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Lots of Mabinogi combat/range
skill are for one to one combat. So the game AI has to provide a rule that a player
can combat without the frustration of fighting all surrounding mobs with 1:1 skills.
But it also has to provide certain challenges to give the players incentive to build
their charaters.
When you play in a dungeon, you will notice that there could be lots of mobs at
a time in a room but only few of them recognize you and try to attack you while
other mobs pretend as if they didn't see you at all.
That is because those mobs are under the control of aggro rule. Aggro is a way how
particular mob recognizes you.
Aggro is most important in single player combat. Mobs may switch the target if there
are multiple players (including your own pet) in their aggro range.
1. Aggro state.
Just looking at the surface, there are 4 states of a mob's aggro towards you.
- No aggro - The mob just behaves that it didn't see you at all.
- Supporting - The mob displays a red ? mark on its head and follows you.
- Stunned - From the surface, looks same as supporting.
- Aggro - The mob displays a !! mark on its head and attacks you.
Obviously, there would be more states internally in the mob's AI. The aggro state
of a mob that is walking right around you would be different from the one of a mob
that is very far away from you.
When you have been in close radius with mobs,
- Some mobs switch from no aggro state to aggro state automatically.
- Some mobs switch from no aggro state to supporting state automatically.
- Some mobs stay in no aggro state forever.
If you directly attack a particular mob, that mob will switch to aggro state regardless
of which state it was previously in.
2. Aggro type.
Each type of mob has particular aggro type. In general they are categorized into
two types.
- M:1
This means that only M number of mobs from the same type recognize you.
M could be set to very high number to make it look like all of the mobs will attack
you when they see you.
example) goblin has 1:1 aggro type so only one will recognize and attack you at
a time. Goblin archer has 2:1 aggro type so only two of them will attack you at
a time.
- M+N:1
This means that only M number of mobs from the same type recognize you while there
would be N supporting mobs.
example) white spiders in Tir cornail grave area has 1+2:1 aggro type. When you
are surounded by white spiders in Tir cornail grave area, ony two of them will follow
you. If you attack one of them, that one will switch to aggro state and one more
white spider in no aggro state nearby will switch into the supporting mode.
If there are multiple types of mobs, each type will have their separate aggro chain.
If you directly attack a particular mob, that mob will switch to aggro state regardless
of which aggro type it has.
3. Area attack & stun.
If you use a skill that attacks multiple mobs of same type with no aggro at a time,
only one of them switches into aggro state. All other surviving mobs will get into
stun state.
For M:1 aggro type mobs, it is not obvious. But for M+N:1 aggro type mobs, stunned
mobs will follow you.
Example of area skills are
- Normal melee attack with weapon splash effect.
- High level(Not sure about exact level) multi-charge Lightning bolt.
- High level(5 of higher) Smash attack.
- High level(5 or higher) Magnum shot.
- Windmill (!!)
- Other skills like elven mirage missile & giant stomp should work but I have
not tried those myself.
- Mid class magic attracts aggro from all mobs attacked but I have not tried those
myself.
4. Temporarily blocking aggro by using an area attack.
Area attacks can be grouped into two. Ones that need a target (for example, high
level magnum shot) and ones that do not need a target(for example, windmill).
If you kill a mob with an area attack with no target, the mob will continue to keep
the aggro state until its dead body dissappears. This means that only M-1 mobs will
attack you from mobs with M:1 aggro type.
For mobs with 1:1 aggro type like skeletons, you can kill a mob with windmill and
keep the rest of the mobs in no aggro state till the dead body disappears.
Usually a dead body disappears after 15 seconds. You can extend this time to almost
full 1 minute by making a single player party and change party option to "finish
to anyone". The downside of this is the inconvenience of having to finish all mobs
manually. (by hitting it one more time after they get killed)
There is one more thing to remember. There are dungeon rooms that spawn mobs 3 times.
Once you clear such room, new mobs appear. For a short time (around 2-3 seconds)
after new mobs get spawned, the game AI does not choose which mob will switch to
aggro state. If you attack a mob in that period, the game AI might choose another
one to switch into aggro state.
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