Guide to AoE Bard Kiting, here on P99.

[Lazortag]

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

Just thought I'd drop my 2cp in here real quick, atleast on this topic. I noticed a short while back that this particular instance, if you cast a DoT with the proper instrument up, and keep the song up without twisting, but swap in your weapons, for example, the damage will stay the same as if you were using the instrument. Aka.. You cast Tuyen's Chant of Flame with drums equipped, it lands and does 40 some-odd damage, then while keeping Tuyen's going, swap in your weapons and attack, the dot will continue doing the same level of damage. It's when you have to re-play the same song that the damage modifier will dissipate, if not using the proper instrument.

Yeah, I think everyone knows that, but it's good you mentioned it at least. The remaining effects of the song will stay modified but if you re-play the song it won't.

[Nikon]

Cribanox, one of the best posts I have yet to see on this forum. Thanks for the time and info.

[Cribanox]

No problem

[Ajax]

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?

[Jeice]

we do it the normal way.

[guineapig]

I'm old school, I click-twist.

[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.]