Kite

To kite is an essential skill and strategy employed by many classes for soloing, delaying, or controlling one or more NPCs. Though the tactics and spells used may differ, the overall concept remains the same: use superior movement speed to outrun an opponent indefinitely. Through this strategy, a player might never be hit by an opponent, obviating the need to regenerate health or lightening the mana requirements of a group's healer. The downside is the player spends more time running away from the opponent, requires sufficient space, and risks running into and aggroing additional unwanted opponents in unsafe areas. The word kite is used as a verb to refer to the action of kiting, as well as a noun to refer to the process or implementation of the strategy. Kiting is present in games besides Everquest, such as Diablo II, World of Warcraft and many others. However the combination of potential movement speed superiority, mana scarcity, and abundance of enemies with strong melee attacks but no ranged attacks make it a very popular strategy in classic Everquest.

Basic Kite

First a player increases their own movement speed, if such a spell is available to them. Spirit of Wolf is the most commonly used spell. Journeyman's Boots and Blood of the Wolf are also often used by classes who cannot SoW themselves.

The second step is to decrease your opponent's movement speed, or snare him. Druids and Rangers use the Snare line of spells, Wizards use Bonds of Force, while Necromancers and Shadowknights use the darkness line. All spells which reduce your opponent's movement speed are informally referred to as snares, even though only Druids and Rangers get that specific spell. This aggroes the opponent and commences the kite. If the enemy is social, you may need to use Harmony or other tactics to single pull him first, unless you plan on kiting multiple enemies.

The third step is to run and nuke. Run away from the enemy until you are far enough to nuke him without being hit. The leading distance you gain over them before stopping to nuke must be sufficient to allow time to cast your spell before he reaches you. Repeatedly run, stop, nuke, and run again until the opponent's health is exhausted. Damage over time (DoT) spells can also be used, though their damage is reduced when enemies are in motion. Pets can also be used, as long as they have higher or equal movement speed than the enemy and do not exceed the caster's aggro.

Fear Kite

The fear kite is a basic kite with the addition of a fear spell. This allows the caster to stand still and cast nukes repeatedly or sit down and meditate while DoTs and pets do their work. The disadvantage is that the enemy may run into an unsafe area and aggro his friends, or in rare cases, get stuck in a tree or inaccessible area. As long as the caster fear kites in a safe, wide, open area, and keeps his snare refreshed there is little risk. Fear kiting in dungeons is usually quite dangerous however, unless the player knows the pathing very well.

Root Rot

Root rotting is not so much kiting, but using root and DoT spells to kill the enemy slowly. The advantage of this strategy is to maximize meditation time and overall mana efficiency per kill. It also allows the player to engage stronger enemies, and multiple enemies at the same time, if their mana pool allows it. Snare and fear may be stacked on top of root for additional safety. The disadvantage is that it requires more time to kill an individual enemy. Transition from a basic kite into a root rot if your enemy is stronger than expected, or if you accidentally aggro unwanted enemies.

Quad Kite

Quad kiting is an advanced kiting strategy where a Druid or Wizard kills 4 enemies at a time. 4 is the magic number because that is the most enemies hit by mana efficient area of effect (AoE) spells such as Column of Lightning or Lightning Strike. Because AoE spells are less mana efficient, you will need to select enemies with smaller health pools or lower levels than you could take on singly. The first step is to pull 4 enemies who have similar base movement speed and health pools to a safe area. The second phase is to round them up into a tight group so that the AoE will hit all 4 of them. Wizards may prefer to cast their snare after rounding, because it lasts a limited time and has an area of effect anyway. At this point the kite resembles a basic kite. Run and nuke until all 4 mobs die, while maintaining snare. Though identical mobs of similar may all die on the last nuke simultaneously, be prepared for a straggler to run away sometimes, especially if one resisted a nuke or two. This is the most mana efficient strategy for soloing Wizards, but Druids might prefer charm kiting or root rotting.

Charm Kite

Using charm to solo is the most difficult strategy, but can be very productive. Select enemies who are low enough in level to not resist or early-break charm, but high enough to do some damage and get you experience. Your objective should not be maintain a permanent pet like Enchanters do in a group, but to damage a target and have your pet be damaged, then kill them both. It's done like this while soloing to avoid the pet experience penalty (which doesn't apply to groups). Ideally you should match your pet against a similar or identical opponent. Snare both your pet and its target if you're a Druid for additional safety. Allow your pet and its target to beat each other up without wasting mana on offensive nukes. Monitor the health of both, and when either is very low, back off the pet and break its charm with an invis. Destroy the weakened NPC (or both) with nukes. If one is left over with some health, you can either destroy it with a usual kite, charm it and send it on the next target, or gate and start over. Having a partner will remove the pet experience penalty and the need to break charm on every kill. This may shift your strategy to using a permanent pet which you invest mana into with buffs and heals. There are many factors and preferences with this strategy, so feel free to develop your own style.

Aggro Kite

This is generally a group tactic where one person (usually also the puller) with potential to generate large amounts of aggro cheaply (with repeated snares, low level dots, flux staff, tash, etc.) runs the enemy around in circles while the rest of the group destroys it. The kiter can, of course, contribute some nukes as well, or save his mana and concentrate on pulling if the group dynamic encourages that. This strategy is useful when no tanks, healers, or fear classes are available. Fear also requires a fair bit of mana, so this strategy can be more efficient if the group DPS is high.

Kiting as crowd control

Sometimes in raid situations with enemies that are resistant or impossible to mez or root, kiting can be used as a temporary or protracted crowd control strategy. Many classes can use this strategy but especially suitable are Shadowknights. The SK draws aggro with spells on one or more enemies, and then simply runs them in circles until the main tank is ready to engage them. The SK can used Feign Death to drop his aggro, allowing the main tank to pick it up quickly. A second person might be designated to peel the enemies individually while the SK continues to kite a large group.