Combat with wild animal question.

I know this is kind of a random question. But I got to ask it. During a fight if your alone in the field. Is it normal for a wild animal. Say the birds. I cant remember there names. They look like ostriches in the original content. To begin attacking the monster your fighting randomly?

They usually start attacking you or your party members when they get aggroed. But yes, it's a fairly common occurrence. If you aggro (cause damage to) any tamable animal it will turn hostile and attack as this is necessary to charm one.

Tamable animals become hostile as soon as they receive dmg or a spell gets cast on them (read charm animal). If either you or your enemy is using AoE (area dmg skills) spells then while its hurting you it can hit a tamable animal aswell. When such animals get hit, they turn hostile and start attacking. And like Darcy said, yes that happens more often. But they are only lvl5 so no one ever bothers

I see thank you. Guess that solves my question. But now another rises. The AoE you mentioned. Does a wolf have a AoE just wondering. If not then im confused as to the birds attacking.

the very low-level wildlife (like level 1) dont generally attack unless youve attacked it first. The higher the level, the more likely you could possibly aggro.

If the animal is attacking your foe its possible the foe inadvertantly aggroed it.. or maybe you did but it shifted its focus to the foe when the foe took a pot shot at it.

Not saying this is always the case.. but i would guess that is a very likely answer in a lot of cases.

The wolf is already hostile. The birds become hostile if they get caught in the "crossfire" (AoE) or take damage of any kind, from you or your enemy.

AoE is Area of Effect or the area a spell covers when cast. Death Swarm effects up to 3 targets (any creature not part of your party), Firestorm hits several in an area (again, every creature not in your party), etc....

You can actually attack any tamable (green labeled) wild animal, causing it to turn hostile.

A wolf does not have AoE, but a player using one as a pet may. A pet attack like Melandru's Assault can be AoE (Area of Effect), but it is not inherent to any animal/pet. I'm guessing you have a pet wolf as an A/R (from your profile). Several things can cause an animal (Strider or Moa Bird in this case) to turn hostile. Direct damage is the easiest to see, but spells like some mentioned (Firestorm) and even 'effects' for your damage as well. Things like Ignire Arrows can cause AoE damage that will damage a pet that isn't hostile, as can skills like Splinter Weapon. In essense, any thing that does damage over an area instead of to a specific target may cause a neutral pet to turn hostile.

There is also a game bug relating to wild animals that you may well see.

The Ritualist spirit Agony which does damage to all foes in range also damages wild animals.

This damage may well kill them but I have never seen it make them hostile, they just walk around ignoring the damage till they move out of range or die.

Thank you all for this information. Just to avoid confusion. I know the workings of how spells and attacks and all that work. I brought this up because of a strange event that happened when I started a few years ago. Just now its been eating me up. Wondering why it happened.

Pretty much I liked to play alone. No computers helping or players. And while fighting a wolf. I am about a hit away from death. Then this moa bird attacks the wolf randomly. (Thank you MagmaRed thats what there name was.) But pretty much it holds the wolf off long enough for me to heal and kill it. But it dies from protecting me.

Thats the story of why I was wondering and started this topic. Im pretty sure I did not do any moves to attract it. Was using the basic heal for a warrior. Well I dragged this post out long enough. So just going to say. Even with this new information from all of you. It still seems sort of strange still.

Seriously? You remember something from a few years ago, and are 100% certain you remember it correctly? It sounds like you were in pre-searing, as the only other places with wolves is in the shiverpeaks and there are no Moa Birds or Striders there. And the only AoE skills available in pre (to my memory) are Firestorm, Deathly Swarm, Symbol of Wrath, Ignite Arrows, and Cyclone Axe. And those wolves are usually pretty close to some bandits and/or wurms, which may have had you using Cyclone Axe. But I honestly doubt you remember things well enough to say the bird attacked without a reason.

Yes I remember. And no I did not use some axe move. I only used swords. But really thats what happened. But yes I remember. Well I admit I dont remember what moves I did during the fight. But I have never used axes when I can use swords in any games I have ever played.

But really you dont really forget a event like that. At least not for me. Just started playing again. And I remembered that. So really could not help. But wonder if it was some sort of bug. Or if who knows what else.

Oh almost forget. Yes im sure it was a bird. It left a corpse after I killed the wolf.