Aulan "Bard Boy" Plainsong LFGuild (app)

[ZigonZagoff]

Dinging that fast is just sick - plain sick --- Now how did you do it and can you get me too?

[Aulan Plainsong]

well with watching Tothel swarm kite with my bard, and Grym's words of encouragement I have found a new home in PoD!


I havent lvled this fast since I my baby bard was born!

gather, charm, invis, dot, dot, dot, dot... rinse repeat.



and thanks for the gratz guys!

[ZigonZagoff]

I still need someone to show me where I am messing up on my bard. I do the charm, sick it on 4 mobs, recharm, etc - but then the mobs come at me instead of pet.

So it ends up charm kiting/swarm kiting with everything chasing me and pet being a big DoT.

Someday I will have you or grym show me where I am messing up - as long as you don't comment about the lambent. At least I finally got rid of the bronze bracer and shoulders at level 34.

[Swetch]

Whatcha swarming currently in PoD?

I actually got lucky and managed to grab the Nightstalker camp in PoN for a couple hours this weekend. Flew through the last 40% of 55, dinged, and while I was finishing off the last couple mobs my machine rebooted and I woke up in the graveyard. Another bard had been waiting for the camp, so I quit for the night and gave him my blessings.

Great camp if you can get it, but almost always permacamped by druids.

Btw, I never bother with a rez when soloing as the exp can be regained in no time, while waiting for mana to get back up can be a real PITA.
_________________
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Swetch Filk
Your mind clears.

[Swetch]

ZigonZagoff, what level is your bard?

If you catch me online one of these nights, I'll gladly show you the basics of swarming.

Also,you might want to read through the forums on www.eqdiva.com, should find a load of threads on the subject there.
_________________
--
Swetch Filk
Your mind clears.

[Aulan Plainsong]

Been doing Goos and Rat adds, all but 2 goos that I have seen can be charmed and most feeble rats.

Some times one mob gets a bit too pissy and will not stick right away and I just run them around and try and "land" it on the pet and target.

PoD is pretty light peep wise lately, dont know why. I feel better swarming there with less people to interupt me. Grym says that the flies are also geat swarming XP, but I dont know which ones are charmable and not yet. Only one way to find out though I guess. Flies are usualy camped by kiters and swarmers. Goos are pretty open unless Im there

Zig, Im on (usualy) Sun - Wed nights around 6pm PST.



PS- for those looking for the string thingy that drops off of Pile of Biles for some gating device, I usualy have to let 2-3 rot a night...

[Swetch]

Tetsian flies(heading straight out from zone-in, along the penninsula and the first lil island or two) are all charmable. As far as the others, I'm not sure, when I get em in a swarm I usually make em targets rather than pets(uncharmable rats are good for this, they'll eat down a swarm pretty quick).
_________________
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Swetch Filk
Your mind clears.

[Grymtongue Vazaelle]

Aulan,

Damn glad you are having fun with the PoD experience.

The power curve that bards experience between 61-64 is damn impressive and should keep the fun rolling in. Notwithstanding the improved chants (Damage over time songs for bards) we also receive a new lull song at 61. 62 we get Wind of Marr, an increased mana/health regen song and we also get Warsong of Zek, 60 haste plus increased damage shield. 63 is Psalm of Veeshan, an indescribably good resist song for your group with added damage shield goodness thrown in. 64 is a money level with a new mezz, caster focus/melee overhaste, improved charm (Limited usefullness), and AE improved health/mana regen. Oh and also at 64 you get a 54 percent slow

65 is more of an after-dinner snack with another mezz, an improved debuff, and another chant. Many bards wait to hit 65 until they have their songs (require Runed Glyphs) since the added bonus of 65 is sometimes not enough to offset the decrease in solo experience that can be gained by remaining 64...but solo isn't everything.

A word about PoD. Well probably many words since I have a habit of spitting out massive amounts of syllables for a smattering of actual content. Anyway, it looks like you are getting to know the surroundings pretty well there.

The Flies I mentioned are the ones located on the "Back" of the first lake. I think they are Tachnian and are charmable with the mid-level song. You can levitate over the water (Well it isn't really water I guess ) and grab the mobs on the islands. Beware of Malarian Defilers (Casters and Summon) and the Malarian Gall (Level 60 Summons). The Malarian Pests do not cast nor do they summon but they can respawn as a defiler so watch out. Also in this area are Malarian Larva, which are place holders for Harrion Larvas which, in turn, are connected with the Alt CoD ent quest.

Zig. Shoot me a tell in game when you are on your bard and if you have time I can work through any troubles you are having with swarm kiting. The basics of it though are hotkeys, the tab buffer, and the toggle last target keys. If you have an invisiblity item make a hotkey for it. Make a hotkey for /pet report health and spam it during the fight so you can get a feel for how quickly it's hit points are decreasing for timing the invis. Make a hotkey for /pet attack.

Ugh this is turning in to a long-assed post

Here goes an attempt at a typical swarm kite. Grab a mob that other mobs assist. Once you have one, other mobs will tend to join up. I try to keep the swarms to around 4-7 mobs so as to not disrupt other players who may be in the vicinity. Once I have a swarm of mobs behind me, I usually hit the target closest npc button(F8 or I rebound to Q) to grab the closest mob in my swarm. I then hit the tab button with that mob targeted to save it in the Tab Buffer. I hit escape to clear target then hit tab to bring it up again, verifying it has been saved. Once it is retargeted I hit my charm song. Hopefully charm hits and if so I then hit F8 to target the next closest mob since it will not target my charmed pet. I then hit my hotkey for /pet attack. If all goes well your charmed pet will attack your target and since those two mobs were in front of the other mobs in the swarm they will see the two fighting and assist. I then usually hit the toggle last target key(I bound it to ~) to retarget my pet (This helps more than hitting F1 twice since sometimes your charm will break early, losing your pet from the information...toggle target always remembers).

If your swarm partly or fully ignores the two mobs fighting there are a number of reasons it may have occured. What I have found is that in swarms where there are more than 3-4 mobs potentially attacking your pet it takes a bit for them to go after him. So if you have a swarm of 6 mobs and charm one and send it in, it is likely that 4 mobs will continue chasing you. What you need to do is kite these away for a few seconds then run them back to your charmed mob. They should then assist the mob being attacked. If one or more do not then there are other factors affecting them (You may have damaged one of them directly, one of them was an ex-pet, or sometimes when a mob has been in a swarm long enough and has taken damage they just like you more).

Now you have the swarm attacking your pet and you can stand safely away from them. I spam the /pet report health key to watch my pet's HPs decrease. Since I use a Tiny Cloak of Darkest Night that has a 1.5 second cast of invis I need to time it so that I start my invis before my pet is deaded. In the best circumstances you will break invis on your pet between 0-19 percent of it's life. The ex-pet and it's friends will now head towards you so punch the accelerator and get away, while doing this you have your ex-pet still targeted and start up chants or bellows on it to kill it.

Repeat this while avoiding summoning/caster adds while looting your kills and enjoy.


^ This is why I don't post more often on message boards. I tend to talk a lot once I get going :attenho:


-Grym

[Wrahn]

I spent way too much time in PoD (way too much time)

The back flies are Ventri flies btw not Tachnian (or however you spell them) flies. Beware the Malarians, some ever summon, beware the spiders, they cast (snare even, bastards).

The front flies I actually found to be better XP because I wasn't waiting on respawn, but I usually took a the two front islands as well (peninsula first pull, islands second).

Ah well, if you see me on don't hesitate to ask questions (either of you) I will respond (eventually). Don't forget to group occaionally as well, you will want those group skills later on.

[ZigonZagoff]

Ok - My bard is Level 34 now. My issue is mainly given in the example of what Grym gave - they like me more than my pet.
I have done swarms of 6 clear up to 12+ (scary as heck because I had multiple mobs I could not charm). The huge swarms take me up to 30 min to kill (with uncharmable mobs) but on one kite I gained a yellow of exp.

I use the TAB key but it does not remember who my last target was once I hit escape. I dont have an alternate target key - will have to look at that.

I don't have an invis device but use the invis song which requires me to switchout the drum for the pipe. Sometimes this is a pain and I miss here more than anywhere. Because then the mobs kill my pet

[Swetch]

Switching out instruments gets a lot easier as you get used to it. And hell, if ya get good at it while swarming, it'll make it that much easier in group situations in the future when it's called for. :]

What are you swarming at 34? Have you tried ulthorks/walruses in Eastern Wastes? Probably one of the best areas for learning to swarm... they are slow, close enough to each other that gathering a group isn't too difficult, but scattered enough to prevent you from becoming overwhelmed.

(btw, it's nice to see a good number of knowledged Walker and app bards in the guild!)
_________________
--
Swetch Filk
Your mind clears.

[ZigonZagoff]

Walrus and Ulthorks - the problem is the high level walruses and all of the ulthorks are not charmable by me until I hit 39. Then beware.

Btw - I have soloed 3 giants in GD at once by grabbing and charming wolves as Dots. I then promptly got invited to a duo group that were a level 40 and 41.

[Aulan Plainsong]

maybe I should rename this thread to "Bards and Swarming, a working guide in progres"!

LOL


Zig I can see where invising switching out the drum and keeping pet targetd while running in circles can get, umm, dificult-ish.


I did try some flies last night, they were all toward the back of the lake and all on a lil island, all nice and neat ready for a pull! They were Verti flies and were a push over.
I did have one hell of a scare last nigth though! I had some goos and rats, and everything was fine. I got a spider add.... That wasnt the scarry part though. It was when he rooted me while pet and pack were duking it out! I was sure I was gonne be stuck there when the pet died or charm wore off and they would b-line to me and pummle soft squishy body. So Im sweatin that moment, and sure as shit they kill the pet so I freak out and mash the reverse button. I almost couldnt watch the freight train that was barreling down at me. The first mob to hit me must have knocked me out of my boots cause I was backing up faster than a the guy who thought "I'm with Busey" would be a great hit! I then proceeded to high tail it out of PoD for another cold beer and a smoke! Cause I clearly deserved one after that!



Happy Swarming Zig!