Aggro
Aggro is a component of mobs AI. When a player "has aggro", it means that enemies can "see" the player and they will chase, attack and use abilities on him. Aggro is shared between each groups of enemies, so for example when a player catches aggro of one foe the whole group will attack the player.
Gaining Aggro
There are three main ways to gain aggro:
- Entering a foe's Aggro Bubble. The size of the aggro bubble for most enemies is slightly smaller than cast range. This includes offensive binding rituals and Corpses (more below).
- Using a spell or directly damaging a foe. That this includes all spirits (more below).
- Using a spell on an ally who has aggro.
Breaking Aggro
Aggro is defined shared when more than one ally has aggro of a specific mob. Mobs will then try to move to attack all the players with aggro, regardless of distance (as long as they are in radar range).
Shared aggro is typically bad because it makes mob behave in unexpected ways, it makes it impossible for a tank to make a ball, and it will make enemies run to all the players with aggro, which can result in mobs running into the team and everyone having aggro. It is also bad on 6-0 for the opposite reason, mobs may take longer to pick their target, split, and ultimately break, resulting in a failed pull.
Shared aggro cannot be broken by distance, for example if a spiker catches aggro of a group being tanked by a player, the spiker can run away and he will always have shared aggro. Running out of radar range of all foes of the group will make the foes stop considering the spiker as a target, but only temporarily. If the spiker comes back into radar range, he will still be in aggro and be considered as a target.
There are two ways to resolve shared aggro:
- Of all people with shared aggro, have all but one die. Death will break aggro, and only the remaining player will have aggro. This is common in Domain of Anguish when spikers catch aggro of mobs that a Tank is pulling away or balling.
- All people with shared aggro break the mob at the same time. This is common in Domain of Anguish when a tank catches aggro of the other tank's ball. Instead of dying, they can both recall out at the same time to break the aggro simultaneously, and the intended tank can then aggro again afterwards.
Spirits as source of Aggro
Corpse Aggro
Dead foes are to be considered exactly the same as alive foes for the purpose of aggro. The most common example is when part of a group is dead, moving inside the aggro bubble of the corpses will draw aggro of the rest of the group. Most corpses do disappear after some time, and at that point they will no longer cause aggro.
Corpses can also be source of chain aggro (below).