Right now taunt only matches your hate, it doesn't add anything above the top guy's hate. Taunt doesn't go over temporary hate bonuses, so the first-to-aggro bonus will prevent taunt from turning NPCs above people who got on the hate list before you. Keep in mind enchanter mez does hate list wipes. I just pushed code to dev to more closely mimic old research and allow mobs to turn after 4 successful taunts on NPCs you aggro on second. (unless low health aggro is applied)
None of the old or new research mentions a large initial hate bonus at all. Old hate mechanics research goes back to 2003. Something like that would be fairly noticeable. This bonus has to be much smaller than the melee-range bonus, otherwise Fansy the bard wouldn't have been able to train all those Sand Giants on people in Oasis. (google that for a good laugh)
Taunt should add on top of top guys hate. Top of hate+1. If you are top of the hate list, it still adds the 1. I did some research a few years back with my SK and monk when we were discussing the different aggro of all the dumb monk pulling AA's and if any were useful for aggro reasons. I could Taunt with my SK and the hate meter would read "101%" or whatever, but mob would continue to attack the monk. A second successful taunt would change the meter to "103%" or whatever but still the mob would attack the monk. A third was similar. Until a fourth successful taunt, "108%" hate, at which point the mob would turn and attack my SK. Precisely. The initial hate bonus must be small. Whether it was 60 or 90 on EQMac is of little significance; we know it wasn't large.
Yes, as I mentioned previously in this thread, taunt should in some circumstances add additional hate. The questions are how much hate and under which circumstance(s). Unfortunately Sony changed the skill radically even just recently and several times before that, so it's not possible to use Live to figure this out. I pushed code yesterday to add 10 hate on top if you're not actively tanking the NPC. That would overcome the 35 first-to-aggro hate bonus in 4 successful taunts.
I wish I had documented my testing on EGN, but I only recall chatting about it in-game. Anecdotally, Taunt should always be Hate+1. My best theory would be the 35 first-to-aggro hate bonus would be baked into your hate formula and not a separate bonus that only exists temporarily (e.g., sit aggro). For example - I swing at a mob and get 10 hate for initial aggro. My hate is 10. A successful taunt would put another character at 11. Instead, I run into a mob's aggro path for initial agggro. My hate is 35. A successful taunt would put another character at 36. Of course the mob wouldn't turn to the other character yet. A fourth successful taunt would get the mob to attack that other character, while still preserving the Taunt=(Top of Hatelist)+1
If it were not temporary then one taunt would be all that is required instead of four. Temporary bonuses are how you can have the most hate but still not be tanking. The behavior is quite clear on Live-- it's not permanent and can switch persons if the hate list is reordered. I tested this quite a bit since it was so strange.
