Game Mechanics: Bard Swarm Kiting

[Tann]

I swarmed during Kunark/Velious back on the nameless. It worked how OP described it should with 1 exception (for me at least).

Once I had charmed the 2nd pet and sent it into the swarm I had to run very far away for all the mobs to turn on pet, I have no idea why but distance had something to do with how the aggro mechanics worked. By far away I mean to the point where I could no longer see any of the mobs, and I know it worked because my pets hp bar would nose dive.

distance somehow plays a roll in aggro, maybe at some point the mobs switch who's 1st on their hate list?


side note about distance/aggro and completely anecdotal, an expac later up on luclin i was swarming these geode type mobs (forgot the zone name) and this wizard was chilling nearby. At one point the swarm must've gotten too close to him because instead of attacking my pet when I was out of range they turned on him and he just about died. No initial threat, just mobs that were KoS to everyone.

[Scrubosaur]

I loved swarm kiting as a bard in classic. I was surprised that it did not work on p99. There were a lot more swarm kiters than ae kiters back in classic due to connection speed and player skill. AE kiting didn't get a lot of attention until PoP due to the extended range AA skills and people pulling all of Halls of Honor. As long as you didn't do ANYTHING other than body aggro / assist aggro then everything would aggro your pet (sometimes you would have to do a circle back to your pet if you had a train of adds that didn't aggro your pet due to mob speed).

[Slowride]

^ bump both op seem classic to me.

[Scrubosaur]

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

I swarmed during Kunark/Velious back on the nameless. It worked how OP described it should with 1 exception (for me at least).

Once I had charmed the 2nd pet and sent it into the swarm I had to run very far away for all the mobs to turn on pet, I have no idea why but distance had something to do with how the aggro mechanics worked. By far away I mean to the point where I could no longer see any of the mobs, and I know it worked because my pets hp bar would nose dive.

distance somehow plays a roll in aggro, maybe at some point the mobs switch who's 1st on their hate list?

The way you got around this problem was making sure that your next charm pet was the npc that your original pet was attacking. And continue this trend until all the mobs in the swarm are dead.

[evilkorn]

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

distance somehow plays a roll in aggro, maybe at some point the mobs switch who's 1st on their hate list?

That sounds like the way lazy agro worked.

[Tann]

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

The way you got around this problem was making sure that your next charm pet was the npc that your original pet was attacking. And continue this trend until all the mobs in the swarm are dead.

I highly doubt anyone could pull that off to be honest, with a swarm of 8+ mobs knowing exactly which one your previous pet was attacking. Note that when pet(s) have multiple targets on them they switch constantly.

Again this is all anecdotal but if i "remember" correctly my next pet would be the one with the most hp so that i had more room for error with invis song.

one of y'all 27+ bards try this, i bet it works as I described. I'd try myself but I have no desire to do the bard thing again as I had 260 something days played on the bard when i finally quit eqlive.

[derpcake]

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

I highly doubt anyone could pull that off to be honest, with a swarm of 8+ mobs knowing exactly which one your previous pet was attacking. Note that when pet(s) have multiple targets on them they switch constantly.

They don't switch (constantly) on live, and they don't here either. If you can't manage to use the "toggle NPC target key" to find the right NPC, this technique is probably beyond your current skill level.

I mean you press the button till you get the mob at the correct HP%. How hard is that?

Lmao at the junk that gets posted here lol, just like EQlive, classic as hell.

[MudMan]

^ Toggle last two targets

[Tann]

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

They don't switch (constantly) on live, and they don't here either. If you can't manage to use the "toggle NPC target key" to find the right NPC, this technique is probably beyond your current skill level.

Yes they did switch on live and still do here. Clearly you never swarmed on live or played a pet class before

Derp on man, derp on.

[derpcake]

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

Yes they did switch on live and still do here. Clearly you never swarmed on live or played a pet class before

Derp on man, derp on.

This used to be my bard: http://eq.magelo.com/profile/1428900

Was serverwide 1st on magelo several times, officer & raidleader and some stuff in same guild from 2001 - 2011. Make sure you check the veteran AA count.

Where is your bard background then?

Damn I wish I had that char on R99 btw. Would be fun being able to solo every raid mob on server, along with AEing any / all raid forces near it [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]