Quad Kiting for Beginners [Lower Level primarily]

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Barc
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:02 am

Quad Kiting for Beginners [Lower Level primarily]

Post by Barc »

Ahoy There!

With me returning to the game, just recently, and being somewhat new to the Druid Class, i started digging around for some info on various boards. The info accumilated on "how-to-druid-for-dummies" seems thin and maybe for good reason, as people around probably have been playing the game for decades and stuff may come as tedious and trivial.

However i bet there's new people around, especially with F2P and all, that are quite as newbie as myself. So in conjunction with me trying to accumilate info on "how-to", i was thinking i would do a writeup as i go. So here's my attempt at doing so.

Any/all info will be much appreciated.

Druid Spell List: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spel ... ion=search
Spells: (Green Spell Gems. Use upgraded versions as they come)

A Snare (appropriate of level. At 51 it's Ensnare (26). At 57 you get AoE Snare)
Lightning Blast (Level 46)
Fire (level 48)
Blizzard (Level 54)

AA's:

Runspeed
Planar Power
Innate Enlightenment
Destructive Fury
Fury of Magic
Spell Casting Mastery
Mental Clarity
Spell Casting Fury
Entrap

Tactics:

If you are not yet level 57, you could snare with either spellgem snare or entrap and garther them all up but running in a circle. Once they are good an tight packed up, you can start going through your spells to wear them down. Reapply snare as it falls off.

Buffs:
As Kiting is quite mana heavy, i suggest trying to bum a kei off your local enchanter. Also SoE and other self-buffs are advisable

Places:

???



I know it's pretty thin as it is now. That's why i'd like to get some feedback and help.

Thanks in advance,

- Barc
Barc
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:02 am

Re: Quad Kiting for Beginners [Lower Level primarily]

Post by Barc »

Wait... I can't edit this?
Mallorn
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:48 am

Re: Quad Kiting for Beginners [Lower Level primarily]

Post by Mallorn »

Druids have lots of tricks that they can use, and quad kiting is one of the most classic. Any new strategy takes patience tomaster, and if you look in the hunting guides it usually takes some time to get into the groove at a spot with your spells and levels no matter what techniques you use.

Couple of tips:
-Your targets have to be nearly on top of one another. Watch your damage, if any of them aren't getting hit then run a couple of extra circles around them to tighten it up.
-You need some space, a ton of empty space is ideal. While you are running in circles the last thing you want is an additional enemy to barge in. Many zones have areas where mobs are static or roaming and gaps in between; that is where quadding/quinting is easiest.
-You need lots of mana. Back in the day it was tricky to have enough mana to make sure everything died, if for example it took 60% of your mana to kill one thing it might take more mana than you have to finish them all. The beauty of it though is if you got 4 kills for 100% mana then you were killing that much faster. All about more xp! Mounts count as medding while standing still and even while casting, so I am fanatical about using a mount when possible.
-At some point (over lvl 75?) our targeted AE DD's hit a max of 5, not 4, monsters. Hence, high level talk of the technique calls it quinting.
Yrys
TDG Admin
TDG Admin
Posts: 104
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 12:42 am

Re: Quad Kiting for Beginners [Lower Level primarily]

Post by Yrys »

Barc wrote:Wait... I can't edit this?
That's an anti-spam measure for newly-registered users. It automatically goes away after a few posts, but I've manually approved you and you should be able to edit now.

Feel free to send me a PM if you still can't do so.
Barc
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:02 am

Re: Quad Kiting for Beginners [Lower Level primarily]

Post by Barc »

Yrys wrote:
Barc wrote:Wait... I can't edit this?
That's an anti-spam measure for newly-registered users. It automatically goes away after a few posts, but I've manually approved you and you should be able to edit now.

Feel free to send me a PM if you still can't do so.
Thank you, Sir
tatankawd
Posts: 22
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 9:02 pm

Re: Quad Kiting for Beginners [Lower Level primarily]

Post by tatankawd »

Couple more tips:

1 - Careful with the mount. The delayed stop/start makes it take longer to actually get your casts off. If you don't need the medding to get them finished, then don't use the horse. Just get them done quick, and then use OOC regen (WAY faster than a horse) to get ready for the next bunch.
2 - If you need a lil extra to get them finished off, look into getting a luminescent staff. Free cast of a low level quad spell
3 - Another useful item is one with a free DoT, so you can have a DoT or two running on them while you're quadding. And with the extended target window, this will be way easier than it was in the old days, where it was impossible to target some mobs once you had them rounded up. There's a Kunark item with a free DoT (arms?), as well as a Velious bracer, and of course, the 1.0 epic.
4 - If you're getting low on mana and don't think you'll make it, you can use our AoE root to stop them all, then mount up and med a bit. Also, for wood elves, there's a questable root clicky for lower levels, and then the PoP quest pants with root.
5 - Once you only have one or two left, root and DoT, it's more efficient.

Tat

PS - Forgot one more tip: If you have more than enough mana to do a quad, you don't have to do just 4. I remember some mob I quadded back in the day in Maiden's Eye, I would round up 10-12 at a time. Yes, your quad spell will only hit 4 at a time, but once they drop, different ones will get hit. With today's much larger mana pools, I would think this would be the more typical situation, versus not having enough mana to do one quad. This becomes a good option once you can start getting some of the crit DD AAs. Once that happens, one mob eventually dies well before the others, so now your DDs are only hitting 3 mobs (then 2, etc), making it a lot less efficient.

PPS - Remember, for cranking through AA's, just do lots of low light blue mobs, instead of dark blues or even cons. Less XP per mob, but way less HP per mob as well :)
tatankawd
Posts: 22
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 9:02 pm

Re: Quad Kiting for Beginners [Lower Level primarily]

Post by tatankawd »

LOL, OK, thought of a few more things:

1 - Don't bother with quadding til at least the 50s. I really think red cons with a tank merc, 1 at a time, may be faster. Compare and see.
2 - You can pair up effectively with another druid, or a wiz, and do this, I have. And now that they have wizzy mercs with an AoE stance, it might even be doable with them as well. Have the rounder-upper snare each mob twice, and do one cast of the quad spell, before the second person joins in. Pulling agro shouldn't be a big deal then. If it is, just have the second person follow the first, so even if you do pull agro, the mobs are still going in the same direction.
3 - Locations: This is just a list of places I've quadded
- Scarlet Desert mesa (tro jegs)
- Maiden's Eye, the little alien guys near the UP side (umbrous toilers)
- PoN gargoyles (crumbling, weathered)
- HoH basements (good root/rot spot as well)

Haven't quadded much since the mid 60's, charm kiting is so much faster (though admittedly, there are fewer spots where that works).

Tat
Tatanka Wolfdancer <Inisfree>, 87th Druid of Tunare
Anaceup Mysleeves, 85th Mage
Snookims Whinslow, 85th Enchanter
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