Bard Kiting 2013

[jerok88]

Some mobs have larger hit boxes. All the cats I've kited have, and I'm assuming elephants do too. If you are pulling the mobs together, next time you get hit, look at what mob hit you first; if it was only elephants first, stop pulling them together.

I tend to only use my larger AoE spell because it has greater room for error. You only kill 60% as fast as if you used both, but you don't have to switch instruments or get quite as close. And when you are kiting 50 mobs it still is ridiculously fast leveling, so don't feel pressured into using both if you don't want to.

[quido]

avoid the elephants, large and small

[Droog007]

Originally Posted by jerok88 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...I tend to only use my larger AoE spell because it has greater room for error. You only kill 60% as fast as if you used both, but you don't have to switch instruments or get quite as close...

In my experience, swapping in the lute to play Chords of Dissonance yields zero increased damage. Subsequent ticks of Denon's do unmodified damage. Am I doing something wrong? I am using lute from MM and storebought horn - someone using a better horn would do even less damage this way... wouldn't they?

Denon's should be the bread and butter, so I stick with the horn once I'm in my pattern. Unmodified Chords is icing on the cake when I'm feeling brave (full health, low latency, low packet loss, wrist not on fire).

Also, in my experience: the elephants are un-kiteable with AE dots.

[falkun]

Not much about bard kiting has changed since 2010.
Hmotzart has a good guide on how to AE kite using the strafe method:
http://wiki.project1999.org/Hmotzart...ss_AoE_Hmurder

I, personally, used the circles method and got REALLY good at tapping my turn keys, metronomes don't have anything on my consistent beat. But its not for everyone, and I could only do it for so long before my finger literally started cramping. As for where to AoE kite, I wrote up my experiences leveling to the late 40s: http://wiki.project1999.org/Deajay%2...Location_Guide

[fugazi]

It's been years since I did it on my bard here, but I'd heed the words of Lazortag. I myself kited in circles - well, I ran straight forward until I needed to refresh the DoTs - and the sleightest error could be your downfall.

Get some SoW pots, try to get as much HP and AC gear as you can and start practicing. I first tried it out on greens and then moved on to blues, building up bigger and bigger swarms as I got more confident in my abilities. I honestly grabbed whatever mob I could in the Karana's and kill em all.

And, if you happen to be rich enough for a Goblin Gawhatever ring for clicky invis vs animals (that happens to break charm), you can try out charm kiting as described above. But whatever you do, keep some SoW pots on you and bum some HP buffs whenever you can!

[fugazi]

Do you refresh the song without the right instrument equipped? I can't remember this being the case, but mind you, that was some 2 years ago.

[Splorf22]

I mostly did circle kiting as i could never really figure out the strafe kiting.

Chords definitely has a smaller range than Denons. When I was doing well I would get cocky and throw Chords in there, but after a few minutes I would always screw up - its a very small margin for error. I'd just get a horn, take it easy, and do Denons.

Kiting is much easier at ~20 because you can kill them all within 2 minutes or so (well I had McVaxius' Horn which helped). At L35 its a bit more annoying because its 5-6 minutes which means if you finish 75% of your kites at 20 that number is down to 50% at 35.

Some mobs just have bigger hitboxes. I tried kiting crocs in Oasis and it was just impossible. At 18 you should go to the NE section of OT. Fantastic XP.

[Droog007]

Originally Posted by Splorf22 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

... I tried kiting crocs in Oasis and it was just impossible...

I also went to Oasis after commons and got my ass munched by crocs - it's just not happening. Orcs worked ok as long as you avoided the clerics. If you're feeling really ballsy, round of a pack of rogues (e.g. Dervish Cutthroats)...

[Wankertank]

Originally Posted by Droog007 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I also went to Oasis after commons and got my ass munched by crocs - it's just not happening. Orcs worked ok as long as you avoided the clerics. If you're feeling really ballsy, round of a pack of rogues (e.g. Dervish Cutthroats)...

Who can show me the how the f you even kite in Unrest yard??? I keep trying to round up mobs but just keep getting crushed trying to get them together. FWIW I use the strafe method (which I believe leads to smaller circles and the fact you don't need to twist Selo's to do it).

[Spudsy]

My advice:

Basically you should be running in circles by strafe running away from the circle, if the mobs are to your right you are running straight and left while mouse turning towards the mobs in a smooth circle. Turning more will tighten the circle and bring them closer to you, turning less will widen your circle and put space between you and them. When you start out you can basically run safe wide circles and choke it down slowly until your pulse hits then widen it out, etc... it's not a race at first just feel it out. However, you have to always be strafing, which will make you run away basically as fast as possible and will allow you to get closer without getting hit.

Take your camera, zoom it all the way out and look from directly above your character... you want the pack of mobs to JUST be visible in the lower corner of your screen (left or right, whichever side the circle center is)... that's the range of your dot.

Get Jboots or sow or whatever, just for consistency sake, being able to focus on your dots the whole time and getting an extra refresh attempt.

Don't kite elephants. They have a larger attack range and will indeed kill you from roughly max dot range. You can gather up basically everything else. Get the aviaks, horse people (watch out for the names, one or two of them run faster), gnolls, etc. Whenever you go to a new zone you can check the range on everything individually, but typically humanoids are always safe... I think the only thing you'll want to kite that is incompatible with most mobs in zone is Rhinos in OT.