The Art Of WarFollow

I wanted to try something stupid late last night just to see if it would work! It didn't! But don't worry, I'm not totally reckless, I did a /who first and the zone was empty.

What I did was to take my ranger and try and bow kite a single orc out of a group of three in one of the camps at the North end of EC. All three conned dark blue to me, so of course, when I lit one up, all three made a bee line for my position! I beat feet (chanting *NO LIONS, NO LIONS*),and made it to the zone in time (barely), but it got me to wondering what the *correct* method would have been to solo the three of them one at a time.

I have tried this with the *three dog* groups of Gnoll watchers often found in the Qeynos Hills and it works if two of them con green and only one cons blue to me.

The alternative method I thought of (while cooling my heels at the edge of WC after zoning) was to try and root two of them (with snare or tangling weeds) and then hit the third with a bow shot.

My question is would the other two still have followed when they got loose or would the timing on the root have made them forget about helping their pal? And, if this alternative technique would not have worked either, how SHOULD I have done it?

Please keep in mind that I'm working solo and that I'm only lvl 12...

I'm green, but I'm crafty, and I'm eager to learn every trick I can!

Edited, Thu Apr 29 21:56:12 2004 by OldBlueDragon

You are on the right track.

Once you have Harmony it becomes a dream. (This used to be how us Rangers survived once upon a time). Cast harmony on the little group, then target the one you want to pull and away he comes by himself, loverly

However Harmony only works up until level 40 (don't get me started on the nasty underhanded way that the Ranger/Druid haters of SOE destroyed our class by nerfing this spell), so the tactics you can develop and refine now, will be of immense use to you again later when Harmony stops working .

By the way, there is a distinction between "root" and "snare". Snare slows down the run speed of the mob, root well, roots them in place so that they cannot run/walk at all. You get a root spell in the next lot of spells at 15.

This is important because of the tactics that you can use.

It is pretty difficult without root, but not impossible, but you will have to resort to the cheesey "run to zone" ploy to clear aggro pretty often. Once you get root though you will be back in full control.

The tactics I'm reffering to also become much more effective once you have SoW, Wolf form etc, (Except the same miserable SoBs nerfed Wolf form too ) OK I'll stay on the point now.

As you may have learned for yourself by now, it is possible to outrun a mob that has aggro on you, they never completely loose interest in you, but some mobs will give up the chase fairly readily and either hang around the spot where they lost you or wander back to their camp. This is what you are trying to take advantage of.

So, the plan is to spilt the pack by getting them to chase you and snaring them progressively so that you have them spread out. The one you want to fight being the one that you snare last and pull to your designated kill zone.

(You are trying to spread them out so that you do not have to fight three at a time obviously. If you root two together in the one spot, when root expires, most likely you will have two angry mobs beating on you at the same time, this is to be avoided).)

The basic strategy is;

Approach the camp from the direction that gives you safe clear view with least risk of accidental aggro, snare mob 1. Immediately target mob 2.

Run like hell in a preselected direction (obviously in a direction with less chance of adds), get far enough away to give yourself a chance of channeling through snare on mob 2.

Run like hell again, by now you should have Mob 3 close on your tail, mob 2, some distance back and mob 1 being left behind. By now if you are lucky mob 1 may even have lost you.

Note... at this point try very hard not to double back into the path of mob 1 and re-aggro him, this is certain death.

Still running start to check where mob 2 is, if you have lost him, pull no 3 to kill zone and set to work. Be ever alert for no 2 and 1 turning up a bit later, its a 50/50 chance that no 2 will get there, depends on zone, pathing and mob aggro characteristics, 25/75 chance that mob 1 will eventually as well.

Note... some zones have very high general social aggro, making this strategy nigh on impossible, because other races will join in the fight, be aware of this. Also in some zones, if mob 1 knows where you are, it may run back to camp and get some more friends and bring them all looking for you! Recon is your friend!

Now you can adapt this strategy to just always using the zone out, personally I think this is very lame and only ever do it as a last retort. If you do do it, please do not use a busy zone and always call the train.

If you use the zone method no. 3 will be standing waiting nicely for you to zone back in, or at least very close to the zone, the others will have forgotten you completely (most of the time ).

Once you have root of course, you can see how nicely this will work. Root no. 1, run, root no. 2, run, snare no. 3, pull no. 3 out side the "aggro memory" range of no. 1 & 2, kill, rinse and repeat.

Of course, if you haven't zoned, 99% of the time both 1 & 2 still remember you and hate you, but just don't know where you are. When you get back within their "sensory" range they will come after you, be prepared for this. As you know attack is the best for of defense (some times, ), so always go back after them, when 3 is down, get track on 2 and go repeat the process, actually some times I will go back for 1 and snare and re-root him, then pick off 2.

Remember that root can break early, getting both snare and root on can be the life saver as you still have the chance to out run them even if both 1 & 2 manage to get to your camp before 3 is dead.

Having said all of that, although this is a fun strategy and the only way I know of for Rangers to seperate and take out big mobs surrounded in camps (with out harmony) it is a very high risk strategy and "normal" bow kiting and fear kiting tactics will produce much better results in the long run.

But do give it a try, later there will be times when you will njeed to use this tactic to save your group's butt, just as well to get it down pat now.

Edit... do not listen to Blacktharn, Rangers make excellent soloers there is almost nothing they can't do, it just takes a bit longer soemtimes and you have to be a bit smarter than the average bear. [:grin:]



Edited, Thu Apr 29 23:03:50 2004 by Iluien

Umm, it was Orcs, it makes a difference your know

You are on the right track in wanting to split up the group to pull a single mob, just a question of having the spells to do it.

This is where the Pally/Cleric line of soothe/pacify spells helps this class with the pull for example. With the ranger, I think you would snare one, root the second, and then hope to finish off the 3rd before snared reaches you (sow potion would help).

Another alternative would be to root or snare one and train the rest to some guards to kill and then go back for the first one (used that on goblins in BB). Note that once you break the group, you can single pull respawns often.

Don't play my ranger enough to give you better tips, but keep trying different things.

OldBlue, watch out for the Chief at that orc camp, he will be yellow to you hehe. He hides in one of the tents.

Don't run in circles when bow kiting, you will always be missing.

Either run a triangle, ie you run to each point and fire as many arrows as you can untill the mob gets too close, or run a preset path that is a series of straight lines.

Sometimes that is simply back and forward along the one path (actually a path with a little loop at each end so that you don't run into melee range), or a track that paths between a series of land marks.

The idea being to get the max LoS possible, without getting lost or backing into any nearby mobs.

When I used to hunt Centaurs in SK, I had a couple of different paths mapped out depending on where I had pulled from, and whether I felt the need for the safety of the zone for an escape.

Generally it was a line from the Centaur village back to the river, via two trees I had landmarked, then along the river, either to the clear spot up near the Ents, or up onto the side of the hill near the bridge. This let me get the Centaurs down to about half health by the time we hit the hill side and then I could either close in for melee or double back up the river to continue kiting. I rarely picked up adds this way and when I did I still had a fair chance of outrunning them and getting back control.