Guild Wars 2

I really love my engineer, it’s such a diverse class and so I always team up with my guildmates (who welcome an engineer in their party) for some dungeon runs.

And I wondered if engineers are so called agro-grabers. Bosses always target me first, in the 9 times we did TA I got transformed in a cat 8(!) times by this 3th champion in storymode.

Is this because I’m just an aggresive player who jumps up a boss his back as first, or are engineers agro-grabers? I always thought warriors and melee classes where the biggest agro-grabers.

Funny, because on my warrior this is what happens to me every single time I run an instance. I’ve only done AC storymode so far on my engineer, but I didn’t really seem to have aggro any more than the rest of the group. In fact the bosses all ignored me and I was free to rain grenadey doom on them unhindered.

Its not that you ar an Engineer. Its likely either your high toughness relative to your companions or you are staying closer ot the boss than they are.

If this game was writen in Java the boss code would be:
if(playerParty.contains(Engineer)){
murderHimBrutally();}

I’m an altoholic.

“Hello Whelm”

Anyway, it seems that out of all my characters my engineer can pull aggro simply by looking funny at the mob. Perhaps Asura are just that annoying or bosses really hate fire but it has become kind of a running joke at this point.

It could be the tendency for engineers to throw out decent healing, decent attack and have decent staying power so that they stack up any of the various aggro factors but personal experience doesn’t really matter in these cases.

Anyone remember the Asheron’s Call “Wi Flagged” story? Sometimes I feel like that.

There have been a vast amount of threads on this topic made in recent weeks, and it seems it is fairly split on this with posters opinions.

I for one do not believe it at all, because I have never encountered the problem. It has to be due to something beyond what class you play.

Also, if you look through the other profession sub forums, every profession has a lot of threads of this nature. It is hard to believe it is related to profession, when every profession thinks it is theirs that gets the focus.

All I can say is that in TA explorable mode, in that first boss fight against the worms, if my 4 party members are stacked on each other and I’m across the room flinging grenades, I’m the one that gets targeted for the AoE usually.

It might be related to your total armour value; I specc’d for high toughness (Knight’s armour, emerald jewellery and Juggernaut) and at 2.9k armour total, I’ve noticed very few things (competitively) target me over others. A mate rolling a tactics/defensive shout warrior (read: toughness up the wazoo) is often ignored in dungeons by many mobs, so it might be at least partially connected to that.
Obviously, there have been situations where some monster seems utterly devoted to squashing me. Just saying it’s pretty noticeable due to how infrequently it’s happening for me.

I grab agg the kind of agg that makes zhaitan run in fear. I can sometimes shake it, but there are times when it sticks like glue so bad, I burn holes in my shoes and could eventually run out of bomb fuses.

I actually used to think this was bogus because people reported it so much, but anymore I think it’s true.

I don’t PvE, but in sPvP as soon as I walk into the vicinity of the sPvP bosses, while my other teammates are attacking and I haven’t even begun to attack, the bosses aggros onto me. I am a bunker however with high toughness and HP, if it’s related to tanky-players being chosen by the AI as more appropriate targets.

I noticed and have put some testing into this that multiple effect abilities seem to draw aggro. Condition removal abilities especially.

I’ll take much more threat using fumigate then when just auto attacking, the same seems true of shout warriors with the condition removal trait.

We have 2 warriors in a group who use the same gear and roughly the same trait setup but the one who uses shouts always has aggro while the banner warrior never gets any at all.

I need to test it more but I think abilities that do multiple effects cause more aggro than others.

Are we considering burst damage? Perhaps a burst of damage will shoot you to the top of the aggro list even if your overall damage is lower than others?

Or distance? Perhaps bosses have a “ranged” list and a “melee” list, and engineers tend to play at a mid range and get counted in both lists?

Or fields/finishers? Could people laying down fields (or using finishers) rank higher on the aggro list?

Or movement (or the lack thereof)? Or perhaps having a lot of conditions (and maybe engineers are less likely to care about them or less likely to cleanse them off due to class mechanisms) raises your desireability as a target?

Or maybe AoE heals (like the healing turret) raise you on the aggro list?

Or … ?

This is what happens to me.

1. start fight
2. boss agros on me
3. ???
4. Profit!!!

Why they agro on me is a mystery to me

Unlike many other MMOs it’s not just the amount of damage or healing you do that creates aggro but being easy(er) to kill (than your team mates) also creates aggro.
However it seems not every mob follow this algorithm, there are reports that some mobs favor targets with high survivability.

Ok last night running the manor dungeon I rarely took aggro when I used my elixir gun

1. Elixir gun – I had to work REAL hard to get aggro and I would lose it almost as fast as I got it.

2. Rifle – I gained aggro when I wanted it and maintained it for a little bit.

3.Pistol/Shield (I am spec for it) I gain aggro when I wanted it and sometimes when I did not want it and sometimes it took a bit to loose it.

4. Grenades. DING DING DING!!!! gained aggro all the time with that.

Just more food for thought

I’d like to know on what npcs base their agro. Distance/damage/burstdamage/armour, whatever it is it helps alot in controlling a fight.

But the devsv might never releave that informtation.

Yep, I’m always the #1/#2 target of any mob in the entire game. Sometimes the mob is engaged with another player already but as soon as i shoot it once it rushes towards me.

Honestly, I’m really getting sick of this. DE’s, stationary turrets, whatever; everyone else gets to sit back, relax, do damage and get tons of loot while i’m kiting/dodging around like a headless chicken just to survive and hardly get any damage done in the process. I love the engineer class and a challenge every now and then is nice but if the only thing my game experience consists of is running around in circles all the time and adjusting camera angles so that my attacks do not get cancelled, I simply cannot find it enjoyable.

Boss events are the worst because you can only avoid their attack so much. I actually use up the downed limit because as soon as someone ressurrects me the boss instantly abondons its current target and rushes towards me yet again. Repair bill + no gold medal + no loot.

The only time I’ve seen where I’m not the only visible enemy in the mob’s eyes is when there’s a guardian around. They seem to be the #1 aggro class. But this is also only temporary because as soon as the guardian moves out of range or I step closer to the mob than the guardian I’m instantly the new target.

To test this out I tried:
- being a low level player in high level area
- being a high level player in low level area
- even level area
- use pistol+shield
- use rifle
- use pistol/pistol
- use any kit
- spec defensively
- spec glass cannon
- attacking mob first
- attacking mob after everyone else already did
- not attacking at all(in this case any newly spawned mobs go for me)

It simply doesn’t matter. Heck, sometimes I even pull aggro off other engineers(lolz).

It seems to be slightly dependant on what weapon you are using though. My warrior hardly gets any aggro until i swap to my longbow and suddenly it’s the engineer experience all over again with all the mobs rushing to me and only me.

I don’t understand why anet can’t just make the aggro random so that any player in the vicinity can take the aggro regardless of class or what weapon you are using.

ddoi.9264:

It simply doesn’t matter. Heck, sometimes I even pull aggro off other engineers(lolz).

This would indicate that it is less an issue with the profession as a whole, and more likely something more specific.

coglin.1496:

ddoi.9264:

It simply doesn’t matter. Heck, sometimes I even pull aggro off other engineers(lolz).

This would indicate that it is less an issue with the profession as a whole, and more likely something more specific.

That’s what I thought too, but then what is that specific characteristic? I’m really curious. Race? Gender? Power/Condition damage/Support skills focus? AOE skills?
Also personally when playing other classes this kind of extreme aggro simply doesn’t happen. Except guardian.

Well we need to do research. We could seek out what ‘attracts’ mobs.
But in the other hand, many other classes have the some though of being an agro-graber.
But I guess they are wrong then :p

ddoi.9264 is correct.

It seems that Engy just gains more aggro due to the nature of the class. Other classes deal damage. Nifty.

Engy deals LOTS of AoE damage, while also HEALING. I think AoE damage just inherently gets more aggro than single target to begin with. So combining those factors, Engies will almost always gain more aggro.

No, it seems they do not. What do you base this inaccurate statement on? Every profession sub forum had 5 threads on this topic. If every other class is claiming this happens to them, Why would you make this claim without actual fact to support it.

It would benefit every one better if we didn’t spread misinformation of this sort around.

I have to agree. I only play an Engineer, but my wife has several alts. No matter what her profession is, I am the one that is running around trying to kite whatever it is we are fighting. Her main is a Mesmer and even when she TRIES to gain aggro, she cannot. We have tried letting her attack first for a bit, but as soon as I enter the fray, whatever she is fighting will turn right around and come for me.

We have recently been adventuring in Dredgehaunt Cliffs and there is a golem MoB there that summons two dredge when aggroed. Both it and the two summoned dredge will come for me whether I have even fired a shot or not. I have seen her accidentally hit a neutral MoB like a Moa with one of her multiple hit spells and the Moa will not come for her, but for me.

We had to liberate a town from some dredge and a Veteran Dredge Siege Master and I died twice while attempting it. Every dredge in the town was firing and/or burrowing to attack me, including the Veteran. I had my wife go in the town first and start the combat and she was followed by a Necromancer and her minions that came along for the event. They both went in first and not even the Necromancer’s flesh golem could pull the aggro off of me. I spent the entire event running around, dodging, and dying.

We even tried fighting the Imp Lord and all of his lesser imps. There was a Guardian and an Elementalist that joined up with us. They started the event and my wife joined in. As soon as I got within range (without even having fired a shot yet), ALL of the lesser imps turned their attention and ice shots towards me. The Veteran Imp Lord actually came out of the small room it normally fights in to try to hit me. All of this while my wife’s clones and phantasms are tearing up the imps, the Elementalist is AoEing the entire area and the Guardian is in the middle of it all with his greatsword cutting a swath of destruction. The MoBs simply pay no attention to ANY of it and will go through whomever they need to to get to me.

The only way I can ever shake aggro is to either not play at all or to run across to the other side of the zone. I would hate to have to give up on my Engineer, but it is getting a bit tiring to not get any decent event contributions because I have to spend the entire event either running and dodging or on my back dying.

I certainly hope WHATEVER this bug is that Arenanet are on to it and have a fix incoming or else I might have to just look for another game to play.

Thanks.

I duo killed the champion brood mother and I think the other champions name was something pet master something(has a veteran pet with it) last night. Both are Orr mobs. Did one with a ranger and one with a warrior. I had no issue with aggro at all.

Perhaps everyone who is posting about having issues with aggro hogging, post tier builds. Perhaps we will be able to find a common denominator that way.

Just to add my two copper here.
Its not just a bug related to engineers. Something is just wiggy about hate and agg in this game in general. I can’t seem to find much criteria, though my engineer does grab insane aggro all the time.

I was on my thief in Ebonhawke, and was facing off with the ebon vanguard recruits. I got one of them to duel me, and instead of going straight for me it went to a warrior who was clearly afk. He crossed the field, completely ignored me while I was stabbing away at him, and never once attacked me back. Needless to say, it raises eyebrows.

I’ve had some issues with this, in AC story the very first boss would not stop chasing me, He went for me first and proceeded to chase as I ran to the locked doors then back to the starting chamber and repeat this twice, didn’t stop till I was dead.

I was running rifle with bomb kit, elixer B and flamethrower for utility with Elixer x for elite. The rest of my party had a war theif ele and ranger, the ele was a glass cannon and died in a single hit, so I wasn’t the squishiest, the thief and warr beat me in spike, but overall I had the highest survivablilty(perma swiftness and vigor, decent toughness) good damage through condititions(permanent burning and 3-5 stacks of bleeding at all times, with condi dmg maxed out through traits, all armor with condi dmg+) and about 40% chance to crit with 5 hits a second +33% to burn and bleed on crit.

Anyone doing research on builds reacting with aggro there ya go.

I seem to recall reading that Guild Wars 2 does not treat aggro in a way even remotely similar to other MMOs. I’m glad some people eventually mentioned this fact.

My guess is that a number of different factors combined determine who ends up getting aggro. It can’t be just damage and healing because the game goes to lengths to get rid of the whole trinity thing. It wouldn’t make sense to make it any single factor really because that would always allow a focal point for fights (ie. a “tank” of some sort), again creating the trinity scenario. It has to be a combination of factors and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was even very mob specific.

If the AI is as smart as I’m assuming, what you’re all doing is trying to create simple patterns where there really aren’t any. It might seem like there are simple patterns of behavior but it’s just your head playing tricks on you.

Otherwise, I guess ANet failed and accidentally put an attack-only-engineers line somewhere in there when programming the AI.

Heck, for all we know it could be some code designed to make it as random as absolutely possible.

Eh… I dont buy entirely what josh is saying. They have gotten rid of the idea of having a trinity setup for MMO’s? Yes. Does it stop the mobs from behaving certain ways? In many ways they do act and respond according to standard aggro. There might be some detailed criteria in their behaviour we are just not privy to, but that doesn’t mean there is no such thing as consistancy at all. Pay attention to the mobs and you will see many that the species does matter. This is especially true with labeled mobs (for example, centaur blahtyblah and Hylek Blahtyblah) where they have the same skillsets. The AI of some of these mobs do behave similarly, like when people are trying to pick up fallen players. The problem with it also being totally random is in the concept itself. If its totally random what they do, then how can you experience consistancy in their behaviour? This is why its kinda a mystery to me.

The only close to point observation is that there could be varying sets of aggro mechanics, which is also not unheard of in your other standard mmo genre’s.

This is something only the technical side of things can answer. But, the only problem with that is they’d be making a mistake to leak aggro mechanics out, or else they’d risk players catching on.

I’m positive there are agg mechanics, but they must be pretty detailed to the point where you’d spend too long trying to figure it out and not enough time actually playing.

I haven’t played my Engineer long enough to really notice whether or not enemies are more likely to target myself than others. But I have noticed, immediately, that enemies will make a beeline past anything and everything to smash a turret into the ground the very second you place it.

Dear fellow engineers,

I just posted the followint text on every class sub forum:
“Dear elementalists,
I am an engineer, and after some big discussions on our engineer forum, we still got our question unanswered:
Are engineers agro-grabbers?
Now too answer this question, we need you fellow adventurers to help us! :p
So now is our question to you as elementalists: do you catch much agro?
I hope you guys can help me, but I believe you can since you rain fire down on me in PvP alot!
Thanks in advance!”

So my hope is now other classes wil help us, so we really can see id we are agro-grabbers!
Check it out!

Priory engineer results already coming in!
The other class mainly give the same things as we did: some say they catch agro alot, others say they don’t.

Conclusion: we are still down to nothing -.-"

Well yeah. Several of us have pointed out repeatedly that all the other profession sub forums had threads with each claiming they received all of the aggro all of the time.

I guess since no one really knows the aggro mechanics of the game, I will put in a bug report on the Bug section of the forums.

I would advise anyone else (regardless of profession) to put in a similar post and/or add to mine so that we can get Arenanet to take a look into aggro and see if this is just some very weird mechanic or a bug. Without further information into aggro mechanics I cannot see us players being able to sort this issue out.

Thanks.

Different types of mobs prioritise targets in different ways. Very few actually do it based solely on damage or healing numbers.

In GW1 they often picked the target based on their health or armour. I’ve noticed a few people here report getting aggro-locked when they have high toughness so it seems that this mechanic is still in play. This also explains why turrets (and other profession pets) seem to sometimes instantly take aggro as soon as they spawn since they have lower health and toughness than players and certain mobs prioritise this.

I’m also certain that mobs differentiate between single target and AOE damage. If you hit more than one target with a skill they build social aggro for ALL the targets hit I believe. This is why engis are constantly pulling mobs onto them using the grenade and bomb kits in multi-target situations.

coglin.1496:

Well yeah. Several of us have pointed out repeatedly that all the other profession sub forums had threads with each claiming they received all of the aggro all of the time.

I have a sneaking suspicion there wasn’t an engineer or guardian nearby when they experienced this.

They claim it is every time, regardless, so I am not sure how that becomes relevant. Their threads read pretty much identical to hours. I mean one of them in the guardian sub forums starts off with me and my engineer friend were…………………………..

Perhaps you may want to cruise through the other professions forums and read for yourself.

This is what I have experienced so far with the classes and aggro:

(I am no expert and these are just my observations and opinions)

Engineer and Guardian seem to me to pull plenty of aggro and do it consistantly. That’s OK for a Guardian, but not OK for an Engineer. It’s why I no longer play my Eng. Engineer cannot handle the damage, and I don’t dodge well to be honest… I am no console gamer, I am an old MMO gamer; the whole concept of dodging in a game is new to me and my old brain and fingers.I am still getting the hang of it. Guardian seems to draw aggro, hold it, AND has the tools to deal with it. Enough said.

Now as for Warrior, Elementalist, Necro…. these classes seem to me to have the aggro mechanics right, not too much, not too little. I saw and experienced nothing that worried me. Necro and their pets seem to have a good balance as far as aggro is… whether the pets have aggro or the owner depends on what spells/skills are used. Imho this is as it should be… a balance. Same with Ele’s pets.

Ranger… this class doesn’t draw enough aggro in my opinion, and I think … mind you this is just my opinion… I think it’s because of two variables. First…. Ranger weapons, especially Bows, do not do enough damage as compared to other classes weapons/spells. I see a deficit. Ranger Pets are actually keeping aggro too much and my pet dies or is in danger of dying far too much. Second… since Rangers don’t have many heals, and the heals they have are HOTs mostly, they don’t seem to attract mob’s attention in this department either like other classes do. This sets Rangers apart from the other classes and I won’t say they are broke… just different. Ranger Pets to me seem to being doing the damage I would expect them to, so I don’t think there’s a problem with he pets. It seems there are Players that are making the most of this situation with Rangers and I am learning too now as well.
(Today for example I was fighting a boss mob with many other Players in a dynamic event, I was not drawing hardly any aggro, all other Players I noticed were drawing aggro, my pet was drawing aggro…. but no matter how fast I got off my attacks I wasn’t getting the Mob’s attention. The situation DID give me the opportunity to do continuous damage to the boss, without interruption, which was great… but still it did not feel “right” to me. I was one of the higher level players there, with better gear, and I still felt like I was doing too little.)

Mesmers and Thieves… I don’t play these so I don’t know how they handle aggro.

This thread and many others are just a symptom of selective recall.

Tougher tier mobs (vets/champs/elites) will always switch around based on some other stat besides damage, that most of us are not aware of (like the mentioned healing or toughness, etc..)

There is no way to ‘hold’ aggro. There boss will typically rotate between targets (unless select members aren’t being as much of a threat as others [due to levels, etc.]).

If a boss has targeted you, take it as a sign that you are pulling your own weight in the party

If you get hit / die when they target you, take it as a sign that you need to start learning to use the Dodge function more strategically.
Cause this game isn’t made so that some ‘tank’ will save your kitten by retaking aggro.

“This thread and many others are just a symptom of selective recall.”

I agree that it is more a case of this then anything else.

Hard to avoid. All people have selective recall. “No person is truly objective”.

I did the best I could to provide unbiased and useful info with my comments.

Ramethzero.3785:

Eh… I dont buy entirely what josh is saying. They have gotten rid of the idea of having a trinity setup for MMO’s? Yes. Does it stop the mobs from behaving certain ways? In many ways they do act and respond according to standard aggro. There might be some detailed criteria in their behaviour we are just not privy to, but that doesn’t mean there is no such thing as consistancy at all. Pay attention to the mobs and you will see many that the species does matter. This is especially true with labeled mobs (for example, centaur blahtyblah and Hylek Blahtyblah) where they have the same skillsets. The AI of some of these mobs do behave similarly, like when people are trying to pick up fallen players. The problem with it also being totally random is in the concept itself. If its totally random what they do, then how can you experience consistancy in their behaviour? This is why its kinda a mystery to me.

The only close to point observation is that there could be varying sets of aggro mechanics, which is also not unheard of in your other standard mmo genre’s.

This is something only the technical side of things can answer. But, the only problem with that is they’d be making a mistake to leak aggro mechanics out, or else they’d risk players catching on.

I’m positive there are agg mechanics, but they must be pretty detailed to the point where you’d spend too long trying to figure it out and not enough time actually playing.

I wasn’t claiming that it’s completely random, I was only claiming that it’s complicated and probably taking into account way more variables than what a player would be able to figure out just from personal experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s mob specific too, adding to the confusion.

I ran TA explore Upper today and was having aggro issues. I was bomb/heal support specced. I was wearing full exotic cleric’s, +heal jewelry, and cleric’s p/s. This setup gives me high armor (toughness) and high +heal. The group consisted of me (engy), a thief, a ranger, a mesmer, and a necro. I was consistently pulling aggro. One fight that sticks in my mind was there were 4-5 of these tree/hairy Ent looking things that come at you in a corridor. after 1 bomb (with heal), I had all of them on me. Not only that, but they did chain knockbacks on me. I literally lost all control of my character for about 15 seconds, all the while dying. I was downed about 6 times throughout the run. I died 3 of those times. The others were downed twice, but the necro was the only other one that died and he died once.

I definitely can’t figure out their aggro system. If you ever want to see how weird it is, just do the abomination fight at the end of the Plinx DE chain in Cursed Shore. That champion usually locks on to one target for the entire event. If if that target dies and comes back, as soon as the target engages, the abom will usually go after it again. I’ve been that target many, many times… lol. In that particular fight, I did notice I was more apt to be the target when I was in a condition build. I have yet to pull aggro in that fight when I was in a power/crit setup.

Not sure if this helps come to a conclusion or not… just thought I’d share the info. That Abomination at the end of the Plinx DE might be a good place to start looking at aggro behavior though.

DreamOfACure.4382:

This thread and many others are just a symptom of selective recall.

Tougher tier mobs (vets/champs/elites) will always switch around based on some other stat besides damage, that most of us are not aware of (like the mentioned healing or toughness, etc..)

There is no way to ‘hold’ aggro. There boss will typically rotate between targets (unless select members aren’t being as much of a threat as others [due to levels, etc.]).

If a boss has targeted you, take it as a sign that you are pulling your own weight in the party

If you get hit / die when they target you, take it as a sign that you need to start learning to use the Dodge function more strategically.
Cause this game isn’t made so that some ‘tank’ will save your kitten by retaking aggro.

Thanks for the input, but I am neither delusional, nor a bad gamer. I have been playing MMORPGs for over ten years now and I know over-aggro when I see it. Others are reporting the same thing and I doubt we are all delusional.

How about we do this… If you are NOT experiencing these things then kindly go back to playing the game and please just let the rest of us try to figure out what is going on. If you are not seeing what is being reported by others, then it is not affecting you and you can go happily and merrily on your way. There is no need to tell us that what we are experiencing is not real and is only in our minds, no matter how kindly you attempt to put it.

What I have experienced, others have. My wife has seen it. My friends have watched it. I have grouped with strangers and had them send me tells to ask me how I have been holding aggro so well. Something is amiss and as none of us players know the aggro mechanics in this game, only the developers will be able to figure it out.

Thanks again for the reply and for your “opinion” on how aggro works in the game and for your “pro” tips about dodging. Now please let the rest of us try to work this issue out with the developers.

Thanks.

Still, that does not mean it should be defined as a “issue” with the profession. If only a portion of the engineers players have this issue. While similar size portions of other professions make the same claim. There must be some common denominate between the individuals.

Michaeas Magister.1589:

I guess since no one really knows the aggro mechanics of the game, I will put in a bug report on the Bug section of the forums.

I would advise anyone else (regardless of profession) to put in a similar post and/or add to mine so that we can get Arenanet to take a look into aggro and see if this is just some very weird mechanic or a bug. Without further information into aggro mechanics I cannot see us players being able to sort this issue out.

It’s intended that we are left in the dark about the exact aggro mechanics in this game because otherwise we would be able to abuse them.

Michaeas Magister.1589:

Thanks for the input, but I am neither delusional, nor a bad gamer. I have been playing MMORPGs for over ten years now and I know over-aggro when I see it. Others are reporting the same thing and I doubt we are all delusional.

How about we do this… If you are NOT experiencing these things then kindly go back to playing the game and please just let the rest of us try to figure out what is going on. If you are not seeing what is being reported by others, then it is not affecting you and you can go happily and merrily on your way. There is no need to tell us that what we are experiencing is not real and is only in our minds, no matter how kindly you attempt to put it.

What I have experienced, others have. My wife has seen it. My friends have watched it. I have grouped with strangers and had them send me tells to ask me how I have been holding aggro so well. Something is amiss and as none of us players know the aggro mechanics in this game, only the developers will be able to figure it out.

Thanks again for the reply and for your “opinion” on how aggro works in the game and for your “pro” tips about dodging. Now please let the rest of us try to work this issue out with the developers.

Thanks.

You may be taking this way too personally.

DreamOfACure.4382:

If a boss has targeted you, take it as a sign that you are pulling your own weight in the party

I’ll keep this in mind next time a boss beelines for me before I even shoot it.

I did some researches in 3 different dungeons:

Citadel of Flame:
Path 1 – average aggro
Path 2 – aggro from the final boss the most of time
Path 3 – aggro from the final boss a bit more often than other party members
I had rampager/weapon armor (all CoF runes) and cleric trinkets, using dual pistols (piercing shots), traits 0/30/30/10/0

Sorrow’s Embrace:
Path 1 – grabbing aggro from singularities almost all the time, golems in minefield are always pulling me first, final boss is focusing me all the time, unless I’m not attacking anymore
Path 2 – grabbing aggro from trash mobs the most of time, minor bosses tend to focus me a little more than the others, final golem bosses are targeting me over everyone else until I’m dying
Path 3 – same as above, on final boss stage the most of destroyers are chasing me, hard to take their aggro off me
I had rampager armor (3 CoF runes/3 SE runes) and cleric trinkets, dual pistols (piercing shots) and flamethrower, traits 0/30/30/10/0

Crucible of Eternity:
Path 2 – average aggro on trash mobs, subject alpha tends to imprison me in crystal more often than the others. The final boss (not counting 3rd subject fight) is poisoning and bleeding me much more than anyone else
I had rampager armor (3 CoF runes/3 SE runes) and cleric trinkets, dual pistols (piercing shots) and flamethrower through the first half of dungeon, traits 0/30/30/10/0

Orissa.1872:

I did some researches in 3 different dungeons:

Citadel of Flame:
Path 1 – average aggro
Path 2 – aggro from the final boss the most of time
Path 3 – aggro from the final boss a bit more often than other party members
I had rampager/weapon armor (all CoF runes) and cleric trinkets, using dual pistols (piercing shots), traits 0/30/30/10/0

Sorrow’s Embrace:
Path 1 – grabbing aggro from singularities almost all the time, golems in minefield are always pulling me first, final boss is focusing me all the time, unless I’m not attacking anymore
Path 2 – grabbing aggro from trash mobs the most of time, minor bosses tend to focus me a little more than the others, final golem bosses are targeting me over everyone else until I’m dying
Path 3 – same as above, on final boss stage the most of destroyers are chasing me, hard to take their aggro off me
I had rampager armor (3 CoF runes/3 SE runes) and cleric trinkets, dual pistols (piercing shots) and flamethrower, traits 0/30/30/10/0

Crucible of Eternity:
Path 2 – average aggro on trash mobs, subject alpha tends to imprison me in crystal more often than the others. The final boss (not counting 3rd subject fight) is poisoning and bleeding me much more than anyone else
I had rampager armor (3 CoF runes/3 SE runes) and cleric trinkets, dual pistols (piercing shots) and flamethrower through the first half of dungeon, traits 0/30/30/10/0

Huh, this is some very good information and I think it might point to what the issue could be. Since it seems to affect some Engineers and not others, it might be related to an assessment that the MoBs are making about your contribution levels to the party, I.E. how much healing/support/buffs you are able to give.

The Guild Wars 1 A.I. was quite adept at making threat assessments and was quite well known for going for the more squishy party members that were healing or buffing or nuking an area quite hard. There was no taunting available, so your “tanks” could not always hold aggro. If the developers incorporated something similar into the Guild Wars 2 A.I., it might explain the over-aggro.

I have read from several forums that this seems to be prevalent with Guardians and Engineers and to a lesser extent with Elementalists in water attunement and Warriors with heavy shout builds. I know they don’t want us to exactly know the aggro mechanics in order not to abuse them, but there might at least be an explanation as to why this is happening with this data.

I shall continue to look into it.

Thanks.