User:Krschkr/Aggro and Hero Management

= Basic Hero Management =
 * Micro management

You can manipulate the performance of your heroes in various ways. Except for flag usage and target calling they require you to open the hero control panel. To do so, invite the hero into your team and click on the number next to its name.

1. Modes: In the top right corner of the hero control panel you can determine the general behaviour of the hero. Your options are:
 * Fight: Heroes will act more aggressively, usually rather use a skill than run away from a foe and pursue foes over a short distance if nessecary. They will also be more willing to engage called or marked targets slightly outside of aggro range. This is the ideal mode for all offensive heroes which mainly use skills on foes.
 * Guard: Heroes will fight reluctantly, trying to stay close to you or their flag and barely pursue foes. They will nonetheless attack your called and marked targets and fight back if attacked. This is the ideal mode for support heroes which don't interact with foes directly, such as backline heroes.
 * Avoid Combat: The hero won't attack and won't use skills targeting foes at all, including [[Signet of Lost Souls], a skill commonly used on necromancer healers. In combat this hero will run away from foes in wide circles. This usually causes more problems than it solves by increasing the risk to accidentally lure additional foes or the hero simply running out of range of party members he's supposed to support.

2. Target lock: Target a foe and then click on the crosshair in the left bottom of the hero control panel to lock your hero onto it until the target gets killed.

3. Skills: There are two options to manipulate a hero's skill usage:
 * Force: By clicking on a skill in the hero control panel you force the hero to use it. In case you currently haven't selected a target the hero will chose one on its own. The same applies if you have selected a target which, due to its affiliation, that skill can't be used against; i.e. when you target yourself and force the hero to use a skill which can only be used against foes, such as [[Flare]. If you have locked your hero on a target but were targeting a different foe yourself when forcing the skill usage, the target locking will be bypassed for this one skill usage. There are some issues with forcing skills to be aware of:
 * a) When forcing a hero to use a skill against a target which can't be targeted by certain skill types it will stop using skills and wand this foe until it dies. This can be the case when using a hex spell like [[Lightning Strike] or an enchantment like [[Ice Spear] or [[Patient Spirit] against spirits. Another somewhat common cause for this to happen is forcing any spell against a foe enchanted with [[Spell Breaker], [[Shadow Form] or [[Obsidian Flesh].


 * b) The wanding issue will also appear when you force a hero to use a skill which is currently on recharge or the skill gets interrupted upon its forced usage. The hero will wait until the skill has recharged and then reattempt to use the skill.


 * c) When forcing a hero to use a skill the hero is currently using your commanded usage will be treated as executed.


 * d) Heroes don't maintain most bonds – enchantments which will stay on the target until removed by the bonder. If you want a hero to maintain a bond such as [[Strength of Honor] on you, you'll first have to suppress this skill.
 * Suppress: Hold down your suppress key (standard: left shift) and left-click on the hero's skill in the hero control panel to suppress it. It'll be marked with a stroke-through red circle. Do this if you don't want your hero to use a certain skill in one fight, if you want to use a skill only manually or if it is a bond you want the hero to maintain.

4. Flags: You can flag your first three heroes individually using buttons below your compass and the remaining up to four heroes collectively. If you want to individually flag the remaining heroes aswell, you have to assign keybinds. Open the control options (standard hotkey: F11) and select Action: Command Hero 4/5/6/7. Assign keybinds to these so you can use individual flags for all heroes instead of only the first three. This is most useful when you want to lure foes into your prepared and spread-out team. You are introduced to flag usage in the quests Command Training and Hero Tutorial.

5. Calling:

Controls Customization
The ideal control scheme depends on playing style and personal preference. In this section two exemplary control schemes will be explained.

Characteristics
 * Allows for extensive hero micro management.
 * Uses both hands for keyboard hotkeys, so the mouse will be uncontrolled at times.
 * If additional mouse buttons are available the right hand can remain on the mouse.
 * Customized for a melee player who performs tanking using a RoJway type build.

Characteristics

= Advanced Hero Management = This section is meant to give you a guideline how to use hero team builds that don't rely on calling priority targets and aren't designed to make sophisticated use of hero and enemy AI. Following it allows to unleash more of the power inherent to mesmerway style team builds, such as Archive:Team - 7 Hero Triple Energy Surge, Build:Team - 7 Hero Paneptitude and Build:Team - 7 Hero Mercenary Mesmerway.

Combat and Idle State
The hero AI is programmed to take many variables into account to decide how to act. One is whether the hero is in combat or idle state. While the effect on how heroes use skills is usually not that much different it's much more important whether heroes use skills at all. This can be demonstrated with three examples.
 * Idle state is what heroes assume when they consider themselves outside of combat. Some skills will be maintained, such as [[boon of creation]. Heroes will also use simple forms of healing or condition and hex removal. Most skills, however, will remain unused.
 * Combat state is entered once the hero considers himself within combat. The usage of most skills that wouldn't be used in idle state is now enabled. The usage of few skills that would already be used in idle state changes, such as that of [[Shatter Hex]: In idle state it serves as a standard hex removal, in combat state it is only used on party members that are both hexed and close enough to a foe to deal damage.


 * 1) Protection.  Heroes with protection prayers such as [[spirit bond] and [[protective spirit] will only use them if the hero which carries that skill is in combat state. If this hero does not enter combat state despite other team members are fighting, they won't receive protection. A common scenario for this to occur is if heroes are flagged and the prot hero is flagged behind damage dealing heroes. If they fight targets that are in their casting range but far outside that of the prot hero, he will remain in idle state. The same AI problem applies to communing protection, command protection, some restoration magic weapon spells aswell as pseudo-protection skills such as [[Healing Seed].
 * 2) Selected forms of healing.  Some builds don't work at all in idle state. Take, for example, the avatar of Dwayna support healer. The hero does not understand what his build does. [[Avatar of Dwayna@16] will only be used once entering combat state and not maintained in idle state. Flash enchantments aswell will only be used during combat. Therefore, this hero contributes nothing to the team's survival while in idle state and will happily let everyone die from traps and leftover conditions or hexes after a fight has ended. The same would apply to a mainly spirit based ritualist healer as with the exception of [[life] spirits aren't used in idle state.
 * 3) Offensive skills.  And of course, when a hero is in idle state, he won't attack a thing!

Forcing combat state
Therefore it is important to make heroes enter combat state so they perform properly during combat. There are various ways to achieve this.


 * A) You call a target which is within ~1.5 times aggro range.
 * B) You select a target which is within ~1.2 to 1.5 times aggro range, have a weapon equipped and are not currently holding a bundle and then press your action key (standard: space). This works better with heroes set to aggressive than to guard mode.
 * C) A foe within ~1.2 to ~1.5 times aggro range is target locked.
 * D) There is a summoned spirit within ~2 times aggro range. Heroes in aggressive and guard mode will likely charge and pointlessly attack it, provoking aggro of the group that summoned the creature. Happens to a lesser extent with minions, but spirits are the main trigger for this. It is an old AI bug that never got fixed.
 * E) Foes using a skill on the heroes which is not a shout will cause combat state to heroes in ~1.5 times aggro range distance to that foe. Some more skill types might be exempt.
 * F) Foes deal damage to a hero. This does not require targeted skill usage or an attack, the damage from a flash enchantment suffices.

Some factors which are commonly assumed to provoke heroes to leave idle state do not work, much to the frustration of every backline player and many midline players, especially those who are unaware of B).
 * Foes entering aggro range.
 * Using skills on or dealing damage to foes.

The easiest way to make heroes enter combat state and start doing work is B) with the advantage over A) and C) that the heroes aren't locked onto a target.

Target Awareness
Another important thing to know about hero AI which makes B) interesting for use during combat is target awareness of heroes. Heroes are aware of targets which are affected by A)...F). This means in return:


 * I) Heroes aren't automatically aware of targets which haven't been called.
 * II) Heroes aren't automatically aware of targets which haven't been marked with the action key.
 * III) Heroes aren't automatically ware of targets which haven't been target locked.
 * IV) Heroes are automatically aware of summoned creatures.
 * V) Heroes are automatically aware of foes which used skills on them, excluding shouts.
 * VI) Heroes are automatically aware of foes which dealt damage to them.

With the result that:


 * VII) Heroes will ignore targets they aren't aware of. They won't use skills on them at all.
 * VII.1) No interruption spread occurs until targets have been noticed or marked.
 * VII.2) Healers which don't wand might be ignored entirely and remain alive until after combat. The healer will still be there, without his group, and the heroes return to idle state. This happens rarely as most healers wand and most players target foes.

Conclusion from States and Awareness

 * α) In order to initiate combat, select a target that is likely to ball with others once combat has started or a target which is a caster with dangerous offensive spells. Hit your action key (standard space) within ~1.2 to 1.5 times aggro range. Heroes in fight mode will enter combat state and start attacking. Heroes in guard mode do that aswell, but at the lower range.
 * β) In order to make mesmer heroes perform better during combat, switch targets frequently and mark new ones with the action key. Casters can do this inbetween spellcasting.
 * γ) If you have a team which has neither [[panic] nor [[psychic instability] for massive shutdown but multiple interruptions throughout the team and you enter a crucial fight, it might be more effective to switch and mark targets like a maniac than using your own build with full attention.
 * δ) Don't call targets, in most cases it doesn't improve the performance of mesmer heroes.
 * ε) If you're one of the unfortunate souls which plays a backline build and therefore can't conveniently use β) and γ) start with step α), follow up with [[ebon vanguard assassin support] and then let the heroes do their own thing; use more defensive hero setups and allow the heroes to pick their own targets and do their thing.

The profession which has by far the easiest time controlling heroes this way is the paragon, resulting in team builds where you simply stack energy surge mesmers, depending on mercenary availability and additional preferance 4 to 5: Archive:Team - 7 Hero Quintuple Energy Surge = Aggro and Sophisticated Hero Management = Introduction to aggro (AI awareness of player's team)

Aggro Shifting

 * summonings bias
 * communing vs. minions
 * transfer to allies
 * moving vs. standing still
 * (hero) kiting
 * knock downs


 * corpse aggro

Movement's Impact

 * moving vs standing still
 * (hero) kiting
 * scatter
 * pulling
 * body blocking

Different AI sets
 * patrol vs balled vs spread group agro
 * sub-spawns are not part of the initial group (titans, ...)

Holding Aggro
summarize above points to show what to do to hold aggro.


 * no IMS during preparation movement
 * no movement for holding
 * receiving damage
 * not being targeted by allies

Balling

 * ranged/caster ai vs melee
 * IMS balling
 * self-balling groups

Scattering

 * Low distance to foes (heroes/henchmen) scatter
 * Kiting (healers, oppressors)
 * Locality based damage over time effects
 * Mark of pain
 * range (melee/pb, far, mid, short)
 * AI sets (dream riders)
 * Anti farm melee AI

Tanking and Aggro Shifts

 * Method 1
 * pull through variant
 * Method 2
 * Method 3
 * Players: Seed variant