Aggro 101: A Guide for Newbies.Follow

v1.4

Well, since I am still seeing Lv30-Lv55+ people who still do not understand some concepts about Aggro, Linking, and other such things, I thought I'd try and write up my first (well, almost my first) guide that I would post here on the forums.

Basically, this guide's purpose is to educate those of you who do not have as much experience as others in this field, and also, to give some veterns a different look at how aggro works, from a programmer's eyes. I haven't found any Aggro/Linking guides on Allakhazam yet (I'm surpised there isn't one stickied!), even though Aggro is one of the most important things in this game to learn, he who does not know the fundamentals of Aggro and Linking, will die and die frequently.

Section 1: "Aggro": What causes it?

What exactly IS Aggro, you may ask? Well, I don't know about other people, as everyone uses this word in slightly different ways, to me this is what aggro means:

There are two "modes" that mobs (Mobile Object, that is, Anything that is not a Player Character) are in: Idle Mode and Battle Mode. Idle Mode is when the mob isn't doing anything but wandering around, or standing, or what not. The Mob will continue to do this until it "Aggros" Someone. When I say Aggro, I mean, the mob makes a decision to enter Battle Mode. There are three things that will cause this:

1). It was "attacked". Basically, if someone swings at it with a weapon, someone uses a ranged attack on it, someone uses a Job Ability on it (Provoke, Steal, etc), casts a spell on it, or hits it with an Area of Effect (AoE) attack. Doing this also "claims" a mob.

2). "Linking": Another Mob of the same type within its Perception Range (within hearing or sound, depending on the mob's mode of detection) is in Battle Mode and it is a linking mob. Basically what this means, is that if Mob A and Mob B are the same type of mob, and they are both linking mobs, if Mob A is in Battle Mode and Mob B notices this (either by hearing or sight), Mob B will enter Battle Mode as well, and will aggro whoever Mob A has targeted.

3). Unprovoked Attack. Aggressive mobs will make a decision to attack any player who is low enough level that it notices either by sight or sound, depending on the mob's Mode of Detection. Mobs that rate Easy Prey or Higher will enter Battle Mode if they notice you, if they are aggressive. Rule #2 also applies if there are more mobs of the same type within range of detection of the first mob. There are also other types of Detection Modes that I will cover in the next section.

[Edit: If you are resting (or sitting!), and the mob rates "Too Weak to be Worthwhile", it will aggro.]

Section #2: "How do I avoid Aggro?"

Well, there are four main types of Detection Modes that I will describe here:

1). Sight. Mobs who use Sight as their mode of detection can see anything in front of them in a cone of vision. What this means, is that if you are behind the mob, it will not notice you unless it turns around, or you move within its Line of Sight. The Invisible spell, Prism Powders, and Tonko will allow you to move in front of a mob who uses Sight unless they have True Sight.

2). Sound. Mobs who use Sound as their mode of detection can detect you no matter where you are in relation to them if you are within distance. A thing to note here, is that even if you are standing still, there is still a chance the mob will aggro, though there seems to be a Chance invovled. There are times I stood perfectly still and a skeleton walked right past me and didn't aggro, but yet, other times I tried this, I got aggro. Sound mobs seem to aggro people who are moving sooner than they would aggro someone who is not moving, but this is unconfirmed as of yet. The Sneak Spell, or Silent Oil will generally prevent this.

3). Low HP. Undead Mobs will aggro if you have Yellow or lower HP. An interesting thing to note, is that an Undead's Low HP detection range is much greater than its Sound detection range. I've proved this more than once.

4). Magic Casting. All Elementals, Arcana (magic pots, statues, etc), and Bombs will aggro if you cast a spell within their magic detection range.

A thing to remember: All (I think all) mobs will make an "aggro noise". This noise or sound is unique to that type of mob, and they will only make this noise when they enter Battle Mode, for any reason. A very good thing to do, is to memorize the "aggro sounds" of most of the common mob types. If you know a mob has aggroed you by hearing its aggro noise, you can respond to it quicker than, say, if you had your sound turned off and you didn't know you got aggro until you are getting hit by this mob.

Section #3: Oh No! I got unwanted aggro .. um... what do I do!?

During your FFXI experience, you are going to get aggro from time to time no matter what you do. Panic is about the worst thing anyone can do, as it will almost certainly lead to a horrible death. If you get aggro from something you do not think you can handle, the first and foremost thing that most people do, is Zone. By Zoning, I mean, travel to the exit of an area and exit into the next area. Doing so, will lose the mob (mobs cannot change areas), but depending on the area and how far away you are, this can be dangerous. Especailly if it is a linking mob. Here are a few things to remember:

1). Mobs -can- lose sight of you and you will lose aggro. This is rare, but I've had it happen while pulling. Generally, this happens if you leave their area of detection for more than 5 seconds, but this is unconfirmed and only a theory. I've seen this happen with Yuhtunga Mandragora. I'm not quite sure how exactly this works, as its rare.

2). If you are a White Mage and you only have one mob on you, the best thing you can do is cast Flash and then immediately cast Warp. This is almost a guaranteed success unless the mob is completely overpowered for you. I've done this at least 5 times with mobs rating Incredibly Tough to me. Note: Don't Panic! Make sure your Flash doesn't get interrupted by casting it in between the mob's attacks. Stoneskin is a very good spell to have active while trudging around in dangerous areas.

3). If you manage to get the mob far enough away from you to use a Prism Powder or Silent Oil, don't. This will not work. At least, I know it doesn't work if you have Hate (see next section). If you have Zero Hate, it might, but I've never been able to test it, given how hard it is to accomplish this.

4). If you are zoning an aggressive mob, please send a /sh stating your target and which zone you are bringing it to.

5). If you are able to get far enough away from a mob and this mob is not True Sight, you can cast Deodorize, or walk across a body of water, for mobs that track by scent.

Section #4: You mentioned "hate"? What is that?

This guide is not about party mechanics, however, I feel that "Hate" has a lot to do with Aggro, and it is something you should learn anyway. I am not going to cover party dynamics in-depth in this guide, however, I will say a few things.

Most people use the word "hate" to describe how much the monster dislikes you. A Mob will always attack the person it hates the most if there are multiple people who have that mob's hate.

But, in this guide, let me explain something that I've noticed during my travels:

When a Mob Aggros you, by Rule #2 or Rule #3 above, your hate value is currently ZERO.

Remember this.

When a Mob Aggros you, by Rule #2 or Rule #3 above, your hate value is currently ZERO.

Remembered it yet?

This is Very, Very important. This one concept is something everyone needs to know.

We all know that casting a Cure spell on someone who is fighting a mob will create Hate. Or at least most of us do. Ever seen that lone warrior trying to kill a mob in a newbie zone, who is almost dead, and you throw a Cure spell on him, and the mob walks over to you and starts attacking you? That's becuase you have more hate than the warrior does. Note that you didn't attack the mob, you only aided the one attacking the mob. Well, let's try this example:

Warrior is attacking Mob A, and Mob B links and comes over and starts attacking the warrior. Right Now...

Warrior has hate from Mob A.
Warrior has ZERO hate from Mob B becuase Mob B aggroed by Rule #2 above.

If you cast a Cure on the warrior:

Warrior has Hate from Mob A.
You have Hate from Mob A. Mob A will attack you.
Warrior has ZERO hate from Mob B.
You have ZERO hate from Mob B. Mob B will continue to attack Warrior.

This is a very core concept. You cannot create hate by aiding someone who has zero hate.

Why did I go to such great lengths to explain this? Its very simple...

Section #5: What causes a Mob to go Idle?

Well, the Hate I explained above has a lot to do with this. Simply put, a Mob will exit Battle Mode, if it has no one targeted. What will cause a mob to have no one targeted?

1). No One has hate from it.
2). The "person" it aggroed is dead.

Both of the above must be true for the mob to exit Battle Mode and enter Idle Mode.

Now, you may ask, "why did you put this in this guide"? Because this goes hand-in-hand with link handling. This is why summoners and beastmasters are excellent link handlers. Let's consider a scenario for a moment:

An experience party is levelling off of beetles in Altepa Desert. These Beetles do not aggro, but link by sight. On one particular pull, the puller throws a boomerang at Beetle A, but did not see Beetle B just around the corner. However, Beetle B saw Beetle A go into Battle Mode and decided to follow along. The Party is now in trouble, as they cannot handle two Incredibly Tough mobs at once.

The Summoner, with quick thinking, summons Carbuncle as the puller returns to camp with the beetle. The Summoner yells "Don't touch the other beetle!" Here's why:

1). Beetle A hates the Puller and the Tank who just Provoked it.
2). Beetle B hates no one (it aggroed by Rule #2 above).

The Summoner then gives Carbuncle the Assault command and Carbuncle attacks Beetle B. Now, here's the scenario:

1). Beetle A hates the party.
2). Beetle B hates Carbuncle, and Only Carbuncle.

It doesn't take long for Beetle B to kill Carbuncle. Now the scenario is:

1). Beetle A hates the party.
2). Beetle B hates no one, and has no one targeted.

Now, by some dumb luck, Beetle B's back got turned towards the party. Beetle B does not see Beetle A in battle mode and continues to just stand there blissfully oblivious to its friend getting killed behind him. Now, let's say that after a few moments, Beetle B turns around an sees Beetle A in Battle Mode. Beetle B will then aggro whoever Beetle A has targeted (whoever has the most hate, let's assume the tank). The Summoner again pulls out Carbuncle and tells Carbuncle to attack the Beetle.

But. Let's say in the battle, everyone's Protect and Shell goes down. The Summoner, with his quick thinking, tells Carbuncle to use that Blood Pact (I forget the name of it) that casts a Protect and Shell-like ability on everyone nearby.

Uh-oh. Bad Move. This is why:

1). Beetle A hates the party.
2). Beetle B hates Carbuncle and the Summoner (issuing commands is counted as "aiding", thus the Summoner aided Carbuncle).

Now, Beetle B is going to kill Carbuncle and then come after the Summoner. Luckily for the Summoner, the party had just killed Beetle A and the Black Mage, seeing the Summoner getting hit, puts the Beetle B to sleep.

See where I'm getting?

Section #6: "Um, your guide is wrong. I got attacked even though I did nothing to the other party member."

Well, this is the one main exception to the rules above. It seems that being a party member gives you an automatic hate value of 1 (or whatever the lowest possible hate value is). I've seen this time and time again: Puller attacks a mob and gets a link and then yells "Don't touch me or that mob" and zones the mob. The mobs then come back and start attacking the party. The only explaination I can offer for this, is that simply being in the same party as the one who got aggro and has hate, will give you hate as well. If you are in a party, and someone gets aggro, or you zone a link, Play it safe. Everyone in the party must zone to ensure a full hate reset.

Section #7: "What the h...!? I just got attacked by a claimed mob and I didn't do anything!"

Two causes:

1). A mob was Bound with the Bind Spell or Shadowbind and was in Battle Mode and was within Melee distance of you. This appears to be a bug, I hope SE fixes soon.

2). A mob was pulled (thus that puller has hate) and cannot find a path to the puller. For some reason, it appears to attack the nearest person who is resting, though the details on this are sketchy as it only seems to happen in Valkurm Dunes.

I hope this guide has helped some of you, if you see anything that needs to be added or changed, let me know!

--Xylia

Edits:

v1.1:
Section #6, Section #7, and the Resting note.

v1.2:
Error correction, /sit note, and Deodorize strategy.

v1.3:
Error correction.

v1.4:
Added note about aggro sounds.

Edited, Tue Apr 26 21:37:02 2005 by Xylia

That's a very good question.

Being a White Mage, I've tried testing Deodorize, and I can tell you what it does NOT do:

I was in a party, and we got aggro from an Exoray in CN. I know that Exorays can detect by Smell, so the Tank provoked the Exoray and started running towards the zone. I immediately cast Sneak, Deodorize, and Invisible. The Tank dies not too far away, and the Exoray immediately comes and starts attacking me.

There are also rumors that Deodorize will prevent Low HP aggro, but I have been unable to test it yet.

--Xylia

Edited, Mon Apr 25 20:26:35 2005 by Xylia

Eh? *blink* I'll have to try that sometime. The one thing I do know, that is if you have Sneak or Invisible on you and you get attacked, you lose it, instantly. So, err, how again do you successfully cast Deodorize and Not get hit immediately thereafter? And that river thing.. I'll have to try it.... I assuming Dia would work the same way as an Arrow? Throw Dia and run...? Hmm....

--Xylia

Oooh, okay.

Cool! Well, like I said, its kind of hard to get away from a mob that is chasing you (they made them way too dang fast), and the casting time on Deodorize, or a Deodorizer, makes it very tough to apply Deodorize on you without getting hit by the mob immediately thereafter. You'd need something like Flee, or Marzurka, or something of that type, or if you got lucky and somehow slowed the mob down on a hillside or something.

Though, the times I've tried using hillsides, the mobs go right up sheer cliffs and aren't even phazed by it in the slightest. By the time I got far enough away from the mob to have been able to deodorize myself, I might as well just zone anyway.

--Xylia

They aggro to sitting? *blinks*

That's ... strange. I never /sit, so I never really... had any problems with that. I assumed /sit was just another pose, and was only for looks. I already know that /heal causes hate, and thus, will cause aggro, but /sit? Geez.

There's no real purpose behind /sit other than looks, so I never used it, hence I didn't know it. Thanks for the info!

--Xylia

Wow, thanks a lot! This is really helpful. ^^

I'm pretty sure of this. I remember lvling whm at around 18 or so in Valkurm. I was LFP (amazing, I know) and sitting in the corner near the Selbina zone. After numerous trains, there were about 20 goblins, 4 bogies, and 2 ghouls at the zone. People would zone out and immediately get aggroed. I stood in the corner and cured them while they struggled to zone back in. Some made it, some didn't, but I didn't get aggro from the mobs.

You might want to fix section 5. The reason summoners and beastmasters are good at pulling in situations with a lot of links is that they get hate from using their avatars/pets.

SMN summons Carbuncle.
Carbuncle attacks Mob A.
Mob A and Mob B both kill Carbuncle.
Mob A follows SMN.
Mob B returns to idling.

Well.

While you bring up a good point, I've also heard there are complications with this. I've seen a SMN try this, and somehow, it got botched. But then, I've seen another summoner do this, and it worked. Could another summoner give the -exact- details on how to safe carby-pull, or refer me to a link to a thread having to do with this?

I'm pretty sure there are special rules about doing this, some what to do and what not to do type things. I Have seen Carby pulling fail before, so I know its not 100%, or, there are strings attached...

--Xylia

Mechanics behind a Carby pull:

I'll use Quadav as an example, because they're the first mob that comes to mind.

1.) SMN casts Carbuncle.
2.) SMN sends Carbuncle into a group of enemies. Carbuncle, fiercely loyal to the SMN, doesn't question his master's wishes and rushes in. As expected, every mob within Sound agro range attacks Carbuncle, but only the one that the SMN specifically tells Carbuncle to Assault is claimed.
3.) Carbuncle, brave to the last, dies. ^^;
4.) The mob that was claimed has the SMN next on his hate list, and so continues on towards the SMN. The rest of the mobs stand around for a second, which is hopefully a long enough time for the 1 mob the SMN wants to get out of link range.

"Well, wait a second. WTF just happened? Why don't the rest agro you?" you might be asking. The mechanics goes like this:

After a mob completely loses hate(be it through the THF Job Ability Hide, or everyone on the mobs hate list dies[aka, Carbuncle]) it will not detect anything else for several seconds. During this time, anyone can walk past it unmolested. It only lasts a few seconds, mind you. Like, maybe 5 at most. If that.

Running away from mobs is easier than you might have realized.

The important thing to remember is not to run in a straight line. Based on my observations of mob behavior, it seems to me that the way mobs change direction is to (1) stop, (2) turn, and (3) continue running. You won't notice this, however, unless you're experiencing a lot of lag - it normally looks like the mob slows down, turns, and then continues. What's important, however, is that it does seem to happen, and that if you take advantage, you can put distance between yourself and the mob.

One small note before I continue: as Xylia mentioned, mobs are able to ignore differences in terrain when they're in battle mode (they don't always choose to), but, to the best of my knowledge, can't walk through things like trees.

In any case, when running away from an aggroed mob, I turn auto-run on, and then every few seconds, tap very lightly to the left, wait, then to the right, wait, and so on. That way, I run away in a very narrow squiggly line. If you turn too much or too often, the mob will catch up to you and continue to beat on you.

You will get hit at least a few times using this method, and you may die, but it enhances the probability of you escaping alive. I've used this method to successfully escape from mobs and even lose aggro altogether without zoning, help from another PC, or having the mob aggro or link on someone else.

One more note: the above does not apply to fast-moving mobs like tigers and raptors.

Hmmm, good info in there with the Hide ability.

This is mainly a Newbie guide, but some thieves reading this might wanna read up on how to use their Hide ability usefully.

Though, Hide is later levels, and if you already got to a level to use Hide and such, most would know this, but yeah. *nods*

Hmmm.

Yeah, that thing about the trees is true. I've seen this before. And the things about the party having hate, there is also another thing about hate I should mention:

There are stories of people who have hate from the mob (big example: RDM) who decide to go far away from the mob, Convert+DS+Cure IV and then come back, and have no extra hate. I think, if you perform an action outside of its senses, you won't gain hate from it, but I am not sure on this at all. These are only stories I've heard. But it would make sense. Now, if your party members ever entered its area of detection, then yes, I do believe them to have small amounts of hate. Case in Point:

A THF decided to try and Steal off a spider. She said "Don't touch that spider or me!" and ran past us towards the zone in Boyahda. I tried to tell her "Dont!!" but I was too late as I saw the spider running past me. No One touched her in any form, shape, or manner. No one was /healing. No one touched the spider. About 15 seconds later, after she zoned, that spider came down, and wailed on the very first person it saw. Note, that we did, at one time, enter the spider's field of detection, while in the party with that stupid THF, thus had some hate from it. Theoretically, anyway.

--Xylia

This seems to depend on range. If rest of the party is far enough from the puller when he gets hate, the mob won't come after the party.