Is kiting viable in solo/6P HoE as non Zerker perks?

[LogicalBeast]

Maybe KF2 has me spoiled rotten because I could kite freely on maps like Burning Paris and Nuked, but here when I tried it on West London = RIP me lul, they just spawned from EVERYWHERE, Gorefasts and Crawlers closed the gap too efficiently even with knife running and the spawns felt waaaay rougher than KF2's pre summer update.

As soon as I camped church and welded one door = GG, they dead. Yet, on open maps like Farm and Mountain Pass I'm sure it's viable? Just asking as a Support main here, I realise with Zerk and Medic kiting is a walk in the park regardless of map. Also asking so I can settle on a "meta" for this game as I'm too used to KF2's meta of being able to kite freely on most maps if holding out turns sour. From what I've seen on YouTube so far they don't move around "too" much just hold a general area so to speak?

[BeavisOfArabia]

it is viable in maps where it is hard to get surrounded due to the nature of spawns. west london is easy to kite as long as you have a ranged weapon, mainly the lar. there are plenty of ways to reset los of fp's and you can stun scrakes with your axe after clearing out the trash. dont kite too fast on any map, otherwise the zeds will take alternative routes that will screw you over, here's an example: i have 30 zeds and im by front of the church. i run with my melee into the tunnel with the bus and quickly exit and enter the next tunnel. im now at the next tunnels exit where the alleyway is and didnt give zeds time to catch up to me. they have decided going through the first tunnel is slower to reach you and now will go through the alleyway to tunnel 2. what you want to do is to not kill all the zeds and make them respawn ahead of the area where you're going but to kill some zeds and make sure they're behind you.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

KF2 zeds teleport to cut you off, KF1 zeds are always behind you if you keep moving forward. Only 32 zeds are active at a time as well.

Because of this, every perk can Kite every map (done so myself), providing the player knows the map layout. Solo kiting is IMHO the most boring uneventfull tactic you can employ, it is only somewhat challenging when you are not playing zerk, but even so it is a reletively long and arduous chore rather than something that is engaging.

In multiplayer however, the lack of coordination between players makes it a total fuster cluck. Players falling behind or running too far ahead, killing zeds too fast, running the wrong way / getting lost, not line of sighting an FP, raging scrakes, welding doors they should'nt do so on so forth.

While you can still kite online when not playing zerk or medic, I would'nt advise it. Not unless you like being killed by an FP you broke line of sight on but a zerk did not, only to have the FP rage and have the offending zerk player run past you with it's speed boost so you take the hit for them.

[lazysiloth]

Non-zerker perks can not outrun charging specimen at all in KF1. At high difficulties specimen gain a whopping +30% average movement speed bonus, and game conductor really punishes explosive spam as well. Be careful where you are tossing nades at, as there are pretty risky areas at some maps which you never should chuck grenades when getting nearby.

When kiting, try to keep crosspath sightlines for denying any front spawns ahead as you killed from kited horde just enough. You have to watch for different spawn rates of sectioned areas while learning to read the map on a kite route. Sometimes it's about reading some obvious land marks (blood trails and ambient light color) and sometimes it's about memorizing some tightchoke areas working different than the others. Consider bailing the route if you're about to get flanked ahead, but sometimes full panic brings bad decisions as well.

Spawn intervals can change dynamically to how aggressive you played the game. At highest difficulty, I think intervals shuffle between 2-5 seconds. Count how many you killed and know 32 specimen on the map at a time as default, so you won't get surprised by a tactical clot as your turn the corner or get cross-fired between Husks you kite and Gore flock at the front. Once you recovered from a dense flank, follow a 15 seconds of kite and only kill front when things go out of hand.

To answer your question directly, it is viable but it'll be a challenge compared to sprinting away from feet dragging behemoths that beat the air at the slightest change of haste in KF2. Nor you'll have a breathing space to reload everything 50% faster neither can position better after a small misstep a little to the sides.

When specimen are enraged it's nearly impossible to outrun an enraged Scrake or Fleshpound in KF1, let along evading their hits by merely sprinting away from them. If you're still reloading as they're raging away, chances are you're good as dead. To add salt into the wound their hitboxes are wonky and all weapons in KF1 tend to show absurd recoil patterns the moment you lose your footing unlike KF2. You have to compensate for such hit-n-run penalties when firing in KF1.

You have to have a reliable sidearm and be sure you have equipped right way to deal with long distance, loaded on grenades to deny front spawns and have another sidearm ready when other stuff are emptied. It can be a melee weapon like Katana; a pistol like MK23 or Flare Revolver, either a rifle like Lever-action or Musket.
If you're a newbie and wanna try solo-kite, try DLC weapons like Flare Revolver and Musket; they're almost like foolproof. Hell, even a ZED Mk2.0 is an easy win when kiting off-perk as a Support or Firebug.

Most people prefer to stick to a hold spot as trying to kite only an option when things really went sour for damage burst perks like Demo, Sharp and Support. Unlike KF2, you can't deny any front spawns at chokeholds to kickstart your kite route without abusing nades which you are pretty limited. Also have a slower movement speed even with a knife to maintain eyesight denial at next corner.

When dashing through the exit with knife at hand any Clot can pin you down with ease in a blink, allowing bigger threats to close up the distance. When you need to run, don't stand around too much at corners. In case something big snuck under your nose, just run away and pay attention to the next turn.
Only stop by crossways when you have enough the distance and try not to waste ammo. Spamming shotguns or spraying automatic rifles at long range will be problematic as waves go by.

I also suggest watching videos and learning the mechanics of specimen. You won't need it when kiting solo but when kiting in a team speed-kills are appreciated more than panic M1 or dry nade spam.

[LogicalBeast]

MASSIVE thanks to you dudes, did a kite only run from waves 1-10 as Support on solo HoE, West London!!! :O :O :O AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! :D :D :D :D :D Give me another 400h on this game so I can match my skill in KF2 pls. :P (obviously I went Pipebomb strat on Patty, he's pretty rough to take down without them)

All I used were my Golden AA12 + Boomstick, only shot Gorefasts VERY close to me (you can hear their heavy breathing) as well as Crawlers (again you can hear their hiss behind you), 1v1'd FPs ONLY when clear to do so abusing the LOS trick Mohammed told me of, left Scrakes until last and Boomstick'd them, Stalkers I honestly ignored them unless they were directly blocking me as juking out their attacks is chill, I took corners really wide as naksiltoh mentioned about tactical clots on corners and dodged way more attacks than I used to. I do love how this game rewards consistency waaaaay more than KF2 does tbh, KF2 is just some RNG bs with teleports. -_-

Naksiloth's was optimal answer I was looking for in this thread though, cheers mate! To clarify a few things tho generally speaking:
- I KNOW not to kill too many at once, it's something I read in KF2's forums back when I was learning how to kite in that game. Can't recall the exact thread I read but, it was one of these 2 I'm sure of it (this or this), maybe even older thread. Started KF2 in Nov 2016, learned how to climb from Normal to HoE over 60 hours, checked the forums and YT for strats and improved from there :)

- Enraged FPs and Scrakes being basically unavoidable speed wise I also knew of, I've played KF on and off since Dec 2011 dudes :) Only map I've beaten on HoE in KF1 is West London, I know the map inside out. Beat it yesterday as well just to get my bearings back, but I'm probably gonna farm Hard to HoE for the achievements as I've Normal cleared ALL maps before I moved onto KF2, then came back to KF1 and realised that its HoE = KF2's HoE+ basically. >.< Not impossible tho, I did it yesterday and today. :)

- What naksiloth said about "To add salt into the wound their hitboxes are wonky" that WOULD explain why I can't always Boomstick/AA12 a FP reliably and had to use nade spam to help me a bit with takedowns. Oh well. Scrales are chill to take down in solo HoE just don't miss. :P

"feet dragging behemoths that beat the air at the slightest change of haste"...that WOULD explain why I could juke out attacks soooo easily in KF2 pre robots update. Kiting felt waaaay more chill in KF2, I could literally abuse bad pathfinding AI by jumping through window frames, on cars and so forth in Burning Paris like David Belle manoeuvring through his surroundings using parkour (I used to do parkour irl, then bad health issues happened :( ). Plus melee bash was just free stumbles on zeds in your way and DB jump as Support really helped me pull off some SICK clutches! :D

Whereas in KF1 you gotta be focused at ALL times, being sloppy as non Zerker just gets you killed. 32 zeds max tip REALLY helped me as well, I'm so used to 16 max zeds from KF2. But at least they're not teleporting mutants in KF1.

Summary: the tips are humbly appreciated guys, even though I've played KF on and off since Dec 2011 I was so used to KF2's mechanics coming back to KF1 after the bs update of summer was...interesting to say the least. I did West London solo HoE in Jan 2017, but then stuck with KF2 before coming back to my roots. <3