Only 3 mobs attacking at once.

[h0tr0d (shaere)]

Posting this here for feedback first, see if any other live players remember this. On live, only 3 mobs could be hitting you in any given round. So if you had 10 mobs on you, only 3 of them could attack you every round. A different 3 could attack you every round, but no more then 3 in one round. Anyone remember this?

[Lazortag]

So if I got 50 level 1 mobs on me in field of bone, I could easily solo the tangrin since he would just stand there doing nothing?

Anyways I'm about 99.9% sure that this mechanic never existed. Do you have evidence for it?

[Ring]

So if I got 50 level 1 mobs on me in field of bone, I could easily solo the tangrin since he would just stand there doing nothing?

Anyways I'm about 99.9% sure that this mechanic never existed. Do you have evidence for it?

If it did CT with mobs up with be a whole lot easier though.

[astuce999]

I think you're thinking of old martial arts movies and not EQ!

[bulbousaur]

I believe initially there was no limit, then much later they changed it to 4 attacking at once max. This may have been in response to one of those spells that heals the person being attacked.

[Bardalicious]

Rofl, funniest "recollection of classic EQ mechanics" I think I've ever heard. No. Just no all around.

[greatdane]

I don't remember anything about this at all. EQ's combat system isn't round-based, everyone just has their own individual attack speeds. If you mean that you couldn't be hit by more than three mobs at the precise same moment, I think you're wrong.

I think you're thinking of old martial arts movies and not EQ!

I laughed.

[Messianic]

He's slightly off, but the idea is correct. It was changed sometime in Velious or thereafter - but basically, you could pull a trillion mobs, but only between 4-7 roughly (i don't remember exactly) would come within melee range. the others would either move back and forth slightly out of melee range or just stand there - if you ran into the mobs that were already standing outside melee range, more of them could hit you, but the ones that were just hitting you would not enter melee range...

Most people didn't discover it because it was such a strange mechanic and rarely happened outside of trying to make it happen. The reason I discovered it was because I was trying to farm lots of mobs on my wizard on live, but I couldn't get enough low level mobs close enough to PBAoE them all if I just stood there...so I had to pull a bunch, then move into the ones standing just outside melee range (which would allow me to hit more than that 4-7 that came close enough to melee), finish those guys, then cast one more time to finish the other guys who wouldn't come into the new melee range afterward.

[Seaweedpimp]

Suuuuure would be easy to play a bard then...

[Slave]

I'm pretty positive that never happened... because if you run into your own 30+ train in any era, it's KERSPLAT every time, one hit.

[Lady_Omelia]

I don't remember anything about this at all. EQ's combat system isn't round-based, everyone just has their own individual attack speeds. If you mean that you couldn't be hit by more than three mobs at the precise same moment, I think you're wrong.



I laughed.

lol same, awesome mental image

[Bardalicious]

He's slightly off, but the idea is correct. It was changed sometime in Velious or thereafter - but basically, you could pull a trillion mobs, but only between 4-7 roughly (i don't remember exactly) would come within melee range. the others would either move back and forth slightly out of melee range or just stand there - if you ran into the mobs that were already standing outside melee range, more of them could hit you, but the ones that were just hitting you would not enter melee range...

Most people didn't discover it because it was such a strange mechanic and rarely happened outside of trying to make it happen. The reason I discovered it was because I was trying to farm lots of mobs on my wizard on live, but I couldn't get enough low level mobs close enough to PBAoE them all if I just stood there...so I had to pull a bunch, then move into the ones standing just outside melee range (which would allow me to hit more than that 4-7 that came close enough to melee), finish those guys, then cast one more time to finish the other guys who wouldn't come into the new melee range afterward.


I don't want to start a flame war, but how can you honestly believe this? Yes, look at something like the CT raid mechanic. Or a bard swarm kiting. Or a druid DS tanking to plvl. Mobs "not entering melee range" because there were already 3 or 4 mobs attacking you? Wouldn't that effectively nerf TRAINS almost entirely?

Not to mention that it would be 100% exploitable. Oh sorry big_bad_raid_boss001 i've got 4 level 30 mobs on me already thus you'll stand there doing nothing while we kill you. I'm sorry, but you are 100% wrong. Something like this would have made the radar on patch notes, I beg you to find it and post it.

[Arrisard]

Was that way once upon a time. Didn't stay that way, but there was a point in time that it was true you could only have 4 mobs attacking you at once.

Really quick google shows someone else remembers it like that too:

http://www.fohguild.org/forums/mmorpg-general-discussion/43788-new-eq-progression-server-72.html

Hell, remember when you could only have 4 mobs attacking you at once? If you had more than 4 they went apeshit and ran around like feared/blinded or attacked others at random?

[Messianic]

I'm pretty positive that never happened... because if you run into your own 30+ train in any era, it's KERSPLAT every time, one hit.

Not if you pull every single mob in north ro (not 30+, but the same mechanic is at work) as a level 51 wizard (something I did on live). My opinion is just as "valid" as yours, but I'm positive it did.

I don't want to start a flame war, but how can you honestly believe this?

Because I personally experienced it. I suppose it is really stupid to believe something you actually did...maybe my parents raised me wrong :P

Or a bard swarm kiting.

Bards on live couldn't do the same swarm kite p99 bards can now do. An RL friend of mine who soloed entire zones after the change was made said once that change was made, his class became gods of outdoor zones.

Or a druid DS tanking to plvl. Mobs "not entering melee range" because there were already 3 or 4 mobs attacking you? Wouldn't that effectively nerf TRAINS almost entirely?

Not exactly, because most trains are mobile and in higher level zones, 4 mobs beating the snot out of you is enough to make you move - meaning you would then move into melee range of more than 4 mobs (again, as I described, they'd still hit you if you moved into their range).

Not to mention that it would be 100% exploitable. Oh sorry big_bad_raid_boss001 i've got 4 level 30 mobs on me already thus you'll stand there doing nothing while we kill you.

It's difficult to think of a situation where you could afford to let 4 trash mobs hit you while you tanked a different mob where the situation would not immediately or very quickly change (healer aggro) to allow you to be attacked by the big boss mob.

I'm sorry, but you are 100% wrong. Something like this would have made the radar on patch notes, I beg you to find it and post it.

See the very next poster ---->

Was that way once upon a time. Didn't stay that way, but there was a point in time that it was true you could only have 4 mobs attacking you at once.

Really quick google shows someone else remembers it like that too:

http://www.fohguild.org/forums/mmorpg-general-discussion/43788-new-eq-progression-server-72.html

[Lazortag]

I believe Messianic now that this mechanic existed in some way, but I really don't think it should be implemented here. It's kind of like long distance aggro loss in that it's too complicated and there's so little information out there on how it worked that it's better to just keep things the way they are now.

[guineapig]

Not to mention that it would be 100% exploitable. Oh sorry big_bad_raid_boss001 i've got 4 level 30 mobs on me already thus you'll stand there doing nothing while we kill you. I'm sorry, but you are 100% wrong. Something like this would have made the radar on patch notes, I beg you to find it and post it.

The melee range for a raid boss is much larger than your average trash mob, also most bosses summon. So it's not as exploitable as you would think.

[Messianic]

I really don't think it should be implemented here.

Oh, absolutely not. I'm just confirming its existence :)

[bulbousaur]

Didn't mean to cause flames, was just posting what I thought I recalled from a decade ago.

[Phallax]

It was 4, now that you brought it up I remember abusing this as a shaman. Dunno why I never really thought about it till this post.

We need to dig thru some stuff for this change~

[Rais]

I know for a fact that you could only root 3 mobs at once. If you rooted the 4th one, the first one would break root and walk away,but would come back once _one_ of the other 3 were dead.(This maybe only for mobs that are green con)

Being the important wizard I was. Medding up only to have green con npcs attack you, with only mana for root. I'm well aware of this happening.

So I would agree with Shaere that more than 3 mobs can't attack you, while a 4th one walks away. I only believe it was Green cons mobs. Anything else, no.

I was going to make a post in bugs about it. Just lack of information I could find, and 99.9% chance a coding bug in EQ live caused this. So I didn't think it was all "classic breaking".

Notice I said root, not snare.

[Striiker]

I also recall this oddball game mechanic. It took this post to remind me about it. I have vague recollections of this when in Blackburrow and of conversations about it. It's very hazy but it did exist. They would run around near you.. I don't recall if this was done with the intention of spreading out agro across all who get added to the hate list instead of having all mobs pounding one player. It seems to be more of a bug than anything. I do not recall when this behavior was removed from the game.
It's surprising what comes back into memory when reading and discussing old time EQ.

[bigferg]

After reading this, I think the original poster is right. I remember having goblins line up in permafrost, 4-6 would hit you but you're right with the others standing in the back. Once a mob was dead another goblin would jump into the fray. Just my 2 cents, pretty new to the server but I do recall that.

[SirAlvarex]

I seem to remember this with greens / rooting mobs. When root would break, mobs would do a "slow trot" if you were already engaged, then come charging back if you attacked them or killed one of the mobs hitting you.

But this is just conjecture, as I have no proof. I wouldn't want to see this implemented on the server either. Just like Run Speed, too easy to exploit.

[gnOme]

You all make me chuckle~

[Brinkman]

You all make me chuckle~

This mechanic did exist, for a few years.

Like some of the other posters have said, if you were fighting 4 at once that gave exp, you would normally move and never find out about it.

Very, very true. This existed.

[Brinkman]

I know for a fact that you could only root 3 mobs at once. If you rooted the 4th one, the first one would break root and walk away,but would come back once _one_ of the other 3 were dead.

Notice I said root, not snare.

This. 100% true. This happened all the way up to velious. I remember as a Wizard soloing in Eastern waste rygorr camps, rooting the 4th would break the first root and it would run all over the place like it was feared and snared, untill you killed one of the other 3.

Most wizards who soloed a lot learned this, because of adds, and/or having to break camps with only root as help.

I also knew this mechanic very well on my monk killing greens for tradeskills.Pull a train of 20 mobs, the closest 3 would attack you, the rest would sit back about 10 feet walking back and fourth untill one of the first 3 died, then the closest "waiter" would move in and start attacking. made farming a lot easier as you didnt have to fight a few at a time time, then run around having to pull more.