Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Lesson 3: Single Target / DoT spec RVR Advanced: Kiting

PART 1: CAMERA SETTING

While this might be the easiest part for you potential uber BWs in training, it is also the most important, and possibly the most secretive. I will be shunned by many a bright wizard for sharing this forbidden knowledge of l33tness, and possibly struck by lightning - or more likely witchelf blades in the back, for bringing forth divine knowledge to the comman man.

Go into your User Settings, under the General tab, scroll all the way down to the Camera section, see "Smart Follow"? Uncheck it, hit ok.

Now, whenever you're moving and pan your camera to your side or behind you by dragging the left mouse button, when you let go of left click, the camera will not automatically switch back to a frontal view. This way you can highlight and select targets behind you, and click your hotbar while maintaining visuals on your target. This is the easy part. The rest is all hard work.

PART 2: DEFINITION

What is kiting? "Kiting is running away from a fight, /chicken him," says the upset destro. The difference between kiting and running is, when a destro melee class - tank, mdps, dps dok tries to chase a kiting bright wizard, they die. Kiting is about doing moving dps, and crowd controlling destro on the run, eventually causing their death. We're not going to focus on how to get away from a melee train without dying, although that takes some skill too, that's actually running, not kiting :D

Kiting is more difficult than running. Running may be as simple as turning away from the destro and hold down the W key and maybe hit flee or Resolute Defence, and run to reinforcements or the warcamp, Kiting requires you to keep destro within your cone of fire while running and be attacking at the same time, while keeping destro away.

PART 3: TARGET CONE OF FIRE

In this game, target cone of fire for ranged classes is 180 degrees. Which means you if you are facing north, you are able to hit targets to your direct west or east, within a radius of 100 ft or 80 ft depending on the skill you're using (Cone AoE and Point Blank AoE are exceptions). Your cone of fire usually follows the direction you're facing, with some exceptions.
See back in world of warcraft, you used to be able to be running in one direction, and if someone's chasing you and they're directly behind you, you could jump, and while in the air moving forward, you can quickly hold and drag the right click button to the right (for example), and as a result your camera will quickly shift to behind you, and you can let loose an ability since the target cone of fire followed the camera to behind you, and then you can drag the right-click button to the left and back towards the direction you were running, all before you land. This way you never stop moving forward, this was how kiting was done in WoW.

In WAR, this doesn't work. You can still jump forward and drag your right-click even in a full circle before you land, but from others' perspective, they don't see you spin; and incidentally, the game doesn't see you spin either, thus your abilities won't go off and you will get a target outside cone of fire warning. Kiting in WAR, is done with strafing, see next section.

PART 4: KITING SEQUENCE

In WAR, the best way to kite is by strafing, using Q and E. Q strafes you to the left, E strafes you to the right.

We'll use a dps dok charging at you as an example, because they're the easiest to kite. They can only hit you within 65 feet, but you can hit them within 100 feet. Even factoring in lag and this game's terrible synchronization, there is a perfect kiting distance where you can constantly hit them but they can't hit you. Achieving this perfect distance is called pre-kiting. You have to watch the dok get closer, then start running, and after lag and sync factors in, you are both settled into this perfect kiting distance. This only comes with practice.

Kite Start:

If up to this point, when you see a melee train come after you, what you do is spin your character 180 degrees and hold W to run, time to change that habit, because:
  1. It doesn't put a target into your cone of fire.
  2. Witchelf daggers from 65 feet away will snare (slow down) you if it strikes your back. Then you're pretty much dead. But if you strafe, the dagger will hit your side and won't slow you down.
You can start kiting using Q or E, I personally prefer to use Q, on the fourth finger of my left hand, because it allows me to hit the other keys easier. Hold right-click and drag to the left, until your character turns left 90 degrees, and the charging dps dok is to the right of your screen, now, hold down Q. Now you'll begin to move left, at the same speed as turning away and holding down W, but look on the diagram, you're the green dot moving left (green arrow direction), facing forward (the black arrow), yet the dps dok - red dot chasing you (red arrow), is still within your cone of fire. You have just begun kiting. And the enemy is directly to your right.

Note: Don't worry if you're kiting and the target is not diretly to your right, but let's say higher up your cone of fire (The red dot is higher up on the diagram). As long as you make them run parallel to you, you achieve the same result. If they try to settle into a position that is directly to your right, and most dps tend to try to do this, they actually stretch out the distance between you two. The key is to always try to have your kiting target run in a parallel line with you. You should do your best to begin kiting like this, and ideally never have to turn. Everytime you make a slight turn, the distance between you narrows.

Look forward, Look back:

Here, forward doesn't mean the direction you're facing, You're still holding down Q to kite, so forward is actually to your left. Imagine yourself as a crab, walking sideways. Once kiting starts, this is where left-click comes in. Do all the following while still holding down your Q key.

Hold down left-click and drag left, now without changing your movement direction nor your cone of fire, you're actually looking forward, or to your left now. Ensure that you have an open space ahead of you, no cliffs or walls, or bumps, or knowing WAR - a blade of grass to get stuck on. Make sure the direction you're facing is clear for the next 10 seconds or so. If not, adjust your direction. Note, do NOT use right click now to adjust your direction, unless you rotate the camera back first. Else you'll make a sudden 90 degree turn as soon as you right-click, and you'll get caught. Tap the D key to turn slightly right, or tap the A key to turn slight left. So your way is clear, good. Time to hit somebody.

Hold down left-click again, and drag right, until the camera rotates to behind you. I must say now, you better have turned off smart follow. Because now you're going to let go of left-click, and then left-click on a destro as your kiting target. If you didn't turn off smart follow, as soon as you let go of left-click your camera would've completely rotated back to the direction of the black arrow on the diagram, and your kiting has failed. But, let's say smart follow is off. You can now left click your target, select a target within your dmg range.

Damaging and killing:

So, you're kiting with Q, made sure your way was clear for a while, looking behind you, and selected a chasing target. All this time holding down the Q key. Now begin to apply your dots. I'm used to holding down Q with the my fourth finger and applying 1-4 using my middle and index fingers. Those are my four dots, then, apply nova, choking smoke is also a damage tick. Fireball Barrage's first tick also goes off doing damage while runing. Rain of fire can also be cast while running, although you need to select a landing zone so there's an extra left click or key press involved. Do enough damage, and they're dead.

At the end of a kite, it's sometimes fun to stand still and cast withering heat at your target (if they have no helpers), and watch them struggling to get to you while snared and taking damage, and just as they get to you, you nova them in the face and they die. This is very satisfying, just keep in mind that sometimes it's not a good idea. Dps Doks and choppas can heal themselves on doing damage. Don't do this to them unless you know for sure you can kill them. 

Maintaining Distance:

Remember I said a dps dok is the easiest to kite? That's because unlike mdps classes, they don't have a charge skill to speed them up. They can however still use flee + action point potions, or get an odjira proc on their boots from one of your dots which speeds them up significantly, and all the smart melee doks or mdps classes all have odjira slotted. You should also have your own odjira slotted for rvr, because the not so smart mdps, will hit you with tiny hits from far away instead of trying to catch up to you, and some witchelves will frantically throw daggers at you trying to slow you down, and if any of this procs your odjira it'll put a huge distance between you, to your benefit.

But let's say the dok gets an odjira proc, you cannot, CANNOT let them catch you, because if you get caught the first thing they do is put a snare on you, then you can't really kill them anymore without creating more distance as melee doks heal themselves by doing damage. But at least they don't have a knockdown, unlock some other classes. Either way, you need to create more distance. While kiting, to put some distance between you, find your Withering Heat key, and hit it. Withering heat's first tick goes off while kiting as well, doing damage and snaring your target, slowing them down for 3 seconds. This might've saved your life.

The other ability to use, if the destro gets really close to you, or there's more than 1, is fire cage, your root. As long as they're not immune to roots and punts, this will give you a few seconds while they scramble for a root clear. Resolute Defence is good to use too, and combined with an odjira proc you're home free. Cauterize anything put on you, especially witchelves' out of stealth attack that does damage as you move, cauterize that ASAP. In fact, if you get jumped by a witchelf, your first few actions should be, start kiting, fire cage, cauterize, detaunt if root didn't work. This will all become instinct.

Morale 1: Mage Bolt
This is my morale 1 of choice for kiting. It use to have a huge knockback several patches ago, which got nerfed. But it's still a decent knockback, and it can be used from 100ft away. It's another thing you should be able to activate on the run to knock back destro on your tail. Our morale 4, although still is a knockback, but it's point blank and anyone you can hit with it, is in range to hit you. Don't rely on that one for kiting.

Switching between Q and E:

Sometimes your kiting target likes to run at you while slightly out of your cone of fire, forcing you to keep turning a little bit at a time, until you're running into a wall, then your camera goes weird. Or maybe you just need to turn towards a direction which would expose your back to your kiting target. Either way, a lot of the time you wanna turn and face behind you but still moving in the same direction. This is how to do it.

Assuming you're Q key kiting. While holding Q, hit jump. Your toon will jump to his left. While in the air, quickly right-click and drag left until your character turns 180 degrees. Before you land, let go of Q and hold down E. Now land. Viola, continuous kiting, but now you're facing the other way. This will come in handy a lot and helps you to maintain the enemy in your cone of fire.

Switching from E to Q is the same. Practice makes perfect.
Q - E - Q Switch
PART 5: CAMERA RESET

If you've been running around and rotating your camera alot, sometimes the camera gets to an odd angle and can be a little disorienting. To reset the camera to the middle, simply hit right click at any time. I don't recommend this in the middle of a kite unless the camera is at least somewhat close to directly in front of your toon.

PART 6: KEY ASSIGNMENTS

This section is about assigning the proper skills, to the proper hotbar keys. This game, compared to say World of Warcraft, has a waffle (yes waffle, I miss the old forums) ton more of useable skills, to the point of confusion if you're not careful. For the bright wizard, EVERY skill has a use, and it's up to you to put those skills where they can be reached, when you need to be.

For kiting, we're concerned with skills we can use on the run. These would include your instant cast dots, which are the major source of your kiting damage: ignite, slow boil, boiling blood, detonate. The other instant cast attacks: choking smoke, stop drop & roll, nova. Your support abilities: Cauterize, playing with fire, smoke screen, shield of aqshy, choking smoke, stop drop & roll, Burnout, Resolute Defense. Your 4 morale abilities. We're also concerned with withering heat, fireball barrage, and rain of fire. Personally, I don't actually bother with rain of fire.

* This next part does not apply to you if you are a 3-armed mutant, an alien disguised on earth with 20 tentacles, or using specialized equipment for button mashing in WAR like such:

This will also not work if you're using say specialized user interface equipment for left handedness.

Now a word on the addon Nerf Buttons, while allows you to assign multiple skills to one button in sequence.. I've never used it, I think it's too restricting. But if you want to use it, go right ahead. The addon is there for a reason. For the general population, using a regular keyboard and mouse to play, read on.

This game's default key assignments, when you show all 3 action bars, are 1,2,3.. to =, ctrl-1 to ctrl-=, and alt-1 to alt-=. The game assigns new abilities to the next default empty space on the hotbar as you learn them. This must change. If you keep your left hand on the keyboard, near the WSAD movement keys, and right hand on the mouse, there are only certain key combinations that can be hit while on the run.

Key Pressing VS Mouse Clicking Abilities

BTW, if you're now thinking, I mouse click all my abilities, I don't have to worry about key assignments, you have just discovered your first obstacle to proper kiting. I don't care if you have been mouse clicking for the last 70 renown levels, if you want to kite properly, you must force yourself to begin to key your abilities. The reasons are as follows:
  1. You can rotate the camera must faster and more fluently, with much better control by using the mouse. Dragging left click moves the camera without changing your movement direction. Dragging right click faces you towards the center of the camera as it moves.
  2. Target selection in this game using keys is less than intuitive. The best way to select your offensive target most of the time is by mouse clicking.
  3. You need to keep your eyes on the battlefield, you must see and hear everything before your enemy, before your allies. This is how to stay ahead. It's like people who've learned to type fluently, they look at the screen when they type, instead of the keyboard. If you mouse click your abilities, your eyes are not at the part of your screen that matters.
While mouse clicking your abilities, you cannot do any of the above three things. However, if you keypress your abilities, you can be camera rotating and target selecting while activating abilities. You'll save time, and every half a second you're faster than your opponents, could give you an edge and decide if you win or lose.

Of course, there are only certain key and key combinations that your left hand can reach comfortably and accurately without you looking down at your keyboard, and without straying too far from your movement keys. The left over abilities do still require mouse clicking, but they're not needed in the heat of battle. But all the ones I've listed above in yellow, has to fit into a scheme that works for you, where you can hit them with your left hand without looking down at your keyboard. While moving and working the mouse.

I find that keys I can reach comfortably are
  • 1..6
  • ctrl-1..ctrl-5
  • alt-1..alt-4
But while Kiting, which means I'm holding down Q or E, the buttons I can still reach, and I have small hands, are
  • 1..5
  • ctrl-1..ctrl-5
  • alt-1..alt-3
This is where we adjust some key assignments. The game allows 5 hotbars, use them. There are keystrokes close to your left hand that the game does not use by default, these are:
  • C, R, Z, F, T.

I'll leave it up to you to figure out what you want to put where, but here is a screenshot if my hotbars. My dots are 1-4, silence on 5, playing with fire on 6. Detaunt is on T, Shield of Aqshy on Ctrl-T. Resolute defence on F, Cauterize on C, SDR on R, Burnout on Z. Withering heat on Ctrl-3, Nova on Ctrl-4. I'd strongly advice you put your dots on 1..4, and start getting used to casting them on the run.

You should also be able to activate your morales on the run, without having to look at them with mouse click. Find a way for them to work for you. I have my 4 morales on Alt-Q to Alt-R, going down the first row of the keyboard underneath the number buttons.
Solarflame's Hotbars
Coming soon, Lesson on Advanced Bombing!!
Wiping out destro warbands in a Post-Scorched-Earth-Nerf era, one city instance at a time.

Link to lesson 1: Single Target / DoT spec RVR: Tactics, Rotation & Build
Link to lesson 2: Renown Training & Gear
Link to lesson 3: Single Target / DoT spec RVR Advanced: Kiting

Solarflame
GM - I am LEGEND
Faction: Order, Server: Badlands
Warhammer Online

10 comments:

  1. Very nice writeup. I recently re subbed last week for the first time since I last played which was the first 2 months of release. reading this may help me knock the dust off of my old BW.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great guide !
    /cheer Advanced Bombing :]

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looking forward to advance bombing guide. Great job with what you already put together. Very helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Its a very great guide. I loved reading it. I cant wait on ur Advanced Bombing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Got a question when might be ur Next Bombing coming out ?

    ReplyDelete
  6. thx a lot for your lessons. i now understand my lvl 32 bw much better and i increased my player with your guide after some hours a lot.
    specialy kiting, because it is my first time that i play rdps class in a mmorpg. i had often heared about kiting, but didnt do it correct.
    the topic about damage spike was total new for me and before i tried mostly to do max damage. but in scenarios is a good damage spike, specialy against healers very great :) i doubled my DB!

    ReplyDelete
  7. really great and helpful reading! Love hte kiting part.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Would love a writeup like this for the Shadow Warrior class.

    ReplyDelete
  9. My head hurts **Brain combusts 5 seconds after writing this**

    ReplyDelete