Swarming problems today?
 

Hi all,
I just got started with my first bard last week, so far I'm really enjoying swarming. I even had my first 'perfect' (large, no hits on me) swarm last night - about 15 willowisps, which was pretty cool coming from Wizard quadding. However today I'm suddenly unable to swarm - It seems like there is some change causing mob reach to be just as far as my DoT song, making it impossible to find that 'sweet spot' where my DoT lands but they can't hit me.

Does anyone know if there was any change recently regarding any of the swarming mechanics? Or any other ideas why this could be suddenly happening? I'm not sure what's different. :eek:

obligatory "swarming isn't aoe kiting" :D


Are you still doing wisps and its not working the same or have you moved on to other mobs? Run speeds vary, like if you switched to beetle type mobs you'd have to drastically change your methods.

Trust if there was a change and aoe kiting came to a halt there would be about 50 threads per second created by mad zone disrupting suxbards demanding a fix.

You need the higher level Bard AoE using the Horn, has greater range.

You can still do it at the low levels its just more intense. Get a partner til 18.

Yep, still wisps. I can't figure out what's different. It's like night/day different. Yesterday I swarmed 15 wisps - and several times before I did 10+, today I can't do more than 3 at a time because they always get a hit in when I am able to land my DoT.

Maybe the level 18 one helps, but it isn't necessary. I was swarming all day Sat, Sun, a bit Mon and Tue as well, then today it's suddenly no-go.

I swarmed 30-41 in OT on red today rolling both LVL 2 and 18 dots and didn't have a problem getting caught with 60+ mobs a pull. I had one instance where it looked like the mobs jumped and almost reached me but might have been a bit of lag.

Not sure what technique you're using but watch this vid and and maybe it will help ya spot something you're doing that could cause you to get caught.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwwE9pxjojc

AoE kiting is a strain on 2 seperate resources, you HDD and your network connection. Are there more people on the network streaming, gaming etc?

I was having a ton of trouble with my bard until I put EQ on a SSD.

did you remake your bard again with the same name? :p

As others have hinted at it's probably your latency, I think it's F11 that shows your network stats with the client / server, make sure your ping time is under 100ms. The latency on my side is usually 60-70ms and I have no issues getting the 30 range dot on without getting hit.

Others things to consider:

- Close chrome or any other applications your not using. I found that having Chrome up was killing my video performance in game.
- Lower the opacity on your particle effects.
- Turn off the dot spamming - optional.

Thanks for sharing that video, good to have something to compare with -- unfortunately no hints there as to what I'm suddenly doing differently, that looks just like my method.