Wiz Quad Kiting

[Nytch]

I thought I read somewhere that it is broken here. Something abotu the AOE's don't work correctly. Is this true? I want to be able to solo when I can't find groups. I'm thinking about ditching my necro and making a Wizard becaus eit seems to me that although necro's are great at soloing they are crazy overplayed. Any clarification would be nice. Thanks guys!

[Knightmare]

There was a bug with quad kiting some time ago (in February, before Kunark). Wizards and druids were affected. The killing hit of any AoE would be resisted every time.

They since fixed the bug, and my druid quad kites properly.

The original bug post is here in the "resolved bugs" section [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[baalzy]

there was also a bug where your targeted AEs would hit more than 4 targets, that has also been fixed.

[Estu]

I've quad kited with my wizard. It's totally doable, just need a large mana pool and SoW. That being said, wizards are boring as fuck and I don't recommend the class to anyone.

[Messianic]

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

I've quad kited with my wizard. It's totally doable, just need a large mana pool and SoW. That being said, wizards are boring as fuck and I don't recommend the class to anyone.

Hey! ah, youre right. You shouldnt need a large mana pool tho. If you have decent gear and quadding takes 90% or more of your mana... Or basically you cant quad every 6 or 7 Minutes, youre prolly in the wrong place.

[Nagash]

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

Hey! ah, youre right. You shouldnt need a large mana pool tho. If you have decent gear and quadding takes 90% or more of your mana... Or basically you cant quad every 6 or 7 Minutes, youre prolly in the wrong place.

With my druid (175 WIS) I can't quad due to too low mana pool (and that is including med kiting). Now I have to admit, I'm still very new to quadding so I need to work on my technique. What I'm doing for now:

- trying to grab identical dark blue mobs so their lifepool is about the same

- ensnare them and med kite like a good little soldier

The points where I struggle are:

- by the time I've managed to get my 4 targets, ensnare usually needs to be refreshed (and that's with track, shame on me). Ensanres lasts minutes so it basically takes me ages to gather my initial quad

- I keep getting adds, probably because the mobs are initially snared, I'm SoW'd so I run much faster than them and loose track of them (I have to wait for them to arrive, usually with a friend or two). My concern is if I wait for them, this prolongs my "quad set up" (the initial 4 targets pulling) by a fair amount of time, so more ensares are needed and my pull is transformed into a dot-kitting one which defeats the purpose of the quad

- I run out of mana when mobs are at about 30% hp. I experience a lot of resists, even on dark blue mobs which is probably one of the main reasons of this problem

- I'm not sure which area is the best to do this, I suppose different mobs will have a different hp pools (for example rhinos in OT have a lot more than cacti so I avoid them) but I'm not that knowledgeable about this

Any advise someone? Thanks [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Nagash/Petitpas

[Neryn]

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

I thought I read somewhere that it is broken here. Something abotu the AOE's don't work correctly. Is this true? I want to be able to solo when I can't find groups. I'm thinking about ditching my necro and making a Wizard becaus eit seems to me that although necro's are great at soloing they are crazy overplayed. Any clarification would be nice. Thanks guys!

Wizards quad kiting works perfectly. You won't be able to do it before level 29 though, when you'll get your first AE Snare spell (Bonds of Force).

Also, it's not required but it will make it a lot easier : you might want to get a Staff of Temperate Flux (to pull and check your range) and JBoots.

[Messianic]

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

With my druid (175 WIS) I can't quad due to too low mana pool (and that is including med kiting).

You're probably not doing it in the right place, then. I did it completely naked on my wizard, and wizard AoEs aren't significantly more efficient than druid AoEs until 51.

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

- by the time I've managed to get my 4 targets, ensnare usually needs to be refreshed (and that's with track, shame on me). Ensanres lasts minutes so it basically takes me ages to gather my initial quad

You generally don't want to snare mobs unless you're going to gather them immediately. Use a level 1 nuke to pull them first, then run around till you gather 4, then start snaring. For wizards, we have a temp flux staff (instacast debuff), so pulling doesn't require a level 1 nuke.

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

- I keep getting adds, probably because the mobs are initially snared, I'm SoW'd so I run much faster than them and loose track of them (I have to wait for them to arrive, usually with a friend or two). My concern is if I wait for them, this prolongs my "quad set up" (the initial 4 targets pulling) by a fair amount of time, so more ensares are needed and my pull is transformed into a dot-kitting one which defeats the purpose of the quad

Again, you're probably in the wrong place if you're doing this, and again, you shouldn't snare unless you've already got your group together and you're planning to snare them all consecutively then start nuking down.

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

- I run out of mana when mobs are at about 30% hp. I experience a lot of resists, even on dark blue mobs which is probably one of the main reasons of this problem

Again - what are you hunting? What level are you?

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

- I'm not sure which area is the best to do this, I suppose different mobs will have a different hp pools (for example rhinos in OT have a lot more than cacti so I avoid them) but I'm not that knowledgeable about this

Generally, outdoor zones with roaming mobs are not the best places to quad because the location and type of mobs differ too greatly. Static location-spawned mobs are the best.

If you're trying to quad in OT, my guess is you're between 29-39. If you're 29, my recommendation is to do Giant Skeletons until 34 (or Mammoths in EF until 31, then giant skels till 34) in Rathe Mts. Some of them light blue out early, but if you're diligent in learning the spawn pathing and locations, you can nearly always find a quad of either 4 dark blues or 3 DB 1 Light blue.

At 34 (if you don't care about turfing your qeynos faction), you can easily handle four qeynos guards in NK - pull the ones that are near the SK zoneline (not frederick, the one in the building) with a level 1 nuke by positioning yourself near the shoreline off to the side. Both will come, but Frederick won't. Run all the way to the tower near the gypsy camp. Snare-pull those guards, since the other two will take about 20 seconds to catch up. Snare them all, AoE, win. This took me to 42, and it was very good exp.

If you really care about your qeynos faction, im sure you can manage in OT if you pull the right mobs. It probably won't be as efficient, though. You can do SK gnoll spires from 34-36 or so and the money is really good, but the spires are usually camped.

If you're in your upper 30s (39 or so or higher), do bloodgills in LoIO. This will take some practice, but believe me, it's easily the best quadding location until 51. Why? Because Bloodgills have far lower hp than most other quaddable mobs their level.

If you need to know how much hp a mob has, go to http://www.thesilversandbox.net/p1999/main_l.php and download the "Showeq spawn log." This is data that's fairly reliable. Use some excel tricks to determine how much hp a specific mob has (some mobs aren't listed, but most are). When you open excel, Turn autofilter on and change the zone to whichever zone you desire, and do data-sort sort by Max HP ascending, and you'll get a clear idea of how much hp the mobs in that zone have.

Next, take your current AE, your current mana pool, and determine (minus 4 ensnare casts) the maximum damage that you can deal with your current setup.

You've just determined if you can quad X mob - remember that you should have a bit of a buffer for resists.

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

Wizards quad kiting works perfectly. You won't be able to do it before level 29 though, when you'll get your first AE Snare spell (Bonds of Force).

You can actually quad kite effectively (although it takes a few minutes longer) without Bonds. The best solo exp I know of for wizards from 24-31 is to quad mammoths in Everfrost. That's when my solo career took off, because before then soloing was extremely tedious and terribly boring.

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

Also, it's not required but it will make it a lot easier : you might want to get a Staff of Temperate Flux (to pull and check your range) and JBoots.

Yeah, you can use your level 1 bolt spell to pull, but temp flux makes things immensely easier. Sow potions or jboots both work fine, but even at 51 I can't solo camp the Oot AC spawn location without clarity or 3 or 4 minutes of extra med time while the "a cyclops" PH is already spawned.

[Nagash]

Thanks for your detailled guide Messianoc, I'm currently 35 in OT so I'll give it a go this week end [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Nagash/Petitpas

[guineapig]

@ Messianic totally agree with you except that Nagash is a druid not a wizard. Since they don't get an AoE snare, waiting till you have 4 mobs before snaring doesn't work out too well for them.