Bard Kiting - 101

[Lyrith]

Hey guys, I know there has always been a ton of information in here for bard kiting and how to do it. I've put together a couple videos to help teach people by seeing instead of reading. However it is like riding a bike, it takes some time and trying and deaths, but when you get it and figure it out. Well the rest of your levels are history!

Bard Kiting - 101 - FV (http://www.twitch.tv/zandar_the_legend/c/6117872)

Bard Kiting - 102 - OT (http://www.twitch.tv/zandar_the_legend/c/6117905)


I am in the process of getting more videos made with other zones and when I hit 54 and the game changes I will post those as well. If there is anything else you would like to see or made more clear, please let me know in a PM or respond to this thread. Cheers my fellow Bards!

[gildor]

Cheers Lyrith! Great videos, I myself kited from 2 to 30. It really is a LOT of fun and can be frustrating at times. Big note to make is be courteous!

There are a lot of people who despise bard kiting because they have been shit on by bards that just run right through them or don't leave ANYTHING up for them to xp on.

[Lyrith]

Agreed, it's always a hard call to make. If you watch my videos you will see I make an effort to always leave mobs up in an area where I see a group. But sadly those people see me run through the area and think I am taking them.

Then in FV I do take mobs in the area before groups on ledge, due to them unable to keep the area clear...

Lot of people just have bard hate, because they assume bards are always powerleveling someone or something else. I don't think for a minute if those same people were playing a bard and could kill stuff without having to med/rest they wouldn't be doing the same thing.

I have yet to have an issue that got a petition, but I always communicate and work it out with people. Even though we don't see eye to eye, it can almost always be resolved. Even in these videos you will see a guy that feels like he died to me and was cussing me out. And we resolved it, he sends me tells everyday so far, and I rezzed him.

Last Note: Bard Kiting 103/104 coming in the following week! So stay tuned!

[zanderklocke]

You have a bard name Tander and your twich username is Zandar_the_legend.

Both of these names have similarities to another bard I know.

[Scikala]

Lemme know when you do BW - I tried by the DL zone and met with mixed results last year and I run on an SSD, so not sure where the stutter came from....other than it being all trees. Haven't touched my bard since.

[evilkorn]

BW is not really made for bards. There are like 10x more casters than in OT and pretty much every non caster has sow. I have been duoing with a bard there to speed things up but something will go wrong so clerics are a must to keep the exp going. The hornets also lag a lot more with the wings flapping, couple that with the trees and I've spun 180 with a kite on me many times.

[Scikala]

Yarp, I mostly pull skellies and bugs and I'll get a ton of the train down then have the mobs appear on my ass out of nowhere.

Eh I was trying to do 50-54 there, wasn't really in the mood for KC.

[Lyrith]

You have a bard name Tander and your twich username is Zandar_the_legend.

Both of these names have similarities to another bard I know.

Lol! Zander, I wish I was as cool as you!

Zandar was my role playing name from back in Mushs/Muds and D&D. Sadly I was unable to get it on this server. "The Legend" part comes from me originally planning to stream the game Destiny.

[Lyrith]

Lemme know when you do BW - I tried by the DL zone and met with mixed results last year and I run on an SSD, so not sure where the stutter came from....other than it being all trees. Haven't touched my bard since.

Going to try and get videos up soonish, been really sick this last week. =( DL works fine for me 9/10 pulls. But 1 in 10 I get some weird duck bug and obviously the slower walk speed kills me.

Trying to figure out the best way to do BW now...

[Scikala]

Going to try and get videos up soonish, been really sick this last week. =( DL works fine for me 9/10 pulls. But 1 in 10 I get some weird duck bug and obviously the slower walk speed kills me.

Trying to figure out the best way to do BW now...

No no I mean in BW at the DL zone, flat and alone, but filled with trees. I havent actually tried DL...mostly because of the spider casters and what not. Plus, tons of people usually there, figure OT was enough of people complaining.

Feel better, constantly below zero here, so I could be on deaths door myself!

[Lyrith]

Scikala, I get FAR fewer complaints in DL compared to FV or OT. Basically if you stay off that west wall at KC you are fine. Skeleton camps to pull, birds, and Drovargs a plenty on the North/East sides, then you come in far south on the zoneline area so your train doesn't come through KC and kill people fighting.

I will try to get a video up in the next couple days. My health is finally starting to come back to me! =)

[Scikala]

I'll give it a whirl. Stripped the bard and went to red last year, so I'll have to juggle some gear on my characters on Blue and give it a short....though I leveled to 50 naked the first time haha.

[iruinedyourday]

didnt you drag your kite right onto that bard and social agro and kill him in video one? nice one..

and hey tips & tricks.. if you get a caster or that frog you were having trouble with, dont zone.. just charm it and send it into the pack of social agro mobs and they make it disappear. (edit oh i see you mention that sorry! still skeptical as to whether or not you wiped that other bard.. :P)

third edit, lmao yea you definitely trained that bard XD

[gildor]

eh looks like the two groups got too close together and since Tander hadn't started his dot yet, the other dudes dot picked up his mobs..

he didn't really train that bard, the bard trained himself..quick question, would 2 bards running the same dot double the dmg on the mobs? or can they only be affected by one at a time

[MudMan]

Good stuff. Need more;)

[iruinedyourday]

eh looks like the two groups got too close together and since Tander hadn't started his dot yet, the other dudes dot picked up his mobs..

he didn't really train that bard, the bard trained himself..quick question, would 2 bards running the same dot double the dmg on the mobs? or can they only be affected by one at a time

One bard doing damage up to like 70% then the other bard can just follow in the center of the pack and will usually keep agro on bard 1 and you're free to just chill, following and dotting for double damage with a second song. Once you get aoe slow the other bard can start dotting at 100% one bard cN do two songs but often not easily or efficiently getting both to stick every pass so two is great fun, really makes it easier in Burning woods.

Also it's not the best form to pull your kite right into another bard, especially with social agro mobs. I would definitely have to say Tander was at fault for that bards death. Gotta own up to those moments! They happen to everyone, errbodys shit stinks :)

One rule of thumb is to just kite somewhere else alltogeather if a bard is already in your favorite spot so that doesn't happen.

[Lyrith]

Nah I felt bad for that bard, we are friends now. I have rezzed him 5+ times on my cleric. I felt bad about that incident, but clearly said I just wanted to get one pull in and done and then he pulled in as well...

Once again, probably wasn't the right move. He cussed me out in OOC and we still resolved our differences. Communication and Owning up to your mistakes > ALL

[Lyrith]

Also it's not the best form to pull your kite right into another bard, especially with social agro mobs. I would definitely have to say Tander was at fault for that bards death. Gotta own up to those moments! They happen to everyone, errbodys shit stinks :)

One rule of thumb is to just kite somewhere else alltogeather if a bard is already in your favorite spot so that doesn't happen.

Couldn't agree more, if I see a bard kiting in the area I typically just move to another zone, or another part of the current zone. I thought I would be ok in this situation since I let him know I just needed to do one pull for recording purposes. I re-watched the video several times. But I don't have the time in my personal life to re-record stuff or shoot it again. I want to try to play the game when I get a chance.

Also see post before this one for how it was resolved and me owning up to it. Even if you watch that whole recording instead of the highlight you will see me get on the cleric and rez him and talk to him for a bit.

[iruinedyourday]

Also see post before this one for how it was resolved and me owning up to it. Even if you watch that whole recording instead of the highlight you will see me get on the cleric and rez him and talk to him for a bit.

Yea thats what its all about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WWp67DsTk4

its funny how even your worst enemy in EQ probably is exactly like you IRL and you'd get along swimmingly with them. Take me and Clark for example, Id probably still hate him IRL.. jk Clark I dont even hate u in EQ.

[Lyrith]

Got some good idea's to add onto these already. Going to be working on recording a couple tomorrow night as long as the zones aren't packed on a Saturday night. So wish me luck! =D

Tried to record 103, but didn't like the way it turned out. And have 104 for Burning Woods down to an art now.

[Sivaeb]

Where is the best spot you've found for 41+ ?

I hear people do Dreadlands or TD. Unsure where/what in DL. Maybe cockatrice and drolvarg?

[Coan]

Try watching the videos...

OT/FV/DL

Best spot imo FV for ease of pulling till around 48

[Kileras]

I just hit 30, would you suggest i goto FV and start the drovlargs ? or would OT south and west side be better?

[Sivaeb]

I think 30 would be too low for FV. I think savages would be good, but snarlers and growlers would probably resist

[Kileras]

now that skipping stone is gone, anyone have any suggestions?

[Daldaen]

I use chants or bellow to Aggro mobs for an AE Kite.

[Whiteberry]

I use chants or bellow to Aggro mobs for an AE Kite.

^ I use the MR chant.

[zanderklocke]

I punch mobs.

[Kileras]

FV definitely doable at 30. whether or not the mob pack size vs. resists ratio is worth it i don't know, but went from 30-33 there in an hour and 20 minutes.

[Dirkus]

I punch mobs.

I do this and pull with snare. Snare lets you get a few of them before you have to move.

[indiscriminate_hater]

I punch mobs.

life is good once you get a fungi

[MaCtastic]

I am lvl 23, mobs in OT are getting few and far between that con blue. Where should I head next?

[Coan]

LOIO or SK

[MaCtastic]

Gnolls near splitpaw in SK?

[Kileras]

Gnolls near splitpaw in SK?

http://imgur.com/ixxvjVx

http://i.imgur.com/ixxvjVx.png

till 30.

[MaCtastic]

Wow, +1 to your helpful diagram Kileras!

[Kileras]

42+ what are people doing? OT and burning woods? any other options?

[Dirkus]

FV, OT and DL until high 40's. Then you go to BW.

[Kileras]

FV, OT and DL until high 40's. Then you go to BW.

do you have any tips on DL? as in what to avoid, where is safe to circle, what i should/should not pull? I went there a few times and found tons of wanderers but was worried about casters and hitbox size of some of the mobs.

thanks for the response.

[Dirkus]

Avoid spiders, giants and the yeti/brutes. You can kite at the BW zone line safely.

[Kileras]

low level OT kiting
http://i.imgur.com/alqXYnH.png
http://i.imgur.com/alqXYnH.png

High Level OT kiting
http://i.imgur.com/MDrLxQG.png
http://i.imgur.com/MDrLxQG.png

Firiona vie:
http://i.imgur.com/5G2LQrD.png
http://i.imgur.com/5G2LQrD.png

[Jabaniz]

I hunted in FV from 25 and I'm 46 now. At first I could only hit savages, and after they were dead I zoned rest of train. Each level you can land on more mobs, by 32 I think I could land on every thing. I found pirates are in this lower level range also, but last one will death walk. Non caster frogloks are fine to throw in the mix too, just beware some of them have been SOW'd by their shaman buddies. At my current level of 46 only savages give exp, so I have been concentrating my pulls to only these, I can still get 10 to 15 percent a pull depending on mob count. Will move on after this level, I should maybe have left after 45

[Jabaniz]

Also, during times when other bards are kiting I found that pirates were a good mob to solo to work on melee skills

[Kileras]

you mean snarlers, not savages. Yes at 45-46 i think the OT is better honestly. You can round up stuff quicker in FV, but OT will have more blues when snarlers are the only good exp in FV.

my next move is into dreadlands I think, before eventually trying BW.

[MaCtastic]

Bard Swarm route in OT from ~29 to 44 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGK3KBd-aCs&feature=youtu.be)

[Dairuiner]

In FV, don't forget the area behind "A" on that map. Another 15-20 drolvargs can be had in that area, just be careful not to run headlong into your kite when coming back down the tunnel.

[Kileras]

I have hit a wall at lvl 50, burningwoods is permacamped by neckbeards and DL is as well by PL'ers. The golden years are over boys, i feel like the rest of the classes now :( DL/BW are also not really easy to "share" because of lack of safe killing areas and the really high mob hps.

[Javacup]

I tried to be as artistic as Kileras.

Route I used in BW. Is a rough path, easiest to just learn the zone and modify it around this how you like.

Used to be much easier with skipping stone because it skipped the los check on all the skeletons in buildings, much more annoying to land songs or punch to pull them.

Pretty messy looking, I do a lot of backtracking to get all mobs. Gullerbacks are not an issue if you are sub 54 (or not using pbaoe snare song). The pbaoe dots will never land on them, therefore they will never get low enough to summon you.

If you do get a caster sarnak, just round the mobs up and zone them and try to retag as they reset. Too many times I have got long duration rooted with 255 MR on green sarnaks. Just don't try it.

http://i.imgur.com/ipFNhKS.jpg

And what I did for BW... if I saw other bards, I would just ask them to alternate pulls. Most of them were pretty open to it. I personally needed breaks between each pull anyways so it worked out.

[Kileras]

I tried to be as artistic as Kileras.

Route I used in BW. Is a rough path, easiest to just learn the zone and modify it around this how you like.

Used to be much easier with skipping stone because it skipped the los check on all the skeletons in buildings, much more annoying to land songs or punch to pull them.

Pretty messy looking, I do a lot of backtracking to get all mobs. Gullerbacks are not an issue if you are sub 54 (or not using pbaoe snare song). The pbaoe dots will never land on them, therefore they will never get low enough to summon you.

If you do get a caster sarnak, just round the mobs up and zone them and try to retag as they reset. Too many times I have got long duration rooted with 255 MR on green sarnaks. Just don't try it.

http://i.imgur.com/ipFNhKS.jpg

And what I did for BW... if I saw other bards, I would just ask them to alternate pulls. Most of them were pretty open to it. I personally needed breaks between each pull anyways so it worked out.


thanks for the info, so far bards have not been open to sharing. I think the push to velious is a big reason. most people say things like, "im going to be here kiting whole zone for next 6 hours", i shit you not.

[MilanderTruewield]

Do we have a pull map for DL? Fugues?

[Kileras]

i can make one, or i can show you tonight/help DPS.

its better to kite near the BW zoneline if you can, the spot we originally were doing it at on the ice can be problematic/annoying at times. a couple pathers there and also the sloped ground makes camera angles wonky.

basically circle all around KC, thats the jist of it. when you first start you can just zone off the ravishings/ragers because they will take an eternity.

[MilanderTruewield]

They do take an eternity. So far in DL I have had 1 successful kite and 3 splats. Level 45 now.

[Omnifiend]

First off, thanks a lot for the videos, really helping me out. Secondly, I'm only level 9, but trying to find stuff to swarm kite. I'm currently in West Karana, and all I can find that run around the same speed are bears/spiders, but those are really few and far between. Lions are faster that non drum Selos. Any advice for a bunch of mobs around level 9 that aren't at SoW speed?

[Omnifiend]

Can't edit for some reason...I got it, Deajay's location guide has it all.

[MaCtastic]

Burning Woods kite (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwwE9pxjojc), instrument swap.

[Duff73]

I'm over in ek now doing gnolls at 18. A previous guide said zone was good but have noticed run speed on wolves can make kite a mess. Will I run into this problem in sk with cents as well? It seems most of the guides are all kunark based.
Thanks

[Kileras]

you cannot do centaurs, and you cannot do dogs/wolves (with the non celo method).

i did the crag spiders/gnolls at that level, and then moved to the OT i believe. OT>Loio>FV

[Saludeen]

Burning Woods kite (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwwE9pxjojc), instrument swap.

Nice kiting Quom. After seeing your vid I re-bound my keys to instrument swap while swarming.
With my original setup I couldn't let go of the right mouse button.

OP vids are good too, helped me learn in FV.

[Duff73]

Thanks Kil. During one of my knoll kites i picked up a dark stalker and his run speed was noticeably faster than the gnolls just wanted clarification.

Thx

[Duff73]

Kileras are there's any mobs you avoid other than casters on your low level OT kite map?

Thanks

[Kileras]

casters/rhinos/tigers/tigress

[Duff73]

Thx again Kil.

[Kileras]

Thx again Kil.


no prob anytime!

[Duff73]

So this thread has been super helpful as I've moved through levels and different zones for swarming. I have a question regarding swarm size and songs landing. I've noticed in particular with drolvargs in FV that sometimes you have to get exceedingly close to land songs on the mobs. Also it seems sometimes the songs will land on part of the swarm but not the rest. I've found if I peel off re-selo and organize it helps but not much.

Is this just the mob size where some in the swarm are in a different position in relation to the rest as they move? I've found it can be extremely nerve racking at times where I know I'm within an inch of my life trying to get the song to land. Is there a sweet spot for amount of mobs pulled? I've found in FV you can pull massive swarms which coupled with my problem above can make for a 20-30 min kite. Otherwise the knowledge posted had been great thanks for those who have contributed.

[Saludeen]

So this thread has been super helpful as I've moved through levels and different zones for swarming. I have a question regarding swarm size and songs landing. I've noticed in particular with drolvargs in FV that sometimes you have to get exceedingly close to land songs on the mobs. Also it seems sometimes the songs will land on part of the swarm but not the rest. I've found if I peel off re-selo and organize it helps but not much.

Is this just the mob size where some in the swarm are in a different position in relation to the rest as they move? I've found it can be extremely nerve racking at times where I know I'm within an inch of my life trying to get the song to land. Is there a sweet spot for amount of mobs pulled? I've found in FV you can pull massive swarms which coupled with my problem above can make for a 20-30 min kite. Otherwise the knowledge posted had been great thanks for those who have contributed.

With practice (and level 48) you should be twisting 3 dots while swapping instruments. It will be hard at first but it will drastically decrease the kite time since you'll be doing much more damage, and that saved time adds up. It will always make you nervous but you'll learn the sweet spot eventually. Just ease into it until you find the right range, and don't worry about missing at first because its better to miss than get too close. You can also test how close you can get when you're down to 1-2 mobs. Just make sure you're not pulling anything like giants or yetis because they have different hit boxes.

Here's the 3 that I use in this order
http://wiki.project1999.com/Denon%27s_Disruptive_Discord - level 18 brass - long range
http://wiki.project1999.com/Selo%27s_Chords_of_Cessation - level 48 string - short range
http://wiki.project1999.com/Chords_of_Dissonance - level 2 string - short range

[Kileras]

I opt out of switching instruments and just use denons as bonus damage. If you aren't hitting most or all of the mobs In your kite you need to circle them tighter before you start doing damage. Fv is a great place to practice because they are all the same mob type. They should literally look like 1 mob when you have them stacked correctly. Hopefully this helps.

[assazzin]

I did 7-14 the willowisp around the Gypsy Camp in NK (#6 on http://wiki.project1999.com/Northern_Plains_of_Karana) and it's good xp and pp for a naked bard like me.
Where can I go now, is OT too high ?

[Duff73]

Need 18 and denons for OT which is good until about 25. I did gnolls in ek till around 19ish then left for OT.

[assazzin]

Need 18 and denons for OT which is good until about 25. I did gnolls in ek till around 19ish then left for OT.

omg, I've been pwned by Splintered Claw (http://wiki.project1999.com/Splintered_Claw)
on a side note, is it normal or a bug you think that when kiting gnoll reaver and night falls, they reset except 2 and pop on their normal spawn points as undead reavers ? I had aggro on all, happened twice

[Hezron]

omg, I've been pwned by Splintered Claw (http://wiki.project1999.com/Splintered_Claw)
on a side note, is it normal or a bug you think that when kiting gnoll reaver and night falls, they reset except 2 and pop on their normal spawn points as undead reavers ? I had aggro on all, happened twice

Yes, this happens. I never kited the gnolls. I did wolves in EK with selo's. Good exp and none of that.

[assazzin]

Yes, this happens. I never kited the gnolls. I did wolves in EK with selo's. Good exp and none of that.
same strafing teching with selo on ?

[Duff73]

Gnolls can be kited at normal run speed no selos. Just about everything else will need selos wolves are great just need to twist.

And the gnolls poof I think around 8pm to undead reavers and I think turn back at 6am. Had a couple swarms poof on me.

[assazzin]

Gnolls can be kited at normal run speed no selos. Just about everything else will need selos wolves are great just need to twist.

And the gnolls poof I think around 8pm to undead reavers and I think turn back at 6am. Had a couple swarms poof on me.

i tried wolves with selo but couldn't turn fast enough, couldn't find the sweet spot like with no selo and the strafe key opposite to the mouse turning.
any tips ?

[MaCtastic]

With practice (and level 48) you should be twisting 3 dots while swapping instruments. It will be hard at first but it will drastically decrease the kite time since you'll be doing much more damage, and that saved time adds up. It will always make you nervous but you'll learn the sweet spot eventually. Just ease into it until you find the right range, and don't worry about missing at first because its better to miss than get too close. You can also test how close you can get when you're down to 1-2 mobs. Just make sure you're not pulling anything like giants or yetis because they have different hit boxes.

Here's the 3 that I use in this order
http://wiki.project1999.com/Denon%27s_Disruptive_Discord - level 18 brass - long range
http://wiki.project1999.com/Selo%27s_Chords_of_Cessation - level 48 string - short range
http://wiki.project1999.com/Chords_of_Dissonance - level 2 string - short range

If you don't want to eat a death in practice, go to a zone where the mobs are 10-20 levels lower than you. Practice the range and your technique there.

[Saludeen]

If you don't want to eat a death in practice, go to a zone where the mobs are 10-20 levels lower than you. Practice the range and your technique there.

Or one mob around the same level as you so it doesn't die so fast.

[Duff73]

i tried wolves with selo but couldn't turn fast enough, couldn't find the sweet spot like with no selo and the strafe key opposite to the mouse turning.
any tips ?

I tried selos kiting a few times it was more of a pain finding the sweet spot only to have it change as you lvl as selo's increases in speed. I've seen some bards do the selos circle strafe where they move in almost a perfect circle and and wait on the mobs as they move. I don't have any experience with that. There's probably a few guys on here that can speak on the selos kite.

[Saulot]

Is there any benefit to using selo's as opposed to the no selo's method? The latter seems immensely easier.

[Saludeen]

Is there any benefit to using selo's as opposed to the no selo's method? The latter seems immensely easier.

Not that I can think of unless you're trying to kite mobs that run faster than normal run speed. It's easier to do circles without selos because you don't have to move the mouse as much.

[Hezron]

I would say it is bard-dependent. I did selo kiting on live; it's what I know how to do so I continue doing so here as well. I do not however use the drum to modify selo's any further.

[MaCtastic]

When I was a younger bard (lvls 10-17) I used Selos+CoD. It was the hardest to land spells. Had I then known of the non-selo strafe range being safe, it would have been a lot easier and faster.

[Kahlid74]

I started doing this and it's pretty straight forward (non-selos). The key for me was two pulls of only 1 mob to start. I learned that it's not perfect circles but instead elongated circles. My natural reaction was when I saw the mobs in the bottom right/left of my screen to move my mouse and circle more which that got me hit a bunch and is the opposite of what you are supposed to do. Once I realized that if the mobs got too close I simple stop turning with the mouse and the strafing pulled me out of range it was gravy. I'm still in the 10-20 mob range as I get too impatient to spend 10 minutes rounding up mobs but it's working very nicely so far.

[Kileras]

well it was fun, but the traditional bard kiting method has now been hotfixed. No more no selo kiting, strictly with 54 snare now or you need to twist speed in.

[Kahlid74]

So they uped the monster speed now? That's a pretty crappy way to try and combat this. What was the purpose? Were they seeing a rise of Bard kiting? Was the economy getting destroyed? This has been here since P99 has been up in what 09 and they now remove it? I'm not quite sure I understand the reasoning. So any new bards get screwed over but past bards are fine?

Additionally upping the monster speed had adverse consequences for everyone else now too. From dungeon pulling to running out in the world.

As someone who was having fun doing this in-between finding groups in dungeons it's very disheartening this was done in a vacuum with no communication.

[Duff73]

When did this happen was working normally earlier today around 1pm pst.

[Kahlid74]

When did this happen was working normally earlier today around 1pm pst.

If you look in the main server chat, servers went down ~8 pm CST for a while. So it sounds like the change was made tonight.

[Duff73]

Was looking at some other threads and it seems its global not just bard zones. Would be nice to know if this was an intended fix or bug. This will kind of suck for anyone trying to outrun mobs in general as unless your running at sow or selo speed your screwed.

[Kahlid74]

Was looking at some other threads and it seems its global not just bard zones. Would be nice to know if this was an intended fix or bug. This will kind of suck for anyone trying to outrun mobs in general as unless your running at sow or selo speed your screwed.

Additionally, why wasn't it said to be an exploit. If it was to be patched it should have been viewed as an exploit from the start.

This change is a bad move for lower levels who aren't a bard/druid/shaman. Makes life VERY tough. A better fix would have been reducing the range of the lvl 18 AOE. Reducing it to the level 2 song would make bard kiting much more skill based and would limit it's over-use.

Super dissappointed this seems to have been done in a vacuum without any forewarning/communication.

[Duff73]

The best thing is it's NOT classic. The classic argument is always used when ppl offer fixes for things etc which could be made better or for the playerbase at large. So how does this fit into their "classic" argument.

[Tann]

posted same thing in bug thread, and serious question.

were we able to outrun mobs only using strafe/run on live or has that always been an issue with this server.

either way this is probably a bug in the fix they tried to do, wait it out!

[Tann]

today's patch notes

Haynar: Fixed a bug in mob movement, that could make it be jumpy sometimes. It would almost stutter as they moved.

maybe the culprit?

[Pipip]

At first I thought this was just a troll attempt, but I tried it, and sure enough, you can no longer outrun mobs by strafing or a combo of forward/strafe. This affects a lot of things, not just bard kiting.

[MaCtastic]

At first I thought this was just a troll attempt, but I tried it, and sure enough, you can no longer outrun mobs by strafing or a combo of forward/strafe. This affects a lot of things, not just bard kiting.

This is being addressed. Issue with latest patch. Also, Bards+Jboots = Selo speed for 10m.

[Kahlid74]

Haynar says they found and fixed the issue but it's now in Roegan's court for when the update gets deployed.

I taught myself to selo's kite and here's the outcome.

LoIO - at level 27-29 I was selo's/denon's kiting around 15-20 blue to yellow skellies. Selo's kiting is quite different because you have to turn much faster. It wreaks havoc on my wrist because you are never ending turning.

I bound 3(selo) and 4(denon) to my two mouse buttons right by my thumb. Then I bound strafe left/right to A/D. So I would hold w and either a or d to keep strafing forward while circling with my mouse and using my thumb to twirl. You have to be careful to never let selo's drop. So if either selo's or denon's fails you need to cast selo's next.

I did not switch instruments but instead kept the horn in all the time. As long as I was strafing it was fine. If I stopped and started walking straight the mobs could reach me and killed me. I died 3 times.

It takes a bit longer to kill mobs but it's still feasible.

[Kileras]

issue fixed

[Duff73]

issue fixed

Nice Kil where did you test at?

[Sivaeb]

Would like to know test areas too :)

Will post my results in a few hours, after work

[Kahlid74]

Tested FV/LoIO/OT. Generally fixed. Feels like mobs overall have a tiny bit bigger hitbox/tiny bit faster but non Selo's kiting is now possible again.

[Sivaeb]

I believe i said the same thing to a bard i helped out :)

Was it you? FV, within the past 10 mins

[Joshk80k]

Has anyone tried kiting enormous swarms? I seem to be dcing if the swarm is bigger than 50 mobs. It's happened to me 4 times now, but if I keep my swarm kinda small it doesn't happen.

[Kahlid74]

I believe i said the same thing to a bard i helped out :)

Was it you? FV, within the past 10 mins

Yeap, that was me, in all my glorious Bronze! Thanks again for the help!

[Adcid]

Has anyone tried kiting enormous swarms? I seem to be dcing if the swarm is bigger than 50 mobs. It's happened to me 4 times now, but if I keep my swarm kinda small it doesn't happen.

I've kept my swarms between 15-35 but have noticed some swarm jumping/porting that is unrelated to any lag I may be experiencing with people entering and exiting the zone.

I have noticed today that without any run speed boosts I can strafe away but need to run larger circles to keep a safe distance.

[Hezron]

Kiting a full pull in BW without issue.

[Joshk80k]

OK, that's a relief, I was beginning to wonder if they had some auto-disconnect thing going on if you pulled 50+ mobs...

[Kileras]

mobs are probably, 3-5% faster? circles need to be bigger now, but the kite seems smoother and much easier to land spells on /predict your distance from. the mobs seem to stutter/warp a lot less providing a more consistent "blob" behind you to gauge your distance.

[Duff73]

Kil is right on. Mobs move a tad bit faster my circles are a bit wider. I find if I have to tighten up or avoid an add I pop selos for a sec and tighten the circle down some.

[assazzin]

tried last night in OT, made 21 24, was working well, mobs are a bit faster but I found that it's easier that way
heading to LOiO !

[Renquist_VZ]

I'm a new bard trying to learn how to swarm kite.

The only issues I have been having is with the camera. Is there a way to bind your the camera to be controlled by something other then then holding down right click?

[assazzin]

I'm a new bard trying to learn how to swarm kite.

The only issues I have been having is with the camera. Is there a way to bind your the camera to be controlled by something other then then holding down right click?

use 1st person view, and scroll with middle button to maximum so that you can see yourself and move using the mouse.
once circling I don't move camera

[Kileras]

He doesn't mean moving the camera, at least I don't think. I think he means needing to right click to mouse turn when he is strafing. I imagine this is because your finger/hand is hurting.

I switched to using a GameCube controller, and now I am in heaven.

[assazzin]

ha ok, in that case I found increasing mouse sensitivity worked wonder

[Sivaeb]

I did about 75 in FV.

Didn't DC, but i stick with that it still isn't as safe as it used to be. Bigger hit box and faster mobs

[Joshk80k]

Yeah its a bizarre thing. I just pulled most of BW and right before I engaged the mobs started acting really wonky. They started splitting up and my spells stopped working. Throughout this entire process, my ping is completely normal and there is no indication of lag.

When it happens, I can survive by heading to the nearest zone line, and after zoning everything is fine. Occasionally if I keep selo's on, it will seemingly randomly start working again, but only for one cast of the spell. The weirdest part is that if I stop trying to run, I can see them swinging (presumably at me) and walk away as though I die, and when I watch them kill invisible me, I disconnect and come back dead. They have to kill me for me to disconnect.

Oh, and I did 2-3 huge kites in Dreadlands, but it happened at 5 AM and there were about 120 (red server) people on at the time. I have not been able to kite during normal hours since this started happening.

I haven't heard of this happening to anyone else. Since this last patch, I also crash about 50% of the time after zoning. It feels like since I have the attention of so many things, everything is getting clogged up. It almost feels like a GM is messing with me or something...

[Sivaeb]

Before the patch that "fixed" mobs (broke them for bards ) i had that happen once. Spell gems locked, wouldn't cast, etc. Happened in FV and there wasn't a single soul around, i had every dog i could find. I think the number of mobs just de-synced me

[Joshk80k]

Pretty sure this is a problem on my end. Just ran a speed test and I am only getting 3 Mbps out of the 50 I pay for. I can see having 80 mobs on a 3 Mbps connection causing desync issues.

But anyhow, back on topic, since the patch I have been unable to strafe kite. Prior to this patch I would strafe kite with no movement speed. I tried this and mobs very slowly catch up to me now. I'm currently kiting by running diagonal and hitting mobs with PBAoEs. It's working, but I like strafe kiting better. Are you guys using Selos for strafing now?

[rooro]

i use to do this same thing in anarchy online with a nano-tech.:)

Also i wanted to add that there is a mouse look toggle for p99. You dont have to always hold down the right mouse button. sorry if this has been suggested already.

[Sivaeb]

Luckily im over 54 and have snare. I only use the bard to PL at the moment. I turn off selos and strafe until they get snared.

I do need to invest in j boots regardless

[assazzin]

was in loio last night, using this path. http://i.imgur.com/ixxvjVx.png
I died 3 times because I was stunned by a green tiger chasing me and train caught me. they run faster than skellies and goblins and I didn't think that a green could still stun me, well...
is there a place empty from them to circle ? how generally you deal with those ?
thanks

[Joshk80k]

I actually go a bit southeast of where they recommend killing. More specifically, against the wall east of the goblin ruins is largely mob free. Also, despite what some guides say I have found that tigers do have a different run speed so I leave them out of the swarm.

[ezri]

wolves/cats generally have faster run speed than other npcs. don't kite them.

[Sivaeb]

Any mob over level 5 (o Rd somewhere near it) can bash/stun.

Tigers have always been faster. I think rhinos may even be faster than them.

Charm whatever is with the swarm and keep making it attack the group

[Kileras]

was in loio last night, using this path. http://i.imgur.com/ixxvjVx.png
I died 3 times because I was stunned by a green tiger chasing me and train caught me. they run faster than skellies and goblins and I didn't think that a green could still stun me, well...
is there a place empty from them to circle ? how generally you deal with those ?
thanks

there should be no tigers near the circle/kill spot in that map, so if you pick any up its because you ran too close to them. The suggested kill spot might not work too well now that the mob speed has increased. the circles you need to do are much bigger and if i remember correctly when i made that map the spot that i was killing in/referencing was just the right size. now, its probably too small.

[ezri]

Charm whatever is with the swarm and keep making it attack the group
I like that idea - could also be used with casting mobs use the swarm to burn them down to zero and carry on.

[assazzin]

what do you use to pull non-social mobs, in OT with the cactus I tried shurikens but the short range makes it tough not to get hit, I tried belo but it's hard to time it, any alternative ?

[Saludeen]

Has anyone tried kiting enormous swarms? I seem to be dcing if the swarm is bigger than 50 mobs. It's happened to me 4 times now, but if I keep my swarm kinda small it doesn't happen.

Yeah. I never DC'd but one night I kept getting hit and died 5 times in a row. My group probably thought I was a terrible bard but I knew I was doing it right. I had to reset my router to fix it. Never happened again for some reason.

[Saludeen]

what do you use to pull non-social mobs, in OT with the cactus I tried shurikens but the short range makes it tough not to get hit, I tried belo but it's hard to time it, any alternative ?

I prefer chant of frost and FV instead of OT by far. More mobs, smaller space, all social agro, no tigers or rhinos, minimum frogs to avoid.

[assazzin]

I prefer chant of frost and FV instead of OT by far. More mobs, smaller space, all social agro, no tigers or rhinos, minimum frogs to avoid.
I'm only 31, is FV possible, if yes where ?

[Saludeen]

I'm only 31, is FV possible, if yes where ?

You should be able to do it at 31. Here's a guide I made specifically for FV swarm kiting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBDPkpVPneE

.

[SamwiseRed]

i think aoe kiting is one of the easier things to do as a bard. a good bard will twist the right songs at the right time in groups/raids.

[Hezron]

I use chant of frost as well. Also can pretty easily level up your blacksmithing skill to make javelins with much better range. They are VERY nice but you can burn through them quickly considering how many mobs we pull each time. I tend to dot in wide open areas and use javelins in tight spaces or to pick off a second mob close to the first one I've dotted.

I started FV at 30 and did fine. Tend to do a /who to see how many bards were in OT and FV to determine where to exp for that day.

[Kileras]

Shurikens should work fine. I know it feels really short range but you just need to get used to it and you should be fine. For your own sake and efficiency I really suggest learning how to use shurikens.

[ezri]

I agree with Hezron, do a little bit of black smithing and make yourself some javelins for further range.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Forged_Javelin

[Joshk80k]

I sometimes pull with chant, and the blacksmithing option seems like a valuable alternative (especially in BW where there are groups of 4-5 skellies that aren't social), but I rely on good ol' punching. It's not the most efficient method, but I'm just about 55 now and my defense, dodge and offense are all 180+. Something that kiting bards struggle with is getting their skills up once they're a higher level. Twist in Hymn of Restoration (and later the Niv's something spell) along with Selo's and punch to pull!

[Kahlid74]

Yeah. I never DC'd but one night I kept getting hit and died 5 times in a row. My group probably thought I was a terrible bard but I knew I was doing it right. I had to reset my router to fix it. Never happened again for some reason.

For me, the lvl ding is my kryptonite. Almost every time I ding my comp stutters just enough for the swarm to catch me and one hit me. Soooo annoying.

[Saludeen]

For me, the lvl ding is my kryptonite. Almost every time I ding my comp stutters just enough for the swarm to catch me and one hit me. Soooo annoying.

Lol, everytime I dinged it made me jump and move my mouse. Somehow I survived 3 times despite flicking right into the mobs. I turned my sound off while kiting after that.

[Duff73]

Lol, everytime I dinged it made me jump and move my mouse. Somehow I survived 3 times despite flicking right into the mobs. I turned my sound off while kiting after that.

Haha I thought I was the only one. Anytime I ding in the middle of a swarm it scares the crap out of me makes me jump too. I just keep an eye on my exp bar now if I'm close to dinging.

[assazzin]

I did OT from 19 and I'm 46 now, with a brief pause in LOIO from 25 to 30, where should I go ? BW ?
still naked, so preferably a place I can make pp too :)

[Pyrocat]

I switched to using a GameCube controller, and now I am in heaven.

Please elaborate

[Duff73]

I did OT from 19 and I'm 46 now, with a brief pause in LOIO from 25 to 30, where should I go ? BW ?
still naked, so preferably a place I can make pp too :)

You should get 48 and selo dot before you hit BW or it will take you an eternity to take out the swarm. Hit DL for a couple of levels.

[assazzin]

You should get 48 and selo dot before you hit BW or it will take you an eternity to take out the swarm. Hit DL for a couple of levels.

god after OT for quite a while, DL seems dangerous, but so easy to pull numerous mobs ! the 48 pbae has the same range as the level 2 ?

[Joshk80k]

Yeah, the PBAoE is the same range as the level 2 spell. The upside is that if you land all 3 you should be doing around 100 per tick which is impressive when you're hitting 50+ mobs.

[assazzin]

dunno if it's the size of the mobs but it's more frightening kiting drolvags than cactus in OT :) I always feel like I'm gonna get hit if I am close enough for the 48 pbae to land, is there a visual hint : in OT I could get the lvl 2 pbae to land having sarnaks in the top bottom left/right of the screen, it seems to me I got to be closer (inn term of visual aspect) with the drolvags

[Joshk80k]

It's absolutely the size of the mobs, kiting a cockatrice is wayyy easier than kiting a skulking brute (the brutes are possible but it's incredibly risky).

Drolvargs are somewhere in between the difficulty of those two, but the social aspect and sheer number of drolvargs make FV one of the best spots to do 35-46ish.

[Kileras]

velious spots? ideas ?

[assazzin]

You should get 48 and selo dot before you hit BW or it will take you an eternity to take out the swarm. Hit DL for a couple of levels.

I did 48-51 in DL, took some deaths to learn the appropriate range with drolvags :)

51 at the moment, tried BW once only and found it hard to find my way in it plus mobs seemed scarce and not social (skellies are ?) versus DL where I can gather mobs quickly an in huge numbers even if lower level.

not sure BW is a good option, maybe I need to learn the paths better
what do you think ?

[Hezron]

You will need to move on to BW eventually if you want to keep kiting. I did it at 51 myself. Bees and gorillas are social but skeletons are not. You will have to avoid aggroing the Gullerbacks with your train and also avoid the sarnak, giants, and wurms as you gather. It will take a little time to learn to pull the zone but then you'll be set. It gets quite tedious.

[Daldaen]

You will need to move on to BW eventually if you want to keep kiting. I did it at 51 myself. Bees and gorillas are social but skeletons are not. You will have to avoid aggroing the Gullerbacks with your train and also avoid the sarnak, giants, and wurms as you gather. It will take a little time to learn to pull the zone but then you'll be set. It gets quite tedious.

Avoiding Gullerback is optional. He is magic immune so if you aggro him you can kill your kite and he won't summon you because he never loses health after resisting all your DoTs.

Wurms/Giants have way too big of hit boxes and Sarnaks are casters who SoW/Blind, which is death.

I've done 46-48 on my bard in BW. It's really stressful leveling though. Mobs take forever to die, gathering a train is a 30min+ endeavor, and as always, 1 misstep is death.

What I've recently opted to do is pull a train and get a couple DoT ticks then have a guildmate log on my 60 wizard and cast 1 PBAE in the middle of my train. Dropping 600 HP per cast and zoning after 1-2 to clear aggro, speeds up to kite immensely. Still it's a painful way of leveling. Not as bad as grouping, but it's rough.

[Kileras]

Avoiding Gullerback is optional. He is magic immune so if you aggro him you can kill your kite and he won't summon you because he never loses health after resisting all your DoTs.

Wurms/Giants have way too big of hit boxes and Sarnaks are casters who SoW/Blind, which is death.

I've done 46-48 on my bard in BW. It's really stressful leveling though. Mobs take forever to die, gathering a train is a 30min+ endeavor, and as always, 1 misstep is death.

What I've recently opted to do is pull a train and get a couple DoT ticks then have a guildmate log on my 60 wizard and cast 1 PBAE in the middle of my train. Dropping 600 HP per cast and zoning after 1-2 to clear aggro, speeds up to kite immensely. Still it's a painful way of leveling. Not as bad as grouping, but it's rough.

do your thing, but dreadlands is much much better in my opinion until 50-51. zone the ravishings if you need to from the pull, but it is a much faster pull/kite/kill time. stay away from BW as long as possible as you will be there/hate it for awhile.

[Delvesh]

Anyone got a link to a good how to guide on kiting at 54 once you get the AE snare? Been messing around with lower level mobs but not totally comfortable with the smaller circle.

[Saludeen]

Anyone got a link to a good how to guide on kiting at 54 once you get the AE snare? Been messing around with lower level mobs but not totally comfortable with the smaller circle.

End of my video shows how to do it while switching instruments. It just takes practice. Its entirely possible (and almost necessary) once you get to BW, unless you want your kite to be painfully slow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBDPkpVPneE

[DarthMartigan]

Anyone have ideas on where to go once velious opens? Specifically for 45+ kiting. I dinged 46 last night (and undinged spectacularly) and I've done a bit in dreadlands already. I'm wondering if there will be places in Velious that feel more like FV or DL?

Also, for any low level bards reading this, FV is amazing. if you can pull pirates and all the drovalgs starting around level 32, you'll get around 100 plat a pull and around a level. I thought the EXP was getting bad at 35 before realizing it was a hell level. I did 36-39 in three pulls, and 45 took maybe 4 full pulls (plus one more because of the unding). You can also do it with another bard there, as long as you pull to somewhere along the cliff and go after they finish. It's impossible for one bard to pull everything because stuff keeps respawning.

[Kowalski]

For Velious kiting, I'd start out in EW with Ry'Gors and dwarves. Perhaps move into WW afterward and grab Velium Hounds. I'd say try WL, but visibility is a pita imo.

[assazzin]

End of my video shows how to do it while switching instruments. It just takes practice. Its entirely possible (and almost necessary) once you get to BW, unless you want your kite to be painfully slow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBDPkpVPneE

Snaring mobs increases dps or I didn't understand something right ?

[Delvesh]

Snaring does not help dps, it shrink the circle the mobs run in and creates a ton of agro for PBAE duoing. I was looking for some pointers. I've been messing with it but it's very hard to run in that tight of a circle and not occasionally over/under run your kite and get hit.

By far, normal straif kiting is easier since your circle is bigger and the turning tempo is alot slower.

[Saludeen]

Snaring mobs increases dps or I didn't understand something right ?

Nah, don't snare. Strafe and run normal speed without selos. And learn to twist three dots while swapping instruments, otherwise it will take forever, especially in BW.

[zanderklocke]

When you use the AE snare post 54, it is incredibly easy to kite the mobs. You don't even really have to move in a circle and can just slowly walk away from them. The only time you absolutely have to go in a circle with the level 54 AE snare song is if you have mobs of different types of speeds in your kite, such as tigers mixed with cactuses.

This is also a lot easier on your wrist if you are constantly moving the mouse to go in a circle. As mentioned by someone earlier, this will allow you to power level or duo with casters who have a PBAOE spell much easier. They can just sit still while you slowly keep the mobs on top of them in a circle. They will never pull aggro away from you.

Once you hit 59, you can twist denon's bereavement, chords of dissonance, and denon's disruptive. While doing this, make sure you are twisting in selo's assonant strain with a lute equipped to super slow the mob speed down. You can swap in the horn for denon's disruptive, but you absolutely have to have the lute equipped when you do the snare and the other songs.

Once you try this method, I don't know why you would ever go back to full speed kiting. With the VP lute equipped, it slows the mob movement speed down by 240%. With just the gypsy lute, which is easy to get, equipped, you're looking at a 210% mob speed reduction.

[zanderklocke]

http://s29.postimg.org/z3aglfhtj/EQ001258.png

During an off peak time, I was able to AE snare power level someone and they gained about 4 levels in one pull on the blue server. DON'T DO THIS WHEN OTHER PEOPLE ARE EXPING AROUND YOU OR IN THE ZONE!

[Delvesh]

Thanks Zan. I'll mess around with it some more. Think I was to focused on getting into a tight circle rythem, but at the speeds the mobs are going I guess you can afford to be a little less ridged about that vs straif kiting.

[zanderklocke]

Yeah, you can be incredibly sloppy and not even strafe if you don't want to at that speed. The mobs move so slow that I used to draw pictures with the corpses for fun as they died. I made some pretty cool spirals and designs.

[zanderklocke]

Once you try this method, I don't know why you would ever go back to full speed kiting. With the VP lute equipped, it slows the mob movement speed down by 250%. With just the gypsy lute, which is easy to get, equipped, you're looking at a 210% mob speed reduction.

Made mistake above, should be 250% and not 240%. Although, I think there might be a cap on how slow the movement speed can be. I didn't really notice too much difference from switching from the gypsy lute to Lyran's Mystical lute after I acquired it.

[DevGrousis]

at any point are you planning on making a leveling guide to go with this video? I'm 18 now and the guides are pretty freakin weak. Your video was amazing, but a little 1-8 here, 8-15 here guide to go with it would be freakin awesome !

thanks!

[DarthMartigan]

Anyone tried WW wyverns?

[DevGrousis]

Lyrith,

First of all, thanks for the awesome video. Second, do you have a per level guide out there, or can you throw one up real quick? I've seen a couple of guides out there that I've been told are wrong for this reason or that.

Currently, i'm in OT at lv22, and its beginning to LB, so I'd assume that in a couple hours i'm gonna need to find a new stomping ground. Any help would be sick.

Thanks

[Mithicor]

Anyone tried WW wyverns?

I think WW wyverns summon.

[DarthMartigan]

I think WW wyverns summon.

This is quite correct. A guildy told me "They have too much HP and I think they summon." It did not stop me. I got them all to roughly 99% and then got summoned. It was sad, because they're all easy to kite hit boxes and yellow or red :( Nerf summons.

[DevGrousis]

He doesn't mean moving the camera, at least I don't think. I think he means needing to right click to mouse turn when he is strafing. I imagine this is because your finger/hand is hurting.

I switched to using a GameCube controller, and now I am in heaven.

WUT?

How do you use the Game Cube controller for EQ?

Please explain :D

[Burog]

anyone having trouble lately aoe kiting in BW? ill be pretty far away from mobs then they just warp on top of me out of nowhere.

[KylonOrina]

What is the UI that OP is using in his videos?
He says something like Dux-A or whatever but I couldn't find that.

[Pipip]

What is the UI that OP is using in his videos?
He says something like Dux-A or whatever but I couldn't find that.

Old thread, but you'll find what you're looking for here:

http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28335&highlight=duxa

[KylonOrina]

Old thread, but you'll find what you're looking for here:

http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28335&highlight=duxa

Awesome. Just what I needed. Thanks!
I definitely like the ability to switch my instruments out on the fly.

[doa665]

first the videos rocked thanx...

not sure if this was ever covered but FV is giving me some troubles.. i can't seem to get the strafe circle right.. dogs seem to over take me even if i strafe in a line.. i swarmed FoB, OT, LoIo just fine.. but the dogs in FV seem to be faster.. i was able to take a pull and kill it as long as i kept run speed buff up.. but took forever because turning that tight made it hard to land the dot..

so are the dogs faster or am i just rushing circle and getting the wrong circumference??

[DevGrousis]

first the videos rocked thanx...

not sure if this was ever covered but FV is giving me some troubles.. i can't seem to get the strafe circle right.. dogs seem to over take me even if i strafe in a line.. i swarmed FoB, OT, LoIo just fine.. but the dogs in FV seem to be faster.. i was able to take a pull and kill it as long as i kept run speed buff up.. but took forever because turning that tight made it hard to land the dot..

so are the dogs faster or am i just rushing circle and getting the wrong circumference??

They are not faster, they just have a much larger hit box. I dont have the greatest internet connection/computer setup, so I personally didnt have much success in FV. I went back to OT, at like 33 and kited there for a few levels, but ended up heading to Mistmoore and just grouping. Now i'm 40, and am in CoM thinking about doing a bit of kiting again.

I was speaking with a higher level bard and they were telling me that you have to rock a really big resolution in order for the spacing to make sense. They say that you should be able to see the head of the mobs in the corner of the screen when they're in range. Well when you have a small resolution, them being in the screen means their closer than if theyre in the corner of the screen and you have a bigger resolution. So i upgraded my resolution to as big as it could go, and its done wonders

[DarthMartigan]

They are not faster, they just have a much larger hit box. I dont have the greatest internet connection/computer setup, so I personally didnt have much success in FV. I went back to OT, at like 33 and kited there for a few levels, but ended up heading to Mistmoore and just grouping. Now i'm 40, and am in CoM thinking about doing a bit of kiting again.

I was speaking with a higher level bard and they were telling me that you have to rock a really big resolution in order for the spacing to make sense. They say that you should be able to see the head of the mobs in the corner of the screen when they're in range. Well when you have a small resolution, them being in the screen means their closer than if theyre in the corner of the screen and you have a bigger resolution. So i upgraded my resolution to as big as it could go, and its done wonders

I did tapping, not strafing, and had very little trouble in FV except the occasional spin around when EQ client messed up (i'm on a mac). Once I hit first string DOT I was good. I think it's way faster than OT because of how easy the social aggro is. I did 32ish-50 here in a very short amount of time.

[S_wifty]

first the videos rocked thanx...

not sure if this was ever covered but FV is giving me some troubles.. i can't seem to get the strafe circle right.. dogs seem to over take me even if i strafe in a line.. i swarmed FoB, OT, LoIo just fine.. but the dogs in FV seem to be faster.. i was able to take a pull and kill it as long as i kept run speed buff up.. but took forever because turning that tight made it hard to land the dot..

so are the dogs faster or am i just rushing circle and getting the wrong circumference??

I'm Lvl 12, and was thinking of heading to FoB because I know I could clean up over there. I know you can bind near Kaesora, but where can you vendor near there?

[DarthMartigan]

No need to vendor. As a bard I didn't really vendor because it takes you away from pulls. In Ill Omen I would loot, then sell all loot and buy poisons or gems at windmill to hold onto until i could leave, but I don't think I left zone for ten levels.

[Guzum]

The removal of the hybrid xp penalty has just made leveling with kites insane. Got 2.5 levels off 1 decent sized pull in OT!

[S_wifty]

Yep, I did 11-14.75 last night in EK. Leveling is much faster since the patch.

Does anyone have any good places to go from 15-18? I need some place before I move to the OT.

[ECDubz]

Still suffering in the late 50's =P Once i am 59 i honestly dont know if i should stay in BW or find somewhere else because at most i get about 10 blues on a good pull which gives about 5% without the hybrid penalty at 58. Any tips?

[KylonOrina]

Since the skipping stone was nerfed, is there a good tagging tool out there that doesn't require ammo?
I've been using Brusco's Boastful Bellow to tag things but that seems way inefficient with the cast time and all.

[DarthMartigan]

I use chant. Since you already have drum on it does more damage, and it's also longer range. If you are too low level, shurikens are quick.

[Kileras]

i always use shurikens, i can't handle waiting for chants. Learn to space properly and once you got it down its easy breeezy beautiful covergirl pulling with shurikens. You eventually get to zones/levels where aggro pulling doesn't work, so you need to actually tag the mobs yourself and shaving off the time of twisting speed/chant is a time and wrist saver.

[zanderklocke]

I punch mobs.

[Muggens]

I know the guy who invented the bard swarm kiting back in the days, he plays on this server.

[Troxx]

I know the guy who invented the bard swarm kiting back in the days, he plays on this server.

I'm not sure anyone can claim to have 'invented' it. More than a decade ago I picked up on the concept spontaneously without having been taught how to do it by anyone. I'm sure there were dozens or hundreds of folks who figured it out or did it before me, many of them simply looked at the song and got the bright idea.

Yeah there was probably a "first" person, but anyone who claims to have 'invented' it likely was not the first.

[DarthMartigan]

I'm not sure anyone can claim to have 'invented' it. More than a decade ago I picked up on the concept spontaneously without having been taught how to do it by anyone. I'm sure there were dozens or hundreds of folks who figured it out or did it before me, many of them simply looked at the song and got the bright idea.

Yeah there was probably a "first" person, but anyone who claims to have 'invented' it likely was not the first.

I invented bard fear kiting back in the day. My best friend ranger and I would go out fighting. One day I tried the song because I thought it could be useful. It was! If you guys have questions about fear kiting duo with ranger, send me a message.

(on a funny side note, on live i always duo'd with a ranger and we both quit before 32 because of how slow the game was/our parents didn't want to pay monthly for a game)

[Wiley]

bumping thread so it'll

http://media.giphy.com/media/3oEduM1sB6PbVNBFT2/giphy.gif

and probably way late answer this but playing a bard lately:

Yep, I did 11-14.75 last night in EK. Leveling is much faster since the patch.

Does anyone have any good places to go from 15-18? I need some place before I move to the OT.

I've been doing gnolls in EK since 15 (about to hit 20). There be about 12 spawns, one of them starts a huge patrol as soon as he spawns go need to catch him before he wanders off. They switch to undead gnolls a bit after 8pm server time and then back to normal at 7am so plan kites accordingly.

Not big kites by any standards but still learning, using this method by Tryndal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIlfIN8pqZM) that was posted a while back except I'm using that free floating 3rd person camera view, my connection is wonky and if I try the no selo's/strafe thing I get eaten.

[Wiley]

finally got that strafe method down from OP's videos, and confirmed my internet won't let me do it :( random frame skipping/packet loss/lag spike or something all the time and splat splat splat

[copmagic]

FINALLY am able to do it with the level 2 song, since I don't have the 18 song yet. That was a very rewarding moment killing my first pack of 10 mobs. Anyways, question, when I'm using right click to drive, I can only turn to a maximum of 180 degrees on either side, and then I have to let go and reclick if I want to turn further, this obviously makes it a little unsafe at those moments, is there any setting to to disable the 180 degree limit on mouse look?

[mefdinkins]

Any advice for jboot users?

[ECDubz]

Any advice for jboot users?

Just need to make tighter circles if you use selo or jboots

[falkun]

Just need to make tighter circles if you use selo or jboots

Is this for strafers or tap-turners? Its been 4-5 years now since I was leveling, but as a tap-turner I thought the circles got tighter as my speed increased. The circles eventually got so tight I had to stop equipping a drum and by ~40 I was even keeping myself slightly encumbered to slow Selos down, otherwise the circles were too tight for me to manage well enough to net positive experience.

My thoughts would be that while Selos gets faster every level, Jboots are a modifier, unaffected by levels. This should make the timing much easier to learn/manage, as it will not change between kites/levels. Once you've learned your groove, jboots allows you to keep it for all levels. The only thing to learn will be your swarm's hitboxes as you move from one type of mob or zone to the next.

[Heximorph]

I'm new to swarm kiting and have noticed that when the zone population is high that my swarm can hit me before I see them or before my song hits them. Has anyone else seen this?

I'm lvl 24 kiting skellies in LOIO.

[ECDubz]

Is this for strafers or tap-turners? Its been 4-5 years now since I was leveling, but as a tap-turner I thought the circles got tighter as my speed increased. The circles eventually got so tight I had to stop equipping a drum and by ~40 I was even keeping myself slightly encumbered to slow Selos down, otherwise the circles were too tight for me to manage well enough to net positive experience.

My thoughts would be that while Selos gets faster every level, Jboots are a modifier, unaffected by levels. This should make the timing much easier to learn/manage, as it will not change between kites/levels. Once you've learned your groove, jboots allows you to keep it for all levels. The only thing to learn will be your swarm's hitboxes as you move from one type of mob or zone to the next.

Selos gets faster as you level yes. Jboots are a flat speed. I personally don't use any movement modifier to swarm kite.

[DarthMartigan]

jboots would work, but borderline too slow i think. I always had lute selos up to 59 when tapping. I also would regularly be way encumbered 45+ and wouldn't bother deleting coin to fix it, because i liked the slightly slower speed for circles.

[SewingMachine]

Question, Its there a better way to pull then what i am doing.

Right now I am stopping for a second and casting one of my DD spells and continuing on. It takes a long time, i was wondering if there is a click item i can get aggro with i am lvl 18. Other then that i was going to go to OT and try my luck there, Since i got my new AOE spell

[Kileras]

shurikens

[falkun]

Question, Its there a better way to pull then what i am doing.

I always just ran up and smacked it with melee then continued on. If I could time a run-by DD song, I'd do that, but usually timing was off with selo's ticks so I'd just smack it in the face and continue running. If I got stunned I was always far enough ahead of the pack that the rest of the mobs wouldn't kill me before I could run again.

[DarthMartigan]

I did shurikens til 30 and then switched to the DD song with shurikens as a back up. When you start doing FV, you really don't need ot hit things anymore. They already hate you.

[Delvesh]

Yeah, FV, DL and BW you can use hate/social agro to help but I personally just got use to using the DD every where. I hated the short range of shurikens and the fact that they turn you in the mob direction. That slowed me down a ton more than the DD. The DD is very easy, once you get use to it you hardly slows you down even when you have to stop for a fraction of a second and the range makes it a ton easier to use. Not to mention. You will be pulling thousands of mobs in a levening session, so you get forced back to vendors to buy those things. Persoanlly, I'd say just do the DD, it's easier, safer and will be what you want to use when the higher level mobs will rape your hp if your trying to get in too close.

[Kileras]

I can't imagine pulling burning woods with song. Shurikens are so much faster to tag with and readily available nearby to most pull locations. Especially dealing with any non social skele's or power leveling.

[DarthMartigan]

Shurikens are more practical for pulling fast, but when you have to go get new ones and lose the stinking zone because some other bard comes in I can't see shrikes being better. I live by these 4 rules in burning wood:

Punch like no one is watching
Sit like no one will notice you
Pull with chants like they'll never get old
Turn off /role /anon

[brecon]

Dunno why there are 20 pages of instructions for how to run in a circle and not get hit by mobs.

[TeemoOfAstora]

Shurikens are more practical for pulling fast, but when you have to go get new ones ...

It is well worth the running around between thurgadin and skyshrine to get you one of these bad boys : Bracer Of Hammerfal (http://wiki.project1999.com/Bracer_of_Hammerfal). Took me maybe 3 or 4 runs, but Selo's makes it fast (except through kael) and I haven't bought a throwing anything since. If you can get a friendly druid to GD-CS you a few times it'll be even faster.

[SewingMachine]

Question, I am in OT I am doing very well never get hit, and kill and pull well. I am lvl 19 right now and got 2 yellows from my last pull. Should i be pulling more things? I mean really take my time and grab alot of stuff then go back or keep doing what i am doing and just do a loop around collecting what i can.

[SewingMachine]

http://s18.postimg.org/70sfq37op/Overthere_Bard_Kite.png

Note - I have spent some time in this zone, and this is my take on it. I like this path because the kill zone there are no wondering mobs that come in there. its a little weird at first because there is a big cliff, but if you do it right its a great spot. Other kill zones have wondering beast. and i hate to stop kiting and move out the way.

[DevGrousis]

http://s18.postimg.org/70sfq37op/Overthere_Bard_Kite.png


Note - I have spent some time in this zone, and this is my take on it. I like this path because the kill zone there are no wondering mobs that come in there. its a little weird at first because there is a big cliff, but if you do it right its a great spot. Other kill zones have wondering beast. and i hate to stop kiting and move out the way.

Great graphic, Sew!


This is the exact loop I used to pull, and the spot I used to kill. A little tip though: at night time (I think 11pm but I honestly cannot remember the exact time but it is a very exact time, so once you spot them that's the time they'll be back every night) the dragoon patrol walks through this kill zone. They path in from the closest tip of the canyon closest to the the outpost is, where the area starts and go along the inside rim towards the ramps until thry trace the canyon all the way until they're outside of the kill zone. They don't come back through until the next night. Never pull cats or rhinos.

Once I got to about 22 or so the newb stuff greened out and I was never able to find more than about 20 or so DB-Yellow mobs to pull and as you level up that number gets smaller and smaller. Don't be discouraged by this, because it's still infinitely faster than any other leveling you could do at that level.

Once you green out, just head to LOIO for a few levels until you can go to FV. I personally couldn't get a handle on the hit boxes in FV so as soon as I was able to get the higher level mobs in LOIO to con yellow or below I went back there because of their super small hit boxes. Just pull everything except cats and rhinos from the southern tip of the outpost running south towards the FM zone then head back to the kill zone along the same route you came from.

Once this greens out there's no where on the planet you can kite that doesn't have big hit boxes. So either deal with that, single kite (inefficient), or charm kite mobs in DL (pretty good xp if you can get a nice rhythm, or group.

Good luck! :)

[DarthMartigan]

Question, I am in OT I am doing very well never get hit, and kill and pull well. I am lvl 19 right now and got 2 yellows from my last pull. Should i be pulling more things? I mean really take my time and grab alot of stuff then go back or keep doing what i am doing and just do a loop around collecting what i can.

As you get more used to pulling, you should be able to pull (up to around level 40) and ding every single pull, or almost ding. If you master Fioriona Vie 40-45 is like 8 pulls. It doesn't matter if you die sometimes, if you can quickly recover and make another pull, you'll never notice the exp loss. It also doesn't matter if you pull 20 or 200, as long as you don't get hit. Always pull everything possible that doesn't ruin the game for other people in zone (this is why FV and BW are great, empty zones).

Important side note to this: Don't kite in DL if you are going to pull everything, because the zone crashes if you pull too much.

[SewingMachine]

Typo - lvl should be 26ish. not 29ish

[Stabstuff]

Anyone have COM swarm instructions? I generally use no speed bonus and just strafe swarm...However the small space in COM I am not able to do that. Does anyone do it with jboots and just strafe or does everyone strafe and mouse look out?