Hate and Aggro

[Calyndrell]

Yes this topic is about hate and agro.. I am sick.... wait not that kind of hate..

How is hate/ Aggro calculated just wondering because when group hunting it almost seems random who/what gets targeted?

[Arzel Rashemi]

For boss/epic mobs, I could be wrong but I think how target preference is worked out is different and individual to each epic/boss mob.

I've noticed the Queen for instance is a bit unique compared to Reklar or Valkor as she seems to take a preference to a player's class in her targets. Starting with Ranger, healer, and so forth down. If there are rangers in group, she seems to always target those first and follows on to any healers. It could just be how things have fallen time and again for me in the groups I've been in, but I find the coincidence a bit too odd to ignore.

For most normal mobs, it should be the lowest level or rating. However, I've noticed a bit of an oddity where concerns multi-classing. In the instance where a biped who has already taken a class to 100 and has a secondary class where the level is lower than that of a level 100 dragon, the mob will usually and almost always strike for the dragon first. So, I don't think the system differentiates the level of the current class, but rather the overall rating of the character.

[Azath]

Aggro first goes to the weakest character/lowest level.

After that, whoever pulls a mob will take the aggro, unless it sees a weaker target OR another pull does more damage...

This is because mobs target "hate" at the highest damage dealer. In some hunts you see incredibly bias against one person? That's because that person is probably doing the most damage to it.

I'm not sure how healers are targetted, but i think if their heals override damage done by a certain amount or something, a mob will go target a healer. Don't take my word for this though.

This is true for most mobs, will some differentiation in the epics.
Reklar in particular seems to be rather random sometimes in damage, for example he'll target the highest damage dealer, but then might switch randomly to one person, even if they're not too much of a concern to him, to GR and then switch back to highest damage healer suddenly. But sometimes he'll also stay with the highest damage dealer and continue to hit, even when his GR recycles. Reklar also has a habit of targetting the boon casters after someone or other is dead, but i have no idea how primal boon is factored into aggro.
Shaloth is also pretty random as well, she's switch from highest damage to people like healers sometimes for no real reason; even if the healer is inactive.

[Pharaxes]

Reklar in particular seems to be rather random sometimes in damage, for example he'll target the highest damage dealer, but then might switch randomly to one person, even if they're not too much of a concern to him, to GR and then switch back to highest damage healer suddenly. But sometimes he'll also stay with the highest damage dealer and continue to hit, even when his GR recycles. Reklar also has a habit of targetting the boon casters after someone or other is dead, but i have no idea how primal boon is factored into aggro.

sometimes I felt like he has a habit of GR me just because I'm there *sobs*

[Calyndrell]

Thanks Azath and Arzel This is pretty much what I know.. but its the apparent randomness of epics that has me scratching my head.

I have some ideas but i need to understand the aggro system fully to go so far as to make a post about them. Hopefully we'll hear from a dev.

[Arzel Rashemi]

sometimes I felt like he has a habit of GR me just because I'm there *sobs*

I think its because he knows you would hit the hardest Phar.

I have to agree with Azath for the most part on Reklar. He's so random about who he targets. I know that if the puller does not do enough damage to him to keep his aggro on the pull, he'll set off on the one casting the boon. The answer was usually to have the puller cast boon first then hit as hard and quick with everything so there would be enough aggro there that Rekky would stay on the puller instead of switching to the one casting boon. I think the targeting of the boon caster is also related to their range from Reklar. Everytime I have seen it, if the one casting boon is within reach of Reklar, he'll retarget onto the boon caster as soon as, which seemed to be regardless of aggro or damage dealt by others.

Still pretty darn certain about the Queen tho, especially since as Az pointed out, she'll go for healers even if they're inactive.

We should really get some hunts together to see if these are really the case.

[AmonGwareth]

Lots of AI values related to aggro can be tweaked. How much "Hate" damage or healing generates, the rate at which it decays, even values that determine how much monsters are impacted by players higher or lower level than they are.

However, none of the Epic Bosses have any values other than the defaults. Likely, what you are seeing is simply behavior caused by the number of players typically involved in these fights. With so much going on, its no surprise that a monster's behavior might be somewhat different than what you would encounter when fighting solo or in small groups. In addition, most of these mobs have followers or adds and nearly all are social. That can play into their behavior as well.

In fact, we rarely adjust these values because they are extremely difficult to test and so typically we leave them alone.

[LOVWYRM]

My experience with queen:

If Luna (strong Lunus) goes in first, casts GR-hits hard and has a personal healer - she can hold her all fight long (as long as she does not die) . Queen will follow her all through the cave if necessary- or keeps her staying on that wall