Bosses/Adds attacking only one dps. Logic or spit in the face to others?

The normal in most end game alerts is 3 dps 1 Heal. Everyone in the group is strong enough to be in the alert or even the duo. yet the boss or adds attack only the hardest hitting dps in the group. They dont care about anyone else

is this logic or a spit in the face to the others that the boss/adds dont care about coming after them

if their isnt a tank shouldnt everyone feel the pain rather than one singled out dps being the full course meal?

As a "superhero or villain dps" do you care if the boss doesnt care to give you any attention or do you rather he keep attacking that same one person so you can gracefully dps or should it be better balanced out

It's always fun to be punished for being on top...

Oh, is THAT why the bosses are always giving me their undivided attention in alerts and raids? And here I thought it was all because of my snazzy aura and stunning chrome material.

Try playing as a healer. Most of the time the adds will dogpile you and only you.

It's pretty traditional MMORPG mechanics 101. Every action generates enmity to varying degrees, so to stay on top of the hate table you have to generate the most enmity... The only difference in DCUO is that tanks have it ridiculously easy because with the press of a button they're guaranteed to be top of the hate table and no amount of damage or healing can rip hate from them.

The boss will attack one of the dps, and the adds go for the healer. It’s often said, including in this very thread, that the most damaging dps is the boss’s target but I think it’s more complicated than that. I am very seldom the highest scoring dps, but I find myself being targeted sometimes regardless.

I think it’s possibly a combination of damage, proximity, number of npc’s a player has scored the killing blow to, any number of other factors that I cannot conceive of right now and possibly just pure RNG. I also suspect different npcs prioritise these factors different. I think bosses ignore healing out, or simply consider it very low priority, but most adds consider it a high priority.

I think most of you still need to understand aggro and the hate table.
Amazing that this many years into the game people don't get it???????

i remember i was in some backwater 4 player with Black Diamond...barely past alt status but shes getting there slowly...i was in dps stood next to boss and started jacking blocking chugging sodas...any button i could jam i jammed the nano second i could...when i was done i was no 1 dps and stood over the bosses body...i looked Fing glorious doing it too

is there ANY part of ANY tutorial that plainly and thoroughly explains it??!!...not your fault of course...or even the devs fault anymore...how many devs working on this game have been here since the beginning...

uhm...one of my replies became its own part of my post...thus the gibberish in my previous offering..

Whoever has the most aggro built up will almost always be the target of the boss. Usually that's a tank, because while they don't do much damage, they do generate aggro. The adds will often target the player with the next highest aggro...and without a tank, the person generating the most aggro other than the top dps will be the healer. Note: Aggro does not equal damage. Shields and heals generate aggro too. So while the top dpser in a tankless 4 man group may be doing the most damage and pulling the most aggro, the healer is quite likely to be generating a lot of aggro just keeping the top dpser alive. (One point re: healing. If you are the only healer, keep an eye on the damage on your teammates and only pop your heals, especially your highest heal, if they really, really need it. It's tempting to just hit a heal button as soon as you can "just in case" but spamming heals has 2 downsides...first, it burns up your power and second, whether you're healing a lot of damage or not, the heal action is generating aggro even if you're putting band aids on papercuts.) Oh...and healers should never, ever try to rez a fallen player unless the healer is the only one left or if they are well out of the hot zone. While you're rezzing, you aren't healing...and other players (including you) are taking unhealed damage. DPS is the utility man in a grp, especially 4 man alerts...tanks and healers are precious. If a tank falls in the middle of a scrum, the last place the healer should be is in the middle of the same mob. If the tank couldn't survive it, it's bugzapper land...healers in there die real fast.

That bane fight in the BB alert can be really hard on a healee

that means your groups DPS sucks.

I always get KO'd first by the boss in any group run. Does not matter how hard I hit, I am always the first one to go out. But that lets me know that the bosses feel me, they know I can make them hurt (evil grin). Every time the screen goes gray I love it because the boss thinks he's more powerful when I'm out of the picture. He freaks out when I get rallied. LOL.

I don't really know how I get KO'd first all the time. Just game mechanics I guess. But I do notice that the bosses do spend more time on hitting the DPS than they need to.

I suspect it's a game algorithm. The first player to take an action on the boss is probably automatically targeted unless more damage is coming in from another source. There is probably a factoring in of CR, type of affect, class of the player affecting the first shot. I know when I play alongside lower rated friends when I'm helping them in a mission, I get targeted; the game is almost certainly set to put force on the player in an alert that is dealing the most aggro/damage. I know if a player sits by the door and does nothing, they probably won't even be recognized by the mobs until he does. It's a programmed game tactic for the enemy to defeat the team.

ik its a game code but i HATED it so much, causing me to not use my loadout like celestial properly when being interrupted by the boss or adds sigh

This is why if the tank goes down the DPS should go all out on the Boss/Adds/Both. Get their attention and lead them as far away as they can so someone else can do the pick-up.

But in reality...a lot just run away or block. Damn people, stop hanging around Ambush Bug when you're in the War Room!

Nah. It just means that the group is tunnel vision on the boss and ignoring the adds.

DPS only gets aggro from damage dealt to target. None of the enemies care if the DPS is killing their boss or their friends.

When a Healer casts a heal, he gains aggro from every single enemy. "Gah! You're healing away the damage I was just dealing. I'll kill you for that."

The Bane fight in the Metal Alert is a great example. Bane has a parade of adds gradually joining the fight. In the 3DPS 1Heal breakdown, all the DPS focus their attention on Bane, or perhaps in AE affecting the adds that are directly surrounding Bane. There is no Tank though, and none of the DPS, no matter how much damage they are dealing, give a care about the new adds popping up on the edges of the map. So while the group might have awesome DPS, every stinking Porter and Razor and Dog that hops into the room is going to dogpile straight on the healer, because until the DPS actually start hitting them, they do not care about the DPS.

agree...something is really wrong if enemies can ignore being hit in the face and go after support

i cant think of any of my characters...regardless of Power, CR...whatever...who doesnt have at least some AoE type attack...Gadgets EMPs Earth Jackhammers Fire and Ice chunks of burning fuel or frozen ice boulders...what power is so single target you can be near enemies and they ignore you...my toons breathe and get surrounded...but i get your point...but it goes back to kimones observation...and mine...you want a healer not touched...make every second an enemy stands anywhere deadly...and give them no rest...give them your AoEs

I agree with your point, but it got me thinking. This is just speculation because I mainly play non-dps roles. Since the revamp, a lot of dps have focused on building an AoE loadout for mobs and a single target loadout for bosses. I wonder if that’s changed how things play out. Or maybe dps alway did that and I didn’t notice until after the revamp