Basic Kiting

Kiting is the practice of dragging a monster behind you (like a kite) and damaging it without being harmed by the creature. It is really only possible with a large speed difference between the Kiter (you) and the kitee (your target). This is typically done by using a snare spell on your target and Spirit of the Wolf or Journeyman boots on yourself, thus making the difference in movement speed significant. As a Wizard, your technique is faster and more furious than the lowly Druid. Keeping your distance from the creature, you determine when you are out of range from it, then stop and begin casting (pause a moment because of the problems the game has determining when you stopped - recently, it never had this problem back a year or so ago). Once the spell hits, take off runnin again, after a while it will lie down and let you loot it.

Obviously to do this, you need an open area and lots of room to move in. If you don't have a lot of room, you cannot get out of range, and if it isn't open you can get unfreindlies involved that you aren't ready for. That is what makes this strictly an outdoors tactic, dungeons just dont have the room you need to maneuver and kite. Further, wide open spaces like Lake of Ill Omen or the Karanas are the best, since you can see anything out in the way that you might run across, and nothing is blocking your running such as buildings or rocks.

Tactics and Techniques

The best way to determine the distance from a monster is to use a spell or spell effect to find out if it is in range. This means you never have to look at the creature at all, as long as its in range its following you, and as soon as it is out of range it will be soon so you can shoot it. The Staff of Temperate Flux is very useful for this, it has exactly the same range as your blasts do (bolts have longer range), and can be used on the run with a fast reset time. Target the monster, and take off runnin, clicking your staff as it is ready to use. As soon as you get "out of range" you can stop and cut loose. Incidentally, you won't get the 'resisted' nor 'feels uncomfortable' message for the last few clicks just before it is out of range most of the time, that will tell you you are close.

If you do not have the Staff of Temperate Flux, you can simply memorize your first level cold blast Shock of Cold and cast it over and over. It recovers and casts quickly, although not as quickly as the staff, so you can judge range fairly well. While you are moving it isn't likely to go off (and hey, if your chanelling really is that good and it casts, its free damage). All you really need is to know the distance and when they are out of range.

Keeping Your Distance

The reason you need to keep your distance from the target is fairly obvious, you don't want to be hit and interrupted while casting. And the best way to do this is to have something that makes you move faster than the bad guy and lots of open space. Snare is your friend in this, it makes any monster move much slower, negating its slight advantage over you in running speed (monsters always move faster than PCs unless they are unusual or something has changed this like a spell). If you cannot snare, you will have significant troubles, target creatures that move slowly. Many undead are slow movers, and beetles are another good choice. These creatures move so slowly on their own that they don't really need snaring.

Part of the reason I don't consider this technically soloing is that Wizards don't have snare til level 29 and never have Spirit of the Wolf. Getting SOW potions or Journeyman boots makes this much easier, but still you don't have the abilities innately, you are relying on an item or other players. That said, the best way for this to work is to get friends or friendly neighbors to cast the spell or use items and gain that extra speed. As your spells become slower to cast, you will need that edge to keep your distance. This allows you to comfortably kill your foe while not being done in yourself, and more importantly if you get too many resists or snare breaks, you can make a quick escape.

There are variations on Kiting that are covered in other sections of this too-large strategy guide you might want to look at. Quad Kiting, for example, is using area effect spells and kiting multiple targets at the same time. Fear Kiting isn't soloing, but it is an effective method that reverses the system, you chase the monster running in fear. Here are links to more information if you wish to examine it.

Fear Kiting

Quad Kiting

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