petition bard swarming?
 

So I know there were a couple threads on bard swarming here the past month or so, but has anything come of it? I didn't follow the threads too much, but I'm not sure if there was any GM input on the issue.

I'm not sure what would be acceptable for an in-game /petition when it comes to bard kite swarming. What is acceptable and what is not?

I was very tempted to petition tonight, but just decided to log, as most in the zone were just leaving anyway. So on an alt, in a lvl15+ zone, a lvl56 bard enters. Decided, yeah pull the whole zone all to himself. And when I say pull the whole zone, I mean pretty much everything 50+ mobs in a trail. I ran out a bit and went invis, in the middle of nowhere. The bard smacked right into me. I moved to another part of the zone, same thing happened, bard smacked right into me. He didn't seem to be looting, just grabbing everything around anyone and running off to kill it, tracking players around the zone. I watched him do this for over 30 minutes.

But that's my personal observation. I thought about petitioning it, but have no idea if it would go anywhere. To me, I'd call flat out griefing, ban the stooge on the spot, but that's me. So that was pretty much it, lvl ~20 players emptying out of the zone.

Hard to say, it's an outdoor zone, all wandering mobs so no real "camps", makes an easy petition. There are rules on camps, but what were the rules on entire zones? Especially a lvl56 bard in a zone mostly populated by lvl12-20 players? In early EQ, thanks to slow connections, never had these types of issues. Here though, broadband can easily be used "grief" and that's legal?

There's no rules against bard kiting. There are rules against zone disruption and monopolizing entire zones.

Talk to the bard, generally, they are happy to carve out an area for you.

From the wonderful Play Nice Policy:

So yes, feel free to petition if you are having trouble with a bard taking up all the spawns after you have contacted the bard and tried to work something out with them. Petitioning for a Guide should be your last resort.

Nah that not what was going on though, he seemed to be intentionally doing this to players, not giving anyone any space at all. No talk. The first time he did this to me, I was visible, tracking mobs for pelts. He started repeatedly bumping into me, jumping around in circles on top of me, then ran off with everything in sight. With tracking open, I watched as every mob ticked off the list next to his name. I found dead mobs everywhere, unlooted. No loot, not even xp as he was 40 levels over the stuff he was slaughtering. But see, just my opinion, and my growing opinion that all bards should be taken out and shot! :p

I mean what's a disruption, ya know? There are no "camps" in the zone, so it's all mostly fair game. He's not technically KS'ing either, just grabbing all the mobs in the zone that no one is actually fighting at that particular moment. Then he is just doing what the bard mechanics are designed to do. Sooo...
I was waiting about an hour for a named mob to spawn. It was on my tracking for about 20 seconds and then it was dead. He just got to it before I could, then let it rot. Right?

Ah ok, I must have missed that. Then I should have reported him on rule #8. Thanks for the clarification.

Sounds like flat out grief play to me if he's trakcing people (running into an invis char repeatedly?) Name & shame, maybe next time the GMs will publicly burn his account to the ground as an example to the rest. (I know, they won't, such a pity.)

Well sure, didn't want to mention, but seems like probably the best thing to do. Recka lvl56 Troubadour, runs around in blue armor. Happened in NK about an hour ago. He's logged now, prolly got bored of it :p

Every encounter I've had with you on these boards makes me think massive tool, soo I'm giving the bard the benefit of the doubt here.

What, you're trolling me here too? Is that your alt?

Swarm kiting is charming a mob and having a group of mobs attack it. Doesn't work here.

AE Kiting is running in a circle while your songs do damage.

Where did people start calling AE kiting Swarm Kiting? Like what thread started this, so I can go yell at said person.

It happened quite some time ago when people starting making guides on how to "Swarm kite on p99" and it just went from there.

It doesn't help that regardless of the type of killing, we call the mass of mobs that follow these guys around a "swarm".