initial pulling is somewhat a group effort. everyone has to have the discipline to hold dps until position/hate is established. tank could taunt int or a ranger can auto pull, i don't know if they have actual pets yet.
i would wait a bit on adding abilties though. i've been recently going through the skills for each class, for pvp knowledge and getting a feel for LAS 12. i think the purpose of LAS is something like a loose talent tree system. also we don't know much about dispositions and weather/enviroment can change the way we pull.
Nice, I think the idea has potential. I could see something like this being useful in a very controlled camp where you can reliably keep pulling 1-2 mobs at a time, and there was a good balance in the group that allowed for virtually no downtime. From what I’ve seen, this will be the exception rather than the rule. I don’t think it would be great in more challenging environments where the potential to get overwhelmed is greater (although that may be offset by the buff it provides, as you say). I also think it fits with what has been said about Rangers utility being about moving in and out of melee range and/or being in motion constantly to achieve greatest impact. As a former Ranger puller, I am all for anything that helps me run away faster after I tag the mob :)
Stuff like this leads directly to a power gamer meta. It's going to encourage people to turn away certain classes because they don't fit the power groups need to keep the buff going. A beauty of EQ(yes this isn't EQ) is that you could pretty much take anyone and be effective. This seems like something that would become greater than the normal gameplay, a mini game that takes over how people play. I don't love it if you can't tell. Good groups are already going to be better than bad groups. Good pullers are already going to be able to distinguish themselves and make the party's progress more efficient. It seems artificial and unnecessary. I find it hard to understand why this would exist within the world. A Druid is a naturey based spell caster who can use the powers of water to heal and buff, etc. Why do people get a buff because they stay in combat? It doesn't fit.
@therek lol same here man. If weapon shield is down, it's bio break time (jk lol)
@Ainadak people like you always find the best exploits lol. That could work if there were creatures strong enough not to die to aoe, but weak enough to where your group can actually pull while offtanking another mob the entire time efficiently, but Most group zones the creatures obviously hit like trucks, so it would be really hard to actively offtank an entire mob while normal pulling, but yeah you would have to find the right dungeon with the right creature and be able to offtank it and it could be possible. In a raid though i think youre right it'd be much easier to take advantage of as well. All of this could also easily be worked around by making it an aoe distance buff or maybe if you're taking damage at the time then the buff turns off etc probably things we could come up with.
@keno Yeah I figured this would obviously be a near end level spell or even an AA/special ability/spell, as obvoiusly the scaling wouldn't even provide a real numerical damage at such low output, albeit move speed could still be useful. And as far as existing in the world come on now you can't think of something?! They've always had some kind of group atk, move speed buffs etc, and theyre a class of the forest, so maybe Aellos or one of their other god's/nature blesses them with this increase in fleet of foot/momentum (similar to how the rangers use momentum as a class trait) once they've been active for a certain amount of time. Or maybe sine they have an advanced affinity for wildlife (command birds, beasts, etc), maybe the thrill of the hunt or gift of the wild from some spirit of one of their animal's gives them aid idk I could think of a lot, but I mean honestly most classes operate like that. I dont think any of us really believe a human warrior hyelling in battle is really going to stun or make a creature run away, same as a warrior saying "hey dragon F you" (aka use taunt) and the dragon is going to just turn around and start fighting him instead, and they don't have any water powers or special muscles of steel. Sometimes we have to use our imagination a bit heh