threat (WoW)  

See also: aggro, hate

Threat is an easy concept to understand, but difficult to actually play around. Put simply, "threat" is how big a threat a given MoB sees you as. Each action you take that somehow affects that target will increase the amount of threat you have generated toward it. If an enemy feels more threatened by you than its current target, it will switch and start attacking you instead!

Please note that the terms "aggro", "threat", and "hate" are used somewhat interchangeably; however this tends to confuse things somewhat. It is more precise to say that whoever is being attacked by a mob has "aggro," but who ever is highest on the hate list has the highest "threat." These two are not always the same, particularly for bosses in higher end instances.

The Hate List

When you take an action against an enemy, it will create a certain amount of threat toward it. This adds to whatever you already had, and the mob makes a list of who it hates the most. This is called the hate list. As long as nobody passes the person at the top of the list on threat, they will normally remain the target for the enemy.

Note that every creature keeps its own hate list. Although you can do something that can affect multiple targets, it might not affect them equally, or it might only move you to the top of the hate list for one and not the other. In instances, many fights are designed to be against multiple opponents at once, so be careful. You can generate threat by doing many things, including healing people already on the hate list.

Generating Threat

Also known as "building aggro," actions taken that build up over time will increase your threat total on a target.

There are 6 ways to create threat on the hate list. They are direct damage to the mob, proximity pulling, proximity through linked mobs, buffing or healing a player on the hate list, combat pulse, and in-combat proximity.

The simplest baseline for talking about threat is direct normal attacks. For a normal melee attack (white damage) 1 point of damage equals 1 point of threat.

Proximity pulling and proximity chain aggro happen simply by getting close to an aggressive mob that is not in combat. A player will end up on the hate list of a mob by simply getting into aggro range of that mob.

Promixity through linked mobs is similar to the first method, in that if you are on the hate list of a mob by proximity, you will transfer hate to the hate list of any other linked mobs, even if you are not within those linked mobs' proximity aggro range.

Casting any beneficial spell on a player, such as healing, also causes threat. If someone already on a hate list becomes healed, the healer generates threat equal to half of the amount healed. This can be very important early in the fight. The only exception to this are the warlock spells Life Tap, Siphon Life, and Drain Life. Healing from those spells do not add threat; however, the application of the Siphon Life debuff causes a small amount of threat, and the damage from Drain Life counts as normal damage.

Combat pulse is normally limited to high end instance encounters. Nearly all high level instance bosses add threat on the hate list for every player in the instance every 2 seconds while a boss is in combat.

In-combat proximity applies only to mobs with AOE abilities, multi-target melee attacks, or other secondary targeting abilities. These mobs will add players near to their primary target, or near to themsselves, to their threat lists.

Modifications To Threat

Many abilities also either generate additional hate or modify the amount of hate generated. Some are damage abilities that get bonus threat, and some are just normal abilities that also come with threat. Most abilities that are used against an enemy or that help an ally will generate some threat. The amount of threat these abilities create is not always fixed number. Additionally threat is modified by proximity to a mob.

An exmple of a fixed number modifier is the warrior ability shield slam which always adds 309 threat on top of any normal damage dealt.

Examples of threat multipliers are: being in defensive stance (warrior) or bear form (druid) which multiplies threat by 1.3. That means that 130% of baseline threat is added to the hate table instead of a baseline 100%. A rogue or a druide in cat form will have their threat modified by 0.71, or only 71% of their generated hate is added to the table. A mage with max'ed arcane subtlety will add only 60% of their normal threat to the hate list.

Certain talents, particularly misdirect, feign and vanish, will modify threat by transfering it from one player to another, or clearing the player off the hate list. Taunt gives a warrior threat equal to the current aggro target on the hate list, this ability also gives the tank aggro for 3 seconds. This is another instance where it is important to understand the difference between threat and aggro.

A player's level also plays a role in threat proximity. A mobs proximity aggro radius is modified by the level of the player in proximity to the mob. A level 1 player can generate threat on a level 10 aggressive mob from a fair distance away. A level 70 near the same aggressive mob might have to literally stand on it to get it to attack due only to proximity.

Switching Targets

There are three conditions where a mob will switch targets.

1. A new player is at the top of the hate list.
2. A player activated a taunt ability.
3. The person at the top is no longer a good target for the mob.

Ripping Aggro

The first example is not as simple as it sounds. If it were as simple as passing a person by 1 point of threat, mobs would "ping-pong" all over the place as people exchanged the lead. This actually did happen in the original Everquest, but the WoW designers decided to make it more difficult for the mob to switch back to the old target.

In order for a successful target chance to take place, the player must exceed the old target's threat by at least 10%. Targets that are standing out of melee damage must pass the current target by at least 30%.

When someone takes the aggro away from the tank, this is known as "ripping" or "pulling" aggro, and is almost always a bad thing.

Example 1:

• Will the Warrior has 1000 points of threat toward a mob. An extra 10% of this is 1100.
• Rob the Rogue has 900 points of threat toward that mob.
• Rob hits their opponent for 150 points of damage. He now has 1050 points of threat. However, he has to pass Will's threat by 10%, so the mob stays focused on Will.
• Rob hits the mob a second time for 150 points of damage. Now Rob has 1200 points of threat, and the mob turns toward him.
• Will wants to get the attention back from Rob, but he now has to pass Rob's threat by 10%, so he needs 1320 threat. Will isn't even close to that! Even if Rob stops attacking, it might be a little while before Will catches up and passes Rob again.

Example 2:

• Will the Warrior has 1000 points of threat toward a mob. An extra 30% of this is 1300.
• Matt the Mage has 800 points of threat.
• Matt hits the target with a fireball, raising his threat to 1200. However, his threat is not high enough to pull aggro yet because he is standing at range.
• Matt hits the target with another fireball, raising his threat to 1600. This is well over the 1300 he needed, and the mob stops and runs over to Matt to beat on him.
• Will can't do much at range, so he has to spend time running to the mob just to start generating more threat, and then he still has to pass Matt's aggro by 10%. (Will would not be standing at range.)

There are a few different things that could likely happen to help these two situations, but for now we'll say that Rob and Matt are going to take a beating.

Taunting

Some classes have an ability that "snaps" aggro to them. These abilities are usually called taunts, which is what the warrior ability for this is named. When a tank performs a taunt, two things happen. First, no matter what else is going on, the tank has aggro until the taunt ends. Warrior taunt lasts for 2 seconds. Second, the threat of the tank is automatically raised to the same as the highest person on the hate list.

Look back at example 1. The mob is still right next to Will, so if he taunts it, it will turn right back at Will. Also, he will have as much threat as Rob (1200), so Rob would need to pass him by at least 10% to pull aggro a second time.

However, if Matt in example 2 rips aggro, Will still needs to get within range to taunt the enemy first, which means that Matt is nowhere near as safe. It's also much harder for him to do since he needs to pass the tank by 30% instead of 10%.

Losing Aggro

There are a few cases where a mob may choose to ignore a player and go after the next target on their list instead. The most common cause of this is the Paladin ability Blessing of Protection or the Mage ability Ice Block, which makes the target immune to physical damage. Since the mob can no longer beat on that player, it doesn't try, and runs off to find something else to hit instead. However, some crowd control abilities that break on damage will also make the mob run off. If, for example, a mob gouges a player, they become incapacitated and cannot fight back. Because that player is no longer a threat, the mob leaves them alone.

As soon as that player does something to generate threat, the mob realizes they are there again, and will come back over to them if they are still topping the charts. Note that this is different from an aggro wipe, discussed later.

Regarding spells that are meant to reduce aggro, (cower, feint, soulshatter,) it's helpful to know that even though it may sound silly, if you have spent talent points in talents that reduce threat, it will also reduce the effect of your threat-reducers. For example, if we say that the druid spell cower reduces threat by 500 points, abd you have specced so that you generate 30% less threat, this would mean only 70% of the original threat reduction would count, making the reduction only 350.

Tank's Perspective

The job of a tank is to build aggro. The single most important thing a tank can do is generate threat toward the enemies in a fight. Yes, the tank has to be able to take the hits from those targets, but anyone already labeled a tank is going to probably be a better punching bag than the healer!

While damage generates threat, the tank will not outdamage the DPS classes, and needs to use other abilities to generate extra threat. Each tanking class has its own set of abilities it used to keep itself at the top of the hate list. For example, Warriors used to use Sunder Armor to accomplish this, since it had a large amount of bonus hate attached to it.

In a worst-case scenario, the tank can taunt the target. However, the tank must still be in range to do this, can only do this to 1 target at a time,^[1] and taunt has a cooldown. This means that it should be saved for when it is truly needed, particularly in fights with multiple targets.

In multi-target fights, a good tank will "hold" aggro on some or all of the enemies. This may mean focusing on a target other than the DPS's main target.^[2] In a perfect world, you can out-threat the DPS on their target and do enough threat to everything else to keep the healer from pulling those from you, but your DPS may need to cooperate a bit.

Healer's Perspective

The worst thing you can do is cast a buff or a heal at the very beginning of the fight. The tank might hold aggro on his first target, but the rest of the bunch will come running to you. After the fight settles down, you will only face aggro issues with neglected targets unless you are doing more than just healing or the tank is taking a MAJOR beating...which means it's probably not the real tank getting hit. Casters pulling aggro aren't just a threat to your mana pool; they're also a threat to your livelihood.

DPS Perspective

It's always your fault. Well, not always. Sometimes the tank isn't very good. But even then, it's still your fault when you rip aggro!

The #1 concern regarding threat is that the DPS goes much harder than the tank can handle. With some tanks this isn't an issue, but there are still certain precautions that need to be taken. Make sure you have Blessing of Salvation if it's available, and keep an eye on your abilities that can lower your threat. Feint, Disengage, Soul Shatter, Cower, and some of the total aggro wipes can keep you from pulling off the tank.

Aggro Wipes

Aggro wipes are abilities that completely reset a player's threat level. There are only a few of these abilities, but they are all rather crucial to raid performance.

• Vanish (Rogue)
• Feign Death (Hunter)
• Invisibility (Mage)
• Soul Shatter (Warlock)^[3]

Each of these skills, except for Soul Shatter, will remove the player from combat and set their threat to zero. The hunters clearly have it best, and should routinely feign death most of the time. The other DPS classes will need to be careful about when they use their skill since they have longer cooldowns. However, it is still important to use an aggro wipe BEFORE pulling aggro rather than after. When a character drops off the hate list, the mob will immediately turn to the #2 target regardless of who it is or how far they are or anything else.

Example:

• Will the Warrior has 1000 points of threat. A ranged target would need 1300 threat to rip aggro.
• Matt the Mage has 1100 points of threat.
• Hank the Hunter has 1299 points of threat. People in Hank's group are telling him that his threat is rather high, but his response is that he'll just feign death if he pulls hate.
• On Hank's next shot, he goes over the 1300 needed to pull aggro. The mob turns toward him and he feigns death.
• The mob, now that it no longer has Hank to attack, checks its aggro list. It sees Matt at 1100 and Will at 1000. It goes after Matt.
• Matt, who has done nothing really wrong other than push how much damage he can do and might be getting ready to use Invisibility, suddenly has aggro because of Hank. The mob catches him unaware and mauls him before he can do anything or Will gets over to save him.

Unfortunately, hybrid classes do not have an aggro wiping ability. As a result, Blessing of Salvation is especially important for those classes, as well as any aggro-reducing talents or abilities they might have available. (Cower, Shadow Affinity, Spirit Weapons, etc.)

Some NPC mobs do not follow a "threat" table and will randomly select a person in your group or raid to attack, such as the boss Shade of Aran in the raid instance Karazhan. Other NPCs will reset their threat list part-way through the fight, such as Warbringer O'mrogg in the Hellfire Citadel instance Shattered Halls, when this boss 'switches heads'.

1. ^ Except for AE taunts, which have an even longer cooldown.
2. ^ Your DPS should be attacking the same target. Use a main assist to accomplish this.
3. ^ Soul Shatter only cuts threat in half, and does not remove the warlock from combat, but it is the closest ability that is not a true wipe, and is still very important to use the way a rogue would use Vanish.

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