Aggro and Threat
The attention of the enemy to a player (to attack) is called 'Aggro'. A player gets the attention of the enemy (Aggro) based on their current Threat level (sometimes called Hate). The one with the highest Threat level is the one who the enemy focuses on and the one who is generally taking the hits. The current Threat level is shown by the Threat meter. Let’s take a look at how the Threat meter appears to us:
The Threat meter lies next to the role and represents the current Threat level of the player. The Threat meter is at the beginning empty. When attacks or heals are performed it fills up. The Threat meter shows the percentage of the currently leading Threat level of the player (or companion) who currently has the Aggro. The Threat meter changes its color when the Threat level gets high:
At the beginning the Threat meter is empty, thus visualizing 0% Threat.
When the player's Threat is below 50% of the leading Threat value, the Threat meter is filled green.
When the player's Threat is over 50% of the leading Threat value, the Threat meter is filled yellow.
When the player's Threat is over 90% of the leading Threat value, the Threat meter is filled orange.
When the player is leading the Threat table, the Threat meter is filled red.
The Threat meter only gives us a broad estimation of our Threat level but that is fine. However there are a few things to be said to fully understand its behavior:
The Threat description on an enemy can be imagined as a table. The one with the highest number has the attention of the enemy.
Each enemy has its own Threat table. There is no Threat table for a full group of mobs.
The Threat meter shows the Threat of the current enemy in the reticle. If you hover over a different enemy, then the Threat meter shows the Threat on the newly hovered enemy.
Enemies have a grace buffer before one can grab the enemies attention. The player currently not having the enemies attention (aggro) must gain 11% more Threat than the current leading player before the enemies switch their attention to the player. Let’s exemplarize this because of its importance:
Threat Example
1) Player 1 “MorgaiStr 5” starts the fight and gathers 10 000 Threat. Player 2 “Houndaer” enters the fight and gathers 5 500 Threat.
MorgaiStr 5 leads the Threat table and thus has the attention of the enemy. Houndaer did already a good chunk of damage but is still far away from getting the enemies attention. With a value of 55% of the leading Threat the Threat bar turns yellow.
2) Houndaer deals another 5 000 damage equaling 5 000 Threat. Houndaer now has 10 500 Threat, which is more than MorgaiStr 5 Threat. However, because of the grace buffer, MorgaiStr 5 still has the enemies attention. Houndaer’s Threat bar is still orange and MorgaiStr 5 Threat bar is still red.
3) Houndaer deals another 700 damage equaling 700 Threat. With 11 200 Threat the grace buffer is overstepped. The enemy switches its attention immediately to Houndaer. Houndaer’s Threat bar turns red. MorgaiStr 5’s Threat bar turns orange.
4) The Threat bars are now recalculated, because Houndaer leads the Threat table by over 10%. Thus MorgaiStr 5’s Threat bar turns yellow, because MorgaiStr 5’s Threat is below 90% of Houndaers Threat.
Additional notes (for Testing)
The Threat is resetted to 0 when the player falls (close death status), dies or logs off. Last behavior can be used for testing purposes. When the enemy dies or the fight is resetted the table is resetted too.
A companion needs to deal 50% more damage to get Aggro. Similarly, this means their Threat is reduced by 33%.
When a companion dies, its Threat is transferred to its owner!
When the player is out of sight (an obstacle between the enemy and the player) the player gets treated as any player with 0 Threat until the line of sight is restored.
The Threat meter is based on server data, thus it happens that the displaying Threat meter is delayed by up to 1s.
There is no grace period like “You must have x more Threat for z time, before you get the focus on the enemy”.
There is no loss of Threat over time if no attack or heal is performed. You can even take a break for minutes or hours (next to a training dummy) and the Threat table will remain in its state.
Good to know for testing purposes: Training dummies do not have a grace buffer! For training dummies it is simply the one with the highest Threat will get the attention immediately.
There is no Threat entry in the combat log (ugh).
This should be sufficient for the normal player. If you are interested in the Math involved read further! Warning: It includes the Vanguard Powers and Gear. If you do not know them, skip this part for now and look back later!
Math Section for Threat
Let's take a look at how much Threat each action generates:
Damaging actions generate 1 Threat for each post mitigated (including all debuffs and deflect values) damage point inflicted. If the damage exceeds the hit points of a target dummy, only the Threat for the depleted health of the training dummy is applied. This one makes testing quite hard.
Most healing actions (like heals from Healers, Insignias) generate 0.5 Threat for each post mitigated (including all buffs) healing point inflicted. Overheals do not generate Threat.
Second Wind, Potions and Health Stones generate - similar to damage - 1 Threat for each post mitigated (including all buffs) healing point inflicted. Overheals do not generate Threat.
Tanks have hard taunts that can put the tank immediately on the top of the list. Hard taunts simply take the current leading Threat and add 11% on top of it to overstep the grace buffer. Beware: If the next player performs a strong attack after that taunt the next player can regain aggro immediately!
The Threat generated by all actions is increased by the Threat multiplier. Tanks have per default a Threat multiplier to increase their Threat from all actions.
Now, let’s take a look at the Vanguard specific Threat mechanics:
The “Path of the Vanguard” Threat multiplier is 15. Thus any action performed by the Vanguard generates 15x more Threat! (all tanks have this value).
'Tide of Iron' has a buff that increases the Threat generated of all subsequent actions by 500% for 5s. This buff is additive to the “Path of the Vanguard” Threat multiplier. It buffs the generated Threat from 15x to 20x, so it is a 33% buff overall!
The Feat 'Staying Power' adds another +500% after using Enforced Threat for 10s.
Threatening Rush, Linebreaker, Retaliate and the feated Shieldthrower mention “Increased Threat”. These actions generate 300% more Threat and are multiplicated with the “Path of the Vanguard” Threat multiplier of 15. The generated Threat is: post mitigated damage*15*3!
Enforced Threat and the enhanced version of Anvil of Doom have hard taunting effects: They put the player on top of the Threat list with a 11% lead! The longer the fight takes, the easier it is for the tank to hold the lead, because the Threat list gets high numbers.
Knight’s Valor redirects any Threat of the KVed player to the tank. The KVed player’s entry remains unchanged as he did not perform any action in that timeframe. This makes it quite easy to hold the thread lead on enemies. The transferred Threat is not multiplied by the “Path of the Vanguard” Threat multiplier and merely added to the Threat number of the tank.
Second Wind and Potions generate the amount of replenished Hit Points times all Threat modifiers (“Path of the Vanguard”, Diamond Set, etc)".
Other notes:
All items with increased Threat (“Teamwork Tactics”, “Diamond” set, "Dark Maiden" and "Exalten Maiden") add +100% to the Threat multiplier.
The Ring of Condemned generates 25 000 Threat every 0.5s. This is multiplied with all Threat manipulators. Keep in mind its close range of around 20'-30'!
Vanguard Threat Formula:
All threat tests that lead to this description were performed in Mod 27 2023/2024. A testing method is used similar to the one described here.
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