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HOW TO PULL AT MERCS

a guide for (pet classes?)

by ariiadne.

EDIT:  YAH SO NOW THAT ITS 'WORKING AS INTENDED' ONLY PET CLASSES CAN PULL MERCS OUT.  perhaps they will find this guide useful, they can use the same tactics if too many are pulled, without using luck's fickle fate and their robot/pet instead of course, im not a pet class so i dont know how well it will work.  *sigh* it was a good guide at one time....  anyways fu funcom.....

The Bridge This bridge will be your nemesis.  You will often fall off of it at either end.  Don't worry it is easy to get back up <see below>.  Falling:  If you fall off don't panic, but if you are leading a Merc behind you it will often hit you a couple times while you are enjoying your swim.  It will sometimes fall off the bridge into the water as well.  If this happens you will a) have to get out of the water as soon as you can cause it will hit you and you can do nothing while swimming b) watch out for its warps cause it will warp you back into the water c) have to shoot it from dry land until it warps itself to the group.  Be careful at this point as aggro will be crazy for a few seconds until tanks get the Mercs attention.  Leading the Merc:  If you have the Merc following you, make sure you run out straight from the bridge until the Merc has cleared the bridge.  Otherwise if you cut to the left or right as soon as you touch land, the Merc may follow you in that direction and fall off the bridge. Laggggg:  Once you hit bridge and the rest of the group on the other side shows up on map, you will often have a bit of lag fun, which could be disastrous if the Merc catches up to you and whacks ya a few.  Also if you make a slight shift in positioning you can fall off the bridge quite easily. Tips:  Jump the last half of the bridge to dry land.  Wait for a second when reaching bridge in case lag cuts in.  Straighten yourself out before running across.

The Map

1.  Staging Area. 2.  1 Primus and friends. 3.  4 Primuses (eek!) 4.  1 Notum Profundis (eekx2!) 5.  Escape Route. 6.  The Reason You're Here. 7.  Very Narrow Here.

1.  Staging Area.  This is where everyone sits and waits while you bust yer azz off trying to survive pulling these guys.  WTG lazy mofos!  haha jk.

	2.  Primus and friends.  Be careful rounding this corner, the primus will easily aggro you through the wall.
	3.  Group of Primuses.  4 Primuses are waiting here to kick your azz.  Look out for them when rounding this corner.  It is also the beginning of where it becomes very narrow, so kite that edge but watch your step!

4.  Notum Profundis.  He's a very nasty fellow who will pwn you.  Be very careful to steer clear of him when rounding this corner.  But also be very careful not to fall off the edge as it is very narrow here.

5.  The Escape Route!  Follow this pink link around the keep to loose the Merc Aggro.  This is helpful when you have more than one after you.  About halfway around, they will stop following you, stand there for a bit, and then return to their little arena place.  You use this route in what is called a Fake Pull.

The Fake Pull

The Fake Pull is a very useful tactic used for groups of mobs where you want to kill just one (like Dyncamps, i use at Heibel a lot.  also used at Mord raids.) and leave the rest behind.  It works like gold here.  What it basically is is you aggro them, they all come chasing after you, you run away, loose sight of them and then let them reset.  When you come back they are all reset back to their original spots.  Then you aggro the one creature you want to attack you and 99% of the time just that creature will aggro you instead of the whole group like the first time.  There are several ways to get their attention of course, but I do not recommend the body pull in a fake pull, because as you get closer there is a chance that they will all aggro you again.  Some use bullets, some use weak roots etc because it is a single mob nano and usually wont root a powerful mob, but my personal favorite is Luck's Fickle Fate, as it will always aggro and can be cast quickly and it doesn't matter if it hits or not.

Remember as you are running away with the single Merc chasing you you will occasionally encounter 2 things:

1)  The Merc will warp you.  Not much you can do about it.  Keep running!

>  Actually I found that the Merc warps do some good sometimes.  If you aggro all the Mercs, or even more than 1, and you get far enough away as to where they stop and just stand there before resetting, they sometimes warp you during this period.  If this happens you are in luck because about 90% of the time if you get far enough away and cast Lucks Fickle Fate on the Merc you wish to pull again, only that Merc will aggro you!  It's like a free fake pull!  The downside to this is that if you do it, all will aggro 10% of the time, and you will have to resume running around the keep to loose them once again.

2)  The Merc will loose aggro.  If you do not get it back quickly then the mob will reset to its position in the arena and you will most likely have to do a fake pull all over again.

Remember to keep the Merc running straight over the bridge and make sure you don't get too far away from it.  Keep it at a nice constant distance from you at all times.  They can still hit you on occasion and do nasty damage very fast.

A Special Note:  No, you don't have to run All the way around the keep, but it doesn't hurt.  If you are feeling particularly brave, run back after a second or two after they leave your radar.  They may aggro you again, so be careful.  Or only 1 may aggro you.  If 1 aggros you you could pull it if it is the one you want or run around the keep to lose aggro if it is one you don't want.

6.  The Reason You're Here. 

1.  Don't go near here!  Notum Profundis and friends like to hang out here and aggro people trying to pull the Mercs.  It can be very dangerous especially if Profundis catches ya in his aggro cycle.  You will have a hard time if he does, he will keep warping you back to him over and over.  The only known ways to escape are to grid or zone to the west.  Zoning to the west with Profundis agg is very hard cause just as you are about to reach the zone he usually zips you right back to his side.  Transforming to yalm helps, but it still is difficult to get away from him.  This is also the reason you jump halfway up the ramp instead of going all the way to the end of it, so as to not get Profundis agg. 2.  This is your aggro point.  You will pull from here, be it gunfire or magic. 3.  Those 5 bad azz mofos hang out abouts here.

Well now that you know How to pull the Mercs, let's go a little more in depth into getting up to that point.  First of all, use all defensive perks and hots.  Now that you are all buffed and perked up it is time to pull your very own Merc!

step 1 run in  if you cant do this, you shouldnt of come here!
step 2 go over to side on ramp  on teh left side of arena is the ramp you want!  omfg I <3 ramps!
step 3 jump up to ledge when you can  do not go too far up the ramp or there may be trouble!  The Mercs and Notum Profundis like to agg while you are there.
step 4 run to front of ledge  stay near the outer edge of the ledge. step 5 choose your aggro way and use it  use your bullets or spells to pull the merc you want.  get ready to run for it! step 6 run like the wind!  omfg run you magnificent bastard!

The first time more likely than not all 5 Mercs will attack you.  This is very bad.  If you didn't run your defensive perks you may very well die.  And that's not good.  They warp to you instantaneously, so once you click that spell icon (or attack icon if you do it the hard way), hit autorun immediately!  Go straight into your fake pull:  run around the outside of the keep praying you don't get aggro from the corner mobs (2, 3, 4 above) or fall off into the water.  If you fall into the water and have to spend time finding a way up you will most likely have to do the fake pull again (ie they will all attack again.)  If you aggro the corner mobs they may be beotches and warp you to their side a lot.  If this happens zone to the West as soon as possible.

OK, so you didn't die when running away from all the mercs and you made it around the keep without killing yourself!  That's a good start!  Now repeat steps 1-6 above once again, aggroing the one that you want to pull to the group.  Only that mob *should* attack you.  If all attack again either too much time has expired between pulls or the game hates you - you will have to do the fake pull over again.  Otherwise keep its aggro and cross the bridge and yer home free =)!

Some Bad Things Can Happen Whilst Yer Up On That There Ledge

We now come to the section I like to call Some Bad Things Can Happen Whilst Yer Up On That There Ledge.  These things are random but dangerous.

1.  For some reason Notum Profundis wants to be a d!ck and warps you to him.  FFS!

2.  For some reason, Ian Warr Nukes you.  This may just do damage or it may freeze you.  This is dangerous because while you are frozen on the ledge you may be in a position where one or all of the Mercs may see you.  Or if you are on the ramp and it happens Notum Profundis may see you and then you are back to #1.

3.  For some reason, all the Mercs see you and attack!  Well saves some nano I guess (or bullets), run for it or die!  Go into your fake pull routine, etc, and you should be fine.

4.  For some reason, Ian Warr or another Merc warps you into the center of the arena.  It doesn't get much worse than this.  There's no way out unless you yalm or grid or die.  Yalming requires time and for you not to be in a fight.  This could suck cause they could aggro you right off and then thats not even an option, or they could aggro you while you are yalming, and you most likely wont make it.  Gridding is the most efficient way, but then you will have to fgrid or find fgrid and get back, and that's a long ways and can take a long time.  If you had done a fake pull already, you will most likely have to do it again.  And thirdly, you can perish at the hands of the evil Mercs.  I don't recommend this, as most people will point and laugh at you for the rest of your days.  Note that when they warp you into the arena they sometimes don't aggro you straight off and gives you time to escape.

7.  EEK!  Very narrow here lookout!  The ledge comes very close to the wall at this point.  Careful or you may pull aggro or fall off!!!1

Other Tips:  Aggro is very delicate and can be all over the map.  Watch your mobs and learn to think as they do.  Or something, lol, but after a few hundreds of times of pulling you can learn to anticipate their moves.  You know when to run back and when to run away, when to hold them and when to fold them.  But you never count your money, do you hear me!?!?!!  Never Ever Count Your Money when you are sitting at the table.

Be Fast.  Take a few practice laps round the ol keep to see how you do.

Always have perks and 2 hots running at all times.

When yer scr3w3d yer sr3w3d.  Grid and save yourself the rezzing time.

Pull Primuses that aggro you to camp.  Make those lazy mofos have something to do!

Practice your fake pulling.  It's not like it's brain surgery, but it can be tricky at first.

Tips on dealing with OTA:  If you or anyone has OTA aggro you will not be able to give the letter.  Zone to the West.  You need not attack OTA to get aggro, if a primus attacks you near the OTA and you have a damage shield this will draw aggro as well. Just Trade the letter, do not talk to her about it.  Intiate trade and accept. Do not have OTA targeted and say "kill" or "death" or other words like that or it may despawn. It only stays around for an hour, so be quick! Do not attack OTA!  It will despawn. And finally, don't make awesome poses like this, or OTA may get jealous.