Taunt, Brutes, and I Trials

Are you sure that it's divided by distance? The Threat formula that I know also contains AI mod, AT mod and debuff Mod values

You're right -- *I* missed that part! I was misdirected by "I know of that famous experiment where a Tanker sat taunting an enemy off a Scrapper and the enemy never moved due to proximity" in the OP, and had even guessed that it was an Invuln scrapper doing truckloads of damage before I saw the link.

I didn't prove anything that most of us didn't already know -- sorry!

I wouldn't say its the best aggro generator. Taunt (the power) shines when it is supplementing other methods of aggro generation, but not as a sole aggro generator. Passive aggro generation is far more useful (taunt auras/attacks with taunt components).

You're an overachiever. The Tanker Taunt power is capped at 5 targets per use (multiple uses will let you stack up to the aggro cap, of course).

Yes definitely distance was a major factor.
There was a much older guess as to how it worked (from about 5 years ago) before they properly understood how the game worked are you thinking of that?
The AT mod and possibly debuff mod is effectively present in that - it affects the character threat i.e. the threat you see in character stats and reduced by 1 for stealth.

The formula that we were told directly by Castle is:

Total Threat = Damage * DebuffMod * AT Mod * AI Mod * RangeMod * (TauntDurationRemaining * 1,000)


If you know of any place where the Devs have discussed further refinements of that formula, I'd love to see the discussion.

While you have a very good point, RttC's Taunt duration is so short (1.25 sec) that against +2s (80% effectiveness) it wears off right as it pulses again, and against anything above that it simply won't hold aggro without attacking. If the mission was set to +2/x8 but the mobs were +3 they could have just been going to find new targets anyway.

I think that what they're saying is that the RangeMod in your formula is an inverse of distance in theirs. With DebuffMod and AIMod typically unknowable on the player end but identical when using the same powers against the same mob, that would make them functionally equivalent.

On topic, I like having Taunt to get aggro on BAF to prevent sequestering when someone else is taunting and gets their second warning, or to bring things to the edge of patches in MoM. It has a use, but in a limited role... and I think the -range isn't resisted by AVs but I haven't specifically checked. I just know that if they're at range they come in closer.

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.

Well, we weren't really told how to calculate RangeMod, though. It might be equivalent to dividing by distance, or it might be a flat value for melee powers, and a lower value for ranged powers. A ranged power used at melee range might not generate any more threat than if its used at full range.

DebuffMod is usually 2 if there is a debuff associated with the power.

Heh - five, six, I'd mentioned early on that I couldn't remember (or find the link that you found) exactly how many targets Tank Taunt hit. My "big point" was that the tanker COULD Taunt things off a scrapper who was holding aggro with ONLY RttC. (Which as mentioned up-thread, REALLY isn't much of an accomplishment.)

Moving back to (or on to) the belief that Taunt sometimes seems to be "broken," I'D like to know how (or why) Taunt in PvE sometimes seems to cause runners to flee even faster. I saw it again last night with my claws/WP scrapper, who was teamed with a SS/invuln brute on +2/x8. We dove into a spawn, defeated all but villain, and the last one took off, so I tried to taunt him back. (And another thing: what sort of "OMG too much damage!" mechanic causes a villain to flee RttC and Invincibility auras in the first place?) Usually runners will come back, but...

It was, as always when it happens, kind of odd to see the target stop, run a few steps back toward me, then turn again and run two rooms away -- thanks to the targeting reticule, I can watch them through walls as they flee for their lives. Sometimes I'll chase after them and hit them with a second Taunt with zero effect, even though it lands.

I've seen it before, often with bosses but also with LT's and minions, and filed it under both "petition" and "bug report." The only thing I ever get back from Support is an e-mail saying "they'll forward it to QA and see if they can replicate it," which means I never hear anything else.

Well, since it simply modifies your Threat and the AI fleeing is likely due to your Threat far exceeding a value it feels capable of dealing with (based on its chance to hit, attacks available, etc. - it's probably a calculated heuristic), increasing the Threat further would only make it that much more likely to flee under the same conditions, right?

WAI.

(Disclaimer: I have no idea what the AI is actually checking for or against, nor how it determines which state to enter; but it seems likely that the default action is to attack the highest Threat first, approaching to get the better (melee range) attacks, and flee if it feels it has no chance.)

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.