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[Bugmuncher]

general info found

Taking hits

when determining whether or not you are hit by an NPC, EQ goes through the calculation in this order:
Block, Riposte, Parry, Dodge, Shield Block, Miss

every mob has 20 possible values it can hit you for - every single mob in the game has a 20 point damage spread, without exception.
this spread is determined by this formula: DB+(DI*(1-20))
DB = damage bonus. a static number assigned to every mob. this number is reduced by Shielding.
DI = damage interval. a static number assigned to every mob. this is multiplied by (1-20) based on the mob's atk vs. your AC.

so, if we pretend that a mob has a DB of 10 and a DI of 10, you get the following:
10+10*(1-20)
min hit: 10+10*1 = 20
max hit: 10+10+20 = 210

if you assume 35% shielding you get:
min hit: 7.5+10*1 = 17.5
max hit: 7.5+10*20 = 207.5

warriors always get a 5% reduction to DI from whatever the final number (which basically translates to -1 DI, but not to drop under DI*1), and Defensive Disc and its variants give a 45% reduction to DI from whatever the final number is - meaning that a warrior in defensive is reducing the DI by half.

now, in EQ when you take all these factors, your AC vs. the mob's atk creates what's called your DI distribution - this is basically what percent of hits are where in the possible range of DI.
more AC = more hits will be lower in the DI spread.
that right there is what AC does for you. it makes more and more of the hits be on the low end of the spectrum.

now, since every mob has a different ATK value, and your DI distribution is always about mob ATK vs. your AC, that graph will look different for every mob that you ever tank.
but, it's a good idea for every tank to periodically pull up gamparse and load the Tanking tab for a given mob that you tank, and look at your DI distribution.

if you're interested in figuring it out... if you take the smallest difference between two regular hits (or use gamparse to graph it out like above) - that difference is the mob's DI.
(note that in most parses this is going be a little messy due to things like runes and vie and such changing your damage spread, in order to get it nailed down for certain you need to get 20 different hits without any sort of absorption - but even then, you can more or less figure it out)
for example, in the above chart, we learn that Daosheen has a DI of 199 (it's 199 point of damage difference between each hit)
if you take the lowest hit and subtract the DI, 1338 - 199 = 1139, which is Daosheen's DB.
so to figure out how much damage daosheen can do, using the damage formula, is:
1139+199*(1-20)
min hit: 1139+199*1 = 1338
1139+199*18 = 4721 (18 is the highest number on the char listed, and the there is an 8 point difference in the calculation here probably due to vie screwing up the damage numbers, but the math is still right)
max hit: 1139+199*20 = 5119

AC works by reducing the value of random (1-20) roll of the NPC damage formula.
(note that whenever AC is discussed, it must be remembered that in EQ, we the players do not know the exact formula for how AC works - we know what it does, and roughly how it does it, but there is no known formula which easily breaks NPC damage down to "X AC against Y atk reduces DI by Z", so much of the discussion about AC is conceptual terms, even though some values are known explicitly.)
the exact effect AC has on the value is highly variable and evidence suggests that in all instances it is a scaling value that is largely impacted by Diminishing Returns (ie, it hits a point where adding more AC has less and less of an effect).
the diminishing returns of AC are seen in-game in two different but important ways:
1. the AC softcap
2. DI reduction scaling

1. AC Softcap:
simply put this a value at which point adding more AC (via gear or buffs) no longer provides the full benefit listed on the item/buff.

2. DI reduction scaling:
this is kind of hard to describe simply in text...
basically the way combat and damage in EQ works is that the (1-20) DI portion of the formula is scaled in such a way that it's very nearly impossible to ever reach a point where you overcome every roll and get a DI1 on every hit.
even if you were to let a level 1 fire beetle hit you, it will still get some variance in its damage output, meaning it is getting something higher than 1 in its DI rolls.
the easiest way to express this is: there comes a point where your AC is high enough against certain mobs that adding more AC effectively does nothing against that mob.
(this behavior leads to one of two conclusions in terms of thinking about how EQ's damage formula most work:
1. AC effects the DI roll by a %, and as you get lower in the DI range % shifts become so small they effectively stop doing anything.
2. there is an absolute amount that AC can reduce the DI to, and once every hit is being reduced to that point the damage is just a random roll on the remaining available numbers.
(for example, if 3 is the lowest DI your AC can ever reduce a hit to, then damage is a random 1-3 DI, because you can never reduce that)

[Bugmuncher]

How Hate and Aggro works:
All mobs have a Hate List. Think of this as a spreadsheet - the spreadsheet has the name of every person the mob AI is aware of, and a numeric value assigned to them. The person with the highest number is the person who the mob attacks.

Special notes and rules about hate and how it works:
1. The person with the highest numeric value on the hate list is who gets attacked.

2. To make a mob change who it is attacking, you need to have +3 hate more than the currently highest person on the hate list (ie, if a rogue gets aggro and has 1000 hate, you need to generate 1003 hate to make it attack you)

3. Taunt sets your hate as equal to the highest person on the list +1 - meaning that taunt, by itself, can NEVER change aggro from someone else to you.

4. Pressing taunt when you're already on aggro does nothing.

Special notes and rules on how mobs deal with hate and how their AI works:
1. The first action you performed on a mob with no hate list is hard capped - you can not generate more than 150 hate on the first action against a mob. There are 3 exceptions to this rule, and 3 exceptions only: Sk terror spells, paladin stun spells (not AAs), and paladin crush spells - these all bypass the hard cap and give you the full amount of hate listed in the spell, so these should *always* be the first thing you use against any mob.

2. Mobs have a dynamic hate modifier based on several factors and actions, and certain types of mobs have additional rules. Example: mobs assign dynamic hate values based on proximity, so moving away from a mob actually reduces your hate on it and gives bonus hate to people closer to it. Undead and animals have a double value for this proximity bonus. sitting gives you bonus hate, but only while you're sitting. certain mobs are flagged as 'smart' and assign bonus hate to heal spells and debuffs.

3. pets and hate: this is somewhere between a bug and just a quirk of how the game works.
a pet (mage pet, necro pet, bst pet, etc) can and will tank if two conditions are met: it's highest on the hate list, and no PCs are in proximity.
if a player is in proximity of an NPC, the NPC will attack the player regardless of its position on the hate list relative to the pet.
(ie, if the pet has 1500 hate and the player has 500 hate, it will still attack the player)
this can result in the following scenario:
player A and pet B are attacking mob C, with tank D standing a short distance away.
tank D uses spells/discs to generate hate on mob C, to the point where they have more hate than player A.
however, pet B is attacking and has taunt on, meaning it keeps pulling aggro, but since player A is in proximity the mob keeps attacking player A, even though tank C has more hate.

Generating Hate: the numbers behind the sparkles.

1. DD spells give 1 point of hate per 1 point of *base* damage - ie, the number listed in the spell. Bonus damage from focus effects/mods do NOT cause additional hate. bonus damage from critical hits do NOT cause additional hate (this includes procs).

2. Heal spells give 1 point of hate per 1 point of healing done - the bigger the heal, the more hate it generates. A heal cast on someone with full HP will generate effectively 0 hate.
(Note that some mobs are coded to have a hate modifier regarding heals, but these inconsistent in the game world and not something you normally need to worry about)

3. Rune spells give 2 points of hate per 1 point of rune to every NPC that has you on its hate list - meaning that runes (and rune procs) are basically AE hate.

4. Stuns scale really weird and are very difficult to figure out how much hate they generate. Basically, stun spells generate hate based on a formula which uses the mob's max HP as a modifier, so it's functionally impossible to work out the exact hate value of a stun spell. Also there are lots of weird rules about whether the stun lands, or if the mob is immune, or level capped (exception to this being #6 below).

5. Melee gives a set amount of hate *per swing* regardless of whether you hit, miss, are dodged, parried, riposted, how much you hit for, and whether you get a critical hit (ie, how much damage you do per hit, and even if you hit at all, means nothing - it's a set amount of hate per swing).

The formula for how much hate you generate per swing is: damage + damage bonus (times hate mod, if applicable) = hate per swing.

6. The exception to ALL of these rules are what are called 'hate override' spells.
These are: SK Terror spells, pal crush and stun spells, war aggro disciplines.

*If you go to lucy.allakhazam.com, you will see these spells have a special 'hate generated' field, any spell with this field bypasses all other normal rules for hate generation and always gives the amount listed.

7. Hate mods (ie, from masks or buffs) add their listed % to *everything* that you do... spells, melee, healing, everything.

[lecompte]

Taunt sets your hate as equal to the highest person on the list +1 - meaning that taunt, by itself, can NEVER change aggro from someone else to you.

I've taunted, without casting or swinging my weapons, chanter pets when they broke successfully.

[Bugmuncher]

I have no idea how that could happen lol

[liveitup1216]

Originally Posted by Bugmuncher [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I have no idea how that could happen lol

Taunting off a caster. I assume they're not auto attacking so when you taunt after they nuked you get their nuke hate+1.

[Magnum]

Very informative, thank you !