I haven't really tried to 'kite' much of anything (other than just running around grabbing loot ;P). However I did notice one spot which was much harder to get through than normal: The guardian in the back of Verona that guards the girl you have to take back to Debir.

I normally sneak right past it, grab the women, loot the area, and leave without problems. This time I got past, but took like 12 tries to return again. Not sure why.

Oh, I also noticed that the Student's Belt, which gives class based runes every 8% of combats, no longer triggers if it is in your backpack. Sigh. Found two of them too.

However, if the map placement is as it should be, the small kiting power run works wonders. All you need is to get a map of Verona on Scarlet and a map of Elon on the beach close to the pier, rather than the one close to the bridge.

In that case, you can do a power run: Debir (fish quest, get Scarlet map) - Scarlet (loot, get Verona map) - Verona (loot, get Elon map) - Elon (loot + get Sheterra map, get Moro as well) - Sheterra (fasmodey quest + loot) - Debir. It takes just over 2 days and equals at least level 12 (could be more if you luck out with a few XP shrines), a few black/red/green eggs, a lot of gold and possibly a few items that will make the start a lot easier.

You start with a dragon, built up skills, possibly the trap spell (use the green dragon in that case, because of his skill to pull up an enemy unit a hex in preferred direction, having it land on a trap this way) which you will easily level up against the weak enemies on Debir.

But sometimes the map to Verona on Scarlet is guarded by a unit that doesn't move at all and that's annoying.

Are you sure? I am fairly certain it triggered after I unequipped it, but it seems like the rate of runes it drops is a lot lower than 8%....

Well I've done at least a dozen battles now, with two in my inventory. That should give me pretty good odds on getting at least one ( 86.4% ), but there is still a possibility I just got unlucky, so no, I am not 'sure'. If it gets down to the .99% range it starts getting hard to ignore.

Probability is a funny thing. Even if the math indicates otherwise.

I think I have gotten maybe 3 of them, and I have done at least 50+ battles (since I got the mind rune banner released around the same time).

Twice when equipped, once when not equipped.

It does seem like the odds are lower than in AP though but who knows. Haha.

[edit]
Ah, been a while since I did probability.

Your odds of getting at least one rune should be even higher, at 87.6% (unless the calculator i'm using is incorrect).

That is assuming that the game intelligently rolls for both belts (would be pretty messed up if it didn't).

Any verdict on this? Do you need to be wearing the belt in Crossworlds to obtain the rune benefit?

I believe Zechnophobe is correct. I proceeded to nearly finish the game, and never got another rune from the belt.

You probably have to be wearing it now.

It depends, I think, on what unit that is. In my game, it was represented on the adventure map by Royal Griffins, and they only moved 1 square - but due to the animation, the griffin just got up to fly and then landed again in the same place. I bet if it was a walker, it'd have moved.

(Getting back from that place was still a pain, though, because the way back was blocked by the Dragonfly hero with a Lethal army... took me several tries until I finally got round him on the road to Magnat's castle)

It is actually a pathing issue. Slowly step more to the right (behind it) and you can easily walk past it.

If you don't do that proper right-step first, your heroine paths right into the butt of the enemy even though it is somewhat easy to sneak past it going in.