AoE Aggro

[delbranson]

<p>The update notes said...</p><p>Area of effect spells and combat arts will no longer spread hate to encounter members when damage is applied.</p><p>Am I wrong in assuming that to mean that aoe isn't applying threat to off target mobs now? and so to hold on to aoe aggro, just about any amount of encounter wide taunting should be sufficient as its not being checked against any untargeted aoe damage from the group?</p><p>One person tried to explain to me that the aoe damage occurs and threat is generated, but now the threat of that damage throughout the encounter is generated only onto the targeted mob?  Would this then cause spike threat generation on the targeted mob?  So that if your group is using AoE's, you can either AoE too and have that damage combined onto your single target to counter the spike aggro, or just focus hate generation and threat position modifiers on the single target to hold on to it?</p><p>How does that work?</p><p>And for that matter... I use aoe combat arts to pick up wandering adds without targeting them.  I guess that aoe on untargeted encounters will no longer give me any threat?  So to build up any threat on them I would need to target directly and encounter taunt now?  If any open AoE hits an encounter that is not part of your target's encounter, on what bodies of the encounter would that threat be generated?</p>

[Aule]

<p><cite>Reahov wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Ekum@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span>Area of effect spells and combat arts will no longer spread hate to encounter members when damage is applied.</span></p><p>This one confuses me in it's meaning. Does it mean that when I do a AOE that I gain no hate from using it? Or does it only go to encounter members who are actually hurt? Or something else entirely. I know as a bruiser/monk (my mains on live/test) that I use my AOEs to help hold aggro. On the other hand if a warlock can do AOEs without getting aggro from multiple targets aggro maintaining would be easier. Yes I am rambling so I guess it's time to wait for an answer. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Thanks to Windslasher for this information -</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Previously when you cast an AOE spell every encounter member you hit would add some hate to every other npc based on how much damage it took, so it would add progressively more hate the more enemies you hit. This was like a penalty for warlocks and other fragile AOE nukers and a bonus for fighters using area attacks. This effect was removed and lot of hategain was added to several fighter area attacks to compensate, so over all you can expect to have an easier time keeping aggro off a warlock.</span></span></p></blockquote><p>What it means is that each target struck by the encounter aoe will receive only the amount of hate generated by the spell, and will not receive the additional boosted hate that is generated whenever you do anything to an ally of that mob that is in the same encounter.</p>

[Kordran]

<p>This, in theory, is great news for classes like the Warlock. It means they won't "need" a Paladin with the old Amends just to be able to nuke without worrying about broken armor. With large encounters, it looks like it'll reduce their aggregate threat generation by half, a bit less for smaller encounters. Although, as someone who plays a Paladin, I will miss the good ol' days of tanking with a mythical Warlock in the group.</p>