Hold The Line Question

[Gary1986]

Does hold the line help control aggro?

[Nobear]

Does hold the line help control aggro?

 

First I'll point you to this thread, where I make a request to improve Hold the Line, and also ask a very similar question.

 

To (sort of) answer yours, technically there is no aggro system in PoE in the sense it is implemented in, say, WoW. In other words, an enemy's decision to attack a given party member, AFAIK, has nothing to do with how much healing or damage they have caused. I vaguely remember reading that some enemies will tend to prefer attacking the member with the lowest DR, but I have long since forgotten where I read this or whether the source was reliable. I would like to better understand what goes into an enemy AI's decision about who to attack, or whether it's just random.

 

Now, as I relate in a subsequent comment to my thread, I've found that most enemies will stay on the tanks equally well regardless of the tank's engagement limit, as long as the tanks start the fight some distance ahead of the other party members. I like custom formations for this. It seems to be only a minority of enemies who will choose, for whatever reason, to break free and hit on a ranged member. It seems to be more common for an enemy to switch targets to a melee DPS than to a ranged.

 

So, to answer your question the best I can (or anyone but a dev can AFAIK), Hold the Line and the Guarding bonus on certain weapons both seem to be of little or no defensive use, currently. In practice, if you are building for the current build of the game, I would not take Hold the Line or consider Guarding when choosing weapons. But, if you want to help me get a dev's attention for an answer and/or improvement, that'd be cool :D.

[Gary1986]

Ah

 

 

Does hold the line help control aggro?

 

First I'll point you to this thread, where I make a request to improve Hold the Line, and also ask a very similar question.

 

To (sort of) answer yours, technically there is no aggro system in PoE in the sense it is implemented in, say, WoW. In other words, an enemy's decision to attack a given party member, AFAIK, has nothing to do with how much healing or damage they have caused. I vaguely remember reading that some enemies will tend to prefer attacking the member with the lowest DR, but I have long since forgotten where I read this or whether the source was reliable. I would like to better understand what goes into an enemy AI's decision about who to attack, or whether it's just random.

 

Now, as I relate in a subsequent comment to my thread, I've found that most enemies will stay on the tanks equally well regardless of the tank's engagement limit, as long as the tanks start the fight some distance ahead of the other party members. I like custom formations for this. It seems to be only a minority of enemies who will choose, for whatever reason, to break free and hit on a ranged member. It seems to be more common for an enemy to switch targets to a melee DPS than to a ranged.

 

So, to answer your question the best I can (or anyone but a dev can AFAIK), Hold the Line and the Guarding bonus on certain weapons both seem to be of little or no defensive use, currently. In practice, if you are building for the current build of the game, I would not take Hold the Line or consider Guarding when choosing weapons. But, if you want to help me get a dev's attention for an answer and/or improvement, that'd be cool :D.

 

 

Cheers for the info.

 

So would i get more benefit from putting my talent point in the one that boosts deflection +5?

[Nobear]

Basically, we don't know for sure whether Hold the Line plays ANY role in actually holding enemies. We do know that it plays NO role in avoiding Flanked. The only use I have read about for it is offensive (more opportunity to hit an escaping enemy with a disengagement attack), but I'm not even sure if this works. Even if it does, the value would be only situational and not defensive.

 

So yes, with the game as it is, I would take Superior Deflection and ditch Hold the Line for my tanks, and I would not use the Guarding bonus on certain weapons to determine how good they are for a tank.

Edited June 30, 2015 by Nobear

[Torm51]

Ah

 

 

Does hold the line help control aggro?

 

First I'll point you to this thread, where I make a request to improve Hold the Line, and also ask a very similar question.

 

To (sort of) answer yours, technically there is no aggro system in PoE in the sense it is implemented in, say, WoW. In other words, an enemy's decision to attack a given party member, AFAIK, has nothing to do with how much healing or damage they have caused. I vaguely remember reading that some enemies will tend to prefer attacking the member with the lowest DR, but I have long since forgotten where I read this or whether the source was reliable. I would like to better understand what goes into an enemy AI's decision about who to attack, or whether it's just random.

 

Now, as I relate in a subsequent comment to my thread, I've found that most enemies will stay on the tanks equally well regardless of the tank's engagement limit, as long as the tanks start the fight some distance ahead of the other party members. I like custom formations for this. It seems to be only a minority of enemies who will choose, for whatever reason, to break free and hit on a ranged member. It seems to be more common for an enemy to switch targets to a melee DPS than to a ranged.

 

So, to answer your question the best I can (or anyone but a dev can AFAIK), Hold the Line and the Guarding bonus on certain weapons both seem to be of little or no defensive use, currently. In practice, if you are building for the current build of the game, I would not take Hold the Line or consider Guarding when choosing weapons. But, if you want to help me get a dev's attention for an answer and/or improvement, that'd be cool :D.

 

 

Cheers for the info.

 

So would i get more benefit from putting my talent point in the one that boosts deflection +5?

yes.  Definitely.