Short Roaming Mob Leash?

[rune33]

Hi,

How exactly do "mob leashes" work (the area before a mob will go invincible and go back to its spawn point) especially in relation to "patrol" mobs in a dungeon.

I've played Copperbell Mines a lot, I mean a whole lot! :-O and almost each time, the party gets past the "Kotos" boss and to the next mine shaft before the blob. In this area there is a small central room that branches off into two side rooms. There is always this "Copper Copper Carrier" mob that is roaming but has an absolutely tiny leash. I mean this thing will run in a room and go invulnerable, you chase it to the next room, it does the same. The odd thing is that the same named mob in other areas of the dungeon are likewise roaming but don't seem to have a leash at all.

Is this mob glitched or is this by design? How can you determine the leash area of a roaming mob in a dungeon (I thought they had no point where they turned back). Just wondering if this is a bug, or just weird mechanics by design.

Thanks!

[Enkidoh]

Unfortunately there is no way of telling the exact distance a enemy is 'leashed' - SE's belief seems to be that the player would fight them where they're found and not 'pull' or 'train' them across the map, which is the whole purpose of the mobs being leashed in the first place (it's to stop old FFXI-style exp parties camping enemies and then pulling them vast distances to safe locations to fight for exp, as you're expected to level in this game by other means like quest completion and FATEs).

Either way, that particular enemy is probably to act as a 'guard' for the other two rooms, as you have to clear both side rooms to get the firesand to open the way to the boss - you're meant to wait for it to arrive in the centre and fight it there instead of just ignoring it and jumping to the room or pulling to somewhere else. Either way, if you're doing it at a low level it's best to hang back and wait for it to scurry into the centre area and kill it there.

[Rufalus]

That section is just an anomaly. Presumably it's by design because it's been left that way for years. Ideally you'd want to pull the things from both side rooms into the center to burn them down faster, but the short leash and reset doesn't allow it. I never liked leashes; disrupts my immersion when an enemy inexplicably becomes invincible and resets position.

[Niwashi]

I never liked leashes; disrupts my immersion when an enemy inexplicably becomes invincible and resets position.

The resetting to it's original position is actually to aid in immersion (though I'll agree that becoming invincible while it does so and resetting to full health is rather disruptive, especially when it's leash doesn't extend as far as you'd thought so it resets when you weren't expecting it to). Leashing exists largely because of how unrealistic it is for a creature to keep chasing you indefinitely, even far past its home territory.

It's true that some dungeon enemies, though, have a really limited "home territory" set more for the sake of splitting up fights so you have to fight mobs where the devs intended and not gather everything up to fight at once or be able to fight mobs in areas you know are safe from wandering adds. (And the specific case the OP mentioned is one of those unusually short leashes.)