Just in case it saves someone else a few minutes, I needed to figure out the quickest way to get an alt with tracking on a new server - it's available to: Rangers at L1, Druids at L20, Bards at L35 (so unless you need them to be level 20 or higher to survive the zone use a ranger)
As usual with these sort of skills, to train it quickly just put it on a hotbutton mapped to keypress A or D (default left / right)
For the rangers.. Please ignore, as you have the ability to set filters and change how you see the track window.
For the Bards and Druids. Track is organized in a very simple manner. Newest spawn on top, Oldest on bottom. However you only see those mobs within your tracking range.
How this information can benifit you. When trying to clear placeholders, hunt from the bottom up. This removes the oldest mobs first. and places the newest on top. Therefore you are sure to kill the PH. If you hunt the other way. you may kill the same 3 spawns over and over again without ever killing the real PH.
Another trick is to set your track skill to activate every time you turn left or right. Doing this, effectively auto refreshes your track window. Your skill will quickly max using this method. However the real reason to do this is to see what mobs have spawned. If you are AOE camping, or checking on multiple mobs you can watch them appear on your track. Nicely placed at the top of the list, right after people in your group.
I use this in situations where my camp is outside my visual range of my intended target.
It is also nice to just "flick" left or right when running through a zone to see what mobs are up. Using this method allows you to hunt mobs like the forager and hunter in traks teeth easily, only using your cursor keys.
Was curious when you mentioned being able to automatically engage track when you "flick" left or right.... how is this accomplished?
I'm sure it's one of the programmable hotkeys that you can make, but what is the syntax of the line used? I'm not that great at programming those things except for extremely simple things. And to think, I'm working on a BS in Computer Sciences. LOL
click n drag Tracking ability to the last slot on your hotbar. this is Hotbar 1, Slot 10. if you don't want to give up that slot (neither do i) then click EQ button, go to Actions, and click Hotbar 2. ok, now move Tracking to the last slot on your hotbar 2. you're almost done! now hit Alt-O to bring up the options menu. open the Keys tab, and from the drop down menu choose Hotbar 2. now where it says Hot Button 10, and under the Alternate column, click and hit your A key. now when you're running around, whenever you hit A to turn left, your tracking list will update. you could also bind the left arrow if that's what you use to move around.
note that this hotbutton will work across all characters, which means on your alts, you can't use Hotbar 2 Hotbutton 10 without getting "you can't use that yet" or some spam every time you turn left.
My druid's tracking skill began to increase again after reaching level 50. I am now lvl 52 and tracking is approximately 160. I have seen a post on another web site that it is capped at 175. Any more information is welcome.
I'm slightly worried. Right after the new tracking skill cap, my tracking quickly increased to 139 (at level 63). It is still at 139 and has not gone up since the first week or two, and I have tried to practice it religiously, setting it to my left arrow, and tracking nearly all the time. I don't know why I can't get it higher now, was there a limited time you could raise it which is now past?
Just wanted to share some points with some people having questions. Imagine tracking as a radar with your self dead center, and the npc's/pc's are blips spread out around you. A ranger can set his tracking by distance, whereas bards and druids can't. This means that the creatures will be listed from top to bottom as to which is closest. Bards and Druids can't filter it out, but still only see things within there range. Example: Say a ranger and druid both have a equal skill lvl in tracking and both stand in the middle of Gfay and want to track a orc pawn that is within thier range. The ranger can then track by distance and the orc will show up on the list in order (from top to bottom) determined by how close it is, and the druid's will show the orc randomly on the list as long as it's in the range. Hope that made sense.
Based on my own experiences, I believe mobs are listed in the druid tracking window by how long they have been in the zone. It seems to me that the longer the mob has been spawned, the lower on the list that it will be. I have noticed that "new" spawns always seem to be at the top of the list. I may be mistaken about this, but that's what I have observed.
Ive just created a druid,i thought they had the tracking skill.AT what level does he get it or do i have to do something to enable it.Thanks in advance
only rangers get the filter .. therefor bards and druids cant set filter to distance ( and yes it has to be set for distance if your a ranger )
skill does increase your range. at skill 65 you can barely track outside of visual range but at skill 200 i can stand in the middle of most zones and track the enitre Zone ( a few zones are jkust to damn big ) about 6-7 k in either direction using the /loc points ( to frineds helped me test it in West Karana )
you will always be able to track group members no matter how far away . You can also track group members corpse as long as you in the zone when they die and they dont come back into zone, very useful.
For those of you that need clarification I will attempt to provide some answers.
Tracking is a skill that Rangers, Druids, and Bards have.
Only the Ranger class may use the tracking filter which can be used to filter out mobs based on their color.
Tracking is done by clicking the Tracking button and a list of nearby mobs comes up with their names in different colors based on what level they are. To track a mob you select the target you wants name and click track button at the bottom of the list. You then recieve information on the mobs wearabouts as directions you must take.
Examples: A bixie is behind you. (you turn around completely) A bixie is straight ahead. (the bixie moves a bit to the right) A bixie is ahead and to the right. (someone kills the bixie or you just take too long to find it) You have lost your tracking target.
Also, you gain skill in tracking any time you use the ability, you do not have to actually track something to gain the point you can click it off and on to get the skill up. It can take awhile to train since there is a small refreash time before you can track again.
Skilling up makes your tracking ability track mobs that are further away from you. Regardless of skill you can not track mobs or players that are invisible unless you have See invis. Also players names will always be in white.
Some explainations on what you might see thats out of the ordinary:
:gobekn or :a fire giant Any name with a colon in front of it means the mobs on the list is either a pet or a charmed mob.
There are also sometimes mysterious "holes" in the list like this:
a fire elemental a fire elemental
a fire drake a lava crawler a fire elemental
These holes are a mob that is not for PCs to interact with, The example above is something I found in Lavastorm called Pain and suffering, if you find him he is invis and has no name but can be found if tracked down and targeted a life bar without a name will appear on your target menu. Dont make the mistake of messing around and attacking him like I did :) In higher level areas there are lots of of these that you might find, if you want to discover them for yourself travel to Cazic Thule or Acrylia Caverns, there are many there.
I've encountered an odd little bug in tracking invis PC's. When I start tracking them, the directions I'm given take me to where they went invis, not to where they actually are. Once I reach the spot they went invis, tracking points me in a new direction, which is usually where they actually are. Doesn't happen often, but it's a tad aggravating when it does.
Thanks Lalia, for the outstanding post. it covers pretty much everything you need to know about tracking.
I have another example of the mysterious gaps in the tracking list. Standing by the lighthouse in the Gulf of Gunthak, I was checking the area via tracking (like I do in every area I'm new to) to get an idea of mob cons, when i noticed the "holes" for the first time. I was able to track the blank space. It turned out to be the tamed Drogmors in the pen next to the lighthouse.
For us rangers hunting those high demand mobs, distance tracking can save alot of time. Instead of racing to the mob you want to kill just to find it being worked on by another player, just look for the white players names. If there is one next to your mob on the list, 9 outa 10 times he's killing it! Just go down the list to the next mob you want. In cases where someone is DOTing your mob, the player name might be one or two spaces from your mob on the list.
I just created a ranger alt so I can look for those elusive mobs. How do I incease my tracking skill. Does skill increase when I bring up the window or when actually tracking something? Is there any equiptment that I can give my alt to improve tracking?
I dont understand how the tracking works. I tells you if something is close (saved me and a few friends from equestrial the other day). Is this all it will do? Are the filters supposed to work for Druids? My skill lvl is about 65 so do the things change the higher the skill level, will the filters kick inlater or do i have a glitch? Will i ever be able to tell the direction of a mob?
I dont understand this ability. I know it tells you what is close it saved me from Equestrial the other day. But how do you tell what direction they are in, turning dosent help, or am i expecting to much from it. My skill lvl is about 65 right now (only had it for a couple of days). I also cant get any of the filters to work, is this just a druid thing that you cant use filters?