Topic: Managing Agro

Ever wander how agro is built?

Why mobs seem to attack a certain class during a certian battle?

How some players seem to always be able to draw a mobs attention and others cant?

Well sit back, grab a drink, and read on.

Agro Definition: Agro is the hate list of an individual mob generated by player actions and location to given mob.

So what the heck does that mean? Well first off lets look at location. Every mob in everquest has a given agro radius, or a circle around the mob that when a PC/NPC comes within that circle, the mobs hate list is checked. This circle varies in radius depending on the mobs "AGRO RADIUS".

Given that a certain mob, lets call him BOB for the time being, does not look kindly upon you (ie your faction status with BOB is scowling or threatening), if you enter BOB's agro radius, BOB will proceed to attack you. This method of generating agro is called PROXIMITY.

Remember this word because i will go into more detail about it later. Now lets look at the other part of the definition of agro, the bit that is generated by a players actions. A player, lets call her JOAT (Jill Of All Trades), can generate agro for a given mob, BOB, by actions that she may preform. The simplest way to gain agro is for JOAT to simply target BOB and hit her attack button. She will attempt to swing at good ole BOB and boy will BOB be mad! Another very simply means that JOAT has for getting BOBs attention is for her to cast a harmful spell upon BOB or any of BOBs friends that may be near-by...see PROXIMITY!

These two methods will work on BOB no matter what JOATs faction may be with him. But lets look at this a little bit more....what other actions can JOAT preform to gain BOBs attention given that BOB doesnt like JOAT so much. One of the easiest and not well known ways to gain BOBs attention, if he is scowling or threatening to JOAT, is for her to simply walk up to him, remaining slighty out of BOBs agro radius, and start up a conversation."JOAT: /em slides up to the corner very slowly and peeks around it to see BOB JOAT: "Hail, BOB!" BOB: "JOAT!!! Why you little wench!! C'Mer!!" BOB: /em dashes after the halfling minx JOAT: /em notices that BOB doesnt like her so much since she pinched his rear I wont go into detail with too many more ways to initialy gain a mobs agro but if you are interested read on here.

10 Ways to Pull a Mob Ok now that you know what AGRO is, and you know how to initialy generate AGRO, lets talk a little more about keeping agro. Keeping agro is a large part of the multi-member group hunting experience and is very important to high level encounters.

Tank Classes (ie Warriors, Paladins, Shadow Knights, Rangers, and perhaps some Monks and Rogues) will want to KEEP agro during a given encounter with good ole BOB.

Caster (ie Wizards, Enchanters, Magicians, and Necromancers) and Priest Classes (ie Druids, Shamans, Clerics, Beast Lords) will want to make sure that they DO NOT gain agro during that encounter. Why you may ask? Well silly, lets take a look....

By basic definition, a tank class has higher AC(Armor Class) and higher HPs(Hit Points) which allow them to be hit more often and for more damage by good ole BOB without killing them. Casters and Priests do not and when BOB decides to hit them they spells go all screwy!! And you never know whats gonna happen when you interrupt a mumbling wizard during the casting of a spell... JOAT: "Bob is mad at me again. Here he comes!" #introducing MUMMBLES, our resident wizard of ill repute 8) MUMMBLES: "Oh Boy...ok i wanna try this new spell....uhm...errr here goes" JOAT: /em bashes BOB over the head with her stick BOB: "OW!!" MUMMBLES: /em looks at his spell book BOB: /em says to himself "Oh look, a silly gnome reading his book, " uhmm yummy food" BOB: /em runs over towars MUMMBLES MUMMBLES: /em begins to cast a spell JOAT: /em looks around a little lost wondering where BOB went BOB /em bits MUMMBLES in the butt MUMMBLES: /em spell gets interrupted BOB /em bits MUMMBLES in the butt JOAT: "Oh there you are BOB! Come here big boy!!" JOAT: /em bonks BOB on the head MUMMBLES: /em dies from shock JOAT: /em wonders why MUMMBLES would wanna go and die on her Hmmm so what happened?

Lets take a look at that little encounter. First off poor MUMMBLES, damn fool was sitting on his rear when JOAT brought the mob to camp. Can you say AGRO? I knew you could. MUMMBLES was ok sitting until BOBs agro radius moved to him, and now MUMMBLES is inside BOBs agro radius. So what you say...JOAT has more agro because she bonked BOB on the head? This may be true in some situations but the higher level the encounter, the more agro you will create by sitting within a mobs radius. So good ole MUMMBLES is now higher on BOBs hate list than JOAT is even though JOAT has hit BOB and MUMMBLES hasnt done a dang thing!!! Next MUMMBLES begins to cast his spell, which mean ole BOB interrupts. Ouch! Not only does MUMMBLES take damage, and usually quite a bit due to his being a caster/priest, but the time it took from the beginning of casting until interruption is now wasted...and poor JOAT has to now located BOB and run over to him to try to gain agro again. This could be a hard thing to do depending again on MUMMBLES actions. If MUMMBLES is hurt to badly BOB isnt going to want to let him out of his sight and with proceed to do anything he can to get MUMMBLES. So by the time JOAT has successfully gained agro, our poor wizard is dead.

So lets look at what JOAT and MUMMBLES could have done better on their agro ends. First off lets look at MUMMBLES, the silly ole caster. Based on the level of the mob that you are fighting, you can determine whether or not you can sit during incoming. The rule of thumb is any mob over level 45 you must be standing during incoming else you take the chance of gaining the agro from your puller. Second off poor old MUMMBLES went and started casting his spells just as soon as he saw BOB come into camp. Good Idea? Not really. Any spell casted on BOB is going to put the caster on the agro list...whether it be lull based, damage based, root/snare based, stun based, whatever. We all know that spells do more damage than a given meele blow, hence a spell that lands on a mob generates more agro than the given meele blow, actually quite a bit more. So MUMMBLES, by casting on BOB before JOAT had a chance to sufficiently build up her agro, is now numbero uno on BOBs hate list. Well what happens if the mob resists your spell? Well we arent sure the exact numbers but they are probably close to double what the agro would be if your spell would have landed! So hope you have your running shoes on!! But lets say that good ole MUMMBLES has been around the block a few times (I know what you are thinking...Not that block...get your mind outta the gutter) and knows what he is doing a bit...MUMMBLES allows JOAT to beat BOB a little senseless before casting upon him, there by allowing JOAT to build up a sufficient hate list. So MUMMBLES casts his spell on BOB and BOOM WAMMO, BOBs hps drop like crazy. "Woohooo!!" MUMMBLES thinks to himself, "We are gonna get exp!!"

Then MUMMBLES makes the mistake...whats he do...he sits down within BOBs agro radius right after his spell lands...Oh No! MUMMBLES didnt realize it but he went pretty high on BOBs hate list because of that spell landing....even though JOAT still has the most agro built up at the moment. But as soon as MUMMBLES sits, guess what....his agro level just passed JOATs. And now look out! Here comes BOB mad as hell at MUMMBLES...bite on the butt! Poor MUMMBLES! Ok we have talked about our beloved caster and seen the mistakes he made...now lets look at JOAT and see what she did wrong. First off, JOAT needs to give her group a little bit more time to get ready and make sure that they are ready before pulling BOB into the camp. JOATs got to realize that without her casters, shes gonna die. Always make a quick check of group members status before pulling a mob to camp. Next did you notice that JOAT didnt bother to taunt BOB once he was attacking MUMMBLES. Taunt is a great way to get a mob off another group member and should be used to that effect. Do not rely on your weapons only to gain agro back from a mob if you are a meele class.

Also did anyone notice that JOAT was using a splintered wooden club to bonk ole BOB with? Well she was 8). A sure fire way to generate continuous agro is to swing at a mob, whether the blow lands or not. The more swings, the more agro. If JOAT woulda put that club away and settled for her less damaging but faster dagger she would have generated a whole lot more agro that way. Another way she could have gotten BOBs attention back would have been to imitate what MUMMBLES did....sit down within BOBs agro radius. If she woulda just plunked down right where she lost sight of BOB, he woulda turned around and came right back after her and left our wizard alone.

So what have we learned here today? Tips for managing aggro, non-meele/main tank: 1> Casters don't sit down immediately after casting. 2> Don't fire off a heal right after the pull. 3> Use evade 4> Use FD 5> Use Jolt (rangers) 6> Use concussion (wizards) 7> Non-warrior melee stand further away from the mob. Tips for main tank: 1> Use proc'ing weapons if need be 2> Use fast 1-handers 3> Use high damage 2 handers (33 damage+) 4> Sit down (this turns 'em on you immediately) 5> Get in close to the mob

ThanksAsherr