Am I doing something wrong, or is it just the case in Everquest that running away almost always gets you killed? I can understand if you're in a fight it would be tricky to disengage, but if you just run with a head start it seems you should have some advantage. I'm playing an exiled Ratonga with path finding who I would have thought would have been pretty quick. I'm adventuring in Northern Anotnia attempting to solve the mystery of the fallow farm fields, when I stumble across a bridge and discover a couple of Qeynosian guards; uh oh, I didn't know they were up this far north. So I turn and high tail it, having just barely gotten into one of the guards's agro-range, but I know it's useless. I actually make it farther than I expect (it was a good head start) but then thump!, and there's the revive window. [I cannot control my vocabulary]. Stupid Qeynosian guards. So is there a strategy to running? Or is it just usually ineffective?

On another note, my character seems weak, consistently loosing battles with others her level. This is annoying when playing adventures scaled to your level like the betrayal quests, because I loose, gain a level, go back, and loose even worse as its been scaled up. I had the good fortune to make friends with a more experienced player who gave me a platinum piece to spend, and while at first I thought it was kind of cheating, afte constantly being beaten up I've upgraded to the best armor and weapons I could find (just picking whatever had the biggest numbers, especially mitigation). I just turned level 16, and there are a bunch of items I can just now where as a result, so we'll see if that helps. I'm playing an assassin (who will eventually convert to a ranger), so I may just not have learned to use some of the skills effectively. My necromancer was considerably more effective.

When running away, disengage from the fight so that you don't keep turning to try to fight them. And use your sprint ability. Sometimes stuff is so much higher level that it will splat you no matter how fast you run just because it only takes one hit. But sprint is critical to surviving those close calls. Also, try to avoid what I always end up doing... running into another set of mobs. /sigh

As for the other, have you upgraded your abilities at all? If they are all Apprentice I, your fights are going to be incredibily difficult. At level 16, you don't need the highest because you aren't going to be there long, and they're all going to change when you become a ranger anyway, but I'd get at least a few of them to Apprentice IV off the broker to help for now. Get the Apprentice II from the trainer for the rest of them.

With pathfinding you should be able to get away fairly easily, although NPC's and mobs sometime 'cheat' and hit you with melee attacks at range. The only thing I can think of is that you were engaged in combat, as opposed to just agroed, and this killed your speed buff. If in doubt, /yell (macro or use the button) and sprint.

As for being effective, scouts do not have all their tools at low levels, so it does make it tricky. Make sure your CA's are adept 1 at least, especially stuns, since you do your best work from behind. You want to be looking for strength gear and matched speed, fairly slow weapons. Pick better stats (str, sta and agi) over mitigation. You should be trying to avoid hits, not mitigate them.

(1) Always run in a straight line. Jinking and going in circles won't help you.

(2) Don't engage... if the Melee hotkey is depressed, click it again to turn melee off.

(3) Yell for help! If the encounter has been engaged, this will break the encounter.

(4) Sprint! If you are engaged in combat, any run-speed buffs generally don't apply, so sprinting can really help.

If you are using Treasured gear that you've looted from your foes, I'd suggest doing some harvesting... harvest lots and lots of rocks in Antonica or Commonlands until you get Blackened Iron Clusters (the rare hard metal), then have an armorer make you some mastercrafted imbued chainmail. The stats and mitigation on the mastercrafted armor will be very much better than most Treasured items.

As a scout, you want lots of STR -- that affects how hard you hit. AGI is your other big stat, that helps you dodge and provides power. As a ranger, most of your damage will come from your autoattacks, so STR is where it's at for you! While you are harvesting, look for the rare soft metal, which will be silver clusters in Antonica and Commonlands. A jeweler can make that into some very nice jewelry for you that has STR/STA/AGI on it!

Are you using poisons? That can help a TON. Get the best poisons you can afford. There is an excellent list of the potions and poisons available at EQ2 Alchemy. Rangers get a load of damage from poisons! And, of course, so do Assassins.

Oh well, it didn'work. I was talking with a Shanty Mcgaggleshorn (who insists on living in the midst of bears) when a 17'the level bear attacks. It was close to even which is good as I'm just 16the level; maybe my 16th level armor upgrades are beginning to pay of. But it looked like I might not win so I decided to run. I hit sprint and disengaged and ran in a straight line through the mountain tops. I It didn't matter; it just kept hitting me until I was dead. Ugh, time to teleport to Haven again to repair my equipment and then journey back again. While I'm there, I'll look into Apprentice IV upgrades (though the money will be wasted as I'm converting to ranger eventually).

I'll work on the harvesting, though I'm not skilled enough to mine the rocks in Antonica; I need to find some place easier.

p.s. Dang. Do hey have to port you right next o a high level monster when you from Haven to Nektulos, so as soon as you appear having just fixed your armor, you die again?

In that case, start with rocks in places like Sunken City or the Graveyard near Freeport, or Oakmyst Forest, the Caves, or Forest Ruins near Qeynos, or in Greater Faydark near the Nursery to begin. Other possibilities are Timorous Deep and Darklight Woods.

If monsters are keeping up with you while you Sprint, then something is wrong. When you Sprint, monsters should only get 1-2 attacks on you before you establish some distance from them.

Are you encumbered? This will slow you down. (Open your inventory window and look at your weight listed at the bottom. Is it red?)

Sprinting costs power. You need to use your Sprint ability while you still have some blue color left in your power bar. Are you running after you run out of power?

running away does work, like the others say..there are some different 'skills' one needs to learn, like yell,sprint. If you're running slow for some reason you are still locked into the slow combat run speed.

Watch the old timers run, they have running down to a science.

A lot of people wait untill it's to late to run, health to low. Then it's best to don't run, not watch SMILEY go grab a coke and rebuff at the revive point when it's all over.

Go to Timorous Deep, fly to the island of Mok Rent, quest to 20. Come back to Antonica and continue your betrayal.

App 4s are going to make it difficult soloing, adept 1's would be better. I would have waited a bit on the betrayal since you are essentially denying yourself access to the major newbie yards.

Honestly app4's are plenty good for soloing. I've done that several times on several different characters. Actually solo leveled a paladin to 20 not too long ago on a different server using nothing but what I looted/quested and app2's I'd bought from the class trainer. Was more difficult than it would have been on one of my home server crafters who have mastercrafted & adept 3s on most skills, but it certainly wasn't bad.

As for the running away, if you are having difficulties, you might want to check your settings. There are some settings that can interfere with running away (like auto facing mobs when engaged). If you decide to run from your foe you need to do these things if you even THINK you might be engaged. Make sure you are targeting whatever creature was attacking you and then yell. If you are targeting something else /yell will usually not work (at least that's my experience, you get a 'you are not currently engaged in that encounter' type message. I find just yelling them off is usually enough to give me enough speed to out run most things (even with my really slow characters like my wee monk). There are some monsters that snare you (wolves come to mind in Antonica) though so sprint is a must until the snare effects are gone. Like others said run in as straight a line as you can away (preferably without running into more mobs). That should get you through safely if you 've left battle soon enough.

I've successfully ran away (lol sounds funny to say that) even from mobs so red you'd think they could melt your liver just looking at you. So I know it can be done. Good luck.