pulling

I'm not very good a pulling, so I had this brilliant idea that I'd start a ranger. I figured somewhere between making her and getting her to the end of the campaign (Prophecies, for the free skills through quests), I'd be forced to learn how to pull properly.

Surprise, surprise, just having a ranger and a bow hasn't improved my pulling yet. I didn't see any other threads on the issue so I thought I'd ask: anyone out there who's good at pulling, can I get some advice/tips? How do you do it?

I've seen rangers who can pick a single target out of a balled up crowd of monsters and tug it ever-so-gently to a safe area where the rest of the party can attack. This impresses me to no end. I want to learn.

[wiki]Flatbow[/wiki]

the important thing about pulling is not letting the red dot enter your bubble...

First off: A ranger shouldn't be the one pulling actually. It's basically the tank's duty to do that (if there is one).
Nonetheless, to give you a few hints about pulling in general.

It is necessary to know that enemies are allways grouped. If you attack one of them, their group will come towards you. Another thing to note is that enemies will notify nearby creatures. If this creature is from another group of enemies, they will also come towards you.
Use a longbow/flatbow Utilize higher terrain to increase your range. Observe group movement, single out groups. Bosses usually have a group of their own where only they're in. Enemies will notify nearby creatures. Make sure your target is not hugging another creature from another group, less you pull both. Speedbuffs can be used to break aggro if something goes wrong (unless the enemy uses speedbuffs too) Distance breaks aggro. If you want to drag a group to your party, you do so by letting them close in now and then
In short:
It's basically the ability of reckognizing a group of enemies. Once you have managed to do so, it's not hard to pull them out of a group. It's basically impossible to single out a target from a group, sometimes however the target it actually its own group (like a boss or a special mob). I'm sure to have forgotten something though, meh.

/edit @above post
Sometimes getting them into your danger zone is an appropiate way to control them. If you can survive a few hits, consider it as a possibility if they break aggro too easily.

Ok, most of the stuff in the previous post I already knew, although if this is the only thread explicitly about pulling it's worth making a list.

I can almost always single out a single group of foes - or figure out where the separation point between multiple groups of foes is. I'm patient enough to watch movement patterns before I rush in. I get the higher ground deal with the longbow, and I looked up range before I started using a bow at all. I think all of this stuff is basic, the kind of thing that everybody from every class should learn to do.

But I really have with my own eyes seen rangers who can pull a single, one, foe from a group that appear to be very well connected. I've seen it done so that the foe actually never enters the ranger's aggro bubble and travels a fairly impressive distance away from his group. I've only seen this done with a bow, so I don't see how a melee character could imitate the effect using his body.

That's what I want to learn how to do. If it sounds impossible, well, no wonder I was so impressed when I saw it happen.

If a single enemy can be pulled, he frankly wasn't part of the group he was standing at. He could be a survivor from another group or maybe he did not have his own group to start with (as it is with bossmobs or special mobs, sometimes popups show the same behavior).

Maybe I should be more specific then - I went through all three missions on the Ring of Fire Islands with a ranger who could reliably, although not without exception, pull a single foe from the mobs we encountered during the missions.

it generally involves a lot of running and shooting. and you'll also need a fair bit of room to pull this off. basically, just identify the target you want, shoot him with your flatbow, and immediately run away. if you do it right, you'll be able to start moving while your character is still in the "cool down" animation of bow firing. just keep running and shooting that target, until the rest of the group peels off.

the skill of being able to pull one target isn't really all that useful. normally, a single group of monsters can be easily dealt by any pug easily. it's kinda nice to be able to do this when solo green farming, which i did when i was farming for my bolten's recurve a few days ago.

The technique of 'rubberband pulling' can also be used. If you know the range at which a group or a single mob will not pull past, it is relatively simple to isolate one at the end of aggro and the rest will not stay. Play hit and run at the end of aggro until one is seperate, then get behind it (on a wall or rock w/e helps).
Slide pulling is using an attack at range, but left clicking behind you once the firing animation is >50% complete, you'll start sliding in that direction -before- the arrow even leaves the bow sometimes. I find that Longbow is actually better than flatbow for this since the firing animation *is* longer.

Personally, I think they best method for a group to pull enemies is for the front line ally (i.e. warrior or dervish) to pull out a flatbow and attrack enemies with a single shot before backing up slowly and switching to their primary weapon.

If you ever do pull as a ranger, however, be careful if you have your pet with you. If you do have a pet out, you will have to turn and run a.s.a.p. after you shoot an enemy to keep your pet from running into aggro. You can also just pull without attacking by getting enemies within your aggro bubble then backing up to prevent this as well.