Corsair Pulling Explained

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

OK, so a couple weeks back we got pulled back into the ol' discussion about COR and pulling. Thinking about that thread, the advocates of pulling were not entirely clear on their methods for doing so and I wanted to clear that aspect of the discussion up.

The Four Types of Pulling

Basic pulling - This applies to any job that can equip a ranged weapon.

Pet pulling- SMN and BST do a pet sacrifice to prevent a link on pull.

"Stage" pulling - Pulling a mob and sleeping it before the next fight to maintain high chains.

JA/Magic pulling - Pulling in the most stupid way possible because somone was too lazy to bring ranged weapons or unwilling to give up an ammo slot to do so. Chi Blast is the only real exception to this, as it has quite a range.

Corsair starts with basic pulling and the only real downside is the high delay of guns, but that can be worked around. However, COR can eventually cross over into "Stage" pulling.

The key reason COR can do this lies in the December 2006 update. The timer for Quick Draw was lowered to one minute and Light Shot was altered to do Light-based sleep. For higher levels, there's an additional reason, and that's the introduction of the Peacemaker last summer. Its the lowest delay gun in the game, exclusive to COR and has +5 AGI, which is nice for our Quick Draw Accuracy.

We'll elaborate on "Stage Pulling" later, let's talk Basic Pulling first.

Basic Pulling

I realize some are going to say they have enough to deal with already with Phantom Roll and DD. That's a cop-out to focus on DD and nothing but. If you start forming good habits early, being able to set up buffs, pulling and DD are entirely possible in the low and intermediate levels. Once you form these habits, you can adapt to more demanding situations like pulling in TP Burn or Manaburns

Here are some tips:

• Get in the habit of looking for the next pull while buffing, fighting or even /WHMing. Wide Scan from /RNG is one way to do this, panning your camera around is another.
• Know the best target numbers for your Phantom Rolls (not just Lucky, Unlucky and 11). To get a good idea of this, please refer to Spider-Dan's thread here But basically, keep in mind that buffs increase in strength from 1 to 11, with the exception of Lucky and Unlucky numbers.
• Keep your eye on your Double-Up icon. Eyeing this will let you know when you should be back at camp buffing. When DU is down, you know you have 15 seconds before the next Phantom Roll.
• Get a feel for your PT's killspeed. I know that sounds lofty, but its something you have develop a sense for on your own, it can't be taught.
• Make a habit of disengaging the mob early, you don't always have to get the kill shot.
• Learn your maximum pulling range, know this and you don't always need /NIN to pull.
• Use zone geometry to your advantage for even safer pulls. Trees, rocks and signposts can make a mob look for a different path.
• Always be mindful of the mages' MP.

Basic Pulling at low levels (10-30)

The delay of COR's guns isn't much of a problem here, as there isn't intense competition for pulling. This is a good time to start establishing good pulling habits (as mentioned above) and if start forming these habits, you'll have greater opportunities to use /RNG or even /WHM over /NIN when you pull. /NIN is not the defacto pulling subjob, that's just a crutch mentality people have due to THF and RNG commonly using /NIN, as well as BRD doing so at merit levels.

Addtionally, take your time to get a feel for a zone and mob placement. If you're not sure what aggros in a zone or how it links there is a wealth of information on sites like ffxi.somepage.com. Check those sites out. Knowing about these mobs will also aid you in knowing which subjob to use. Birds and Tigers, for example, move pretty fast, so it can be more practical to use /NIN in that situation than subjobs.

Once you learn to pull at low levels and integrate it into your Buff and Melee routine, it will come naturally to you at intermediate levels.

Intermediate Basic Pulling (31-67)

This is where things start heating up and camps get more competitve. However, since COR is an advanced job and likely not your first, knowing these areas should be pretty easy and you should adapt to pulling just fine, pulls shouldn't be too far from camp, either.

If COR is your first job you intend to take to high level, take some time to learn about the zones and mobs you will be facing. The Beastmaster Anthologies can be a good tool to learning what you'll be facing in those zones. I know, BST has practically nothing to do with COR, but they tend to level in various zones at 5 to 8 levels higher than what most EXP PTs would. The information given in those threads, in conjuction with referring to mob beastiaries, will help you in pulling effectively with fewer chances of links.

OK, that said, your COR career also reaches a turning point when you obtain Quick Draw at 40. This is not only a great support tool for mage or NIN enfeebles, but it will be a valuable asset in "Stage Pulling" later on. In competitive camps, you can also use it as a last resort for fast claiming, though that kinda falls into JA/Magic pulling, I wouldn't use it as a general claim tool.

In the March 2007 update, QD gets another boost in that you'll be able to keep decks of elemental cards much like we have quivers and pouches for NIN tools and ammo. Take advantage of this so you never run dry on elemental cards. Decks can be created by Nokki, the mithra who travels from city to city with the carnival. Check who is first in conquest each week and you'll know where to find her.

At 55-ish, you can actually start veering to the "Stage" style of pulling, in fact, its not too early to do so, but there is a strong arguement at these levels for Corsair DD, as at 57 you will get access to our best ranged weaponskill, Slug Shot. Still, make a habit of keeping a few decks of Light Cards handy and make a <stnpc> macro for Light Shot. Even when not staging pulls, its useful for sleeping possible links.

If you're pulling, make a habit of disengaging a little earlier to pull at these levels, like with 1/4th mob HP left. You can still help close the fight if you wish, so long as you've been keeping tabs on nearby mobs while DDing and buffing.

Also, make a habit of monitoring your QD timers until you can feel you're ready for one. This will also help you prepare for "Stage" Pulling

The Burn Levels: "Stage" Pulling (68-75)

This is where COR DD starts to become a lower priority or it falls behind completely. This can be situational, as you'll still see balanced PTs from time to time, but things really do skew to Burn PTs at this level and you will be outdamaged by other melee. Pulling and Buffing will become your prime concerns.

At 72 you will also be able to use Peacemaker. This is a valuable tool since it levels the playing field for COR on pulling, gun delay will be a much smaller issue. You might frown on the low damage, but you're not going to be DDing much anymore unless you have a really talented BRD puller but often, you'll be on your own here.

Manaburn

COR is a very attractive invite for Manaburns, in fact, many BLMs have told me they prefer CORs over BRDs. They do so with good reason as we offer them more than just refresh: Wizard's Roll, Healer's Roll, Evoker's Roll and even Warlock's or Corsair's Roll work very well in manaburn.

What buffs to choose? Evoker's Roll will always be one of them. Use Wizard's Roll if your BLMs are skewing to -aga and Tier IV spells. You can actually get away with Corsair's roll if they're going more for AM and AM2 spells. If you have some lower level jobs, seeing resists happen and a RDM is present, Warlock's Roll is a good choice. And if your mages are really burning up MP, its good to apply Healer Roll as needed. Make Evoker's your second buff in any cycle so when you do need to move Healer's Roll in, Evoker's isn't cycled out.

If you were reluctant to sub /NIN before, Manaburn is a good primer for making /NIN more of a habit at higher levels, as you'll need it to dodge status ailments and do some light blink-tanking/kiting if QD timer is on cool-down. This is also because BLMs are pretty weak at managing Cures and status removal, many eshewing /WHM subs for /RDM to get their -aga and AM spells out quickly, so /NIN is definately what you want for this kind of party.

Manaburn buffing is pretty straight-foward and pull range can be pretty close or pretty far, but since you're just doing a two-buff cycle. that shouldn't be too much of an issue. You'll only do a two buff cycle since its all mages. Kills are fast so pulling is very demanding.

No melee will happen here unless its something little and annoying like chigoes. So just to dump your excess TP with Slug Shot or Spirits Within when you feel you can do so.

Don't Light Shot the first pull in any burn, just let the party take it, then swerve back out to pull again and Light Shot that pull instead, then resume buffing. In manaburn, mages will usually gravity the mob and sometimes sleep it themselves, so once they take hate, you're clear to pull again and stage upcoming fights with Light Shot.

That is my general approach for Black Pudding camps and KRT manaburn. Marids can be a bit tougher to take down, so don't pull Marids too quickly as they spawn chigoes and you may have to help take them out if the -aga spells don't get them.

In the event of a rival manaburn PT, Light Shot Mobs right where you find them in a camp like the Mount Z pudding camps. From there, ask your BLMs to roam for kills. Your PT may be roaming from the start anyway so instead of pulling directly, so sleep mobs as you find them. Many rival manaburns will resort to Stun claiming and Quick Draw the is the only tool you have to match that. This will sometimes also apply to TP burn if your PT opts to roam.

TP Burn

Again, COR's role just breaks down to pulling and Light Shot, no melee involved, just the occasional WS. Mobs are fast, some have high-tier magic, so /NIN's Utsusemi is a blessing, especially so when you get Ni at 74. You will also be shooting for a four-buff cycle again.

Here you have to be a bit more dilligent about maintaining Phantom Rolls, but if you've gotten a feel for your timers, that shouldn't be an issue for you, I actually found that even before my QD merits that I was getting back to camp early and still had time left before the next Phantom Roll.

The trick here is to get both Phantom Roll and Quick Draw within 15-20 seconds of each other or even closer. If you Light Shot when you get back to camp, you have the QD timer already on cooldown before you put up another Phantom Roll. And when you go to pull again, Light Shot is ready when you get back and Phantom Roll soon after.

In an ideal camp, pulling should never take much longer than 35 seconds from the getting out to the mob and pulling it back to camp for Light Shot, thus staging then next fight for the melee. This is easy to do with merits, but not hard to do without them

Misc Burn information

An important note for both types of burn PTs: DO NOT engage any mob for melee or WS unless there is only one current mob to deal with and another unclaimed within reach. If you engage the current mob after sleeping another mob, the slept mob will go unclaimed. This is bad. We don't want a stray BRD or melee coming in to snatch our mobs from us, right?

If you do have a RDM, BLM, BRD, WHM on backline, ask them to lay a paralyze, slow or Gravity on the slept mob. This way, if you feel you really must WS or engage for melee, the mob will stay claimed since those on the back line don't engage in melee combat.

OK, some final points and general advice:

• Busts can and will happen, but if you fear busting and play too conservative, you'll never get 11s. Stop fearing the Bust. Read up on statiscal probabilities if they make you feel safer, just don't live in fear of busting once.
• If you do get a link at TP burn level, its not the end of the world. If you've gotten a feel for kill speed there's a good chance the current mob is almost or already dead. Use Light Shot to sleep one and distance yourself from it.
• (a) If you have a RDM in PT, they can sleep the other