Boss Aggression Question

Horace-Wimp · February 13

How exactly does aggression (aggro) work with dungeon and trial bosses? Is their aggro random or should they always stay focused on the tank? Or are they designed to occasionally switch to a random target then go back to the tank?

The reason I ask is that all of my toons are DPS. My main is the most developed and my alts, well, they suck. But I have noticed, especially with my main, that dungeon bosses seem to focus on me instead of the tank. A few trial bosses, too. I know that in other MMOs it is common for bosses to focus on the player with highest threat. In the MMO Rift bosses were constantly always focused on my warrior even though he was 100% DPS with no tank or healer abilities or buffs. In ESO I cannot see how any of my toons would have any threat. A few months ago I realized on my Templar I had an ability that taunts which explained why bosses would switch to me off the tank. I replaced that ability with a better one that is 100% damage oriented and I double checked my other toons to ensure that none of their abilities have any kind of taunts and are 100% damage oriented.

This is not a big deal. I am only trying to satisfy my curiosity. I know that none of my toons can possibly good enough to pull aggro from a tank or healer. But instead of assuming it's part of the design I wanted to get a few second opinions.

Thanx.

LootAllTheStuff · February 13

Given that you've already checked for and removed any source of taunt on your side...

One possibility is that the tank(s) you've been playing with haven't realised when they've lost taunt on the boss soon enough to re-engage them. It can be very hard to see the visual "taunted" cue when there are tons of effects going off.

scrappy1342 · February 13

i've always assumed it's part of the design. i don't dungeon much. i had a tank friend when i started who wanted to run me through all of the dungeons one time first for the fighter's guild rep, achievements, trophies, etc. and even with just the two of us, him an experienced tank and me a nub on a horrible hughesnet connection mostly just light attacking and multishot, i would still get agro from things.

whether it's by design or not, it absolutely doesn't work the way every other game i have played works and this is part of why i have never enjoyed group content in this game. it just doesn't make sense to me. so eso very quickly turned into a solo player game for me

JaxontheUnfortunate · February 13

Perhaps the boss was getting over taunted and then becoming untantable for a bit.

aetherix8 · February 13

Some bosses have a mechanic where they ignore taunts and attack any party member. I immediately thought about Arx Corinium where DDs not knowing about it often blame the tank. Otherwise, fast search gave me this discussion from 2016, @SolarCat02 posted a fairly detailed list of bosses that ignore taunts.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/310852/dungeon-bosses-can-they-ignore-taunts

PeacefulAnarchy · February 13

Taunt is the primary way tanks hold the attention of enemies, however there are some things to keep in mind
1. Taunt lasts 15 seconds and only one thing can be taunted at a time
This means that while the boss and maybe a couple of its large buddies can reasonably be expected to always be taunted, the same is not true of little adds.
2. Many bosses have a variety of mechanics that target players other than the one with taunt. These can have all sorts of trigers, the most common ones being proximity (or distance) and health, but there are others and sometimes it is random. These mechanics sometimes involve the boss direcly attacking someone before returning to the tank.
3. If the tank doesn't have aggro the rules are inconsistent (or at least seem so) proximity seems to be a factor, as does being the latest to do damage when the enemy performs its check, but I have gone into rooms alone attacked the whole room and had enemies ignore me and run out after someone else in my group .

If a boss is regularly focused on you, rather than turning around for a mech and turning back, that's almost certainly tank losing taunt. There is no threat in eso the way you describe it, all targeting decisions seem to be moment in time calculations outside of timed taunts.

Renato90085 · February 13

for me,if no taunt and mech,boss alway attack the highest dps dd or healer

AzuraFan · February 13

Horace-Wimp wrote: »

The reason I ask is that all of my toons are DPS. My main is the most developed and my alts, well, they suck. But I have noticed, especially with my main, that dungeon bosses seem to focus on me instead of the tank.

That happens to me sometimes, and I don't have a taunt slotted. When it happens, I've always assumed the tank is incompetent. I can't explain why it happens to you all the time.

I didn't know that some bosses ignore taunt (learned that from reading the thread), so maybe it's not always the tank's fault. But sometimes it must be.

Danikat · February 13

Bosses won't automatically attack the tank, that would make things far too simple for players. I think by default they'll attack either the one who damaged them most recently or the one doing the most damage. Tanks have to use taunt skills to draw their aggo and stop them attacking the damage dealers. Likewise most bosses have skills that can damage other targets, or the whole group, so the threat isn't entirely removed just by having a competent tank.

If you're consistently getting attacked by their basic attacks, or they're running over to you (implying they're prioritising you over the tank) and you're certain you're not using any taunt skills the most likely answer is that the tank is periodically losing aggro, or the boss has a mechanic which allows them to ignore aggro.