Dealing with "chained" monster linking

A poster from another thread brought up an issue I've been having in certain areas:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Viridiana

Only real issue I have with it at the moment (haven't fought much since patch) is mobs waiting until low health to decide they're past their leash, then running back and linking extra enemies, who then all do the same thing, repeat until dead. . .

---

I've had this happen to me many times. My friend and I (same level as the mob) gang up on one mob. Mob calls for help. Friend and I have to beat up on one of the two mobs (while the other mob is getting free hits on me). I also make sure to use something like War Drum or Provoke II to "engage" the second mob that's beating up on me. First mob is killed and we go to fight the second mob that got linked. When it gets down to low life, instead of staying there to fight, it goes into passive mode and runs back to where it came from. We catch up to it, and it ends up calling for help again.

If my friend and I turn to the mob that responded to the call and try to hit that mob, suddenly the entire area starts attacking us.

Seeing how it's just a two person party - what can we do to prevent situations like these from happening? I'm a GLD and my friend's a PGL. Is it something we're doing wrong or was some mob AI "designed" to flee when it hits a certain amount of HP? What causes four mobs to suddenly gang up on us when all the mobs are the same level as us and there's only two of us?

I believe some monsters do have a flee mechanic. Try other monster families or recruit a third player.

I was in a group yesterday where we were fighting a NM and it kept going into passive mobe.
Sometimes we would get links after we ran it down again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vahzl

I believe some monsters do have a flee mechanic. Try other monster families or recruit a third player.

---

The problem here is that only the second mob (the linked one) flees. I don't remember mobs doing this in 1.18, so I'm wondering if they added some sort of mechanic to the mob AI to auto-flee if it's outnumbered and about to die.

you want the mob to just sit there?
if they run i chase them and kill them if they call buddys i kill them too.

if your XP'ing why you mad?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by indira

you want the mob to just sit there?
if they run i chase them and kill them if they call buddys i kill them too.

if your XP'ing why you mad?

---

Because when there are only two people in the group and neither one is a healer it's not exactly ideal for your targeted mobs to run into a huge group of their kindred.

I'm not a fan of mobs fleeing, especially not mobs that are already aggressive.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by indira

you want the mob to just sit there?
if they run i chase them and kill them if they call buddys i kill them too.

if your XP'ing why you mad?

---

I don't believe they are crying about it at all. I believe they are saying it could be a bug.

Take my NM fight: Were were fighting and at any given time the monster would drop out into passive mode for about 2 or 3 sec and then it would start attacking again. Sometimes it would drop run away then come back with a buddy or two.
It didn't seem normal to us.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by indira

you want the mob to just sit there?
if they run i chase them and kill them if they call buddys i kill them too.

if your XP'ing why you mad?

---

Because when four of their "buddies" gang up on my small team of my friend and I and they're the same level as us, it gets rather difficult to deal with. Especially when it's a 4 vs 2 situation. And I am asking, not "crying".

Seeing as how YOU'RE on my server, people with YOUR attitude are the ones I tend to avoid. Thanks for giving me the heads up before I end up random-ing with you.

They need to address this problem, fast. I'd say an increase in the mobs' leash before they return to territory is a good temporary fix. At least they won't keep trying to run away since that also contributes to the "no enmity" bug.

I've been experiencing this as well, I reported it as a bug.

The biggest problem I've found was that when the mob goes neutral, sometimes it's impossible to get hate back on the mob.

Example:
Duo PT Glad & Con. Con uses spirit dart on mob that goes unclaimed mid battle, Con takes no other actions. I use provoke, wardrum, rampart, red lotus blade & cure II (on con) and I can not get hate off the con.

The link & claim system is a bit buggy. (I think) or enmity skills aren't working correctly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ChiefCurrahee

I've been experiencing this as well, I reported it as a bug.

The biggest problem I've found was that when the mob goes neutral, sometimes it's impossible to get hate back on the mob.

Example:
Duo PT Glad & Con. Con uses spirit dart on mob that goes unclaimed mid battle, Con takes no other actions. I use provoke, wardrum, rampart, red lotus blade & cure II (on con) and I can not get hate off the con.

The link & claim system is a bit buggy. (I think) or enmity skills aren't working correctly.

---

The two actually seem to be related. I've noticed that the mobs that return the way we're describing also tend to not have enmity bars next to their names. The other night I was calling out to my LS which mobs would be returning based on whether or not Warmonger gave me any enmity.

I've run into this issue several times myself. Reminds me of the old days in the game, but it does get annoying. And at the same time keeps sp flowing pretty fast as the other mob acts like our very own puller.