Guide to AoE Bard Kiting, here on P99.

[valorborn]

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

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.

Your post makes me sad, as does the OP's. Saying bard kiting here takes more skill to pull off is one thing but kiting 4-7 mobs as a bard as the standard is lame.
You should be able to kite all the aviaks + all the gnolls at the paw. That's actually why it is called swarm kiting instead of quad kiting like with a dru/shm/wiz.
Fact that you have to pretty much accept getting hit a few times during every pull makes it impossible to swarm kite. Reduces bards into a force to be less reckoned with than a druid for soloing.

Although I think that bards literally less than a shadow of their former glory (good luck EVER soloing Tantor when they launch velious). It is probably for the best in a way as it keeps people from dinging 5 and soloing orc hill. Not that I didn't make a bard as soon as I logged in the first time and promptly leveled up to 5 only to find out that I barely outrun a mob with using Selo's and no drum. I love bards but I am pretty bummed out about this.

Valorborn

[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.

[Sareil]

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

How does everyone twist? On live i used to have a macro for each song but i can't remember it now. Something like

button 1:
/startsong 1
/pause xx
/stopsong

button 2
/startsong 2
/pause xx
/stopsong

button 3
/startsong 3
/pause xx
/stopsong


Anyone have a song macro to share?

Different macros for different situations. Kiting, mine look like yours. Grouping or Toe to toe soloing I use something like this:

/stopsong
/pause 31, cast 1
/stopsong
/pause 31, cast 2
/stopsong

This way I can four-twist with 2 buttons. It does require that you be aware enough to know when to break the two button dance and manually four twist if something in the situation changes, but I find that this works 90% of the time.

[Lazortag]

I want to make an instructional video of this being done with spectres (because it's a whole different animal from doing it with gnolls/centaurs/etc.), but apparently FRAPS only lets you do 30 second videos? Is there some other better program?

[nalkin]

Just kited 15 at once [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[knottyb0y]

We need a p1999 bard board. Who seconds that notion?

Difficult class to learn. We must educate ourselves to educate others.

Things like solo techniques
group techniques
raid techniques
where to go for loot and quests. Bards have changed so much on live its really difficult to find valid information anymore. I think more than any other class we need to rebuild our library of knowledge ourselves for this server. Kinda exciting.

[Lazortag]

Originally Posted by knottyb0y [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

We need a p1999 bard board. Who seconds that notion?

Difficult class to learn. We must educate ourselves to educate others.

Things like solo techniques
group techniques
raid techniques
where to go for loot and quests. Bards have changed so much on live its really difficult to find valid information anymore. I think more than any other class we need to rebuild our library of knowledge ourselves for this server. Kinda exciting.

I also want to create a thread on what people who aren't bards should worry about when grouping with them, but I won't do it if it's just going to be drowned in the rest of the server chat topics. Things like when they get mana song, what restrictions they have on their mez/charms, etc.

[toddfx]

The info here and that video are extremely helpful!

I'm a level 18 bard in the early stages of learning to AE kite. I have been at it for 2 hours tonight and already notice a dramatic improvement. I am still doing singles, as I have not nailed the turning rhythm. I take enough damage to require a regen time-out half way through most battles.

I am still learning, but here are a few things I found which I did not know 2 hours ago:
1) Listening to music screws up my turning rhythm! I keep wanting to tap my finger to the beat of the music.
2) Changing movement keys to WASD gave me immediate improvement! It lets my right hand control the mouse to cycle instruments as well as cast song macros.
3) Swapping instruments is DEFINITELY worth the hassle. I started off just using the drum, and it was taking a lot longer to kill the mob than it does now when I pop in the lute and horn for AE.
4) Level ground with an unobstructed view is key. I find myself getting hit more when I am on a hill or there is a tree somewhere in my path or view.
5) Pathing mobs in SK are very annoying. Also, elephants have very far reach.

Anyway, I still have a long way to go but I have already worked my way up to killing single yellows without having to take too much of a health regen break.

Just thought i'd offer my thanks and two cents.