The Techie's Bard AE Kiting Guide

The Techie's Bard AE Swarm Kiting Guide

Many Bard guides have been written about swarm kiting or AE kiting, but many of them gloss over the details. For that matter, many guides about playing a Bard in general lack details. An example of this, for the uninitiated, is what role exactly instruments play for the Bard? What do they do? Go look at the different guides. There is talk about instruments, but not much said about what they do. This guide will try to answer some of the fundamental questions.

Introduction

First, instruments are not required for most songs, although a few do require an instrument in hand to play. What instruments do is enhance the effect of the song. For example, playing Selo's Accelerando with a percussion instrument in hand will cause you to run faster than without it. If you play Selo's Accelerando without a percussion instrument, you will still run fast, but you will be "singing" the song (sort of the default instrument for almost every song). Some songs are voice as the instrument, there is no enhanced version of these songs until you get the Bard epic, Singing Short Sword, which acts as all instruments in one. There are a few songs that require the specific instrument to be in hand to play, these are usually the wind instrument related songs. For the newly minted Bard the two important starting instruments are the percussion and stringed instruments. At level 18 the brass instrument comes into play.

Most players understand that kiting involves out-running a mob and doing damage, never allowing the mob to do damage to you. AE swarm kiting is this on steroids, and the Bard is the undisputed master of AE swarm kiting. A confident Bard that has the techniques down in an area they are well familiar with can pull 25, 30, 40, or more mobs and kill them all without ever taking any damage. They might even pull this off without using any kind of mechanical aid, relying on Neil Peart like manual coordination and timing.

Making Circles

Watching most mid-level Bards kite is like watching controlled chaos. Many squeak through killing the swarm, narrowly surviving a few stuns and many hits. In the earlier levels, Bards don't survive stuns, they die almost instantly. Later they can handle a few hits, or sometimes many, and still win the fight. The key to avoiding being hit but still doing damage is to make circles. This is easier said than done if playing with a mouse and/or hand-eye coordination only. Most Bards appear to make passing attacks at the swarm, trying to time the casts so that the effect will hit as they are closest, then run a bit wide for a time, then repeat the passing attack. This is what get Bards hit and killed. Maybe 90% of the time you judge things correctly, the rest of the time you take hits.

The problem with manually circling with a mouse is that every so often you have to pick the mouse up and reset it on the pad. In addition, the client will sometimes appear to cause a sudden 90 degree turn for no apparent reason, meaning you do a 180 into the swarm instead of a nice arc around them! This is actually a result of the server registering where it thinks you should be pointing versus where your client says you are pointing. Holding down a mouse button and turning for a long period of time is sending hundreds of actions to the server is a short period of time; it can't handle that, so the developers used some sort of estimating, that gets 'corrected' on an interval of some kind. So for turning, the mouse is out. That leaves keys.

Keys are hard to turn with while running because you have to hold them down or tap them down for fairly precise periods of time to make a circle that keeps you just close enough to the mobs to damage them, but far enough away to stay out of harm.

Strafing

You can run faster by strafing at the same time as running forward. You can also solve a weird hit-box problem. When you run in a straight line away from mobs, they can and will hit you from much further than their actual melee range. By strafing while running and circling, you are keeping more of your side to the swarm, and not your back. There are situations where even this will not help, and these boil down to mobs larger than about Grizzly Bear size. Giant Beetles can be kited, but there is a greater risk that you will be hit, even with very conservative circles. Remember that no matter how precise you are with turning, the server will drift and correct locations periodically. These corrections may be small, but sometimes they will cause a few mobs to get close enough to hit you. A few hits are survivable, but being stunned is practically a death sentence. Strafe, fight smaller mobs, and stay as far out as you can while still hitting with your songs.

Equipment and Those AE Song's

Through your leveling, there there are really only a couple of things you need. You need a stringed instrument, a brass instrument, and a percussion instrument. You could level all of the way into the 40's, at least, naked as long as you have those three items and the songs. The Bard is probably the only class where stats mean zip. Armor helps a tad bit if only a few mobs hit you, but generally, it will not save you. As far as AE swarm kiting goes, Dexterity will help a little bit in avoiding the missed notes, but you have to be attentive and ready at all times to recast on a missed note regardless how high your Dexterity is. Mana, Intelligence, Agility, Strength and even HPs just don't mean anything as far as being successful with AE swarm kiting. 90% of the songs you acquire don't mean anything either. How ironic that the fastest leveling class in the game needs almost nothing to do it with...

The percussion instrument dramatically increases your Selo's speed. This is used to gather the mobs and while circling until level 8. After level 8, you switch to a stringed instrument (or brass when you get to 18) and 'sing' Selo's.

The stringed instrument doubles the damage of Chords of Dissonance. It has no effect on the range, which is and always will be 30. From level 2 to 18 CoD will be your only AE damage song. From levels 5-8, leveling is slower because you can't train in stringed instruments until level 8.

The brass instrument doubles the damage of Denon's Disruptive Accord. It has no effect on the range which is and always will be 35. From level 18 and on, DDA will be your main AE damage song with CoD being an alternate with some mobs. Using the two together can make the kill times quicker, but it greatly depends on how much buffer space you can afford. Keeping within 35 is a risky enough, keeping within 30 to use both will not always be viable. When you turn 18, you will need to train in brass and then find an isolated spot to stand and play it for hours until it gets trained up. Otherwise you will experience missed note Hell trying to AE kite with it.

Hotbars and Macros

There are several ways to accomplish "safe" song casting while AE kiting, and most likely no two Bards will use exactly the same techniques. In Hmotzart's guide, he describes setting up "Hot key macro's". The most valuable insight in his guide is always ending with Selo's. This is critical. Not only should you end all of your AE kiting macros with Selo's you should start all of your AE macros with /stopsong. The only misstep in Hmotzart's guide is the idea of twisting in more than one song + Selo's. Don't do this. Do not create a macro that go along the lines of:

• /stopsong
• /cast AE Damage
• pause
• /stopsong
• /cast Selo's
• pause
• /stopsong
• /cast Regen
• pause
• /stopsong
• /cast Selo's

A macro like this will get you killed eventually because you will miss notes on both Selo's in a row at some point. You might be able to recover in time, but why risk it when it isn't necessary? All of your macros for AE kiting should:

• start with /stopsong
• cast a song
• pause for about 3.5 seconds at least
• /stopsong
• cast Selo's

There should not be any variations to this basic principal, otherwise you risk a "double fault" with Selo's that you are locked into. You may get away with a variation 90% of the time, but you will get killed by statistics at some point. Your macros all end with casting Selo's, which means it stays up indefinitely until you start a macro. You must watch for the results of the macro, if Selo's fails, you should have a macro that just does /stopsong, cast Selo's. If that fails, you execute it again. Your eyes should be on the messages and this should be a simple matter since the turning is essentially taken care of for you. Missed note failures for any other song than Selo's are trivial and not of any concern, albeit annoying at times. Bad maneuvering and slowing down are killers, with slowing down being the worst and most common thing that will go wrong.

The Steps to Successful AE Kiting

Follow these steps.

• 1) Start Selo's (and keep it up, recast if stunned)
• 2) Run around the zone picking up mobs of the same speed and preferably all the same type, if possible
• 3) Train the swarm to the general area you intend to kill them (pick a place where there will be no adds)
• 4) Start strafing and begin manual wide circles to get the mobs pack into a tight grouping
• 5) Start your widest turning loop sequence
• 6) Adjust instruments (swap percussion for stringed and put brass on the cursor, if appropriate)
• 7) Try a damage sequence, if it fails to hit, move to the next tightest turning loop and repeat
• 8) Watch the end of the damage sequence and ensure that Selo's takes effect
• 9) If Selo's has failed, restart Selo's until it is working
• 10) If you have a second damage sequence, use it, and follow steps 8 and 9
• 11) Goto step 7 until the mobs are all dead or walking away
• 12) Finish off stragglers starting with the healthiest first

Always Watch/Keep in Mind

Keep your eye on the server responses, if a song fails to respond before you cast the next song, you are experiencing latency issues and need to make your pauses longer

Always make sure Selo's is up successfully when cast, you should be looking for "Your feet move faster." before casting something else.

Don't forget to strafe when you are turning to keep your side to the mobs rather than your rear.

Your circles are not perfect and there will be some variance to how close the mobs are to you; keep them just barely in range, even if it means missing occasionally.

If you can't see the mobs in 1st person view, zoomed all the way out, but you are hitting them, you are doing it right. If you can see them, caution, you might get hit!

If anything goes wrong, you get adds, or you get trained, always be ready to stop the circling and strafe run straight away when you see the trouble coming. If in any doubt at all, zone the mobs. If you get social aggro and who ever had those mobs dies or zones, they will come back at you, and always at the worst possible time.

Don't pull mobs much longer than a Grizzly Bear, because the larger mobs are much harder to kite successfully than the smaller mobs. What happens is that the mobs are so large (length) that you have to be too close to them to actually hit. Even though they might appear to be easily in range, their 'center' is what you’re actually needing to be in range of your song. To hit you with melee, the mobs only need to be able you get the outside border of your hitbox. Another factor is that the server’s location for all of the mobs and their locations on your client get out of sync quickly. When the server periodically corrects this, you will notice the mobs suddenly appear to leap out at you. If they are large size and too close, you will get hit and probably die. That said, Denon's Disruptive Accord allows you a bit if extra leeway at level 18, but keep in mind that you probably will only use DDA on larger mobs and there is still a limit to how large the mob can be.

Leveling Advice

Starting in Qeynos:

Yard Trash; up to level 4, you can get large numbers of beetles and they are easy to train around the zone to pick up adds. No Selo's yet, so movement relies on strafing to keep out of range. Death is easy to recover from.

5-6 Qeynos Hills; There is not all that much to kite and usually competition, but you have Selo's. You can kite small numbers; strafing + Selo's does allow you to outrun nearly everything in the zone. Your goal here is to get a level or two and get out of this place.

6-8 West Karana; Long kites to kill bears, wolves, and lions. Damage is light because you can't use a stringed instrument until level 8, so kills take especially long. It's quite a production to round all of the mobs up and keep them away from guards and bandits, but there is a lot of room. West Karana is big and barren, but stay away from the bandits (a few roam) and guards (they will attack your train). Stay out of the mountains. Avoid the Werewolf at night. Avoid the Grizzlies and stay out of the farm fields. Safe places to circle are found south of the Qeynos Hills zone-in and the extreme east side of the zone near North Karana.

8-15 (or 16 even) North Karana; specifically the Will ‘o Wisps. Turn in light stones for money and extra XP at the Gypsy camp. At level 8, you can level in one pull (if you find and grab all 16). Equip a stringed instrument now, your damage is now doubled. Lot's of resists on yellow and reds, but the XP and money is good. Don't get hit in the lower levels or you die super quick. Stay away from Giant Beetles. Avoid mixed groups of mobs unless you have help to finish off stragglers. Good flat areas to circle west of the guard tower bridge just above the river. One tip for kiting Will ‘o Wisps specifically, is to use the sound of the wisps as indicator for the distance. As soon as you hear them hum you are on the edge of your spell range.

15-20 East Karana; Gorge Hounds, Dark Stalkers, Spirit Stalkers, Gnoll Reavers, Undead Gnoll Reavers. You can take a few hits and might even survive a stun during your attempts at circling and AE killing. At 18 you get Denon’s Disruptive Discord, which really speeds up killing and makes mixed groups of mobs a much easier situation. Be sure to train up Brass all the way at level 18. Good areas to circle near Gorge of King Xorbb zone-in canyon, and in a little corner near the barbarian fishing village. Don't kite around the bridge.

OR

15-25 The Overthere; Succulents, Cockatrices, and Sabertooth Cats. Be sure to stay on the north east side of the zone where the mobs are weaker. Very large pulls can be achieved here, but sometimes there are too many Bards in the zone, Sometimes there are very few. Until you get Denon’s Disruptive Discord, it's best to stay away from the Sabertooth Cats, they have just a little bit too much reach, and you have to play it tight. In the early 20's the experience begins to slow down and a lot of the mobs are green. There is a handy, but greedy vendor right next to a Rhino that is KOS, take care. Fairly safe areas to kite near the cliffs at where Howling Stones entrance is, however, it is not always the case. There are times when a bard dies somewhere and a huge 'fan' of high level mobs will pass by going back to their original locations. Mostly safe, but not 100%. The biggest draw back at this level is where you are bound. If you are bound in OT, then no big deal on corpse recovery, but if you are bound in Firiona Vie, a corpse recovery is not a cake walk. Special note: There are some occasional anomalies; you will slow down for no apparent reason and get killed. It happens about one in ten pulls. The cause is unknown and there is no message. Selo's is still up, but you will just slow down like it is not up. Depending on when it happens, you may survive the hits and be able to recover. It is possible that this anomaly is directly related to the amount of activity in the zone, but what ever it is, it will kill you from time to time. Even with the occasional "not my fault" death annoyance, the zone is a joy to kite in.

20-30 Lake of Ill Omen; Skeletons, Goblin Warriors and Battlemasters around the Windmill (Point 13 on the map) in the early 20's in the SouthWest corner of the map. As you progress you can work your way over to the big field in front of the Fortress in the SE corner of the map, essentially anything from the SE to the SW is where you can pull. Be courteous to the other players grouping up to pull trash to the edge of the lake. I wasn't really able to find a super safe place to do this, but as long as you clear the areas you're in and look out for wandering shamans/soothsayers you should be fine.

30-40 Firiona Vie; Drolvargs, Pirates (in the early 30s). Drolvargs are slower than Centaurs, so you are back to tighter turning. You should be able to safely use Denon’s Disruptive Discord and Chords of Dissonance just fine. Just be sure to keep the turns tight. If you are struggling with Chords you can stick with only Denon's, but you should not have any issues unless you are doing it wrong. The pirates, in particular, resist a lot and they are all blue at 30. So the pulls are a long fight either way, but the pirates are actually a little easier because of their smaller size. The experience is amazing, and the money isn't bad either. They drop ~1-2pp each, and will drop bronze armor and sometimes gems, which can sell for 15-25pp. One problem here is that Pilgrims and the Firiona Drixies will fight the mobs you are kiting, so you have the be very attentive. While you are building up your train, make sure you have everything before beginning to circle, otherwise you will see mobs coming right at you in the middle of circling and panic will ensue.

Firiona Vie is one of the most effective zones to swarm in, and will likely not be topped by any other location if you are willing to put in the effort. There are hundreds of mobs running around, you can be bound directly within the same zone, there's vendors to sell your bronze drops, and even a bank. If you are lucky you might even find clerics running by for a rez in zone. Ultimately, this zone can produce some gigantic Drolvarg pulls if you dare, but if the server is glitchy that day, you will get your ass handed to you over and over.

OR

30-45 The Overthere; Succulents, Cockatrices, and Sabertooth Cats. The mobs you want are all on the south west side of the zone. If you are comfortable, you can make some insane pulls here. It is very possible to make over 100% of a level in one pull in the early 30s. You will kill so many that you will not be able to loot it all and many corpses will decay before you are done killing a pull. It is highly recommended to stay away from Sabertooth Cats until you have a few levels of experience under your belt. The male Sabertooth Tigers take a much longer time to kill and are very dangerous. You will be pretty much just using Dennon's as large numbers of mobs make the server especially glitchy and getting within 30 is just too risky most of the time. Special note: There are some occasional anomalies in this zone; you will slow down for no apparent reason and get killed. It happens about one in ten pulls. The cause is unknown and there is no message. Selo's is still up, but you will just slow down like it is not up. Depending on when it happens, you may survive the hits and be able to recover. It is possible that this anomaly is directly related to the amount of activity in the zone, but what ever it is, it will kill you from time to time. Even with the occasional "not my fault" death annoyance, the zone is a joy to kite in. One good location to kill mobs is marker A on the map, around coordinates (200,1100).

45-55(?) Dreadlands So far I've been kiting the Cockatrices, Dolvargs and Skeletons (NE Corner, Point 5 on the map). A safe area in zone to do this is the BW zone line in the north middle of the map.

47-50 Burning Woods Gorillas, skeletons, and wasps are swarmable in this zone, just look out for Gullerback the named Gorilla (115, 2810) as he summons. As well as avoid the Sarnaks since they have casters. Having not swarmed here yet, assuming the zone lines are fairly safe as they are used in DL/FV for burning the mobs down.

Reducing Lag

(Added by Rachyl) When you are AOE dotting many mobs (20+) you may find the client lags a moment when the song strikes/causes damage. When you have several DOTs applied to so many mobs at once, the moments of lag can quickly cause your highly sensitive circles to be certain death. To mitigate against this lag, perform the following:

• 1) Turn logging off /log off (I find this to have the greatest impact)
• 2) Turn off NPC/PC Name plates
• 3) Turn off Spell particles (Density) for yourself.
• 4) Turn Sky type to off