EQDiva

i am relatively new to the bard class and when swarm kiting i always lose the majority of the mob aggro on the pet and extras run off and at me. i never intitiate any extra aggro aside from initial KOS pulling, the only thing that ever hit them was pet? after i kill off initial pet the 2nd mob charmed in the swarm usually just grabs one other in swarm and rest are on my tail i have to back off pet and have him individually re-attack other mobs to keep them focused what am i missing?

Sony is in the habit of messing with the social aggro rules and hate aggro rules. I've seen many changes to this over the time I was swarming, and recently saw the same thing while goofing around on a 47 bard in Maiden Eye. One thing I noticed is that on the first charm of a mob, I may get only 2-4 mobs on it, while the rest are chasing me, but for some reason, on the 2nd charm of the same mob, nearly all the mobs will go after it instead of me, even if the mob is only at 50%. Why? I have no clue, but that was a change from previous behavior. So you could break charm and re-charm it again, but that uses a lot of mana. One thing you can do to help this situation a little (if you don't want to charm the mob, break the charm, and charm it again), is always make sure your next pet was the target of your last pet. You can do this by assisting your pet while it is fighting, then use the Tab buffer to store it away. Or you could use the "toggle targets" feature but that's not as foolproof.

ok cool sounds about right to me i realize alot of posts i read are dated on the subject and that AI has undergone alot of changes, i just wanted to make sure i wasn't losing my mind =) i guess that its just a trial by fire thing. thanks for the post.

Ok now you got me curious.... Is the even more of a factor after the release of TSS? They changed how aggro is transfered from pet the owner due to "green pet" pulling. People would pull mobs through assisting mobs by sending in their "green pet" and the other mobs would not follow. Aggro is now transfered to the owner of the pet... hence the mob you pulled sees your lvl and lets his friend know. This probably isnt the case in your situation... but I just wanted to bring it up as a slight possibility.

yeah i this this actually does mske it a lil tougher as when you aggro with your pet higher cons will go after you immeadiately until the pet hit him a few times to re-establish aggro. I am a fairly good player IMO and there is no one shot solution to gettin your pet to have all the aggro. i have had to really ride the keyboard and have pet tag each mob directly, i have found how ever that with newer mobs, in the mesa for example, the special effects like the slowing, rooting, and poisoning that these mobs all have helps keep alot of aggro on each other. swarming in the new zones is exponentially harder then previous areas.

I haven't found the aggro rules to be any different, personally, but maybe I havent' noticed. In camps with slow moving mobs, taking advantage of positioning for my pet to have aggro is much easier. In other camps, where the mobs run much faster, it can take awhile for the pet to even catch up to the swarm, and I've been doing ae kite circles to help make that happen. Wish my pet could hear selo's lol.

I actually have had more success after practicing different techniques... a big deal which i realized accidentally, while kiting the new mesa recluse mobs (who have a wicked 30 sec AE snare), was that i wasn't using the spell range appropriately so i have been keeping more distance from the mobs. furthermore while doing the kite i have refined my overlapping technique to keep the mobs all over each other more, all the while macroing a /pet back off, /pet attack on the straggler mobs this seems to pick em up when they dont stick from proximity aggro. Went from 44-47 fast doing this soloing the scout maru's armor quests (arm piece only, LOTS of mobs) a final tidbit i found is fun and helps is to use the crappy singing steel bracer clicky, shield of flame, on my pet the 9 pt DS helps piss of the lil baddies overall so next pet gets it too. Hope this helps any trollers like me who are new to the fun and varied playstyle of a bard. =)

swarm kiting is one of the most challenging and often crazy-fun solo tactics in the game, with the complexity of the aggro mechanism. I'm not sure the DS really helps you. It used to be that the mobs would hate whoever cast the DS on what they are hitting, but I think eventually they made it so it doesn't affect hate at all. That was in an update several years ago. So it can't really hurt and may help taken down the mobs a tid bit faster, but unless they've changed something, I don't think it will cause more aggro on your pet.

yeah i hear ya it hasn't added any aggro on me so if anything its added DPS for when the swarm thins out a bit. After swarming in various places i finally got the hang of it. i practiced on the spirocs last night and it was cake, the hardest part was breaking the charm before the early mobs just were beaten to death. some mobs behave a lil different behavioir then others but i just keep on a running and it all works out. Some of the most fun i've had overall and especially soloing. =) something about having 20 mobs running after you and being happy about it rules. 8) ty for all your input... now is the epic worth giving a go...

new question to add to this posting... it's hopefully related. I've rarely if ever taken a pet, so I have little time playing around with it, but if you were to have a pet could you get that pet temp and SoW while you had it under your charm? I know it may only last a min or 2, but really, how long could you hold a dk blue to yellow mob as a pet (were it buffed, if it could be buffed) while using it to attack other mobs? Also, would you be able to charm any of the wandering guards and use them to attack the mobs? Just a lot of possibilities I'm sure you've all tried. What is the coolest/funniest charmed pet situation you've pulled off? I saw someone charm a spectre in Desert of Ro, he kept running to the dock and it would follow him, all the lowbie players would yell....spectre!!! run!!! lol....like roaches when the lights come on... Funniest thing (or meanest) he released his pet when everyone thought it was funny...haha....come back to dock...then it killed like 4 players. I was on my bard so I could run but the group there was rightfully really upset. Would love to learn the capabilities/limitations of charming. I can't believe I've really never used it...sigh. Filo

There is a difference between bard and enchanter charming. Enchanters charm mobs so that their charmed mob can kill other mobs for them... when doing this they prefer to fight 1 mob at a time so their pet does not get damaged too much. When it does, they change mobs and start again. Bards on the other hand (in 99.9% of cases) charm mobs so that their charmed can get the crap beat out of them... when doing this you pull 2-15+ mobs that all assist each other, charm 1 and let the other beat the crap out of it, right before it dies you break the charm and KS the other mobs. So really it's pointless to buff your pet because it slows down what you are doing. That is unless you are just messing around, in that case yes all buffs will land on your pet like any other pet.

What your asking about are more traditional pet class techniques, mage pets, necro pets, etc can be buffed to the hilt, but as far as charming a mob and buffing it to use, dire charm AA would probably be best bet to get the most out of your buffs. regular charms can drop at random times i am not too familiar with high end enchanter charms but i am sure you can get the same effect. coolest thing pet wise i did recently was take a train of drolvarg in DL off of player that was running scared and wipe them it felt neat that one mans horrer was a simple solo for me =) they say thanks and i feel neat-o druid charming ive found over all to be a pain they take a long itme to cast only work on animals and drop frequently until you can use dire charm, the low level enchanter charms i've used were fun since the cast time is low, bard charming rules but is alot different then a "pet" style per say, but i charm yellows and one-on-one them with other mobs. then recast when the minute is up. cheers.

Thanks Laief, That makes sense. We really don't charm them as a tool, but convince them that they are for the cause...kinda like what happened to our military from the Bush regime that there are WMD out there....go git em!!!! git er done!!! lol. Only to have them unable to stop their march to their death amidst immeasurable odds. Only then to have found themselves cut off when they are at lifes last breath...then the fatal swoop is to find that the guy that boosted them up telling them it's ok...look into the well miho....is the guy that shoves you in; thus, ending your short lived tour in Iraq!!!...I mean...as a charmed pet to a bard. LOL Did I get it right, both in game and in life? LOL!!! I was ROLLIN!!!! hehe... Filo btw...I ding'd 46 everyone! yay!!! only 5 years in the making!

woah 5 years? to ding lvl 46? slow and steady enjoy.

F you. Leave the soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen out of it. If you don't have the balls to fight for what your country asks you to, don't chastize others who do (and yes, it's what the country wanted being that the President was voted in by a majority). Now, politics aside, being that this isn't a political forum... :mad: As to your particular question: charm is really meant to be an additional CC tool. One with high risks but typically high rewards as well (that being the added DPS that a charmed mob can provide). Bards being the jack of all trades, master of none that we are, our charms are very short duration. I used charms for a little bit of charm kiting when I first got it (gnolls in SK, 1 on 1), then almost solely for CC until my low 50's when they finally got rid of AE kiting. Then I really started to practice swarm kiting. It's understandable why they've made certain changes to our charms as time has gone on (IE the high mana costs and short range). Doesn't mean I necesarrily like it, but I'd rather have a charm that's at least useful in CC then for them to take them out completely. They want us to still have it, but they want us to use it as a CC tool rather then a high kill rate soloing tool. As to good charm stories... probably the best ones I have was soloing pieces for my 1.0. Eldrig and Nezekezena were both soloed by chaining charmed mobs at them. I used charm a lot for CC when LDoN came out as well, creating some pretty hectic adventures (high risk, but often times the reward was worth it, at least at the time). Other then that... can't think of anything. :|