Young's Note: I've used most of the tactics listed here at one time or another, this is one of the best post I've seen on the subject from the monk community web-site and have included it here as a reference.
All monks are familiar with the concept of FD pulling. Tag a mob, run a distance, FD and wait for most or all but one mob to return to a spawn spot. However, pulling goes far beyond this, it is an art that demands both patience and practice. And in zones like Velious and Kunark where the rules regarding FD and mem-blur have changed, it is even more difficult.
For a long time, pulling has been more a closely held trade secret than an open topic of discussion. Here and there, people have posted about one posting technique or another, but it is hard to impart all the knowledge that one has accumulated over one's EQ life.
To be honest, I've not talked alot about pulling to anyone except a select few monks that I've known in game, or close guildmates. However, as I approach Level 60, I see the end of my regular gaming in sight. Soon, my time will be exclusively raids, and my twinks will consume more and more of my time. So I hope to leave behind something more for the monk community that has been my family for almost two years. So here is alot of what I know about pulling... I hope it helps some of you.Tagging - Hitting a mob with a spell or melee/range attack to aggro it.
Aggro Radius - The distance around a mob that it will pass aggro to other mobs. Also the distance around a mob before it will notice you and become hostile. This radius is NOT static. This will be explained further.
Line of Sight or LOS - when a mob can directly see you in it's radius of vision.
Hate List - A list the mob maintains of everyone it wants to kill at the moment. This can be very long, including dozens of characters. This list can be passed from mob to mob.
Basic Chain pulling or Tagging
This simple technique involves pulling a group of mobs, FDing and having another player tag the remaining mobs. This is extremely useful when you have wandering mobs that will reaggro on standing or when their bind points are far away. Though any class can do this, it's best done with a second monk or SK as they can FD should they accidentally aggro too many mobs. To minimize the chance of FD failure, have the second monk FD at the designated tagging spot. Then, pull the mobs, FD, and when ready to tag, the second monk or SK simply stands up and tags the second mob, waits for a moment to check that they don't aggro extras, then pulls to group. The monk is then free to check aggro through standing up and seeing if remaining mobs return, FDing again as needed to clear remaining aggro, then return to the fight.
You can tag with spells, however some spells have much larger aggro radius than others, so you are best to use low level stuns or nukes versus high level stuns or nukes for tagging a mob.
Pulling Casters
Casters have a terrible habit of standing in one spot and casting at you over and over instead of coming to the party. This can be circumvented. Once a mob casts a spell it is not line of sight, IE, if you turn a corner the spell will still hit you. However, for most mobs the actually Begin casting a spell, you must generally be line of sight. So running around a corner or around an alcove will bring the mob running directly to a spot that's LOS with you.
Reverse Pulling
In some areas there is not sufficent room to FD and seperate a mob easily. One solution is instead of waiting for mobs to return to bind point, is to pull mobs PAST a group and have them tag a straggler. Then FD and let the other mobs return to bind point. This can be used also to tag the tail end of trains. This only works if you can fight Outside of the aggro range of the returning mob path.
Mob Kissing or Hugging, aka as Baby Sitting
In many zones pathing is horrendous. Aggro'd mobs will take LONG detours through the zone instead of the short distance between you and the party. However, if you remain in melee range with the mob while backing away it will follow you step for step. This will allow you to circumvent bad pathing. Note, you will take a beating if you need to pull like this, so backing away from a mob is generally better than turning your back to them... at least you can dodge and riposte this way.
Level Based Aggro
Aggro radius is not finite. It decreases in relation to the difference in level between the mob and yourself. This is why greens will often not aggro until you stand right on top of them. It's also why a level 60 monk can pull a mob from in between 2 blues and aggro only one, while a level 52 monk will aggro all 3 every time. This is why a level 60 of any class is sometimes a better puller than a level 52 monk.
Aggro Delay
When you first enter a mobs aggro range, there is a random delay before a mob aggros you. This is supposed to represent the mob debating whether to eat you or not. During this time you are still not aggro, which is why sometimes you can run through a mob with SoW without aggroing, but always aggro it whenever you run through it at normal speed.
Bind Point Aggro Delay
When a mob resets to it's bind point, IE wanders back and clears aggro, there is a momentary delay (less than 1 second) when it cannot aggro someone within it's aggro radius. This will be used to advantage in some techniques.
Aggro Passing Delay
This is a variant of aggro delay. When an aggro mob passes another non-aggro mob, it will pass the Hate list. When a mob wishes to pass the hate list, the second mob also experiences an aggro delay of up to 1 or 2 seconds before it actually aggros.
Lazy Aggro
In Kunark and Velious, if you are beyond a certain distance from a mob, it will lose interest and no longer pursue you, though will still maintain you on the hate list with an increased aggro radius.
Sit Aggro Pulling
Some of you have probably noticed that when you sit or heavily wounded mobs will aggro you at far greater distances than when you're healthy or standing. This is a variant of Level based aggro. When you are critically injured or sitting, the game actually considers you to be Level 1 instead of your current level, thus your aggro range increases dramatically. This can be used to your advantage. You can be outside of normal aggro range, then sit and stand immediately upon aggro, reducing your aggro range to original size. If you are lucky, you will aggro the nearest mob, but will be standing Outside the lazy of the other mobs. The minimum it will do is give you more time to FD and exercise additional pulling techniques.Out of Sight Tagging or Obstacle Tagging
We know that a mob cannot generally cast spells or aggro unless it can see you, otherwise mobs would aggro you from other side of walls. A mob's aggro is LOS, so if it can't see you, it won't aggro. Use this with chain tagging or on short bind point pulls. Aggro a mob, duck some distance around a corner and FD. Then have someone tag the mob, or if the distance to bind point is short, just tag the mob yourself. If you do it right, you won't aggro the other mobs, even if they're only a short distance away. Note that some zones are bugged, and mobs will aggro you through walls... know which ones this will work in.
Split Pathing and Obstacle Splitting
Any observant monk realizes that mobs have return paths that they follow when they return to bind point. However, what many monks don't realize is that there are Multiple return paths depending on Where a mob is when it loses aggro. If you can get one mob on one side of certain points in the zone and another on the other side, they will take different paths back to the bind point. Then, just chain tag or tag as usual as they will be far away from eachother. This can also be used with obstacles such as rocks, fountains, staircases which act to block a mobs LOS, thus allowing you to pull one out of sight of the other.
Persistent Aggro or Auto Pulling
We know that roamers often don't forget you. This can be a good thing. On raids or groups when you want 4 to 5 at a time, you can aggro a bunch of mobs, and then chain tag 4 or 5. Then, FD and watch the wanderers leave. After the group finishes those, stand up again and wait to see what other mobs have been aggrod and split off a bunch more. Repeat as needed until either all aggro mobs are dead or your group/raid needs a rest. This allows you to pull without going deep into the zone on every pull.
Caster Delay
When you pull mobs with casters, often one will hang back and being casting a spell. Sometimes you Want this to happen. Continue backing away from the caster, taking the melees along with you who will continue to beat on you. When the spell hits, FD. Then, you can either chain tag the caster (a variant of reverse pulling) or you can chain pull the melees that came with you safely who are now out of the aggro range of the caster. You can also wait for the near mobs to seperate should you need to whittle numbers down more. Great for breaking 2 and 3 spawns.
Yoyo Pulling
When you FD, some mobs will return sooner than others. If you stand some or all will reaggro. If you FD and then stand repeatedly, you may be able to seperate the mobs should some mem wipe, or they decide to return staggered. Combine yoyo pulling with obstacle splits, split pathing or caster delay to further break them up.
Bind Point Splitting
At the exact moment that a mob returns to bind point and is resetting it's aggro, it is unavailable for recieving a hate list. If you have a mob that is just getting to it's bind point and another still wandering back, you can stand up from FD at the exact right moment, and the wandering mob will reaggro but the one at bind point may not aggro. If not successful immediately, you may use this to increase the distance between the two mobs enough to use lazy aggro and aggro radius to tag or chain tag one.
Warp Splitting.
When a mob has a tough time getting to you, it may warp right on top of you. This will not happen all at the same time, one may get stuck a few seconds before the others. If you FD at the exact moment it warps to you, you will have one mob near you, and the rest far away out of aggro range. You can then chain tag the single or couple safely.
Reverse Warp Splitting.
When a mob gets stuck returning to it's bind point, it will warp back to bind point. This may not happen at the same time. If you time it right, you can tag the one or two mobs at the exact moment that the others have warped back to bind point without aggroing the others.
Level Splitting
Mobs often have different levels, thus different aggro ranges relative to you. Pulling a low level mob next to a higher level mob may aggro both every time, but pulling the higher level mob may not aggro the lower level mob as it's aggro range is smaller. It is helpful to know the level of the mobs in question and their relative ranges should you wish to pull this way. Have higher mid and lower level players con the mob to get an accurate gauge.
Ping pong splitting
If you have two monks, you can split multiple mobs that will not seperate. Each monk aggros a different mob, then pulls them out of aggro range of eachother. Then, a third person tags while both monks FD. The third person only aggros one as his hate list entry never gets passed.
Snare COH pulling
Should you have a mage with CoH (level 55 spell), you can have the monk pull a group and a ranger or druid act as snare. The monk pulls the group, the snarer snares one then is CoHd back to group clearing aggro. The mobs continues to pursue the monk and then FDs. When the mobs return, the snared mob slowly seperates from the group and can now be tagged safely. Can also be used with reverse pulling. Should a CoH not be available, you can have the snarer zone out or run outside of lazy aggro range.
Root COH pulling
Same as above, but instead of snaring one mob, you root one. This can also be used to seperate boss mobs from groups of regular mobs.
Center Pulling
When three mobs are in a line with eachother, they may be in aggro range with eachother, but the ones on each end may not be in aggro range of eachother. If you can pull out the center mob successfully, you may be able to pull out the mobs on each end safely.
The Sacrifice Pull (addition by Young)
The sacrifice pull is quite simply taking a death on a chain pull to lose aggro on several adds. I have used this a number of time to get mobs like the Statue or Ikiatar solo. (This is given only as an example and there are other ways to do these pulls.) Have Main puller tag Ikiatar and his Guards and Wyverns will follow. Puller will FD at the NToV door, first chain puller then aggro's Iki and the guards will aggro as well, he pulls these to the Hub area and FD's. He lets them walk thru North door. Chainer re-stands (prob already low on health even with Voiddance) Ikiatar runs faster than his guards and will warp onto the chainer. Chainer dies and aggro of the other mobs is dropped off. Iki can now be pulled solo by a third chainer. This is how the sacrifice pull works.
All of this knowledge was accrued through practice, experience, study, and observation both of mobs and other monks. It is the accumulation of 2 years as a puller. You may know some of these, hopefully some or all of these will be new to you.
This is not the end. Each technique is powerfull in itself. But when you combine them, synthesize them and exercise them in concert with eachother, you will find that you will have a very extensive set of pulling tools at your disposal.
Remember, pulling is all about one goal... to bring mobs without wiping out your group or raid. The complete wipeout of a group or raid is the Greatest failure of any puller. It is better to die than wipe out your group or raid. Expect to die. Expect to die alot while learning. But with time, practice and experience, miracles are possible.
Do the impossible.
