Hello everyone,
By request of Thug I will be giving a lecture over 'aggro'.
Aggro, also known as hate or threat, is aggression from a mob. Basically what that means for you is that the mob is attacking you. For low health classes or builds aggro is not wanted especially in squads during dungeon runs; For Perfect World these dungeon runs are known as FB, Call of Duty, runs.
Aggro and You:
While not in a squad, there are two primary ways to gain aggro
1) You attack a mob
2) You wander too close to a mob that is aggressive to players
While in a squad during a dungeon run gaining aggro from a mob is more complicated with many more factors involved, but it can be boiled down to several simplified reasons.
1) You use an aggro or a threat raising attack.
ex.1 Barbarian's skill "Flesh Ream" is an instant aggro gaining attack if it does not miss."Rip the enemy's flesh drawing their aggression onto you...." quoted from the skill description.
ex.2 Barbarian's skill "Devour" is a threat raising attack. "...increases your threat level," quoted from the skill description
ex.3 Barbarian's Skill "Roar" is a threat raising attack. "With a raging roar entices all enemies within 12 meters of you to attack you," quoted from the skill description.
ex.4 Blademaster's skill Steam Strike is a threat raising attack."Increases your threat level." quoted from the skill description
As far as I know, these are the only skills specific to gaining and keeping aggro.
How this works: The skills work true to their descriptions, enough said.
Solution: if you are not the main tank do NOT use these skills especially during the boss. Each of these skills have the potential to switch the aggro to you and if the healers in the group are not prepared for a switch you will die and cause a party wipe. I will explain how this works in a later section.
2) Raising your threat level over that of the tank by dealing more damage than the tank.This is bad in any situation but is worse during boss battles.
ex. Over the period of 5 seconds the tank deal 2000 damage to the boss. In that same period of time you deal 5000 damage to the boss and by chance the tank's aggro gaining attack misses there is a potential aggro switch.
How this works: Mobs tend to want to kill the person that is dealing the most damage to them. Aggro gaining attacks override this tendency because they draw the aggro to the player that used the attack
Solution: Space out your attacks so that your average damage per second is lower than that of the tank. In general I have found that with a tank the same level as the player 5 seconds between attacks for magic users and skills for physical damage classes is good. If the tank is a higher level the time can be cut down to 3 seconds. If the tank is a much higher level(20-30+) 1-2 seconds should be fine.
ex2. The tank uses an aoe, area of effect, attack on a group on mobs to establish a threat level on them and you attack a mob the tank isn't concentrating his attacks on. After your average damage per second is higher than that of the tank the mob will change aggro and attack you.
How this works: In this example I will say that the tank's opening aoe attack has 1000 damage on the mob so at one second the average dps for the tank is 1000 at 2 seconds 500 at 3 seconds 333 at 4 seconds 250 and so on until it is near nothing. During this time if the tank doesn't attack this mob to increase the average dps any attack of yours will cause an aggro switch because your average dps will be higher than the tank giving you a higher threat level.
Solution: Attack the mob the tank is attacking. To make sure you are attacking the correct mob, right click the tank's name in the squad bar and click assist attack or select the tank and select assist attack from your action panel(shortcut e).
3)When a mob approaches the group it will sometimes head for the weakest member of the group.
ex. The level 19 tab holder stands by the level 40 tank as a mob patrol approaches. If the tank doesn't catch aggro immediately there is a chance of the mob attacking the level 19.
How this works: When there is no threat level established the mob will tend to find a weaker, quicker to kill, target. How the mob chooses the target I will admit to not know, but I do know that there is a tendency for this to happen.
Solution: Stay behind the tank and away from the mobs
4)You Heal a player that has not establish a threat level on the mob. In other words you heal a player that has not had a successful hit on the mob.
ex1. A mob attacks a player that is afk and you heal them to prevent their death. The mob will attack you no questions asked.
How this works: This ties into the mob attacking the weaker target when there is no threat level established. Healing classes tend to be weaker compared to other classes.
Solution: If you don't have to heal the person then do NOT heal this person. If you have to heal them, say in squad chat that you have aggro and kite the mob around in a circle near the group away from other mobs until the tank or somebody else besides you gets aggro on the mob
NOTE: This applies to venomancers healing their pet. If the pet has not established it's threat to all mobs before the heal, all mobs that have not been attacked will switch aggro to the venomancer after the heal.
NOTE2: This also applies to non-squad members and other venomancers' pets
ex2. The veno in the party is Luring the mob and you heal her before the squad tank gets aggro the mob will start to head towards you with the mission of killing you.
How this works: Same thing as in the previous example except the veno may not have have been hit yet
Solution: put an ironheart on the veno before she desummons her pet during the lure so the healing effect is on her but you do not get aggro. Another possible solution is wait for the mob to be intercepted by the tank to heal her if she gets hit
5)The tank dies. This is the worst thing that can happen and more often than not results in a party wipe.
How this works: When the tank dies the mob will go for the person with the highest threat level, the person dealing the most damage, or the healer. When the person with the highest threat level is dead the mob will move onto to the next highest threat level and so on until everyone is dead.
Solution: Have a tank that has high health and defenses or has tanked the boss in question before. Another option if the tank is unsure is have somebody that can function as a backup tank be there in case the primary tank dies, typically this will be a higher level Blademaster or a Venomancer with a pet appropriate for tanking the boss.
Summary
If you are the primary tank you want to grab and keep aggro. If you are any other member of the squad you want to make sure you don't steal aggro from the tank. Achieve this by being aware of the function of your skills and spells, keeping your threat level below that of the tank by keeping an eye on your average dps and spacing your attacks out, be aware of where mobs are and keep an eye out for wandering mobs, make sure the person you are healing either has aggro or is about to have aggro of a mob and last but not least keep the tank alive.
If you feel anything is missing from my short lecture or have any additional input about aggro feel free to reply to this post.
Happy Gaming,
-Dzu
Subject: The Basics of Aggro 
Wed Feb 25, 2009 3:38 am
