Mechanics to add variety to dungeon mobs

[kikix12]

Below are some mechanics that could be used to add to standard mobs some tactical element, requiring players to pay more attention to things happening between bosses. They can be seen as buffs on mobs at all times, where applicable.

Pack Member (Buff): A member of a pack.
No effect on its own. Necessary for different mechanics.

Strength in Numbers (Buff): Strengthened by other pack members attacking the target.
When a pack member with this ability attacks a player, that player receives a debuff stacked to the amount of pack members for which he is at the top of the enmity list. The members of the pack with this ability are then significantly more dangerous based on that number, so even small packs of weak mobs can be deadly. HP, defense and attack are strengthened. Current HP is decreased along with max HP if one of the pack members dies or is pulled by someone else.

Leader of the Pack (Buff): Strengthened by other pack members in vicinity.
Doesn't care about the pack members aggro target. Its radius may be fixed or based on individual mob (at which point it should be mentioned in the buff description). The boost should be high enough to make even a single three-mob pull a challenge to bring to a Leader of the Pack, making it a sort of wall that can be dealt with by a DPS pulling it to the side.

Tyrant (Activated Buff): Forces those nearby into its pack./Added to the pack.
A cast skill that will constantly turn every mob around it (radius should be shown by a small, glowing circle around it) into a pack member. This skill should have cast time and should be used first thing in battle (in place of an attack, not on aggro), to allow melee members to enter mob groups to pull a Tyrant away from the pack without being one-hit-killed in the process.

Alpha/Omega (Buffs): Powers up when near Omega/Alpha.
It's present in this game already. This could be used to make it more obvious and to use it on standard mobs in dungeons without any issues.

Healer/Fighter Hunter (Buffs): Focuses on enemies with high healing/offensive capabilities.
Basically a buff that negates (or turns into negative) enmity bonuses on tank skills. Healer hunter reverses healing and damage enmity generation on top of that. Provoke puts tank on top of their enmity list as normal, but is short-lived. This is the skill most meant to force DPS into paying attention, as they need to kill the mobs before they slaughter the healer. Their stats should be based around them attacking the healer/DPS, not the tank.

Weakling Hunter (Buffs): Focuses on the weakest person.
Similar to healer and fighter hunter in concept, but enmity bonuses are ignored while healing and damage generate it normally. Instead of going after the highest enmity though, weakling hunter goes after the person with the least enmity (possibly the tank, or lazy DPS).

Commandeer (Buff): Able to command others in vicinity.
Simply shows that the mob is able to issue commands (see below).

Command (Active)
Creates a debuff on player (chosen at random, or targeted by the user of Command that have one of the Hunter traits) which makes them the targets of other mobs attacks regardless of enmity. The debuff goes away after a time or if the one issuing the command dies.

Under Command (Buff): Following a command of his superior.
Simply shows that a mob is not affected by enmity, as well as for how long the effect lasts.


Many of these depend on the DPS doing their share of crowd control, but they also validate skills that cause Bind or Sleep in everyday situations. If mobs that attack the healers are mixed into a bunch and the DPS focus on the group instead of the stray that the tank cannot grab, the group may actually wipe to standard mobs. By clever use of mobs with AoE, including silence-causing/mp draining, one can prevent that healer to approach the group in order to put it into the DPS's AoE range as well. Adding a Leader of the Pack with Tyrant into a group of mobs will force the tank to pull the group by generating enmity on a weak mob, while the DPS pulls the leader away from the rest to deal with it separately. The party would then need to work on 'two fronts', either giving priority to clearing the mob first, or leaving it to the tank while the DPS and healer attack the leader.


Any other suggestions as to how turn the mundane battles could be require a bit more strategy beyond class rotation?! I'd like to hear em too.