The Art of Kiting

   To people who play World of Warcraft, especially hunters, the term “kiting” is no stranger. However, I have found in many games (especially RPGs) that kiting can be used to great effect. I have recently used it in Lord of the Rings: War in the North; Dragons Age: Origins; Skyrim; and even in Gears of War 3 (horde mode).

   While the concept of kiting is simple, it can take a bit of practice to master. Also, different classes in different games make it easier or harder to kite. For instance, a pure melee character will find it extremely difficult to kite. Possibly even impossible. However, a class focused on ranged will kite with ease.

   Kiting, at its core concept, is simply hitting an enemy while staying out of range of its attacks. Simple, right? Well, like I said, it’s a simple concept. But in my experience, people think it’s too simple and don’t execute very well. Obviously, we are assuming that the enemy is either pure melee, or its strongest attacks come from melee, and is weaker at range. Kiting doesn’t work very well against ranged. That’s when you get into LOS (Line of Sight) pulling. But that’s another strategy.

   There are a few considerations to kiting. First, is obstacles. The easiest way to kite an enemy is to play “ring around the rosy” with an obstacle. If the enemy is on the other side of the obstacle, he can’t hit you. So, if there’s an obstacle between you, simply hit him with ranged and keep running around the obstacle. This method is not used very much surprisingly, but is the easiest to implement. Even a melee focused character can usually pull out a ranged weapon and use it here. It just takes longer to beat the enemy that way.

   The second thing to consider is the movement speed of the enemy. In WoW, the hunter has traps he can place to freeze or slow the enemy. He also has a pet that can take agro off of him. In other games, you might have abilities that slow the enemy. In an area without obstacles, slowing effects are the way to go. Sometimes you can literally run circles around the enemy while pelting him with ranged abilities. I had to do this on the first ogre in the beacon tower of Dragons Age: Origins. My party had all died, and my mage was all that was left. So I simply ran around the outer perimeter of the circle and hit him with the DoT (Damage over Time) that I had any time it was off cooldown.

   Along with the movement speed of the enemy, is your ability to dodge the enemy. In wave 30 in Gears of War 3 (Horde mode) on hardcore difficulty, I found myself to be the only person left against the final creature, a savage corpser. It was pretty easy to shoot at him, roll out of the way, and run. (I will be posting strategies for beating all the Gears of War 3 (Horde Mode) bosses later on, so see the full strategy there.)

  Last thing to consider while kiting is adds (any little enemies running around). If you can successfully kite them, too, then go ahead. However, there are two strategies to beating them depending on which type of adds they are.

   The three types of adds are infinite, wave, and finite. On finite adds, the easiest thing to do is to get the adds out of the way before focusing on the boss. On infinite adds, focus on the boss, only killing enough adds to stay alive. On waves, if you have time between each wave, kill the adds then focus on the boss between waves. If you don’t have enough time, it’s a race against the clock to beat the boss before the adds overwhelm you.

   Hopefully these little tips will help you in your kiting efforts. If you have a specific boss in a game that you’d like help with, you can shoot me a comment below, and I’ll see what I can do. Of course, with all the tips and tricks out there, it’d be quicker to just google it. But, give me a chance. Who else offers personalized strategies?

   - Woody

WoW Battleground Strategy: Warsong Gulch

Warsong Gulch is a classic capture the flag scenario. It is a 10v10 map in which both teams have a flag, and in order to make a capture your flag has to be at its base. This post is an overview of a working strategy for this battleground.

Firstly, at the low levels, there is absolutely no reason to guard the flag in the flag room. Rogue stealths in grabs the flag, dashes out, and then everyone guarding the flag has no way to catch up - taking them out of the fight completely. So, at lower levels there is a slightly different strategy than at levels when you can use mounts. At low levels (before mounts) anyone playing defense actually needs to be controlling the middle of the field, and run interception in case of an enemy flag carry (EFC). Other parts of the strategy remain unchanged. There are two schools of thought, and we will cover them both.

Strategy 1: Just like in CTF on FPS, there are 3 main positions. However, these are even further broken down. Each "position" in this case is actually a team with positions. The teams are: defense, assault, and freelance. Each team needs a healer.

The defense team will most likely be made up of ranged. They need to be able to slow the enemy down somehow. The goal is to keep them enemy from getting away with the flag too quickly. Hunters, Mages, and Priests all make good defense. Hunters especially, as they can place traps around the flag to freeze/slow the enemy. Death Knights also can use their ranged slowing ability.

The assault team will have your flag carrier, a healer, and another DPS to help kill attackers. The flag carrier has to have high stamina and high resilience. Typically a plate wearer with a protection spec will be the flag carrier, due to high survivability. The DPS can be any class. The healer can also be any healer, but instant cast heals are better than cast times due to having to move to keep up with the FC.

The freelance team is a healer and a DPS that is wherever they need to be. They run interception in the middle, as well as general harassment for incoming enemy.

In the case of an enemy flag carry, the defense's job is to get the flag back. The freelance also goes after the flag. The assault team keeps doing its job.

Strategy 2: This strategy is similar to the first, except that there is no freelance team. The defender and assault teams are split evenly, with five in each team. The defender team has one healer, while the assault team has two. The defender team's job is defense and retrieval, while the assault team's job is capture. This strategy seemingly is used more often, and is easier to implement in a pick up group.

The main thing is gear. The FC has to have high armor, high health, and high resilience. The healers have to be able to heal. And communication is key.

All in all, this is a simple game type that can be won as long as you have communication and don't simply fight in the middle.

My Hunter Solo'd Molten Core

So, I decided that my level 85 hunter should solo as much content as possible. Well, anyone can solo the level 15-60 5man dungeons, so I skipped those. I decided to start at Molten Core, the first level 60 40man raid.

I am Beastmaster specced, and used two different pets to tank for me. I used a Gorilla for most bosses, but used a Spirit Beast on a couple, so that it could heal me.

I went in and started the clock. Killed some trash, and made it to Gehennas without any problem. I sent my Gorilla in and downed him with minimal damage to myself. I had about 75k health left at the end of the fight.

Next came Garr, with all his adds. This was simple. I sent in my Gorilla, used Bestial Wrath, Misdirected to my pet, then Multishotted as much as possible. I didn't get a scratch.

After Garr, I tried Barron Geddon. And died. So I tried again. And died. And again. And died. So I went to Lucifron. I used my cat, killed his adds, no problem.

After that, I went to Magmadar. Should've cleared the room first. While I was fighting him, I got feared into two packs of core hounds, who wouldn't die unless they all died together. This fight took forever, and about seven feign deaths. After I killed him, I looted and skinned him. Then remembered to take a picture. So here is a picture of the empty space he used to occupy.

After Magmadar, I went back to Baron Geddon. This time, I used my gorilla and cleared almost the whole room where the boss patrolled. Then I switched to my cat, pulled the boss with a serpent sting, and then got out of the area entirely. I couldn't hit the boss anymore, but he couldn't hit me either. So my cat killed him for me.

After Baron Geddon, Shazzrah was no problem. I simply stayed out of her AoE range and shot her.

Then came Sulfuron harbinger. This guy wasn't too hard, but he took forever. I didn't start off by focusing the healers, so they kept healing him. Also, mid-fight I pulled two core hounds. I also pulled three firelords, who split into about 30 little fire elementals when they died. The fight took a while, but I eventually won out.

I went to Golemagg the Incinerator. He was easy, just had to focus him and forget about his adds. They can't die if he's alive.



Once he was dead, Majordomo appeared. he wasn't too hard. You don't actually kill him, you kill the adds around him and he surrenders. There are four healers, and four casters. As long as I focused on the healers first, I was good. Since you don't actually kill him, here is a pic of him surrendering.

So we get to Ragnaros. I took a picture of him before and after. He was actually pretty easy. At this level, it was a simple "tank and spank" method.

All in all, it took me 1hr 25mins, and would have taken me less if I hadn't died three times. I left with 400 gold, and some fun items, like some pieces of my tier 1 set. Also got some blues to sell on the auction house. My plan is to do this every so often, maybe farm for Thunderfury to get my guild the achievement.

   - Sapper Woody