Kiting: Is it possible?

From my experience so far as a lvl 28 puncture ranger, it really doesn't seem like effective kiting is possible (fyi I have 47% runspeed before armor, 70% with phase run up, which I think is pretty damn good for lvl 28)

1: Enemies have many gap closers, bow users have no escape abilities. Flicker, whirling blades, leap, etc, bow users have access to none of these. There is lightning warp, but as an escape skill that is laughable.

2: Damaging enemies while kiting is ridiculously difficult*. You have to stop running to turn and fire. Arrow distance is only slightly farther than screen view (and hitting a fast moving player offscreen using the minimap is REALLY hard and takes a lot of luck as well). Just a little inside screen distance, enemies can whirling blades > flicker onto you. So you have this very small window with which to try and land an arrow and start running again before they can get right on top of you (at which point, as I mentioned, bow users have no escape skills).

*On the flip side, kiting away from bow users with the intention of regenning HP/ES is super super easy, and if the bow user tries and chase you to shut down your regen or finish you, they expose themselves to getting jumped on and destroyed.

3: Traps sometimes help, but are a double edged sword. Anyone and their mother can and does use bear trap, and it will bite you as much as it aids you.

4: The arenas are very small, making it very easy for enemies to corner you and get in some guaranteed hits.

In any case, I know that being kited is frustrating and it should be difficult to pull off, but it seems a little beyond merely 'difficult' at the moment. But maybe I'm just terrible at this game. Anyone else have success kiting?

I doubt anyone wants Guided Arrow to be introduced, but I think slightly larger arenas, farther arrow travel, and the addition of an escape skill usable with a bow would help a lot.

No, you are completely correct. The only players that can "kite" at the moment are melee. They are simply extremely powerful, there is little to no reason, other then a few niche examples, to run either a bow (ele) or a wand (Phys/ele) build.

The issue is that bow users have no way to force a confrontation in which they can actually MAKE the person stay. All a melee user has to do is flicker you whenever they can, and leap/whirl across you and they gain a large immunity to your damage. Also, targeting and getting a "lock" on a person using flicker/leap/whirl is so ridiculously difficult it is laughable.

It's also near impossible to hit a person with arrows or wand projectiles WITHOUT LMP. Its not just hard, its nearingly impossible if they are moving.

Totally agree

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aimlessgun wrote:

There is lightning warp, but as an escape skill that is laughable.

I cannot completely agree with this. One could cast lightning warp in one direction and run, or use whirling blades in the opposite direction before the teleport delay.

Most melee opponenents will attempt to stick to you. When the teleport takes effect you have further increased the gap as well as potentially confused your opponent. Giving you a couple seconds to burst before your opponent can readjust.

Just a theory in how LW could be used effectively.

I might play with it a bit more. As a ranger your cast speed isn't going to be very good though.

One more issue with bow users, though not limited to kiting: you get raped by shields. You get this tiny limited window in which to get off a shot without getting jumped on, and it's like trolololol blocked.

And not having a shield? I cannot overstate what a disadvantage this is, at least in lvl 28 pvp.

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aimlessgun wrote:

I might play with it a bit more. As a ranger your cast speed isn't going to be very good though.

One more issue with bow users, though not limited to kiting: you get raped by shields. You get this tiny limited window in which to get off a shot without getting jumped on, and it's like trolololol blocked.

And not having a shield? I cannot overstate what a disadvantage this is, at least in lvl 28 pvp.

Its true everywhere. The only other examples of non-shield or non-block-using characters are 2H maras, and they do not fair overly well in pvp in high end pvp either. They do, however, have the ability to stack insane regen and life, between STR and nodes, that rangers do not.

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EpsiIon wrote:

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aimlessgun wrote:

I might play with it a bit more. As a ranger your cast speed isn't going to be very good though.

One more issue with bow users, though not limited to kiting: you get raped by shields. You get this tiny limited window in which to get off a shot without getting jumped on, and it's like trolololol blocked.

And not having a shield? I cannot overstate what a disadvantage this is, at least in lvl 28 pvp.

Its true everywhere. The only other examples of non-shield or non-block-using characters are 2H maras, and they do not fair overly well in pvp in high end pvp either. They do, however, have the ability to stack insane regen and life, between STR and nodes, that rangers do not.

Yea it's definitely a disadvantage in the mid-high end pvp... but at the extreme-high end I think the gap will close, since 2h users can equip a kaom's and still use a 6l weapon for their primary attack.

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taekvideo wrote:

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EpsiIon wrote:

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aimlessgun wrote:

I might play with it a bit more. As a ranger your cast speed isn't going to be very good though.

One more issue with bow users, though not limited to kiting: you get raped by shields. You get this tiny limited window in which to get off a shot without getting jumped on, and it's like trolololol blocked.

And not having a shield? I cannot overstate what a disadvantage this is, at least in lvl 28 pvp.

Its true everywhere. The only other examples of non-shield or non-block-using characters are 2H maras, and they do not fair overly well in pvp in high end pvp either. They do, however, have the ability to stack insane regen and life, between STR and nodes, that rangers do not.

Yea it's definitely a disadvantage in the mid-high end pvp... but at the extreme-high end I think the gap will close, since 2h users can equip a kaom's and still use a 6l weapon for their primary attack.

Yea. Tried that. Doesn't work.

To elaborate further on the above point: The Kaoms is Mouze's. Even with the Kaoms, having a touch above 8k hp and some obscene regen/s I'm sure; He could not stand up to my 1h wand/shield build. The only thing that let him win, is that he KITED ME, due to leap slam making it so I can't immobilize him, and making him much faster then I could hope to me. The fact is that in this game, contrary to most games and popular gaming logic, melee kite ranged characters.

Ummm. I don't have a shield and the only person who can consistently beat me is Mouze. I win otherwise.