What level can bard start swarm kiting?

[o07Smurf]

My bard is level 4. At what level can I start swarm kiting? I see a lot of posts about swarm kiting around level 18 and up but nothing for lower levels. Any advice is appreciated.

[Joshk80k]

Under ordinary conditions, you could be swarming at level 2. If you strafe by holding your mouse and the left or right keys, mobs can't catch you and slowly going in a circle lets you land chords of dissonance safely.

At about level 4 or 5 it starts to get really tedious, but it gets easier at 8 when you can use strings. Then it starts to get tedious again at 14 or 15, and at 18 you get Denon's Disruptive Discord which, with a brass instrument, makes things smooth until you hit level 40ish, where it slows down until you get your 48th PB AOE DoT, Selo's something something.

However, yesterday's patch screwed with mob movement. Whether it's intentional or not, I don't really know, but the situation I just described currently isn't working. Prior to yesterday, I swarmed groups ranging from 10 mobs to 80+ from levels 2 to my current level of 44. Today, attempting to strafe causes mobs to catch me easily. Now is unfortunately a really bad time to learn swarming.

[Adcid]

At what level can I start swarm kiting?

The previous post answered this question. But basically at level 2 you can start with your first point blank AoE spell. At level 5 or 6 youll have the strings ability that will while using an instrument increase the damage output making it a faster process.

At 18 your dentons has a longer range making it safer to kite.

[o07Smurf]

Thanks. Looks like I picked the wrong time to start swarm kiting. Hopefully the strafe change wasn't intentional. Sounds like a lot of fun.

[Rayzor84]

Under ordinary conditions, you could be swarming at level 2. If you strafe by holding your mouse and the left or right keys, mobs can't catch you and slowly going in a circle lets you land chords of dissonance safely.

At about level 4 or 5 it starts to get really tedious, but it gets easier at 8 when you can use strings. Then it starts to get tedious again at 14 or 15, and at 18 you get Denon's Disruptive Discord which, with a brass instrument, makes things smooth until you hit level 40ish, where it slows down until you get your 48th PB AOE DoT, Selo's something something.

However, yesterday's patch screwed with mob movement. Whether it's intentional or not, I don't really know, but the situation I just described currently isn't working. Prior to yesterday, I swarmed groups ranging from 10 mobs to 80+ from levels 2 to my current level of 44. Today, attempting to strafe causes mobs to catch me easily. Now is unfortunately a really bad time to learn swarming.

I also noticed when pulling multiples and feigning, trying to sneak pull as they walk back, mobs now turn then warp, making judging ranges and timing very difficult. They no longer turn and walk, but turn, stand still, and warp away.

[Korain]

I also noticed when pulling multiples and feigning, trying to sneak pull as they walk back, mobs now turn then warp, making judging ranges and timing very difficult. They no longer turn and walk, but turn, stand still, and warp away.

I noticed this as well last night in CoM. Glad to know I wasn't the only one experiencing this.

[ylosh]

o07Smurf, you can try the Field of Bone pit area. Start with the side near Kaesora and work your way up in levels until you can pull groups of Burynai near Kurn's Tower. Find a group in Kurn's if you get tired of kiting. Buy all the songs you're going to get in advance if you can and travel back to train, sell, buy gear. In the high teens - mid 20's you could try the northeast corner of The Overthere. The cactus, chickens and sarnaks were ok experience until you can move somewhere else.

I xp'd here a long time ago. Practice in the low level zones with small groups of 3-4 mobs to get your timing down if you plan to strafe kite. I'd suggest setting a key to either strafe left or right, hit autorun so you don't have to hold down the mouse button to strafe, then use the mouse right click to make 2-3 turns in the direction you're kiting and timing your dot songs to land either as you're making your last turn or right after. Then, while strafe running you can change instruments with the mouse or gain some distance on the mobs and set up for your next turn and dot.

There is something to be aware of when doing this. It didn't used to happen back in 2011/2012, or it wasn't as noticable, but when someone enters the zone you're in you might get a brief lag spike. If you're in the middle of a turn when you get this lag you will keep turning and more often than not be staring into a pack of mobs waiting to beat you silly.

Give it a try once the bugs with mob run speeds and song duration are fixed.