TrackingFollow

A question (I admit being out of date on this):

How good does ranger tracking get? My memory of tracking was this:

rank 1: basic track no sorting (druid)
rank 2: track with sorting (ranger)

I recall aa raising cap in skill? --but was there any deeper ranks? Bards have some sort of track (really foggy on that)?

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I ask this because I have track envy (and I might as well learn the reality of track in the game today). I'd love to be able to get at least druid track on my other classes. Kind of like how foraging AA was done.

rank 1: basic track
rank 2: sorted track
rank 3: compass directs
rank 4: red X on map shows the track target

In my happy dreamworld each class could only buy two ranks... so my little necro could get current ranger track, meanwhile a ranger remains the elite tracker in game with druids just behind.

"But rangers will dominate named spawns" --shouldn't they? Besides, knowing where it is and killing it are two different things.

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Please disregard the posting between the lines if it is moot or you don't like conjecture and dreams.

I play a level 80 Ranger, and have never tracked a corpse, but I think rangers have the ability to track a group members corpse in a certain circumstance, but cant remember the circumstance. Probably wrong.

I believe Bard track caps at 100, Druid at 125 and Ranger at 200 all before the new tracking AA that can increase the cap for your class.

I don't know what actual game distance the tracking skill equates to, but I know that many zones are too large for even Rangers to be able to track the entire zone from one spot. Bards and Druids get basic tracking only. They never get the ability to sort the list by proximity or mob level or anything.

Basic tracking will show you all trackable objects within your range, including mobs and some inanimate objects like campfires, sorted by spawn time. When you "track" you get a list of everything within range at the spot you used "track". If you move or if something on the list then moves out of track range it will still remain on the list. Things only get removed from the list when they no longer exist.

Unsorted track lists will always show the most recent pops at the top of the list.

Classes without Track would need a 3rd party program (cheat) to do so, but those usually come with more utility than a Ranger can track.

Ummm... ranger track is sortable by distance (farthest to closest or closest to farthest) and con level (higher to lower or lower to highter).

Thanks for the replies. Tracking was always one of my favourite things on my little rangers (never get them past 40s it seems).

As a Ranger, you can track a corpse, but you have to be tracking the person before they die.

Yther Ore.

Ranger Tracking allows sorting by Normal (newest spawn at top), Con, ReverseCon, Distance, ReverseDistance and on/off filters for any and all CON colors. Be aware that if you are using an older custom UI, the Tracking window may not have been updated to reflect the new CON levels. In other words, you won't be able to filter out the GRAY con mobs from the list.

Tracking can see a PC rogue, even if they are using their AAs to hide and you cannot see them with your character's eyes.
[EDIT: This is no longer true. SOE changed Tracking so that it CANNOT see a Rogue while in their advanced "SOS" mode. You can, however, still see them in a zone's /who list.]

Various NPCs and objects do not show up on tracking, usually due to deliberate coding by the Devs, but occasionally due to glitches. Sometimes they are "under the world" however.

There are a number of oddities with Tracking, like blank spots, or sometimes you'll chase a target and have it seem to warp to another area on you (like there was a very long lag spike on your tracking info).

Also remember that Tracking is generally spherical. You can be "next" to something on the list but in reality it may be above/below you. Multi-level dungeons and buildings are tricky this way.
[EDIT: Some or all zones in Veil of Alaris seem to compress the zone into 2-D for Tracking. This means the vertical distance is ignored in Tracking within these zones. You can be in the top of a tower within the Resplendent Temple and see a mob in the basement "next" to you on the list despite there being multiple levels with many mobs in between. You can also see their casting emotes so I suspect this is a design glitch.]

One more tip, when you are looking for something (or practicing Tracking skill), just leave the Tracking window open. It will refresh each time the Tracking button is hit. No need to close it each time.

The only way to manually stop Tracking via the UI, is to open the window and click CANCEL. You can also use the command line mentioned above (/stopt). Tracking also times out on its own after a certain period of time, if the mob is killed, if the mob despawns, or you zone.

There are some other things, but can't think of it ATM.

Edits: added SOS and VoA info

Edited, Mar 23rd 2012 7:15pm by Kuponya

[Updates/Addendum to my previous post:]

Tracking now has a button that allows auto-updates so that you do not have to repeatedly press the Tracking button to refresh the list. I assume the auto-update does NOT grant skill ups unless the Tracking button is pressed, but I cannot verify this as I am already max in the skill.

Tracking allows you to filter other Players out, but you cannot filter pets or Mercenaries. Thankfully both kinds of player owned NPCs show up in Tracking with a colon ":" before their name.

And to clarify something I said above, many interactive objects *do* appear on Tracking (such as chests/containers, destructible objects and special "dead" NPCs) depending on how that object or zone was designed.

As said above, you can sometimes track the corpse of someone in YOUR group after they die. Generally this can be done if the player is still in hover/death mode (ie. has not zoned to their bind location). You will notice that the deceased group mate's marker "X" will continue to show on your map as "Soandso's corpse" so there isn't much need for Tracking them most of the time. However, if they died some distance from you or the group, you can quickly select and begin Tracking their corpse in case they do zone to bind before you can locate them.