Threat mechanics of faction champs?

[Radius]

Has anyone looked into the threat mechanics during the faction champs fight? If looks like they drop aggro every 5 seconds or so but it’s not a total drop, it looks like it is just on the current target. I have tried to watch my omen, but with everything else going on it’s hard to see what is actually happening. Some have suggested that it is a static number dropped (or added to someone elses threat).

Is there a way to record a threat log on omen or another mod?

[Satorri]

The Champs do not use traditional aggro, they instead follow targeting scripts.

Obviously I don't know the script, but there are some features I have figured out:
1.) Taunt will make you their target for the length of the fixation (with diminishing duration, so 3 sec > 1.5 sec > 0.8 sec > 0.5 sec > immune roughly)

2.) They will pick a target and attack it, but certain elements will change their mind. If they are CC'd, if their target is healed, if their target drops below a certain % health, they will behave differently, either picking a new target or staying with their current target.

To be more specific. Stun/CC/Incap's that make the target inactive the NPC's drop targets, so they will start fresh when they come out. That sometimes means they'll pick the same target but it's not for sure.

They do track healers. We had an early wipe in figuring them out where we had a few people being the first in to get their attention, these people got hit, got healed, then the champs turned around and wiped out our healers. They don't show undue attention to healers, but there is an element in the script, I'm fairly certain (if not it's a remarkable coincidence).

The way they change healing priorities and heal low health targets harder, they also like it when you're lower on health and will stick to you longer. If you get healed and stay at a higher health they'll eventually decide to find a new target. It's chaotic so it's hard to say what their threshold is, but I'd guess it's reasonable to assume around 35% health (extended execute range).


Threat meters will be misleading. Old school style meters use client side formulas to tally up your threat and as such the number is meaningless. Most in-game meters now take cues from the built-in threat system and so probably say weird things when dealing with these mobs who don't pay attention to threat the same. Most out-of-game meters will work the same as the old threat meters and measure based on threat formulas and ability damage, and again, with the chaotic nature of the fight, you wouldn't be able to glean meaningful info without going through the combat log line by line.

[jere]

From my own experiences keeping the arms warrior out of the group, Omen has so far shown threat that reflects his actions. If I am top threat he stays on me. When he switches threat for whatever reason, Omen was showing the person he targetted as the highest threat on the list.

[Satorri]

Also, there is a range filter. The melee seem far less to target players who are on the opposite side of the arena. We had our warrior pull the rogue way away from the group, outside of shadowstep range and she didn't run off as frequently, making it easier to rein her in with taunts and stuns.

I've never had the Arms warrior respect threat, I usually start our fights with Death Gripping the warrior away and hammering on him, but he runs off to attack the dps closest to him regardless, sometimes changing his mind on the way to them to attack their healers.

The part where I said threat meters may be a bit misleading is the part where their scripts may actually switch targets by giving their new target a big chunk of threat, the way Patchwerk bolsters his tanks' threat, but more so. I'm not sure. If there's a reliable correlation that might allow you to track their upcoming choices.

[Martie]

Here are my experiences.
(Tested on the warrior and to a lesser extent DK.)

They randomly pick a target every twenty or so seconds and attack that target if they can.

Taunts work more or less as described. The first taunt lasts 3 seconds, the second half that, the third again half, then they are immune.

When rooted, they behave like any other melee mob - if they cannot reach their intended target, they will try and melee something that is in range (using their threat list.) They seem to do this on anything that prevents them from moving, I noticed similar behavior when a stun ends.

When slowed, they usually try to get to their intended target. I noticed some weird behavior in this, since they sometimes attacked me after I threw my shield at them - I assume that this has to do with the AI deciding if he can or cannot reach his target quickly enough.

Many longer lasting effects seem to make them change their target. I think this is an illusion - the target change happens because it was supposed to happen during the stun/snare, not because of the stun/snare. (Timed event, not triggered event.)

Warrior tanks do better at keeping attention then paladin tanks - they can vary more between stuns and taunts, it seems.

My multi-target taunt was highly unreliable.

[jere]

I watched my target last night specifically (given this thread). When he dropped aggro on me he did indeed run to the person who was #2 on my threat list prior to the dump. I don't know if it was extreme luck or what, but that was occurring for me on the 25 man version at least.

[Crommi]

I'm interested to know how they focus on players with low hp. Their damage is not particularly high and tanks have very high healthpool compared to other classes, so I'm wondering if you could try keep tanks at 50% and hopefully NPCs would focus more on them.

[KnThrak]

They also seem to have at least some mechanic of trying to help each other, though I will try to find out more about this. I frequently see the Hunter assisting the Death Knight after the Death Knight pulled someone, it always coincides with the Hunter shooting that person with Aimed Shot.

[Fetzie]

So so far we have them

-Assisting allies to try and kill someone
-Reacting to taunts (on non heroic)
-Specifically targetting low HP players (although this could be misleading, as a clothie that is focussed will automatically drop to low HP)
-They prefer to target someone in melee if they cannot reach their main target
-They appear to target someone, and are fixated until they choose another target. (in my experience they continue to attack their target after a taunt has worn off)

I also find that they tend to reset their fixate after a stun, and go for someone else.