Aggression boosts taunt effectiveness

[Mentalep]

<p>Someone mentioned in-game that aggression was improving taunts now, so I decided to check it out on test, and it appears to be true.  I haven't seen this mentioned in the patch notes or on the forums, so here we are.</p><p>I could only find two items with aggression in my bags, which totalled +7, but I did some testing on my guardian.  For reference, I have adept III defensive stance, which adds 7% taunt effectiveness and +33 aggression.</p><p>Here are a few numbers I found.  All percentages reference the base value with 400 aggression in no stance.  I found that my Unglued Alchemist's Amulet (bonus to all five base stats) and Quartermaster's Clasp (bonus to spells, combat arts and weapon skills) had no effect on taunt values, so I concluded that none of those stats are relevant.  All skills are at Adept III.</p><p>----------------------------------------</p><p><strong>IMPEDE</strong></p><p>No stance, 400 aggression: 4698-5742</p><p>No stance, 407 aggression: 4867-5949 (+3.6%)</p><p>Def stance, 433 aggression: 5704-6972 (+21.4%)</p><p>Def stance, 440 aggression: 5800-7089 (+23.4%)</p><p><strong>GUT KICK</strong></p><p>No stance, 400 aggression: 2921-3570</p><p>No stance, 407 aggression: 3047-3724) (+4.3%)</p><p>Def stance, 433 aggression: 3650-4462 (+25%)</p><p>Def stance, 440 aggression: 3732-4561 (+27.8%)</p><p><strong>GUARD</strong></p><p>No stance, 400 aggression: 1721-2103</p><p>No stance, 407 aggression: 1808-2210 (+5.1%)</p><p>Def stance, 433 aggression: 2217-2710 (+28.9%)</p><p>Def stance, 440 aggression: 2279-2785 (+32.5%)</p><p>----------------------------------------</p><p>Note the much higher percentage increase from defensive stance than is indicated in the tooltip.  If we take Impede as an example, the +7% applied to the base gives us 5027-6144, meaning that the +33 aggression is adding an additonal 13.5% to the new base value.</p><p>This is important, as it indicates a new mechanic by which taunts can scale upwards with gear.  However, how useful will it be?  Is aggression easy to increase with raid gear?  If not, is aggression being added to some of that gear?  At what point do diminishing returns render further increases irrelevant?  I don't have any such equipment, so I can't test these things out myself.</p>

[Gungo]

<p>Thanks for the info lol that helps alot. I thought for some reason my defensive stance had a hidden taunt % increaser that was not showing.</p>

[Jrral]

<p>I think there's also another factor to take into account. Aggression also controls how well your taunts will land, just like your crush/slash/pierce skills control how well your attacks will land. If you don't have any +aggression, mobs above your level will be resisting your taunts just like mobs above your level would avoid your blows if you didn't have any offense-skill boosts. I've always suspected that a lot of the problem people have with taunts being ineffective is they don't have much if any +aggression on their gear and their taunts simply aren't landing reliably.</p>

[BleemTeam]

<p>Any info as to what items or buffs give Taunt Amount thats in persona window?</p>

[West]

<p></p><p>I did a little research to see what tanks got for aggression on their T8 master defensive stance.</p> <p>Berserker 16</p> <p>Monk 19.2</p> <p>Pally 22</p> <p>Guard 32</p> <p>Shadownight 37</p> <p>Bruiser 37</p> <p>Does this look a bit odd?</p>

[Aeralik]

<p>Aggression reduces the resistability of the taunt spells as well.  If you have 10% more aggression than the targets current level than your taunt becomes unresistable.  So for example a level 80 mob has 400 base skill by having 440 aggression or higher your taunts become unresistable to your target.  The resistability also scales down over that 40 point zone so yes having aggression is actually worthwhile now <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Kordran]

<p><cite>Aeralik wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Aggression reduces the resistability of the taunt spells as well. If you have 10% more aggression than the targets current level than your taunt becomes unresistable. So for example a level 80 mob has 400 base skill by having 440 aggression or higher your taunts become unresistable to your target. The resistability also scales down over that 40 point zone so yes having aggression is actually worthwhile now <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Aeralik, I must say that this is really good news. To provide a mechanism that makes aggression actually useful, and a way so that mobs cannot resist taunts, that's excellent.</p>

[AlexBu]

<p>Can we get those same mechanics for casting skills aswell?</p>

[mallice]

<p>I agree with Kordan.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Great change.  I'm looking forward to it going live.</p>

[Kordran]

<p><cite>Apaxia@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Can we get those same mechanics for casting skills aswell?</p></blockquote><p>The big difference is that taunts don't damage the mob, and spells obviously do. While I would agree that resist rates for casters is too high against orange mobs, a mechanism to make spells unresistable would swing things way too far the other direction.</p>

[Bremer]

<p><cite>Aeralik wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Aggression reduces the resistability of the taunt spells as well.  If you have 10% more aggression than the targets current level than your taunt becomes unresistable.  So for example a level 80 mob has 400 base skill by having 440 aggression or higher your taunts become unresistable to your target.  The resistability also scales down over that 40 point zone so yes having aggression is actually worthwhile now <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>So that is the reason why Aggression on the Beserker def stance was cut in half while it stays the same on eg the Guardian stance?</p>

[Elanjar]

<p><cite>Bremer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Aeralik wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Aggression reduces the resistability of the taunt spells as well. If you have 10% more aggression than the targets current level than your taunt becomes unresistable. So for example a level 80 mob has 400 base skill by having 440 aggression or higher your taunts become unresistable to your target. The resistability also scales down over that 40 point zone so yes having aggression is actually worthwhile now <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>So that is the reason why Aggression on the Beserker def stance was cut in half while it stays the same on eg the Guardian stance?</p></blockquote><p>QFE, increase the zerkers back to a fair amount lol</p>

[forge32]

<p>If that is truely the case aeralik then once again might want to look into guardians tso fable set, since only one piece has  agression on it and that is only 4 agression on the shoulders.Need to look at some of the other tank class sets as well since zerks do not have any on there tso set either.</p><p>Unless the majority of agression items with an increase on it is charms, and jewelery which  i do not believe.Far as the zerkers go you are all ready ahead of the game with agro in live, and even in test you are still ahead regardless of the def stance difference.The higher dps spread you do gains you still more hate then a guard would when both in defensive stance.The dps difference you have over us makes up alot of the difference in hate.Heck your mythical hate proc even makes up for this big time.However your tso set should have some agression mods added to it as well.</p><p>So no you wont have equivalent agression mods then a guard would on defensive.So plz enough with the whinning.You should never have better/equal single target agro then a guard same as a guard should never have better/equal aoe agro then a zerker.If anything this change better solves that issue.</p><p>All you keep doing is QQ but guards have this guards have that wha wha with out remembering we have to sacrifice alot in dps to gain. What are you willing to sacrifice to have better agression mod? dps well then you be a guard now would'nt you.Defense? well you are all ready close to our defense now and complaining you need more so i doubt that.How about that nice hate proc you have on your mythical no one else has? I highly doubt that too. Survivability? wait that too you claim you should have  more of.I mean heck do you even use bucklers anymore hmm i doubt that  since now you to can use any shield with the stam line like guards which you also cried about.Hence making bucklers now useless.Give it a rest.</p><p>Is there ever an end to your foolish complaints and want of having your cake ,and icecream to?</p>

[circusgirl]

<p>What's the reasoning behind monks only having 19.2 points of aggression on our defensive stance while bruisers get 37? </p>

[Danelin]

<p>Forge, just how are you figuring that making our aggression score lower is balanced because of single target encounters? Aralik said in the thread explaining the revamps that it was the numbers on our single vs multitarget taunts and the power costs that were the balancing factors between Guardian and Berserker, and that either class should be able to tank either type of encounter... Now the guardian has been boosted 16 points closer to unresistable taunts against an equal level mob, effecting all of their taunts... Why exactly is it balanced for guardian taunts to be less resistable when you generate similar damage against a single target? Because we can do it in an area? ... Um.. no?</p>

[Couching]

<p><span ><p><span><p>Aggression skill is very important in lu51. With 10% higher than mob level, taunt is inresistable. For every fighter, we get different aggression skill in defensive stance and each is listed below:</p><p>Berserker 16</p> <p>Monk 19.2</p> <p>Pally 22</p> <p>Guard 32</p> <p>Shadownight 37</p> <p>Bruiser 37</p><p>Aeralik, care to tell us the logic behind this? Monk is already the weakest on aoe agro. With 2nd lowest aggression skill, we get more taunt resist than any other fighter except zerker.</p><p>You want us to tank in defensive and hold agro with taunt, but you gave us worst aoe agro and 2nd worst aggression skill at same time. It didn't make sense at all. The aggression skill should be eqaul on every fighter or at least the difference shouldn't be that huge.</p></span></p></span> </p>