Game Mechanics: Spell Aggro

[Gorroth]

Several spells have their aggro value way too high, making some aspects of playing on P99 very frustrating.


Lucy:

I've tried looking up spell info on Lucy but I couldn't make much sense out of the raw data. Only the Tash line is clearly listed as having bonus aggro.

Base# contains value related to the spell type, with values sometimes exactly corresponding to the spell description (e.g. concussion), other times it seems to present the minimum values accepted (e.g. malo, scent of darkness: min value for mitigation?) . Other times, it simply makes no sense root: -10000?)

Max1-11 seems to pertain to the max value for any attribute(s) of a given spell.

Other than that, I'm pretty much at loss, disregarding the obvious labels (e.g. manacost, duration, bonushate, hateamount, etc.).

I guess some values are directly related to the "category" and thus, use a formula that Lucy doesn't show. Also, there might be global contingencies related to aggro that also remain hidden (e.g. player_[level#] does X action = Y aggro generated).


Castersrealm:

Couldn't find anything in the comments besides the obvious (e.g. "Tash creates a lot of aggro!").


Known Affected Spells

Right now, I'm pretty much at loss when it comes to checking up how certain spells behaved so I'll have to rely on my past experiences and compare them to what I'm currently experiencing on P99.

I've played both a mage and shaman during classic and raided content from the planes (PoH/PoF) up to NToV. Having debuffed thousands of mobs, I dare say I have a pretty good recollection of how some debuffs behaved on live during the classic period.

Root Line:
Root was a neutral debuff, creating little aggro (very different from the snare line).

On P99, root creates way too much aggro. I used to root-park mobs with total impunity on live. If I snapped aggro from a tank with slow to park a mob, I only had to wait a few seconds before he regained aggro (whether a warrior or sk/pal). Now if I land 2-3 roots on a mob even without landing a slow (resist and/or root refresh), the tank won't be able to peel the mob for about 5-10s; this is aggravated when I aggro with slow, making me tank the mob sometimes for almost the full duration of the fight.


Malo Line:
Creates an OBSCENE amount of aggro. On live, the malo line was a pretty neutral debuff, generating little aggro. On P99, this spell goes even as far as somehow overwriting the aggro generated by tash, normally regarded as the king of aggro.

On live, I used to cast mala/malo and malosini a couple of seconds after the tank had nabbed aggro, even before assist was called. I could pretty much spam malosini until it stuck (mage/shaman). As a shaman, I could malo, wait for tash, malosini and then slow the same mob without drawing aggro (after the tank had built sufficient aggro: ~5-20% of mob HP).

The only time I drew aggro when only using the malo line was when I casted it on inc, before the tank had engaged it, right when the mob was pulled to camp.

Here, whenever I dare use it, I wait for assist to be called, then tash, then I cast malosi... and still end up drawing aggro for several seconds whether it gets resisted or not on the first try, making the spell line total garbage.


Slow Line:
Slow has always generated a lot of aggro, but always less than tash. Whenever a raid mob had to be slowed quickly, the enchanter was expected to die (tash suicide!) and the shaman sometimes followed shortly after.

However, never have I seen an instance where a slow spell generated more aggro than tash. This is pretty obvious on P99 when I slow a mob shortly after an enchanter has used tash on it. If the enchanter only casted tash once, I will get the aggro. If he cast anything else (mez attempt, root, whatever), he usually gets it.


Dispel Line:
There's already a thread about it but thought I'd mention it here. Dispels used to be pretty neutral debuffs, akin to the malo line and root.


Regen Line:
I'm not sure about this one, but maybe someone else could give some feedback. It strikes me a bit funny that a regen spell creates as much aggro as a full heal, sometimes even more.