Guild Wars 2

This is a topic about illusion aggro, any thoughts on the matter are welcome.

I’ve been studying Mesmer mob aggro since the game came out and I’m still trying to
figure out how this mechanic is handled for Illusions, and Mesmers in general. I know illusions don’t do much damage, but it does build up over a short period of time when the right traits are incorporated.

I usually fight with a staff, with auto attack turned off. I was fighting Jotuns about 30 minutes ago. I started the fight by creating 1 phantasm and one clone. Once the mob got close enough to the illusions, I’d use Decoy to quickly run a good distance behind him. Once I was visible again, the mob quickly did a 180 and headed straight for me. This battle was handled without any direct damage from myself o_O

I tested this aggro mechanic against Jotuns once more with a melee strategy, via a sword and torch. The result was the same as the Jotun would make a bee line straight for my mesmer, avoiding my illusions entirely until it was dead.

I’ve noticed that some mobs, like Jotun in WF and Zombies in Orr, seem to differentiate illusions from the Mesmers very quickly, whereas other creatures, like Moas and Alligators in the Sylvari starting area, sometimes take a bit longer or never at all before they go down. Notice that I said “sometimes”, sometimes mobs tend to have an almost ESP-like awareness of where the Mesmer is, regardless of illusions and Skills used to evade them.

There are moments though, in both high level and low level areas, where I’ll be standing right next to, or slightly behind, one of my illusions while I’m attacking, let’s say a bandit in Kessex Hills, and I’ll receive no aggro for the duration of the fight.

I am theorizing at the moment that each mob type, like Moas, Undead, Jotun, etc, have unique AI, which handles aggro differently, but the theory is not very well founded as I mentioned in the above experience of such ESP-like behavior.

Aside from the Guild Wars 2 wiki, I also stumbled across this topic at GW2Guru, which has some decent info that I’ve read through in the past, although my own experiences seem to portray something deeper in the game mechanics than what’s being mentioned: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/80765-nonexistent-illusion-aggro/

WF = Wayfarer Foothills, and I’ll probably edit this as I have more input of my own to add.

TL;DR: Mobs seem to have an ESP-like awareness of Mesmers regardless of the skills used to evade them. This study of Mesmer Illusion aggro is ongoing for me.

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