Guide to AoE Bard Kiting, here on P99.

[Jify]

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

so does the old charm swarm kite still work later on or is that one of the problems with charm people always cry about?

Doesn't work on here, mobs will remain agro'd on the bard.

[Smashu]

meaning when you just round them up with proximity agro and then charm one only the pets target will agro on him and not the entire swarm?

[Lazortag]

.

[Jete]

Guys seriously?

Sure everyone else poops on threads all over this forum, but, I would at least hope the Bards could be legit. I find it cool the OP is trying out new things and sharing his knowledge. Every time you scare away someone from posting, that's a potential lesson you could have learned gone. Its the exact reason I wont make Bard strat videos anymore, only bug reports.

Grow up, realize that maybe you aren't the best at everything in the world, and if you have helpful information or constructive criticism share it, but don't be a douche in the process.

To the OP, Your strat does work. However when I was doing that ( wayyy back when I leveled.. so it could have changed.. ) I was unable to do massive kites. Mostly due to some buggy hit that would stun me and take me down, however, and I will post this video strat after kunark is released ( so you guys don't steal my first to 60 idea... ) There is a way to do it like in the old days. If any of you played classic you know I am talking about the auto-run lock SoW strat.

Also, another great way to kite on P99 is with the infinity symbol loop, seems to be the most effective way of doing damage by taking the least amount. I am too lazy to go look, but if you do the wayback machine on EQDivas there are a bunch of charts for swarm kiting.. Some methods don't work here, some do. Really worth checking into though!

[Lazortag]

I've made perfectly polite and reasonable posts before informing people that aoe kiting does in fact work (even if you do it very crudely and get hit every time you cast a DOT) and that they were doing something very wrong if they thought it was impossible. I'm sorry but it's so irritating that people would rather ignore advice telling them how to aoe kite and complain about how gimped bards are (which the poster I was responding to did, twice, without actually responding to the Cribanox's very well-written explanation) than apply a little effort to not suck horribly. I imagine these same people can't twist more than one song at once because it's "too much effort" and they probably think bards are "gimped" because we can't use melodies.

It's especially irritating because I was arguing with a warrior who said that no one wants to group with Bards because they were 'useless' (this is of course hilarious coming from a warrior). I used to think it was only a very small number of people who believed that, but when I read posts like Jaydee's I'm not sure!

[Cribanox]

@ Jete

I try to stay away from massive kites, which to me means anything more than 5 blues. Only because the risk is so great. I have killed a swarm of 10 blue gnolls, without getting hit once, so it is possible. I try not to get greedy and stick to smaller swarms, since the xp is already amazing with no downtime.

It is possible to do the kite method without going in circles, but imo its much harder, and going on circles is already hard as it is. You just have to make sure you make swivles around the mobs as you dot them. I havent practiced that, but i know it can be done.

Or, you can go forward, making smooth zig zags to make yourself stay just aheaf enougj to not grt hit, but close enough to dot, if u get what im saying

[Jete]

Roger that Crib, you must've learned exactly what I did while kiting. Let me ask all you bards though ( sorry for changing your topic Crib ) Is charm kiting even worth doing since the latest changes to charm? I sent a long explanation to Haynar on how the rescent "nerfs" to enchanters have destroyed bard charm kite which was already non-classic. Again this isn't one of those negative posts, just a question to the community of Bards.

When I was your level Crib, I would get much more xp by chain charm kiting the specs in oasis rather than 4-5 aoe kiting.. I don't know if you have hit the charm kiting level, but when you do- let me know if it is still superior to AoE kiting.

To conclude this, I totally agree with you Lazor- I hate it when people act like Bards are some sort of second class citizen. But it is not without reason. I have seen so many bad bards that its sad. When I joined IB they were hardly recruiting bards because they said, "What can they offer us besides mana song?" After a few very skilled bards appeared, such as Doug, Mythoxxus, a few from divinity ( sorry I forget your names! ) and Arkanjil, the appearance of bards changed for a little while (at least at the raid scene). A lot of these guys quit and it seems to have resumed that course. If any of you played WoW I would compare this situation to that- until more guides come out to tell you exactly how to play a bard, people won't do it very well. In WoW people would wait for specific builds to come out with number crunches to see the highest amount of DPS, then "skilled players" would simply copy that build and do the same thing to yield the same results. I am not saying that people that copy others are unskilled, I am just saying that we as humans have to have a guide to work things. It is how we learn. In otherwords, guides like this from Crib are the only way for people to learn. As I am on a day shift now, I will start contributing again and I hope you all support me in this effort- be it either by constructive criticism or by posting things I have never seen or thought of. Bard is a meta-gaming class, and has more than one way to master it.

P.S.- I will be posting a huge bug report in the bug forums about charm kiting, and I need really fair opinions and comments on it, both from bards and enchanters alike. I won't discuss it further here, but I need people to at least post and say they agree with what I am saying- so we can catch the GM's attention and get it fixed.

Thanks again for hearing me out, I love this server and most importantly, I love the bard class. I will always fight for it, and do my best to ensure people know that when they see a bard, he is a force to be reckoned with.

Edit- I will now again be working on the "Jete Bard How to guide" and will include much more than just cheesy videos with my 12 year-old voice in the background.

[Cribanox]

@ Jete

Hey, about charm kiting, the recent charm nerf to my knowledge only shortened the duration of the charms. Charm kiting (the way I used to do it) didn't depend on the charm's duration.

According to Jify a few posts back, the key ingredient to charm kiting, bard style, isn't working correctly. Which is to have mobs attack your pet, and not you.

I'll play around with this in later levels once I have charm, but here's how I used to do it.

I would go gather up a bunch of KoS monsters, and not touch them, just get aggro. I would choose one mob and charm it. After it was charmed, I would send it into the mob group, and the entire group would attack my pet.

If you had enough mobs, your pet would lose HP fairly quickly. Once your pet is about dead, you go INVS and lose the charm. You had to invs or break charm before your pet started running. If you break charm after your pet begins to run, you won't recieve any EXP. If you were able to break charm before your pet started running, you would finish it off with DDs and DoTs, and then repeat with the next monster.

This can be very safe and effecient EXP. I really only used this 50+, and I remember doing it in Cobalt Scar (at the port in) with the Wyverns looking over the cliffs.

So, if here on P99, if the mobs for some reason won't attack your pet, and come after you instead, then it won't work. Like I said, I'll mess around with it later on, but maybe we can find the reason why and /bug it.

[Jete]

Crib, please check out my latest post in the bug forums, as I am trying my best to get all this fixed. If you agree with it please say so, I will need some backing to it.

[JayDee]

Fix charm kiting (aggro system) and swarm kiting (extend range of detrimental songs...?) imo.

I wants to plays a bard yo