Monsters attack party members when I have aggro

So I was wondering why some boss monsters ignore the fact that i have aggro. The icon is red by the name in my enemy list but occasionally it turns around for a few seconds and attacks a party member. Even using an increased enmity ability like Provoke doesn't seem to make a difference on these 2 second turn arounds. Why does this happen?

Mechanics of enemies will often have them attack someone who is not the tank. There is nothing you can do about it.

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Originally Posted by Xibri

So I was wondering why some boss monsters ignore the fact that i have aggro. The icon is red by the name in my enemy list but occasionally it turns around for a few seconds and attacks a party member. Even using an increased enmity ability like Provoke doesn't seem to make a difference on these 2 second turn arounds. Why does this happen?

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That's because it's programmed to "attack the nth on enmity list" or "attack <RNG>"

If you are on the top of the enmity list, the healer is usually the second, and the healer is usually the one dodging these attacks. Otherwise the healer could always safely stand still, and ranged DPS could all stand beside them.

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Originally Posted by Xibri

So I was wondering why some boss monsters ignore the fact that i have aggro. The icon is red by the name in my enemy list but occasionally it turns around for a few seconds and attacks a party member. Even using an increased enmity ability like Provoke doesn't seem to make a difference on these 2 second turn arounds. Why does this happen?

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Attacks have varied targets to make sure that there are other threats for non-tanks than just room-wide AoE's. Some ignore aggro-table completely (like, always attack healers, always attack DPS...but I think that Shiryuu at least have attacks that always attack tanks too) unless their primary target are not alive, others attack people with different aggro tier.

There are even bosses and mobs that completely ignore aggro. For non-boss mobs that usually is shown by a tether. If you see a mob tethered to another player and ignoring your aggro, then don't bother trying to grab their attention. You won't. There are at least three bosses that attack completely randomly, between every attack deciding who to go to (the earliest is in Quarn's temple, the golem, after he was "broken" the first time). It's not something you should worry about nor waste effort trying to stop.

Yep. You're tanking it just fine, there are just some abilities enemies and bosses have where they target someone else. As long as your enmity icon is staying red, don't worry you're holding agro just fine.

Last boss(es) of Stone Vigil hard will never ever care about a tank. They show up in various places after that and they all ignore tanks. It does suck cause sometimes you can get called out on "not having hate" when it's clear to everyone else that's just how that boss or monster rolls. If the boss comes back to you or looks back to you after it's gone and done it's thing then that's the sign it still wants to pound your face in the most.

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Originally Posted by kikix12

There are at least three bosses that attack completely randomly, between every attack deciding who to go to (the earliest is in Quarn's temple, the golem, after he was "broken" the first time).

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And even before that, you'll see the more common pattern of bosses who have a specific attack that's programmed to go to a random party member, like in Brayflox, where Hellbender will periodically trap a random player in a bubble and later Aiatar will spit poison at random members, though both those bosses direct all the rest of their attacks towards the player with primary aggro.

It's a way of ensuring that the fight mechanics are something for all players to deal with, not just for tanks alone.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

And even before that, you'll see the more common pattern of bosses who have a specific attack that's programmed to go to a random party member(...)

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Except tanks. It cannot be called fully "random" if it excludes the person that is top of the list.

Though I don't know whether it excludes "tanks", as in the role, or "tanks" as in the person with highest enmity. Probably highest enmity...but yeah. There are attacks that go or don't go after specific roles.

If you are aware enough to notice this happening and conscious enough to be concerned about it, it sounds like you are doing fine with tanking. That's like 90% of the battle right there with most new tanks. At this point, you should try to familiarize yourself with boss and mob mechanics. Good tanks know their job inside and out. Great tanks know the specific encounters inside and out and how to play to their maximum potential in any given fight.

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Originally Posted by kikix12

Except tanks. It cannot be called fully "random" if it excludes the person that is top of the list.

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Well that depends on the specific boss fight. Niwashi's example of the Aiatar (final boss of Brayflox) truly is random, as he will occasionally spit poison at the tank. Hellbender's bubble though, is anyone but the tank. Then you have Suza Ex whose target-a-different-player attacks obviously go after certain classes, e.g.- the purple circles in phase one always target the 4 dps. Any given fight can have any or all of these type of mechanics.

Good on you for being aware enough of this sort of thing as a tank, but yeah, it's part of the design, otherwise healers/DPS would be too bored and have nothing to dodge / no mechanics to handle. Game wants to keep them on their toes too, not just the tanks.

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Originally Posted by Xibri

an increased enmity ability like Provoke

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To be clear, provoke and ultimatum are not "increased enmity abilities". They have the effect of setting you one point above the highest enmity party member. It is up to you follow with a high enmity action after provoking. If you are already highest on the enmity list, or within a single attack of being back on top, don't waste provoke.