Aggro

• A common question is: "How should I kill monsters safely?"
• Or "How do I avoid getting Additional monsters (Adds)?"

When you first start playing, monsters happily ignore you until you attack them.

At around level ten you start to meet monsters which will attack you as soon as they see you.

And not long after that you start to meet monsters which ignore you at first, but turn on you in a group if you annoy just one of them.

What does it mean when a player says 'Aggro'?

Aggro, short for "Aggravation" or "Aggtession", is a measure of how annoyed a monster is, and who it is annoyed at.

Generally, if a player says this, then they want you to annoy, or to stop annoying, monsters.

How does it work?

• Some monsters get annoyed if a player gets too close.
• Some monsters get annoyed if you fight another similar monster nearby.
• All monsters get annoyed when they get hurt.
• Most skills also cause some aggro.
• All monsters get annoyed if you help someone they are already annoyed at.
• Monsters will usually attack whoever they are most annoyed at.
  • But not always. Some bosses will strike out at anyone in the area.
• Monsters lose aggro over time, and have a limited range.
• If a monster doesn't have aggro on anyone, it will rush back to its spawn point (healing itself up with the yellow bubble of invulnerability) and go back to wandering around.

What does that mean? It means that if you whack some random monster, then all of its friends will come over to whack you back. And if a Cleric throws a heal at you, all of those friends will then hate the cleric more than you, and so will rush over to kill the Cleric. Who will hate you forever.

What should I do to get only one monster at a time?

Easiest of all is to find one single monster standing lonely in a field. And whack it.

Normally though: Get (or be) a Tank, or Pull.

Or do both. Both is best.

Tanking

A tanks job is to be at the top of every important monsters hate list. Barbarians are especially good at this, having lots of skills that annoy monsters out of proportion to the damage they do. However some monsters (mainly those with magic attacks) are more easily tanked by a Wizard.

Tanks should have a high defence and lots and lots of hitpoints. One useful trick is for the tank to already be regenerating health before the monster hits them. Iron heart blessings are great for this.

One thing you do need to be careful of is to give the tank some time to gain enough aggro that the monster won't immediately give up on the tank and kill the next attacker (or someone healing the tank).

If you think you're going to do a huge amount more damage than the tank, hold off for a bit longer.

Typically, against a boss, the tank wants a couple of seconds before the pets go in, maybe another second before the other melee classes go in - and the casters can start firing in their spells a little after that.

Pulling

To pull a monster, you need to get aggro on that monster, and that monster alone. Then you step back, and it will run towards you out of its group, so that the rest of your group can safely pile in without attracting every monster in the area.

There are a few ways to do this - you can try and get close enough to annoy it, but far enough from its friends that they can't see.

You can try and hit it from a huge range so that its friends can't see you.

You can use a skill which doesn't draw aggro from the adds (Zeal genie skill: Earthflame, for example)

But most reliably, you have a Venomancer attack with her pet. The monster, and all nearby monsters hate the pet, and will attack. Then she unsummons her pet. Not have it run back to you, but actually put it back in the bag. This causes the monster to hate the Venomancer - but all the other monsters just shrug and go back to work. The Venomancer then hides behind someone big, who proceeds to beat the monster up. Job done; resummon the pet and fetch the next one.

See: Venomancer Luring for more information on how to lure with a Venomancer's pet.

It is helpful to tell your team which monster you are pulling, or stick to some simple rule such as "The one on the right first" so that they can target it. This is especially helpful if the monster runs fast, or is small and hard to click on once it starts moving.

You should also use "Assist attack" (in the action panel, Alt-E, drag it to one of your shortcut bars). By targeting the lurer (click their name in the squad list) and then using this action you will copy their target. You do not auto-attack, despite the action's name.

Pulling Skills

There are a few skills that need to be treated specially.

• Pet skill: Status effects. Status effects, such as slow, or defence reduction, are not, by themselves, enough to draw aggro. You have to do some damage as well. The monster may attack because you got close, but it won't follow afterwards.
• Pet skill: Roar. Roar makes the monster hate nothing except the pet, and that only a little bit. It's great to quickly get a monster that really hates the cleric to attack the pet instead, but it can be really bad if someone hits the monster quickly afterwards, because it will switch. This is a good way to get your archer or wizard killed. Don't roar on the main monster!
• Barbarian skill: Roar. Area effect 'everything hates me'. One of the main Aggro drawing skills, alongside fleshream. Mentioned here mainly because it does not work the same as the pet version.
• Fleshream: Because it does damage over time this (and other poison-like effects) are a good way to get aggro continually during a fight. Which can be a blessing or a curse.
• Until recently, some genie skills (such as extreme poison) allowed you to safely pull a single monster. This no longer works - you will pull all his friends too.

Confidence

Higher level players do, sometimes, do things differently. Like "Run into the middle of a huge group of monsters" differently.

You don't always have to pull. If you are sure that you can kill the monsters before they can kill you, then it doesn't really matter whether they aggro on you or not.

Equally, you don't have to be a barbarian to tank, they just find it easier.

One particular trick is the use of area effect skills. These hit many monsters at once, and so work best when lots of monsters are hitting you. So pulling would be counter-productive here.

Similarly, reflect buffs (such as bramble guard) don't do much good if there's nothing to reflect.

Overconfidence

The end result of pulling too much aggro, is death.

Here are a few tips to avoid this:

1. Pull one monster at a time, and don't pull a monster until everyone is ready for it.
2. Don't join in until the tank has got in a few good whacks.
3. Attack the monster the tank is attacking. Adds usually have less interest in the tank and may come after you.
4. If a monster goes after the cleric, pounce on it quick. The cleric can bring you back to life, you can't bring the cleric back to life. (Obviously, this doesn't apply if you're the cleric)
5. Extending this, it can be helpful to have a team member whose main job is to watch out for wandering monsters and protect the cleric.
   1. And anyone else who is particularly vulnerable - the 'tabber' in an FB is usually lower level than the monsters, and often needs protection.
6. Instanced dungeons give out blessings items which increase your attack by 10%. Bear in mind that you'll be generating quite a lot more aggro than you are used to outside!
7. The simplest way to lose aggro is to stop fighting back and let someone else get some. Even better is if you can just slow down your attacks before the monster starts attacking you.
8. Archers and wizards, especially - your critical hits will often pull aggro even from a tank, if you aren't careful. Stand well back!
9. One of the most popular Venomancer tank pets, "Baby Hercules", draws most of its aggro from a reflect shield. You need to wait a moment longer before it's safe to join in the attack.

--Vitenks