Aggro distance vs. Ambush Ring

beckylunatic

For the most part, I don't take a lot of note of numerical distances in NW's game world. I have a sense of how close I can get to a monster without it noticing me, or how near/far I need to be for powers to work, but measuring? Eep.

Does anyone know what the aggro distance for mobs actually is? I know that I can hit something with Longstrider's Shot at 30 feet for buffs, for example, and it will have been previously unaware, but you can get closer than that without drawing aggro. Mob groups have to be very tightly packed for it to not be possible to find a path in open areas without attracting attention; few locations feature this kind of density.

Ambush Ring is supposed to make you unnoticed at 20 feet. But what's the normal distance for a monster to notice you regardless?

Interest in this is academic. It doesn't really matter if the Ambush Ring is useless in PvE, but I suspect that at this point, it doesn't actually do anything more than sensible pathing would. With a fast mount, you can be long gone before the AI really takes notice of you.

jonkoca

The only time I use ambush in pve is in dreadring lairs and sharandars arcane resevoir when I'm on lesser alts. Makes them quicker.

I also use it in cn, if I'm lagging behind the others in the last phase before orcus, if someone has left zombies active all over the place.

And in fangbreaker island, when hunting for the ring, though I'm not sure it helps much there.

The weirdest thing about the pve ambush ring mechanic is though the mobs don't attack as you pass, they do follow you in most of the places above, all the way to the end, where you have a huge fight and aoe them all down.

beckylunatic

I tried it out in Sharandar lairs before and after the change, and I find using it makes very little difference now. If you're going to do a big pull and AoE everything down at the end, you might as well be wearing a ring that helps you with the fighting part.

Didn't matter what class was doing the big pull. They can all stay ahead of attacks sufficiently to not get hit until you decide to stop.

plasticbat

Before the change, with Amush ring, it pull everyone I passed to have a big fight in the end.
After the change, the Amush ring may or may not work. However, it appears it does not pull everyone I passed to the have fight in the end.

forumnamesuxs

From what I can tell by random observations, aggro range varies from mob group to mob group, independent of which monsters are in it, but rather where they are, and also highly dependant on lag, effectively making aggro range vary from 1' to about the range of steal time, or possibly a bit further.

Certain companions seem to have weird effects on aggro range, though, even out of combat. I can't count the amount of times I've been attempting to pick up a quest item, only to have a pack of rabid monsters sensing me or my comp from behind a solid structure, and jump me like sugar pumped kids attacking a piñata.