How does Aggro work in ESO?

Hanomag

I have been playing MMOs since 99. I started with Sonys Everquest. Aggro was pretty straight forward in that game. If you out damaged the Tank you caught the ire of the mob. If you had low Hit Points you also drew extra attention. If you cast to much healing to early...etc. But there was always a reasonable reason.
Also in video games, Im not sure about ESO, there is something called LOS (line of sight). I notice if I'm am grouped, say, in a 2 player group and I am foraging something and my partner aggros an enemy the mob will run right passed them and come for me. Out of caves, around rocks, down mountains, it doesn't matter they will come right after me. Even when I am NOT visible due to LOS. Why does this happen? How does the agro work?
Same with combat I can be killing a world boss with many other players much higher levels than I and the named will turn and come right after me. Is it low HP agro? are my base HPs too low?
Also in regards to LOS How do enemy fireballs and other missile weapons seem to penetrate solid objects? They almost seem to be "homing" weapons? I notice a curve in the arc of my bow projectiles but not through walls.
I understand this is more of an arcade style button masher game rather than a know your class or the group will die dynamic but what gives..?
PS I used the search engine and like most forum search engines I found Bupkis.

Anotherone773

Aggro in ESO is a mess. Another one of those "reinventing the wheel" that Bethesda had the bright idea for. Someone did some experimenting a few weeks ago on here and it seems that aggro is based more on last hit than how much DPS you do. Or maybe it was frequency of hits. I cant remember now.

On the bright side, you can shoot around corners as mentioned above. And melee weapon abilities have a 7-8 meter range which is 20-25 feet. That is a mighty impressive jab with a dagger, if you ask me. I mean thats almost " whip knives" level from the god of war game. I wish more MMOs had whip knives. Its such a cool weapon.

kadar

There is a damage component. The one doing the most tends to get aggro. You can often pull a mob off another player by out damaging that player as that as that player isn't taunting the mob. If a mob is aggro'd on you, and I damage it for the first time, it will likely aggro me. For a non-tank, you're basically fair game until a mob has been either taunted or damaged by another player.

In ESO, LOS does not drop aggro once you have it. If a projectile is in the air before you LOS, it will still hit you. To hit you again, however, the mob/player will have to move until they can see you again to land more damage.

^Hope that helps...
@Hanomag

VaranisArano

If you want to have aggro for certain, you need to use a taunt. ESO only has 4 taunts, and they are all single target. Puncture, Inner Fire, ice Staff heavy attack with Trifocus passive, and charge abilities while wearing 5 pieces of the Tormentor set.

Certain pets can hold aggro, but cannot override an actual taunt.

Without a taunt, this link explains aggro better than I can. The gist is that aggro goes to the person who hits first, and then the person who keeps hitting the boss because bosses and mobs have a short attention span: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/391895/a-guide-to-aggro/p1

Lynx7386

There's an undisclosed amount of 'initial' aggro if you're the first person to deal damage to a mob. Past that, it's based entirely on damage dealt and overridden by taunts.

This is why when fighting large groups of enemies, it's best to not be a potato and let your tank rush in and snag everything first. There may not be an AoE taunt in this game, but a tank dropping a couple of AoE damage abilities on a pack of enemies is going to keep most of them attacking him for the duration of the fight. My tanks can keep aggro on a large group of mobs without even needing a taunt, just by using a combination of area damage effects (DK uses eruption, wall of elements, and engulfing flames. Warden uses sub assualt, wall of elements, and arctic blast). It also helps to have a pull (chains/gate) and root (talons/shards) to keep enemies close together and immobile.

Hanomag

Thank you for all the answers...

SirAndy

Hanomag wrote: »

Also in regards to LOS How do enemy fireballs and other missile weapons seem to penetrate solid objects? They almost seem to be "homing" weapons? I notice a curve in the arc of my bow projectiles but not through walls.

LOS is decided the moment an ability/attack is triggered and if a target is acquired you can't break the attack by breaking LOS. So yes, projectiles become "homing" if they had a valid target when triggered.

The good news is, you can do this as well, it's not just NPCs.