On Thu, 16 Dec 1999, Richard Read wrote:
>
> When the puller starts to look I turn off all my songs, and get out my
>
> This is what happened to me in Unrest last time. I was in a group with a
> level 25 Warrior (the puller), a level 22 Shadow Knight, a level 20 Shaman,
> a level 20 Wizard and a level 23 Necromancer. I had my weapons out and no
> songs playing when the puller came back with a Dry Bone and two Dark Bones.
> Before I even started playing a song or attacking all 3 were on me and could
> not be taunted off me, so I died. This was only my 3rd time in Unrest, not a
> good start. Somehow I always seem to end up with all the mobs on me even
> without playing Largos or Lullaby.
>
> Where am I going wrong? Or is bard hate really this bad? If it is that bad
> then how do you all manage?
There's another possible explanation. As we've discussed
here, mobs have a "give up" radius. If you're outside this
radius, they will quit chasing you.
When your puller goes in, sometimes he can activate mobs that
don't follow him out. Unrest used to be pretty bad with mobs
that got stuck, but I think Verant has fixed most of those.
Still, it's possible that there are still some mobs with this
problem. Another possibility is that your puller is
accidently activating a mob, but because of the mob's pathing,
he is running out of the mob's "give up" radius before he
reaches your group with the real pull.
When he gets back to your group, these extra mobs are not
chasing him, but are still aggressive towards him. In your
fight, you play a song, and blammo - you're now on their aggro
lists as well. In fact, they're only mad at him because they
saw him. You are buffing and healing him, so you end up
higher on their hate lists than he. But since both of you
are outside their "give up" radius, they don't come after you.
Your puller goes in, gets these mobs (or any mobs that were
"told" about you by the stuck mob). He is inside their "give
up" radius but you are not, so they chase him. He pulls them
to your group. Eventually, both you and he are inside their
"give up" radius, but you are tops on their hate list. So
they all go after you.
There's not much you can do to stop this - if anyone in your
group is on any hate list, the instant you play a song that
helps them, you're on the hate list too. When grouped, the
bard has to act as if he inherited the worst faction and the
worst hate of anyone in the group, because that's the way the
game treats him. When I played in Unrest, every time I got
the inkling something like this was starting, I had my whole
group zone out and back in to clear any hate lists (took a
half dozen deaths before my guild believed me - fortunately
the clerics vouched for me, since they run into this problem
too to a lesser degree). Or you can do the pulling (which
insures any hate lists you get on are entirely your own
doing). Fortunately, the problem is mostly limited to zones
where mobs can get stuck or lost (or your pull is stolen).
What's worse is when another group starts a train that
includes one of these mobs. They zone or die, and the mob
that hates you tells all the others, "Awww, they got away.
But hey, there's this nice juicy bard who's been causing
trouble lately..."
--
John H. Kim
kim@...