Puller's Primer v0.4a [long]Follow

Hi, again. I figured I'd write this post as a way to help people out in general. In my static party, I'm the one that does all the pulling. I think that I’ve gotten to be fairly good at it, and I rarely have to use my ‘one bad pull a month’ card. In fact, my static jokingly says if I wanted I could even have two. I’m not saying I’m an expert or even an authority on this (at this time I’m only a Level 46 Monk / 23 Thief), but I’ve had a lot of time to see what I do, what works, and what doesn’t. Also, since I’m often out and competing with other pullers I get to see the same sort of things for them. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and really bad.

I’m breaking this up into six sections, based on the different aspects of Pulling. These sections more or less answer what, when, how, and why. Okay, enough on the intro.

[li]Section One: Know Your Enemy

You probably thought I’d start with “who can pull” or “how can they pull”, but the most important thing when you’re out there all alone is what to pull. When selecting the next target for your party you should consider several things:

A) Know the area you’re in.
[li]Do undead/time related mobs come out at a certain hour?
[li]Is there any ledges or one-way cliffs you can run off?
[li]How complicated is the run back to your camp?
[li]Are there hidden entrances?
[li]What about the environmental conditions?
[li]What are other parties doing?

All of these are important, and I’ll give you a few examples. The pond in Qufim is a great example. You can pull crabs and worms all day long(though you’ll not pull many worms). But come 20:00 you had better get yourself to the ice floe in the middle, or you’ll be banshee food. As far as watching out for cliffs or such, let me tell you it is no fun to run off a cliff (becoming separated from party) and have the merry little mob follow you to your eventual demise. As far as the third point goes, there are times that you’ll have to go halfway across a zone to get a pull, dodging little tiny cliffs and grass paths you have to follow to get from A to B and back to camp. Here’s a little secret: mobs don’t care about some of those obstructions. The little bluff you’ll have to dodge can sometimes be scaled by a pursing mob. Pathways in the crawler’s nest – no problem to that worker crawler you just pulled. As far as hidden entrances go, I can tell you this: If you’ve ever panicked looking for the entrance the first time you pulled something back to the Hidden Room in crawler’s nest – you know what it is like to be truly alone. I have watched a few pullers spend too much time running into solid wall when the entrance was just to their left or right.

Environmental conditions matter for a few reasons. First off, visibility can become an issue. When it becomes foggy out, it becomes that much harder to your target – or what my be near your target. But the more important reason to be aware of Environmental conditions is much simpler: Elementals. If you pull with magic (more on that later), I’m especially talking to you. Also, since wise people tend to leave elementals the hell alone, they will wander. Once they start doing that, there is no telling where they’ll go.

The final point here – and the most important – is knowing what other parties are doing. You’re going to be out there more often than the rest of your party members. You’ll get to see what the other pullers are doing. Are they being careful? Are they constantly pulling stuff that is almost killing their party? Are they pulling mobs that if/when it kills their party if might kill yours? Barring NM’s, the part you need to think about pulling is getting a single mob your party can defeat back to your camp. Beating another puller to the punch on something that can eat your party without a fight is dumb


A very large and important – but unspoken – part of pulling is scouting. Knowing what is available to pull is a big part of your job too.

B) Know your enemy!
[li]What level is it?

     How does it [C]heck?

[li]Does it Aggro?

     To what does it Aggro?

[li]Does it Link?

     Does it cross-species link?

[li]What is its Aggro Display?

     Noise?

     Movement?

[li]Spawn timer

     NMs

     Deadzone

When it finally comes time to head out and find something to pull, you need to think about a few things. For example, without checking any guides: which is a higher level: Elder Quadrav or an Emerald Quadrav. Both have the same max level, but one has a much tighter level range. (Elder: L42-L49, Emerald L45-49). If you’re a party of 42’s pulling low to mid Elders you might get lucky with an Emerald or two, but then it could go badly. If you’re camping an area, you’re going to be there a long time. Brush up on the local wildlife – before it eats you. Every puller has at his/her disposal the best tool for evaluating a pull. It’s called: Check. If you’re not sure about a target, it is really a lot easier to click control-c for check (or button whatever) than “yes” for “allow yourself to be raised now.” An exaggerated worst case, yeah, but just making a point.

When it comes to pulling stuff that aggros, it is important to know a couple things. Like, oh, to what it aggros? Beetles aggro to sight. Bats aggro to sound. Quadravs are blind as they are big, but goblins see pretty well through that mask of theirs. Undead go for the weak (low HP) and Elementals are all about the magicide. Your total level may also be a factor. If your tank slipped by the mob w/o aggro on the way to camp, it doesn’t mean you’ll be fine on the way back out. Finally, though you shouldn’t be resting too much while pulling, beware the ‘coward monsters’ that will aggro ANYHING that is healing. Mind you, this is potentially a case of some tiny mob really wanting to die, but be aware of that aggro type too. If you’re lining up a pull, just make sure that the monster you’re targeting (or a buddy) won’t pull you first.

Linking, it’s the mob’s version of XP Chaining, only less fun for us players. Imagine your dismay when you’ve gotten that Damselfly following you, when all of a sudden three of its buddies “Me too!” For the most part, you’ve really only got to worry about linking mobs of the same type. If a pulled mob passes within a certain radius of one of its brethren, that second target will come along. If you pull a Yagudo past another Yagudo, you get two for the price of one. If you pull that Yag past a bee, you’re not getting any extra company. This is true for many, many monsters. However, some monsters are all about killing us PCs, so if something is chasing you, it’ll want in on the action. Classic example: Exorays in the Crawler’s Nest. If you pull a crawler next to a fly, you’re fine. A fly next to a crawler, you’re fine. An exoray next to anything means a lot of “/sh Need raise(s)! at I-9.”

A note about aggro. True to the real world, a lot of our friendly FFXI mobs have a nice little range of threat displays. If you’ve ever watched some guy taking a knee and seeing a goblin suddenly change how it’s walking behind him, you’ve seen an aggro display (and the resting player get up suddenly in a shower of their own blood). But the key component of aggro is usually sound. Maybe it’s a sudden growl, or maybe it’s two quick chirps, or maybe it’s the reverse whip noise and a sudden target appearing above your stat bar – which just lost a few hit points. In short, in the times when something aggros to you, there is often some sort of indicator you have to go on.

C) Know when your enemy will be there.

Two points here. First off, if you’re killing all sorts of monsters, be aware that they may be placeholders. A placeholder is, uhm… a placeholder for a spawn of a NM that may occur at some time. The NM can’t appear unless the non-NM version of itself is removed from the spawn queue. So if you’re beating up on Billy goats all day, be aware that their big brother may be just down the road. Next, be aware that some monsters spawn according to a set clock. It may be that every 17.5 minutes, something nasty shows up. Finally, be aware of – and cautious of! – Dead Zones. If you walk into a normally inhabited place and see not a single mob in sight it means one of two things: the other pullers in the area are that efficient about pulling a mob as soon as it pops, or (more likely) some ohmygod high level person has just come through and wasted them all at once. This is actually bad news, because it means that every mob he/she killed will respawn at once. It could ruin your day.

[li]Section Two: When to Pull

This one is pretty easy actually, and it amounts to checking a few things:
[li]Party HP
This should be a no-brainer, but since a lot of people don’t have brains, I’ll say it. If your party just barely lived through a fight, don’t start another one.

[li]Mage’s MP.
Mages will usually have a set MP level they want to be at for a pull. Easiest way to find that out is to ask them. If the WHM likes to have 300 MP to keep you alive, then don’t pull at 170 MP. All your melee people could be at full HP, but if your mages MP tanks are sucking air, you’d best hold off.

Now, there are, of course, and infinite number of times not to pull. Those should be getting more and more obvious as you read this. It is also noteworthy that there is no time that you MUST pull. Dirt+face = no fun. XP Chaining is covered later, but a puller’s mantra should include the word ‘caution’.

[li]Section Three: How to pull

You’ve made it this far, and I’m almost in danger of making a few points. Now that you’re sure you’re not going to pull roving death back to your party camp, you need to decide how to do it. A quick note about the actual act of the pull: Do NOT engage the mob. This is important for two reasons 1) the most important is that your weapons out running speed is much slower than your normal running speed. If you’re going to get chased by something that wants to kill you, it’s best to run as fast as possible. 2) if you happen to press the ‘lock target key’ then you’ll find yourself not running so much towards your camp, but into the waiting jaws, claws, weapons, or spells of the aforementioned something that wants to kill you.

Here are your choices on how to pull

[li]1)Ranged attack:[All] This is by far the safest and most reliable method. You see a mob, and you shoot it with something; an arrow, a bolt, a bullet, a pebble, a Tsar’s Egg (nooooooooo!!!!!!!). This takes very little time, you can do it at any point (provided you have the ammo) and it requires no MP.

Recommended pulling weapons are: Pebbles (by this I mean any small object meant to be thrown), bows (all projectile weapons), boomerangs (any non-consumable ranged weapon)

There are a few things to consider though. First, know the range of your projectile. The time it takes to edge into range of throwing (after getting out of range errors) may interfere in your pulling rhythm. Second thing to consider is that you must remain absolutely still while using ranged attack. This is not the best method if you want to pull something and start running right away. Final thing to consider is the “Twitch.” In a recent patch, there seems to have been a small bug introduced. This causes your avatar to change direction just slightly every once in a while. This naturally happens most often when you’re lining up a shot.

[li]2) Provoke:[War05] This is a potentially dangerous method. Yes, it is true that it is a quick ability that allows you to quickly pull a monster. However, I’ve seen provoke have an undesirable ‘side-scatter’ or ‘shotgun blast’ effect on monsters. This ability is much better used to maintain hate control while in combat (true, it does have a 15 second recharge). This is not an optimal choice for the person out there all alone trying to bring the mob to camp. Also keep in mind that it may interfere with your party’s tank establishing hate control at the fight’s beginning.

[li]3) Chi-blast:[Mnk41] This is a great way to pull monsters. In fact, you don’t even need to be even facing the mob when you use this ability. This ability has two downsides. First, is its long recharge. 3 minutes is not all that long, until you compare it to the 8 or so seconds for a bowshot, the 15 seconds for provoke, the 10 seconds for a spell… you get the picture. The other limiting factor is the range. While not quite whites-of-the-eyes range, it’s definitely a little close for comfort some times. I’ll also say here that while it is great fun indeed to boost a Chi Blast to orbital weapons scale damage (my best is a lowly 182), it defeats the purpose of a quick, reliable pull, and it interferes with hate.

[li]4) Spells:[Various] It is unlikely that white or black mages will be pulling, so this section is for Dark Knights, Red Mages, and people with a mage sub. This can work. You’re allowed a bit more movement that with a Ranged Attack, and the “Twitch” won’t get you. However, you’ll need MP to pull this off. Also, the ending animation of your spell going off leaves you unable to move for slightly longer than other pulling methods. Give yourself a little extra run time if you pull with spells.

Now, there is a fifth way to pull, that I don’t really recommend, but it has its place:

[li]5) Zero Range Pull:[All] You take your weapon out and whack the monster from right next to it. This has its disadvantages. First, you’re weapons hot – so your run speed is slower. Two, you and mob are running at same speed back to your camp – it’s going to get a lot of licks in while it hits your back. Since you’re likely not a meaty HP god, these extra HPs of damage means you need to get cured a lot more during the upcoming battle. Guess who gets the hate for that? That’s right, the WHM - who is not going to like you when your pet monster starts eating their head (White mage? Oh, how divine! I’ll have two. *chomp* *chomp*). Oh, that extra healing takes MP too. MP your tank will need more than you should.

Now, all that being said, the zero range pull (ZeRP!, or *wham!* as I sometimes call out to my party), has its upsides. First, if your pull distance to camp is minimal, it is good. Second, it’s fast and sure. You hit only the mob you want, and it comes with you. This can be a useful technique for getting – or keeping – an XP chain, but it really pales by comparison to what else you have available.

I should also mention that you should NEVER sneak-attack pull, Weapon Skill pull, Sneak Attack-Weapon Skill pull, or do anything that causes a massive amount of damage when you first pull the mob. Again, it interferes with initial hate management. Big numbers look pretty, grass doesn’t.

[li]Section Four: Talk to your party!

Okay, stating the obvious time again. When you’re pulling, you’re pulling back to your party. They have a vested interest in knowing that you’re coming back. You’ve found the target, it’s okay to pull, and you’ve pulled it. Now… just let the party know. Really, it’s that simple. Set up a few macros. Here are a few examples:

The fundamental basic:
/p Rdy? (or Ready, or Ready to kick mob ***, or whatever just see if people are ready to go)

A good improvement
/p **** Preparing to pull <t>. Pulling in 4 seconds.
(give them 6 seconds and look out for “NO!!!” or “WAIT!!!” or “PLD is still AFK!”)

Nice and basic:
/p <call(some number)>I have pulled <t>. Returning to camp!

A bit more information, showing smooth operation
/p <call(soft chime type $)> Clean pull of a <t>. Incoming!

Maybe you had to go a long ways to find something:
/p <call(soft chime type #)> Long distance pull of a <t>. I’m on my way, but may need a bit of healing by the time I get to camp.

If you’re getting a bit more hurt
/p <call – buzzer sound or something else loud> Coming in hot! This <t> is kicking my @#%@#, get ready with healing and provoke!

Bad news!
/p <loud call> WARNING!! *LINK* Mages, get ready with sleep for on secondary target!

Now since you’ve made such careful study of the area, you can also give your party an estimate of how long it’ll take you to get to camp. If you know it’ll take you 10 seconds to run back to camp after pulling the mob, let your party know. It’ll give the mages up to the last second to rest, it’ll let your tank get provoke ready, it’ll give your other tank time for one last swig of water, in short people will be extra ready.

/p <call> Pulling <t> 15 seconds to camp.

And then just count down the time at reasonable intervals (no need to cover every second). By 5 seconds or so, the party should be able to see you. Mob will be close to tank’s provoke range, and it’ll work well.

Maybe it’s:
/p Pulling <t>. Helluva long pull 30s to camp


Talking to the party and making sure they’re reading is good, because you have to remember one thing. When you’re out there pulling, there’s only one *** on the line: yours.

[li]Section Five: XP Chaining – All that glitters...

...has been the end of more than one or two adventuring parties. XP chaining is great. I won’t go into the mechanics of it too much here, nor will I go into the formulas. What I will say is this: You’re the Puller. The party leader should be competent enough to say whether or not to go for the XP chain, you got to make it happen. This is when two things I’ve said previously are important 1) knowing the area you’re in and having scouted it for mobs and 2) your pulling method choices. As the times for subsequent XP chains get shorter and shorter, your pull style may get a little less eloquent. In other words, if you’re chaining for XP, and the mobs are CLOSE, then it may be okay to walk over and hit your target from point blank.

But by no means should the XP chain be the priority. The priority is killing stuff, not the other way around.

[li]Section Six: When it all goes wrong (or ‘Oh @#%@^...’)

It’s going to happen. If you’ve been careful all along, watching monsters, avoiding links, knowing what aggros and how, you’ll go a long, long time before something goes wrong. But, it will. You’re going to pull off more than you can chew. Either that or random chance is going to take note of you and rub you out.

For good pullers, the mistake comes in one of a few ways:
[li]Rogue Mob: Another party got wiped out by a mob and this newly freed mob is linking with your pull target
[li]Pop-spawn: Maybe it’ll be next to the mob you just pulled. Maybe it’ll be behind you. All you know is that when there was once one…now there’s two.
[li]Spell drop: Your sneak or invisibility just wore off – right next to the biggest mob in the zone.
[li]Human error: you messed up. Maybe you got in aggro range, maybe you had a bad macro. It happens
[li]Monster ability (sleep, bind, etc…something that stops you from getting back to camp)

Now admittedly, there are multiple scales of in trouble. The first thing to do is not panic. Okay, I’ll admit when you hear the noise of something (or many somethings) aggroing you it’s scary. You really want to run/hide/escape/panic. Well, if you don’t panic, then your chances of living are better. Once you’ve not panicked, see how badly you’re screwed.

Maybe the land worm got you:
/p Ack! I got bound/slept/slowed at <pos> by the <t>. I need some help!

Maybe it’s just one add (additional target, link, etc). Think, can the party take two targets right now?
If so, TELL THE PARTY!!!

/p <loud call> WARNING!! *LINK* Mages, get ready with sleep for on secondary target!

Now, on your way back to camp, just be really careful that you don’t get any MORE trouble.

Usually though, it goes much worse than that. You’ve managed to get aggroed by a lot of citters, a big and nasty critter, or a lot of big and nasty critters. You should NEVER run back to your camp. After looking it over you realize you’ve got one of two choices (maybe a third)

[li]1) Run for the zone: This choice should be used with caution. The primary reason is that many parties make their camp at a zone line. This is a risky practice on their part because people can do exactly what you’re may do: drop a ton of angry mobs right in their midst. If it looks like you CAN safely zone your problems, then send SHOUTS!. Yes, people will get annoyed “Gob train to zone!”. But annoyed is better than angry, which is what people are when mobs show up without warning. Frankly, we’ve all been there when some idiot drops three pugs into our camp. *screwdriver* *screwdriver**screwdriver*. We’re dead, and the idiot is in next zone “/t sorry!”

However, in reality you will rarely get to zone mobs. That leaves….

[li]2)You’re going to die. The best thing to do here is to take all your mobs into an area remote from the spawn areas, turn to face them, spit out a bloody tooth, and bring it on. Without the melodrama of the last bit, what you need to do is bring the mobs to an area where they don’t naturally spawn that is not too far from your camp – and then die. Go down swinging at least, in fact I recommend that. Eventually, the mobs will return to their various spawn areas and your party will be able to come raise you. Yeah, its not great to be dead, but it beats killing the party. I’m not going to say that it’s noble and people will remember that you sacrificed yourself to save them – but they will remember that you didn’t kill them. That’s the important part.

As an ultra-remote third possibility….

[li]3)Now there IS a third option, but it requires a lot of synchronization with the party. As thieves are often the ones pulling, you have one chance: Perfect Dodge. It lasts 30 seconds. Know what else is 30 seconds? Escape, Tele-Mea, Tele-Dem, Tele-Holla, etc. If it looks bad, and you and your party have it together it is possible to get away without dying. What has to be remembered here is that YOU have to hold the attention of everything you brought with you until the spell is cast. No one can heal you, no one can help you fight. Again, you’re all alone. If you’ve not a thief (or a Paladin using invincible, but if you’re a Paladin what the heck are you doing pulling anyway?!),… well the only choice you have is to try to lead the entire mob train around like Noah and his animals and time it that you arrive back at your camp just as escape or teleport is cast. Of course, even if you’re successful, you’re potentially leaving a ton of angry monsters near other players. Bad idea.

[li]Section 7: Wrapping it up

Okay, hopefully this hasn’t been too much of me rambling, and that it has proved useful. Maybe just a few more people out there will become better pullers (which admittedly might limit my target choices if you’re pulling near me). So finally, after all this risk for hand-delivering exp to other people, what do you get? Well, you get a ton of skill ups, usually in the form of evasion. Mine is maxed. You also get a slightly easier ride in combat. In exchange for sticking your neck out at the beginning, a good tank will take the hate from the puller. So, for your initial risk and damage taken, you get a good payoff. Finally, if you do your job, people will remember you. Experience Points are beyond precious. Better than gil! If you have 2 billion gill for all the items you want – you’ll not get them if your level is not high enough. By being the person who hand delivers this mana, you’ll be remembered. And, if you go down and go down alone, you’ve protected their experience points once again. You win (well, aside from the dead bit). Remember the phrase “all dressed up and no where to go?” That’s what a prepared party is without a puller.

Okay, enough. Take care, good luck, and stay away from my mobs.

P.S. Critique and comments welcome.

/clap

Thank you for the guide. Steal is also a very possible way of pulling (although cooldown can be undesirable).

Edited, Fri Aug 27 20:30:12 2004 by mdurrant

Hello!

Nice little guide you have going here. Currently I'm a 42 rng/nin that everyone expects to pull. I've had a lot of experience doing it and your guide covers a lot of what I've learned.

There are a few things that I feel are worth noting that haven't been mentioned in the guide yet.

There are three things to consider when deciding what weapon/ability/spell to use. The first, as you have pointed out, is speed. Sometimes (read, all the time) in heavily camped areas a bow or crossbow will simply have too long of a delay to be effective. In these instances it is best to pull with an ability or spell. Shadowbind is an excelent one for rangers, Dia for those crazy mage pullers.

The second aspect to consider is range. Projectiles have a much longer range than most abilities. If you have a long way to go back to camp and you want to make it there alive, you have to have a lot of distance between you and the mob. Abilities like Provoke require the player to be within attack range and thus vulnerable to a mob's claws during the run back to camp. However, too much distance can be a bad thing. For instance, some mobs will lose track of you and not care that there is an arrow sticking out of their heads. In this case you will need to remind them by placing another arrow in their thick skulls. Also, mobs will not always follow a straight path to you, they sometimes will inexplicably wander side to side, the further and further away you get, leading to possible links. For long distance pulling, you need to remain far enough away not to get injured, but close enough that the mob won't lose track of you or grab a few buddies to join him.

The third aspect is hate. Knowing how to control this is the mark of a truely great player. Say you are a rng/war and you don't want to waste arrows pulling, so you pull with provoke. The hate that you have built up on the pull makes it difficult for the tank to get it off you. Even when the mob eventually disengages you must hold back on your attacks to ensure the mob doesn't once again engage you. Even pulling with arrows can sometimes be risky. Do enough damage in the initial pull and the mob won't care that the tank is provoking and hacking at its backside. The solution to this, Old Arrows / Rusty Bolts. Yes, they hurt accuracy, but a missed arrow still pulls the mob, and with almost NO hate build-up. Plus, switching arrows does NOT reset your TP. This is crucial when you are in the skillchain rotation and can't afford the tp loss by changing from a high dmg bow to a pebble or boomerang.

Now, I've talked about hate as if it is something to avoid if you are a puller. For the most part this is true, but there are instances where hate can be a good thing. Ninjas, whether main or subbed, get the Utsusemi ability at lvl 12. This absorbes 3 hits directed toward you. Now, say a rng/nin of sufficiant level pulls a mob with a strong hit from a bow/xbow/gun. He leads the mob back to the camp. The shadows will absorb the damage while the tank can build up enough hate to turn the mob. This is especially beneficial if there is a thf in the pt. My favorite pulling strategy involves leading the mob back to camp, having Utsusemi absorb the dmg, using Piercing Arrow to build even more hate, then having the thf SAnTA Viper Bite onto the tank. After that, I could drop a nucular bomb on the thing and it still wouldn't turn away from the tank. So, in some instances, hate can be your friend, allowing it is transfered onto the tank.

I've focused mainly on rangers (for obvious reasons) but other jobs make excellent pullers as well. Summoners and Beastmasters (when they deign to join a party) can use their pets/avatars to pull. This works best in a crowded area where linking is a real threat. The pet attacks a mob, the pet get gangbanged by a bunch of angry mobs and dies (or is released), then only the mob that was initially attacked pursues the smn or bst, the rest of the group will ignore you.

Well, that is my take on pulling. I hope this bit of information helps. I know it has helped me in the past. Good luck.

Excellent post! I just wanted to add one little thing here:



One of the passageways leading away from/to the lake (hard to pick out which one without being there) stays undead-free through out the night, unless you aggro one. You can go in there and still pull crabs. ^^

Very nice post. I'm glad to see some more pulling guides being written, and this one is very good. Pullers are a vital part of the party, and so many parties neglect to consider finding a good puller when setting up their party. The party can be great in theory, but if you can't reliably get the right mobs safely at the right times, you won't be effective at all.

A few comments:

If you have to run that far back to camp, you should consider changing camps. Choosing a safe camp, preferably away from the zonelines and away from other parties can make a huge difference in the puller's ability to pull, and the party's ability to get large, fast XP chains. Likewise, if you have to worry too much about what other parties are pulling, you are too close to the other parties, or there are too many parties in the area. Find another spot to camp -- the rewards are worth the time it takes to find a suitable spot.

I find it's better to NOT ask the mages what amount of MP they want. Many mages, especially WHMs, like to play it safe, and would rather have a little more MP than they really need. Also, the amount of MP required will vary depending on the difficulty of the mob, the amount of TP the party has built up, etc. It's something that you should get a feel for as you play with the party.

The first few pulls in the chain should be at or very near full MP. The XP chain timer is long enough between the first few battles that you can afford to rest very close to full before pulling. This allows you to build the XP chain multiplier while keeping the party healty, and it gives you a chance to get a feel for how the following fights will go. As you go longer into the chain, the kill timer gets shorter and shorter, and pulls must come quicker. When this starts to happen, use the previous battles as a guide for when it is safe to pull. If you pulled a VT enemy on the last fight, and the WHM used about 100 MP, then you should pull when the WHM has at least 100 MP plus a bit of a safety net before pulling the next VT. If the party has TP ready, it's probably safe to pull a bit sooner. If they used their TP on the last fight, you had better wait a little bit longer.

There is a variation on this type of pull that can also be useful at times, especially when far away from other pullers. Pull by aggro. If you are fighting enemies that aggro, you can simply run past them and immediately start heading back to camp. This will get the enemy to follow you back to camp. The danger with this is that it IS possible to lose aggro, you have to get fairly close to the mob, and since the mob is not claimed, other parties can pull the mob off of you.

One of the better places to use this is if you are a higher-level player assisting a lower level player. A high-level player can run in front of a mob that aggros to resting, for example, /heal to gain a little hate, then run back to the low-level players. The mob will continue to whiff on the high-level player until one of the low-level players does something to draw more hate, such as using Provoke, or /healing themselves.

One other point you didn't mention, that I think it worth bringing up:

Multiple Pullers - If you are unfortunate enough to be in a camp with many other parties around you, or fortunate enough to be in a party that is so effective that you simply kill all the mobs in the area too quickly, it can be useful to have two people pulling for the party. It takes a little organization to pull this off safely though, as it can be dangerous to have two people pulling at the same time.

The best way to handle this is to have one person designated as the primary puller. That person is responsible for ALL pulls, including those pulled by the secondary puller. The primary puller calls all the shots. When the primary puller is having a hard time finding a suitable enemy, they instruct the secondary puller to look, usually in a second area where enemies commonly spawn (down a second tunnel, behind the party instead of in front, etc). When the second puller finds a mob, he should NOT pull, but tell the first puller that he has found something. It is then up to the primary puller to instruct the secondary puller to pull or not. Regardless of what the secondary puller thinks is best, they always wait for and follow the instructions of the primary puller, even if another party is about to pull the mob that has been found.

This is the safest way to handle this situation. Occasionally the second puller will lose an enemy while waiting for the primary puller to give instructions, but this happens fairly rarely. Being able to out-pull other parties in the same area or pull shortly after a mob respawns in a depleted area to keep the chain going has huge advantages when done correctly.

if you're a rdm, you may want to pull with gravity.
the mob's movement is lowered quite a bit ^^

I think that a good puller is the most under-rated part of any importaint exp party. When playing as a thief I often play the role of the puller. For people who've never done it or do it badly, they don't realize how much hard work it is.

You have to get a feel for your party early on and be able to quickly recognize what they can handle and what they can't handle. We have to figure out the best combonation of monsters to pull to get a decent chain based on what the party can handle. (vt, t, t it or whatever works with your party. it's always different unless you have a static party) And during battle you have to pay attention to how much MP on average your mages use up. That way you can tell with out having to ask if you can pull in that one more mob to give you that 5th chain or would it be just too close to call.

I was in a party in Qufim and we had been going for an hour or so. We had just done a little chain and the mages had to rest. Even so I head out to scope out some monsters (because of the heavy competition I like to be ready to pull just as soon as the rest of the party is ready). On my way out there one of the mages yelled out, "DONT PULL!!! We are low on MP" This kind of annoyed me especialy since they said this a few times already while we were parting. So I yelled back, "I CAN SEE THAT! I am just getting ready! I have never pulled when you were not ready! What in God's name makes you think my mind will go blank an I will all of the sudden become an idiot now?! I've trusted you to do your job well and you have. I have done my job well! Trust me not to all of the sudden ***** up!!"

That got a "You go girl!" from the mithra ninja in the party. It also brings up another point already brought up in this thread but some people still don't get. If a puller does ***** up he is expected to die. This is a hard pill for many to swollow but many times your party isn't at a place where they can easily zone. Sure you could lead the monsters to the party and kill some of them too or try to zone leading the monsters to other parties but you seriously will be looked down upon by other people. If you are the kind of person who doesn't care about that then you are usualy the kind of person who wonders why you can have you party flag up for a few days and not get anyone wanting to party with you. Besides, by the time you are at the level where HPing can deal a big blow to your exp you should have at least one person in your party who can raise.

I guess my original point was, if you have a realy good puller in your party let them know how good they are once in a while. (i knotice once i get started it is hard for me to stop ^_^)

Excellent post ^-^

And my own additional fluff:-

I have found that pulling with a low delay low damage shortbow is better than a big delay big damage long bow (from a hate management point of view in particular).

I don't like pulling with sleep arrows (or when people use bind / sleep / anything that immobilises the mob) as it adds more time for a pop on your run home.

Also I usually use three macros on pulling - IT, VT & TP fodder - the party seems to be happier when they are kept more in the loop as you pull (or to be more precise - they tend to leave off back seat driving).

wodnerful guide.

Very good post.

I was thinking of writing something like this myself, but I am less experienced, so I enjoy the read.

My plan to write something like this came after the DRK in PT in Qufim would yell "Pull" after every battle. He was not leader, and had no reason to because the puller was very competant. I find the silent puller, who doesn't ask ready, just knows when the mages have enough MP, and the timing for chains, is the best.

I would love to be able to rate you for this.

From what I've seen, the best way is to keep updating the original post. Don't worry about version numbering. If you want to do that, keep an update history in the post itself. As the guide evolves, people continue to discuss it. If it seems to be getting lost a lot, occasionally update it, or add a comment to the bottom to "bump" it up to the top again (but don't do this too often -- it does get annoying).

If a guide is really worthwhile, then as more and more people read the guide and refer to it, and through revisions it becomes better, eventually someone will request that it be made into a proper guide on allakhazam (like those under the Game Guides... link on the left). If the admins think it's a good guide, it will be added.

For that matter, consider adding a BST as puller. If you do, some of your problems go away right off the bat, because the BST can either charm something to pull or use a jug pet. Either way, if any mob links, the BST can simply use the Stay command.

When the original target and the link finish wiping out the BST's pet, only the original target will come for the BST, who can pull as normal. The link will lose interest and wander away, as long as its not a naturally aggroing mob that can see the BST.

The BST can also pull of adds that show up in the middle of a fight relatively easy by turning his/her pet on the add (or charming it if he has not pet and its charmable). Once the add has hate on the pet, he simply pulls the add away, stays the pet, and runs back to the fight.

Cheers!