Nano-Technician: Guide to AoE kiting

[Smacdevil]

Originally posted by Epoz on AO official Forums
Getting tired of the LFT routine, lousy teams, downtime? Tired of wasting time ingame? At levels sub 150ish, here is an alternative way for your NT to make buckets of XP in a very short time. In my experience, faster than regular teaming.

The name of the game is AoE Kiting, and here is how to do it:

A) BUFFS

1. Mandatory:
- Fixer runspeed, preferably Gridspace Freedom
- Essence

2. Nice-to-get
- Infuses/Mochams to reach a higher ql AoE nukes
- Fixer HoT
- Any reflect or AC buff
- Init buff if you are to low lvl to insta cast on full def
- High HE/Crunch/Range

Runspeed is the only required buff really, but I advice you to get an essence as well.


B) OTHER PREPARATIONS

1. Put the Agg/Def slider on full Def
2. In the dings to come, try to prioritize your eveades. Evades are much more effective on full def.
3. Make sure you have the highest QL AoE nuke you can use uploaded. (Note: VE is better than Kel's for kiting)
4. Make sure to buff range
5. Zoom out with the camera - makes it easier to see what's happening around you


C) THE AOE KITING
The idea is simple: You can do harm from a greater distance than a melee fighter can. Therefore, if you can keep that distance between you and the targets at all times, you will be able to kill them without taking any damage yourself.

- Fase1: The gathering
1. Find an area with a relatively huge population of melee mobs. (Experiment on ql of the mobs. For instance a lvl 110 player should be able to kite ql 200 Medusas relatively easy).
2. Target a mob and area nuke. Start running immediately. Don't run away from the mob tho: Try to imagine a equilateral triangle, where you are at point A, the mob at point B while you head for point C. Use sound judgement here, don't run straight into a bunch of other mobs.
3. Notice how the mob follows you. Observe how you can control his movements by running in curves/circles. If adds comes along keep running around in curves and circles until all the aggroing mobs are grouped.
4. Keep moving around in the area until you have a group you feel is big enough for the kill. While moving around, make sure you don't run over a hilltop etc, this will make the mobs warp to you. Always let the mob have you in their sight!

Up to this point you have been nuking only sporadically, to draw in adds and maintain aggro. The gathering fase is now complete, let's start the slaughtering.

- Fase2: The kill
In this stage it is important to keep the mobs more or less at the same spot. The reason for this is that mobs have various HP's and get hit for various amount of damage from your nukes. When mobs get low on health they start moving very slowly, and you will risk leving them behind. That's why we keep them all on the same spot - MOB speed wont matter much then.

1. You now start spamming the area nuke as soon as humanly possible. Note that the nuke usually recharges before the animation of the nuke finishes.
2. Keep running around the mobs while you nuke. (Yes, you have to stop running to fire of the nukes) You will be running in a circle now, with the mobs in the middle. The mobs will of course move around inside the center of the circle, experiment and you will make it work. Perfectioning this circle of death is a vital for your success. Your part here is almost like a sheeps dog, running around the hird in a circle, keeping them together.
3. Keep running in circles and nuking until all mobs are dead.


This should be enough to get you started, now go out there and ding!

[klopfe]

I'm not an NT and has never been one. But with a team of a fixer and an NT this could be extreemely effective. Fixers best area snare is almost like an area root. Gather a bunch of medusas, area snare them and nuke away. The fixer should then make sure he keeps the are snare up.

I'm sure the lovely Amoni would be intersted in trying out this tactic.


/Klopfe

[Wirecutter]

I'm not an NT and has never been one. But with a team of a fixer and an NT this could be extreemely effective. Fixers best area snare is almost like an area root. Gather a bunch of medusas, area snare them and nuke away. The fixer should then make sure he keeps the are snare up.

I'm sure the lovely Amoni would be intersted in trying out this tactic.


/Klopfe

if u'r an NT and u make a team for this make sure u'r teammates stands out of range and don't DO NOTHING, this is an NT thing (( sounds more selfish than it really are )) the point is that the aggro jumps even on sight and if the NT don't hold the aggro to himself the hecklers will be scattered all over the kiting area and will most likely kill off anything that come in it's way.

[Wirecutter]

and to make some remarks on smacks very good guide of AoE kiting I would only make some personal remarks and they won't necesarily be all true

A)
if u gonna kite (( hecklers in elysium to make an example )) u should make sure u can do it without anything else than selfbuffs, this means u have to raise u'r runspeed u'rself (( 900++ pref 1000++ )), outisde buffs are nice to have but they run out so u shouldn't be dependent on them.

B)
Agg\def slider on full defence I would consider a NONO . u'r goal in this is first off all not to get hit if u get hit it's most likely cause u are not running fast enough or because u have the slider so far down on defence that they catch up with u before u have casted the nuke.(( remember that the slider effects the casting time very much )) u should be able to insta cast the nuke and start running again the second u hit the nuke shortcutkey.

VE vs Kels I shall not contest other than this u should test out u'rself and what suits u, my experience is that the VE have a smaller area of effect and less damage but an imensly faster recharge than the kel. My peronally choice is the Kel due to it's high dmg and big area of effect and also it's high percentage of landing.


PS this is just from personal experiences from kiting hecklers in elysium and what works/worked for me


BTW very nice post smack

[Smacdevil]

Thanks Wire, but credit is really due to Epoz, who originally posted this on the official NT forums

I agree with you to an extent, but regarding full agg vs. def, I think one should go def if using VE, since that nuke can be instacasted no matter your slider position if you maxed nano init (who doesnt?). Full agg would be necessary if using Kel's in order to instacast that one (6s attack).

[BlueMeenie]

A Little Expert Advice,


1) Essencial nanos

you need the Clear view of Elly map uploaded, once you have this , you can run around looking at the sky if you want, use the mini map to keep your distance from the mobs.

2) Pulling

this is done by casting your area blind nano, as it can be recast quickly
at other mobs to increase the number of hecklers u agro.

3) Triple implant and max out runspeed.
i have about 850 and can easly deal with 20+ hecks

[Cogs]

Would also be nice if you guys had the "How not to annoy and kill newbies" nano uploaded. I keep getting tells complaining how you NT's wipe out newbie teams in Elysium. Its friggin annoying, guys.