Without tank/taunt, who will the boss go for?

Raudgrani · January 2018

I've been running quite a bunch of dungeons today with a couple of friends today, no tank or healer - just to level the Undaunted of these (PVP) toons. Thing is, nearly all these damned bosses kept targeting me specifically most of the time; I guess it was good because I have a sh*tload of stamina, and could rolldodge and kind of kite them.
But why did they go for me specifically? Everyone noticed that, and kept laughing at "our clown tank". My character was a Nightblade, and I used like only Endless Hail, Poison Injection, Lethal Arrow, Surprise Attack, Executioner and Incapacitating Strike - and of course light and heavy attacks. None of these should "taunt" as far as I know.

It really can't be coincidental. I wasn't group leader (and we were all marked as DPS), we were all cp 690 and so on. So what makes the boss run after a specific character that much?

ValkynSketha · January 2018

The most healing or damage dealing.

mobicera · January 2018

From what I can see it's probably random.

Hippie4927 · January 2018

From my experience, the boss will go after whoever hits the hardest. Don't know if that's really the case but it seems that way.

Zer0oo · January 2018

Most of the time the boss will aggro on the player with the highest dps or the healer.

Kiara · January 2018

ValkynSketha wrote: »

The most healing or damage dealing.

^ I think this is the correct answer, at least from my experience as a healer I often pull boss for no reason if we go without tank.

mobicera · January 2018

I see lots of people saying most dps has aggro I just tested that with a buddy of mine I attacked boss first in a dungeon I then proceeded to only light attack this boss and kept aggro the entire time, my buddy does an average of 35k well beyond the dps of a light attack spam, but did not take aggro the entire fight. Explain?

Gralor · January 2018

mobicera wrote: »

I see lots of people saying most dps has aggro I just tested that with a buddy of mine I attacked boss first in a dungeon I then proceeded to only light attack this boss and kept aggro the entire time, my buddy does an average of 35k well beyond the dps of a light attack spam, but did not take aggro the entire fight. Explain?

You’re right. There’s more to it than just the highest DPS numbers. Could be about who attacked first or who is closest or furthest away – even random aggro on a timer is a possibility.

zaria · January 2018

ESO_Blash wrote: »

mobicera wrote: »

I see lots of people saying most dps has aggro I just tested that with a buddy of mine I attacked boss first in a dungeon I then proceeded to only light attack this boss and kept aggro the entire time, my buddy does an average of 35k well beyond the dps of a light attack spam, but did not take aggro the entire fight. Explain?

You’re right. There’s more to it than just the highest DPS numbers. Could be about who attacked first or who is closest or furthest away – even random aggro on a timer is a possibility.

Think its pretty random as in enemies will agro the first who hit them for some seconds, this is why you should let tank do AoE on trash pulls first.
Now if you have multiple DoT on boss and other DD has none you will agro him first, guess HoT works the same way. Distance is likely also an factor, don't think its something you can gamble on.
ESO does not use an classical WOW treat table where an good DD can take agro from an weak tank simply by high dps.

Raudgrani · January 2018

Thanks for your input! I'm not sure I had the highest damage, but it is possible. As a NB I certainly had the highest burst damage though, so that makes sense in a way - that I kind of "caught its attention" by giving massive damage on occasional basis. :-)

Raudgrani · January 2018

ValkynSketha wrote: »

The most healing or damage dealing.

I remember being targeted in random groups in activity finder, as a PVE healer without any real offensive capabilities - when we were lacking a tank, and when everyone was basically crap and took a lot of damage that I kept healing. So that might very well be on the right track.

tommalmm · January 2018

My experience is that it's partialy random on a timer with players doing more damage/healing having greater chances of being targeted (but not a lot greater and absolutely no guarantee), taking into account players that have done any damage or healing. I've tested the below situations:

1. A friend aggroed boss then started to perform his rotation (using surge for healing). Then I joined in, light attacking every now and then. The boss switched to me at some point, then returned to my friend. All in all, boss was on my friend most of the time.

2. A friend aggroed boss then started to perform his rotation (no surge this time). Then I started spamming healing springs on us with heavy resto here and there. The boss turned to me and stayed on me for about half of the time, switching every now and then.

3. We asked a healer to start the fight, then 3 DDs (pretty equal in terms of DPS) joined in and started normal rotation. The boss started switching between DDs every 10 or so seconds, but the fight was too short to really say what the distribution was (over 100k DPS).

That was a few months ago on live server.

If there is one thing, that you can be 100% sure of, it's that the 4k DPS light bow attack spamming guy that queued as a tank for random will be targeted by the boss 90% of the time, making it into a Benny Hill chase scene. No exceptions

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antimawkish · January 2018

My observations as a tank:

FIRST there is a huge bonus aggro to whoever makes first contact. This means if I tag 4/5 monsters with an aoe on pull and the healer has a heal-over-time on me that ticks before I swat the 5th, the healer is gonna get bum rushed. Also, that 4/5 will stay on me for a good while even as the DPS absolutely demolish my healing/shielding/damage numbers -- usually this is long enough that I don't need to taunt on aoe trash pulls, but not so long to get away with not taunting if you've got low dps or high HP mobs in the mix. Finally, this is also partly why it is soooooooo freakin' annoying when a squishy runs ahead to pull (other reason being that they suck so badly at grouping mobs).

SECOND, numbers generate aggro over time. Highest combined damage+healing+shielding (I don't know if it's calculated as heals, but shielding definitely count toward aggro table in my experience) will be the first to pull aggro off whoever got the initial tick of the mob's attention.

Finally, special mechanics on certain encounters override or ignore taunt. Think Drodda at the end of Direfrost Keep, who gives no toots about taunt, or the gargoyle in Volenfell who plays eeny-meeny-miny-moe with his attack that turns you to stone.

EDIT: I was super wrong about some of this! I did controlled testing and wrote up a full guide here

WillhelmBlack · January 2018

First tick of damage.

Beardimus · January 2018

I'm surprised no one has the exact answer on this worked out. We have alot of data / numbers guys on here that normally unearth this stuff!

I felt it was most damage. But post above makes alot of sense

Magdalina · January 2018

It's not the most damage nor healing. Beyond the initial "whoever hit first" and special mechanics such as targetting the person closest/furthest away from boss etc, I'm pretty sure it's just random.

antimawkish · January 2018

Okay, y'all got me curious on my thousands of observations vs some controlled testing, so I took a buddy out and we compared notes. Holy moly, but was I surprised by the results. It has nothing to do with maximum combined numbers and everything to do with activity. I wrote up a full guide over yonder: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/391895/a-guide-to-aggro

DoctorESO · January 2018

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