Well, as a former Monk in EQ1, I have to say that I'm a little disappointed with the way pulling Mobs works now. The group tag and solo tag distinction is interesting and makes the game more challenging in some situations, I don't find any fault with it. However, I am of the oppinion that, in addition to Aggro'ing grouped mobs, there should be a radius aggro like there was in EQ1. I'm sorry, but if I'm standing next to someone and a yellow con Up Up mob hits them then runs back towards a gang of guys that it's grouped with, I'll be damned if I'm not gonna do something to help. I think it's a bit silly that you can pull a solo mob out of a room FULL of solo mobs and none of the others think to attack you. As a puller (which most monks were) the only thing that really made me valuable was my ability to pull a single mob out of a room(rangers had better DPS at higher levels, rogues too, and rogues could scout better with sneak than we could with Fd. and we certainly weren't tanks). I once pulled Venril Sathir to the zone line without bringing any adds (which isn't to say I didn't GET adds, merely that I didn't BRING them)...Half of the fun was doing rediculously complicated things that no one else could manage. The old rogue pull method of walking up, invisibly, to two mobs, taping one, going invis again, and hoping to God the one you had just pulled didn't hit you and break your invis before you got out of aggro radius of his friend...things like that, things that shouldn't have worked, things you made work by the force of your will and blind stupid luck, things your group never even KNEW about because they couldn't get into the parts of the dungeon you were pulling from...that's what I miss. So those of you that have played games with different types of Mob aggro...what do you think about the EQ2 way of doing things?
Honestly, I never did like pulling in eqlive. I felt there was too much emphasis on splitting mobs and that ruined much of the gameplay from eqlive. It got to the point where certain content required a monk or a bard puller just as much as a healer and a tank because 1 mob was more than enough for a group and 2 meant certain death. I'm glad that pulling has been simplified in EQ2. Rather than 1 person doing all the work of pulling, there is more emphasis on the entire group working together, which didn't exist in eqlive, IMO.
If you'll notice, social mobs will link in the case of pulling. Take Firerock Giants for example, if two scouts are next to each other and you pull one, both will come stomping after you. You still need to be careful to a certain extent but not to the point of it back in EQ1.
I played a Ranger in FFXI. All the way up to level 57 before I quit to come to EQ2. In FFXI, Ranger and Thief were, hands down, the only way to pull. Samurai could do decently... but the 2 best were Ranger and Thief. So, I pulled every XP group with no questions asked. And I enjoyed it. I miss pulling in EQ2. None of the tanks will let me pull. I even have Trick Shot now... and after I explain what it does, they still don't care. ><
There are still some social mobs out there. Just recently I thought I could shoot an arrow at a solo mob who happened to be walking through a group of linked mobs, and I got all 6 or 7 of them running after me so I ran like hell. :smileyvery-happy: The linked and non-linked mobs are really just a control device for the devs. If they want you to be able to pull one mob at a time, then there will be 7 mobs in a room and none of them will be linked. If the devs want to *force* you to pull all 7 mobs at the same time no matter what tricks you try to pull, then all 7 mobs in the room will be linked in the encounter. It really just depends on how they want the area or encounter to play out. Have fun with the easy solo pulls while you can. I have a feeling that once people really start getting into the higher level areas, many encounters will start becoming much more challenging due to this system, because players simply won't be able to work around the system.
I guess I just haven't encountered any social mobs in Antonica / Stormhold / TS -- where are these crafty devils hiding?
