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Old 03-29-2011, 07:59 AM
falkun falkun is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Ruins of Old Sebilis
Posts: 2,464
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Deajay's AoE bard leveling location guide:
  • L7ish: The bandit sister camp in GFay (location #3)
  • L10-12ish: The orcs in LFay (locations #6 & 11)
  • L13-15ish: The derv and orc camps in SRo, lulling the casters and taking them out solo afterward. I usually also went in the desert and grabbed some extra roaming undead/dervs. (locations #3, 5, 6, & 10; although more locations in the southern portion are orc camps. I just found those listed to have fewer/no casters.)
  • L16-19ish: LOIO fields. (I did 17 off the skellies/lower level sarnaks between locations #4, 5, 7 & 9. I did 16-20 off the non-caster wanderers between locations #9 and 13)
  • L20-26: I did this portion between the Iksar outcast camps in WW and the lower level field portion of OT. (WW locations #B, 9, 10, 11 and OT field between locations #5, 6, 9, 10). OT is off-the-charts exp at this level range. If you can gather up the whole area, you are looking at ~45min/level during this range.
  • 26-28The EXP really started to slow down in OT, so I headed back to WW and continued on the iksar outcast camps there. Was slower, but I didn't have to spend half my kite gathering up LB mobs.
  • 29-30: I am doing this portion on the Drolvargs in FV. I have to admit, this range is by far the most dangerous I've done so far. The drolvargs are larger than most MOBs I've kited so far, and therefore have a larger hitbox, while I still have to be within 35 measurement units to hit them with my 18 dot. I have really perfected my distance/selo's speed, while also dieing much more than I would have liked in this level range. I gather up yellow/blue drolvargs while avoiding froglocks (especially casters) and other red dogs. It's actually not that hard to do. On this map of FV, I gather drolvargs from the area surrounded by points #3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and A on the map, and then I take them back towards the NorthEastern Swamp of No Hope zone line as there are no wanderers back there. I'd recommend only pulling a few until you perfect your skills, as I have gotten stunned and 1-rounded (or even not stunned and one-rounded) more often than I'd like to admit. These dogs can take me to probably 35 or so, but I think I may try to find some MOBs to kite that aren't quite so deadly. The good news is I can sell/bank without zoning.
  • 31-46 (maybe 47): I went back to OT and started kiting the Western/Southern areas of the zone. Basically any blue-red mob (besides dragoons) between the Outpost, SF, FM, the center valley and location #10 on this map of Overthere is fair game. I do recommend you pull only cockatrices, tigers, and cacti. They all move at the same speed. Rhinos move faster, but selos is much faster and a rhino-only kite would certainly work. Some Sarnaks cast, and I'm moving way too fast to check names to see if I'm about to pull a caster or not. This post shows some kites where I had probably 50+ mobs in my kite (figuring 1-2%/kill, and I know I made 100% of a level for each of those 2 kites). You can make some pretty awesome pulls. I've pulled so many that the dot spam insta-crashed EQ to desktop (creating a crappy CR).
  • 47ish-55+: The Burned Wood. Once you've found where the devs have located it this week, find all the gorillas, skeletons, and hornets you can gather and kite em down. Avoid sarnaks as a lot of them are casters, the wyrms have much larger hit-boxes than everyone else, and also keep an eye out (read: avoid) for the ape "Gullerback" (he summons). Note that I have not AE kited here, but have heard reports from many-a-bard that this is the next step in AE kiting.

Do note that I've pretty much done all of these camps AE kiting. I'd love to group more, but soloing is retarded exp, good money, and I don't have to wait for the rest of the "holy trinity" to decide to show up. And yes, it does get MUCH easier at 18 when you get a new AE that isn't teeny-tiny range, but that doesn't mean that it's bad exp prior to 18.

As far as HOW to AoE kite, I suggest reading the amazing guides by Hmotzart and Cribanox and then just trying it out and figuring out what works for you.
Hmotzart's Hmasterpiece of Hmass AoE Hmurder
Cribanox Bard AoE Kiting
Last edited by falkun; 07-01-2011 at 07:56 AM..