Page 1 of 1

Solo AE Hunting

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:54 pm
by Corak
Greetings! I am just starting up a mage on Mayong 51/50 and having a blast. I have particularly enjoyed the idea of soloing with AE tactics. At 55-59, I have been using the cleric merc and hitting a bunch of mobs with Scintillation.

So far I have had great luck with this on the frogs in Seb and the mushrooms in Fungus Grove. I can get about 40% of an AA on one big pull this way. Any other spots good for this as I level up?

Re: Solo AE Hunting

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:47 am
by Wati
Hi,

Could you please clarify what buffs/gear you have, and how many mobs you try to get in a single pull?

Long time ago (In the SOL era) I found a guide where a Druid was using solo PBAE in the Grey. He had no merc at that time, but pulled about 40 skeletons and killed them in one pull. The Idea was to pull 40 skeleton at fullspeed, outrunning them, and then time the PBAE so the mobs get hit but did not reached to hit him. He also found that a maximum of 4 mobs could hit him in the same round.

He pulled about a ton of mobs in Grey, then rounded them up (like a quad kiter) and then used succor. All mobs but the skeleton wandered back to their spawnpoints, and he got a nice bounch of mobs walking at the same speed. He had a hard time to get enough mana, he had to med-kite (run a distance and meditate for a few seconds). I think he had KEI and +8 or +9 in manaregen (manaregen wasn't that common at that time)

/Wati

Re: Solo AE Hunting

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:57 am
by sharrien
You could also try Acrylia Caverns. I'm not sure if mass-AE killing would work well or if the mobs hit too hard, but the xp bonus there is nice.

Re: Solo AE Hunting

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:43 am
by Corak
So far I have been doing this in flawed/intricate defiant gear with just the buffs from my App5 or J1 merc (Temp) plus KEI. I have pulled up to 10 or 11 mobs and burn them down over about 3 mins with Scintillation. This works great up thru level 59 in Seb and FG, but as I level up, I am not sure this stays viable much longer. Scint is only 608 damage on each mob each cast, and there does not seem to be a good PBAE replacement. Wind of the Desert is twice the cast time and mana, which is no better and bad for interrupts. The Maelstrom rains say they hit "all" creatures, but are they limited like most rains? I havent got my hands on that spell yet. The problem I foresee is damage not keeping up with higher mobs, and finding mobs that dont have too many HP and dont hit too hard to out damage the merc.

I have never played a class that could AE before, and I must say it is fun. I am just wondering if it is really viable for very long with a mage.

Re: Solo AE Hunting

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:22 pm
by Redius
rains don't hit all targets; Beams will.

Re: Solo AE Hunting

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:32 pm
by dduble07
Never did AE hunting but can it be done at levels above 80 and if so where?

Re: Solo AE Hunting

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:11 am
by Dadani
You can do beam kiting with slower moving mobs. It takes a bit to get used to but once you figure out the technique it is kind of fun. I used to used my wife's bard for faster mobs. Lately I use beam kiting for farming for trade skills. If the mobs have a lot of hps it is a little tiring.

Beams also only hit the mobs in front of you but the angles are fairly forgiving. AE rains can only hit a maximum of 4 times and that depends on the amount of mobs in the area of effect.

Re: Solo AE Hunting

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:09 am
by dduble07
so where would you suggest beam kitting above lvl 80?

Re: Solo AE Hunting

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:30 am
by Corak
Acrylia Caverns was an excellent suggestion for AE solo at 60-61. Still some dark blue mobs at 61, lots of them milling around, and some very nice exp. Not to hard hitting or too much HP.