Hi folks, Arby here. This is just a quick and dirty guide I made to reveal some of the mechanics behind "threat" which is not explained well in the game. Most of it is intuitive, but there are a few key aspects that even veteran players may not be aware of. Enjoy.
In RO2, the player or NPC that a monster attacks is determined by threat. Usually, it it is the player with the highest threat that is the focus of attacks. The typical way of building threat is by dealing damage or healing. You can see the amount of threat you have on a targeted monster by checking the Threat Meter, located on your minimap.
i. Generating Threat:
Spoiler
The following DOES generate threat: -The first player to walk into an aggressive monster’s attack range starts off with 1 threat
-Skill damage
-Pet damage
-Active heal skills (generates threat to all monsters in a small range)
-Red and purple potions (generates threat to all monsters in a small range)
-Taunt (situational, read section iii. for more detail)
-Percentage heal skills (Survival, Seal Explosion) exception: Coluceo Heal heals 100% but generates threat.
ii. Losing threat:
Spoiler
-By skill: Currently there are no skills that directly reduce your threat. Rogues however can use “Smokebomb” to enter hiding status and reset their individual threat to 0. The monster will shift its target to the second highest threat. -Out of range: If the player that the monster is targeting is out of range the monsters’ range launches its attack, this resets the monster and will clear the entire threat list. It will not shift to the second highest.
-Dying: If the player that the monster is targeting dies, the monster will shift its target to the second highest threat. Threat meter will be cleared
-Disconnecting: Disconnecting will clear your personal threat. The monster will shift its target to the second highest threat. Upon reconnection, you will start at 0 threat if the battle is still in progress.
-Water: Resets monsters, will clear threat meter, will not shift targets
-Changing maps: Resets monsters, will clear threat meter, will usually shift targets
iii. Threat Modifying Skills
Spoiler
Threat multipliers
All tanks have at least one skill in their skill trees that multiplies their normal threat amount by a certain percentage, based on the skill level. These skills work as advertised and are helpful for maintaining top threat levels on your tank.
Taunt Skills
All tanks have at least one taunt skill. Other classes can use taunt by purchasing a “Secret to Provocation Scroll” from the Prontera Knightage Union. Their description states that they will force a monster to attack you for a period of time, but they don’t quite work as stated. In RO2, the actual effect of taunt skills is as follows:
Change your threat to 10% more than the player at the top of the threat list, unless that player is yourself.
In addition, just because monsters are affected by the “taunt” status, it doesn’t mean they will attack you immediately. Unfortunately, it means that it does not always force a monster to attack you. It is not recommended to invest points into the taunt skills because that will only reduce the cooldown, but sees very little use.
Taunt Juggling While not necessarily a skill, this is one method of generating threat quickly. This involves 2 or more users alternating the use of the taunt skill to reliably create threat. Because taunt always generates 10% more threat than the highest amount a monster currently has, this can be done independent of the damage capabilities of the main tank.
iv. Threat Mechanics
Spoiler
Threat threshold
When you are not the player at the top of the threat list, you can exceed their threat by a certain percentage without the monster switching its target to you. Your name on the threat list will flash if you are approaching this threshold. The list will update a few seconds after you greatly exceed the threshold.
“Sticky” monsters
Sometimes, even if you jump to the top of the threat list, monsters will continue to attack their current target. They “stick” to their current target. Now this is a problem when monsters are hurting your healer or a weaker character, so how do you fix this? Surprise! This is not the tank’s fault. In such a case, it is the player who is getting attacked that needs to act. Usually, they just need to move a bit and this forces the server to recheck who is at the top of the threat list.
Bear in mind, standing and running around in circles does not reduce threat. These are the most common mistakes made by players. If you have undesired threat, the best action to do is to run towards your designated tank so that he may generate more threat than you. This also helps get “sticky” monsters off your back.
Special attack patterns
Most monsters will attack the player with the top threat. Some bosses have special mechanics that will ignore the threat list momentarily. I won’t list out all the specific bosses, but the typical special patterns are:
-Targeting the second highest threat
-Targeting the lowest threat -Randomly target a player
-Target the player furthest away
And that’s really all there is to know. Most of this stuff is basic, but hopefully you learned about a mechanic that you didn’t know was there before. Please feel free to post your own feedback.
I finally understand a lot of situations i've had in the past with lowbies.. Like the boss resetting when the lowbie escaped from it before i took threat back.
Hopefully players can read this and understand why sometimes it's better to avoid certain heal skills when there's a risk of getting too much threat on them.