Lull / Soothe / Pacify

[zebin]

Is there a resist check on this spell?

I remember this spell being a near worthless, with a chance that it would fail, and usually aggro on a fail. It was bad enough that I don't remember it being used to break camps, the accepted method of camp breaking was to just pull all the mobs and mez or root park the adds. A cleric or enchanter trying to use this resulted in a dead caster.

I've never gotten a resist when using this spell on project 1999.

an old thread from 2000, discussing the spell:
http://www.eqclerics.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-6234.html

from xornn's guide again, about halfway down the page:

Aggro-Reduction
Lull (1), Soothe (8), Calm (20), Pacify (39)
Like Whirl Till You Hurl, this spell line was a one time immensely powerful, allowing caster to calm a mob for 2 minutes so that it wouldn't aggro or assist mobs beyond the radius the spell reduced it to. (1 pace in the case of Pacify... mobs are wider than one pace.) This so trivialized encounters that should have been crowd control nightmares (as single pulling was easy), the spell line was nerfed into oblivion by giving it an extreme resist rate, and giving bounces the chance to aggro. Still, it does possess some use on green mobs, where your level drastically reduces the chances of resists or drawing aggro.
http://xornn.tripod.com/Spells/spell.htm

[Darklake]

I remember my paladin friend complaining that "Lull" was misspelt, and should have been "Pull".

[MiRo2]

I don't remember the resist rate being entirely too high, more that the risks of a resist made it one of the least favored methods of pulling.

I have had more than my share of resists from Kelin's lament, on this server.

[Lazortag]

Bard lull definitely gets resisted a lot, enough that it gets very dangerous at higher levels, but enchanter lull I've noticed will get resisted far less.

[Estu]

I have had lulls get resisted, sometimes critically resisted (so you actually pull the monster). It doesn't happen very often, though.

[Silvermink]

I have used Lull on both Live and here. The resist rate might be slightly better here but I never had much trouble using it on Live. I have had a few resists and a couple critical resists here.

[guineapig]

I tend to notice that bards are not switching to their instrument when lull pulling. It's part of the songs design to work better when you are using the instrument. Spending 2 seconds to swap saves a lot of time on bad pulls and med times.

Swap out those weapons and you should notice less critical resists that cause agro.

[zebin]

Just to clarify, this is about the spell line that Enchanters, Clerics, and Paladins get.

[Omnimorph]

So long as you don't go into a place trying to lull red mobs it's fine. I remember it being like that on live... maybe it aggroed more often if you got a resist but it's close enough :p

[Scrooge]

Some people speculate that Charisma has a direct effect on the resistance rate of the Pac line of spells.

[Trapp]

Amazingly enchanters lull is resisted less, because, like charm, the resist check uses your cha (and level diff vs. mob) as modifier.

With lull, there's first a check to see if it is resisted, if it is resisted, then there's a second check to see if the mob aggros you, with aforementioned modifiers.

With charm, there's an initial resist check, and then a nother check at every period, untill the max timer expires, or mob breaks free, again with aforementioned modifiers.

My cleric with 60 cha recieves ALOT more resists and aggro from the lull-line, than my enchanter with 225 cha, thus making it risky to use with at best. I assume a bard would not sport a high cha either, although for both druids and bards, they would gain much in terms of charming mobs, if they had more cha, (or kept a set for situational purposes, like I would).

[Silvermink]

My enchanter has a 75 charisma. My enchanter on live never intentionally boosted charisma either. Neither ever had trouble lulling mobs. Of course, reds resist anyone.

[zebin]

Some further info for the guys who develop and maintain this server.

Apparently the lull line was changed in late 2002 or early 2003 to actually work.

Here’s a thread from Monkley Business. Although it’s mostly about the spell Harmony, which was revamped at the same time, it does contain a quote from a live dev. There’s a link to the original, but the original page does not come up anymore.

Traditionally, most lull spells haven't really worked very well. Lull had a high resist rate and wasn't very reliable. We've recently looked at lulls and improved the way they work to make them more useful to players. You should find that the lull line of spells works more often than it did, though it will still fail some of the time.

http://www.monkly-business.net/forums/showthread.php?t=627

The monks were upset about the changes, because they (correctly) thought making lull a viable spell would devalue their skills as FD/split pullers.


Here’s a thread from EQ Cleric, from the same time period. If you read through it the cynical attitude of the clerics towards this spell line reveals the how the spell was functioning pre 2002:

I will finally get to use my old Donals bracer again - I used it from time to time in lower dogs in Velks. Although the success rate was awful, it worked a few times, much to the surprise of our puller.

and

I tried Pacify in the Grey, cast it on 5-6 different dark blue mobs, none resisted it, and I was able to run small circles around the mobs without them aggroing. I finally ran straight into one of the timeless golems and only then did it manage to see me. It appears that the lull line has been improved so as to actually be USEFUL. This is a step in the right direction.

http://www.eqclerics.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12697&highlight=pacify

You guys should really take a look at this spell line. It is not behaving like it did in classic / kunark / velious.

[Snigel]

From my experience as a cleric, trying to pacify stuff was a death sentence.

[guineapig]

The monks were upset about the changes, because they (correctly) thought making lull a viable spell would devalue their skills as FD/split pullers.


On a side note, Monk FD pulling is a skill that the developers never actually intended for the game. The players came up with it and after the fact the developers begrudgingly let monks keep the ability working as it does.

[Treats]

I don't remember for sure but I think the main reason hardly anyone would even attempt using lull/pacify/etc on live was because it would not send a success/failure message to the client. You wouldn't get a "Your target has resisted the Lull Spell" or "A skeleton looks less agressive." You would have absolutely no idea whether it worked or not (unless the mob came running at you meaning a resist and aggro) making it pointless to even use.

[Nedala]

I used lull a lot on my paladin on live. Seemed to work fine for me.

[nilbog]

I used lull a lot on my paladin on live. Seemed to work fine for me.

It working for me was extraordinarily rare. I still tried to use it, but expecting to succeed? No way.

Maybe the links above(2002ish) is when it got better. All I can remember is after Velious, it was easy to do with enchanter pacification.

[Felix]

It working for me was extraordinarily rare. I still tried to use it, but expecting to succeed? No way.

Maybe the links above(2002ish) is when it got better. All I can remember is after Velious, it was easy to do with enchanter pacification.

Yeah it was probably sometime between mid 2002 and 2004. I quit during that time period and was shocked to find that bards were viable pullers with lull when I came back. Previously that song was worthless

[Datante]

I only played on live from 1999 to 2000. My only character was a paladin. I often was the main puller in Lower Guk, in which I used the paladin lull/soothe line to great effect. This was mostly during the pre-Kunark era, 1999.

I remember Lull / Soothe being useful to me back in those days (but I also recall some resists followed by some fast root-based crowd control).

[Lazortag]

Information on lull:

http://web.archive.org/web/20021231051812/www.everlore.com/magic/Magic.asp?ID=81&mode=details&spname=Lull&type=



I have found this spell l to be relatively inefficeant. Its duration is so short (like 2 seconds) one does not have adequate time to pull another monster when fighting ganging mobs.

???

I beg to differ. I'm a level 3 Gnome Enchanter and at the Kobold camp I Lulled the three kobolds. Then I conned the three Kobolds and then I pulled the that was good for my group. Then getting pretty far away my group easily dispatched the Kobold, without Alerting the others.

I believe the reason that the first poster recived this problem is that he is a palladin or cleric with a lower base chr that that of an enchater which I believe directly effects this spell.

THe duration is longer than 2 seconds. The casting time is only 2 seconds. The reason that the spell didn't work for you is that you either waited 2 long, the mobs were still with in agro range even after the lull, or the one you pulled ran through the agro area of a lulled mob.

Any of these senarios would cuase the spell to fail. I am however not aware if the spell can be resisted. I am sure Harmony is very difficult to resist.


The upgrades to this are Soothe and Calm and maybe others. Very effective as described above. I generally use it on the mob with the lowest con to ensure it does not get resisted. Then you pull the tougher mob, finish it off and go back for the lesser creature. If you have a camp of more than two, lull all but the one you want to pull.

I used this technique in GFay to pull orcs from the tent to the left of Orc Hill as you are going up the path to Crushbone. You Lull one, Enfeeble the other and if you are far enough away, you can Chaotic Feedback or Gasping Breath that one as it comes in. Then you beat it down. Watch out for wanderers. Pull the second with the same technique, then invis and med up for another round. Also works for the orcs behind the fire pits on either side of the entrance to Crushbone, though it is harder to do there due to the distances involved.

WARNING: If it is resisted, you get ALL mobs in the area of effect, so be ready to run like a lilly-livered sap sucker if you see a resist.


THIS SPELL SUCKS!!! the point of these types of spells is to use them on mobs if you want to pull one from a group, but this low level one doesn;t always work as the others do, and i have lulled a mob and had it go aggro on me just from casting that, it pulled the other 2 kobalds and boom i was dead. thank god i was level 4 and didn;t mind dying. it just sucked. don't waste money on it, wait for the higher level lulls.

[Harrison]

Charisma is only supposed to affect the critical failures, and not the direct resistance which is primarily level-based.

Again...supposed to, not exactly a reliable source. Things are wonky on the emulator sometimes.

[Ropethunder]

I can assure you that the lull/pacify line does indeed resist. I have died countless times on my enchanter from a critical failure in places like Splitpaw.

Here are some further details I found while trying to determine how lull actually works:

http://www.project1999.org/forums/showpost.php?p=98604&postcount=3

From what I understand it doesn't affect the resist rate as it does whether the mob will decide to attack on resist.

There is a method "PassCharismaCheck" that occurs on resist that uses the following formula:


MobR = ((((MobMR + MobLevel) / 3) / MobMaxMR()) + (RandomFloat(-10, 10) / 100.0)

CasterR = (((CasterCha + CasterLevel / 3) / CasterMaxCha) + (RandomFloat(-10, 10) / 100.0)

if(r1 < r2)
Result = true

..

if not PassCharismaCheck
AddToHateList

So, yes. Charisma can make a big difference whether you live or die on resist after taking into consideration the mob's level and MR. Level discrepancy is much more important and will result in critical failures much more often if you try to lull something that's yellow or red to you.

This is from the EQEmu source code so it may have been changed for p99.

There is a similar charisma check every tick against the mob level, mr, and then charisma when charming.

[Malrubius]

Here are some classic-era quotes regarding CHA's effect on Charm, Mez, and the Lull line...

http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6733

As others have noted, CHA had no effect on the Lull line sticking or not. But it had a big effect on whether the mob would aggro or not on a resisted Lull.