Control Aggro with dps?

Tasear

Is it possible to be tank that controls aggro with dps? I was wondering this as I watched the top dps player keep getting aggro when tank died in mol. Just curious about this a line of though, so any input is appreciated.

Lithium Flower

No. Mob aggression is randomly assigned to every player that does any damage to the mob in question or is healing or is in the group. The only way to control aggro is with a taunt skill.

Asardes

I think the boss and mobs go after whoever does the most damage if there isn't any aggro. There're probably other rules too, DoTs, especially ground based ones, tend to draw aggro more than direct damage and use them for the initial pull even when tanking. Also some bosses are programmed to go preferentially after some players, usually the healers. I did a dungeon a few weeks back with a random group. I queued as tank but the group DPS was very low, somewhere around 20K and would have taken ages to finish it. So after the 1st boss that took for ever to kill I switched to DD and started killing stuff. I had aggro most of the time but I didn't slot any taunts. I was doing around 55% of group DPS, lower than usual overall, because I had to block all the time and break my rotation.

Lithium Flower

The reason was probably dots as you identified correctly because each time a dot ticks, it's a new 'combat event' and regenerates aggression. A high dps player is probably using many different dots and so generates more instances of these events on the mob and can get aggro more often but it is really pretty much random. The only reliable way to gain and keep aggression is with a taunt.

Turelus

Lithium Flower wrote: »

No. Mob aggression is randomly assigned to every player that does any damage to the mob in question or is healing or is in the group. The only way to control aggro is with a taunt skill.

I thought they attacked the highest DPS/Heals. This is why when fighting world bosses in zones with newbies it always attacks me and not them.

paulsimonps

They will attack what is damaging them. Its the reason for example why as a tank you can tank the Mages Axes in vAA without retaunting them as long as you deal damage to them and no one else does. So if you can sustain your regen without shards for example and deal a lot of damage to them you can tank them without taunting them. This is basically what most tanks do during vAA HM cause retaunting 7-8 is basically impossible.

Lynx7386

In my experience, this is how aggro works in eso (and I could be completely wrong here, this is just my experience playing):

-a large amount of initial aggro is generated based on who attacks a mob first or gets in range of it first.
-some aggro is generated by damage dealt
-more aggro is generated by healing done
-taunt overrides established aggro

This is why tanks loath players who run ahead of them in dungeons. For example, my nightblade sap tank: if I run in first, and start spamming sap essence, I will maintain aggro on an entire group of mobs without ever having to use a taunt. However, if a dps aggros the pack first, I will never be able to get the enemies on my without using taunt on each and every one of them.

Asardes

paulsimonps wrote: »

They will attack what is damaging them. Its the reason for example why as a tank you can tank the Mages Axes in vAA without retaunting them as long as you deal damage to them and no one else does. So if you can sustain your regen without shards for example and deal a lot of damage to them you can tank them without taunting them. This is basically what most tanks do during vAA HM cause retaunting 7-8 is basically impossible.

I've noticed that. The problem is that it's not reliable. You have to taunt them to be sure they don't run off. I had quite a few situations where a stray shot from one of the DDs, or even the shards thrown by healers broke this "soft" aggro and I had to bring back the stray axe with a ranged taunt. That certainly has a cooldown as well. And in some cases that fight is actually very mobile which increases the likelyhood of that happening. I have to constantly move away from the black circles on the ground because nobody bothers breaking the mines so I rotate throughout the edge of the arena.

paulsimonps

Asardes wrote: »

paulsimonps wrote: »

They will attack what is damaging them. Its the reason for example why as a tank you can tank the Mages Axes in vAA without retaunting them as long as you deal damage to them and no one else does. So if you can sustain your regen without shards for example and deal a lot of damage to them you can tank them without taunting them. This is basically what most tanks do during vAA HM cause retaunting 7-8 is basically impossible.

I've noticed that. The problem is that it's not reliable. You have to taunt them to be sure they don't run off. I had quite a few situations where a stray shot from one of the DDs, or even the shards thrown by healers broke this "soft" aggro and I had to bring back the stray axe with a ranged taunt. That certainly has a cooldown as well. And in some cases that fight is actually very mobile which increases the likelyhood of that happening. I have to constantly move away from the black circles on the ground because nobody bothers breaking the mines so I rotate throughout the edge of the arena.

like I said it only works if you are the only one to do it, if you are the only one to damage them. A set up that can perma block without help is necessary for this kind of thing. I would recommend maxing out block cost reduction. Cause even just one shard will mess it up. Keep your damage going and then make healers and DPS's know that they can't attack them at all.