Aggravating Guide about Aggro

Just took the time to confirm your results. It does appear to be fixed, so that there is no stacking or stripping ... that all shields now overwrite each other. Thanks guys.

My lord ... six years later I'm re-reading this and just wow.

Really, how much can you blame them? A lot of this information that I put together so long ago was sourced out of player testing, and gleaning from dev posts. Unless they come here and read this compendium, it's only natural they're going to go based on hearsay and anecdotes.

https://tinyurl.com/DCUOAggro will link to this guide

Update: fixed image links.

Mesmerizing lasso, I tried to test to see if it was still broken. I thought it was, but it seemed to work fine. I took it into World of Flashpoint, would find a clump of adds fighting each other, and try to taunt one out of the group with rage blast, and with lasso. I would stay back just far enough for the reticule to turn red, so my proximity wouldn't be a factor. If goons were fighting mobsters, and would still be occupied by something on its hate table after its buddy was taunted, I figured that would work. Both powers behaved the same.

However, I'm pretty sure it's not. My anecdotal evidence was levelling a toon that didn't have ragebringer yet, but could get the iconic as a targeted pull. Taking it into seasonals, there would be other tanks and lasso seemed to take more from them than just the one thing I'd grab. But hey, that could be explained by all sorts of things in this guide, and it's not hard evidence.

Whether or not it's still broken, my link to the old Issue Tracker is definitely broken. Hopefully that will indicate to someone who comes along that that might not be current information, so I'll leave the broken link for now.

Yes, everything here is still current and still applies, except the bit about Mesmerizing Lasso needs to be retested ^

This is a false statement. The hate table for each enemy refreshes on a timer, it is not constantly shifting.

No, it does not work differenlty for single taunts.

Control Effects and Immunities is its own section ^

Soft CC and Hard CC only refer to what kinds of actions you can take while controlled, if I recall. CC doesn't have anything to do with Hate, Aggro, Taunts, etc. It was only mentioned here in terms of times when it might not seem like the tank has the focus of the enemy so, generally, CC is out of the scope of this guide.

Yes.

I don't know where to start with this one. It means I totally missed the mark in teaching.

I think I see where the issue might be, though. Each individual enemy has its own hate table. It is not one global hate table.

Whether you hit an enemy with a single taunt, or any other taunt, it is taunted, and the timer begins.

You are totally right, you can only appear on the hate table for that NPC once; you can not double-taunt something.

But, this bit about stopping single taunting I think belies something as well. Once taunted, like you said, they are taunted. It doesn't matter what taunted them, they are taunted. There is no changing that taunt from a single to a regular, they are just taunted.

The "overriding" means that, during the 8-12 second window, when the npc says "who do I hate the most" it'll have its regular list, the tanks using abilities, and the person who last used a single taunt at top. It makes the evalutation, and that's it. Whether you earned your place on the list from healing the group or from throwing a single taunt doesn't matter until the next time it refreshes the list.

I know, it's hard to unlearn a phrase. I still use it wrong when I'm chatting ingame.

Aggro means overriding the natural order of the hate table.

The natural order of the hate table would have tanks somewhere on the bottom of the list. If they just used weapon attacks, or didn't get a special mechanic for being in tank stance, that's where they'd be. But, they gain Aggro and get on top of the list.

The natural order of two damagers would be for the one doing the most damage to be on top of the hate list. But if one is mental, and uses Grandeur, that drops Aggro. It puts them artificially to the bottom of the list. Aggro is still, in this sense, overriding the natural order of the hate table.

See the section "When they say ___ what they really mean is ___" ^

What you've said and what I've had to clarify has given me a lot of food for thought. If you could give it another read and let me know if what I've said here helped it be more understandable, I'm sure there's room for improvement and editing.

I received your DM on Discord. I'd rather feedback went here. That way, I'm not the only one who can respond. This guide is an amalgam of a lot of people's research, testing and, quite frankly, fighting to help correct what is "most commonly used in the community" as you put it.

With the exception of the wikipeidia and giantbomb links, you've pretty much reiterated what you posted. The giantbomb article is completely wrong when applied to this game. The mechanic simply does not work the same here, though many of the terms and triggers are similar.

I think that's giving you a preconceived notion of the way things work, but a large hurdle in talking about it is the terminology. Try putting "for the purposes of this guide" and "in this game, different than other games you might be used to" in front of the "Quick Definitions" and the guide will make more sense to you.

Glad I could help! I wish I had a list of all the sources and extensive testing of the people who researched this stuff before me so I could give them the credit they deserve.

Correct, shields are not encasements. I'm having trouble finding self-encasements other than the three examples I gave; that list might be exhastive and I was just covering my bases or future-proofing the guide.

Every time someone shows they visited the guide with a like or comment, I find something else to fix or add. I'll add the short link I made that brings you here, that makes it easier to reference ingame: https://tinyurl.com/DCUOAggro

If all is going according to plan ... a single taunted NPC will be clutching this in her pocket ...

Glad to see at least one of my guides is not defunct.

I've added something about Brick under Pets that Tank. The section was originally for the variety of pets/allies out there, but I would be remiss in not mentioning Brick. Truth is, Brick mechanics have changed over the years so much that any information people have researched could not be true in it's current state. Here's what I put:

https://discord.com/channels/227819773688283137/509012062744084511/1349854677432270960

Have someone positing that using a single-target taunt ignores any other taunts used during the 8-12 window. Essentially saying that STT ignores the ability to refresh after 8 seconds. That would mean that after using a STT, you would have to re-instate instead of refresh, between the 12 and 20 mark.

So, I guess to test, one tank needs to grab a group, a second tank needs to STT pretty much a second later, and have both tanks throw one taunt during the 8-12 window, have second tank throw after the first tank though, and wait without taunting. Between 12 and 20, see who the separated npc goes to? If it stays with the second tank, then it was false, the window held. If it leaves the second tank, then it's true. ???? I'm not the one who originally did the work on testing these things. I compiled the information. I'd love to know how these things were tested and help any testers who wanna group up.

I remember there were issues with Guardian taunting mechanics beyond level 30, but I can't remember what they were. I do think I remember during the advent of Advanced Mechanics someone official saying it wasn't really meant for anything but levelling except in the supercharge, so they weren't going to bother working on it.

In any case, it would have to be powered, and you just can't power it often enough to keep up a consistent taunt. I believe it works the same as Crystal in that you get whatever attack you get, though it seems prefer whatever attacks will deplete it of power the fastest.

As far as the part about announcing the arrival of adds, that's a good point. Scripted mechanics don't just take the form of a boss performing a special attack, jumping around, or even leaving the tank to go hit someone. Sometimes it's summoning other NPCs. Sometimes it's a weapon combo that once they've decided to do it, they will not be deterred except in ... well ... "scripted" ways.

I've added this, and rearranged the section a little:

Thanks for the feedback

Added a couple more definitions:

Based on Discord:
@Kelborn inb4 another tank calls it Threat
undrline

This is part of the boss's script; see Scripted Attacks.

For every tank that I see follow Faust around in Necropolis, I have a giggling voice in my head speaking in a fake Eastern European/Russian accent "In Kaznia, the boss tanks you."

Faust does scripted attacks almost the entire fight. He will teleport to a player, then a moment later put them in a cage unless they block. As a tank, I will camp the spawn location of one of the add camps, and grab the other adds as they approach my team. On Elite and below, when he's jumping around the arena, I make sure the line of sight between him and myself is clear, because he will still be attacking me (his Solar Flare really hurts). On Plus, there are different strategies, usually the tank will kite him in a circle around the obelisk, grabbing adds along the way. That way, when he's not following, it's clear that he's in the middle of funny business like a Lazy attack.)

Added information about Mesmerizing Lasso, the Lasso of Truth Artifact, and STT downgrades/timing/refresh.