Tip - Exploit: Using Swarm pets to kill named mobs without tanking them

[aspire2008]

This is an old exploit, and it became nonviable because they put all swarm pets on the same timer, meaning you can only cast 1 swarm pet spell.

Well guess what, it might be viable again (need someone to go test). Not playing EQ currently, and don't even feel like logging in to test this so someone else in the community can if they feel up to it!

You need the following classes:

Shaman
Necro
Mage
Bard

These 4 classes play a different role:

Mage and Necro for their swarm pets.

Bard for the Flurry aura to flurry the pets.

Shaman for the new Pact of the Wolf aura.

This exploit maybe viable again due to the way Shaman Pact of the Wolf was changed to an aura. I'm basically going off what I read in the EQ forums -> here. I have not tested this myself as I've not been in the mood to login into EQ and play. But if someone feels upto it, they can report back here.

Keep in mind it will take you a very long time to kill mobs using just swarm pets, so why would you ever want to do this? Well there are some pretty tough RoS namers out there, you can completely avoid tanking them by using this method.


Also, keep in mind all 4 classes have swarm pets, but I believe necro and mage are the only ones that have actual spell gem version. You want to be chain casting your spell gem whenever it is off cooldown, as well as use all AA swarm pets for each class, don't forget shaman has proc swarm pet spell (but you don't want to use that to often, as drawing aggro from the swarm pets, will mean you'll end up as primary hate target of the mob). The goal is to cast as many swarm pets and keep them up so they can tank the namer for you.

 

[saar]

also bst have a castable swarm pet. But best bet is all 3 pet classes since their pet aa's help temp swarm pets. Mag swarm at 110 with most pet aa's can hit for 20k using the tradeskill ear pet foci, my necro with max aa's and chase ear most i have seen swarm hit for was 13k. Big difference is NEC swarm summons 3 skellies per cast but can have 6 out at once, mag can have up to 4 out at once but summon one at a time, bst can have 3 but summon one at a time. The shaman "aura" affects the hp and gives haste to all swarms in the grp, most have been a 70% increase in damage.

 

[Dobber123]

I saw it used on a named in OT. sham's buff hit all the swarm pets

 

[InvisigothMT]

Bards have a level 103 swarm pet song on timer 5 as well. Every little bit helps

 

[eqtrader74]

Love seeing pet groups! Couple other fun swarm things I found when researching running a Volley of Many mage group:

Mage:
Theft of Essence - Mage AA that adds chance to proc this pet/swarm aura on all pets, not just Mage's, when you use Volley of Many (X of Many) nuke. Lasts like 2 minutes roughly.
- Pet effect - +750 atk, 10k hp, +26% evasion
- Swarm Pet effect - +2750 atk, 10k hp, +26% evasion

Chaotic Munificence - Mage self buff (109) - Adds chance the mage's nukes will proc an AE heal to all pets in the area. I've never tested if it lands on swarm though.

Shaman:
Pack of Mirtuk - Shaman self buff (110) - Shaman's nukes can proc 3 swarm doggies. These can continue to proc on same mob. I've had 6 to 9 up on named.

Bard:
Bards have 2 AA that summon swarms (one short reuse, one long reuse) + a song.

Lute of the Gypsy Princess - (HH Mistmoore version) - Clicky summons 5 swarm pets on 2.5 min reuse.

Scaled Whip - Not a great weapon overall, but bard's can also use this FM quest weapon that proc's swarm pets. I ran into another bard that had a better swarm weapon, but I don't recall the name or where he got it.

 

[InvisigothMT]

Fabled Coral Hilted Short Sword procs skeletons but not sure how it stacks up in current content as it's been a while since I've used it

 

[aspire2008]

I don't think you can cast too many detrimental spells besides the swarm pets, it will draw too much aggro (slow and ac debuffs is as far as I would go on moving up the hate list).

The whole point of this is to avoid tanking the named mob, which you would otherwise not be able to take down tanking it normally. From what I remember, before they fixed this exploit with putting the spells on the same timer, casting regular detrimental spells besides swarm pets, will draw to much aggro and get you summoned by the mob. You should be able to stay out of ae range of spells and obviously melee range too, just by chaining swarm pets over and over.


If you can tank and kill the named mob, its pretty silly to do this, it would take you atleast 10-20 mins to kill the mob doing it this way.

 

[kaen01]

Count druid in on the swarm pet show, 2 aa swarms and 2 seperate spell swarms.

AA1 Nature's Guardian
AA2 Spirit's of Nature

Spell1: Blast of Hypergrowth
Spell2: Sporali Storm ** this spell you can also use the previous versions of, so can have a few more up if need be.

and i had the sporali line tank a full on yellow mob when i was lower level, with a few heals from me, so it wasnt bad at all.

 

[Rooster]

This is more of a strategy then an exploit...


An exploit would be like the old necro swarm rank 1 spell pets on a free to play sub doing 100k dps...

I miss that one :-(

 

[playj]

Was going to say, nice strategy but an exploit was the old Eye of Zomm trick for unlimited regular pets back in Kunark/Velious era in 2001 or so.

You could summon up an army of uncontrollable pets (ie you had to be hit for them to attack, like old chanter pets). Only the the last pet was controllable by commands.

I had about 50 pets on my lev 51 mage alt running around destroying Hole.

Now that was fun! Laggy, risky but fun