Threat/Aggro question
I’ve been playing this for 20 plus months and I don’t have a clue.
Well. I do notice that it does seem to be DPS based with some threshold needed to steal aggro from the previous holder. Also downed or severely damaged players get special attention, which makes some sense no matter how annoying that may be.
There’s been times when I’ve been downed and outside of my maximum attack rage, but not the critters and the critter being focused on me even though there are multiple players attacking it who are much closer. Maybe I spiked him with too much damage at the start of combat and it won’t let it go. I’ve seen critters turn their focus to from those attacking it to a downed player being healed.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
I think it might depend on the enemy, there might be 2 or more different settings in the AI.
I use Rabid armor in PvE which means I have more toughness and less power than many people (the majority use beserker) and I’ve noticed certain enemies – like the Labyrinthine Horror and Ginva the Butcher in HotW will latch on to me as soon as I get in range and follow me no matter what anyone else is doing unless I break aggro completely. Others will seemingly ignore me completely, no matter what I do.
It’s entirely possible however that there are more than 2 variations – mobs that go for high toughness, others that go for high power or low health/vitality, others that attack whoever is closest etc.
Without someone at Anet telling us (which isn’t likely to happen) or detailed and carefully controlled analysis it’s not likely we’ll know for sure.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
AFAIK it varies, although a lot of mobs seem to hate elementalists in general. From what I’ve seen and heard discussed, some of the factors are toughness stat, total/remaining health, damage done and who damaged it first, but there’s no set formula for it that I know of.
Joran Blackgear – Engineer – EU | Juras Blackpowder – Engineer – NA
Thanks for the responses, glad to hear I’m not the only one guessing!
Yup, been playing since beta, and I’m still not quite sure how it works. It seems kind of random, and agro from bosses will often jump from person to person. I will say, though, that certain bosses seem to go for elementalists and just wail on them. The golem in CoE is an example of that.
Different mobs have different aggro mechanics. Many aren’t completely known.
Nearly all prioritize people resurrecting others over anyone else.
Tazza, the boss of SE path 1, likes to focus the person with the lowest total health (so Eles and meta-zerk Guards are usually her focus).
Some, like the Defend Magg trash at the end of CoF path 2, prefer the person with the highest armor (though doing damage to them can break that initial aggro).
The original HotW path 1 troll used to focus whoever did the most burning damage (maybe other conditions but burning is what I actually tested).
Lille of the Valley [WHIP]
Hi all
Quite new to this game and I wondered how mobs decide who to attack. I main ele and seem to attract a lot of hate. Is it damage based or who happens to stand nearest?
Cheers
Gaining and losing aggro
For a neutral (yellow outlined) NPC the player must attack first to gain its attention. The aggro table of a hostile NPC changes dynamically depending on a number of factors, in order of importance:
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)
There is only one thing I know with 100% certainty with regards to aggro:
They will always go for me.
well, they seem to utterly loathe necros (i’ve seen hundreds of necros, and experienced this myself, necros get attacked by EVERYTHING in dungeons/fractals/etc), and they seem to never care to attack guardians. oh yeah, and engineers are right below necros in terms of mob hatred.
in seriousness, no clue how aggro works, though if you revive or start to revive someone they’ll usually switch focus to you
Fix what you have before you build something new
Isn’t this the most easy place to look?
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro
“see cow, grab bundle, feed cow?”
HOW Aggro is obtained and maintained by the AI is not well “defined” as in other mob type games. There are a variety of theories and some seem better than others. From my personal experience here is what I feel is the hierarchy to getting the mobs attention (covered in the wiki article linked above):
- Proximity to enemy (closer targets get or pick up Aggro). Also, line of sight is a big factor here (i.e. if you are out of sight / behind an obsticle, you are less likely to get Aggro).
- First to initiate damage on the mob (and the one below seems to make it MORE intense).
- Heavy damage to more than one enemy in mob (likely reason why Eles and other that put down lots of AoE damage get lots of Aggro).
- Higher Toughness and Armor rating. This seems to be important at the initial contact, but much less after combat has be ongoing for a bit. I doubt Aggro can be drawn away from another target due to this factor.
If you are an Ele, Necro or Engie tossing down lots of AoE damage, you are going to get targeted.
We go out in the world and take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances
(edited by Brother Grimm.5176)