Guide to AoE Bard Kiting, here on P99.

[MiRo2]

I use

/stopsong
/cast #

[madara]

Ugh the pain, we cant charm kite? Definitely thinking of putting the bard on ice then. Got myself to 11 but its been a huge pain with how fast the mobs run, thought if I made it too 27 at least I had charm. Now I understand those 25ish naked bards cleaning house in EC selling all their gear [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Jete]

We CAN charm kite, just its really bugged right now.

http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...ad.php?t=11990

Bump it if you care about it!

[Toomuch]

Some people seem to be complaining a lot about bards... meanwhile I'm loving it. I'm really mastering ae kiting... if you get really good at it, and can find a spot to always be doing it, I don't see how charm kiting could possibly be any better exp. I'm AE kiting aviaks in SK, just dinged 20, I'm strapped for time otherwise I'd be going tons faster. Anyways the point is I always kite at least 5 mobs, and three times today I kited 7 mobs at a time, one time I had 5 yellow aviak rooks and 2 blue darters, this was at level 19, dinged me to 20 on that pull [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]. I'm getting to the point where honestly I rarely get touched anymore.

Warning: Spoiler Alert (imo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.])

Some personal preferences: I'm twisting with the number keys above wasd with my left hand and using the arrow keys with my right hand for movement, ignoring the mouse when I kite. I've also heard of mapping your songs to the right hand numpad and running with wasd. Technically, you can set it up to do both, and switch if your hands are getting tired doing it one way (that's what she said).

Another important (at least in my opinion) note for bards that want to mess around with this: I personally have been only using a lute to kite with (not using a brass instrument), twisting in healsong if I'm at all hurt, and using both chords of dissonance and dennon's disruptive dischord. I have a few reasons why I do this. By using a stringed instrument the hymn heals you for way more and you inevitably take damage here and there. I HATE to die, so I like to heal up nearly to full before I resume damage if I've taken a serious blow. Another reason for the stringed over brass - chords is NEVER resisted, but dennon's seems to get resisted a TON, so amplifying my unresistable damage vs doing more damage if dennon's lands (which it usually does, dont get me wrong)... imo the damage breaks about even. I find it better to just do it with the lute in order to heal faster, but it's of course your call.

Because the dots last long enough, I'm usually twisting something like this: selos, chords, selos, dennon's, selos, hymn, selos, chords, selos, dennon's, selos, hymn... etc. skipping hymn if I'm at full life.

As for specific kite pattern, what's working for me is an oval. Fairly fast on and off with turn key tapping and ever so shortly holding the key down, repeated very fast, WHILE I'm starting my dot song (so as to slightly close the gap between you and your assailants so it lands). Then when I'm playing selos (or hymn), I'm still tapping the turn key pretty quickly, only I'm not holding it down hardly at all, and the interval is just barely lengthened as well. Makes you run a tighter corner to hit them with the dot, and have more space when all you're doing is healing or refreshing selos. It most definitely takes some practice, but this, to me, is the winner out of all the ways.

Hit me up in game (Relent) if you wanna see it in action or wanna chat it up. PS Lf port to toxx for invis song [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[nalkin]

I recently made a video of AE kiting here. Its with 7 mobs, I couldn't find any more at the time because it was crowded, but I have done ~11 with red con gnolls/DB aviaks. Hope its helpful for anyone who wants to see what its like.

I am positive the OP mentioned these things but I am going to reiterate what I have learned from the short duration that I have been kiting with a bard on p99.

1a) Mobs have incredibly huge hit ranges when you are running straight. I specifically left a clip in that demonstrates this. When I pull the first mob, I will zig-zag away and not be hit. Shortly after you will see me running from the same mob and I am running straight and he will hit me from a ridiculous distance (~:40 into the video).

1b) NEVER RUN STRAIGHT. Even if keeping your circular motion mean you will be closer to the mobs do it.

2) The distance that the songs can go is so short that you must kite in an oval. Ideally the song will be cast during the time you are on one of the small sides of the oval, as that is when the mob is closest to you.

3) Never run straight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS_ag6U1Z6U

[Lanvaren]

Nalkin, your video is the swellest thing around.

That's a very big compliment coming from me.

[Sareil]

I was wondering why all of a sudden I head to WC and start getting hit when I kite, theres a lot more room to run straight there compared to EC so I was being lazy. I get it now, but it doesnt make sense imo.

This is an excellent thread.

[Messianic]

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

I recently made a video of AE kiting here. Its with 7 mobs, I couldn't find any more at the time because it was crowded, but I have done ~11 with red con gnolls/DB aviaks. Hope its helpful for anyone who wants to see what its like.

I am positive the OP mentioned these things but I am going to reiterate what I have learned from the short duration that I have been kiting with a bard on p99.

1a) Mobs have incredibly huge hit ranges when you are running straight. I specifically left a clip in that demonstrates this. When I pull the first mob, I will zig-zag away and not be hit. Shortly after you will see me running from the same mob and I am running straight and he will hit me from a ridiculous distance (~:40 into the video).

1b) NEVER RUN STRAIGHT. Even if keeping your circular motion mean you will be closer to the mobs do it.

2) The distance that the songs can go is so short that you must kite in an oval. Ideally the song will be cast during the time you are on one of the small sides of the oval, as that is when the mob is closest to you.

3) Never run straight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS_ag6U1Z6U

Cool stuff. Curiosity - how long, in full, does it take to complete one of these mega-swarm kites of 15-18ish? Counting gathering the mobs and actually doing the kite, etc, it seems to take between 7-10 minutes. For killing 18 red/yellowish mobs, that's a very good rate [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[nalkin]

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

Cool stuff. Curiosity - how long, in full, does it take to complete one of these mega-swarm kites of 15-18ish? Counting gathering the mobs and actually doing the kite, etc, it seems to take between 7-10 minutes. For killing 18 red/yellowish mobs, that's a very good rate [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It all depends how crowded it is. Usually I run from ~bridge/stables to splitpaw and then to aviaks. If its crowded though you have to try to get some roamers in the interim. The actual kite (excluding gathering) takes about 4-8 min depending how many resists you get with the red cons. So on average I would say on average about 15 min.

[Tokum-6n0m3]

Where do the screenshots dump to? Im having problems finding the picture i took earlier today.

Swarm kited 12 Koholds in Steamfont at lvl5, wanted to post pic of it 8)

Only reason i wanted to post was somone told me last night after i died doing it, that it was impossible at lvl5 to do it, i wanted to show them its harder, but doable 8)