Guild Wars 2

Hi… just wanted to know if anyone can better explain how agro in this game works.

I am 80 D/D (open world) & Staff Mostly (dungeons/fractals)… I’ve noticed that I gain agro from the get go of fights, and I have not done anything yet… for example…

In CM (zerg after zerg of mobs)…. I stand back (a good way) while the Guard/War or who ever pulls… I have not done anything but just standing/waiting for the mobs to come back with the puller…. at least 1 or 2 mobs beat straight for me, and bypass others (have not cast anything yet).

Don’t want to post a long post… so basically i’m just wondering if I am doing something wrong on my end, where I gain a lot of agro from the start… (muhhaahahahah… I stay alive though) :-) I play my toon attack/defense comfortably, and just need to learn how agro works, so I can be a much better player that way.

Any way to agro dump also as a caster? or just using your CC’s and such is what we are to do in this game?

Thanks for help/answers

Do you get a lot of aggro in RL too?
Might be something you do then.

;-)

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

still there are either bugs in aggro or it does not work as described on wiki.
About a month ago my necro friend made a new test build that got PERM AGGRO everywhere in open world (mobs/champs) and dungs. It was quite funny how the mobs/bosses followed/attacked only him while wohle party was 100% ignored

We tried to figure it out what he did to get perm aggro (he switched from pvt/well necro to rampager/condi build). According to wiki those are important factors:
1. closest target to them – he was the furthest still mobs went only after him
2. who is dealing damage – for the tests he did 0 damage – did not helped
3. top damage dealers – condi build and as I said he did 0
4. who is using a shield / has more toughness and overall armor – no shield, he acutaly switched from PVT to PPC so lower tou.

Eventually he had to change the build cuz it was unplayable for him.

hahahaha.. nah… just trying to understand agro in GW2 better… like to have an “All Rounded” feel for any game I play… so just want to make sure I’m not doing something silly, because I’m playing GW2 as an old MMO mentality.

hahahaha.. nah… just trying to understand agro in GW2 better… like to have an “All Rounded” feel for any game I play… so just want to make sure I’m not doing something silly, because I’m playing GW2 as an old MMO mentality.I’m learning that traditional play is not what this game is about… ie Not dodging hurts, standing still while casting and not moving is not the way to play/fight in this game… so I’m thinking maybe agro management is different too…

hahahaha.. nah… just trying to understand agro in GW2 better… like to have an “All Rounded” feel for any game I play… so just want to make sure I’m not doing something silly, because I’m playing GW2 as an old MMO mentality.I’m learning that traditional play is not what this game is about… ie Not dodging hurts, standing still while casting and not moving is not the way to play/fight in this game… so I’m thinking maybe agro management is different too…know what i mean?

Lavadiel.6231:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

still there are either bugs in aggro or it does not work as described on wiki.
About a month ago my necro friend made a new test build that got PERM AGGRO everywhere in open world (mobs/champs) and dungs. It was quite funny how the mobs/bosses followed/attacked only him while wohle party was 100% ignored

We tried to figure it out what he did to get perm aggro (he switched from pvt/well necro to rampager/condi build). According to wiki those are important factors:
1. closest target to them – he was the furthest still mobs went only after him
2. who is dealing damage – for the tests he did 0 damage – did not helped
3. top damage dealers – condi build and as I said he did 0
4. who is using a shield / has more toughness and overall armor – no shield, he acutaly switched from PVT to PPC so lower tou.

Eventually he had to change the build cuz it was unplayable for him.

Ahhh ic… thanks, I’ll go give that link a read and see if i can make some sense of it… but i’m not the only one who gets agro right from the go, and by doing nothing? so it could be something in the game that needs fixing at some point? or should i look into trying something different? (don’t really need to since i live 90% plus of the times)…
can get a bit annoying when I am Tanking most of the time as a Caster :-p (or running).

reposted below due to formattin issues

The #1 reason in the wiki is closest to the NPC. #2 is who is dealing damage. It does not say the most damage, simpley dealing damage. I can vouch for the fact #1 will not guarantee agro. Also, in another section in the wiki it states. “However, keep in mind that different NPCs use different aggro mechanics, and that a tactic that is useful against some NPCs can utterly fail against another”

In other words, agro is random and changes often. The best advice I found in the wiki article was that dodging away can often help to shake agro. My guess would be that has something to do with the invulnerability during that time. They state dodging increases distance faster and that is the reason. Regardles, dodging often regularly seems to work. For builds like mine that have Evasive Arcana, we are doing that all the time anyway and agro is generally not an issue. Best Guess.

Aggro in this game has a lot to do with smell.

If you smell funny to the mobs, they ignore you. If you smell good, they eat you. If you smell bad, they eat someone else or throw things at you to make you smell better.

Grawl, trolls, ettins, etc. like the smell of meat, if you’ve killed any deer or moose or anything like that recently, you probably smell like food to them. Leave the wildlife alone, you big meanie.

Skritt are all about pie. If you are a cook, or have any pie or fruit in your bag, watch out for Skritt aggro. They also like cookies, and legendary/ascended gear (shinies!).

Oozes have “fur-envy”. If you play a Charr, try to avoid getting downwind of any Oozes.

Asura, or anyone who has rubbed up against one recently, will pull the most aggro from risen. “Brainnnnnsssss…..”

Icebrood have no sense of smell, noses are frozen. You get their attention by yelling (like my girlfriend gets my attention….). Shout warriors and guardians are perfect for this, but elementalists can end up with aggro by swapping attunements too often.

(All this info is verified by my extensive research, and contradicted by common sense.)

Thrashbarg.9820:

Aggro in this game has a lot to do with smell.

If you smell funny to the mobs, they ignore you. If you smell good, they eat you. If you smell bad, they eat someone else or throw things at you to make you smell better.

Grawl, trolls, ettins, etc. like the smell of meat, if you’ve killed any deer or moose or anything like that recently, you probably smell like food to them. Leave the wildlife alone, you big meanie.

Skritt are all about pie. If you are a cook, or have any pie or fruit in your bag, watch out for Skritt aggro. They also like cookies, and legendary/ascended gear (shinies!).

Oozes have “fur-envy”. If you play a Charr, try to avoid getting downwind of any Oozes.

Asura, or anyone who has rubbed up against one recently, will pull the most aggro from risen. “Brainnnnnsssss…..”

Icebrood have no sense of smell, noses are frozen. You get their attention by yelling (like my girlfriend gets my attention….). Shout warriors and guardians are perfect for this, but elementalists can end up with aggro by swapping attunements too often.

(All this info is verified by my extensive research, and contradicted by common sense.)

No, I’m pretty sure that sounds accurate. As the Charr like to say, “There are old Charr and there are bold Charr, but there are few old, bold Charr.”

Okie Dokie… thanks all.. i’ll keep reading up on what I can find.

I have a dps engineer with full rabid (gear,weapon,trinkets) and anytime I’m in a group with no Guardian or someone with higher toughness than me, everything follows me up. I have to adjust my traits on the go for this reason so I can actually survive.

A good example would be the last part in CoF P2 where you have to defend the azura npc, from the very start of the event everything just comes to me, I end up kiting the whole thing (or at least it sure feels that way).

Don’t know if it’s a bug or not, but at the moment, toughness plays a significant role at grabbing aggro.

Intelligent mobs don’t usually go for toughest, they go for weakest. Hence why in some places like CM the glass cannons get chased forever.

Differnt mobs have different rules to follow

emikochan.8504:

Intelligent mobs don’t usually go for toughest, they go for weakest. Hence why in some places like CM the glass cannons get chased forever.

Differnt mobs have different rules to follow

That must explain it. Inside that house was one of the funniest times I have had. I had mobs chasing me as I jumped over furniture all over the room. We were all laughing our heads off.

That is one reason I tend to have a lot of fun in cm :p

I have problems with agro too, the mods always came to me and boss, i avoid use area attacks but they still come, i think they come for the weakness, if in a party you are the most weak and easy to kill they all go at you, not sure though…