How do you split mobs?

[Zorthaz]

When I molo I use the short term werewolf pet to attack and hold the first mob.  When I there is enough separation between the first second mob (second comes over to beat on me), I FD and sic pet on the second mob.  Cleric merc keeps pet alive until I lose aggro from the first mob.  This doesn't work well for more then 2 mobs, unless my pet can tank 2 mobs.  It also doesn't work well when both/all mobs beat down the werewolf pet.

How do you split mobs?

[nedoirah]

Depends on the zone and what kind of mobs we're dealing with. If we're pulling an open zone like field of scale or argath, then I can pull by use of FD and clever placement but if we're talking about a zone that has close confined mobs in stationary positions like the undead area in SS then it's an entirely different game. However I box so I can do things that most couldn't do.

Usually I prefer to pull in wide open areas where I can watch mob pathing and pull at opportune times. This allows me to pull mutiple mobs or doubles while running them around in a circle. I use DoTs to pull as long as they don't summon. If they do then I pull with a slow.

Unless I really need to pull in a zone where mobs are tightly packed in a small space and it's very hard to split them, then I won't go there. First thing I do is research to see if I can VP or snare them. Second is I try to find a safe loc to pull them to. Third I watch their pathing patterns. If they path at all. I use a combo of FD and shm VP to split them so my mercs and draw in a single if possible.

[Khauruk]

If you have room to play with, you can make use of pet snare, pet runes, FD, and pet summon to play some tricks.  It's often easier if you suspend your normal pet and load one up with just the snare and runes to use as a sacrificial snaring bot.  Snare on a mob w/o agro works like root....Experiment for a bit and the rest should fall into place.

If you really want to have fun, Flash of Light can still come in handy :)

[nedoirah]

Flash of Light still works on the higher level mobs?

[Khauruk]

Not reliably, but magic resist on mobs has stagnated for many years now, so it works as well as it did at lvl70 if not better.

[Nusa]

Many different approaches...the key to doing all of them is to have a backup plan for when things fail.

Don't forget the tag and run away until they forget about you option. Then run back and see if the situation is changed or there's a straggler.

Vah Shir only option: Sneak and tag a mob with a thrown weapon. Throwing is probably the only non-pet attack that doesn't break sneak, and sneak reduces your aggro radius. The end result is you can tag singles from mobs that are somewhat closer together than you could tag normally. (This technique was a valuable part of the monk pulling magic way back before monks got the ability to pacify/mez stuff.) If it doesn't work, then fall back into a FD splitting approach. If FD fails, then your backup backup plan, which may be running.

What I actually like to do lately is let my box cleric do most of the work for nasty splits, with my beastlord targeting for him, and the beast will be already FD for the actual pull. The cleric just has to be in spell range, he never needs line of sight on anything. He can pacify as many as six mobs and then pull with Galvos' Retort (puts a defensive heal proc on the beastlord target and a reverse damage shield on the target's target)...which aggros that mob on the cleric. Then, using the beastlords eyes, the cleric fades before they get to him. Cleric fade is WAY more reliable than beast FD, but he can DA and camp or DA(he has 3 different ones to chain if needed) and run away if he has to. And the final step is for the beast to tag whatever is safe to tag, either directly or with the pet if it's a touchy call. Sounds a little complicated, but it's probably the safest technique of all the techniques available to me.

[Orbus1]

If you are moloing and depending on the zone I just use warder to OT. Between merc heals and our own pet heals he can normally handle 2-3 in Valley long enough for me to kill one then take another.