Minions and Aggro

I haven't played GW yet, so I was wondering if someone can answer a question for me.

I was wondering how this game deals with aggro, and if you are outdamaging a minion does that mean that it won't hold aggro and instead the monster will attack you?

I'm sure someone could give a more detailed explanation, but in my experience my pet held aggro pretty well. It seemed like I had to outdamage my pet by quite a bit in order to have the enemy switch to me. I always outdamaged him, and he held aggro most the time, so I'm not sure how much you have to outdamage your pet to get aggroed. Then again, there are times when your pet already is dealing with a monster or two, and depending on other mobs positions they may come to attack you first.

Aggro in GW is more controlled by armor class than anything else. The mobs will look for the easiest target, and will attack that target unless they can't reach them, when they'll turn to the closest target in most cases. Minions are excellent for taking aggro, since they tend to have far weaker armor than a character. Pets have higher armor than necro minions, but they'll often take the aggro, often just by blocking the path the enemy would have to take to attack you.

One of the things about having armor as the factor that causes aggro is that it's not so easy to control aggro as it is in other games- especially with no skills to draw aggro or anything. Your monk is going to have less armor than your warrior, meaning they're going to be the first targets that the enemies want to attack- you can still get aggro onto the warrior if the warrior blocks the enemies from getting to the healer, or if the warrior is up ahead, so that the enemies can't see the healer or other casters when they start attacking.

Wow..I knew that they usually went for the weakest first, but from what I understand, you're saying armor is the only factor? I thought damage played a part, as there have been times when a mob is attacking a different person or my pet, and if I really layed into them they would come after me. Maybe just a coincidence I guess, I only played this last BWE...maybe 25 hours or so.

I get the impression that aggro is not as simple a calculation as it is in games like daoc, environmental and positional factors do seem to be important a fair amount more

It's not completely defense, but that's one of the more prominent factors- distance also seems to be considered some, and some other factors that I couldn't even guess. However, as far as I've been able to tell, there's no real way to affect monster Aggro besides blocking their path to their intended target, or to remove your armor(which I would strongly discourage unless you're looking for a quick death). They do seem to lock onto a target, but occasionally look for other targets- especially if their current target moves, or if something happens to interrupt them, such as knockdowns or other effects. Different creatures seem to have different focuses like that too- Wind Riders will target anyone who has an enchantment, and once they are focused on that target, they'll generally stay there(they use shatter enchantment, for those who haven't ran into them). Minotaurs seem to stay on a target pretty well once they start attacking, while White Mantle Justiciars will often break off a target mid-attack if they see someone they want to fight more. Ranged creatures will often switch to a different target if they miss you with their attacks a couple times in a row, but then will occasionally switch back to you a few seconds later.

That's pretty cool that different enemies have different tendencies. I thought there was some weird factor. The different times I was aggroed rather than my pet didn't seem to be consistently linked with the damage. Thanks =p

Whatever it is it certainly makes things very interesting. I stuck with the same party for at least 3 or 4 missions and there was a necromancer that every group we faced went after immediately. He could be in the back and not even casting anything yet and at least one creature would run past the warriors and the monks to go after him, I felt bad for him but it was kinda funny... (we could hear his pain on teamspeak, "why did they go after me!?! I'm in the back I didn't even cast anything!")

I was just wondering if it would be possible to have like one minion, send him at a group of monsters, and cast Tainted Flesh on him, and watch all the mobs attack it while wasting away, then maybe also cast some area of effect spells or something to quicken their dying.

Tainted Flesh (availability)
Description: For 20-39 seconds, target ally is immune to disease, and anyone striking that ally in melee becomes diseased for 3-13 seconds. This is an elite skill.
Energy Cost: 5
Activation Time: 1 Second.
Recharge Time: None.
Linked Attribute: Death Magic. Increases durations.
Skill Type: Enchantment Spell.

minion is UD and does not have flesh cast death nova on him instead..
btw, Ive got a question to experienced necros: I have trouble controlling 8+ minions health and picking the one to cast death nova, because they are not listed in party window how do you deal with that?
and there is no hotkey to switch between summons :/

i was looking on some website a while ago and it said that the aggro was based on a circle around your toon on the minimap, if the creature gets within this circle you aggro it, but im not sure, if anyone can correct me please do cuz i dont have the game yet
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Hexx

In my experience, yes enemies seem to go for the weakest target, but also, enemies prefer targets that are close to them, and if you are getting attacked, all you have to do is run around and they will usually stop attacking you...
I'm an elementalist and whenever i get attacked by a lot of monsters I just run towards the tank and try to "dump" the aggro on him, then back away a bit and start casting AoEs on the enemies that are now crowded around the tank.
It works very well...
The important thing to remember is that running around like a maniac is NOT a bad thing like in other games where it just makes things worse :P If you are getting attacked, don't just stand there waiting for a tank to pull aggro from you, because monsters aren't likely to switch targets unless you move around some.

This even applies to ranged targets... If you just leave the enemies range they will usually change targets. Basically enemies prefer to move around as little as possible once they are engaged in combat.