Pulling guide

The following article is from Samanna.net a/k/a The Spirit Realm. Most of The Spirit Realm is currently at http://www.shamanscrucible.com however, this article is not yet there. It was found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20131119011018/http://samanna.net/wiki/index.php/Pulling_Guide

=Intro= Sadly Melodionxxx who wrote the following guide has left EQ but his knowledge lives on! It contains some amazing nuggets of info for the new puller, and I thought this would be worth sharing, I have edited out a few things that could be misleading due to nerfs of some pulling techniques since this was written:

I've been slowly over the years building an arsenal of pulling tactics, and I thought I would see if I could crystalise it out into some kind of guide. So here's a first stab. Any input/correction of stupid misapprehension on my part would be great. It is very bard focused naturally, but I have tried to mention some other non-bard strats. I am sure I have made some elementary mistakes, and any monkly input would be cool as. I have tried to rationalise pulling into a manipulation of basic game mechanics as a general structure.

=Melodion's Art and Science of Pulling=

It's All about Aggro
Everyone thinks aggro is simple, if a mob aggros on you it chases you and any mobs that it passes will assist it. End of subject.

Incorrect my young padawan! Aggro is a mysterious, mystical and complicated beast and even players with years of experience get it wrong. There are actually two types of aggro. This takes a bit of getting your head around, but once you have clicked, a world of possibilities opens up. Some very sexy pulls become available. (theres actually at least one other type e.g. Linked Aggro as in Zoo and BST epic final fight, these mobs are almost impossible to split by normal means)

Direct Aggro (DA)
Arises when you attack a mob. Fairly obviously, when pulling, you must either do something detrimental to it, or go within aggro range if it is KoS. This is called 'tagging'. As a bard I will usually tag with bellow or detrimental song (usually HoS), but sometimes I use aggro range pull too. This is never really an issue, but there are some nice tagging techniques, that I will discuss later. A mob that is directly tagged has a very different aggro to one that assists.

Assist Aggro (AA)
This is a totally different form of aggro. This occurs when mob_01 with DA passes within the assist range of mob_02. Mob_02 will see that the mob_01 has DA and will assist it. Actually it is more complicated than that... See 'When Do Mobs Assist' below. Before we continue, one more thing that you have to know is that all mobs have two ranges; 'Aggro Range' and 'Assist Range'.

Aggro Range
is how close you can go before it aggros you. Assist Range is how close you can bring your mob_01 to mob_02 before mob_02 will assist. Most people are aware of this difference due to the new OoW lulls, these reduce Assist Range, but do not affect Aggro Range, so you can split mobs but you cant just walk past them as was the case with the older lulls.

When Do Mobs Assist?
There are a number of pre-conditions that must be met before mob_02 will assist mob_01
 * 1) They must be in assist range of each other
 * 2) The mob_01 must have DA
 * 3) They must be social mobs
 * 4) Mob_02 must have Line of Sight to mob_01
 * 5) You must be in pursuit range of mob_02

These are ALL required, before assist will happen. If you break any one (or more) of those pre-conditions, then mob_02 will not assist. This is the whole science of single pulling. There are many many ways to break on or more of these pre-conditions. Lets look at them one by one, and see what techniques a puller has to break them.

They must be in assist range of each other
AKA Old School Splitting There are various ways of ensuring that the DA mob doesnt go within Assist Range of another Duh.... well I'm just puttin it here for completeness. But yeah, its a technique. It is quite important, in that you have to know how mobs will path. They will path differently if you are close to them, so quite often you will get a single by creeping into aggro range when you would get adds with a ranged tag. Tag mob and mezz adds, fading them off when you get to camp. Thus when last one is in camp it is no longer in assist range after you have faded. This is serious **Halfling**, and is the bomb in big open air zones. With this you will rule KT, Qvic, WoS. Nobody can touch you and you can really show them what a bard can do as you pull every name PH in zone with hardly any trash kills. Sometimes it goes so far people moan about getting no exp! Very very very useful. Selos + Mez > Outdoor exp mobs. In indoor zones you might have 2 mobs next to each other, mezz one, the other will come single and fade when back at camp. Easy peasy, very nice. There is also what I guess you could call a reverse mezz split where you tag mob with HoS and mezz it and fade. Hopefully its buddy will return to spawn before mez breaks and leave u with a single. Warp it passed the potential adds. Now this is a goodie. I use this for pulling Mnat and Dvoin and various GoD mini names that live in temples. It saves 3 or 4 trash mobs when doin Mnat or Dvoin. In some zones, if geometry is complicated or there is a big difference in vertical position between you and the mob, it will just warp on to you and not bypass the other mobs. Therefore its never in assist range. I clear to Mnat and Dvoin until I am in HoS range, then I tag thru the wall and run to a safe spot down on ground level. Just remain stationary and it will warp onto you single. *crunch OYAH!* Edit: can no longer tag through walls but using warp split can still be done in lots of places. Mebbe this is the prime monk technique afaik. Basically keep tagging and fd'ing untill the mobs are out of assist range. Then either the monk can bring it in single, or a tagger can grab it. I include geometry splitting under this heading, by which the monk tries to get a mob hooked on a bit of geometry so that it gets left behind and is thus split. I do use FD splitting as a bard, but its very mana intensive and you wont be able to keep it up for long. So avoid. The old staple of SK/Necro splitting. When you FD mobs will 'walk' back to their spawn point. If they are snared, they are unable to move and eventually the other mobs will wander back out of assist range of it. There are two flavours of Snare Splitting. - Pull the mob and it comes with all its buddies. Drop a snare on it and FD, all its buddies will go home, but the mob you snared remains where you snared it. - Snare the mob, and all its buddies will come, while it slowly walks toward you. When you FD, again all mobs will wander back, but the snared mob will still be in place a short distance from spawn. The second of the two needs a longer length snare imo, so as a bard i use the first one. Tag with HoS then snare and fade. This gets the mobs all a good distance from spawn before the fade, it also has the benefit of bringing HoS into the formula so snare is less resisted. You then hope that the rest will wander off before snare wears off. This is how I pull Time P2. This is an iffy one, I try not to use it. But sometimes is a good, one off, fallback pull. Imagine you have two mobs, they cannot be lulled, snared, mezzed, you have no monk, and no corners to split it. You are out of options, what to do! Simple... pull them both a way from spawn and gate one back and fade. They are now out of assist range. Easy huh? Nah... Highsun has pitiful range and you are inside the melee range of big raid wiping names. So you usually pop the bard auto-dodge disc (think WS) and gate one back. As such you can generally only do this when you can either pop the disc (slow refresh) or you can take a few whacks and in those cases there is usually a better method. So how does lull work. See the lull section at the end of this document It is dull, it aint sexy, but boy does it work. Quick Guide: Always try lull first! Simple rule, if its blue con you can probably lull it.
 * Just path it around.
 * Simple Mezz Split
 * Warp Splitting.
 * FD Splitting.
 * Snare Splitting.
 * Highsun Splitting
 * Lulling The BIG one! The meat and drink of the bards career. Reduce the mobs assist range so they are no longer in assist range. This is lull pulling, this is all some bards ever do, and when they cannot lull, they are screwed. LDoN (not hard) = lull fest. Thats it, lull lull lull, tag, lull lull lull, tag. etc etc till you never want to see LDoN again.

Mob_01 must have DA
AKA The Bardly Discipline of Advanced Mezz Pulling Earth shaking fact. Mobs will NOT ASSIST a another mob that has AA. Ok, chances are you wont realise how huge this is at first... If a mob is chasing you that has AA, you could drag it over a thousand of its friends for hours and hours and no mob will ever assist it. It will come single. Ok so mobs wont assist a mob that only has AA right? So if you could get a mob to come to you with just AA it would always come single right? Correct! If you want mob_01 to come to you but without DA how can you do this? Simple... aggro the mob standing next to it! But surely then you have 2 mobs aggro and both will come and the tagged mob will bring loads of friends! Nightmare! Not necessarily, the secret is to aggro the mob without it chasing you. This sounds all very confusing, so lets try an example. Consider the following situation, you want to pull the named through a whole building full of social mobs.




 * X X X X X X X X X |


 * X X X X X X |


 * X (TrashMob_01) X X X X X --


 * X (NamedMob_01) X X X X X       You and your group here


 * X X X X X X


 * X X X X X X X X X |



You want just NamedMob_01 right? And your group is thinking "Doh, lots of mobs to clear!" Wrong!

You drop a mezz on TrashMob_01 standing next to it, this mob now have DA but will not chase you until mezz breaks. Then NamedMob_01 assists, as mezz is a detrimental spell and does chase you, but it only has AA. This means that no mob will ever assist it, you could drag it thru a thousand mobs, running right over their heads and they will not assist. Named_01 will shoulder its way thru all those mobs without aggroing a single one and come to you. A magical single pull and nobody has the faintest idea how you did it. Once the mob is in camp fade and it's all yours. The mezzed mob has forgotten about you and you have your name single.

Not all situations are appropriate for this, There might not be too many mobs too close to the named. Where do I use this? In general, wherever lull doesnt work, for example in Qvic or LDoN hard, but sometimes you can use this to reduce the number of lulls. Trouble is that you MUST use a fade to make this work, so you cannot do it endlessly. I use this to death in a lot of DoD hard missions too.

Quite often you will get a mini-named in a room with a single buddy, mezz the buddy thru the wall (see Bard Tagging below) and the name will come out of the temple single past loads of mobs who will not assist. When name is clear, fade and retag. Another place is pulling chardok Queen. She stands between two advisors, lull the one on the left, drop a mez on the one on the right and Queenie will come out on her own, past all her guards. When shes out of room, fade and re-tag. There are a huge number of places where you can do this, some in RSS for example.

Actually theres a number of classes who can do this, anything that stops the DA mob coming for you will work.


 * Mezz it. This is the technique of mezz pulling, a staple for bards.


 * Bio Orb. The blinded mob will run off in some direction while the name comes single to you, when name is out single. FD and have someone tag. Actually I'm guessing that this is what monks use bio orb for.... but if i had one, i would consider it =)


 * Root. Any rooting class can do this, but the big question is how do you dump the DA after when root breaks.

The big problem for most classes is after you have used one of the above to single pull a mob, how do you dump aggro on the rooted/mezzed/blinded mob? The best technique I know is CotH. When you are CotH'd you dump aggro IF you are CotH'd over a distance of 200 or more. So this will fail if the puller is too close to the mage. But in this way, a root/snare class + mage can do some very nice splitting work. Theres prolly others, but that will do for now A bit like mez splitting, but you use coth instead of fade or FD.

Ok, we done with mezz pulling.... nah! Theres ANOTHER one. Now this is cute beyond belief, I wish I had come across this idea when we were doing Ikky3 and destroying necros at a good old rate. Can you remember that Ikky3 room? 4 nasty golems that we had to single within a tiny space. Ok heres how to use the wierdness of DA/AA to single pull em, easy as.
 * Mezz Push Pull

Quick Guide: If lulling is a problem, think mezz pull.
 * 1) Get a trash mob, and mezz it. Get chanters/mages to debuff it, you dont want mezz breaking, ugly business. Remember DA and AA? This mob has DA so stuff will assist it.
 * 2) Using your push mezz, slowly inch it into the room, then slowly carefully inch it along wall until it is in aggro range of the end golem only. Now this golem will assist and come, but the friend next to it will NOT assist it, because the first golem has only got AA. Rinse repeat! I know some guilds use this technique, its not fast, but faster than our experiences with pet pulling (tho we havent run out of options on that). I'm sure I will find other uses for this, all you need is a trash mezzable mob that you can push into the correct position and it becomes a precision singling tool.. How cool is THAT!

They must be social mobs
Faction Split! Theres quite a few zones in OoW where there are two or more faction groups that will not assist each other. For example Discordlings will not assist Lightning Diodites in MPG, and in RSS giants will not assist Ferathans. Quite often I will go tag a Ferathan, cast invis and run it back to camp past several giants. These will carry on in blissful ignorance. You dont get to use this a lot in general but it can save you some trash killing in certain situations Quick Guide: Know factions and use them

Mob_02 must have Line of Sight to mob_01
LoS Split This is an old monk fave, FD split mobs till one is round a corner from its buddies. Another PC can then tag it single. This is really a FD splitter trick and needs a monk/tagger pair. Imo the best tagger is bard because a) Bellow is an instant tag, no cast time with good range. b) Bard fade is full mem-wipe, if a monk tagger makes a mis-tag he now is screwed and must wait for the 2 min reset. Monk + Bard tagger = awesome team.

You must be in pursuit range of mob_02
Heres another interesting one that I have been playing with recently and it seems to be the solution to aggro-linked mobs. I'm just gettin a hang of this, but i think it could be veeeeery useful, situationally. There is a range limit beyond which mobs will just stop chasing you, hey Im a bard, I think most mobs just give up. So how can we use this to split unsplittable mobs? Basically this technique needs LOADS of space, so mostly outdoor technique. What I do is tag a mob and they all come, I tag from my max range (300) and flee at full speed, after a short time I will be out of pursuit range and they will stop chasing and look around stupidly, but they are still aggro and will stay aggro until they reset (which takes a long time). What I do then is edge back in step by step till im only in pursuit range of the nearest, it will chase, but all the rest will continue to mooch about because under no circumstances will a mob pursue someone out of pursuit range... evah! Bingo, unsplittable mob is split.

Proximity Aggro
Proxy pulling is where you get just barely inside a mob's aggro radius. (Duh, right?) If your placement is right you could aggro one mob out of a pack... for whatever reason being just barely inside the one mobs aggro radius would screw up the assist call of the mob and you wouldn't get adds. The call for help centers on the mob if you actually attack the mob, but on the player if you aggro it by just being inside aggro range... thus you can be inside the aggro range of one mob, but just outside the aggro range of another standing right next to it, and when the call for help goes off at your location the mob you are further away from will not aggro.

Additional info: Wander Behaviour Split
Have you ever had the situation where you tag a mob and a small train comes at you, when you fade all the bastages wander back at the same time? You retag and fade again, they are still determined to huddle together back. Actually you are just wasting mana, because... The current 'Wander Behaviour' of all the mobs, is "go home, dont hang about'. No matter how many times you tag and fade, they will not change their 'Wander Behaviour'. Wander behaviour is set when the mob is reset, and wont change until it has reset again. So what a good monk will do, is let them wander back and when some have reset, stand again. The mobs that havent reset will just wander back like before, but the ones that have reset will have a new wander behaviour and they *may* not immediately wander back. This is absolutely huge for monks, but again its not something that we will be able to play with much due to mana restrictions.

Summary
Theres are your main techniques, and I would put them in the following order. So try 1 first, then work down list till you can find a good one
 * 1) Lull Pull. Bleh
 * 2) Simple Mezz Split
 * 3) Advanced Mezz Pull. Sexiness
 * 4) Snare Split
 * 5) Wander Behaviour Split
 * 6) Mezz Push Pull. Double sexiness
 * 7) Pursuit Range split
 * 8) FD Split / LoS Split
 * 9) Highsun Split

How It Works: The Lull Spell
Basically it reduces one or both of the aggro ranges of the mob. Remember that mobs have two ranges, aggro range and assist range.

Lull songs up to the lvl 61 song will reduce aggro and assist range to a tiny tiny range. So you can pull mobs right by them and they will not assist, and you can walk right up to them and they wont aggro. BUT, and I find this the hardest thing to beat into peoples heads, it does NOT reduce the aggro range to zero. If you walk right over the mob, it will aggro as normal. Time after time, i lull mob and watch folks gaily tromp right over its toes and get smished, the first thing they say after LOADING,Please Wait... is "**Halfling** I thought it was lulled" About this time I am tearing my hair out. It will happen to you too, and it will happen A LOT.

The highest level lull song only reduces Assist Range, so you cannot just walk past the mobs, but you can pull mobs right by it and it will not assist. Again, it does not reduce assist range altogether, if the aggroed mob paths right over it, it will assist as normal.

So... can mobs resist lull? Most definitely, mobs have an innate check to resist a lull. NOTE: This is NOT a MR check or a check on any normal resists. A mob may well have perfectly normal resists BUT be almost impossible to lull (e.g. LDoN hard mobs or some Qvic mobs) A lot of people assume that MR mobs will be hard to lull, the two things are not connected in any way. So what happens on a resist. Basically when you lull a mob, there are two checks.


 * 1) Check to see if lull fails. The chance for a lull to fail is modified by only two things afaik. The mobs innate resistance to being lulled and level difference. To be honest, even the lvl difference affect is not confirmed, its just my observation so take that is guesswork. If lull lands all well and good, if it fails then a second check is made. NB: CHA does NOT affect the chance for lull to fail. No sirreee bob.
 * 2) Check for critical fail. If lull fails this second check the mob will aggro. The only factor I know that affects the chance of critical fail is the bards CHA. The higher your CHA, the less chance of a critical fail if the first check fails. This is one of the main reasons bards desire CHA. Especially in the early-mid level game where lull > almost all content.

One thing that not all the newbie bards know, is that lull is considered a beneficial spell and thus does not need line of sight. i.e. If you can target a mob and it's in range, you can lull it, even if its through the wall. This is really necessary for lull to be useful, if you had to go into the mobs room to lull it, it would really be much help. So how can you get a target on the mobs in a room without going in? Again several techniques:

Getting A Target

 * 1) This de-luxe, royale bard will come with a Singing Steel Helm. If you don't have one, well, it's like not having a drum. Really, get one. Get it now. You can just send in the eye, get your targets. Lull them etc. NB: If you dont have helm you can use Stalking Probes, but this will be a spendy option. The uber super-deluxe bard model will come with Holgresh Elder Beads as these have a much faster cast time. Believe me 7 second cast on the helm seems a long time, when the raid/group is going "FEED ME!! FEED MEEE!!! FEEEEED MEEEE NOOOWWW!!!!"
 * 2) Gimpy bards use invis! If the mobs don't see invis, then you can invis in to room, get targets, come out and lull.
 * 3) Gimpy bards also use bind-sight. Open the door and get a target on a mob that you can see, then back up and bind sight on that mob, you can then bind-sight hop round the room, lulling all and sundry. Er... Actually uber mobs use bind-sight too from time to time. Case in point, the Feratha pull.

For the uninitiated, Feratha is a big badass puppy in RSS who lives in his big hutch with about 8 guard puppies. The guard puppies are lulleable so if you can lull round his room quick enuff you have a single pull. Howevah!!! The room is too big to lull them all from outside, and you cannot go into the doorway as Feratha has a substantial aggro range and will bite your head off. Sooooo how.... First run downstairs and, from a safe range, get a target on any mob in the room. Then go back upstairs and into the room directly above Feratha. You can now bind sight on the mob and hop around the room lulling with impunity!

Bard Tagging
Most of this is fairly obvious, you bellow it, or tag it with HoS. But one thing very very important to mention is how to tag mobs out of Line of Sight. HoS only needs to have line of sight at the initial cast, not when it finishes casting, so you can get close enough to start casting HoS on a mob, then fade and start running away around a corner or whatever, as long as you are still in range HoS will still land! You can also do similar things with throwing items since they take some time to reach their target.

Another thing to mention is long range tagging, there is a bard clicky boot called Sorrowsong Boots, they cast a 300 range bolt which is very useful for pursuit range pulling. The best bit about this is the time the bolt takes to reach the mob. By the time it hits you are pretty much out of pursuit range already.

Edit: hmm another edit ~ pursuit range pulling just mentioned doesn't really work that way anymore either, but the new code that makes mobs lose agro completely when you leave pursuit range can be used for splitting as well.