Rain casting aggro mechanics

• Sebbies wrote on 2014-02-28 09:38
  Was going to post in the small questions thread, but after typing everything out it seemed a bit too much, so...
  
  Having had rain casting at rank 1 for a while now, I'm still a bit confused when it comes to its aggro mechanics. Reading through this thread I've gathered that:
  
  

  
  
  • rather than nullifying aggro, mobs that are under the cloud have their detection range greatly reduced
    
  • detection speed is unaffected
    
  • lightning stuns, but doesn't reset aggro
    

  
  After playing around with it for a bit, all of those points seem to be true. There are however a couple of other things I've noticed, but haven't confirmed or found out why it happens:
  
  

  
  
  • the lightning doesn't reset aggro, but seems to have a chance to reset AI as if windmilled (e.g. archer NPCs in MA, after being struck by lightning, will swap from their melee weapon back to their ranged weapon, and some of the melee NPCs will stop chasing and run around for a bit)
    
  • because it's not aggro that's being reset, the amount of time it takes for something to drop aggro under a cloud is the same as if there were no cloud
    
  • sometimes mounting and demounting a pet while rain casting is up will cause all mobs possible *within aggro rules* to instantly aggro you
    

  
  The third bullet is most confusing to me. I've tried recreate the problem consistently, but there doesn't seem to be anything specific that triggers the aggro-draw upon demount. Also, by "within aggro rules" I mean that you'll get all of the aggro possible, for example you won't get three shadow lancers aggroing you (limit is two). With the instant aggro however, in things like MA or lords where there aren't any limitations to the amount of mobs that can aggro you at once, everything will aggro you as soon as you demount.
  
  Has anyone done any testing in regards to the last three bullet points? Any similar experiences or observations?
• Goldenchikle wrote on 2014-02-28 09:54

  Quote from Sebbies;1202846:

  
  

  
  
  • the lightning doesn't reset aggro, but seems to have a chance to reset AI as if windmilled (e.g. archer NPCs in MA, after being struck by lightning, will swap from their melee weapon back to their ranged weapon, and some of the melee NPCs will stop chasing and run around for a bit)
    

  For this specifically, that's just a normal part of the enemy AI. Some enemies have different reactions to being hit a single time and not knocked down while already aggroed, not all of them always try to attack you immediately, or some of them might try to do something besides a melee attack.
  
  The rest sounds right, but I've never had the mount aggro thing happen. That might be due to me not usually riding mounts after casting rain.
• Sebbies wrote on 2014-02-28 10:01

  Quote from Goldenchikle;1202848:

  The rest sounds right, but I've never had the mount aggro thing happen. That might be due to me not usually riding mounts after casting rain.

  
  
  Yeah, I never noticed it until I started using rain casting to solo MA's boss round. I always open with a mounted lance charge, and do the same for every NPC. I desummon original mount in order to make use of AoE pets, so I have to resummon and mount again whenever I attack the next NPC.
• Xeno wrote on 2014-02-28 16:26
  I noticed the mount issue when trying to solo NPC as well with rain casting. The way I got around it was to make sure to have rain up BEFORE the mobs have spawned. Also, you want to have your initial mount summoned and you want to be mounted on it BEFORE the mobs have spawned, as well.
  
  I was able to always avoid group aggro until the cloud completely disappeared using this timing. If you can chain your cloud into another cloud before the first ends, you should be able to avoid all aggro this way. Another thing I noticed that clears aggro is switching my puppets around after I use my combo during rain. After de-summoning the puppet, the mobs always walk back to their original standing positions allowing me to essentially restart the fight.
• Sebbies wrote on 2014-02-28 19:51

  Quote from Xeno;1202874:

  I noticed the mount issue when trying to solo NPC as well with rain casting. The way I got around it was to make sure to have rain up BEFORE the mobs have spawned. Also, you want to have your initial mount summoned and you want to be mounted on it BEFORE the mobs have spawned, as well.
  
  I was able to always avoid group aggro until the cloud completely disappeared using this timing. If you can chain your cloud into another cloud before the first ends, you should be able to avoid all aggro this way. Another thing I noticed that clears aggro is switching my puppets around after I use my combo during rain. After de-summoning the puppet, the mobs always walk back to their original standing positions allowing me to essentially restart the fight.

  
  
  Having the mount out before they spawn works wonderfully, doesn't draw any aggro upon dismount at all. Thanks! The only issue I've had not being able to make use of bone dragon's debuff that way without potentially drawing aggro, but crisis + desummon with puppet under cloud does completely reset aggro, so that's a pretty handy work around.
  
  With level 9 rain casting duration and level 8 rain casting cooldown reforges on my hurricane cylinder and boots I can easily chain together clouds, but I've noticed that the aggro issue upon demount comes back up after the first cloud disappears. Seems keeping control bars in the aux slot would be a good idea if I want to lance charge and use AoE pets often.
• Syrion wrote on 2014-03-07 03:00
  my understanding of how it works is that
  
  the cloud itself is a unit that can draw aggro
  
  getting hit by the lightning aggros monsters to the cloud which is untargetable, forcing them to do nothing