Threat
From EQ2i, the EverQuest II wiki
[edit] Introduction
Threat is the method the game uses to determine which player or pet in a party or raid gets targetted by a particular enemy. Whoever has the most threat versus an enemy will be targeted and attacked by that enemy. Each enemy has its own threat that is tracked separately, so each enemy can attack a different target depending on the status of their own threat meters. Almost every action in combat besides running around, including attacking, healing, and casting buffs or debuffs builds up threat against particular monsters. With Live Update #51 threat meters were added to the game; under enemies' health and power bars there is now a threat bar showing the percentage of 100% hate you are at, and a threat window showing the percentage you are at and the next person on the threat list is at if you are the hated person (tank). Tracking threat by combat log became easier also with numbers placed in the combat log. Before this LU threat was kept track of internally and was not visible to players other than the examination windows of taunts/detaunts.
[edit] Controlling Threat
Threat control is the basic method a group uses to control monsters or crowds of monsters, and is a large advantage of being in a group versus being alone. Managing threat in a group is a good way towards victory, because if monsters attack people who have strong mitigation, avoidance and defensive abilities, all aspects of the fight become simpler: players with heals, mainly priests, will have an easier task because the damage taken is smaller and a smaller portion of health is lost so there is less of a rush to keep the subject alive; players with weak defensive abilities, such as mages, will not be taking hits or damage and can concentrate on whatever they do best, like dealing damage, without interruption or danger of dying; and the hit-takers, often fighters, will be contributing the maximum they can by minimizing the damage the monsters are doing to the group. Scouts are good managers of their own threat levels and can help with the management of other group members' threat levels as well. Awareness, and sometimes communication, are important to keep monsters under control.
An example: Bob the Guardian, Joe the Swashbuckler and May the Fury are fighting an Orc; the Orc has 500 threat towards Bob, 650 threat towards Joe and 300 threat towards May. Joe is therefore probably the target of the Orc's attacks, but it would be better to have Bob (who as a Guardian has good defense and plate armor) taking the hits (and it would be bad if May had to take hits, as she might have the least armor and avoidance as a Fury, and may have spells interrupted by damage). Joe uses a "decrease one threat position" ability. It is likely that Joe's threat is now less than 500, and that Bob is now the Orc's target, or at least is much closer to taking its hate.
[edit] Threat Abilities
Category:Taunt_(Spell_Type)Abilities that increase threat or threat position are often called taunts, while abilities that decrease threat or threat position are often called detaunts, hate droppers, or aggro drops. There are also buff abilities that automatically move a certain amount of threat generated by a subject to another subject; these are often known as hate transfers. . Sometimes an ability or monster ability will clear all or most of the current threat tracked by an enemy; after one of these abilities occurs, players should be careful about what abilities they use.
In PVP (player versus player) combat, threat is not tracked; some threat-decreasing abilities cause the enemy to lose their target on you (detaunts) and threat-increasers force them to target you for a length of time (taunts).
