Solo bard help
 

I’m new to project 99 but played classic eq as a teenager. I recently created a Bard as my first character because i read they were easy to solo. I played a warrior, paladin and rogue in classic eq so i am brand new to playing a bard. I have gotten to lvl 9 but am really struggling to even kill blues at this point. Im trying to kite but am clearly doing something wrong. Does anyone have advice where i can hunt mobs i can kill, tips for making cash to gear up, advice on how to kite? Any advice would be super helpful. Dying over and over is so discouraging lol

I don't play a bard but I looked over your songs up to level 9 and you only have 1 point blank aoe dot

When bards talk about kiting, they are meaning running in a circle with 1 or more (usually more) mobs behind chasing them, just barely in range for those point blank aoe dots to hit them. The way this is done is the bard uses runspeed song to stay ahead of mobs while he gathers up a bunch, then twists runspeed along with a few dots to slowly whittle them down as they chase him in circles just in range for the dots. This is called swarming, and the sky is the limit for how many mobs you can kill at once this way and therefore how much xp/hour you can make

I think eventually bards get a fear and snare, so with the combination of these you could fear the mob and dps it with things that don't break fear while it runs away snared

That's about all I know about for "kiting". They can also charm stuff and have it kill other stuff later in levels

edit: If you lack the tools to do these things at your level, just try to kill some of the lowest possible level stuff u can find that still gives exp. This way you will take far less and deal far more damage than you would to a mob closer to your level. It doesn't have to be the absolute lowest, just on the lower side

Bard are essentially melee until about 20ish so they really suck without good weapons , haste, or regen. Your songs only help a little unless you are kiting which it doesn't sound like you want to do. It depends on where you started but warrens, blackburrow, or orcs or dervishes might be good for you.

After your 20s bards fall way too far behind mob strength to melee unless you're really twinked , and you should kill stuff with charm, AoE, fear, mez, lull, etc.

If you weren't aware, you can outrun a mob without runspeed songs by holding right-click and strafing a single direction left or right while also moving forward. If you zoom out a bit so you can see your character, you can gradually move your mouse to have your character move in a slow circle while still outrunning. Once you're used to that rhythm, then you can practice kiting one or two mobs using your level 2 PBAoE song. Then add more mobs once you're comfortable and go from there.

There's Youtube videos if you look up "p99 bard swarm kiting" that do a better job of showing it in action.

If u need to finish a single mob, you can alternate mez and heal song (with guitar) to recover HP.

AE kiting was easy for me on live, but I can't do it on p1999 due to 150ish ms ping. If your ping isn't low enough, its not going to work.

If you play on Blue I can power level you tomorrow evening for a bit since bards cant do too much solo until 18.

With bronze bp, legs, and a water crystal staff, twisting aoe dot, str, battle, and heal u should be able to hit 18.

U will probably have to farm for that stuff.

I'd never played a bard before, but wanted to level one on P99. I watch some youtube vids of people bard kiting, and learnt how to do it.

Pretty much swarm kited myself up to 52, where i am at the moment.