EBs Running Wild

[ZekeStenzland]

I’ve got a L50 Beast/TA MM, and I’m soloing the lower level TFs for the badges. It’s Indomitable, so probably faster to solo the TF than to recruit a team for it. Anyway, I noticed some odd behavior I haven’t seen before. When fight the final boss, the instant I aggro him/her they just start running around almost nonstop. Jumping on storage containers. Jumping off bridges. Running from point A to point B. Dr Vahz, Clockwork King, Hopkins, Countess Crey were all like this. 
 

Normal bosses don’t do this when I solo. It’s really annoying and makes the fight take 2-3 times longer. I’m not soft-capped to anything.  Anyone know what the deal is?

 

The only one who didn’t was Vandal. I suspect it was because the room he was in wasn’t that big or tall (the council cave room with a wall across the entrance with a narrow gap in the middle). 

[biostem]

36 minutes ago, ZekeStenzland said:

L50 Beast/TA MM

Are you blinding or otherwise locking down the EB's ability to fight back?  IIRC, if an enemy can't retaliate or see you, they'll flee...

[Wavicle]

A lot of different things can trigger "Panic" AI in mobs.

Among them:

 

*Stacked DoTs

*Attackers that cannot be hit (due to extremely high defense)

 

Beasts have high defense and lots of DoTs...that's my guess.

[Hedgefund]

Among MM secondaries TA is uniquely qualified to stop this behavior (not truly unique, Traps can too) with Entangling Arrow.  I'm guessing you weren't spamming that.

 

I do know what the OP is talking about though, they (AVs) seem to not like being debuffed and seemingly dots cause even more freak-out.  I had a fight with Nosferatu (as AV) where he wasn't even a threat, I think he engaged in fighting for about say, 10 seconds then he spent the entire duration of the fight running the whole expanse of a Crey lab floor, posing no threat whatsoever, he never even bothered attacking.  This secondary was Cold so I didn't have the toolkit to immobilize him like TA does.  It was very frustrating.

[ZekeStenzland]

I didn’t take Entangling Arrow until very late in my build, so I didn’t have it available for these TFs. But I did have the blind, glue, ice, and -heal arrows. And later the disruptor arrow. 
 

Would be interesting to try the same TFs with my merc/thermal and beast/thermal mms to see how they compare…

[WumpusRat]

A lot of it also depends on the EB/AV.

Some of them, like Mary MacComber (god I hate her) have a passive power called "Positioning", which makes them actively try and avoid melee combat, but it's hyper-tuned so they'll just go sailing off at escape velocity and keep running for ages. 

[GastlyGibus]

As Wavicle stated, there's a couple things that make the AI go into a "panic" and try to run. I don't know if there's an exhaustive list out there, so unfortunately I can't give a definitive answer, but I will say I've experienced the same on my merc/poison MM when soloing. I think it's a combination of several factors, such as being outnumbered, taking lots of damage, being debuffed, etc....

 

It could also have to do with the specific boss. Anybody who has done the ITF is surely familiar with how Romulus on the third mission runs around like a lunatic quite frequently. 

 

Since trick arrow has so many debuffs and you're playing a mastermind, it could be the combination of debuffs and being outnumbered makes them run. Wish I could say for certain, but the AI works in mysterious ways.

Edited September 11, 2023 by GastlyGibus

[Scarlet Shocker]

I remember when Romulus did this lots on the ITF

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

I remember when Romulus did this lots on the ITF

So... Yesterday?

[Snarky]

I was really expecting some beach photos here

[High_Beam]

Well Zeus Titan running toward the Tram in Talos is pretty Baywatch Beach Slo-Mo.

[ZekeStenzland]

I also found it interesting that it was only the final bosses of those TFs that ran around. Other bosses, like Bertha, the Clockwork Lords, or Bulwark just fought as normal.  Weird. 

[Doomguide2005]

On 9/11/2023 at 5:19 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

I remember when Romulus did this lots on the ITF

Still does indeed.  It's (He's) one major reason my characters almost always take an immobilize if possible.  AVs have no special protection as a whole against immobilize (or Sleep).  And those maps in Cimerora in particular have lots of running room which not only cuts into the teams dps but risks dragging all sorts of adds into the scrum.