Types of Kiting

General Kiting Information

Bards can kite in a variety of ways. We are not bound by mana and are the fastest things in the game.  Unlike other classes that solo, we are not limited to one or two methods in our kiting.  Below I will outline some of the methods that are used by bards.  Like most things bardly, practice makes perfect and there is no way to perfectly explain these concepts.

What type of Mobs to Kite?

Melee-based mobs are the easiest mobs to kite. Since they do not cast, all they do is chase you.  Since you are staying out of melee range, there isn’t much the mob can do to hit you. Occassionally, you’ll run into a mob with a range attack, such as deepwater goblins, which attack with a bow and arrows. Normally though, melee mobs will just chase you until they flee or die.

Caster mobs are harder to kite.  They will stop chasing you everytime they cast. While it is possible to run out of their casting range, they will simply start to cast again once in spell range again.  Usually, you have to be able to pump your resists high enough to resist the spells, or have enough hit points to absorp any damage the spell causes. Mobs that snare and root are very deadly, since if you can’t out run the mobs, they tend to beat you down pretty quickly.  Caster mobs aren’t impossible, but they do have other considerations when kiting.

Mobs that can summon also provide a challenge. Summoning mobs are found from the mid-50’s and higher. The whole point of kiting is to avoid being in melee range and taking hits. When a mob summons you right on top of it, it will get a swing or two on you.  The key to taking on a summoning mob is to have enough hitpoints to absorp the damage they give or to be able to regen the damage before being summoned again. For the most part, people simply avoid mobs that summon.

Pathing

A mob will always attempt to take the shortest path from where it is to where you are. In an open area, this is generally a straight line.  Below you will see a picture with two ovals in it.  The black oval represents the path you are running. The mob you are kiting will continuously run straight at you, which will force its path into an oval as well, only its path will be smaller than your path. The red line represents the mob’s path.  In the ideal situation, the mob will always be in your song range. This is how it works in almost all situations, but not always. You will want to run in an oval or circle shape. While the exact shape you run in isn’t truly important (you could lead the mob you are kiting all over the zone if you’d like), people typically run in an oval-ish shape to minimize the area needed and help prevent adds. This is the basic form of Bellow Kiting and Chant Kiting.

If you are new to kiting, determining your kite path may be challenging. Try to choose 3 or 4 landmarks such as trees, rocks, buildings, etc. You can then run have a path marked for you.  Run from Tree A, to Rock B. Then turn and run to Bush C, then back to Tree A.  See the following picture for an example. Notice that the path isn’t a perfect circle or oval or anything else.  Again, the exact shape isn’t important. The mob will still head straight for you.  The end result is the mob will run in roughly an oval shape trying to get to you.

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