A puller's primerFollow

How to pull in the exp!!

1) If you aren't a ranger you will probably be using a boomerang type weapon for pulling. Why? Well... a) Boomerangs don't do a lot of damage if they hit. This means low hate b) if it misses you didn't waste any gil on ammo. Even if you are paying 5 gil per arrow, it adds up over time. A gil saved is a gil earned. Arguably, a magic using class like DRK could pull with poison (or dia), but this uses MP, and isn't as effecient for getting skill chains. So it's recommended that thf, rng, or war is pulling. Also pulling with provoke isn't very good unless you plan on tanking the mob...

2) Learn to watch your mage's MP!! You should not have to be told when your mage is low on magic, because you can see it in the lower right corner of your screen. This doesn't mean you can't go out and find the next mob to get back to camp. This does mean, however that you should wait until your healer is around 65-85% full of MP before bringing that mob back to camp... Yeah, you might lose a few chains that way, but I'd rather lose a chain then die and lose exp...

3) Feel out your party with the first few pulls. Pull a T or VT on the first few pulls just so everyone gets a chance to see how they are working with everyone else. Once you feel that everyone has comfortably settled into thier roles, then you start bringing in the IT's...

4) If you aren't tanking the mob, and your mage has regen, ask them to cast this on you instead of cure and cure 2's. Less hate for the mage, and you shouldn't be pulling hate away from the tank anyways. This also allows your healer to focus on curing the tank.

5) Good pullers are remembered and asked to parties more then average or poor pullers. Strive to be the best asset to your party that you can be!! Don't be afraid to take one for the team if you pull a link!

Thank you for expanding on this!! If anyone else has anything to add, be sure to do so! ^^

As one puller completly suprised me, know what aggros and how they track you. We had a puller on his very first pull get a link, I wasnt very impressed.. Till he flee'd back and immediatly got the mages to deodorize him, and bam, the link was gone. I've seen too many pullers heads simply shut down and run like hell towards the party, getting the party in some bad situations.

Just the fact he smoothly and effectively shed hate and kept the party in good shape impressed me. *Shrug*

O_o

You know just because seeing that specific monkey avatar bugs me, where exactly did you find it? o_o

No, it doesnt scare me .. The thing that scared me is I animated a .gif exactly like that a bloody long time ago for a friend of mine on the SC forums, though I wont be so arrogant to instantly assume that is mine >.>

It just freaks me out to see it again after so bloody long, mine or not :P

Really? I just feel a strange urge to check my closet for a certain evil-monkey.

I disagree on the argument that you should see good mages using juices in the first few fights. The way I see see it juices are more emergies like that it+ mob that just won't die then for standard use, emergencies when having a melon drink can and will save lives, either for the tank or you since you won't have to bene.

Not that theres anything wrong with juices, I'd just put using lots of juices in the column with duel astral rings and all the other mage luxory items.

How hard is it though to get cooking to at least 6? It could take about 1k and at most an hour. Then they will be able to craft orange juice in the fields.

I know that I hardly see mages use juice at all, and past 41 it becomes useless, as they should have refresh on them anyways. But it could make the other 40 levels move much faster.

Less downtime=More Exp

PS: Plus if they keep up with cooking, they can make their own pies, which is another plus for them. More money saved on consumables= More money to spend on scrolls.

This info is also good for the rest of the party. I was a puller for 20 levels as a thf(33-53), and getting told by the pld or some other party member when to pull gets old quick. Pulling is an art, and if you dont believe me, you havnt ever pulled. Trying to avoid extra aggro, getting the right type mob(when they start to use their jobs to be more deadly, such as the BLM ants) making sure its the right difficulty, and getting it back to the camp at the perfect time is EXTREMLY hard. People screaming at you dosnt make it easier :)


Oh and if you ever get a link you know your party cant handle, either because the party setup just cant do it, or the mob might be too strong, die. I had a party in CN for the beetles at 50, and our party kept an add asleep for 7 mins while one person who died from the previous fight was raised and rested to full health. Bards make this possible. Another time pulling in Quicksands I ended up with two BLM ants on me, I bit the dust, lost some exp and slowed the pt down, but its better than a wipe when they both decide to cast Tornado ;o

the monkey is from family guy.
i cant remember what episode, but chris (the son) makes mention of "the evil monkey" in his closet or something, and it's shown at the top of the stairs pointing (ala, the icon).

its also used as the logo/icon for the streaming group, saltwaterchip, found on winamp's internt tv.

A few different things you can consider:

1) You can use an Xbow + Bloody Bolts ( or any other status bolts) if you feel confident that you can land a hit. This can be productive for a party and it help outs. I would give a second nod to blind bolts to avoid getting hit during a pull.

2) Any job worth his dime that is expected to be a puller ie: Thief, Ranger, and maybe the extra Nin, should have the ability to do utsusemi. It was the original intention of the spell, so please recast before a pull.

3) I would suggest using 2 macros for pulling. One to identify the mob and see if the mages feel ok with it. You can use "<t>?" and type it on the fly like i do ^^. This is good for afk people you miss, or if mages have some dire need to get more MP :P

I would avoid (3) in highly camped areas like Yhutunga Jungle and Yhoatar. . .

One last thing, if you take thief to post 45+. You will have the pulling itch ^^. LIke how someone said:

Qufim Island is the starting ground for learning how to pull by avoiding undead and linking on pugs,

Yuhtunga is stepping stone on learning how to pull and dodge gobbie aggro,

Yhoatar is a step up by learning how to really avoid aggro in narrower space,

Garlaige Citadel is where your pulls becomes a responsiblity for your party and the zone. Here you will have to make smart moves on where not to pull and how to get back :P All sound aggro and possible linking (if you are too stupid to pull a bat in front of a door :P

Crawler's Nest is where the puller finally graduates. If he can successfully pull here, then he has culminated all skills. Here you will need to pull without linking by sound and sight. Mobs tend to spanw in many different locations. Training mobs can shut down a zone for a lot more players. It will also kill a lot :P. There will be small areas to pull and later a large area to pull...



Edited, Mon Nov 1 08:54:19 2004 by snky

Pulling is very party dependant.

In a party last night the lineup was; Pld, Rdm, Blm, Blm, Drk, Whm.

This was at lvl59 in Gustav Tunnel and I was pulling as the Pld the entire night, and it's about my 2nd or 3rd party in that area where I ended up as puller, we were still hitting an easy chain 4 and often 5 without breaking a sweat. Flash is excellent for pulling since it blinds the mob for about as many swings as they would take at a Thf or Rng's utsusemi shadows and also cements hate better to start the fight.

One thing to keep in mind for juices is that their refresh effects do not stack with refresh, post 41 the immense majority of parties have a Rdm and access to this and I've never seen anyone using juice in these situations for any reason.

How much MP to pull with is also up to some debate, especially at higher levels. For an easier fight in a mage heavy party you can often end a fight with more mp than you started. Mages will be resting with dark staves during the fight when they are not casting spells and often the blm's and whm's can rest even at the beginning of the fight to get extra mp back while they leave a rdm or brd to debuff the mob a bit.

In the party setup mentioned above my Whm considered himself ready for a fight at 100mp so long as he was resting at that point and was done casting anything. He would rest up to almost full mp while I cured myself to begin the fight during which I would probably be going into low yellow for health then stand up for a cure IV and be there the rest of the fight.

More important than any set tactic of pulling is to pay attention to your party layout and its capabilities and pull accordingly.

One thing I would add is about pulling RNG or range attacking mobs..

this really applies to pulling all mobs, but is especailly important on the RNG class mobs.

a lot of times I see a puller bring something back into camp and stop at camp, or on the edge of camp..this is "ok" for a melee mob, and just bad practice on a range attacking mob..

a puller should always run all the way thru a camp. most times far past.. two real reasons for this..

#1 for a melee mob this makes them run past the tank and when the voke happens it turns the mob back towards the tank and puts his back towards all other members.. I like to do this so the mob takes longer to attack others if hate is lost..

#2 for RNG class mobs is makes them run into the center of a camp..when a puller stops at camp it forces the tanks and other DD's to run to the mob while it fires ranged attacks.. this esentially moves camp to the mob, which increases chances of getting a pop or a link..

really a puller should run past camp and keep running until they see a voke macro shown..as a RNG puller the time it takes you to run back to camp after voke allows the tank to anchor hate, before you start raining the 150 + damage arrows at the mob... as a THF puller the time it takes you to come back to camp after voke allows team members to set up properly for SATA, so you can fire it off right as your return..