31-03-2014, 03:18 PM
(31-03-2014, 09:56 AM)madjosh link Wrote: kitting is far more diverse and challenging than the current shield wall. you forgot to mention crucial elements such as timing shots in accordance with shields not to mention shooting over them in some cases. you also have to prepare for certain waves. assassins, you job is to pick off the mele ones before they reach you as they are quicker than us swadians. for ballistas and other ranged waves, you must find a position that deters nords from flanking whilst providing peeking abilities. for juggernauts you need to find yourself a large space which allows you the time to slowly pierce through their heavy armour. and let's not get started on the mixed waves let alone final bosses which are extremely difficult to kite.
As I've said before, it is more skillful than shieldwall, but everything you mentioned takes about 5 kiting runs to master (if you had any prior experience in Warband) if you just play it safe (running instead of taking risky shots). Except for bosses. I could be the exception here, due to playing Warband for a long long time, but kiting was always easy to me.
(31-03-2014, 09:56 AM)madjosh link Wrote: not to mention when kiting their is a distinct lack of tomes and barrels due to your 1 life in stark comparison to the many lives you get when in a shield wall (by applying your logic that only 2 people can kite at a time). as you can see kitting is no trivial matter and it can catter for more 16 players effectively as you can see on maps such as first defence, hande's retreat and port assault (pre-patch).
2 people is optimal number for kiting, due to 2nd guy spawning in 3 extra bots, instead of total of 8 extra (IIRC) for 3rd guy. It's because you get 35% more bots for double firepower.
All skills you named for kiting ARE pretty trivial (yep, for shieldwall it's even worse).
Also, most public runs are done without tomes.
(31-03-2014, 09:56 AM)madjosh link Wrote: the shield wall is far from comparable, to beat a boss above normal it has become accepted that tomes are a necessity and that a spam of cades are crucial. why? because the maps have been made with little to no room for escape unlike my beloved first defence. secondly, the shield wall caters to leechers and afkers where as the kite is far more unforgiving to these hated aspects. lastly, you cannot have a 1 slasher and 1 shielder and call it a shield wall because it's not a wall it's a weaker variant that has been created with the intent of failing in order to prove a point against kiting
first defence was more catering to ranged units. but what map these days isn't. shield walls act as a form of cade preservation that allow the ranged to do more damage whilst saving cades for the final boss. shielding was possible on first defence.
Tomes are a must on maps which don't offer lovely enfilading fire spots like TFD, since it's hard to stun-lock bosses without enfilading fire spots.
My point was that kiting offers a lot of advantages (gold and mats mainly) while requiring a tad more skill and a lot less equipment.