Pulling Guide
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Contents |
Pulling Guide
Introduction
If you’re playing THF or RNG expect to be a puller, but there is no good reason why any class couldn’t do it.
The puller is in my humble opinion the most challenging and lonely jobs in a party. Getting it right is a fine art that often goes unnoticed, and getting it wrong means at best long down times, and at worst a full party death!
Here is my guide to try and keep you on the right side of the equation.
The Job
The job is in principle, dead simple… run off, find a mob, get it to attack you, and then hightail it back to your party for the kill; and repeat!
A good puller’s job is not just to get the mobs in, but to maintain the Experience Chain as long as possible, maximizing that exp. (Note: In a typical party set-up don’t expect your Experience Chain to get into double figures.)
That doesn’t sound tough!
Sometimes it’s not, but here is a short list of things that can go wrong:
- You get aggro from a mob your party isn’t ready to kill.
- You get aggro whilst running from the mob you’ve just pulled, meaning mob x2 (or more)
- You pull the mob too quickly, resulting in party death or long down times (hence losing the Experience Chain).
- You pull too slowly, or just can’t find the mob you’re looking for, and lose the Experience Chain.
- You get killed by the mob on the way back from pulling.
- You get lost!
Making the pull
The key to a successful pull is range, the further the better. If you’re a long way away then you’re much less likely to get killed on the way back.
For this reason, if you think you’re going to be called on to pull, come packing a ranged weapon, or your favourite spells.
I’ve seen people use Provoke to pull, my recommendation is don’t. It just doesn’t have enough range.
Another key tip is watch how far your run back is, if it’s too far the mob is going to give up and de-pop (I can’t be sure but the maximum range seems to be about 2 grid squares on the map).
Avoiding aggro
Being a puller requires that you know your prey… you need to know which mobs aggro and which don’t, and most importantly how they aggro. Once you have this information it allows you to make those difficult pulls (for example from ½ meter behind a sight-aggroing mob).
This information also makes the difference between getting back to your party with 1 mob in tow, or 2 (or more).
Also watch out for links, if you know you're dealing with a linking mob, make sure he’s all by himself (also applicable to mobs with a pet, it is quite possible to pull the pet independently of the mob if he's looking the wrong way).
Finding prey
I repeat, being a puller requires that you know your prey… you have to know where your mobs pop and at what time, and even more critically how often they re-pop.
To keep those chains going I recommend:
- Never rely on a single, mob-spawning location, keep a couple in mind. If you need to, get the party to move camp.
- Be flexible, never rely on a single mob type, keep a back-up mob in mind that can be used to keep the chain going (usually something lower level, but not too low or the Experience Chain will be lost).
- Look for new prey as soon as the party can cope without you. Try and leave when the mob has only 1 minute of fight left in him and go find another suitable target.
- Know your party's limitations, gauge the lowest levels of HP and MP points your party members need before they’re ready to fight again, and learn to gauge how fast your mages’ MP restores. It’s best not to guess at your party limitations, at least not at first. Consult with your mages and tanks when the party starts up, you can always adjust later!
- If your party is lucky enough to have a high-level healer looking after it (e.g., a Power Leveler), ask them to send you regular updates on their MP (disasters are avoided in this manner).
Lastly keep an eye on those Experience Chain numbers. When it ends, stop and let the party get back to full strength.
Widescan
There seems to be a perception that widescan adds something to the puller’s role, however in my experience it is a double-edged sword.
To find a target on widescan takes time, and even then there is no guarantee that it is the right level or even available. If you do use it, take time out in the middle of the fight (if you’re a RNG move into hand-to-hand range first) to select your target.
As a RNG you can end up with widescan results way outside of a reasonable pulling range, use remote scan to limit the range to where you think your prey may be.
My recommendation though, is unless you’re after something in specific (with a low pop rate), just don’t bother and hunt by sight instead.
Miscellaneous Tips
Be aware: When pulling, being aware of your surroundings is paramount. With most pulling methods there is a time delay before the pull; take advantage of this time to swing the camera round, to see what’s between you and your party (having to change direction to avoid an aggroing mob often means taking damage).
Flee: The reason to use a THF to pull, when you’re taking damage hit the flee button and leave that mob eating your dust.
Hide: The other reason to use THF to pull. Hide is another disaster mitigation skill as it will remove your enmity from sight-aggroing mobs (and you gain invisible to boot). However generally, unless you’re in deep trouble, flee is a better choice.
Camouflage: Though camouflage is totally useless when returning to the party, it is helpful to have it active to find mobs at less risk (use with caution though). You could do this with hide instead, but it seems a waste to use such a useful skill in this manner.
Utsusemi: If you can, cast utsusemi before the pull. If the mob catches you, those shadows might save your life.
Zoning: Be ready to zone. When it eventually all goes wrong and you do pick up unwanted aggro, run to the nearest zone point. Don’t bring the grief back to your party (unless you hate them).
Keep your own council: Sometimes other party members will tell you when and what to pull. Unless this is a change of party strategy, ignore them, they are fools. You are the one putting your neck on the line, and you have to go by your decisions.
One puller only: Unless you’re speedkilling (in which case ignore everything above) there should only be one puller. This avoids disaster. If someone else starts to pull, give them hell. If they don’t stop leave… a full party death is inevitable.
Pulling with crossbows: I confess this is something I don’t do… but crossbows are great for pulling. The crossbow comes with a nice selection of stat altering ammunition, perfect for softening up a target before a fight. ***Thinking about it… it’s time I took my own advice***
Macros
Use your macro to let your party know what to expect before you get home, a typical example might be:
/ra <t> {attack target with ranged attack, substitute for whatever your pulling method is}
/p Pulling <t> get ready! <call>
Adding a call is helpful. If your party is chatting, it makes sure that you get their attention.
If you are potentially pulling too high or too low mobs for your party it is worth using:
/check <t> /ra <stnpc> /p Pulling <t> get ready! <call>
This allows for an instant check on the difficultly of the mob, and brings the purple selection arrow up over your target’s head. This allows you to quickly look at the mob’s difficulty, and gives you the opportunity to not engage. In my experience this is quicker and easier than checking and then pulling.
Hot Switching
Though this section is aimed primarily at Rangers, there is no reason the principles can not be applied elsewhere. The ability to quickly change between weapons may be useful in the following circumstances:
- Where you wish to use one weapon to pull (e.g, a crossbow) and then something more damaging once you get back to the party (e.g., a gun).
- Where you wish to use different weapons in the same fight to ensure even skill-ups in Archery, Marksmanship, and Throwing.
- Or you wish to use your gun infrequently, as the cost of bullets is making you broke!
Though this may be done by simply switching equipment in the main menu; this is time consuming, and the puller rarely has the time to waste switching equipment around.
Rather, by setting up hot switching macros, valuable time may be saved. These macros can take two forms:
Simple Weapon Switching
Set the following up for each ranged weapon type you use:
/equip range "insert name of the ranged weapon" /equip ammo "insert the name of the associated ammo"
Note: Whenever the ranged weapon is changed you lose all TP accrued.
This macro automatically equips your weapon and ammo, and forms a handy shortcut for reloading ammo.
Full Automation
The macro above can logically be combined with the ranged attack command like so:
/equip range "insert name of the ranged weapon" /equip ammo "insert the name of the associated ammo" /ra <t>
This allows you have a different attack macro for each weapon, making the changeover nearly seamless. Additionally, this has the advantage that the ammo is reloaded automatically whenever you run out. However, on the downside, every time you attack you will receive an error message, which can get annoying.
Note 1: If you use the command above repeatedly with the same weapon, TP will not be lost, as the weapon is not actually changed. Though, as before, if you switch weapons you will lose all TP.
Note 2: A /wait command is not necessary for successful application of the macro; however, if the weapon is changed, a short delay may be experienced.
This is my first guide so let me know if it was useful.
The author plays as a THF and RNG, his experience as pulling in other classes is non-existent; so please feel free to add to this guide if you feel I’ve missed anything.
--Barrington 05:07, 21 July 2006 (EDT)
Lastly don’t get disheartened, pulling is a risky activity, it will go wrong at some point (usually with the first few pulls in a new party), and you will attract criticism from time to time.
But persevere and hopefully you’ll learn to love the hunt, and pitting your wit and nerve against the denizens of Vana’Diel.
cfkilla (ffxl user )--> another tip for pulling that you should practice:-
1st----> get your weapon out before pulling ( /ra ) a target. 2nd unlock the target (NOT DESENGAGE)so you can run with your weapons on hands,this way by the time you get to your party pos. you will no lose time on getting your weapons out and you may also be able to block the mob. hits while you running back to your party pos. or even hit he mob. if he gets to close to you while you running............. note:practice walking around anr running wiht your weapons out before ""pulling"" the targeted mob.using this way of pull will saves you a lot of time instead of getting your weaapon out once you on the party pos. ..... and try no to poke nobody in the eyes with your weapon while running. O.0
