A) We all know that when one pulls a meleeing mob, it will run to within a prescribed range of the puller and begin to attack. If, once the mob is in range and attacking, however, the puller moves forward the mob will turn 180 degrees, walk backward, and turn to face the puller - this usually occurs when the puller has hit feet within the mobs selection circle. It should also be mentioned, that while the mob is shown visually as turning, it continues to execute frontal attacks as if it had never turned. Equally once a mob is in range and attacking, and the puller walks backward, the mob will move forward to maintain range. There is a small margin between of perhaps three yards before the range is modified, meaning that you can take one step forward, or one step back and there is no effect.

B) The size of the mob's model makes a difference, such that if u put your feet on Onyxia's selection circle and alternate strafe right and strafe left, Onyxia's model will flick left and right rapidly. If you're ten yards back from Onyxia and do the same, she'll only move slightly. This principle is seen most effectively on Lethon, where having your tank stand on Lethon's selection circle and run through him, turns him much more rapidly than having your tank stand yards back and run 180 degrees around him.

All of the above is based upon the puller and mob being on the same level; and by that i mean at the same elevation; on flat ground: no hills, no ramps, no steps. But my question is exactly that, what happens if puller and mob are not on the same elevation?

First question, where is range calculated from? From the middle of the model? From the base of the model? For the purposes of this thread, I'm going to assume from the base. Now lets assume the puller is stood 3 yards away the mob. Let's also assume that the puller, a Tauren warrior is 6 yards tall. The mob, a dwarf rogue is 2 yards tall. If range is calculated using the base of each model, then their range remains three yards, because if range was caluculated from the middle of their models then their effective range would be 3.5 yards, taking the height differential into account. Agree?

Second question, and assuming still that range is calculated from the base of the model. If the puller is stood on the top of a 45 degree ramp, and the mob at the bottom of that same ramp then despite the fact that there is a distance of three yards between the bases of their models 'as the crow flies', the elevation of the ramp means that there is in fact 3.5 yards between them. Agree?

Third question, if one accepts that the distance between puller and mob needs to exceed three yards before the mob will move forward (section A), and if one accepts that the z-axis affects range (question 2), do you agree that a puller, tanking a mob on a slope will cause the mob to move closer to the puller, and thus be more reactive to the movement of the puller (section B).

Why I am asking? Mainly out of curiosity, but also in relation to a discussion that sparked up over Instructor Razuvious and tanking Raz on the ramp. It's not that important, but if anyone knows, or is interested, would appreicate your thoughts.

given how far below me some things i've shot in silithus have looked, i'm of the opinion that z-distance does not count against attack-range.

Just to clarify, do you mean the vertical? As it's usually referred to as the Y axis.

I believe it does count, but my only testing for this is jumping off the cliff near the Gold Mine in Arathi Basin on my warrior and charging as I 'fall down' onto a target running by, I generally have to be fairly far down to be able to charge / intercept. This could also be the effect of my jump being forward and down rather than down. I have jumped direclty over targets, and had to charge 'backwards' on myself, from the button again only lights up half way down.

Could probably test it fairly easily, with a co-operative player on the other team, or finding a different cliff to leap from over somthing chargeable :)

Edit:

I believe the 'distance' is calculated from the edge of the models hit box, rather than the center of the model itself.

If you are working in two-dimensional space, otherwise, Z is accurate to indicate the vertical in relationship to position within three-dimensional space.

I agree, but does the vertical distance affect range in the same way as horizontal?

That is to say: is my range to an object in a straight-line distance above or below me equal to my range in a straight-line distance to an object directly in front of me?

I think so, but I've never tested it. It may be worth knowing now, rather than when we're flying over some mobs on our armored grypons ;)

From my experiences, I'd say that the Z axis most definitely affects range. There have been many times when, standing up on a hill, I have been out of the range of something that would have been pretty much right near me if we had been on the same X-Y plane. Think back to the ZF temple stairs, for example.

As to distance calculations, I would imagine that they are done from some set point within the bounding box of the character, probably the "center of gravity" as that seems like the most logical place.

Well, I know that I've jumped off of very high cliffs and then used Charge to avoid taking fall damage. Charge doesn't become available until I'm nearly at the ground, and my descent movement tends to be more vertical than horizontal.

I would very much expect that range is simply the distance of the line between your anchor point and the mob's anchor point.

I'm going to go off on a limb here and theorize that this would tend to be supported by the observation that extremely large mobs tend to have anchor points lowish to the ground, which puts them into melee range (To observe this, pull up Ragnaros, or Onyxia, or any other extremely large mob in a model viewer. The camera anchor point - which is also used for distance calculations and LOS calculations - is not on their head, as you might expect.)

Z-axis definitely affects range. I know that when we do Anub sometimes our main tank if OOR of his healers when he gets launched upwards due to Impale.

I'm definitely sure Z-axis affects range, but the interaction between melee range and the Z is strange. I can think of many instances of me meleeing a mob down a sheer cliff or something, or mobs doing the same.

Stand on the outer side of one of the ramp 'rails' in the first DM north courtyard and aggro some dogs or Mol'dar for a good example.

What does that have to do with anything? And even then, a measly boar will turn around at the same rate as Lethon will if you run around a certain distance fromthe middle of its selection circle: its just Lethon's body is larger, so the angular velocity at the outside edge has to be larger (and thus he's perceived to flip 180 degrees around at blazing speed), but it still takes the same amount of time to turn him around.

So, the question is: is our 'range-box' a basic sphere or an elongated one. I would incline towards a sphere and as long as your 'range-sphere' for the ability/spell collides with the target's 'hit-sphere' then you're considered within range.

Just as a comment: Z-axis affects range but not melee range. When that jump exploit was in effect for a few days I tested this out, and mobs could still melee me 50 yards in the air. I assume it works the opposite way as well, IE Onyxia.

Vertical distance affects range ... for players.

Getting Impaled by Anub in no way hinders the attacks of Anub or Corpse Scarabs (which has caused quite a few wipes)

That's similar to what go me thinking. It may just be somwhat buggy.

distance should be (please correct if I'm wrong, it's been a hell of a long day so far) sqrt(horiztonal^2 + vertical^2)

what's to say it couldn't be sqrt(horizontal^2 + (fudge factor*vertical)^2), for example, to reduce the number of bugged-LBRS-like zone aggros from mobs above or below you?

EDIT: nm, posts since I started this one explained well enough :)

There could be another mechanic to this other then just center of “gravity†and size of character box. There might be something relating to the area that spells hit on the targets. If you notice on bosses like Ouro, frost bolts tent to zig-zag around the bosses head till it hits his head, where as other bosses might have it in their chest, such as Golmag and Onyxia.
It would be interesting to see how Blizzard might use those three (if not more) mechanics and how they are affected by terrain, melee distance. We’ve all seen bosses agro from outside rooms, walk through walls after a wipe, I’ve even had Instructor Razuvious kill me through the balcony when we were learning him, I’m sure I was out of range on his Z axis.

I had a time recently where jumping would take a person in/out of range that was slightly higher up on terrain than I was, so I would have to say yes.

Interesting topic.

Heals clearly go oor on anub'rhekan when flung in mid air.

But guess what, the X-Y axis maximum is UNCHANGED for Demo shout when I get flung up:
In other words, if I'm at absolute max demo shout range, get flung up, and demo shout - it will be re-applied in mid air.

Sooo figure that one out. We also can see clearly that mobs can melee regardless of the z-axis.

Demo shout is a PBAE that doesn't have a z-axis check?

Yeah basically it seems like melee abilities work as a cylinder, whereas missiles and heals would be fully range and therefore z-axis dependant.

Edit: I assume this means arcane explosion has infinite Z-range.

I guess my emphasis was a bit miss placed, I was just using Ouro as an example. It should have been more of where the spell actually hits the target. That having something to do with the radius of melee/aggro, et al. But then again that might just be as simple as "where the spell hits the mob."

I believe z-axis range is somewhat inconsistent on a mob-to-mob basis.

For example, consider Onyxia during phase2 and Ayamiss during phase 1. Both take off flying at roughly the same distance above the ground, however Onyxia is still melee attackable (with specials), while Ayamiss is not.

From a purely geometric viewpoint there is not much difference between these two encounters - they both have big hitboxes (ony is slightly larger), both are flying at roughly the same height, etc. It seems that the two mobs have a different set of properties enabled to allow/disallow melee attacks while flying.

have someone stand on the roof of the bank in org then try to inspect them from directly below, doesn't work