EverQuest/Strategies/Swarm Kiting

Swarm kiting is a soloing technique that is specific to the bard class of Everquest. When done correctly, it is a very powerful and effective method for soloing large numbers of mobs. The technique draws its name from the concept that a large number of mobs will be used to "swarm" around another mob that is charmed by the player. The swarm will attack the charmed pet until it is nearly dead. At this point, the player will break the charm and finish killing the previously charmed pet him/herself, using any ranged damage songs available to the player. Note that with swarm kiting, only one mob is killed at a time. This is sometimes confused with AE kiting, where multiple mobs are killed simultaneously using PBAE DoTs.

How to Swarm Kite

Requirements

• Charm song (Solon's Song of the Sirens, Solon's Bewitching Bravura, Call of the Banshee, Voice of the Vampire)
• Targeted DoT songs (any of the Chant songs). Direct damage songs can be used instead, but are much less effective.
• A method of breaking charm. This is typically done using Invisibility, either with the bard's Invis song (Shauri's Sonorous Clouding), or preferably with an instant Invis item. The Hide ability can also be used, but it is not a very reliable method of breaking charm.
• Running speed enhancement, such as Selo's or Spirit of Wolf, is generally useful, although not required if the mobs to be kited run slower than the player.

Basic swarm kiting technique

1. Pull any number of charmable, non-summoning, social mobs. Beginning swarm kiters should practice with small numbers. Larger swarms will kill the charmed mob more quickly, but will require more skill to manage, and better timing to break charm at a good time.
2. Run in circles to aggregate the mobs into one large clump of mobs.
3. Target one of the mobs and charm it.
4. Have the charmed pet attack another mob in the swarm. The swarm should now stop and all attack the charmed pet. If any are still chasing the player, try to kite it back into the swarm so it may join in on attacking the charmed pet.
5. While the swarm is attacking, monitor the health of the charmed pet carefully. If charm is broken or wears off, reapply charm to the pet and send it back to the swarm. Take care to recharm the correct mob--if a different mob is charmed, the old pet will not forget you, and it will continue to go after you instead of the new pet.
6. When the health of the charmed pet is low, break charm using Invis. The timing of this is crucial. If the pet still has a lot of health remaining, it will take a long time to kill it off, making the technique inefficient. However, it is even worse if charm is not broken in time. In this case, the charmed pet will die and vanish, and no experience or items will be gained by the player.
7. With the pet's charm broken, the X-pet and the entire swarm will now go after the player. The X-pet, nearly dead, can now be killed by the player using Chants, or other ranged damage songs. This must be done while kiting the entire swarm; chant kiting experience will come in handy here.
8. Once the X-pet is killed, the player will receive full experience for the kill. The technique may now be repeated by charming another mob.

Keys to successful swarm kiting

• Target management is crucial. The target on the pet must be maintained so that it can be recharmed and later killed, without wasting time trying to reacquire the target. Targeting hotkeys are especially useful in this regard.
• Aggro management is also crucial. You want the swarm to attack the charmed pet. If there are stray mobs aggroed on the player instead of the pet, it will be less effective and more chaotic. Take care not to generate unnecessary aggro on the swarm.
• Timing of the charm break is key to efficient swarm kiting. This becomes more true with large swarms, as the pet will lose health very rapidly. Pets that die to the swarm are a waste of time and mana.