Placeholder mechanics

[aaronp]

So could someone give me details on how "placeholders" work?

Do you always need to kill a placeholder for a mob to spawn? For example, the other day I ran into this guy in the aqueducts. Dude attacked me for no reason (I woulda given him some change if he asked) so I had to hack his face off. I haven't seen him since (I was hoping to find a higher resolution image for the wiki), there's always a rat that spawns in his place.

Another example is the orc runner in bb. I killed him by chance once, and found that he has a pretty profitable quest at that level, so I went about trying to do it again, only to find a green Centurion where he spawns. I killed that thing probably 10 times or more before giving up. Would I need to keep killing the Centurion for the runner to even show up?

Sometimes it's obvious. For example, in the thug and smuggler camps in the aqueducts, sometimes there is a chance that a leader will spawn instead of the usual mob.

[curtischoy]

Placeholders pop in place of named. You do not -always- need to kill a PH. For instance you could walk into crushbone and the orc taskmaster could already be up. But more than likely once you kill him he will not spawn the 2nd time and a PH will spawn instead.

It is always possible for multiple nameds to spawn in a row it just is less likely than a few (or in some cases dozens) of PHs to spawn instead.

In the case of the orc runner (and ANY other PH), yes, you need to keep kiling his PH (orc centurion) in order to get him to spawn.

Originally Posted by aaronp

Sometimes it's obvious. For example, in the thug and smuggler camps in the aqueducts, sometimes there is a chance that a leader will spawn instead of the usual mob.

This is exactly how PHs work.

[Grimjaw]

yep random spawn chance on most. some are special case / work differently like that orc runner. some only have a chance at spawn at night, etc

[aaronp]

Gracias. That clears that up.