Swarmming in Velious

[DabCity]

Hello p99'ers, I don't really have any experience in Velious....Anyone know if theres any sweet spots for some swarm kiting in the new continent? Obviously somewhere that has higher lvl mobs than the ones in OT. Any feedback will help greatly. Thanks!

[Natoria]

Western Wastes has some great space.
Start pulling from the 2nd canyon.
Should be great XP.

[DabCity]

Great! thanks a bunch for the info!

[Tann]

swarm kiting uses charm not AoE dots, get your terms right!

saying this cause its a bard thread~

[Nisei]

swarm kiting uses charm not AoE dots, get your terms right!

saying this cause its a bard thread~

I remembered that on live, but when I came here I was confused. I went with it, because that's what everyone refers to here. I guess only scrubs call it swarm kiting. The ones that only AOE and are terrible at their Bard in every other situation.

[TheSchwartz420]

The ones that only AOE and are terrible at their Bard in every other situation.


Would you mind expanding on that? I'm starting a bard soon and I thought that was how you killed multiple mobs while kiting? AoE?

[zanderklocke]

Would you mind expanding on that? I'm starting a bard soon and I thought that was how you killed multiple mobs while kiting? AoE?

AoE kiting is what everyone for some reason calls swarm kiting/swarming on this server. AoE kiting is when you run around in a circle while do your AoE song that hits all the mobs.

Swarming is actually when you gather up a bunch of similar faction mobs, charm one, and then send it into the pile which draws aggro from all the mobs on the same faction. A mob can be beaten down super fast this way. Before the pet is killed by the swarm of mobs, the bard breaks the charm and then dots the low-hp mob to death. The pile of mobs "swarm" the charmed pet; hence this is called swarm kiting.

[TheSchwartz420]

And this is much better experience? Good to know for later levels.

[Cecily]

So why doesn't swarm kiting work here? Sounds like that would be fun.

[zanderklocke]

So why doesn't swarm kiting work here? Sounds like that would be fun.

It sort of works here. I don't know on live if you needed similar faction mobs. Here you do.

[Nisei]

It sort of works here. I don't know on live if you needed similar faction mobs. Here you do.

I think they just needed to be social on live - faction played no part in it, to my knowledge. I remember swarming the fuck out of the flies and rats in PoD.

The reason I believe people don't do this here is because of the lack of Flowing Thought on P99. After you run out of mana, you would either med back to full mana, or kill yourself and respawn with base mana after looting your gear, and hope to find a rez later. In PoP it was pretty easy findin a rez as groups would come and go, and you'd hang out at the port-in spot.

[Daldaen]

AoE kiting...

Lets look at the zones. Excluding indoor and cities:


Cobalt Scar - Wyverns, High 40s-Mid 50s... Ignore the drakes they cast shit.
Eastern Wastes - Crappy, too many large mobs (rhinos/mammoths/griffins/kodiaks), likely different runspeeds. *MAYBE* Ry'Gorr fort orcs but thats gonna be farmed like whoa.
The Great Divide - Crappy again. Terrible mob density. Best bet would be dire wolves near EW, mid 30's
Iceclad Ocean - Great for mid 30s. Snow dervishes, cougars and dire wolves.
Wakening Land - Terrible. Trees, bad mob density, casters.
Western Wastes - Bad... too many dragons roaming, bad mob density, etc.

tl;dr - Cobalt Scar + Iceclad only useful options. Really Overthere/Burning Woods remain good options.

[falkun]

Zander is correct on Swarming vs. PBAOE kiting. Swarming for the longest time did not work on this server because aggro transfer mechanics were so much different than Live. You would charm 1, send him on a second, and only those two would fight while the rest of the pack would remain aggroed on the bard. I think they fixed that, but I've never tested it personally. Its also slower than PBAOE kiting. It gets more efficient with higher levels (because mob HP increases so rapidly 40+), but since bards cannot charm over L51, there's a hard cap on it. Also, PBAOE kiting is much safer on P99 than it was on Live because of generally lower lag. Also, Flowing Thought should never work for bards on this server due to timeline restrictions, so you can only swarm for so long.

[zanderklocke]

So flowing thought is originally like any mama spell on a bard and has no effect?

When do flowing thought items start working for bards?

[Daldaen]

From my understanding, FT always worked on a bard. Though most didn't care about it until Fading Memories came into play.

But I dont have an extremely extensive understanding of FT mechanics in their early implementation (when you couldn't stack them). Mostly just Luclin era stuff is stuck in my head.

Mmm 15 FT cap, Earring of Solstice. Luclin confirmed 2nd best expansion behind PoP.

[falkun]

http://web.archive.org/web/20020806131541/http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/retune.php

Classically, FT does not affect bards. Yes its post-Luclin, but he's referencing mechanics that have not changed yet. Also, he's Thott, leader of Afterlife and bard botb; he knows his shit.

[Daldaen]

Dunno if that's what he means.

He is saying that it doesn't do anything to increase the bards power... Cause it is only useful for charm and the crappy damage song. It means that casters can get 15 FT which would be more than the mana a bard would've pumped in the past effectively replacing them.

[zanderklocke]

Dunno if that's what he means.

He is saying that it doesn't do anything to increase the bards power... Cause it is only useful for charm and the crappy damage song. It means that casters can get 15 FT which would be more than the mana a bard would've pumped in the past effectively replacing them.

Yeah. I think it's very ambiguous if he's saying it doesn't work on bards as an effect or it doesn't work on bards to increase their power. I think only Thott could clarify that statement. I'm going to email him since his contact info is on the Afterlife page.

[zanderklocke]

Here is my email to Thott I just sent:

Hello Thott,

I am a player of classic EverQuest, via the emulated server Project1999 which can be found at www.project1999.org.

In order to create the most classic experience possible (Classic being through Velious), players often taken on the burden of finding evidence online about how mechanics in the game existed up through 2001 in Velious.

Your old writings from http://web.archive.org/web/20020806131541/http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/retune.php have actually been used as evidence for coding mechanics a certain way in the past.

The reason I am writing you is to get some clarification on Flowing Thought. On Flowing Thought you wrote:

"Since Luclin shipped, FT has increased from 1, possibly 2, to 15. FT 0->15 is an enormous leap in power for casters and hybrids...yet FT doesn't work on bards. FT is a straight up, across the board, large jump in power for all casting classes...except bards.

Has mob power increased along with FT? Nope. Many times bards/enc have joined groups, adding mana needed for the group to kill without downtime. Now that mana is available to all. Bard/enc mana is no longer necessary to avoid downtime."

The statement I have a question about is "yet FTE doesn't work on bards." In writing this statement, did you mean that Flowing Thought items have no effect at all on bards, essentially they do not increase their mana regeneration, or alternatively, did you mean that compared to other classes, Flowing Thought does not increase the bard's power relative to other casters?

Your answer to this question would be most appreciated! Thanks for doing excellent write ups over a decade ago.


Regards,

(real life name)

Level 60 Bard on the Project 1999 Blue Server