"aggro" is bad, but there should be a reason to not run right past melee warriors. If your back is to them they should be able to easily grapple you, trip you, knock you down, do more damage, etc.,
Attacks of opportunity are a good start, but often not punishing enough.
Why is aggro bad exactly? You guys are trying so hard to turn this into a meme and you don't even understand it. As I explained, IN DETAIL, aggro is just AI for enemies. Saying "aggro is bad" is no different to saying "enemies should have no AI and just attack the nearest target".
Another reason why you are retarded, is that in most RPGs, enemies have an innate aggro for tank characters anyway. So even without the ability to taunt, things attack the warrior no matter what. Or their AI is so dumb that it doesn't even consider attacking something else. Also if the warrior has abilities like trip or disarm or bash to stun, that is no different to taunt. It achieves the same thing.
ALSO, the game you are trying to shit on actually has an AI which does exactly what you are bitching about not happening. A mage with a huge meteor, WILL get focused by enemies in EQ and will die because of it. And in EQ, taunt isn't guaranteed to work. It is an ability that can fail based on the skill level, the level difference between you and the target, and the type of target it is. Tell me a single player game where enemies will aggro a caster based on 100 different calculations constantly? You can't, so shut your retard mouth.
Or how about instead of killing the same monsters over and over in a 6 on 1 situation for hours on end the encounter is instead against a similar party to yours?
First off, that game has more enemy types than any other game ever made. So in a game with tens of thousands of different monsters, if you are killing the same ones over and over then that is your problem. Even in the same dungeon there are multiple enemy types. Secondly, the 6 on 1 thing is not how the game works. Mobs are put together in large groups, only a few classes have a chance to get one solo, and the spells they use to do that can and will fail. That's why crowd control classes were considered essential, because you always end up fighting more than you can handle. And lastly, you DO fight encounters exactly like your party. How do you not know that? You see it at level 1 and beyond. You attack a pack of goblins or something, a goblin warrior charges at you with its sword, a goblin shaman stays back casting poison on everyone and healing its buddies, a goblin ranger stays back shooting you, etc. And the higher level you get, the more advanced this gets. And raids mobs can be so complex that it took people months to figure out.
What if the enemy fighters do not want to rush your mages because that would let your fighters rush their mages? And the next encounter is against something like a medusa where it doesn't matter who's in melee range, everyone has to adjust their tactics completely. And maybe that will be the two encounters of the day instead of killing the same mob over and over for hours. See how completely different the design is? One is centered on having the player(s) actually think during the encounters and have the act of fighting them be a brilliant tactical experience. While what EQ does is waste your time in exchange for illusion of you becoming better than other players for getting a few levels faster then them or getting that piece of loot you've poop socked for.
I don't get why you can be so off base with this? You are talking about a game that probably has the best enemy AI of any game ever made. The mobs don't rush the mages, they rush whoever is the best target. That might be the healer or the crowd control or the rogue or the guy who is nearly died, whoever they decide is best, and they are constantly deciding it in real time. So why are you trying to shit on the game that does a better job than anything else?
The point of this thread was have strong mobs or strong AI. What I am describing is smart AI... OP says the problem is that it can destroy your group too easily, I am showing how you can have strong AI yet you can still win if you have good enough spells of your own to deal with whatever happens. Why are you even trying to argue about this? Are you saying there should be no AI and everything should just attack the nearest target?
One of the reasons EQ crashed and burned when trash like WoW came on the scene was because WoW respected player's time just a little bit more.
That's true, but what does that have to do with this thread?
Right, cause clearly the guy who just used some harsh words against the mob is causing the most problems. Go play Knights of the Chalice to see how mobs act when they're really going after the characters who cause problems.
I have played KOTC, it is far worse than EQ. The "harsh words" only works on one target, so you still have enemies attacking various other targets. Also how is harsh words any worse than a Fighter doing "trip" on fire elemental or something?