A while ago they also made a change to the mob AI so it would assess the 'threat' of each team member and react accordingly. Doing damage or debuffing moves you further up the 'threat' list. Generally I've found that it's based on max HP, the mobs will focus on those with the fewest first. If I'm not senile I remember a redname posting that they changed it to be just like we would do, take out the squishiest first to neutralize the threat, then work on that which would take longest to take down.
So, one person attacks, the entire team is put on the agro table, then the entire team gets prioritized by their threat level and generally the squishies get attacked first unless something else creates more hate. With tanker's taunt rules being broken right now, it's pretty blatant.
Its the same reason that powers like smoke and flash arrow don't work for players the same way they work for NPC's. Fire smoke or flash arrow as a player and all the mobs know where everyone on the team is as soon as one person attacks. When that Night Widow throws a smoke grenade, they all remain hidden even if they attack.
Probably completely unrelated (or fixed) by now, but:
Back when I had an AR/Devices, I picked up Smoke Grenade. (This was way after the famous fix and just before ED.) Solo with it I didn't notice any problems, obviously, but teaming? If I hit the spawn with SG first, and then everyone else attacked, the entire spawn would attack me and only me until I was dead. Nothing and no one could pull them off me. Happened over and over.
If I waited til the others engaged the spawn, and THEN hit them with SG...same as above. They dropped everything, ignored damage and taunts and debuffs, and focused on me until I was dead or they were.
I respeced out of SG very quickly. And then deleted the character entirely for other reasons.
When Archery was introduced, I made an Archery/Devices. Picked up SG. Exact same thing, over and over. Deleted, rolled as /Energy, MUCH better now, thanks. 
That "Wi aggro" thing previously mentioned makes a lot of sense to me, because I certainly can't explain it otherwise. Thankfully Devices is not exactly my favorite set anyway, and SG is worthless crap (to me) no matter what set it's in, so no huge loss. It was just bizarre. I'm tempted to roll another */Dev and see if SG still hates me.
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I always wondered if this wasn't the case, being in situations like a hidden Stalker who hadn't attacked and being pegged (ruining hide).
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Hide is an exception, barring ambushes. Let the brute go in first, everyone else drop their aoe's and such, and as a stalker you won't take aggro in the initial charge.
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Uh, no, that contradicts what I said. I've unqustionably been attacked by single-target, focused attacks before I took any action at all as a hidden Stalker on teams. Hide is, sadly, not an exception.
Edit: What you may have observerd is that I believe Stalkers are very low on the inherent "hate" heirarchy. Given a choice between a Stalker and most other ATs, all other things being equal, I think mobs would prioritize attacking the Stalker lower.
I conclude this based on experience with EBs and Shivans or other pets. When attacking with most ATs, I can peel the EBs attantion of a Shivan, or at least make the EB divide its attention between me and the pet. I have found this very hard to do with Stalkers, to the point that mobs focus on the Shivan more so than on me. (This is actually a bit of a problem, because a Shivan usually can't take that kind of attention very long.)
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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Hey, it doesn't make sense that reading a plaque causes me to drop out of invisibility either, but that change is going to stay.
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I think that one is obvious - your stalker has bad eyes, and the mobs all hear you pulling out your reading glasses. 
Back in I2 my i was on a team, My buddy running his Invun def specced tank, my mismatched Dm/regen scrapper, A bubbler who was in another room with the rest of the team and The tank and Scrapper charged some council......the council ran past us and proceeded to faceplant the bubbler then came back for the two chargers..........
Soap bubbles make council mad
Debuffs are a higher priority than damage but less than taunt.... or so it should be.......but soap bubbles make council madder than hell!!!
*shrug* All I know is I have never, ever been directly attacked in the initial attack, even if I'm in the back and take my time selecting a target or following the brute 2 seconds behind. It's usually an aoe that breaks hide, and I wouldn't be suprised if an aoe that misses me still puts me on the bottom of the agro list. One exception would be if hide is broken, a new group is aggroed,and I wait for hide to engage; I will run up, the mobs will notice me and attack, even if I am stealthed.
i'm not sure about the argo thing, last night I was playing my Mastermind and entered a mission. As soon as I entered I was attacked by a nearby mob. Now this wouldn't normally phase me except I had Night Fall on to stealth myself. I exited before I died and rested up. then reentered the mission prepared for the mob, however this time they totally ignored me. The ONLY difference between the 2 entering was the first time I also had flight on and when I renentered I didn't.
Maybe flight now supresses stealth or something or causes agro.
another weird agro thing happened in Dark Astoia last night, I had my Emp defender stealthed with ourr group waiting on another team to arive to take on Adamanster. Somehow one of our team agroed the monster. The next thing is ia am DIRECTLY being attacked by the monster, even though I wasn't near him and I was stealthed doing nothing else.
Nemsis lv50 Inv/SS
Arch-Nemsis lv 50 SS/Inv
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another weird agro thing happened in Dark Astoia last night, I had my Emp defender stealthed with ourr group waiting on another team to arive to take on Adamanster. Somehow one of our team agroed the monster. The next thing is ia am DIRECTLY being attacked by the monster, even though I wasn't near him and I was stealthed doing nothing else.
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Castle already explained this. Once your team has aggroed the mob, the mobs in question know about your whole team. Adamastor knew you were there and decided you looked tasty for some reason. But your stealth was completely out of the picture at that point.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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A while ago they also made a change to the mob AI so it would assess the 'threat' of each team member and react accordingly. Doing damage or debuffing moves you further up the 'threat' list. Generally I've found that it's based on max HP, the mobs will focus on those with the fewest first. If I'm not senile I remember a redname posting that they changed it to be just like we would do, take out the squishiest first to neutralize the threat, then work on that which would take longest to take down.
So, one person attacks, the entire team is put on the agro table, then the entire team gets prioritized by their threat level and generally the squishies get attacked first unless something else creates more hate. With tanker's taunt rules being broken right now, it's pretty blatant.
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Interesting, so not only do blasters have low health that invokes more hate, and damage that adds more hate, they also don't have the decent mitigation to deal with that hate, other then more damage which contributes to mroe hate. I love being a blaster!
Well, you thank the Tanks that must have a role on a team for that. And you can thank the devs right now that their role is currently borked until the patch on test makes it to live. 'cause yanno, Blasters aren't heroes unless someone else is helping them.
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The only thing I can say is the mobs must be doing an aggro check of every player in range and the AI is splitting the aggro among the whole team so one player is not the main focus of the whole spawns aggression.
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That's correct. It has been this way since release, I believe -- I remember being aggro'd while running Invisibility back in beta. In a nutshell, the entire team is put on the awareness/aggro list, not just the person who initiated the combat. It's not quite that simple, since there are a number of extenuating circumstances that can happen, but in general it is correct.
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I'm curious for some clarification of this. I've frequently run my Ill/Emp controller in difficult missions. I specifically built her for no agro; using only deceive, team buffs, heals and always running superior invisibility (prior to pets), I could easily avoid direct attacks, letting my hp get dangerously low with dull pain and just avoiding ae attacks. There have been several instances where the team wiped - everyone except for me. There was no new agro and I was able to just sit there and keep deceiving while rez recharged or the team returned.
I would understand if I was told simply that agro is randomized among the team upon engagement and that the controller (and stalker) are on the bottom of the hate list, but that would still have had me take agro after the rest had died, as long as the critters were aware of me.
Superior invisibilty has a -100% Threatlevel to self built in. The only way you will get aggro is by using something to generate it and even then it will drop pretty fast.
Duel me.
I will work on my sig pic more when I have time.
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The only thing I can say is the mobs must be doing an aggro check of every player in range and the AI is splitting the aggro among the whole team so one player is not the main focus of the whole spawns aggression.
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That's correct. It has been this way since release, I believe -- I remember being aggro'd while running Invisibility back in beta. In a nutshell, the entire team is put on the awareness/aggro list, not just the person who initiated the combat. It's not quite that simple, since there are a number of extenuating circumstances that can happen, but in general it is correct.
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...and is generally why Stalkers are nothing but under-powered Scrappers for the larger chunk of the game if they team. Since if you Assassin Strike before the team aggro's, you're dead from the alpha, and unless you play run-n-hide, you'll never get an Assassin Strike off otherwise (and according to the above, that isn't even guaranteed). Well or you can just sit on the bench until Retsu or Elude or similar power is ready.
If I had some infamy for every time I was broken out of Hide for "no reason" (before understanding Team Aggro as explained in this thread) I'd be set for life.
Guess this means /Dark is a lost cause and everyone needs to switch to Claws Stalkers. ;P
Me, dismayed, confused? Naaah.
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What, you really think HUMANS are going to save the world? LOL!
yes i love the concept of a HIDDEN stalker just standing around.....waiting to perform even a critical strike on a Mu....not even the assasin strike which keeps getting interupted by I8s Lag spikes in a big scrum....and some random guy SEEING me HIDDEN and hitting me since Hide has Aoe defense and little else.......
Great concept Dev team
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The only thing I can say is the mobs must be doing an aggro check of every player in range and the AI is splitting the aggro among the whole team so one player is not the main focus of the whole spawns aggression.
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That's correct. It has been this way since release, I believe -- I remember being aggro'd while running Invisibility back in beta. In a nutshell, the entire team is put on the awareness/aggro list, not just the person who initiated the combat. It's not quite that simple, since there are a number of extenuating circumstances that can happen, but in general it is correct.
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Wow that explains some behaviour I've noticed for a long time but could never figure out:
I'm in a team, with stealth on, so I'm up closer to a group than the rest of the team. Some doofus in the team shoots one or gets a little too close, and they all decide to shoot ME.
So what I'm getting here is that the reason for this is they automagically become aware of me (though I'm stealthed) and the rest of the team, but since most of them are only within (aggro?) range of me, they all choose me as the target in that scenario. Does that sound about right?
DS
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The only thing I can say is the mobs must be doing an aggro check of every player in range and the AI is splitting the aggro among the whole team so one player is not the main focus of the whole spawns aggression.
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That's correct. It has been this way since release, I believe -- I remember being aggro'd while running Invisibility back in beta. In a nutshell, the entire team is put on the awareness/aggro list, not just the person who initiated the combat. It's not quite that simple, since there are a number of extenuating circumstances that can happen, but in general it is correct.
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Hmmmm I picked my current toy stalker build, em/ninj, back up to day to do some rough testing on the agro. Some interesting results. Most instances mob agro worked as would be expected when playing 2 stalkers, 1 stalker dehides due to attacking gfirst, and gets ALL agro until 2nd stalker attacked and broke hide as well.
However on several marked occasions some wierd forms of agro occured.
Instance 1: Stalker 1 attacked a mob, 1 lt and 3 minions immediately turned to stalker 2 and began attacking. Up until this point, stalker 2 had been sitting on the other side of the room waiting for buildup and placate to recharge and had initiated no forms of agression.
Instance 2: Upon entering a room and getting within 20 ft of a mob, stalker 2 was attacked. There had been no mob intereing between stalker 1 and mob nor stalker 2 and mob. Mob just simply began attacking for no apparent reason. No +perception in these mobs. Just ordinary paper mission freaks.
Instance 3: While on a rather large sewer map, agro was created in the final room, it was aparent that the mob couldn't be wiped out without dying, stalker 2 retreated back and went back into a state of hide, however he mob followed, so stalker 2 continued to retreat, mob did NOT lose agro as stalker 2 went throughout the entire map back to the entrance doors of the map.
Now, it is my understanding that a stalker shouldn't be seen by any mob unless they have + perception. If agro is tossed onto a stalker because another teamamte attacks, thats somewhat counterproductive to the stalkers AT. They have it bad enough with the fact that ambushes tend to target them through hide as is, without having every mob in a mission do so as well.
Also the agro behavior of the mobs seems much different lately than it did previously. I have another lvl 50 stalker and while it was not my favorite AT to level at the time, the agro behavior on mobs sseemed much different... aside from ambushes in mayhem missions that is. Was the agro bugged before and its working as intended NOW? Was the agro working then and is bugged now? Or was i just lucky enough to not have had to deal with it on my first stalker?
Now im not a stalker player, im not complaining im just curious. If anything i tend to play brutes/scrappers/tanks becuase stealthing isnt my thing and i want the mobs to attack me anyways. However when i DO play my stalker id rather it work as intended instead of having hide gimped at every stage of a mission and having to scrap it out with a much lower HP, and a much lower dmg base *shrug*
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It's called blaster taunt. You aggroed them simply by entering the building. Then rumor spread that there was a blaster in the building. Soon, every mob in the building is on the lookout for "the blaster". These guys may have simply been running away from the crazy scrapper and saw "the blaster".
Some people think blaster taunt is only a myth....like unicorns. But it is reality. We are only now seeing it in greater effect since guantlet is broken. Blasters just scale higher than any AT on the aggro scale.
Take a team with every AT on it. Run them into a mob spawn with no toggles on, and make no attacks. Most of the mob will spot the blaster and rush in to take him/her down.
Nerf blaster taunt!
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Most productive post in this thread, by far!
This thread confirms what I've been telling my friends for two months or more. My Main Blaster draws ALL of the aggro the first time he fires off an attack...be it early or late in the battle. I stand in the corner...WAY in the corner...and nothing bad happens. I fire off ONE normal Blast, not even the Built-Up Sniper plasma torpedo I love so much, and the whole room is on me.
We've designed our team around this fact actually so if they nerf it it's good for the AT and bad for our team. Two Tankers with PBAoE fire on followed up by two Controllers with AoE ready followed by two other characters with Tar Patch and then there's me...the plasma cannon.
We line up in the hallway or at the doorway to the room. The Tankers hit their Fire AoE and everyone else stands ready. I fire off my Sniper bolt, generally killing or maiming one target. The rest run THROUGH the Fires, get hit with the Troller AoEs, stuck in the Tar Patches and then fried by all of us. We've taken down whole mobs of +2s with the second shot but now the team is too focussed on this one concept. If we get hit in the open we turn into a layered defense with everyone in front of me.
I'm tempted to not run a Blaster until they fix this or give us some sort of new AT that will enable us to survive at least SOME of this unwanted attention...
"Comics, you're not a Mastermind...you're an Overlord!"
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Superior invisibilty has a -100% Threatlevel to self built in. The only way you will get aggro is by using something to generate it and even then it will drop pretty fast.
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Ahh. That makes sense for that. But now, how are people PLing this weekend? It would seem that being near the mobs that are attacked by the big nasty brute would then spread the agro around, unless the brute manages to taunt every mob.
Also, I find the stalker tests disturbing. I've never had that happen to me on my stalker except with ambush groups and they're the exception to every rational rule there is.
I'd always suspected this was the case. At least now I know why on teams it is almost impossible to lay a trip mine once combat is joined (even if I haven't attacked and ended my stealth yet).
It's incredible to me aggro was implemented to effectively ignore stealth. On top of that, I don't suppose stealth is an additional factor than can draw extra aggro once spotted? Or maybe it's just that blasters have a higher threat level - I know I often felt that I was being singled out.