Bard Swarming on Green

[Swyftfingers]

Hello,
I quit after the mob limit on blue server. Kind of hoping the mob limit will be gone when green starts - Not sure if it's classic or what, but anyone have an idea if it will be possible? Got a couple of buddies that are new to EQ (they are playing blue right now to get accustomed to the game before green launch) and want to speed us up a bit so they don't have to replay all the content as much. Before I get flamed, know zone disruptions and such were my top priority when swarming. Always was mindful of nearby groups, and never, ever trained anyone. I'd pull my swarm plenty far away from other people, and if they wanted to tag a mob off the swarm, that was no problem at all.

Thanks for your responses.

[Tenlaar]

Max of 4 mobs at launch.

[Muggens]

AoE limit is said to be 4 mobs for Green up untill some patch

[cd288]

Even if the mob limit wasn’t in place, with how crowded I expect the zones will be it would be very difficult to kite large swarms on Green for at least the first few months without causing a zone disruption.

[El-Hefe]

Nah, no swarming at all at launch.

Either level like a normal class or wait six months.

[Tecmos Deception]

Who else gets triggered when people call AOE kiting swarming?

[Videri]

Who else gets triggered when people call AOE kiting swarming?

I seek the knowledge Noman has. What would swarming be?

(btw as this is P99 forums, I feel the need to clarify that this is not a sarcastic post. Even I have been infected by the snark.)

[Ashenden]

Swarm Kiting is when you use charm on a mob and have the rest of the duders in your kite beat it to almost dead, then break it when low and kill it. IIRC.

[Dolalin]

Swarm Kiting is when you use charm on a mob and have the rest of the duders in your kite beat it to almost dead, then break it when low and kill it. IIRC.

This is correct. And if the aggro fixes that Haynar is introducing will match what Torven researched on TAKP, this should be possible on Green, but I'm not sure when they'll be fully in place.


Some NPCs continuously (endlessly) check for players in melee range (not full aggro range) to add to their hate lists even after aggroing on a player. (usually undead)

This used to be much more common in the classic world before Sony revamped all the zones. It's still common in Kunark, undead NPCs, fearplane, and other places. Players who first-aggro NPCs this way will still get the 20 or 25 hate applied when they aggro. The result of NPCs having this ability is that you can train them on to people who did not touch them by running over people if you have very little hate on the NPC. This is very much classic behavior. (see Fansy the bard)

...

An NPC will add everybody that it's aggressive to and are in aggro range of it to its hate list when its proximity aggro routine is executed.

This means that when an NPC spawns on top of multiple players, everybody within the NPC's aggro radius will get on the hate list simultaneously. Also, if you run multiple characters in range of the NPC between the periods the NPC checks for players, everybody in range gets on the hate list. After the NPC is aggro, it will stop checking its aggro radius.

...

NPCs calling for help will cause them to social aggro on players even after they are already aggro on another player.

There is an issue on the emus where, for example, you can aggro an NPC, then drag it nearby another NPC on the same faction that is engaged with another player, and you will not get on the hate list of that second NPC. This is incorrect behavior. NPCs will share who they hate with each other even after entering combat.

...

The hate bonus for being in melee range is...

For NPCs with less than 4000 hitpoints, bonus = 100.
For NPCs with 4000 to around 60k hitpoints, bonus = (maxHP - 4000) / 15 + 100.
After roughly 60k hitpoints, bonus = 250 + hitpoins / 100 with a cap of 2250.



http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39819

All of those factors combine to make classic swarm kiting possible: the swarm will prefer to attack the closer charmed pet instead of the kiting bard.

[DMN]

I think in vanilla it only really worked on undead and giants(maybe cyclopes too?).

realistically on green you are highly unlikely to be able to do this effectively, and you'd be lucky to just find another target for a charm to fight in the first place.

[Ahris]

Charm kiting was a thing in 1999 but swarm kiting wasn't. Bards were uncommon because of their group dependancy, xp penalty and technical difficulty; song macros were not a thing in classic eq.

[Deathrydar]

Charm kiting was a thing in 1999 but swarm kiting wasn't. Bards were uncommon because of their group dependancy, xp penalty and technical difficulty; song macros were not a thing in classic eq.

I don't believe many people knew, or even cared, about the experience penalty for hybrids back in 99, nor do I think anyone cared about group dependency. I think Bard was unpopular at launch because there was never, and still has never been, a class in an MMORPG quite like it. It was new and no one understood it yet.

[Ahris]

I don't believe many people knew, or even cared, about the experience penalty for hybrids back in 99, nor do I think anyone cared about group dependency. I think Bard was unpopular at launch because there was never, and still has never been, a class in an MMORPG quite like it. It was new and no one understood it yet.

The xp penalty was well known and i have a pretty good idea of how bards were regarded, i played as one 20 years ago so my post wasn't speculative. Thats how it was. :)

[Deathrydar]

The xp penalty was well known and i have a pretty good idea of how bards were regarded, i played as one 20 years ago so my post wasn't speculative. Thats how it was. :)

As did I. But your opinion is your opinion, no matter how incorrect it is. ;)

[bum3]

Some live servers called mass aoe kiting, swarming. Which is why I think people are torn on it. Tunare called charm killing for bards.. charm killing. Sold a bard on Tunare for $500. Ppl loved them during PoP.

[astuce999]

Who else gets triggered when people call AOE kiting swarming?

Me, took me 2 days to look at this post again just by principle.

Astuce