Ranger Aggro Question

[BrendockMerryfoot]

Hey there.

So, a friend and I thought the journey to 60 was too easy so we've rerolled a duo to level together made up of a ranger and a bard. Sounds awesome, right?

Anyway, I've been told that Flame Lick is what I should be using for aggro. Is there any truth to this? The cast time and mana cost isn't much different between Flame Lick and Snare.

Thanks!

[Malone88]

Both are great for gaining aggro.

I believe Snare is a little slower and a little more mana, so perhaps Flame Lick
would be better.

[Samoht Farstrider]

Flame lick and snare are both high aggro spells. Either one works nicely.
If you fighting mobs that run, and they go down quickly, just pull with snare. For longer fights, I would pull with flame lick and snare at 30%.

[BrendockMerryfoot]

Thank you both very much for the information!

[YendorLootmonkey]

Snare costs 50% more mana than Flame Lick, and Flame lick has a DoT component that is going to add aggro every server tick, so in terms of aggro vs. mana cost it's far more bang for your buck (10 mana, 1.5 cast time for FL vs. 15 mana, 2.0 cast time for Snare).

But, since you'll still want to snare before the mob runs, you're going to cast it anyway during the fight, so just use snare to open so you're only expending 15 mana instead of a total of 25. If you're still having trouble holding aggro after the opening snare because the bard is twisting DoT/DD songs, toss a Flame Lick in and you shouldn't have to worry about aggro any more.

Another watchout against Flame Lick is in a group with a bard or enchanter mezzing, you may want to stay away from using Flame Lick so the DoT doesn't break mez, especially if there's poor communication and /assist skills in the group -- you can always snare to build aggro (or just root once you're ready to break mez) so it doesn't go right after the enchanter/bard once you attack.

Having said all that, I duo'd with a bard on Live for many levels... snare the mob in some outdoors area, bard plays fear song, and both of you melee the mob while it's slowly running away. Watch out for adds, snare them as they come in, and they will hopefully get tagged with the next pulse of fear song. Shouldn't need to worry about aggro, and this conserves your HP/mana because you will rarely take hits.

[Malone88]

Having said all that, I duo'd with a bard on Live for many levels... snare the mob in some outdoors area, bard plays fear song, and both of you melee the mob while it's slowly running away. Watch out for adds, snare them as they come in, and they will hopefully get tagged with the next pulse of fear song. Shouldn't need to worry about aggro, and this conserves your HP/mana because you will rarely take hits.
It's a really nice duo actually...non-stop XP if done right. Bard can throw some nice
haste on ranger as well...;)

[Pint]

flame lick is incredible aggro, one of the best spells in game for aggro imo

[Thulack]

flame lick is incredible aggro, one of the best spells in game for aggro imo

Honestly this is still used on Live servers to get agro quickly even at level 90+.

[Estu]

How to EXP quickly as a bard-ranger duo:
1) You pull half the zone with arrows, bard pulls half the zone with bellow.
2) Bard kites, you stand around looking handsome and/or taking down stragglers.
3) Hit level 60 in two hours (exaggeration)

Not saying this is the only way to do it or the most fun, but it would certainly be the fastest :p

[Kender]

How to EXP quickly as a bard-ranger duo:
1) You pull half the zone with arrows, bard pulls half the zone with bellow.
2) Bard kites, you stand around looking handsome and/or taking down stragglers.
3) Hit level 60 in two hours (exaggeration)

Not saying this is the only way to do it or the most fun, but it would certainly be the fastest :p

ranger could bait kite while bard kills

[phacemeltar]

bard/ranger seems fun

[BrendockMerryfoot]

Lots of good information here, thanks everyone!

[Kitsy]

HA! I told you flame lick was best for grabbing aggro!

[Estu]

ranger could bait kite while bard kills

Right, absolutely. This would probably be better. Ranger low HP kites, bard handily AEs.