Smites and Coldfires

What is the deal with them fighting each other, and even themselves? They're allied most of the time, but they kill each other and deny me drops randomly.

it has always like been like that..i think its prety funny when they have a scrap

they want eachothers ectos and ghostly staffs

^And storm bows

Btw, have you guys ever seen a Coldfire drop an Ecto before? I know I havn't.

But what sets them off? And why do Coldfires always attack the SS Necro?

they go for the softer target

Coldfires don't drop ecto's, I read that somewhere. i think Gwiki

Coldfires are notorious for having universally sh*t drops...so yes, no ecto, i also read that somewhere.

As for them fighting each other it's generally random, probably Anet's attempt to deny you of Ecto, like their attempt to stop UW farming with the oh so powerful Dying Nightmares. You can tell its a trick by Anet when you see the Smite Crawlers killing each other, watching that happen is painful, especially when it's 2 on 2 and practically a stalemate

Aggro Control has gone a bit iffy since the factions release, you don't always need to be in the aggro range of the enemy, if the monk doesn't tank right and semi body block the enemy at first they go right past him to the necro, the idea of the monk to tank is to do it as you would a warrior, go in there and hit the enemy with your melee weapon like your FFS axe, the enemy taking damage puts the aggro on to YOU, thats how its done, and have the necro come along a couple of seconds after you have them tanked, seeing as you won't be moving the aggro won't break (the tank moving breaks aggro completely).

Some enemies are aggroed without going near them, take Kanaxai at the end of the Deep, he starts running towards you before you enter his aggro range, i expect what sets off this fighting is your approach...

Personally, I think it's a bug, but yes, it's always been like that. When you're on a Smite run, that's the last thing you want to see, because as the above poster said, Coldfires don't drop anything good, whereas Smites occasionally drop ectos.

This is getting infuriating. I have only one theory about what could set them off, and I wanted to check it before I send a bug report to ANet. Could the Smites somehow be unwittingly damaging Coldfires or other Smite groups with Zealot's Fire somehow? The only reason this doesn't make sense is because they're allies, and I doubt Zealot's Fire would affect other allies...

When you see a group fighting, just go kill them. Have the necro put SS on them and watch them all kill each other. You get drops if you participate in the killing! That's what my partner and I do.
As for why they fight...who knows? Maybe one said something bad about the other ones sister. Just because they're all smites, doesn't mean they are allies. I've seen grawl fight each other at Kings Watch. It happens all over.

When do they ever attack the SS Necro other than when he's the only one alive or standing right next to them spamming skills? I do smite runs every night and hardly ever get attacked. Knowing that I will rarely be attacked gives me the ability to use 2 superior runes and have less than 400 health and not have to worry. Maybe your SS aggros before the monk or stands way too close?

I don't think that's how it works. Only NPC's of the same spawn location/species are allies. All other NPC's in the area are simply "friendly" (much like tame-able animals. They CAN be the target of attacks and spells, but are not naturally aggresive towards you."

If you aggro several different Mobs, they will all Target YOU, because you are the one who set off their aggro. However, if a mob uses AoE spells, and you manage to break all the aggros while those AoE spells are in effect, they may effect a "friendly" mob, and in turn set off the aggro for that friendly mob, and then a war breaks out.

So that means my theory could be true? And I'm not talking about mobs attacking each other while I fight them; they just start randomly fighting before I even get a chance to reach them. And Deacon, you're very lucky if you haven't seen the Coldfires specifically go for the Necro. Other monsters only attack the Necro if they haven't reached me yet, and it happens much less often, but Coldfires will break aggro from me even after having attacked me for a while if the Necro aggros them. Both of these problems don't make any sense; unless the Necro has less AL, shouldn't the enemies always atatck me if I aggro them first?

ive seen coldfire drop blackdye before, probably the best drop ive seen from them. Though since thats probably not gonna happen a lot, most people skip them now

The BEST thing I've ever seen a Coldfire drop was a key. Once. Black Dye would be an excelent drop too, but you could get that from an Ascalon Devourer at the same probability.

Coldfires are crap for drops. Just skip 'em.

And to be honest, Smites arn't even good for Ectos anymore. I've only ever seen a Smite drop an ecto ONCE. I've gotten all of my ectos from the Blades. And I do mean ALL of my ectos.

I always get irritated that monsters don't fight eachother more often. Why are all the Scarabs, Hydras, Devourers, Horsemonsters in the desert such good buddies when they surely must compete for food. Come to think of it, there is no way a sustainable ecosystem there. And just how do those Mesmer Squids fly?

Doing UW runs as a SS Necro, I've attracted unwanted attention from Coldfires. I'm not 100% sure why, but I have a feeling that it might be to do with a spell being used such as Desecrate Enchantments.

If I dropped SS and Suffering, all is well. But if I use Desecrate Enchantments on the Coldfires, more often than not it will draw their attention to me. It's just something I've noticed, but I've not tested it out properly to see if it is the case.

Perhaps check with your Necro to see if DE is being used on the Coldfires, if so, don't do that for awhile and see if the Coldfires stay on you.

There is one mob of Smites that are hostile to everything and therefore upon noticing any other creature, they will attack. They are outnumbered so the chances of them clearing out the Ice Wastes are virtually nil and the Coldfires' Maelstrom owns them.

An ecto from a smite just once ? Nutty. Lately, I see one from a smite probably every other time in. Certainly not as reliable as the Ataaxes, no, but consistent to be sure.

I do like to mix it up when visitng UW. Sometimes 3 or 2 man trapping, sometimes 2 man monking.

And yup, there is one group of smites on "hyper patrol" that will latch on to the first live thing they encounter.

yes, like Mr Materazzi the Smite trash talked about Mr Zidane the Coldifre's mum and then Zidane headbutted him... who knows