Learning How To Use Kissassist (DPS, AoE, Gift of Mana)

In this part of my guide we're going to talk about the Kissassist DPS, AoE and Gift of Mana sections. You might notice that in the screenshot below they're all reversed, it's not cause I am dyslexic (although maybe...) it's because I felt we should go through them in order of importance.

Almost everyone reading this guide is going to get a ton of use out of the DPS section which is exactly why I wanted to talk all about this section first. You could say that we're finally starting to get to the 'meat' of Kissassist. After setting up the Buff and DPS section the only one left for you to setup is the Heals section - then you can use the macro in its most basic form!

**Important** Kissassist is regularly updated which means that this guide will always be somewhat out of date. I'd recommend you use the guide over at Redguides for the most up to date information.

First up - DPS section! This is the bread and butter of Kissassist some would say. If you want your characters to do basically any damage you have to set it all up in this section. One of the most common complaints I see from people that use Kissassist is that the program attacks extremely slow. Additionally it also pops your burns (cooldowns) slow as well.

This is sadly something we all experience with the program - it's not something you've personally done wrong when setting your character up. I went over this in my Should you use MQ2 Guide in length if you'd like to read more about it head over there. Otherwise, keep reading to learn more about how to set up your DPS section!

[DPS]

DPSOn=0 (This turns DPS on/off with Kissassist. The value should be set to 1 unless you don't want KA to do any DPS).

DPSCOn=0 (This turns DPS conditions on or off. I will go into more about conditions in a later guide about Kissassist).

DPSSize=20 (This increases the size of your DPS options. Basically how many entries you have in DPS 20 means you can place 20 abilities/AAs or whatever you want into the DPS section).

DPSSkip=20 (This stops DPS at a certain point. With the way my INI is currently setup it would stop DPS at 20% HP on the mob which is a big no no. I highly recommend you change this to 0).

DPSInterval=2 (How long Kissassist chooses to wait between cycling through your DPS commands).

DebuffAllOn=0 (0 = your characters wont debuff all enemies .... 1 = your characters will debuff all enemies. Only turn on if you'd like to debuff).

Note: If you put more than 15 entries in the [DPS] section of Kissassist it will decrease your DPS by quite a bit since the macro does not attack very fast and it will choose to cast weak crappy spells instead of good ones sometimes, lowering your DPS (especially when burns are active). Many high end players get around this by putting abilities and cooldowns into MQ2Melee instead. I go into this in much more detail in my Kissassist vs Isboxer DPS Comparison Guide.

There you have it! Those are all of the different aspects of the DPS section broken down for you - with a small list of entries that're just above which I am going to explain a bit further in a second. Before I do that though I would like to include one piece of advice that is found on Redguides in the official Kissassist Guide Post.

It states that when you're constructing your DPS section you'll want to place the abilities you'd like to use in the order you would like them to be used. Additionally, there are TWO different settings for the DPS section. DPS=1 turns the section on and it will tell Kissassist to go through the list of abilities one at a time using them based in order based on which you have marked with the highest percentage.

From my DPS section above it would start with Dragon Punch, Flying Kick and Spear of Blistersteel. Unless I have debuffall=1 in which case it would open with Spear of Blistersteel and then use Desolate Deeds on every enemy it could to debuff them. At least this is what it would do in almost all cases - sometimes KA gets a mind of its own!

If you do DPSOn=2 Kissassist will go through your abilities one by one and prioritize which abilities it uses based on the enemies HP. For example, when the enemy drops below 20% it will only use the Calculated Strike ability in my list found above. I use DPSOn=1 and recommend you do too.

Now, let's take a look at the list of 9 abilities above and why some of them are setup differently than others.

DPS1=Spear of Blistersteel|99

This is the most common format that you're going to be using for your abilities when setting up Kissassist. Basically what this says is to use Spear of Blistersteel when my Assist's target is under 99% health. The number at the end is the mob's health percent that the ability will be used at - remember this!

DPS2=Force of Elements|97|Weave

As you can see the two differences with this ability are instead of 99% it'll start using this ability at 97%. Force of Elements also has a unique part at the end, |Weave. What this means is that Kissassist will weave this ability between your global spell cooldowns on other abilities.

This is great for the Wizard forces as well as the Mage's Force of Elements - Druid's Stormstrike and there's a few more of them out there. These aren't the only type of abilities that qualify for this either - really anything that you want to weave between the use of other abilities. The Beastlord's Frozen Miasma line of spells is a good example of a non AA that may qualify for this.

DPS3=Desolate Deeds|99|debuffall|slow

Now this one is totally different than all of the others which I've talked about. This is actually a debuff but it's supposed to go into the DPS section. As you can see (in English) it says that it'll debuffall enemies with slow below 99% health. As far as I know it'll prioritize this over any other abilities so you might want to take that into consideration if you're using an Enchanter or class with multiple debuffs.

Telling him to Tash, Slow and Cripple all enemies is going to be an extremely time consuming process. Additionally if you're going to tell a Healer to debuff, like a Shaman - you need to consider that Kissassist isn't human and it can't think like one either. In some instances it's going to prioritize slowing over healing and it could potentially wipe your group.

DPS4=Bash|99|mash

For this entry the only thing that's new is |Mash. What Mash does is really simple. You use it when you're in a situation similar to the Korean War. When you really wanna mash a key repeatedly (as if you were actually playing, mashing the key) you'll use mash.

This is only good for select abilities and you don't want to fill your entire INI with |mash. I can't remember what problem filling your INI with Mash causes; but what I do know is that it makes Maskoi very upset.

DPS5=Shadow Vortex|95|Once

Moving on to the next entry, |Once. This is one that you'll be using every so often when you only want to cast an ability a single time during battle. A few classes have an ability that drains XYZ from the enemy and gives it to them, usually Armor Class or Attack. This is good for stuff like that.

DPS6=Calculated Strike|20

We talked about this one a little already but the main thing I want to teach you about here is Mob Health % and kissassist using abilities. First up, if you're playing on live severs and you've loaded your INI up with a butt load of spells and abilities you may notice that Kissassist sometimes doesn't even fire some of them.

I mentioned this earlier but I am going to talk about it again here since it's relevant. Calculated Strike is an execute type move and it'll only work on enemies that are below the appropriate threshold hp wise. Depending on how many abilities Kissassist has in its rotation, it might not even get to this one before the enemy is dead. The reason I am saying all of this is incase you see it happen and you think you made an error.

DPS7=Dichotomic Reinforcement|90|Me

Now this ability is actually a buff but it's a buff that you want to use during combat while fighting enemies. It's the Enchanter TBM Dichotomic spell line. There's a few abilities that will fall into this category but it's one of the only ones that I have ever found the |me useful for in the DPS rotation.

DPS8=Dragon Punch|99|Mash
DPS9=Flying Kick|99|Mash

These last two go together since they're |mash as well as |99 for mob health percentage. The reason I decided to include these two into the DPS section despite already explaining all they have to offer is to show you two abilities you'll want to consider using |mash for and to show you more of a normal INI. If you'd like to see some more INIs for ideas then I recommend you check out my Kissassist INI Files page by following the link provided.

There's a relatively good chance that one or two of the parts in this guide/kissassist still confuse you and that's perfectly ok. This entire thing is one long learning process and it's going to take constant reading and rereading to learn it all. To be honest with you parts of this program are still fuzzy for me.

I'm going to be really sitting down and learning conditionals for the first time when I go to write my more advanced Kissassist guides on it. I've made holyshits and downshits and they're basically the same thing so it'll more or less be refreshing old knowledge - but don't think I am the l33t skillz master at all of this!! I consider the entire thing an ongoing learning process.

Next up we're going to take a quick look at the Gift of Mana section.

[GoM]

GoMCOn=0 (Gift of Mana Conditions 1=On/0=Off).
GoMSize=3 (How many entries you want in the Gift of Mana section; mine says to generate 3 entries which you'll see below).
GoMSpell1=NULL (This is the first entry in the Gift of Mana section for you to add a spell to).
GoMSpell2=Ethereal Fuse
GoMSpell3=Krenk's Feralgia

Basically all the Gift of Mana section is - is a set of spells that you only want your character to use when Gift of Mana procs. I've included two spells in the section above, as you can see, as examples of spells you might find useful to put into this section.

Ethereal Fuse is a Wizard spell line that does an insane amount of damage - especially if it procs. I'd recommend including this into your Gift of Mana line up if desired. The next one is a Beastlord ability, Krenk's Feralgia. This is one of the abilities that summon mini swarm pets for the Beastlord but at an increased mana cost. This is another good example of a decent Gift of Mana spell choice.

That's really all there is to the Gift of Mana section. Nice simple and easy! Next up we're going to be taking a look at the AE aka AoE section.

[AE]

AEOn=0 (This will turn the AE section on or off depending on your tastes).

AESize=10 (This determines how many entries are generated when you create your INI. As you can see mine says 10 lines this means that I can have a total of 10 entries in my AE section)

AERadius=50 (This is the radius around your character that it will use to detect enemies to know if it should activate your AE abilities).

As you can see the list of AE abilities I have to show you isn't very long. This section can be used for two primary purposes the first is you can include a butt load of AE abilities in it to use when you're fighting a bunch of mobs. The second way you can use this section is if you'd like to pop protective abilities or cooldowns when you're fighting a butt load of mobs.

Note: The suffix isn't as important on AE abilities as you might think. If you don't add |Me to an ability like Shield Flash or Flash of Anger it'll still work just fine.

AE1=Circle of Flame|5
AE2=Host of the Elements|3

These are the first two entries in our AE section. The first of which is an AoE Wizard spell that deals fire damage to anything nearby. The second ability on the list is a Mage AA ability which conjures up an army of swarm pets to attack the mob you select.

If you couldn't have already guessed the numbers that come after the ability tell Kissassist to use the ability when there's that many enemies around. In this case, Circle of Flame will be used when there's 5 enemies within 50 yards and Host of the Elements will be used when there's 3 enemies within 50 yards.

AE3=Shield Flash|10|Me

This is the first ability in the list that's actually meant to be used on yourself and not on any enemies. For those of you who don't know Shield Flash allows you to block all incoming physical damage for a very short period of time. It's an extremely useful Hybrid AA which was implemented to give them something similar to Warrior's Flash of Anger.

Also as mentioned above, you don't actually need to use |Me at the end of this if you don't want to. I've included it since that's the proper format - the ability though will still fire if you don't include that suffix though. Arguably though, it's better to not include the suffix since when you do Kissassist targets your character which could possibly slow down your DPS some. I'm not too sure, just a theory.

AE4=Twincast|4

Again, another really easy one. This time it isn't a hostile ability though - it's a buff! I like to include regular Spell Twincast in almost every caster's INI under the AE section. I normally have it use Twincast when I pull one or two mobs too many. I save larger burns incase I get really really in over my head.

AE5=Spirit of Wood|5|Ma

This is a Druid AA ability which I included into this list to show you the |Ma suffix. This basically means cast the ability/spell on the person we assisted at the start of the macro. Since this is a group ability it'll affect the entire tank's group (or if you're in their group) your whole group. I usually include this ability in multiple spots of the INI as with some other abilities that way I can make sure it has a chance of firing under a multitude of situations and gets the most use.

AE6=Rampage|3|Mob

Finally we have Rampage with a new suffix, |Mob. I've included this into the list to show you the |Mob suffix despite the fact that I don't ever use it myself. It's the proper way to format these INI files but it seems to just create unnecessary redundancy if you ask me.

That's all for learning Kissassist (Part 2). There's still quite a bit more to teach you - to keep learning follow the link below to head on over to Part 3!

Continue to Learning More About Kissassist Part 3

Don't have MQ2 yet or want to learn more? Check out the RedGuides Compile of MQ2!