NPCs casting CC spells

[Tecmos Deception]

I don't really know if this is a bug or not, but I figured I'd ask about it in here since I wasn't having any luck searching up info about this.

Anyway. NPC casters will frequently target CC-style spells on targets on their aggro list who are not the highest aggro. These spells include blinds, dispels, damaging and non-damaging stuns, roots, "fear2" whatever the hell that is, and so on. This seems to happen whether the aggro list is being kind of controlled by root and a melee target for the NPC or just pure aggro amounts.


Example: Zanderr (60 bard) was kiting most of the sarnak fort in LOIO with AE snares while my 20-something necro AEd them down. Zanderr was sometimes in melee range of the pack of sarnaks, but he generally was not. My necro got fear2 cast on him pretty frequently even though there was no way I ever had aggro of these mobs over Zanderr:

[Wed Oct 23 15:39:36 2013] You begin casting Word of Shadow.
[Wed Oct 23 15:39:36 2013] You haven't recovered yet...
[Wed Oct 23 15:39:36 2013] Your spell is interrupted.
[Wed Oct 23 15:39:36 2013] You are stunned!
[Wed Oct 23 15:39:36 2013] Your mind fills with fear.
[Wed Oct 23 15:39:36 2013] You can't cast spells while stunned!
[Wed Oct 23 15:39:36 2013] You can't cast spells while stunned!
[Wed Oct 23 15:39:36 2013] You resist the Fear2 spell!


Example: Spore king. When I would duo him before invis change (ench+sham), whether the pet or the sham was tanking I would get hit with spells maybe 2-4 times per kill even though I wasn't in melee range or highest aggro. King would never turn towards me, he would continue facing whatever he was meleeing but cast a stun (or dispel, or root) on me before continuing to melee his primary aggro target.


Example: Random casters in seb. I believe that I have done things like send a charmed pet after a caster and without having done anything to it directly (and while it was still focused on my pet and not on me), it would target CC-style spells on me. It also will happen if I have a caster rooted and engaged with my pet, I'll get CC-style spells thrown at me.



Was this intended? Was this classic? NPCs casting spells on PCs who aren't tops on their aggro list?

And what is that fear2 spell?

[koros]

Fear2 is what certain npcs cast on you instead of fear to just stun you in place. I forget if it's all npcs or certain(indoor?) ones. I think it was done because getting feared by a regular NPC would often cause a ridiculous wipe.

[Shivilian]

NPC's targeting when casting spells at PC's was definitely random (as long as their target was on their agro table) on live. We'll I don't know the exact mechanic, but it certainly seemed like it was.

My first toon in Krunark on live was a mage. In groups or solo, casters would always nuke me if I was in spell range instead of my pet. I remember being scared in seb groups as well if we didn't have an enchanter because multiple caster mobs could nuke down the cleric (or myself :p) in just a couple casts.

I am guessing Fear2 spell is just a NPC spell. A lot of mobs had their own spells while sharing some that PC's had access to. It's hard to know what the mob specific spell names are so im sure they just made it up when doing the code for that specific mob or what not.

[planarity]

I don't remember what it was like on live, but on this server these spells definitely seem to be always targeted at the #2 on aggro list