Thread: Does "Fray the Edge" have an unseen AoE component?

There is a thing that has been nagging me for a while; that is whether Fray the Edge has some sort of Area component?

I first witnessed indications of this when raiding Barad Guldur last year, where doing a certain pull with bow and arrow on one specific target would always only bring two enemies (spectral guards), while using "Fray the Edge" would always also pull a nearby third enemiy (Sorcerer) as well. We adopted the strategy of always doing that pull with an auto-attack instead and though nothing more of it...

... but fighting in Fangorn's Edge I've once again come across "Fray the Edge" doing unsuspecting things. In the last fight, which I've seen from various classes, I've come to use a strategy in the last fight of pin-pointing attacks on the Orcs and to avoid all sorts of AoE skills to keep the Ents happily thombing on the heads of Orcs instead of us. But bringing my Guardian there, and aiming at the same, I've found that if I use 'Fray the Edge' to snatch a running Orc to pull him in and kill him in melee, that I will then also build threat on any nearby Ents, which will turn their attention on me. I am very confident that I used no other skills that could have hit them, and while I know these Ents are a chapter on their own, I cannot help but once again suspect 'Fray the Edge' for having an unseen AoE component.

What are your experiences with this? Do you see the skill as a purely single-target attack or have you experienced the same? Or do you all just consider the skill AoE and am I simply ignorant - and Guardian certainly isn't my main class - in not having know this?

No it does not.

I think I know which pull you're talking about in BG (top of the stairs before the fountain room?) and they vary slightly enough in position between runs that it can be an unreliable pull.

Neither BG nor the fangorn ents fight has particularly 'clean' agro mechanics, so I would not use them as a testing ground.

Can't say I've ever noticed this. I often use FTE for pulling, and I've never seen it pull more than I expected. I prefer it for pulling because it's fast and builds a little threat right away.

BTW does anyone know if FTE builds more aggro than a ranged attack or Let Fly? Since it doesn't have a damage component, I figured it was about the same.

Originally Posted by MannyCalavera

Can't say I've ever noticed this. I often use FTE for pulling, and I've never seen it pull more than I expected. I prefer it for pulling because it's fast and builds a little threat right away.

BTW does anyone know if FTE builds more aggro than a ranged attack or Let Fly? Since it doesn't have a damage component, I figured it was about the same.

I use FTE quite often and it certainly has more threat attached to it then my let fly. This may be because my xbow is a pre ROI tank friendly bow and it lacks the dps of the new tank unfriendly bows.

Fray generates quite a bit more threat than a bow shot, IIRC pre-RoI it was ~1500 damage equivalent.

The only AoE aspect I could think of might be proxy aggro, wherein the FtE hit the target *just* before a secondary attack came in. The FtE would have 'aggro' (perhaps worded better as 'attention') of everything, save for any targets singled out for damage or direct taunting. Add in some lag, and it might look as if FtE pulled more than 1 target.

Perhaps in the Fangorn's Edge situation, are you sure the right target was selected, or that there isn't other aggro factor involved? IE, Ent is on an Orc you pull with FtE, and when both are in range, you splashed the Ent with a taunt of sorts? Maybe Reactive-Block or Shield Taunt? Even if you use Challenge judiciously, there's also the trait Litany of Challenge which adds an extra threat component, turning it from a temp force taunt to one with residual threat after expiry. And then there's traited Protection's aggro transfer on protected-entities damage intake. I know target forwarding can cause some slips, and personally I've experienced some reappearances of the old targeting bug, though not solely specific to that instance.

Just some thoughts.

In summary: FTE is definitely not AoE in any way.

I've noticed some mobs work in groups, in that if you aggro one, you'll aggro a member of his group as well, even if they are out of "aggro-add" range.

The mobs in front of the Jail in solo T&M do this to me all the time. I'll try to carefully pull one mob, and suddenly the lieutenant and all his buddies want to get in on the action, even if they're all the way across the square.

Yes, many instances have hard-linked mobs that will assist their friend regardless of range (wargs in BG are like that too.)

Only ways I know of to split those hard links are killing one and dying or dropping combat, or using a burg to HIPS pull.

Thank you for all your feedback!

For a clarification I am very aware of linked monsters - in particular in Barad Guldur from extensive raid leading in that place - and also that I took great care to control the observations in both fights by leaving out other possible things that might generate threat on me.

I think I'll just scratch this one up to the various mechanisms in the two fights being a bit fuzzy, both that one pull in Barad Guldur and the Ent/End fight in Fangorn; where in BG it might simply be minute variations in the position of the three enemies, while in Fangorn it's just... very whimsical Ents.


On a related note: on the latter part I've noticed how that is a fight were both our gear and traiting is important as we easily get hit in an AoE attack from an Ent and with our various reflective gear and traits triggering; in fact even the new reflective component in one of the stances might trigger them onto us.... in fact I've found it far easier to complete this instance in the Challenge Mode when tanking it on my Captain than on my Guardian! But that is probably just as much linked to other ways in which a Captain can support a group in keeping the Ents alive / killing the Trolls fast than I can on my Guardian.

Also I didn't witness any AoE effect of Fray the Edge. But it does generate a lot more threat than an auto attack. I use is to pull mobs of a healer or a hunter who used AoE. Sometimes it generates so much threat it feels like a force-taunt.

Until yesterday i was sure that Fray the Edge don't have any aoe threat effect...but now i'm not sure about that...
In the Foundry, after the tanking warden made a pull (that's mean that he take the aggro of all mobs) i use fray the edge on the ranged mob to prevent him from shotting mins but also another mob that i never touch, start to attack me...

Noooo tanks dont pull with bow ! FTE only please !