Question about Hero Settings: Aggressive, Defensive, Passive

I have a question about these settings.

If a Hero is set to Defensive and you are standing outside an enemy's aggro radius, will simply locking that Hero onto an enemy in an enemy group cause the Hero to attack?

The reason I ask is because sometimes just locking a Hero onto a target seems to cause the Hero to attack and sometimes it doesn't. Or does it have to do with how far outside the aggro radius you are standing?

In other words, does target locking overrule the Defensive setting?

I can't say I really understand Hero AI all that well, and different Heroes (e.g., Jora, Goren, and Koss) seem to behave differently, even when their settings are the same -- but maybe it's just my imagination.

I would think so yes. As calling the target with control + space seems to overrule thier settings so I would imagine locking the hero onto the target would have the same effect ^^

When you say "Defensive", I assume you mean "Guard".

When you set a Hero to "Guard" they will attack any targeted enemy and/or any enemy that attacks them, IF it doesn't require them to "leave their post". Their "post" is basically an agro-bubble around their flag or the groups flag. This means, basically that they can attack any target that is an agro-bubble + their weapon's range away from their flag.
If you haven't set a flag for them, then they behave just as though they are set to "Attack"

Yes, you are correct. That is what I meant.

I often set my heroes up outside (I thought!) of the aggro range and then adjust their skills and settings. Locking targets was causing (in some cases) my Heroes to go off before I was ready. Now, I know why.

Thanks for the good information.

When in guard mode, they won't attack mobs that are attacking people other than them. I've learned this the hard way on my monks. Nothing like getting pounded into the dirst while Koss stands next to you doing his Travolta dance.