Why are guards attacking while I am digging for NotD ?

I remember last year a guard in Qeynos capital district attacking a Hardy and I didn't get any xp for that one. Skyfire, and maybe Maj'Dul as well.

I don't play on test, so... yesterday and today, different characters, were killed by Captain Hanstock [ spelling ?] in the harbor area. Mostly attacked with no warning. One character low level, the other 110 mentored down to 15.

Another Captain, who rides his horse past the tinkering gnomes, sat there and stared. So I moved away. He stayed there and didn't ride off.

Is this normal now ?

Thanks.

Either you used an AOE that hit the guards, or you have an adornment or piece of gear that is proccing an AOE, or your familiar is proccing an AOE.

I don't think so, but i"ll check.

If I'm not doing any digging, they just keep walking, or riding, past. Don't have a combat familiar, but I do use a merc, Jennis.

The one who sat on his horse and watched, never did that before. Last year he attacked the same dug up creature I was attacking, then rode off.

Put your pets and/or mercenaries on passive, then send them in when you have a specific target. This helps prevent them from doing things you don't want them to do.

Hes talking about agro mobs he dug up being killed by guards. Not guards killing him

I have noticed that years ago , it's not a new thing and when I get overwhelmed by the mobs I run to them .
They have been killing mobs during festivals for a long time in Fens the guards on rhinos kill mobs that come to close
and in Neriak guards kill rats, all guards will attack mobs when they get to close .
Yes they get stuck in place sometimes too after they fought something , but let them kill something and they move on, looks like they want to protect you , lol.
The only way to avoid a conflict is go somewhere where there are no guards .

Make sure also about which city you are digging in and which alignment for that particular toon.

(e.g.) I was on a lowbie good toon in Freeport digging graves. The guild hall is a T1 and there is a cemetery very close to that GH exit. Was not really thinking about it since that area is normally safe. I zone out on good toon and go to the cemetery. There is a wandering guard that comes just close enough to where I parked the toon that kept aggroing her. I moved her to the furthest/inner gravestone and all was ok after that.

I think some of you are misreading my OP.

1) The guards are attacking my characters, not the grave mobs. Last year the attacked the grave mobs.

2) I would never put a good aligned character in an evil city.

3) I don't have an agro pet.

I had to go to an area in Qeynos, and New Halas, where the guards don't go.

Maybe your AE autoattack hit them?

Sounds like a job for Singular Focus

no again he never was attacked by the guards , all he was wondering about was why they killed his targets so he would not get credit .
I have been killed by guards before and not only because I was the wrong faction , but because I used abilities that are not a good idea around those fellows .
But again this is only about the guards seemingly randomly attacking mobs he was trying to kill for a quest or for the loot .

I don't think I had any AE in use.

All my characters who were attacked had Singular Focus.

Again, you are mistaken. The guards attacked my characters. My characters died.

Faction had nothing to do with it.

Were you using it?

Also, remember that it only impacts things that make your auto attack strike multiple targets. If you cast an AoE, it's going to hit the guards.

https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Singular_Focus

I don't know of any AOE on those characters, but I'll check.

Good think you linked to it because the eq wiki search seems to not be working. I click on it, the place to type in the search string doesn't open.

None of the characters that were killed by guards had an AOE attack mode.

Did you check their familiars? (The Gaggelu Pearwood was bad about randomly AOEing everything)

Were they wearing something like the Destruction set of runes that procs damage?

I don't have any of those.