Threat

Threat (Aggro/Hate) is generated based on damage done, healing done, and modifiers on certain abilities.

• In PvE, aggro against player characters is based on a hate table.
• In PvP, aggro may force target switching to the Tank. Feedback on this will be sought during testing.

If we think about PVP settings and the role of taunt or hate, a lot of times for tanks in the MMOs that I've played- where you have a PvE and PvP scenario- those types of hate generation abilities don't really have cross application into the PVP realm; and that can feel bad, because typically a tank build-out can be delegated around how I generate hate; and if it has no cross application into PvP then effectively you're creating a class composition that just is not relevant in half of the game, or in that area of the game. So when we talk about how we're going to apply hate to player targets or taunt to player targets, sometimes that can move into the realm of target switching, or the ability to demand that target on the tank in a PvP scenario as well. That's something that we need to get player feedback on, because there's a lot of strong emotions around that type of mechanic. I for one am a big proponent of that. I think it's interesting. I think that it plays into the role of the tank and that it it hits a class fantasy that most tank players want to feel. And I think however on the flip side of that, it is a source of control; and anytime you're under the effects of some source of control, it's going to be a feel bad moment for the target that's being controlled. So that's why I think it generates a lot of feelings on both sides of the aisle. – Steven Sharif

• Balancing of threat generation between taunts, healing, and damage done will occur during Alpha-2 testing.

Right now the formula includes modifiers, so we can apply a modifier as we wish to either healing, values versus hate values. Those things are going to be balanced as we see play testing continue to see what's the right blend between the tank holding aggro, the healer not pulling it too often, and the DPS not grabbing it as well. So we want to have maximum flexibility in the formula and that's why modifiers exist there. – Steven Sharif

• Detargeting is the act of removing hate/threat/aggro from an enemy.
• There is a Taunt skill available for Alpha-2. In Alpha-0 testing there was a single-target taunt skill, called Hatred.

Q: There were a lot of concerns about threat [in the Alpha-2 Tank preview video]. A lot of people didn't understand how holding threat works, because you weren't holding threat at some point.

A: It's important to remember that these previews are done at a very low-level, so these are low-level skills and abilities that the archetypes have available to them; and so because of that, some of the functionality from these abilities they don't necessarily perform as well as you would want them to in a later stage of the game for that role. Now also keep in mind that balance is a perspective that needs to be incorporated also. So, threat is generated based off of a few factors: It's based off of damage done, it's based off of healing done, it's based off of threat generation modifiers that are on abilities. Now the tank in this situation I believe has two abilities that are going to generate additional threat. They have the slicing- the number two ability; and then they also have the shout ability. Both of those are creating additional threat. But with that being said, we need to tune probably those abilities up a little bit to contend with the DPS that's coming both from the ranger and with the heals that are coming out of the cleric. – Steven Sharif

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Desolate		Tank	Strikes your target and surrounding enemies for 150% physical damage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Grapple		Tank	Take aim and hurl a chained javelin at your target, damaging the first target it contacts and immediately pulling them to the caster. The target suffers a tapering snare for 3 seconds. Cannot be used on boss enemies.
Grit		Tank	Increase physical mitigation by 10% for 10 seconds. This can stack up to 2 times.
Inciting Strikes		Tank	Slash twice in an area in front of you, dealing damage (75%🢆) Physical damage damage per hit. Generate 3 Courage per target hit with each swing, up to a maximum of 10 Courage per swing. Generates 300% Threat.
Intimidating Aura		Tank	Emanate an aura around the caster for 8 seconds that deals (10%🢆) Magical damage with a 10% chance of applying Staggered every 0.5 seconds. Generates threat equal to 30% of your Maximum Health every tick.
Misdirection		Bard	Use your wiles to reduce both your own and nearby party members' threat against nearby monsters by (1000%🢆) Magical damage. Additionally breaks all disabling effects on the caster.
Pulverize		Tank	Move to your target and strike them for 225% physical damage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Shield Assault		Tank	Lunge forward and deal 125% physical damage while applying Staggered to enemies in front of you. If a target was hit, gain 25 courage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Shield Slam		Tank	Lunge forward and deal 150% physical damage while applying Staggered to that target. Gain 25 courage on hit. Generates 300% additional threat.
Slam		Tank	Deal (200%🢆) Physical damage to targets in front of you. Generates 300% additional threat.
Taunt		Tank	Taunt target enemy, generating threat equal to two times your maximum health and applying Humiliated.
Tremoring Bellow		Tank	Apply Snared to enemies in front of you with a loud shout. Then quickly follow up with a powerful ground stomp, dealing 150% physical damage to enemies around you. Generates 200% additional threat.
Tremoring Strike		Tank	Deal 175% physical damage and apply Tripped to target enemy for 2 seconds. Generates 200% additional threat.
Vengeance		Tank	Combo ability: Launch up to 3 consecutive attacks against target enemy. Each hit grants 1 stack of Vengeance to the caster, granting 2% of maximum health as temporary health for 8 seconds, up to 3 stacks. 1. Hit 1 - (120%🢆) Physical damage 2. Hit 2 - (130%🢆) Physical damage 3. Hit 3 - (150%🢆) Physical damage and applies Stunned Incoming damaging hits reduce this ability's cooldown by 0.5 seconds, and hits that were blocked reduce the cooldown by 1 second. This may trigger at a maximum of once per second. Generates 100% additional threat.

NPC perception

Alpha-1 preview Seer of the Infinite 3D render.

NPC perception is intended to have different sensory types, ranges, and angles.

• NPCs will have varying fields of view. Some will have the ability to perceive sounds.

We are talking about things like unique abilities played by characters that extend the perception radius, or sounds and different types of walking that are angular from the mob's perception perspective to be unique, different types of creatures that might be of three-dimensional in space, whether it is in water or birds in the sky that have a downward cone angle type perception as well. Those are things we want to do, but we haven't yet spent the time on the AI behaviors there. – Steven Sharif

• Social aggro will vary based on NPC types and NPC factions.

Q: How far away from hostile targets will be before they act aggressively towards us? More specifically, will creatures watch us murder their friends in the open world with no reaction, will they try to kill us in retaliation, or will they run away in sheer terror?

A: Obviously as MMO Gamers we're accustomed to the concept of social aggro. When I hit a target out in the field, they're going to aggro other creatures nearby. We have similar functionality. Obviously however we also have this concept of a more puzzle-oriented level design, where you have different patrollers that might be moving around the world. So that dynamic is always changing the creatures that are near each other might be something that you need to be cognizant of as you begin to navigate those areas. And there might even be certain faction types, where you may have dedicated aggro social tags between certain creature types; and that might be like goblins with their goblin dogs. They could be far away but they send off an alert to those nearby enemies when you aggro another target. And then you also have these perception radiuses; and there's a number of different perception radius types that we incorporate as part of our AI. Those things might be a forward-looking perception cone that represents sight-based perception; and then you might also have a rear perception radius that might represent kind of sound; and those perception types might even interact with unique stats. So, as a Rogue you might have a stealth ability, or as a Ranger you might have camouflage ability: Those are going to dampen those stats which are checked by those perception radiuses; and then you might even have different creature types that fly above the battlefield, or beneath the battlefield, and they may have downward cone type angles. The whole idea is that navigating the world should be like a puzzle as you move throughout. – Steven Sharif

• Skills such as Stealth and Camouflage can dampen NPC perception.

• NPCs in certain encounters may be aware of their local environment and can seek cover behind obstacles, for example; but this will not be prevalent in general AI designs.

Threat meters/addons

Addons, DPS meters, and threat meters will not be supported.

My decision is not to allow DPS meters nor add-ons. I feel we have adequate measures in place to prevent a majority of potential third party trackers. I know this subject has passionate voices on both sides and I respect the various opinions and positions many of you have expressed. – Steven Sharif

• The developers do not want addons/mods to be necessary to experience the game.
• The developers believe that DPS meters (parsers) can cause toxicity and other negative behaviors.

What role DPS meters provide in online communities that I've noticed in the past my experiences: they can be a bit toxic, they can be a bit exclusionary; and that's why we don't want the DPS meters. – Steven Sharif

• Threat meters will also not be present in the game. There will instead be visual in-game cues to indicate threat.

Meters in my opinion are a removal from the game immersion; and what I mean by that isn't necessarily even the fact that having the meter takes you out of the game per-se, but it is- there's a lot of diegetic approach that you can take that doesn't rely on UI elements like a meter to indicate how you should do a thing; and when you're not utilizing those types of meters you can do different types of strategies and encounter design. You can have things that can be more subtle and aren't going to be immediately given away by a meter indicating something; and that's the type of gameplay that we think that I believe we want to emphasize; and for that reason, we're not going to be including threat meters. What we will be including however are animation indicators. We're going to be including ability indicators to show the tank "hey I might be losing aggro here." I'm observing in the world these immersive elements that are not tied to any specific type of UI, but indicate to me that this monster might be moving off to attack somebody else in a very immediate future; and now I should be using the abilities that I'm saving to regain that aggro, or to lock them down with a taunt or something. That to me is a bit more representative of the type of gameplay we want to to bring in our encounter design. – Steven Sharif

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

• There will be integrations available for streaming services such as Twitch and a few other services, but it's not something that will be exposed through an API just yet.
• The design of the game API is still under consideration.

See also

• Skills
• Tank