[2021] PvE Agro / taunting needs improving

Hi everyone,

I’ve seen a handful of posts now asking questions about how our target selection works so I’m here to answer those questions! Most of our AI select their target primarily based on “threat” which is a score that is calculated based on various actions you do. These actions include healing a player (including yourself) with a spell, dealing damage to an AI, blocking incoming damage from an AI, and using a Taunt ability. AI will generally target the player who has the most threat at any given time, and that player will have the “aggro” of the AI. While you maintain the AI’s aggro, they will target you unless any of the following happens;

• Another player generates more threat than you and overtakes the aggro of the AI
• Another player uses a Taunt
• The AI uses a special ability that will target someone who does not have aggro.

Now let’s quickly run through each of these scenarios:

• In the first scenario, if Player A has 100 threat and has aggro but Player B generates 110 threat, Player B has overtaken Player A. Player B now has aggro and the AI will target them for any attacks.
• In the second scenario, if Player A has 100 threat and Player B has 0 threat but then uses a taunt, Player B immediately generates a little over 100 threat and takes the aggro of the creature. Player B will maintain aggro until the Taunt ends at which point the AI will default to targeting the player with the most threat. Player B better have generated more threat while the taunt was active!
  • As a quick side note, you can tell a Taunt is active by looking for the Taunt status effect icon in an AI’s nameplate.
• In the third scenario, if Player A has 100 threat and Player B has 0 threat but a Boss uses his special ability “throw my spear at the furthest target”, Player A will have aggro but Player B will be targeted for the duration of this special ability. Once the ability ends, the Boss will resume targeting Player A. It’s important to note that Player A did not lose threat here nor did they lose aggro. Mechanics like this allow us to keep the pressure up on all players and not just the tanks.

That’s the nuts and bolts of how target selection works! Moving on to the discussion around healing, there’s been some confusion on how healing threat generation works. Healing generates significantly less threat on a per-ability basis than any other weapon. However, because Life Staff users have access to heal over times (HoTs) and area of effect heals, they’re capable of generating a good amount of threat that is consistent with other weapons. A tank with access to taunts shouldn’t have much issue regaining aggro if it is lost. One of the most frequent scenarios I’ve seen so far is that a Tank will be healed before they get a chance to deal damage to an AI so the AI will have no threat against the tank, but some threat against the healer. This tends to lead to the AI running straight for the healer.

We’re keeping a close eye on the threat generation of all of our weapons and we appreciate your feedback! I’ll see you all in Aeternum!

Hi everyone,

Lots of great follow up discussion! Here’s some extra info on target selection based on some of the questions you’ve asked;

• Healing generates threat equal to a percentage of the amount of health that is healed by the spell. If you cast Sacred Ground but no one stands in the AoE, no threat will be generated. But if you heal a damaged player for 100 health, you will generate 20 threat towards every AI already in combat in the area who is aware of you. Different healing spells generate threat at different percentages, but healing done doesn’t generate threat at a one to one ratio equivalent to healing output.
• Socketing a Carnelian Gem into a weapon both enables Taunts AND increases the base threat you generate with attacks. The threat increase percentage depends on the tier of Carnelian that is socketed into your weapon.
• When you have aggro on an AI, that AI’s nameplate will have a bright red highlight around it. If that AI has aggro on someone else, the nameplate will appear as if the AI wasn’t targeting you.
• Each AI has their own threat table. This means that if you are fighting two Skeletal Warriors and a Skeletal Archer who is lurking in the back, the tank needs to make sure they’re hitting and Taunting the Archer! If they ignore the Archer, they could find that this AI targets someone else who has more threat.
• Weapon swapping has no impact on threat. It does not increase nor does it decrease your threat.
• Dodging has no impact on threat. It does not increase nor does it decrease your threat.
• Taunt sets your threat a fixed percentage above the current highest threat-holder. So, if you use Taunt to initiate a fight, your initial threat will be rather low. I highly recommend initiating with other abilities or light and heavy attacks, and then use a taunt a few seconds into the fight.

I also appreciate the bugs you’ve brought up! I do have notes on a few of them:

• The carnelian socketed into the amulet is indeed a bug. Carnelians that enable Taunt should exclusively be found in weapons, so I’ve notified our team about that item.
• The Taunt status effect icon doesn’t match the duration of the Taunts. What you see on the ability tooltip is indeed correct. Thanks to your reports we’re aware of this and investigating it!
• We’re investigating the reports of AI running towards non-engaged players when you’ve already aggroed them.

I hope this gives you a bit more insight into the target selection system. We’re always keeping a close eye on our AI and looking for areas that could be fleshed out or improved in the future. I appreciate all of the feedback you’ve given! As always, I hope to see you all in Aeternum!

Quick note, I updated my last post. I misspoke about healing threat generation and have updated that to be more accurate. Apologies for the mixup! I’ve also included some info on dodging since I’ve seen that asked a handful of times.

• Healing generates threat equal to a percentage of the amount of health that is healed by the spell. If you cast Sacred Ground but no one stands in the AoE, no threat will be generated. But if you heal a damaged player for 100 health, you will generate 20 threat towards every AI already in combat in the area who is aware of you. Different healing spells generate threat at different percentages, but generally speaking healing done doesn’t generate threat at a one to one ratio equivalent to healing output. Healing done generates threat at a reduced ratio.
• Dodging has no impact on threat. It does not increase nor does it decrease your threat.