Guild Wars 2

Every enemy that someone attacks first will always attack me. Someone could be fighting a random mob on their own, and even at 1% health it will start fighting me if I run by within range. Every enemy will stop fighting whoever they’re fighting no matter the circumstances just to attack me.

Can ANet please tell us how aggro works so I can stop them from always pursuing me? It actually makes some stuff more difficult for me (like running around doing map completion or getting collectibles) because mobs I wouldn’t normally encounter will slow me down, and I can never get around them like I would with un-aggro’d mobs.

I expect people to tel me to stop whining or something, but I just want to know how or why it happens so I can may prevent it. I don’t enjoy being the main target for every possible enemy in the game.

Are you set up as a tanky build? Aka running with a lot of toughness?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

Stop using toughness. If you must have it then the sweet spot is around 1200-1500 (depending on how much damage u are willing to sacrifice). Any more than that and you may as well be a kittening walking christmas tree for the mobs, and you will likely start doing noticeably less damage.

Its stupid I know. You want more tanky gear for your glassy character, so you get toughness. Makes sense right? But the more armor you have, the more aggro you draw. thus causing you get kittened by mobs 24/7, which may ironically result in you dying more often. Mobs will not aggro the person with the most armor, until he dies.

So because of this, literally no one runs toughness builds unless raiding or WvW.
You want the least amount of armor as possible to draw the least amount of attention, so mobs/bosses will hopefully never aggro you.

Logic.

Anyways….
I personally use some toughness for my Revenant build. The armor compliments the crazy sustain glint+jalis has, which helps me solo, survive, or tank small scale group events that I don’t mind tanking for randoms. In larger scale events with a lot of players, there are usually mulitple people with far more armor than me so I never draw aggro. I also use it for WvW as well. Toughness has plenty of usefulness.

And I just generally don’t like squishy characters. Many people run pure zerk gear becaus…“meta”…which results in many of these people hugging the ground if they happen to catch a stray fireball. You are not on an enrage timer, you don’t NEED to stack that much dps, so whats the rush? Its quite silly to be honest.

Toughness/vitality/healing power can be a huge QoL difference if used properly, I know it saved my ass plenty of times, while the zerklord dude next to me totally died. Unless you are doing some serious fractal or raid farming, you don’t ever need to be that glassy. Most combat in this game is about attrition, not massive dps checks, so you should build (more or less) for that, especially if you play solo a lot. You can sacrifice a little damage to make space for other useful stats. Just don’t get carried away stacking other supportive stats of course….

i had the same in tangled depths. if an other player run pass me then the mobs that were following him stops at me and i get attacked. with viper necro. and with elementalist also. full magi ele tempest healer.

You’re the victim of artificial stupidity, so that GW2 can be like all the cool MMO kids with their stupid outdated tanking mechanics. They might as well make enemies focus their CCs on whoever has the most stab.

Most of the “aggro” mechanics are flexible…so, not set in stone.

1. Some mobs aggro to highest dps.
2. Some mobs aggro to lowest level or defense.
3. Some mobs aggro to closest player (the most common aggro in open world). So, even though someone else triggered the proximity, when they run past you, the mob now only sees you.
4. Some mobs use multiples of above, and/or use “special” abilities at random other targets.
5. Raids were given the trinity. So, for raids, highest toughness will nearly always maintain aggro.

I have tested on the same mob with multiple classes in identical gear and have also noticed that some mobs target certain classes first every time.
The game seems to have some overriding aggro protocols, but they are almost as random as the drops.

Good to know. I’ve been adding a few points of Toughness to Trinkets to add to armor/defense thinking it was helping my survivability.

On the other hand — THANKS A LOT!!! Now I have to go through every one of my characters and re-evaluate each piece of armor/weapon/trinket/backpack I own!!!

Yeah, my engineer got targeted a lot more when I had more toughness. I still tend to get targeted due to my high precision/high DPS, but generally if they’re targeting you without having done anything… that’s usually a toughness thing.

perilisk.1874:

You’re the victim of artificial stupidity, so that GW2 can be like all the cool MMO kids with their stupid outdated tanking mechanics. They might as well make enemies focus their CCs on whoever has the most stab.

Hey quick question, who urinated in your breakfast this morning?

I asked for clarification (which other people gave, albeit not in the most civil way), so it’s really not necessary to be rude about it.

Anyway…. if it is about toughness, how in the world do I have the most toughness out of every single player in the game. I use Soldier’s stats for my Herald. It’s the reason why I can outlive everyone’s precious Berserkers against any enemy, but that doesn’t mean I want to be a tank. I’m there to give boons and keep everyone else alive, not be a tank. Why can’t there be a more clear aggro system. It shouldn’t be determined by 8 or more vague concepts simultaneously. If there’s no rigid party roles, why am I forced to be a tank without any actual aggro control.

SmirkDog.3160:

Anyway…. if it is about toughness, how in the world do I have the most toughness out of every single player in the game. I use Soldier’s stats for my Herald. It’s the reason why I can outlive everyone’s precious Berserkers against any enemy, but that doesn’t mean I want to be a tank. I’m there to give boons and keep everyone else alive, not be a tank. Why can’t there be a more clear aggro system. It shouldn’t be determined by 8 or more vague concepts simultaneously. If there’s no rigid party roles, why am I forced to be a tank without any actual aggro control.

Soliders is PVT and outside of WvW is considered very tanky. As a base build soliders is very good, but it will pull mobs. I typically don’t change my gear out when I hit PvE and leave my WvW gear on and draw a lot of aggro from random mobs since I am speced expecting a zerg to descend on me over the next hill. So yes if you continue to go that route, expect to have scooby snacks in your pockets and every beast to come a callin. Good hunting!

SmirkDog.3160:

Anyway…. if it is about toughness, how in the world do I have the most toughness out of every single player in the game. I use Soldier’s stats for my Herald. It’s the reason why I can outlive everyone’s precious Berserkers against any enemy, but that doesn’t mean I want to be a tank. I’m there to give boons and keep everyone else alive, not be a tank. Why can’t there be a more clear aggro system. It shouldn’t be determined by 8 or more vague concepts simultaneously. If there’s no rigid party roles, why am I forced to be a tank without any actual aggro control.

Because that’s how freaking aggro control works.

Mobs generally target the player with the highest armor, ie the tank. Soldiers is one of the tankier gears that’s in the game that still provide power (if you want to hit like a wet noodle, go nomads and enjoy taking a minute to kill a random mob). If you dont want to tank, dont equip tanky gear. Simple as that.

SmirkDog.3160:

Hey quick question, who urinated in your breakfast this morning?

I asked for clarification (which other people gave, albeit not in the most civil way), so it’s really not necessary to be rude about it.

Any negativity was aimed at Anet’s decision to use toughness-based aggro mechanics (mostly, a complaint about raids), not at you.

SmirkDog.3160:

perilisk.1874:

You’re the victim of artificial stupidity, so that GW2 can be like all the cool MMO kids with their stupid outdated tanking mechanics. They might as well make enemies focus their CCs on whoever has the most stab.

Hey quick question, who urinated in your breakfast this morning?

I asked for clarification (which other people gave, albeit not in the most civil way), so it’s really not necessary to be rude about it.

Anyway…. if it is about toughness, how in the world do I have the most toughness out of every single player in the game. I use Soldier’s stats for my Herald. It’s the reason why I can outlive everyone’s precious Berserkers against any enemy, but that doesn’t mean I want to be a tank. I’m there to give boons and keep everyone else alive, not be a tank. Why can’t there be a more clear aggro system. It shouldn’t be determined by 8 or more vague concepts simultaneously. If there’s no rigid party roles, why am I forced to be a tank without any actual aggro control.

You probably dont have the most toughness out of every single player in the game. You certainly do not pull aggro from every player in the game.

You also dont outlive everyone’s, “precious,” berzerker against any foe either..

You are tougher than some, perhaps many, and do draw aggro, depending on mob, as a result.

You are not forced to be a tank, aggro control or not.

Ashen.2907:

You probably dont have the most toughness out of every single player in the game. You certainly do not pull aggro from every player in the game.

You also dont outlive everyone’s, “precious,” berzerker against any foe either..

You are tougher than some, perhaps many, and do draw aggro, depending on mob, as a result.

You are not forced to be a tank, aggro control or not.

Well you’d be surprised to see that I pull enemies away from everyone that I run past or those that run past me. I can join group events halfway through and the boss (if possible) will target me immediately and not target anyone else.

And it sounds like you’re one of those people that thinks if you don’t have Berserker stats then you’re playing the wrong way. But yeah, I’ve outlived everyone I’ve played with. I’ve been the designated picker-upper since everyone else would go down in a couple hits because they think DPS Elementalists with daggers are the Best Thing Ever.

But you see, if I’m a tank, why don’t I have tank skills, like ones that specifically draw aggro? I don’t know if you’ve played any other MMOs, but having high armour alone doesn’t make you a tank. Tanks get skills that generate aggro, and if they don’t use those skills then someone else will start getting attacked, like a healer or something.

SmirkDog.3160:

Ashen.2907:

You probably dont have the most toughness out of every single player in the game. You certainly do not pull aggro from every player in the game.

You also dont outlive everyone’s, “precious,” berzerker against any foe either..

You are tougher than some, perhaps many, and do draw aggro, depending on mob, as a result.

You are not forced to be a tank, aggro control or not.

Well you’d be surprised to see that I pull enemies away from everyone that I run past or those that run past me. I can join group events halfway through and the boss (if possible) will target me immediately and not target anyone else.

And it sounds like you’re one of those people that thinks if you don’t have Berserker stats then you’re playing the wrong way. But yeah, I’ve outlived everyone I’ve played with. I’ve been the designated picker-upper since everyone else would go down in a couple hits because they think DPS Elementalists with daggers are the Best Thing Ever.

But you see, if I’m a tank, why don’t I have tank skills, like ones that specifically draw aggro? I don’t know if you’ve played any other MMOs, but having high armour alone doesn’t make you a tank. Tanks get skills that generate aggro, and if they don’t use those skills then someone else will start getting attacked, like a healer or something.

I currently use shortbow on my Ranger main. Not really a zerker weapon. Currently running about 2300 toughness. I have played berzerker builds, but they do not define my playstyle.

If you are outliving all zerkers that you play with then you are playing exclusively with people who are, apparently, bad at running glass builds.

I am glad that artificial taunts are not ubiquitous in gw2. To be fair, I am not fond of toughness as an aggro mechanic either. But the basic idea that mobs should be forced to ignore healers or high dps characters in favor of the nigh invulnerable guy because he shouted an insult or something is awful.

That said, you dont have skills specifically to draw aggro because, as you point out, you dont need them.