Fear Kiting
noun
- Using the Fear Spell to drive your enemy before and listen to their lamentations while you damage them with your Damage over Time spells and your pet’s melee attacks.
- Gathering additional mobs to kill you and possibly other characters.
Fear Kiting is one of the most important skills for a Necromancer to master. So naturally, I want to include it in the Leveling Guide. While at Level 4 baby Aliyanna is going to have limited need and capability in doing it, it is a skill that I need to work on, since it has been a while since I had to use it.
Fear Kiting is not as simple as “pull creature, fear, dot, rinse, repeat.” If you think casting your Fear and DoTs are all there is to this technique, you’re doing to get yourself and probably other characters killed.
The reason?
Trains – the long line of mobs just waiting to kill you.
Unlike it’s close cousin, Agro Kiting, Fear Kiting gives you little control over where the mob you’re fighting will go. Once you cast Fear, you are at the whim of mob pathing (which can be funky in EQ) and the speed of the mob, which is only reduced by the snare effect of your Darkness spell.
Effective Fear Kiting, therefore, requires finesse and some degree of tactical skill.
When I go Fear Kiting, I am looking for,
- A mob that is strong enough to require Fear Kiting to take down (otherwise, I can just let my pet tank) and weak enough to not resist my Fear Spell
- A relatively clear area where the Feared mob can flee
- An easy escape route if anything goes wrong
Why do I need an escape route if I have Shadow Step or Gate? Simple: spell interruptions.
For practicing my kiting, I chose the area along the Commonlands boundary wall where the EC tunnel is. This provided me,
- A fairly wide area with little to no mob traffic to pull mobs into
- Two close zone lines to choose from
- Nearby merchants in the EC tunnel
- A variety of nearby mobs to choose from in a variety of levels
While merchants are just a convenience, the other things are ideal and required for effective Fear Kiting.
The Commonlands is just a preference of mine. Everquest has other zones that a new Necromancer can begin practicing their Fear Kiting skills as well. However, the Commonlands is preferred because of multiple conveniences it offers as well as the abundance of cats, wolves, bears, and spiders, all of whom are important for gathering Tailoring supplies.
I mostly created this video to demonstrate the basics of Fear Kiting. It will be a few more levels before I can really use these skills. As you can see, my Darkness spell is weak and both it and my Fear spell are short-lived. However, the practice will serve me well later when Fear Kiting will be the difference between success and death. While my success at Fear Kiting here is limited, starting around Level 12, it will be key to some of the areas we will be looking at for levelling through our teens.
Ravensveil 