Katta?

[Fishead67]

I was thinkin of trying out Katta when i ding like 54, anyone have a guide tht they could link me?

[Rikam]

Ponightmare ravens there is nothing better easier I would make hamburgers fries while I was fear kiting it was that easy/predictables may get little wearing on you but at 57 or so can do frogs in PoS.

[Nigyl]

However, if you do want to do Katta, here's what I did when I was there:

Go to the graveyard: nothing living sees invis in the zone, or nothing that I've seen does, and the undead were non-KoS to me. Go to the far right corner as you enter. Set up your pet and have it guard there.

Pull a guard with Splurt, run back into the graveyard, hit the guard with Dooming Darkness as it comes into the graveyard. Run to the pet, hit the guard with Bond of Death, send in the pet, Invoke Fear, sit down and wait for it to die.

I think I was there at 56 or 57, when they were trivial.. at lower levels you'll probably have to FD split the spawns first.

Alternatively you could do the bank area, pull the guards to the safe area behind the tavern, and fear-kite up there.

[cornflkeboy]

I fear kited in the GY for a couple levels--was very very easy, very rarely had a resist. Bring lots of WR bags! I eventually just started to let stuff rot because as ar as i know there is no one in the city you can sell too and gating to PoK then walking back every time I got encumbred was really frustrating. Decent loot if you can carry it all hehe.

[Nigyl]

Yeah, my level 20-ish SK twink soon had a full set of the Katta armor :). Aside from the negatives to agility, it was pretty good for their level.

[darkhatred]

Katta is a nice place to hunt, especially at the grave yard or near the bank. Fear kite is excellent there :D

[Rikam]

There are undead in natimbi nice exp and drop 20 hp augs from named but I think you would need some help for her. In fact latly when I go there I have been inviting level 45 or so in my grp to get exp while I kill stuff since I am taking an exp camp from them. They help out give me LAA I let them have rot from named works out alright 1% aa exp a mob solo there at 65.

[Quezquotyl]

Okay there are plenty of other places to solo other than Katta, with much better experience, but if you are truly hellbent on soloing in Katta at 54, no problem I have a guide for you.

Your new home will be the Katta graveyard. If you don't know how to get here, you will find it. Once you are at the graveyard entrance you will go all the way to the back right of the graveyard. This will be the place where you will park your pet, with taunt off. You targets will be the guards in the courtyard just outside of the graveyard. I forget which level at which you can single pull these, but at 54 or 55 you shouldn't have to FD split.

Obviously you are going to pull with the Darkness line of spells, whichever you prefer, it won't be resisted too much, since these guards are pushovers and maybe hit max for 129. You can fear kit them but thats another DPS spell that could be mem'd. I would recommend you pratice your aggro kitting here. Pull a guard with darkness and start stacking your Dots. Pull him all the way back to your pet, that way if you get an add from the roamer you can just FD and spamm the pet Pet Backoff Key if pet adds. Once you have the guard snared and dotted run around the graveyard and let your pet beat on it, guard should be dead in 45 seconds or less. Wash, rinse and repeat.

You can also try pulling the Katta Gargs from inside the chapel, the guys you will have to aggro kite unless you have EoT the previous pets won,t come anywhere near close to tanking these. You can also root rot them but that is another DPS gem you could have up instead of root. DPS = pussy mob dies quicker.

Katta is pretty safe exp. If you want to sit on your arse and watch TV and go afk a lot, Katta is real easy for that. Have fun.

Cheers,
Quez

[splurticus]

Originally posted by Quezquotyl@Jul 13 2004, 10:08 PM
Okay there are plenty of other places to solo other than Katta, with much better experience, but if you are truly hellbent on soloing in Katta at 54, no problem I have a guide for you.

I'd be interested to hear about the many zones that are better xp than Katta for soloing at lvl 54. Especially those that don't have "Plane of" at the beginning of their names. The ones I normally hear about are Dulak, and Plane of Nightmare.

I sort of like Nurga but I'm also told that sucks. To each their own I guess.

Darkness, Splurt, and BoD are the only DPS you need if you fear kite the Katta graveyard. I'm fortunate to have a druid parked there for regrowth so I use EBolt in place of BoD, making it more efficient. Pull with darkness, land splurt, land ebolt, send rogue pet, run to the corner, sit, stand up and invoke fear when the guard gets close, sit... guard will ALWAYS be below 20% before fear breaks and will ALWAYS be dead before darkness breaks. And you can go AFK whenever you want once fear lands. I can't imagine xp being more safe and mindless at lvl 54 anywhere. Sure, xp may be better somewhere, but if I get owned in one round because the phone rang and I didn't re-apply darkness in time, well that sucks for a casual player like me.

[Valelin]

Just so you know Katta is slow really slow going at 54. I am 54 and was there last night, no good. I tried fear kiting PoN, but no luck, fear lasted too long, maybe I need to use a lower fear or something, I'm not sure too honestly, all I know is I saw it getting close, kept a close eye at max distance and 2 more ravens started heading for me, so I feigned and let boner bite it. I tried agro kiting, and was doing good until I was sorta dumb and let my agro get to low. I think agro kiting will probably be the safest bet if you want to do PoN.

I too would be interested in all the zones known of that can be soloed at 54. Personally I hate the planes, and as I said, Katta has gotten too slow. I don't need some kind of uber 5% a kill. But I'd like at the minimum to be getting 1% every 2 if not a little better.

[splurticus]

Were you clearing all 7 spawns outside the graveyard?

I avoid measuring xp based on % per kill, and focus more on how much I can earn somewhere in an hour. Killing a lot of lower level MOBs in the same amount of time as a few higher level ones can sometimes be more efficient as far as xp/time.

[Quezquotyl]

I'd be interested to hear about the many zones that are better xp than Katta for soloing at lvl 54. Especially those that don't have "Plane of" at the beginning of their names. The ones I normally hear about are Dulak, and Plane of Nightmare

Plane of whatever Huh, I guess you mean PoP zones, so old world planes can be included. Lets get creative. Where can a level 55 Necro who isn't scared of dying and isnt entirely lazy get experience without going PoP. Lets see, there is Plane of Mischief entrance mobs, Plane of Hate Tier One mobs, Veksar, Nurga, Droga, Maiden's Eye, The Deep, Akheva Ruins, Skyfire, etc. Look buddy, if you can't figure where to level, than don't ask. There are lots of Pre-PoP zones with blue mobs in them. All you have to do is pull a few and you will know whether or not you can level there. If you are afraid of dying, then don't ask me about soloing. Most people here have eaten it a few times trying out new mobs in new places. It doesn't get any easier as you go up in level. If you think Plane of Nightmare trash is hard at 55, stay the hell out of HoH and Tactics, because they aren't easy eather.

Cheers,
Quez

[Quezquotyl]

Were you clearing all 7 spawns outside the graveyard?

You should be able to clear all 7 of these spawns at 54, and at that level I would say you will get about 2/3 a blue for 4 kills. Just a guesstimation as it has been well over 1.5 years since I killed a guard there.

Cheers,
Quez

[Valelin]

Originally posted by Quezquotyl@Jul 14 2004, 02:48 PM
Where can a level 55 Necro who isn't scared of dying and isnt entirely lazy get experience without going PoP. Lets see, there is ... Look buddy, if you can't figure where to level, than don't ask ... If you are afraid of dying, then don't ask me about soloing ... stay the hell out of HoH and Tactics, because they aren't easy eather.
Pretty hostile response for a simple question. All they said (and all I said) was I'd be interested in knowing what zones you've found that were good for solo'ing in. Kinda thought that was the type of thing this board was meant for.

[splurticus]

Originally posted by Quezquotyl@Jul 14 2004, 02:48 PM
Look buddy, if you can't figure where to level, than don't ask.

Obviously there are better zones that Katta for xp at 54. I know that. However, I'm not going to post to a "How to hunt in Katta" thread and say that, without offering some alternative information.

If you can't substantiate your statements about xp being faster in another zone at a certain level, with details on what those zones are and their rates of xp in comparison, then why bother making them? When people put up threads like this, that isn't what they're looking for.

Here's how I would write this type of response if I wanted to be informative:

"At level N, you can get X amount of xp per hour in zone Y you asked about using Z hunting method, however I would suggest you try zones A, B, or C for better xp. When I was lvl N I got X amount of xp per hour in zone Y, thought that was slow, then moved to zone A/B/C and got X + n xp per hour."

Personally, I'm perfectly happy with the xp I am getting in the zones where I normally hunt at 54 (Katta, Nurga, and Skyfire mainly) but I get tired of comments about how these zones suck for xp followed by either no information at all, or limited information about how I can go to another zone to aggro kite something for 5 minutes for 1% xp. When I do the math, that doesn't add up to appreciably better xp for time spent, especially considering the added risk.

[Quezquotyl]

You want a mathematical calculation, heres a bang for your buck. If you spend five minutes kiting a mob, one mob, anywhere at level 55, you are doing something wrong. At 55, in any Tier One Plane that you can successfully aggro kite something, it shouldn't last longer than two minutes. If you kill 7 spawns in Katta for lets say 1.5 blue XP, when you can kill three in PoN or say PoD for the same amount of exp, I would say that kitting the mobs in PoN or PoD is better. Lets say it takes you one and one-half minutes per mob to kill all seven spawns of the Guards outside the Katta graveyard, you have just spent ten minutes and thirty seconds of your time to get 1.5 blue, maybe. Lets look at PoD or PoN trash now, and lets just pretend it takes you two minutes to kill three mobs for the same amount of exp, you just saved yourself 4 minutes to sit on your arse. Lets say you took one minute per mob in Katta, thats still seven minutes. So you still have an extra minute there. If you are killing the mobs in less time, you might think you are getting better experience, but what is actually happening is you are killing a lower level mob for less experience. So in the end, Planar zones mean more experience. Not a whole lot more, but definately more than Katta.

So what doesn't add up? If you think you are wasting mana, invest in focus items. Not only can you slightly increase your DPS, but you will save mana at the same time, which means your smaller mana pool is doing more than the guy with the bigger one who has no focus items. Not enough hitpoints, grab a Cleric or Druid HP buff on the way to your kitting spot. This way you can take some hits as well as be a mana battery for longer without having to worry about your HP.

Yes my responses in my previous post were harsh, but I also gave you a list of zones you could try out besides Planar zones. You can go to zones A,B, or C at X level and get Y xp per hour. Want to know something neat? All the mobs in zones A,B, or C won't always be the same level, and even though they are the same level range doesn't always guaruntee you exactly Y xp per hour, pretty close, if you don't have to eat sleep or have any bowel movements.

With the exception of Nurga, which has been revamped, the other zones you are hunting in currently in my opinion will take more of your time to get you post-60 than planar zones. Katta is safe exp, for the guy who wants a constant but slow rotation of mobs way out of the way. Skyfire isn't exactly safe, but its still lazy. Try Plane of Disease, Plane of Mischief, Akheva Ruins (zone in), and Veksar. If you can't handle it, then go back to Katta.

You say it doesn't mathematically add up, I say that it does, in the end it is your character. You can choose to solo in Katta, or go Planar and get your leveling done a little bit quicker. Its up to you.

Cheers,
Quez

[Nigyl]

At 55, in any Tier One Plane that you can successfully aggro kite something, it shouldn't last longer than two minutes.

AFAIR, killing trash in PoN at that level took substantially longer than two minutes, and was vastly more risky when I got five resists in a row on Dooming Darkness. The XP per kill was good, but the downtime meant the XP per hour wasn't significantly better than Katta (if at all).

That said, I never had a chance to fear-kite the ravens since they were always camped back then... that may well have been a much faster XP spot.

[Valelin]

Originally posted by Nigyl@Jul 14 2004, 05:10 PM
AFAIR, killing trash in PoN at that level took substantially longer than two minutes, and was vastly more risky when I got five resists in a row on Dooming Darkness. The XP per kill was good, but the downtime meant the XP per hour wasn't significantly better than Katta (if at all).

It still takes more then 2 minutes. I agree with a lot of the points in Quez's more recent post and found it more helpful then previously, but I do tend to think some of the people that start solo'ing planes at 53-55 are sometimes missing out on some other zones where they could be earning cake experience at little risk. I did 53 and several AA's in burning woods by fear kiting and it was constant killing with decent hourly exp (don't remember exactly, but was as good as anywhere else I tried). I just walked around the zone fear kiting anything that con'd dark blue. If somehow I got an add, which wasn't common, I would just snare it, fear it (you can channel through being hit ya know) and then cast a dot on it. The pet would finish the first mob and go running to the second. Worst case feign and it might agro on your pet then, stand and now you can snare and fear without being beat on. I think I had to feign and sacrifice maybe 1 pet the whole time I was there, and I spent a fair amount of time as a friend of mine was leveling to catch up with me.

[Quezquotyl]

Okay, going to PoN at 53 is a tad different than going to PoN at 55. I like Dooming, I really do, but at that level I prefered DPS as well as a Snare, so I used Cascading. Five resists in a row for Dooming in PoN is common. Use FD and stop using that damn fear spell. Ping ponging mobs along the zone wall at level 55 with the level 4 Fear is both funny an absurd at the same time. Use another DoT in the gem where that fear spell was and run around with your pet beating on the mob. After PoN trash, you may find fear kitting spots harder to come by. Practice, practice, practice.

This easy kill fear kitting junk isn't going to get you past 59. Lets all run around in BW and fear kite till the sun comes up. Fear is a great aggro spell but won't do junk for you in some other zones. There is going to be a point when you have to realize that you favorite solo spots with the fear kitting options aren't going to get you past 60. If you learn how to aggro kite in PoN now, even if it takes you 15 minutes a mob, I promise you will be better for it.

Cheers,
Quez

P.S. Try Plane of Disease, its easier than PoN with the same XP. =P

[Nigyl]

but at that level I prefered DPS as well as a Snare, so I used Cascading

But the cast time is approximately forever... even with Affliction Haste 4, can you really cast it fast enough to not get hit?

Use FD and stop using that damn fear spell

FD means a dead pet and five minutes or more before you're back at the point where you can get XP again (not to mention another peridot gone). This is precisely the kind of reason why I didn't find the XP there any faster than other zones... one bad pull and you're out of action for ten minutes, and one bad pull followed by a failed FD and you're looking for a rez.

This easy kill fear kitting junk isn't going to get you past 59.

Actually, you could fear-kite to 65, but it would be slow.

[splurticus]

There seems to be a fairly broad consensus among necros that you shouldn't use anything other than Dooming Darkness in most circumstances up until you get Embracing Darkness. This would especially be true in a solo kiting situation where darkness might be resisted multiple times. The casting time and mana consumption of multiple resists is too inefficient for the extra DPS to be worth it.

Here's a recent thread on this board about it:

http://www.necrotalk.com/index.php?showtopic=1645&st=0

FYI I do have AE4, AH4, and BA3 items and run an ER3 tribute when I need that. So I'm fairly well covered on focuses. I also have a lvl 56 druidbot for hp buff and regen.

The fact that each xp'ing session in a particular area is going to vary on xp rate due to MOBs popping within a varying level range also goes without saying. So for a single set of spawns it may be different, but the overall average xp rate there is going to be the same over a period of several hours for any two necros of the same level killing the same spawns, not counting iksar xp penalty etc.

Don't get the impression that I'm a n00b to the game who never does or has done anything dangerous. I will occasionally go try to solo some lvl 51+ MOB that I already know summons and can't be snared, just to see if I can do it. Usually I can't but who cares... I normally don't die thanks to being a necro. If I do die trying something new, I have essense emeralds and coffins, so no problem. But, for grinding out xp I need something that requires little to no setup time, isn't normally camped by somebody else, and allows me to go AFK whenever I need to. I normally don't stay logged in for more than one hour at a time.

Early in this game, when lvl 50 was the cap, I played marathon hours on a PvP server, doing all sorts of challenging things like porting to PoH with my guild and killing an enemy guild there, so we could raid it instead. I hunted solo in lots of awkward places, in old world zones and kunark, and had to keep my eye out for people trying to kill me, in addition to MOBs. Now I simply don't have that that kind of time and attention to dedicate to this game. I am strictly a casual player. And I need casual zones to XP in. If I never see the inside of any flag-required planes, if I never see level 65, I won't lose any sleep over it.

[Quezquotyl]

There seems to be a fairly broad consensus among necros that you shouldn't use anything other than Dooming Darkness in most circumstances up until you get Embracing Darkness. This would especially be true in a solo kiting situation where darkness might be resisted multiple times. The casting time and mana consumption of multiple resists is too inefficient for the extra DPS to be worth it.

I don't follow what everyone on the forums tells me, there is always time for a debuff, pet tank, than snare/kite. And I actually got more resists to Dooming and Devouring than I did for Cascading. =)

But the cast time is approximately forever... even with Affliction Haste 4, can you really cast it fast enough to not get hit?

With AH4, and a run speed modifier like Jboots or SoW of sorts, yes.


ut, for grinding out xp I need something that requires little to no setup time, isn't normally camped by somebody else, and allows me to go AFK whenever I need to. I normally don't stay logged in for more than one hour at a time.

Katta is good, so is the Plane of Mischief, then again, so is Plane of Disease.



FD means a dead pet and five minutes or more before you're back at the point where you can get XP again ...
Maybe you should invest in the Pet Discipline AA, and pets no longer go away when you are FD, that went with the patch before the most recent one.



Actually, you could fear-kite to 65, but it would be slow.

Even if this is true, it is assinine to think fear kiting is the ultimate kiting method post 50. =P

Cheers,
Quez

[Valelin]

Originally posted by Quezquotyl@Jul 15 2004, 05:31 PM


I don't follow what everyone on the forums tells me, there is always time for a debuff, pet tank, than snare/kite.* And I actually got more resists to Dooming and Devouring than I did for Cascading.

If we're talking most planes mob's then in mid 50's your pet can't tank long enough to really make this efficient, at least I've never been able to. Usually the pet is dead or on its last leg by the time I can steal agro back from the mob to agro kite it around. So it's better for me at least if I can get it snared off the bat, land a dot or two and let them sink in for a tick or 2 before I send in pet. Of course I don't have CoC yet which I'm told can help out a lot in getting and holding agro in these levels.


But the cast time is approximately forever... even with Affliction Haste 4, can you really cast it fast enough to not get hit?

With AH4, and a run speed modifier like Jboots or SoW of sorts, yes.


I admit it then, you're better then I am ;) I have jboots and even if they're off, I have run3, and I can't get enough distance to get off a cast usually without having to take substantial damage myself. Quite often I have sow or soe on as well. Sure I can get distance to get most of the way through the cast, but normally have to take a couple of rounds of hits during the end of the cast if the mob is moving at its full speed. (have blood runed battle wand as well for haste, so it's not like I'm not giving it my all)

Maybe you should invest in the Pet Discipline AA, and pets no longer go away when you are FD, that went with the patch before the most recent one.

Fairly certain they, like me, were referring to the fact that your pet is on the agro list usually by the time you feign, so therefore it's going to die. Not that it will vanish after 2 mins feigned or whatever the old timer was.

Even if this is true, it is assinine to think fear kiting is the ultimate kiting method post 50. =P

Agree with you completely, I don't think we're arguing that we want to fear kite our way up to 65, but you can't ignore the fact that while it's feasible, it's an efficient killing method. Hopefully the person that said it's possible didn't really expect anyone would try to do it.