History Main / FishingForMooks

This technique is also known as "kiting", since you look like a kite with a tail of mooks following you when you apply it.

* In ''DragonAge'', this is frequently the only way a party that isn't insanely well-balanced (or [[EliteTweak unbalanced]]) can survive on Nightmare.
** It works great in ''NeverwinterNights'': Hide or Move Silently works against every enemy separately, and mooks who notice the PC pursue on their own, leaving their pals idle. Thus sneaking closer until detected and then luring the pursuers so far away that others will not hear attack and death sounds makes slaughtering them much easier, up to allowing a NoDamageRun.
** This is also a reliable tactic in ''BaldursGate''. Set up a firing line, send your weakest ranged in to draw off one guy, run back to the party as they pelt the poor slob at a distance, then switch to mêlee and gank the (probably quite damaged) slob once he closes the distance, repeat until victorious. The first game had one annoyance that made this futile though, which is that if you allowed the FogOfWar to cover an area, RespawningEnemies would sometimes appear out of thin air.

* In ''[[{{Diablo}} Diablo II]]'', the barbarian's taunt ability can be used to lure fallen shamans away from other fallen.
* In most ''{{Halo}}'' games on the Legendary difficulty, this is a common option if you're low on health and have an empty or weak weapon. Fans call this the 'Trap Door Spider Method'.

** [[ItGotWorse It gets worse]], if you can remain outside aggro range (usually out of sight) and drop an [=AoE=] spell close enough where their position overlaps with part of ground zero, enemies will simply continue to stand there doing absolutely nothing while their health slowly vanishes.

* To get through the ''Temple of Trials'' at the beginning of ''{{Fallout 2}}'', players who don't have a good melee or unarmed skill will likely resort to this tactic.

* Through difficult to pull, this can be done in ''{{Xenoblade}}''. The game even gives you a different battle-starting command to help you on doing this: throwing a rock that does ScratchDamage to the enemy to have them chase you.
* One of the main uses for the TauntButton in GodHand is this.

* That's easy to do in NipponIchi tactical [=RPGs=] for most melee-based enemies, who in most maps won't try to attack you unless you're in range. In other maps, they will all try to swarm you instead, however.
** Again can be done literally in Makai Kingodms. The fishing rod can be used to pull an enemy to the other side of the attacker, seperating them from their allies.

** This is also a reliable tactic in ''[=~Baldur's Gate~=]''. Set up a firing line, send your weakest ranged in to draw off one guy, run back to the party as they pelt the poor slob at a distance, then switch to mêlee and gank the (probably quite damaged) slob once he closes the distance, repeat until victorious. The first game had one annoyance that made this futile though, which is that if you allowed the FogOfWar to cover an area, RespawningEnemies would sometimes appear out of thin air.

* DarkSouls has cheap wooden arrows designed for precisely this purpose.

This is the practice of whittling down a large group of mooks by only activating (“aggroing”) a small portion of their number at a time. Say you have a large mob of enemies obviously intended to attack you all at once if you charge straight into them. But due to the limitations of in-game AI, enemies only notice you if you come into their line of sight, or if you get within a certain distance of them. So the best way to deal with this group is to only advance close enough to attract the attention of one or two at a time, then back off from the group (with those Mooks in hot pursuit) and pick them off in detail. Commonly paired with a RoadRunnerPC.

This is the practice of whittling down a large group of mooks by only activating (“aggroing”) a small portion of their number at a time. Say you have a large mob of enemies obviously intended to attack you all at once if you charge straight into them. But enemies only attack if you come into their line of sight, or if you get within a certain distance of them. So the best way to deal with them is to only advance into their range one or two at a time, lure them off, and defeat them in detail. Commonly paired with a RoadRunnerPC.

* You can do this in BatmanArkhamAsylum with Sonic Batarangs. As well as a few other tricks.

* In many NintendoHard games (for example, ''DemonsSouls''), this becomes a ''required'' tactics if you don't want to get jumped by a gang of DemonicSpiders all at once, and usually involves getting a single enemy's attention by hitting them with a ranged attack. ''GodHand'' lets you [[IShallTauntYou do this with taunts instead.]]

* In ''DragonAge'', this is frequently the only way a party that isn't insanely well-balanced can survive on Nightmare.

Beware the Law of ConservationOfNinjutsu, if they turn out to be [[BossInMooksClothing more than just Mooks.]]

TruthInTelevision if just luring an individual unit or at least only part of the enemy army out and then annihilating it before its allies could aid it (a common tactic in warfare of any era.) but blatant ArtificialStupidity if done repeatedly to the same group nonstop, especially if the others are completely unaware of their comrade's fate.

* In many NintendoHard games (for example, ''DemonsSouls''), this becomes a ''required'' tactics if you don't want to get jumped by a gang of DemonicSpiders all at once, and usually involves getting a single enemy's attention by hitting them with a ranged attack. ''GodHand'' lets you use [[IShallTauntYou do this with taunts instead.]]
* In ''DragonAge'' this is frequently the only way a party that isn't insanely well-balanced can survive on Nightmare.
** It works great in ''NeverwinterNights'': Hide or Move Silently works against every enemy separately, and mooks who noticed PC pursue on their own, leaving their pals idle. Thus sneaking closer until detected and then luring the pursuers so far away that others will not hear attack and death sounds makes slaughtering them much easier, up to long NoDamageRun.

* In most {{RTS}}s this also applies to ''you''. If you've got an unattended group of units that falls under attack, no matter how tightly packed, your group takes up more space than those units' aggro range they'll blithely stand around while their squadmates are annihilated shoulder-to-shoulder.

This is the practice of only activating a small group of mooks that are part of a larger group at a time. Say you have a large mob of enemies obviously intended to attack you all at once if you charge straight into them. But enemies only attack if you come into their line of sight, or if you get within a certain distance of them. So the best way to deal with them is to only advance into their range one or two at a time, lure them off, and defeat them in detail. Commonly paired with a RoadRunnerPC.

TruthInTelevision: luring an individual unit or at least only part of the enemy army out and then annihilating it before its allies could aid it was quite a common tactic in warfare of any era.

* In DragonAge this is frequently the only way a party that isn't insanely well-balanced can survive on Nightmare.
* In Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusades, in the Gerald mission where you are trying to get a group of Paladins along with your lieutenant away to bring reinforcements to your besieged city, you are blocked by a massive army made up of level 50 and 100 foes. By using this tactic ''it is actually possible to fight your way through one unit at a time''. Its not easy and involves abusing the SP system, but with enough graft, the result is more experience and gold than you could ever have hoped for at those levels. Not to mention feel like a total badass for cutting through an entire army. Its a good thing too: the next mission is ThatOneLevel and some may find it harder than breaking through the mass of overlevelled orcs: at least time isn't a factor there!
* This is an important tactic in StreetsOfRage. You do not want to activate more foes than you have to at one time.
* MMO players have two terms for this: '''Pulling''' is drawing specific enemies away from a group, be they mooks or bosses. '''Herding''' is gathering all the mooks together for an [=AoE=] attack.

* It works great in ''NeverwinterNights'': Hide or Move Silently works against every enemy separately, and mooks who noticed PC pursue on their own, leaving their pals idle. Thus sneaking closer until detected and then luring the pursuers so far away that others will not hear attack and death sounds makes slaughtering them much easier, up to long NoDamageRun.
* In most {{Halo}} games on the Legendary difficulty, this is a common option if you're low on health and have an empty or weak weapon. Fans call this the 'Trap Door Spider Method'.

* Useful in several parts of {{Summoner}}, particularly in Wolong. Take Flece, use sneak and solo mode, get where just one enemy can see you then run back to the others. Nobody wonders where their friends are running off to...
* To get through the Temple of Trials at the beginning of ''{{Fallout 2}}'', players who don't have a good melee or unarmed skill will likely resort to this tactic.

[[AC: MMORPG]]

* Same idea but different term: in {{EVE online}} its called baiting against human opponents. Works especially well in 0.0 space. The pulling tactic is used against rats in missions or belts. Shoot the rat at range, then run to keep them at range, all while continuing to shoot of course.
* Variants of this exist in CityOfHeroes, as certain power sets and archetypes effectively turn the proximity of an enemy into a secondary resource. Combined with the existence of some degree of in-combat regeneration for almost everybody, which means there's some level of constant attack that any character can survive, mook management in the game expands to include pulling extra mooks into an ongoing fight because the battle actually becomes easier.
** Most notable are "Invulnerability", which increases a Tanker's or Brute's defense with every nearby enemy regardless of their power level, and the infamous mass-resurrect "Howling Twilight", available to Defenders, Corrupters, and Masterminds, which casts as a debuff to a group of enemies.

* Same idea but different term: in {{EVE online}} its called baiting against human opponents. Works especially well in 0.0 space. The pulling tactic is used against rats in missions or belts. Shoot the rat at range, then run to keep them at range, all while continuing to shoot of course.

* To get through the Temple of Trials at the beginning of ''Fallout 2'', players who don't have a good melee or unarmed skill will likely resort to this tactic.

* To get through the Temple of Trials at the beginning of ''[[{{Fallout 2}}]]'', players who don't have a good melee or unarmed skill will likely resort to this tactic.