Observations on mob spellcast behavior

[Koyangi]

I have come to a conclusion through close observation of a theory I had on why mob's can cast spells "randomly" targeting a person not currently on top of hate list. I have noticed that whoever has added the most hate most recently gets targeted, for example a pld tanking etc, and you have 2-3 melee fighting, if 1 of the melee were to WS and mob decides to cast a spell right after (PLD still has most hate overall on mob)then that melee would get targeted. Another instance was noticed when I cast flash to assist a nin while tanking, the mob will throw a spell my way immediately after. If what I just said makes sense, these are just a few examples that I have noticed, and I want to believe that this happens due to who has added the most hate to the stack most recently. If any others want to add anything and/or ideas to see if this is indeed what happenes, when we usually freaked out about why we just got hit with bio 3 and not the tank/kiter, it would be appreciated. I wouldnt have posted this unless I didn't think this was plausible.

[Janice]

Or it could be screwed up mob AI where it causes all hate to reset like I see it happen with flower in Sea.

I'll be throwing tier 4 nukes out and yet sometimes a smn will get hit cause he unsummoned his avatar.

[kemigumi]

i can't think of anything to add to this without sounding like captain obvious

[Koyangi]

Or it could be screwed up mob AI where it causes all hate to reset like I see it happen with flower in Sea.

I'll be throwing tier 4 nukes out and yet sometimes a smn will get hit cause he unsummoned his avatar.

Quite possibly its because of the very precise timing we dont see, as SMN I know that Assault, Retreat and Release build up a certain degree of hate that takes avatars 2-3 rounds of attacks to regain hate sometimes (can notice this soloing). It must have been the exact timing of them releasing vs your tier 4 nuke hate a little eariler that caused it, but you're also saying this was on flowers, and my observations were based on spellcasting... so this is something different probably.

[aurik]

I was leading my cooking mule to windurst on /follow and in party. In Sauromugue an evil weapon was in my way so I chi blasted it from out of range. It had stoneskin up so my chi blast did 0 dmg.

It immediately cast blind on my cooking mule.

[kemigumi]

he smelled food

[Russta]

Has anyone ever figured out exactly why mobs randomly cast Stona? As far as I've been able to tell it seems to have something to do with them being stunned previously.

[Lordwafik]

Has anyone ever figured out exactly why mobs randomly cast Stona? As far as I've been able to tell it seems to have something to do with them being stunned previously.

That's why. Stun WS or Stun spell delays their action, then they cast stona on themselves, they also stona eachother, and it's also the same way I found out Stun and Petrify dont overwrite eachother can only have 1 on and not both.

Before I used to stun stones in dynamis to pull, and whm mobs would pop casting stona. The one thing that really got on my nerves, was before, when mobs would cast silena on themselves and remove their own silence. Havent seen it for a while so i'll assume it's fixed.

[Lockecole]

Has anyone ever figured out exactly why mobs randomly cast Stona? As far as I've been able to tell it seems to have something to do with them being stunned previously.

Stun, Terror, and Petrify are all technically under the same category for some reason. Kinda strange, but the game registers all 3 as the same thing. (though Stona obviously doesnt work for the previous 2.)

[aurik]

Has anyone ever figured out exactly why mobs randomly cast Stona? As far as I've been able to tell it seems to have something to do with them being stunned previously.

Stun, Terror, and Petrify are all technically under the same category for some reason. Kinda strange, but the game registers all 3 as the same thing. (though Stona obviously doesnt work for the previous 2.)

Yep, and furthermore Terror will overwrite Petrify. Fun :D

[nivlakian]

I mentioned this in my FFXI Bugs thread. This behavior that started up several months ago and wasn't something mobs used to do at all.

I don't think your theory is accurate as I've seen mobs cast on people who do not have hate yet as long as they are in the PT.

Examples:
1) The one Aurik mentioned

2) A currently unaggro'ed Aern is provoked while I'm standing next to it. The first spell it casts is sleep 2 on me.

3) A Wind Elemental that a BLM has been solo'ing to less than 50% wakes and immediately casts Gravity on someone else besides the only person to have done anything to it.

4) A magic aggro'ed elemental (no action ever performed on it) in Pso'Xja being kited around casts on PT members that it passes who have not been resting or doing anything whatsoever. Edit: The spells it cast on random party members were enfeebles like bind and paralyze.

There are many more examples, but it's all the same circumstances as the ones given.

[Map]

I see it as just improved AI in mobs. Put yourself in the aern's position. A bunch of people run up to you, and start attacking you! First thing you'd do is sleep the links, and then go back to pummeling your primary target. As far as I can tell, they only cast enfeebles, and it can be on anyone in the party that has hate.

Another example would be to think you're a crawler. You and your cralwer buddies are sitting around, and one of your buddies decides to attack someone who happens to be running by. You were about to jump in, cause your buddy is tanking, and all of a sudden, the person casts sleep on you! I mean wtf, you didn't even do anything to him! I bet that crawler is just as confused as we are here. I bet there's some crawler forum somewhere complaining about the exact same thing.

[Nofriends]

There definitely a change some time ago, not sure when, but AI has been changed.

I can remember somebody casting Diaga on the bunnies in Boyahda and assuming nobody else did anything to assist the caster, only the original caster would die.

Now a few weeks ago, I was tanking crabs when a whm cast dia on a bunny by chance, I knew she was screwed as well as the rest of the party, so we let her die, but once it was done with her, it came after us despite not doing anything to assist her in anyway. This happened on 2 occasions with the same party once with the bunny and once with a mandy.

[Schlitzohr]

It seems more like a random bug than anything. And yeah, I've seen this happen alot, but only with enfeebling magic and song spells. I have not seen any tier nuke randomly cast on someone besides the tank.

[Jotaru]

Maybe mobs in FFXI have a random secondary targetting system too and we just haven't noticed it yet because the things they use it for aren't that major.

Its a lot easier to pick up when the ability with random secondary targetting can one shot caster classes.

[Lordwafik]

the random 2ndary targetting system must be new if anything. Most likely it's a glitch to do with AI and claim crap.

[chilicheese]

no, monsters have been doing this since before i even got my genkai 1 items like 2 years ago... I pulled a lich, tank provoked, lich casts one of the BLM DoT spells on the melees

[Nirokun!]

Or it could be screwed up mob AI where it causes all hate to reset like I see it happen with flower in Sea.

I'll be throwing tier 4 nukes out and yet sometimes a smn will get hit cause he unsummoned his avatar.

It was a Aw'Grah, explains the spellcasting

i had not used assault, just predator claws, and before i had released, it casted slow on me, avatar auto assaults.

Prior to all of this, janice slept, gravitied, silenced, aspir'd, and tier IV'd the Aw'Grah.

After being slowed, and my avatar attacking on its own, i immediately release the avatar, only to find that im lagging with R0 and my avatar cannot be released; Janice tries to sleep it with avatar still clawing at it until my connection jumps back and and i release. Janice is mad. Niro is sorry.

better? lol

[Nagamaki]

Map's explanation is the correct one as far as I'm concerned, it makes more sense for a mob to enfeeble random people than to always enfeeble the tank, especially with say sleep.

Situation A:
NIN vokes a Kindred Black Mage, it casts Sleep on the NIN (lets say NIN is retarded and shadows aren't up) and then proceeds to immediately wake the NIN up, making the whole use of Sleep entirely useless.

Situation B:
NIN vokes a Kindred Black Mage, it casts Sleep on the WHM, and then proceeds to beat on the NIN while his healer is sleeping.

B makes a lot more sense from the mob's point of view.

The most obvious place for seeing this change in action (and it is a change, dates back something between 3 and 6 months) is in Dynamis when doing sacs or long kited pulls past other people. For example, you're doing a pull in Xarc where a THF hits flee and runs off with a big train while some NIN pluckers stand within the kiting path well away from initial aggro range. The NINs are standing, not /heal or doing anything at all to draw hate. Before the change the mobs would have never cast anything on these NINs (until NIN plucks anyway, if they pluck a mage). Since the change, these NINs might be hit with sleep, sleepga, bind, blind, stun... just for standing there and being in the initial puller's PT.

[Raineer]

I like the idea of the mobs enfeebling random people. It's a hell of a lot more effective to paralyze or silence the WHM than it does to do so to the tank (since the WHM will just correct it)