Guild Wars 2

Curious if anyone knows more about this. I remember at one point reading that sometimes AI would target someone with the most toughness, or whoever was closest, etc. but I’m not sure what to make of this case.

This character^ for as long as I can remember, even while levelling and going through all sorts of gear, would attract enemies like a magnet. More than any other character I’ve played, of any class (I’ve played all classes, though I currently lack an elementalist and just recently created a new ranger after deleting an older one ages ago). Sometimes they will fixate on it so much that they basically commit suicide: running after it constantly and ignoring the fact that other people are killing them. They’re drawn to it when it’s near them, when it’s far from them, often regardless of whether it’s attacked them yet or not (never having attacked however is probably the most reliable way to get forgotten when other people keep attacking, like if I was arriving at a boss fight and suddenly it was like ‘screw you I hate you die’ and I ran around not fighting, it’d forget fairly rapidly).

One exception that springs to mind is the possessed statue at the Dwayna temple in Orr. It’ll often select the character for its ranged multi-target attack (Malchor’s tears or something) but doesn’t make any effort to direct other attacks at me unless I move closer to it.

The previous link should be the exact build ATM, down to my incomplete set of asc trinkets, however I notice that it seems much the same when I use different builds (I’ve stuck with the same gear for a long time though, but as I said this was also noticeable before these stat combos were available to it) be they more defensive, offensive, close-ranged or long. One thing I’ve never really done is stack loads of healing or condition damage, since I’d need new gear to do it very well. So far what gets the least aggro is anything centred around turrets, because things often seem to hate turrets just a tiny bit more than the character, and will wait until there are no turrets before attacking it.

What surprises me though is that there just doesn’t seem to be anything special about it, stat wise. I’ve at times used characters with more (by far) toughness, less toughness, more power, less power, more precision, less precision, more health, less health… ranged, melee, a bit of each, it doesn’t seem to matter much. I’ve even tried strafing around vs standing still to see if that made a difference, but it didn’t seem to. I’m starting to think it’s a bit more involved than that, like ratios of some stat to another, or something of the sort, and in this one character I’ve somehow achieved a near perfect level of hatred.

The main mobs that attack based on stats are bosses (most notably Giganticus Lupicus, who incorporates your stats into the aggro tables).

However, the best I can say is to press V. I remember when I was playing a dungeon with my friend the first time, he kept complaining that mobs loved him and that he couldn’t survive and he started to whine (to the point of almost crying) because he kept getting focused. The truth is, he wasn’t getting focused. In fact, I was holding aggro more than him, he just wasn’t avoiding the damage properly. Running into red circles and not paying attention to his positioning.

There are a myriad of reasons as to why you are or are not getting aggro. The first step is to take a step back and look at your approach to scenario’s. If you’re panicking and running away, you’re most likely not tackling the situation properly (in the first place).

…uh… what is V the default key for, again? I haven’t had default bindings in a very long time.

Also I think you’re misinterpreting the point of this thread. I don’t care that they hate it, as in some cases it can even prove useful (like being able to kite around and let the thing be pummelled to death by people it’s ignoring) but I want to understand why it happens so much with this character in the first place. If this were simply me not avoiding damage, I should be seeing it equally any time I’m using a build that isn’t too tanky to care about incoming damage, which isn’t the case.

LameFox.6349:

…uh… what is V the default key for, again? I haven’t had default bindings in a very long time.

Also I think you’re misinterpreting the point of this thread. I don’t care that they hate it, as in some cases it can even prove useful (like being able to kite around and let the thing be pummelled to death by people it’s ignoring) but I want to understand why it happens so much with this character in the first place. If this were simply me not avoiding damage, I should be seeing it equally any time I’m using a build that isn’t too tanky to care about incoming damage, which isn’t the case.

V is for dodge x)
And yeah,strangely when playing with a friend,if he uses the guardian enemies go for me,if he picks the engineer i’m always out of aggro…so strange! XD

So I think I can add risen drake broodmother (in CS anyway) to the list of stuff which ignores me almost entirely instead. Interesting. Cpt. Rotbeard on the other hand was happy to be kited around in a circle, as was the champion arena guy. Amusingly both can teleport… neither bothered.

Also I have access to (almost) infinite vigour in my current build so I’m dodging pretty frequently if it’s a thing that does high damage to me. Or reflecting/blocking, sometimes. Like veteran chickens. I showed up where someone was already fighting some earlier and still managed to be their favourite target, but fortunately I brought grenades. 1500 range without lots of people around to clutter things is enough to negate the stealthiness of their super-egg-cannon attack and allow dodging for the most part (and naturally not many people show up for the event about those things).