Traps - Caltrops cause too much fear?

Playing a Traps/Dual Pistols in Praetoria and it seems like my caltrops are causing an unusual amount of OHMYGODRUUUN! on the Resistance NPCs. As in, they run out of the caltrops, down the hall, up the stairs... back to the mission door, and reset/lose aggro. I'm reasonably sure it is caltrops causing this and not acid mortar. Have to tes more but I am only lvl 8 so far. Has anyone else experienced this?

would definitly be the work of the caltrops, the acid morter does not have a fear component like caltrops does, the caltrops are fairly well known as mob scatterers even moreso than someone who spams rain of fire lol

Acid mortar while having no afraid component is well documented by players to frequently cause mobs to flee far and wide.

The afraid aspect of Caltrops typically ceases the moment they step off of the patch because it only has a 1 second duration (constantly reapplied while they are on the patch).

Mobs fleeing all the way to the door to the point they deaggro is something that lots of people have been complaining about since GR. It was even a focal point of one official third party review of the product.

It seems to happen with damage over time powers a LOT:
Widow Poison Dart
The entire Fire secondary for blasters
Acid Mortar
The list goes on and on.

The whole running halfway across the map thing is most likely your acid mortar. I've had that happen to me on everything as low as a minion and as high up the chain as a Ghost of Scrapyarder and several AVs. They even run while I'm chasing them spamming Provoke. It's strange behavior, but the debuff (and the associated procs) are still worth the aggravation in my opinion.

I have been experiencing this as well with my Rad/Traps corrupter, also in Preatoria.

I haven't seen Acid Mortar cause any scatter lately. Acid Mortar actully has a taunt effect. Caltrops on the other hand.....ya......scatter/flee/run for the hills. I've had this happen with Longbow lately running off to my next mission I guess. Frustrating in "Kill Alls" or one of the "Boss Mob" but other than that...... just laugh maniacally and move on. Hey if its a escort you'll catch him on the way out =)

Last night I actually had an NPC run away, lose aggro, come back and start running away again when he saw me. Scary Defender is SCARY!

I think it might be the acid mortar as I have noticed some NPCs flip out and run right after they take the DoT acid damage.

edit: I should note I have only noticed this so far with mobs in Praetoria.

Some mobs on the street are programmed to always run away no matter what. Usually, in a group, it's the guy committing the crime, such as the drug dealer or the guy trying to grab the purse.

Pretty sure a lot of debuffs break mob moral. Acid mortar is DOT, def debuff all, and resistance all, repeated. Caltrops makes them stay and take a few shots from it. It makes mobs run far and wide. PGT will help somewhat since they will be held for a bit. There is a reason there are a bunch of Traps/Dark fans. Rejoice that defenders can get a AOE immobilize in the patron pools.

well, catrops have always caused scatter effect, but not fear.

Your mortar is probably causing that behavior. If its accidental programming, maybe the there's a disconnect w/ the mobs getting debuffed by an "object" instead of a player.

If it is purposeful, its to spread out those who are affected, and counter the chance of the same mobs gettind debuffed continuously by an object... alot of objects are just pbaoe... the mortar is range targeted....