Fix the aggro range and mob swarms.

[flog.3485]

The aggro range is fine because we have mounts that makes map exploration really fast. However the spawn rate is too strong.

[Veprovina.4876]

@flog.3485 said:The aggro range is fine because we have mounts that makes map exploration really fast. However the spawn rate is too strong.

It's fine on mounts, however when mobs demount you and you're on foot, the aggro rage seems to stay the same, and you can't run as far and as fast as a mount which leaves you attacked by several clusters of mobs that normally wouldn't even see you because they're too far. Spawn rate is an issue too though.

[Plyply.8621]

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[Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921]

@Veprovina.4876 said:

It's not about not being able to solo content. I can solo those maps just fine, the problem is that the mobs are relentless, not fun to fight, the fights take way too long for what is essentially transitional content. World maps are not instances, i shouldn't need a party just to cross a map unmolested. I get it, it's high level content. Fine. Make bounties stronger or events harder. Every trash litter mob is a boss fight and every 2 secconds you are aggro'd by a trash mob packs that each have their own veteran spawn.

It's too much.

Now of course, the numbers are exaggeration (not every 2 seconds DUH), but you get the point hopefully. Sometimes i want to stop and enjoy the scenery for a minute. Or even rest assured that, if i mess up and do get attacked that i'm not constantly running from mob pack to mob pack each with overlapping aggro radiuses until i either kill them (at which point most respawn before you can heal), or i die.

Relentless mobs are not fun.

Don't get me wrong, I agree the aggressive mob saturation is a bit much. Take the sand shark. Not my idea of an interesting mob, however, having soo many of them in close proximate takes away from their benefit to gameplay and asthetics. This is also the case with hydras. But it's not enough to have them, now you get multiple mobs with lots of condi spam. This is by far the biggest problem with newer mobs. Almost every undead has a slow condi attack. This oversaturation actually works against gameplay.

I also agree there should be more opportunity to stop and smell the roses, but like HoT there can be very few breaks and it takes away from immersion.

[Despond.2174]

It is ridiculous the aggro radius and mob spacing in the maps, sometimes I find it easier to just relog to remove aggro than spending 5min chain aggro.

[Bladestrom.6425]

its no different to Orr or Hot, but this time you have mounts and gliding and wider maps to make mob avoidance easier. All that is needed is a bit of patience and learning. I like the new maps, it reminds me of older mmorpg where you had to think a little about your pathing rather than wandering with impunity.

[SmirkDog.3160]

If the aggro range is going to be increased to account for mounts, we should be allowed to re-mount while in combat. Being chased halfway across the map because I got booted off my mount and I'm slow in-combat running away is not fun. Running away from an encounter because I'm clearly going to die and the smart thing is obviously to run away but just before I get out of range of one enemy I run into another (if being super far away from something that magically sees you counts as 'running into) is not fun. I don't care what "older mmorpgs" have, this isn't enjoyable.

[draconicrose.6213]

The respawn timer is murder, honestly. Nothing like having an epic fight with two vets and 3 normals every time I get dismounted, only for the same mobs to respawn before I even had time to catch my breath! Respawn timers definitely need to be toned down and, while they're at it, so does the number of veterans. I swear, Core and HoT did NOT have this many veterans. As for the aggro, I haven't noticed anything unusual about it but that might be my playstyle. I could get behind a shorter leashing distance though.

[Nep Leet.5491]

The mob density is way too high. There's a point where mobs every few yards (not exaggerating about this) makes one's gaming experience VERY tedious and frustrating. Truly, it's not fun. (I've almost wondered if its some weird 'double spawn' bug, because it just doesn't seem 'intended' in its current state.)

Aggro range on some mobs is in the "absurdly long" range like some of them used to be in Bloodstone Fen.

Mobs have a much longer leash, takes a distance of probably 2 to 4 times farther to lose aggro. (Which means you've then run into another dozen or so mobs, resulting in a seemingly endless chain of aggro.)

And the respawn timer on mobs is bizarrely fast.

As it stands currently, I'm not sure how appealing trudging through dense herds of mobs will be for players in relation to replayability in these zones over time.

I truly hope ANet will tone down some of these issue with mobs, just as they did in the Heart of Maguuma zones with mob issues specific to HoT, shortly after HoT launched.

[Dante.1763]

The respawn time in these new areas is entirely way to fast, and so too is the aggro range. The amount of mobs in these areas that can hit for 6k+ makes this even more annoying. Its not appealing to me at all, and ive found ive went back to Crystal oasis because theres less of it there, and that should not be happening at all.

[Maria Murtor.7253]

As someone, who did Map completion (Tyria and HoT) a lot times (28 times), and doing the 4th time PoF map completion I can confirm, that PoF mobs do have a faster spawn rate. Also there are some mobs with a higher and longer aggro range. In the past, there are some similar enemys like Mordrem Cavalier or Icebrood Elementals (at Bitterfrost Frontier), but it seems that PoF houses a lot more of that kind. Probably the worst are Jacarandas: High aggro range, high attack range, knockdown, healing and high respawn rate. No fun.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

The only real issue I have, is with jacarandas. They tend to attack me from very far away, way further out than my own range 1200 attacks. They're rarely alone, and often, if the attack came from outside my field of vision, I can't even tell which one did it. They only attack at that range every few seconds and they usually stay completely still between attacks. If I move in on the culprit, I aggro all the other ones.

Once I was put in down state from lingering conditions I couldn't manage to clear after a combat (can't remember what I'd been fighting, not a jacaranda anyway) and I couldn't recover, because one jacaranda somewhere near the horizon kept pelting me at such a low rate of fire, I couldn't bandage up completely, yet it couldn't kill me either. After a few minutes, I just gave up and didn't activate the bandage skill.

I think just a single one of their skills has a ridiculously long range, and the AI doesn't make them move closer to have a real fight using all of their skills, resulting in them attacking once every few seconds, when that skill has cooled down.

[Rococo.8347]

When I was playing the 'other' game I went to a Dungeon that my Guild used to do speed runs on for the first time, it had a bridge at the beginning that if you jumped off to the side would skip a good 1/2, so I happily jumped off the bridge, completely forgetting to dismiss my pet first.

1 minute later the entire Dungeon mobs arrived with my pet to obliterate us.

PoF feels a little like that sometimes! its the fast re spawns that finish me off after being kicked off my mount.

[Razor.6392]

It's a necessary evil imo. If mobs didn't have this aggro range, their ranged attacks would have zero chance to hit you while you're zooming by in a mount.

[Meneh.2954]

I haven't had much problems myself but since you brought it up, they all do seem to come crawling out of the forest once you stop to kill a few.

[Nanners.9428]

Yes I think the aggro issue is really insane in pof maps, I end up refusing to switch mounts just because I fear I'll get in combat and never be able to mount up again.

My most annoing experience so far:

Mobs aggro range is sooo large and they react instantly. If you get dismounted your only option is to kill them, because it takes forever (feels longer than core or hot maps) to get out of combat, sometimes you can't even get rid of the aggro before you run into another mobs aggro. Today I got 2 shots knocked off my mount I ran nearly 1/3 of the whole map just to be able to remount and catch up with a commander.You can't stay in one place for 5 seconds to look at the map or chill in a spot to get a drink before something comes to you from nowhere.

My suggestions:

1) Please tone down the aggro range and range damage on mounts. I dont mind the respawn timer that much but mobs placement should be relatively in packs or denser rather than 2 yards apart everywhere.2) Able to mount up in combat.or3) When you are on the mount, please make the mount switch transitioning instant. i.e get rid of the mount off-wait for button refresh-mount up again animation.

[Hanakocz.5697]

I think the range is still too small. They have eyes, they should interact on SIGHT range. Pursue you around whole map until they lose their sight. Then it would be really immersive.

[Devildoc.6721]

@vesica tempestas.1563 said:its no different to Orr or Hot, but this time you have mounts and gliding and wider maps to make mob avoidance easier. All that is needed is a bit of patience and learning. I like the new maps, it reminds me of older mmorpg where you had to think a little about your pathing rather than wandering with impunity.

No the radius at which mobs aggro is much longer for certain mobs in PoF. I guess there's a few mobs in HoT with a larger than normal aggro radius, it was more apparent in LS3 maps (White Mantle Knights, and the Veteran Corrupted Ice Elementals in Bitterfrost were the ones that stood out for me), Sand Eels, Harpy Predators, Branded Devourers, Jacarandas, Scarabs, and other mobs I can't think of off the top of my head all have extended aggro ranges beyond the range of any ranged weapon, considering they sometimes come running from out of range in order to use their weapon on you. It becomes problematic because even if you nor the mob can hit each other they won't break combat, and you can't mount up in combat and being able to get around is very much tied in with mounts in these maps.It sucks the fun out of exploration and is killing my will to even want to play honestly.

[Devildoc.6721]

@Razor.6392 said:It's a necessary evil imo. If mobs didn't have this aggro range, their ranged attacks would have zero chance to hit you while you're zooming by in a mount.They have the same low chance of hitting you honestly, their attack range wasn't increased just their aggro range. The aggro range and spawn timer do one thing and one thing only, keep you in combat as much as possible so that you can't enjoy exploring.

[Devildoc.6721]

@Hanakocz.5697 said:I think the range is still too small. They have eyes, they should interact on SIGHT range. Pursue you around whole map until they lose their sight. Then it would be really immersive.

if you're going to use realism for an agrument then mob density needs to go down about 10 fold. When I go out in the woods I don't see wild animals every 10 feet just standing there waiting to be killed. In fact wasn't it Colin up on stage hyping up GW2 before launch complaining about how mobs in other MMO's are just standing around waiting to be killed? Yet we have the same problem here.

[Aenaos.8160]

Getting really tired of this.It's not that the mobs are unkillable ,it's that you can't move for 5 seconds without something attacking you.PoF maps were supposed to be exploration focused,and they are actually as combat heavy,if not more,as the HoT maps,with the only differencebeing that mob damage is nerfed a bit,CC spam is buffed a lot,and instead of fighting armies of mobs from DEs,you fight armies of mobs.Unless you want these maps to become graveyards in a month or two,outside of zerg contract runs,revert the aggro range and respawn ratesto core Tyria levels.

[ThomasC.1056]

I agree with the issue. As many said, it's not a "fighting the mobs is too difficult" issue, and I'd even say it provides interesting fights. I'd see that more of a functionnality issue.

Just like yesterday : my friend and I were doing that story part where you have to gather memory crystals in highlands. On the rabbit, with swarms of mobs at our backs. For a reason or another, I manage to do my jump, but he didn't, and he gets dismounted. Now, he has to deal with 12 trash mobs spamming CC's and blind (so it takes even more time) so I have to go back and help.

Once again, that's not a matter of "I don't want to fight" or "I find it too hard". I just find it tedious and boring because the mobs are tedious and boring (tell about the harpies that down you in the skies, even when your stealth gliding, from an insane distance). At that moment, I was trying to get to weird places, which is a challenge in itself when you're using the rabbit for the first time. Of course there need to be mobs in maps, but given there're "go from A to B" challenges, they mustn't be such a nuisance. My advices : reduce aggro range, reduce respawn rates, remove CC (soft and hard).

[Devildoc.6721]

@Aenaos.8160 said:Getting really tired of this.It's not that the mobs are unkillable ,it's that you can't move for 5 seconds without something attacking you.PoF maps were supposed to be exploration focused,and they are actually as combat heavy,if not more,as the HoT maps,with the only differencebeing that mob damage is nerfed a bit,CC spam is buffed a lot,and instead of fighting armies of mobs from DEs,you fight armies of mobs.Unless you want these maps to become graveyards in a month or two,outside of zerg contract runs,revert the aggro range and respawn ratesto core Tyria levels.

Don't you just love the peanut gallery explanation that if you don't like something it must be because it's too hard and you can't do it? Nothing can ever be annoying, it always has to be too hard and if you l2p then suddenly it'll be an amazing experience to be in combat 24/7 For me the combat gets boring and I just find myself "going through the motions" to kill trash. I just want to get on my mount and go exploring.

[CedarDog.9723]

@Hanakocz.5697 said:I think the range is still too small. They have eyes, they should interact on SIGHT range. Pursue you around whole map until they lose their sight. Then it would be really immersive.

Also make the maps completely flat so they can see you from one side of the map to the other and make them able to follow you through zone portals. :)