile NPC. This is based on the fact that the distance travelled away from the hostile NPC by rolling is greater than the distance a player could run in the same amount of time. Lastly, a jump seems slower than a run – jumping away from the NPC will not help on a flat surface.

Some foes follow their own, unique rules, however.

Kohler’s behavior is just plain weird. With the same group, for some runs he just sticks to me for the entire fight. (i main a guard) pretty funny when he’s crippled. He just hobbles after me with 4 other people poking him with sharp sticks.

Then on other runs, he just switches aggro randomly.

Bear in mind this is the same group. And we’re all doing the same things. Like for example i am always the one pulling kohler.

Yet his behavior is all over the place.

Lupicus is weird as well. He looooves my friend’s nec in phase 2. And after my friend’s nec goes down, it’s always me he’s after next. When my friend is on his ele, lupi will stick to me first, and if i die, he’ll go after my friend’s ele. It’s as if it doesn’t matter who else is in the party or what class they run or what build.

We were contemplating whether it’s highest vit or armor or ehp. It’s not. Even with runs with tomato can chars that load up on max vit/armor, we still get the aggro. Could be damage, but even with glass cannon chars (bad idea in arah really), we still got the aggro. Condition damage? Definitely not. In runs with rangers and necs, my friend’s ele still get reliably targetted.

There is a definite algorithm involved. Because when bosses do pick targets instead of randomly targetting, there is a discernible pattern. But unless anet tells us everything, we have no idea what causes boss hate, what we can do to gain and hold it, or what we can do to prevent it.

It’s a delicious sense of frustration.

Sad thing is that this is about the only thing a high toughness stat is useful for, as once the hurt starts coming being high or low toughness means surviving one extra blow at most. So no matter the armor numbers, get used to circle strafe…

The problem with the stats in gw2 is the intense diminishing returns practically. Vit/toughness only needs to be stacked to the extent that you can take a few normal hits and survive. The only thing is you just need enough to cast your heals and stuff. Any more is useless. Because no matter how much you stack, you can’t survive bosses special attacks or combos. Boss-made red circles? You still have to gtfo or get downed.

Which means the only stats that scale well are power/prec. Which is why so many people overstack those and lose all survivability as the compromise.

Healing power is even worse. Don’t even get me started on that.

alcedonia.7831:

The problem with the stats in gw2 is the intense diminishing returns practically. Vit/toughness only needs to be stacked to the extent that you can take a few normal hits and survive. The only thing is you just need enough to cast your heals and stuff. Any more is useless. Because no matter how much you stack, you can’t survive bosses special attacks or combos. Boss-made red circles? You still have to gtfo or get downed.

Which means the only stats that scale well are power/prec. Which is why so many people overstack those and lose all survivability as the compromise.

Healing power is even worse. Don’t even get me started on that.

And this is why you may as well go glass cannon and get good at dodging. Defensive stat’s are purely for learning the game. They scale horribly and the damage trade off is not worth it.

No. Glass cannons are not as effective, fullstop. At the least, you will still need some health and armor, enough to survive boss normal attacks and heal up.
You only have 2 dodge bars. Knowing when to use a dodge is more important than just knowing how to dodge.

Read this http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro it explains the mechanics well with hints regarding how to gain/lose aggro. Mechanics do vary according to what you are fighting.

Tanking 101:

Stack as much toughness as you can, stay in melee range.
Should do the job for most mobs.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Tanking 101:

Stack as much toughness as you can, stay in melee range.
Should do the job for most mobs.

End result, get very very familiar with down state.

The closest to melee tanking in this game is a in melee circle strafe. Meaning that you can just as well do it using a ranged weapon to buy yourself some reaction time. Toughness means jack compared to your ability to stay out of the front arc.

digiowl.9620:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Tanking 101:

Stack as much toughness as you can, stay in melee range.
Should do the job for most mobs.

End result, get very very familiar with down state.

The closest to melee tanking in this game is a in melee circle strafe. Meaning that you can just as well do it using a ranged weapon to buy yourself some reaction time. Toughness means jack compared to your ability to stay out of the front arc.

This was just about getting and keeping aggro, not about how you survive the mobs attacks. What to do after getting the aggro greatly depends on your class and playstyle.

digiowl.9620:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Tanking 101:

Stack as much toughness as you can, stay in melee range.
Should do the job for most mobs.

End result, get very very familiar with down state.

The closest to melee tanking in this game is a in melee circle strafe. Meaning that you can just as well do it using a ranged weapon to buy yourself some reaction time. Toughness means jack compared to your ability to stay out of the front arc.

you can face tank most mobs and bosses, guardians are the best at it.

I dont even equip ranged weaps on my warrior 99% of the time, except for something like butcher in hotw