Good Kite spots in Beta

[Viko]

*reserved*

Thought I'd ask in advance, Im guessing NDA should have been lifted by now, but it should be Monday.

[Evillil]

Was coming here to ask the same question. I'm really looking to hustle for the race to 80 this time around, since my guild is a bunch of cliquish people that think necros aren't good for anything, even though I've saved their asses countless times. I just want to blitz my way to 80 and leave them all in the dust. I figure I can stick with the old spots until 77 or so, but then I'm sure the exp will drop off significantly.

[Viko]

Was coming here to ask the same question. I'm really looking to hustle for the race to 80 this time around, since my guild is a bunch of cliquish people that think necros aren't good for anything, even though I've saved their asses countless times. I just want to blitz my way to 80 and leave them all in the dust. I figure I can stick with the old spots until 77 or so, but then I'm sure the exp will drop off significantly.

I stick mostly in Atiki, which will be dark blue all the way up to 79 or so, but Im sure the amount of exp will make it slow on dark blues.

A nice quiet spot with lots of red cons that have low poison and fire resist would be nice ;)

[Jebasiz]

New zones will likely have higher ZEMs then old stuff. It'd be better to find a spot there.

[scrat]

Can't yet comment on SoF zones, but I'll ding 76 my first kill to spend those banked aa - and probably won't head to a SoF zone until i ding 78 depending on the xp rate. I'm pretty dang spoiled though, so who knows. I'm expecting 4hr to 77, 4.5hr to 78, 5hr to 79 and 5.5hr to 80. Maybe I'm being too optimistic.

--I do have a bunch of xp potions from LoN though - 20 raw hours worth. Plus a crapton of harvest potions + couple stacks of +mana refills via Anniversary /claim + vet rewards + kiss...nah, I'm not staying in my 70s very long at all either.

[Torvail Daylarone]

Read a post saying not much solo content in SoF, expansions mostly geared toward groups. But we'll see. :)

[winchester20]

I did quite a bit of kiting in Loping Plains. Lots of mobs. Only trouble kiting there is you gotta be on your toes as the mobs wander all over. Situational awareness is a must. But very kiteable.

[Xelera]

Cicero's notebook in hive instance (hard) is the place to be still (DoD).

1. Mobs are level 73, so they will be dark blue all the way to 80
2. Snarable, no fire resists AT ALL (ie, stack AG Pyre, Dread Pyre, Pyre of the Fallen), and die from those 3 spells 1 time and pet (if kiting multiple mobs, pet only one one, so obviously need to refresh snare and maybe throw one more pyre spell on it).
3. lots of room to kite, LOTS LOTS LOTS of mobs
4. LOTS of the new tradeskill items (i average about 20k or so per 2 hour clearing, worth of barter stuff to people buying the superb spinnerette fluids, cobalt ore, research pages, superb pelts, and soluble loam, plus all the vendor fodder (take about 4 empty bags with you)

theres a crap ton of mobs underground and in the caves, best pulled by snaring a mob in the bottom then running out, and letting it auto pull (gotta be ballsy for this, as it can get 20 mob pulls sometimes, lots of high speed kiting if you do this, but hey, youre a necro and its fun to do). otherwise, just be safe and pull ground floors and upstairs mobs, and outdoor mobs, then split out the basement mobs for you wussier necro types.

the downside to these is you have to have 3 people total in a group to get the task, but usually theres someone else soloing somewhere else, or an afk'ish person in guild hall, or there alts there for buffs, that are willing to join up in a group to let you get the task (did i mention GET THE HARD VERSION). they can drop group then, and just stay in task (most people arent going to be in tasks, so even if they are grouped with you, they can be in AG and you can still solo, if theyre cool about it).

NOTE: bind in corathus creep, at the bankers/merchants near the nektulos zone area. when you are done, gate, sell, put barter/tradeskill stuff in common bank or yours, whichever... leave mission, run down and get a new mission, and head off for more carnage.

some of the most incredible experience i ever saw, was me, 2 other necros, and my wifes mage, in this zone, tearing it up... all 3 necros chain pulled, kited 2 to 4 mobs at a time, dotting each others mobs, and mage laying waste to them (btw, mages have a nifty frontal ae/cone DD spell now that rips stacked mobs apart, same as wizzies, but without the the self-blind component of it)

1. SNARE (no time clickies here... use your top level snare, so your gift of radiant mana procs, can then be followed with AG Pyre for free, plus you get half the resists on your top snare spell here, as you do with clicky or lower level snares)
2. AG PYRE
3. DREAD PYRE
4. PYRE OF THE FALLEN
5. MIND FLAY (NOT NOT NOT DISSECTION) (so when Dread Pyre procs gift of mana, you have something to spend it on vice wasting it)
6. DyNLETH'S GRASP (for when you are kiting lots and need some extra heal, or when you burn blood magic, to keep the pulls coming while potions/lesson is burning).
7. DRAIN LIFE/BEST LIFETAP DD
8. PET HASTE (so you dont have to stop, mem, wait 30 seconds, cast, unmem, every 18 minutes)
9. LICH SPELL (so if casters dispell it, which will happen sometimes, you recast and keep right on going)

thats about the most efficient spell lineup for the hive, and use a rogue pet for those backstabs while kiting. keep your pet on hold before you next pull, you will get hit sometimes, and your pet will die in a hurry, even if max focused and buffed, if it gets agro. mobs here quad for up to 1400's, hit fast, stun, etc... but i was soloing this back at level 70, when they were all red cons, so its easily doable now.

at level 75, duoing, with lesson of the devoted running, in that 30 minute timeframe, my duo partner got 1 full yellow (20% of level) in 75. without lesson/experience potions, that still translates into 1 yellow an hour, at least at 75... since its an instance, no spawn competing, no one training over you, etc, and you can go afk if you need to, come back after an hour lunch break, etc...

final advice... ALWAYS lead out your spells with your lower mana costing ones first, so if say, snare doesnt proc GoRM, then cast pyre of the fallen (about 300 mana cheaper than AG Pyre) so if then it procs GoRM, you can get AG Pyre for free. Then if AG pyre procs, either throw it on another mob for free, or hit Dread Pyre on same mob (almost same mana cost at AG Pyre) then, as per above, if DP procs GoM, hit your mind flay. DONT FORGET to use mind flay (or if you still choose, mind dissection) as your first spell, when you burn blood magic, so it has a chance to refresh, and be used again... thats another 680 to 900'ish free mana back while burning blood magic...

[Viko]

lvl 73 mobs will con light blue at 79 and 80 fo sho

I stopped kiting notebook when Atiki mobs gave me better AA/lesson burn.

I can get 7AA per lesson burn in atiki, and mobs respawn, so no annoying pulls or crazy re-instancing , etc

and these mobs will all be dark blue through 79 (once you ding 80 some will turn light blue, but your already 80 so that doesnt matteR)

[encephalitis]

lvl 73 mobs will con light blue at 79 and 80 fo sho

I stopped kiting notebook when Atiki mobs gave me better AA/lesson burn.

I can get 7AA per lesson burn in atiki, and mobs respawn, so no annoying pulls or crazy re-instancing , etc

and these mobs will all be dark blue through 79 (once you ding 80 some will turn light blue, but your already 80 so that doesnt matteR)


Whereabouts in Atiiki are you soloing?

I have been there a few times (while completing my Efreeti Death Visage quest) but was irritated by all the warping. I couldn't seem to find the right kite path. I also dislike dispelling mobs, and it seems like that's what the efreeti enthrallers do almost exclusively. Not to mention that I was still getting nuked successfully with all my resists in the 450+ neighborhood...

What was your strategy there?

[Immudin]

I was going to take a necro guildie of mine and his druid bot and get a gorillas in the garden mission. Instance atiiki and plenty big enough for the two of us. It'll be interesting to see what the respawn is for non-gorillas. And all efreeti SI but thats no biggie, aggro range is still abysmally small.

[winchester20]

enceph, I like the western efreeti tower. Mostly flat there, so no real probs with warping as long as you stay off the hills. You can pull the mobs there at the tower and off the pyramid to the north. One of my favorite spots. And the warping is actually kinda nice in Atiiki. Once you get the hang of it, you can manipulate the warp for time. I can't tell you how many times when I had a resist on snare, I would use the warp to give me some extra time and space to fire off another snare. I know that's considered a 'sploit, kinda, but I don't feel too bad as these guys, if they hit you, almost always stun you, so that you are in deep shite if you get smacked once.

That's my justification, and I'm stickin to it!

Edit: Oh, and as for the dispell. Just keep your distance. It's pretty short range.

[Immudin]

From the patch notes:

-NPC casters will no longer auto-learn Dispel-type player spells.

Does that mean what I think it means?

[winchester20]

I don't know what to think of that

[Aegrusnecrox]

FYI I tested this about 2 weeks ago:

Yellow cons @ level 80 in Fortress Mechanotus give the same xp as Adult Icefall Bears @ level 80, yet have more HP than the bears do.

I am of the mind that TSS zones still offer you the best bang for your buck, Atiiki might also but it will most likely be packed.

-Egg

[Lashden]

Egg,

was that per mob or xp/hr?

[Aegrusnecrox]

per mob the xp was the same and their HP was lower, in icefall compared with fortress mechanotus (which was the best xp per hour I could find in the new expansion).

Therefore, I deduced that the xp per hour will be better in icefall than in the best spots in SoF.

This was 2-3 weeks ago, so things may have changed since then.

-Egg

[winchester20]

There at the end of Beta, they also did something to the reg xp in the game. Remember when everyone logged in and found they were level 79 again? I wonder how a comparison between the two zones would look now. Did you do this comparison before or after that adjustment, Egg?

[scrat]

per mob the xp was the same and their HP was lower, in icefall compared with fortress mechanotus (which was the best xp per hour I could find in the new expansion).

Therefore, I deduced that the xp per hour will be better in icefall than in the best spots in SoF.

This was 2-3 weeks ago, so things may have changed since then.

-Egg

This was my plan, to grind it out in Icefall initially. 76 was a nice run, each xp potion = 24% level. 77 isn't much worse, at 21% per xp potion (LoN 50% xp).

However, I just paused at 77 to slam home some AA for a pace change - and a xp potion only got me 3.5 aa lol. 6aa per hour was my non-lesson/potion rate at 75 - now it's taking a xp potion to match it at 77. 90% of my mobs being blue makes the difference I'm sure.

New items are dropping very nicely though - so far I've gotten 4 new different TS types to drop (no clue yet if it's jewelry gems or aug gems) and the drop rate is really quite nice for the flawless/superb varieties of stuffs.

NOTE * SCR does not work on LoN obtained xp potions

[encephalitis]

If you're using potions to level, I *highly* advise you invest in Spell Casting Reinforcement aa's prior to ANYTHING else.

This will extend your potions up to around 9-10min each.

With a 10-charge potion, you get a total of 300 minutes of double exp. With SCR3, you get about 400 minutes.

So if you'd like an extra 3.33 charges per potion, I'd suggest making that a priority -- especially those of you who banked 30aa prior to the expansion.

[Winmancer]

I feel so left out. Where are you all getting all these potions?

[encephalitis]

I feel so left out. Where are you all getting all these potions?

Anniversary quest. I'm not sure if they are NO TRADE on standard blue servers, but I do know they are easily available for about 100k-150k each in the FV bazaar.


Also it appears you can get them via LoN loot cards as well.

[Winmancer]

Well I'm jealous. I knew about the anniversary quest, but the potion is no trade and the quest is not repeatable on Stromm.

[encephalitis]

Well I'm jealous. I knew about the anniversary quest, but the potion is no trade and the quest is not repeatable on Stromm.


It wasn't repeatable on FV either, just that people would spin up a lvl 1 do repeatedly do the hand-in, trade the pot to their main, and then re-roll the lvl 1 toon.

I know folks who had an entire bank of 10-slot containers and an inventory FULL of these potions. We're talking in the neighborhood of 300 potions, or roughly 1500 hours of double exp (without SCR3). With SCR3 that would be roughly 2000 hours of double exp.

I've seen the same folks sell out day after day in the bazaar selling them for 100-150k each.

That would be in excess of 30mil pp if all were sold.

Not even sure what the point of playing would be at that point. I guess that's the time to hit the casino, but probably just easier to buy the items you want from others. /shrug