I have been looking over a lot of the threads here, and they are very insightful. I thank you all for the feedback I have seen on other peoples posts. It has helped me a ton. However there are still a few questions I have. I am brand new to bard, and am playing on Mangler. And I have been very fortunate to have gotten in a couple groups right from the start. I am in my low 30's now, and since people will be working during the week at this point, I am going to try my hand in swarming quadding, or just kiting in general. So, I believe at this point I should be using my level 30 dot, Fufil's Curtailing Chant, combined with Selo's Accelerando. Unless there is a different dot? Or more songs? But what I don't understand is how to twist them, while switching instruments, or if that's even necessary. And if this can all be done with macro set ups and the bandolier? Every video i see points to p99 and swarming. And I'm not sure how valid that data is on Mangler. Or if there is something I am completely missing in general when it comes to this. Anyway, if anyone can take the time to answer those questions and help me out, I would appreciate it. Thanks for the time in reading this.
My understanding is that you can't swarm on Mangler. EQ made it so that bard dots don't stick on moving targets or something like that in order to stop the practice.
Its just PBAE dots that dont work on a moving target. Single target dots are fine, but it's still going to be painfully slow. You could try charm swarming. Get a bunch of mobs to chase you with something very low agro, then charm one of them and send him to attack the others. They all start beating on your mob. When your charmed mob gets low on hps break charm with an invis. You have to make sure he doesnt die while charmed or you wont get xp. Then dot him down the rest of the way. TBH, I dont remember doing this at this level so idk if it will work but I dont see why it shouldnt.
You get your first charm spell, Solon's Song of the Sirens, at level 27. It charms up to level 37, so you should be able to use it to great effect and try charm swarming. I really enjoyed charm swarming for a while, it's a very specific gameplay that not a lot of people in EQ get to do. I recommend every bard spend some time doing it and get good at it. However, unless you really enjoy it, it's not the kind of thing you want to rely on as a primary leveling source. Getting into groups like you've been doing is going to be more fun, dynamic and social.
Ive made a ton of swarm kiting vids on my youtube channel but deleted for various reasons. I will try to make you one specifically but my bard is 110, so ill have to tailor things to what i remember having access too back then. Its been awhile but most concepts should be the same. You shouldnt need to make a bandolier if youre just using one dot since both the dot and selos use a drum....the only thing you could use a bandolier at this level is if you need to use heal song to regen hps...using your best lute...if youre using inviz song to break charm you MIGHT need to bandolier to a wind instrument. Pull up your bandolier tab, should be B. Put whatever instrument you want in your hand, hit the make hotbutton key and name it....do this for each instrument you wish to make one for including one for not kiting situations, like melee.
Thanks all for the responses. I do prefer grouping, but I suck at pulling so far. I understand how lull works, but i don't know of a fade type ability if it gets resists? That is another topic I need to create for myself. Anyway, if they removed PBAE from moving targets, I get that kills swarming, but essentially also kills all quadding options as well. I get that. However the reverse charm kiting is something i did a TON of my druid on live. I was very good at it. But I also had an instant invis to break charm. Plus i could snare everything and take my time. I will have to learn some macro's/hotkeys to try for this. As well as figure out where to try this at. But, I did not realize my level 30 spell is also a percussion, so that makes it way easier. I can just run a /melody 1 2, for a single target? That seems simple. But also seems like a lot of time spent to kill 1 mob.
Sorry to high Jack this thread, but Tucoh or anyone else do you have any idea what this bard is doing in this video? It looks to me like the bard is AE nuking all the mobs down, but his mana isnt dropping so I'm not sure what's going on exactly.
You can see the songs being cast in the bottom left chat window. Watch the endurance usage. Vainglorious Shout IV (AA) Denon's Dirge of Disruption (L90) Nilsara's Chant of Flame (L105) Hoshkar's Chant of Disease (L106) Ekron's Chant of Frost (L107) Nexona's Chant of Poison (L108)
Ok as promised this a quick basic video of what is going on when charm kiting, sorry my mic was not being cooperative. I'll do my best to explain in words, it's pretty simple at low levels and can get quite intricate at higher levels depending on how effecient you want to be. 4 or 5 songs at level 30 to mem Selos Fufil's dot Charm inviz song if you have no other means to inviz DA song(if available at level 30) Heal song That specific charm has a very nice range to it, the charm range nerf came much much later and I think people forget that...and there were even workarounds to that. So in this video all Im doing is casting charm(at a healthy range) on the cougar. Cougars are social, meaning they will assist one another which what you want when choosing what type of mobs you want to charm kite. Also, non casters because you want them grouped up tight...not for nuking, because you cant at this level, but because when you tell your pet to attack another mob, if the swarm(or group of mobs) are tight, they are more likely to turn and assist attacking your charmed pet. So once you sing charm on your intended pet(the cougar), the pet window should pop up indicating charm was sucessful. Great! You now have a pet! Find another mob to sick it on by targetting that mob and hitting the attack button in your pet window(top left). They will start fighting one another and USUALLY if it's a 1 on 1 fight your pet will die faster. As you get better you want more mobs all attacking your pet at once so as to make your pet's health drop faster. So let's say you sick a pet on 1 mob and they're duking it out....what should you do beside watch? Sing selos, since it doesnt last that long at this level. I would advise against making a melody because there are many instances where things dont go as planned and you need to be constantly engaged and in the moment. Always have selos refreshed at this level, if you're also low on health be singing whatever health regen song you have WITH selos! All the while watching your pet's health. As it begins to drop to 30 or 20 percent range you really want to be ready to time inviz break with your inviz song, remember that's a 3 second cast so you have to get the timing down. Sometimes charm will break and your pet's health will be high and that's undesirable especially considering you have one dot at this level to finish off your former pet's health, and this dot is a weak one on top of that. So a lot of times you have to RECHARM your pet, sick it back on the mob and redo the whole cycle. Now what if you have 3+ mobs chasing you while only one other mob is attacking your pet? Happens frequently before you get Fading Memories. The answer is to keep selos up and keep doing run-bys near your pet and the other mob, eventually they will peel off of chasing you and join in on the beatdown of your pet. This sudden increase in damage output to your pet can cause his health meter to spike downwards so be careful the pet doesnt poof(health reaching zero while still charmed). It's a slow(er) process in the beginning when you need to dot down the mob's remaining health BUT the process of your pet's health getting dropped is NOT a slow process no matter what expansion your kiting on because of ever increasing mob DPS v. hit points....that part has never been slow. So start slow, maybe 1 pet, 1 mob....work your way up from there and add another mob until your super comfortable meaning you take minimal hits and have just got the whole process down. DA song will allow you to drop to lowest aggro in group(you and your pet) and the mobs will make a B liine for your pet. It also is an excellent way to initially pull an entire swarm just by singing DA and gathering up a bunch of social mobs. Hmm what else, camps: IceClad cougars TD spirocs Oasis Spectres TD raptor islands PON nightstalkers PoN mephit cave if you're that good at that point I remember Luclin being doable in some spots The Hive spiders Convorteum(this spot was so money in the day) Fort Mech tons of mobs I know I'm forgetting soooo many and purposefully leaving out some of the later xpacs...what good will that do ya now?
Hello, I'm playing a bard on Mangler too, I'm very happy with group, but sometimes I have only 1h and want to xp a little bit alone. So I just hit lvl 32, and now I want to know if you have zones in Classic to charm kitting? I try the basilik in lavastorm, but to begin the charm, 10 sec stun is hard, no mistakes allowed. If you have spot in Classic TLP to learn this solo technic it would be cool to share with me! lvl 32->50. I think spectres are great at 35+/- but in before and after I don't know where to look ! Sorry for my English! Husc
