SomeLameDude

A couple people have asked me to clarify how TP Foe acts, beause they're having better or worse results than they thought they would.

TP Foe is very hard to use on single pulls when things are tightly packed or linked into an encounter. In other words, street hunting.

If their are 4-5 gangers doing a drug deal on the street, they are often very close together. TP Foe acts as an attack, and your victim puts out a little short radius alert, and they all notice you.

Sometimes you'll notice a central core roleplaying group of foes (for instance two Hellions buying drugs from a third Hellion), but there are also some "extras" hanging out or patrolling on the fringes.

These extras can often be pulled, if they stray a little away from the others. Specially if the others aren't facing the target.

However, in missions things tend to be a little more spread out. And even though the foes tend to comes in lumps of ~3 minions per group memeber, they aren't necessarily standing right on top each other like they often do in the streets. However, with 8-person missions, there are often sooooo many foes, that they end up being tightly packed anyways.

But if we take a 3-person mission as an example, let's say you have a large warehouse room with 6-9 foes wandering around. If you were to go in and just fight one of them, the others may notice and gang up. When your target starts fighting back, the chances of being noticed go way up, specially if the extras are facing the fight.

TP Foe allows you to grab one of them and take him off behind a wall to beat on him. So, by the time he starts to fight back, he's too far away and doesn't have Line of Sight to notify all his friends that he's attacking a hero.

So the keys to TP Foe are:
-The target has to be a little separated from his buddies (a little more separated from his buddies if they are facing the target).
-The target has to be teleported a good distance (preferably with walls or other obstacles to block LoS), so that when he lands from the teleport and starts attacking heroes, he can't broadcast back to his friends.

A nice trick I should mention for TP Foe is using a teammate as a spotter. For instance, you target one wandering foe and hide off around a corner. The teammate spotter watches your target and his buddies, and tells you when to pull the trigger. Maybe the target has walked behind a big box so his friends can't see him, or maybe his friends have turned and are looking the other way. Sometimes this doesn't work if you pull the trigger too quickly, probably due to server latency, but it can increase your chances of success.

Again, just a disclaimer. This is how things seem to work for me as of 6/15/04. Your impressions may be different when you play with the powers yourself. The game's AI and the way powers interract with them can change at any time. I always suggest that people play around a little and test things themselves.

And it's nice to know the text command, for adding it to binds. For instance, one of my characters uses: /bind F10 "local Insert your battlecry of any length here!$$e tarzan"

That lets me say my battlecry in local channel (no matter what channel I'm in, usually supergroup), and he beats his chest while battlecrying.

I was reading some threads and saw information about pulling, stated as fact, which I know is wrong. So I thought I’d write my experiences down, and pass them on. These are how things seem to work for me. They may be wrong. They may be outdated. So take it with a grain of salt. Just trying to pass on what I think I’ve learned about pulling in this game.
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Some Definitions:

Aggro Radius - The distance between you and the foe required for it to initially “sense” you. Radius varies by from foe-to-foe and by Line of Sight.

Attack Range - The maximum distance at which a foe can attack you.

Broadcast Radius - The range one foe can broadcast an alert to another foe.

Line of Sight - The forward angle in which a typical foe can "see".

Roleplaying Linkage - Some foes are linked by the “encounter” they are in, which can affect how they react to players.
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OK, now that some definitions are out of the way, let’s look at how a foe can become aware of your presence.

1 ) You get close enough that it can “see” you if it’s facing you, or “sense” you if it’s facing away from you. Example: You run up to a foe. You usually have more room to work with, if you run up behind it.

2 ) You perform an action against the foe. Example: You shoot it or taunt it.

3 ) A second foe broadcasts an alert to it, because that second foe has been attacked. Example: You shoot the foe closest to you, and it squawks to its buddies that it is “in combat”.

4 ) A second foe broadcasts an alert to it, because that second foe is attacking you. Example: A foe draws its pistol and shoots at you, and warns all his nearby buddies that he is “in combat”.

Numbers 3 and 4 seem to have different radius, with 4 being noticeably larger. You can sometimes get away with pulls violating 3, if they don't violate 4.

5 ) A leader/spotter foe broadcasts an alert to it, because the leader/spotter “senses” or “sees” you. Example: A boss senses you and says something like “Ice that sucker!”, and before you are even “in combat”, he warns all the minions around him that a hero is nearby.
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So what does this mean about pulling?

A ) Know your enemy. Are the minions smart (Reapers) or dumb (zombies)? Do the leaders broadcast alerts when they “sense” you, or only when “in combat”. Are the foes linked for roleplay reason?

B ) Most Lts and Bosses send out alerts even if they are not “in combat”. It is very difficult to pull single Lts or Bosses away from their minions for this reason. It is usually easier to pull minions away from other minions (or minions away from leaders, if the leaders aren't looking).

C ) It is considerably easier to pull a foe away from the herd, if the rest of the herd is facing away from your target. In other words, get the guy at the back of the group. If they’re tightly packed and facing in all directions, your chance of success is very slim.

D ) It is very difficult to pull singles from a tightly packed herd with an “attack”. See #3 above. There are however some exceptions. Sniper blasts are good at this. I think Taunt is good at this. Teleport Foe is NOT good at this.

E ) If you successfully get the attention of a single foe, you must make sure that it can NOT attack you until it is far enough away from its buddies. Otherwise, it will broadcast to them that it is attacking someone. See #4 above. This is a classic way that pulls go bad. You successfully sniper or taunt a foe, it runs 20 feet from its friends, then stops and whips out a gun and blows the pull.

There are a couple ways to deal with this situation: stay out of range, so the foe has to move completely away from his friends before he can use a ranged attack OR duck around an obstacle so that the foe has to come to you to attack.
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Specific powers in relation to pulling:

Sniper: “Sniper” is a category of blast powers useable by Blasters and Defenders. It seems to have a significantly reduced chance of alerting nearby foes that their friend is “in combat”. When combined with good range, this often allows Blasters and Defenders to pull singles. It is very important to make sure that your target can not return fire while he is still anywhere near his buddies.

Taunt: See “Sniper. It seems to also have a reduced chance of notifying nearby foes, but correct me if I’m wrong, because I haven’t tested it much.

Teleport Foe: The AI seems to consider TP Foe an “attack”. Your target broadcasts a small-radius alert to all around him that he is under attack and “in combat” whenever you try to use this power. It can still be successful, if the herd is not too tightly packed. But under most circumstances, this will NOT pull singles from a tightly grouped herd.

So why do people consider this a good pulling tool (other than the obvious tactic of TP them to somewhere his friends can’t follow)? Because of #4 above. By immediately getting a foe away from his friends, his return fire can not warn his buddies. This means that this power is actually sort of handy if the foes are “near each other” but not “tightly packed”, like is often the case in warehouse missions. A short-range alert goes out when you try to use TP Foe, but the alert that goes out when it returns fire seems to be larger and more dangerous. TP Foe can eliminate that second alert by getting the foe far away from others, or around a corner.

Provoke: Is an area effect, and thus usually bad for trying to pull singles.

Stealth (and other stealth-like powers): Allows you to get closer and use terrain better. This basically allows you to pull with a non-ranged attack, IF you can avoid return fire until the foe is away from his buddies. This can often be achieved in missions, where you pop around a corner and smack a foe with a fast attack, then pop back around the corner and get some distance. If the foe can’t “return fire” until he’s put a wall between him and his friends, you can be successful.

Movement Powers: Many movement powers can help you in pulling by preventing return fire. SuperSpeed is the one I have the most experience with. It has a stealth component, so you can often get close enough to pull with an attack, but then get away fast enough to prevent return fire until the foe is separated from his buddies.

Summary: Pull minions. Pull the minion that no one is looking at. Pull with Taunt or Sniper, (as opposed to an attack, Teleport Foe, or Provoke). Make sure that the minion can’t attack you until it’s far enough away from his buddies.

If you don’t have Sniper or Taunt, you can pull by being “seen or sensed” by one foe, IF you make sure that he can’t attack you until he’s away from his buddies (e.g., play peek-a-boo around a corner/obstacle).

If you pull with an Attack or TP Foe (instead of Sniper or Taunt), then there needs to be more space between foes, to avoid the short-radius alert. However, this can still be handy, if you can avoid return fire until the foe is away from his buddies or has a wall between him and them.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter. They may well be all wrong, but sopme of it should be correct and useful to those new to the game. Please post corrections, if I've messed up anything. In particular, I haven't used Taunt much.