Spells that Draw Agro

[Ghoste]

Have been asked before which spells draw agro, and which don't. So this is an attempt to put together some accurate rules of thumb for people to determine.

If anyone thinks a spell or a group of spells work differently than described below, please test it first before posting. No need to clutter the thread up with uncertain speculation. After testing and verifying, please post any changes that need to be made to this list.

So here is how spells and agro work to my understanding:
1) Hit point damage or stat damage.
-if it does hit point damage, it draws agro (eg. fireball).
-level drain, like enervation, draw agro.
-spells that permanently decrease stats, like poison and enervation.
2) Area of effect spells that linger in the area it was cast in.
-if it is cast on an area and remains on that area for a duration, it draws agro (eg. cloudkill, dancing ball, etc.).
-if it is cast on an area, but has no duration on the area itself and does no hit point damage, it does not draw agro (eg. hypnotism, hold person mass, fear, etc.).
3) non area lingering single and multi target debuffs, including temporary stat drains but excluding level drain.
-spells like ray of enfeeblement, curse, waves of exhaustion, etc. do not draw agro.
4) Insta death spells:
-draw agro if target makes save and takes hp damage.
-do not draw agro if spell resistance is not overcome, or target is killed.

[Lithic]

non-damage debuffs cause no aggro (or at least didnt last time I was in the stormreaver on my wizard.

Thats ray of enfeebling, ray of exhaustion, bestow curse, waves of fatigue, waves of exhaustion.

Possibly symbol of weakness too, but that one I am not 100% on.

[Wizzly_Bear]

ive been blamed for many a non-bugged pf bc i debuff him and people mistakenly think debuffs draw aggro. damage draws aggro (hp or stat damage(poison/contagion here)). ray of enfeeble, bestow curse, ray exhaust, crushing despair, waves of fatigue, waves of exhaust all cause no aggro.

drain = no aggro

damage = aggro

[Wizzly_Bear]

btw.....pk only draws aggro if it inflicts damage or kills(moot at that point though of course). if they make the proper save then no aggro.

[Ghoste]

non-damage debuffs cause no aggro (or at least didnt last time I was in the stormreaver on my wizard.

Thats ray of enfeebling, ray of exhaustion, bestow curse, waves of fatigue, waves of exhaustion.

Possibly symbol of weakness too, but that one I am not 100% on.
Ok, I'll have to change category 3 to "non area lingering single and multi target debuffs, excluding level drain", but just "debuff" is incorrect since enervation does draw agro. Stat damage as I left it though would also be incorrect since curse is included in this category.

[Ghoste]

btw.....pk only draws aggro if it inflicts damage or kills(moot at that point though of course). if they make the proper save then no aggro.
Pk and FoD do not draw agro when they fail all the saves and die...not really. The reason I'm particular about categorizing it that way is because when a spell draws agro, surrounding enemies also become aggressive. When an un-agro'd target fails its saves vs PK of FoD, its friends don't agro.

[Drekisen]

unless they make thier save, in which case they take damage, so naturally you will get aggro.

Also may be a little off topic....sorry if it is, but any foes that u fail to make a succesful spell pen. check on will not aggro on u, unless of course they spot u while doing it.

[Ghoste]

Added 4th category for insta kill spells.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Control spells? Charm Person, Charm Monster, Suggestion and Dominate Person do not draw aggro

[Lithic]

Control spells? Charm Person, Charm Monster, Suggestion and Dominate Person do not draw aggro

They dont if you fail to penetrate SR.
They dont if the mob makes its save.

If they fail a save, they DO create aggro from any other mobs nearby, though only onto themselves. Its not like flesh to stone where you can turn a camp of 12 orcs into statues one by one until its a rock garden. Maybe they deserve their own category? I know that if the charm expires while you are out of range, the charmed fellow is unaggroed. Also unaggroed if his friends kill him. If you are too close though, the charmed guy comes running to you and wont leave you alone until he finds another target, or breaks charm (and aggros on someone in your party, usually the caster IIRC).

[Depravity]

Ok, I'll have to change category 3 to "non area lingering single and multi target debuffs, excluding level drain", but just "debuff" is incorrect since enervation does draw agro. Stat damage as I left it though would also be incorrect since curse is included in this category.

My usual round of soloing on Nosrat includes enervation. i get a "look around" like he heard something, but have never pulled aggro for it. may not work on ornage names, i'll have to test elsewhere.

[Ghoste]

Control spells? Charm Person, Charm Monster, Suggestion and Dominate Person do not draw aggro
Control spells can't be listed as one category.

If they fail their save vs a plain charm monster or mass suggeestion, no agro. But if they fail their save vs a symbol of persuasion, agro. The difference is whether the spell lingers in an area or not.

[Vaypor]

I pull agro just using solid fog, w/ enlarge, and I know there's no damage. But as soon as they're in he fog, they run towards my sorc.

[Ghoste]

I pull agro just using solid fog, w/ enlarge, and I know there's no damage. But as soon as they're in he fog, they run towards my sorc.

Yup, that's already covered under point 2.

[Spell]

I still can't figure out how my Web spell is drawing agro. NO, i'm not casting any other spells.
And I mean serious agro. Mobs waltz thru the web straight for me and it takes a barbarian to kill them to get them off of me.
I've even had a sorc 2 levels lower than me wailing on them and they still make a bee-line for me.
One question: What's in those webs to draw that kind of agro.

[Ghoste]

I still can't figure out how my Web spell is drawing agro. NO, i'm not casting any other spells.
And I mean serious agro. Mobs waltz thru the web straight for me and it takes a barbarian to kill them to get them off of me.
I've even had a sorc 2 levels lower than me wailing on them and they still make a bee-line for me.
One question: What's in those webs to draw that kind of agro.
Category 2. Any spell that lingers in an area after it has been cast will draw agro.

[Ghoste]

They dont if you fail to penetrate SR.
They dont if the mob makes its save.

If they fail a save, they DO create aggro from any other mobs nearby, though only onto themselves. Its not like flesh to stone where you can turn a camp of 12 orcs into statues one by one until its a rock garden. Maybe they deserve their own category? I know that if the charm expires while you are out of range, the charmed fellow is unaggroed. Also unaggroed if his friends kill him. If you are too close though, the charmed guy comes running to you and wont leave you alone until he finds another target, or breaks charm (and aggros on someone in your party, usually the caster IIRC).
Categorizing them by whether or notthey draw agro onto the caster.

Although you do make a very good point.

[Wizzly_Bear]

all looks good, except i was sure contagion and poison drew aggro. i dont have a high enough level cleric or clickies of poison to test that, but will test contagion here in a min.

[Wizzly_Bear]

test:

co6 soldier from gargoyle foyer in sorrowdusk with enlarge. contagion:slimy doom. failed save.

= aggroed

also, why have they still not fixed heighten to affect all spells useful? contagion is not affected by it.

[GeneralDiomedes]

They dont if you fail to penetrate SR.
They dont if the mob makes its save.

If they fail a save, they DO create aggro from any other mobs nearby, though only onto themselves. Its not like flesh to stone where you can turn a camp of 12 orcs into statues one by one until its a rock garden. Maybe they deserve their own category? I know that if the charm expires while you are out of range, the charmed fellow is unaggroed. Also unaggroed if his friends kill him. If you are too close though, the charmed guy comes running to you and wont leave you alone until he finds another target, or breaks charm (and aggros on someone in your party, usually the caster IIRC).

Obviously, that's not what I meant and the result you describe is environmentally and situationally dependant. Technically speaking, the spell itself does not put you, the caster, on the aggro list of the target you cast it on at the time of casting.

Possible category: Single Target Control

[samho]

Ghoste,

Pretty sure your description about Contagion is not correct. (Since it's the most common spell my cleric use when solo in the past, even now, I still use it quite a lot)

Please note, the information is tested in the current game status ( i.e. last time the so called "AI Improvement" *lag* patch did change it's behaviour again, so I has to test it every time Turbine claim to have some AI tweak / imporve)



First at all, when you cast Contagion (any sub-type) -- the behaviour itself will not generate aggro. Target can't be save against this part -- he will either get Contagion:any part or Immunity, nothing else.


Second part, target has to make his save with Contagion:any_sub_type at begin, and/or every minute once he get infested. (And once target save against this part twice in a row-- include the very first one when you cast spell, the Contagion is gone. IF target fail his save once, it will get stat damage and generate aggro even you cast it with enlarge / maximize cast range. It used to be not generate aggro or partially several patch ago, but it is guaranteed to generate aggro right now. However, if you keep sneak in long enough range from victim, target will try to seek you (at where you cast the spell) a while then *possible* lost your aggro until next time he fail his save and get stat damage again.


Third part, only available with sub_type Blinding Sickness, the blind part. It used to be generate aggro several patch ago (and not generate any aggro few months ago), but it doesn't generate aggro right now.


All test with / without enlarge, with variants casting stat (from 19 to 34), tested with various monster in Vale.

[Ghoste]

Ok. Changed category one to include hitpoint damage and permanent stat damage (poison and contagion), and category 3 now also includes temporary stat damage.

[samho]

This is not a complete test like I previous did, but I do observe that Contagion stop generate aggro when target taking stat damage again, AFTER mod 7. So you may turn a target into helpless without aggro right now. (Like it used to be)

[parvo]

I think it's possible some spells on the list don't cause aggro every time. Enervation is one I use a lot and it doesn't allways cause aggro. Of course that is post mod 6 and pre mod 7.1. These types of things are often tweaked.

[kamimitsu]

This thread is relevant to my interests, but I'm not sure if this forum area is safe from the upcoming purge. Perhaps it needs to be moved to a safer place (User-written strategy guides?)