Kiting

Kiting is the act of a player grabbing an enemy's attention, then having the enemy chase the player for a prolonged period by running around the area it is found in. The root of the verb, K.I.T., is an acronym that stands for Kill In Transit, the act of staying on the move while you and/or your party attack the enemy.

As the enemy is in constant motion, it will receive little chance to hit its target (and gain TP in the process), nor will it have much of a window to use special attacks.

Kiting tends to be better accomplished when Gravity is applied to the kited enemy. This slows its movement speed, giving the kiter more room to avoid physical damage. Equipping gear that increases a player's movement speed (such as Crimson Cuisses) is also effective for kiting a monster.

Uses in Party/Alliance Play

In party situations, this strategy is commonly used in BCNM, ENM, or other boss or NM fights as an alternative for standard (stationary, or "straight-up") tanking, or to occupy a second enemy that is highly resistant to Sleep and Bind while the rest of the party or Alliance is engaged with another enemy.

Ninja (or characters with a Ninja subjob) are typically used in these kiting roles, as the most damage an enemy can do while being kited is physical in nature. This damage tends to be easily absorbed by Utsusemi. Kiting in this configuration is most effective against enemies who deal high damage balanced with high attack delay.

Note that this strategy creates a disadvantage for damage dealers using standard attacks, since the kiter is constantly moving—and thus, so is the enemy. This can be managed by having the kiter lead the enemy across each damage dealer's path, just within their melee range, so at least one melee hit (or Weapon Skill) may be used. (In cases where certain attacks make melee with the enemy a greater risk, each damage dealer may use Ranged Attacks to build TP instead, only making melee contact when their Weapon Skills are ready.)

The issue with kiting with Ninja Subjob while others hit your target is how easily you will lose hate. Generally, when kiting without hate-building tools, you do not want others hitting your target unless it is a manaburn-like situation where the target will be killed quickly and kiting only serves as stalling until the damage is dealt.

A Paladin oftentimes will be called on to kite more dangerous mobs due to more adequate hate management, Ninja sub being the more frequently used. In optimal conditions, +movement speed gear, like the Crimson Cuisses, can be used to prevent the NM/HNM from catching up, which allows the use of /WAR for further hate management.

The biggest trick to kiting is to cause the enemy to trip up on objects, buying the kiter some time to keep a further distance. This can be accomplished by taking very tight turns around objects.

Uses in Solo Play

Mages (Particularly Red Mages) are also capable of "solo kiting" higher-level enemies through applying Damage Over Time-type magic to an enemy while Stoneskin, Blink, Phalanx and so on are active to absorb physical damage received. The DoT, when reapplied constantly, eventually causes enough damage to defeat the enemy by attrition—though this method is very time-consuming. Summoners can also achieve this by continuously summoning Carbuncle and running out of range, then resummoning again, and repeating.