><P> With the charm nerf, the whole deal just got a lot
>harder. I really don't see charm being that
>great of a solo tool anymore -- feel sorry for those
>younger bards because the charm Choon and Froon deal
>just isn't going to happen anymore. </P>
><P>A few levels ago a Pally friend and I aggroed them
>passing thru WK and I used charm -- the whole fight
>took me down less than one bubble and he hardly got
>hit at all. I'll never forget how impressed he
>was when I told him taking them both is a bardic rite
>of passage that most of us do in our high 20s.
>Guess those days are gone...<BR></P>
Hi all,
Just to help alleviate the fears of any young bards that "charm kiting" is
dead or too difficult, I just wanted to say that I think it's still alive
and well. I'm a very experienced charm-kiter and have gotten to level 50
(yay!) primarily as a solo kiting bard due to my real life commitments, but
as I've mentioned previously, with some practice anyone can get good at this.
I've recently been emptying the giant fort in the Eastern Wastes with a mix
of charm kiting and chant kiting whenever I pass by. Anyway, it's just the
same ol, same ol. Charm one and restart selo's, press my "target nearest
npc" key, press my "/pet attack" social, retarget my pet and wait for charm
to break. Once it does break, I repeat the process over and over and over.
Yea, kind of boring, but if you only have about 90 mins at a time to play,
it's a decent way to get exp and some money.
The only thing the "nerf" really affects would be when you have a large
group of creatures that you're kiting. I did run into some trouble when I
accidentally aggro'd an entire hut plus a giant captain (4 creatures). I
ended up dying (but I can blame that on my buddy kept distracting me asking
me questions over my shoulder). Pre-nerf, it was much easier since the mobs
would instantly turn on my pet. Having to try to reissue the pet attack
command with this many mobs is much more dangerous now and allows for a
very small margin for error.
Some recommendations for what makes for a good charm kiting area:
1) A nice quiet area where few mobs travel through
2) A busy area nearby to get your intended victims
3) Few trees
4) Nice flat plains-like area
I've got my "change views" key setup as my "+" key on my keypad. I use my
keypad for movement, so this is very convenient for me. After I target my
"pet" and send him to attack my victim, I press my "+" key 3 times. This
gets me to the last external view before the first person perspective, so
that I only have to press the key once to get back to this view.
Some places that I had very good experience charm kiting:
Rathe Mountains -- Great place for any high 20's to 30's bard. Can start
with cyclopses and work your way up to hill giants. Just zone if you get
too many (make sure you have a hot key warning people which zone you're
pulling them to). Drawbacks: can be very crowded with players and you can
end up going through hill giants so fast you clear the zone. Doesn't make
you very popular.
Karanas -- In your 30's, Froon and Choon were good for charm kiting and I
think still are. The various griffenne's are lower, but they were helpful
to kill stuff with. Mid 30's you can start using griffons and hill giants
to clear things. Mid 40 I used grimfeather to kill stuff with (definitely
keep your speed up against him) :-)
Dreadlands -- In your 40's this is a decent place to fight. I had good
experience charming primarily giants. But also found yeti's, spiders and
drolvarg's to be charmable. The key to this place is finding a relatively
quiet area. I had a couple of places I liked to use. 1 was just to the
south of the tunnel that leads to the druid/wizzie ports. Another was just
to the East of the same tunnel where there's a little shack that leads to
the yeti caves, a nice little plains area with lots of things walking
nearby. Lastly, I started pulling from the giant fort nearby. It usually
not camped and is nice to get away from all the hubbub of the Frontier Mtns.
Lake of Ill Omen -- Mid 40's to 50. Here's my secret fishing hole. Well
it's not all that secret, but it's some of the best kiting exp I've gotten
and it's helped take me from my 40's to 50. When I was around 42 I had
charm kited a pair of them and got an entire blue bubble of exp with each
kill. They are in the bottom of the lake, and are usually in pairs. I've
had a fishbone earring at the time (singing steel gauntlets now) and with
my tambourine I could easily outswim the gobbies. I'd chant 1, and usually
2 would come (chase view helps here). As I'd pull them to the shore I'd
continue hammering the one I pulled with 2 chants. When we got to shore, he
was usually down about 1/4 of a bubble. I'd charm him and have him fight
his buddy. When he was low in life, I'd charm his buddy to kill him. Then
I'd fear-kite or chant-kite the other to death. Fear kiting was good to use
as it help keep up my combat skills. However, they can hit pretty hard so
be wary. BTW, I had one blue bubble to go to get to 50. I killed 4 of these
and dinged. The bloodgills have become more camped as time has gone on.
Obviously the word is out about them, but for us bards, it's one of the
easiest things to fight for us. Having enduring breath from a fishbone
earring was extremely helpful since I could just track down the goblin that
I wanted and pull.
Anyway, now that I've told you all about some of the places I hang out at,
I hope to see you around. Not sure how much further past 50 I'll go since
kiting doesn't sound all that attractive with mobs summoning. But you can
be assured that I'll be giving it a try. :-)
Windleaf Mistsong
50th level balladeer
Red Sky
Bertoxxulous