Bard Kiting 2013

[Fromp]

Despite reading numerous bard kiting related posts I can't help but realise most date back to 2010.

Since hitting 18 I have been trying to kite down elephants and Aviaks in South Karana, I am not sure if I am doing anything wrong but 70% of the time I am out of range of being able to hit the mobs with either Denons Disruptive Chord or Chords of Disonance.

If I began to tighten my circles I normally find myself being stunned by my small train which results in me having to resort to widening my circle and playing Hymn of Restoration until I am at an acceptable %age to try and land my DoT's again.

At the time of writing this post, a pull of 10 mobs takes me approximately 35minutes to down which in regards to many other bards seems very poor.

Could anybody offer me some tips - I currently use the WSAD keys to move and use my mouse to manipulate my song twisting and instrument swaps.



Tryndal - 18th lvl Bard.

[odiecat99]

I had trouble also. it has a lot to do with lag .

[SamwiseRed]

make sure horn equiped, use lvl 18 dot only until you are good with that one. only do aviaks, leave elephants alone for now. its easier to learn if you have the same mob type. other than that its just practice, i never played a bard before p99 and i picked it up in a day. too easy.

[Ephirith]

Diagonal movement may help... you hold forward and strafe simultaneously, while adjusting heading with mouse look (other people use turn keys too I think). Many mobs have trouble hitting you while you are moving diagonally, which helps you get into close range w/o dying. It takes a bit of practice to get it tuned properly. You also want to avoid mobs with huge hitboxes, which may include elephants.

High latency and framerate skips can make this more difficult

[Fromp]

Thank-you all for your help I shall try this.

What should I bind strafe to?

[Lazortag]

Originally Posted by Ephirith [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Diagonal movement may help... you hold forward and strafe simultaneously, while adjusting heading with mouse look (other people use turn keys too I think). Many mobs have trouble hitting you while you are moving diagonally, which helps you get into close range w/o dying. It takes a bit of practice to get it tuned properly. You also want to avoid mobs with huge hitboxes, which may include elephants.

High latency and framerate skips can make this more difficult

Honestly I find this method is better if you're lagging since you're not looking at the mobs the whole time. Kiting in circles is tedious and prone to error, but strafe kiting is super easy and you don't even need selo's to do it.

[Grahm]

Originally Posted by Lazortag [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Honestly I find this method is better if you're lagging since you're not looking at the mobs the whole time. Kiting in circles is tedious and prone to error, but strafe kiting is super easy and you don't even need selo's to do it.

Another thing that makes it 100000000000x easier, always get a SoW or buy sow potions. Dont have to twist selos into the mix. Only use lvl 18 dot, just delete the level 2 AoE its worthless.

[Bardalicious]

Originally Posted by Grahm [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Another thing that makes it 100000000000x easier, always get a SoW or buy sow potions. Dont have to twist selos into the mix. Only use lvl 18 dot, just delete the level 2 AoE its worthless.

Chords has the same range with only slightly lower damage. And if I recall correctly, it has a negative resist modifier whereas Denon's does not. It is also string based, which means less swapping instruments mid-kite should you need to twist in regen for health. Don't discredit it quite so easily.

The most valuable piece of advice to take from this thread is to not kite a ton of different mob types. Some will run faster than others. Some will be able to hit you from farther distances. Learn which have smaller hit boxes and stick to them.

When you hit 27, if you're still having a difficult time of learning the AE kite, give charm kiting a go instead. Example: you gather up 10 wolves by proximity aggro (without hitting them with songs to eliminate any hate being generated), you charm one and send it after any of the others in the pack. They all turn on the charm pet. You invis yourself to break charm when your pet is near death and then finish it off for xp. Rinse and repeat. The key here of course is gathering mob types that will social aggro your pet when it attacks something. This becomes much easier when you have your first Chant targeted DoT to finish off the pet. And taking the time to camp a clicky invis ring from loio to break charm at will is definitely worth it.

Patience and practice my friend! You'll get there.

[Emphase]

what Ephirith said, and kiting all of the same mobs does help a bunch..if you pick up multiple mob types you'll end up hitting some with a dot and others will miss, or you might even get hit.

[Fromp]

looks like you were all right strafing is the key just took out my first 15 aviaks