How well can Enchanters solo these days??

[Faywind]

Just curious.

I have an old enchanter on the shelf that I want to start up again...lvl 18 right now. I mostly solo since my play times are limited. Should I just re-roll a necro or continue with my enchanter. Ho well will he be able to solo?

Thanks in advance!

[Harrison]

Enchanters are arguably the most powerful solo class in the game up until PoP nerfs to charms.

[Maurk]

Necro's are less gear dependent than enchanters (or any other class for that matter),
But Enchanters solo just as well imo, and at higher levels you will pwn just about any camp you want.
And if you ever do want to group, you really never have to wait long, as enchanters are always in demand. :]

[Yinikren]

Maurk hit the nail on the head.

ENC's are fairly gear dependant, as you will be taking hits often, so having a bigger HP/Mana pool will allow you to solo longer before having to med. I can charm solo at 20 and kill 6-8 mobs on a mana pool before I need to sit and med for 8 mins or so. Works better than the animations, because at these low levels, they are too much mana to keep up.

Charm soloing => Find pet, tash, charm = 80 mana.
Find target, Start killing. =>Tash, Choke, Root. 100 mana. Med.
Kill target, while pet is hopefully <10%. Kill pet with a low level nuke. 20-50 Mana.
Total mana spent = 200 on a good pull, before meditation is taken into account and without a charm break. I can reasonably expect to med up 80-100 mana per pull, so the total cost was 100 mana. This is at 20.

Animation Soloing => Summon highest animation for your level. (White at 20. Hits for 22. Give it an offhand wep.) Med to full.
Buffs => Cloud, Quickness. 110 Mana.
Pull a mob with Tash, Slow, Choke, Root. 150 Mana.
Watch HP, because pet needs to regen. So you usually need to nuke the mob dead before it kills your pet. 45-150 Mana.
=> Med and rehaste, because it only lasts 5 minutes. 80 mana.

Charming is much, much easier at these levels.

[Vohl]

At level 32, I can charm solo Mistmoore from ZI to GY. My equipment is pretty minimal. Learn the zones you solo in and how to efficiently charm solo. You'll be fine.

[Rorke]

At level 32, I can charm solo Mistmoore from ZI to GY.

Until a PL group or twinked monk shows up at least :D

[Faywind]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

One last thing, I have about 500p to spend...what items should I focus on? +int, +cha, +hp/mana??

I don't really have anything for gear at this level except a stein of moggok and a Flowing black robe.

[Baa]

Enchanters are great soloers! Think most of the points are covered above, I would prob go with HP gear at lower levels... CHA is easy to get and INT becomes less relevant as you get higher.

[Vohl]

Until a PL group or twinked monk shows up at least :D

PLers are a pain in the butt. Monk twinks aren't bad at all -- I make a point of hitting them with Augmentation every so often and we stay out of each others' way.

[Netherzul]

Despite all of the charm soloing suggestions here, a majority of the 50+ Enchanters I see soloing, are in fact, not charm soloing. When you're above 50, hell, even 40, for that matter...charm soloing is too risky to take an EXP hit.

If you're hugging a zoneline I could see it being feasible, but a hasted dark blue pet to you, will rip you to shreds before you know what happened.

Before you go all, well mez it and re-charm...that leaves you waiting on that long ass, high charisma mez to wear off.

40+ - animation pet, slow target, haste pet, watch animation kill target.

It's about as simple as that. To help you understand the classes that can solo, it goes about like this.

In terms of OVERALL self sufficiency -

Necromancer - self heals, self mana regen, feign death, can split camps etc
Shaman - slows, heals, can split camps as well
Enchanter - same as above, minus heals
Druid - roots, long lasting, low mana cost ensnares, can break camps, heals etc
Magician - the usual Magician solo deal, fire pet, spam heal - cannot break camps, and usually 1-2 adds means death or camp out

Bards can be thrown in the mix there, but they're a completely different type of soloer.

[Peiagh]

If you're hugging a zoneline I could see it being feasible, but a hasted dark blue pet to you, will rip you to shreds before you know what happened.

I havent done much charm soloing myself (40 chanter here) mainly because I found it too risky without perma SoW or JBoots but if you were to charm solo (and sorry for OT and possibly retarded question) wouldnt you slow the mob you are fighting instead of hasting your pet for just that reason?

Regarding pet soloing I have found that with the quick healing level 39 animation I spend more time waiting for my mana after fights than for the pet to heal like i used to 29-39. Now the problem is that due to the pets low hp's mobs like specs and the randoms in DL can still drop a full HP animation very fast so I've been contemplating camping JBoots and trying charm soloing more.

[Splorf22]

Don't listen to these guys. Charm soloing works great all the way to 60, and it really isn't hard (EQ in general is more about spending 5000 hours in front of the computer than developing massive skill). And no, you don't have to be next to the zone.

Side note: Unlike most casters, Enchanters are somewhat gear dependent, so to really charm solo well you need 200 charisma (easily obtainable for me at level 40+ even as a Gnome with 75 base charisma with self buffs and Rod of Insidious Glamour, Siryn Hair Hood, Crude Stein, etc) and a Goblin Gazughi Ring if you aren't a Dark Elf (more annoying, but still not more than a few thousand plat IIRC). This lets you break charm without casting invisibility and waiting for the 2.5 second recast delay during which your ex pet is beating on you.

A few tips:

Know the locations of the mobs, especially the pathing ones. If you get jumped by mob #3, things can get ugly.

Always use Rune. If you are cheap, you can put Berserker in a spell slot above it.

Always root the target your pet is fighting. Especially at 49+, Paralyzing Earth lasts forever. This way the only time you are in serious danger is when root and charm break at the same time.

Always charm the caster mobs. This is critical because Wizards and Shamans can nuke you while rooted (bad). Fighting two casters at once is very dangerous and not recommended.

This goes double for summoning mobs - fighting two at once is a recipe for disaster. You can however kill one by charming it and having it fight weaker mobs. The key here is to stand right behind it, so that when charm breaks you are already in melee range. Otherwise it will summon you, and since it is facing mob #2, that places you right between the two.

Charm mobs near the dark blue floor. You will get fewer resists, longer charm durations, and shorter fights due to less mob HP. Especially at 40+ the HP increase is ridiculous; it's something like L40: 2500 HP, L45: 5000 HP, L50: 10000 HP. So charm has to last 4 times as long on a 50/50 fight vs a 40/40 fight.

Set up your UI correctly. Make a hotkey for color flux (I generally did stun/L4 mez since color flux has a casting time of 1.5 seconds compared to 2.5 for mez) with three /cast X lines, which will basically allow you to ignore fizzles. Add an audio trigger for 'Your X spell has worn off', and after a while hitting stun will just become a reflex as soon as charm breaks. With a little practice you should get very good at recharming.

Never use DoT spells (I usually prefer the L1 nuke due to the silly 'you must damage the mob for full XP' rule). If your pet is losing, the best strategy is to back it off at <5% health, mez thing 2, break charm, nuke the former pet, and go look for another pet to finish off thing 2 (memblur if you can't find anything).

The only time I really died was when I either was tired after a long session of grinding or when I took chances. But I still recommend a lot of grouping, and casting clarity on every cleric you see . . . .

[Hagglebaron]

Aren't goblin gazughi rings considerably more expensive then a few thousand plat?

[Splorf22]

I could be wrong about that - I got mine off the rotting corpse of the courier directly and in a rather lucky fashion. I would pay almost any price for it though - a Gazughi Ring will help you way more than a Hierophant's Cloak, for example.

One last thing: IMO the main fun in soloing is testing yourself. A well played enchanter can solo camps no other class can come close to (I laugh at the guy who claimed necros can solo better than enchanters. The reality is for 1-59 enchanters are by FAR the most OP class in EQ).

But ultimately the fun in EQ is about making friends and spending time with them, not racing to 60. I can tell you from experience that being level 60 is rather boring, especially as an enchanter. Basically, your class abilities are so OP that Verant simply disabled them for most high end mobs (imagine being able to charm or mez Nagafen). So raiding for an enchanter is mostly sitting and casting clarity/haste on people that ask for it.

[Peiagh]

Thanks very much for the Charm soloing tips - it will be something to work on whilst LFG :)

[Nanto]

Don't listen to these guys. Charm soloing works great all the way to 60, and it really isn't hard (EQ in general is more about spending 5000 hours in front of the computer than developing massive skill). And no, you don't have to be next to the zone.

Side note: Unlike most casters, Enchanters are somewhat gear dependent, so to really charm solo well you need 200 charisma (easily obtainable for me at level 40+ even as a Gnome with 75 base charisma with self buffs and Rod of Insidious Glamour, Siryn Hair Hood, Crude Stein, etc) and a Goblin Gazughi Ring if you aren't a Dark Elf (more annoying, but still not more than a few thousand plat IIRC). This lets you break charm without casting invisibility and waiting for the 2.5 second recast delay during which your ex pet is beating on you.

A few tips:

Know the locations of the mobs, especially the pathing ones. If you get jumped by mob #3, things can get ugly.

Always use Rune. If you are cheap, you can put Berserker in a spell slot above it.

Always root the target your pet is fighting. Especially at 49+, Paralyzing Earth lasts forever. This way the only time you are in serious danger is when root and charm break at the same time.

Always charm the caster mobs. This is critical because Wizards and Shamans can nuke you while rooted (bad). Fighting two casters at once is very dangerous and not recommended.

This goes double for summoning mobs - fighting two at once is a recipe for disaster. You can however kill one by charming it and having it fight weaker mobs. The key here is to stand right behind it, so that when charm breaks you are already in melee range. Otherwise it will summon you, and since it is facing mob #2, that places you right between the two.

Charm mobs near the dark blue floor. You will get fewer resists, longer charm durations, and shorter fights due to less mob HP. Especially at 40+ the HP increase is ridiculous; it's something like L40: 2500 HP, L45: 5000 HP, L50: 10000 HP. So charm has to last 4 times as long on a 50/50 fight vs a 40/40 fight.

Set up your UI correctly. Make a hotkey for color flux (I generally did stun/L4 mez since color flux has a casting time of 1.5 seconds compared to 2.5 for mez) with three /cast X lines, which will basically allow you to ignore fizzles. Add an audio trigger for 'Your X spell has worn off', and after a while hitting stun will just become a reflex as soon as charm breaks. With a little practice you should get very good at recharming.

Never use DoT spells (I usually prefer the L1 nuke due to the silly 'you must damage the mob for full XP' rule). If your pet is losing, the best strategy is to back it off at <5% health, mez thing 2, break charm, nuke the former pet, and go look for another pet to finish off thing 2 (memblur if you can't find anything).

The only time I really died was when I either was tired after a long session of grinding or when I took chances. But I still recommend a lot of grouping, and casting clarity on every cleric you see . . . .


Where would you solo nowadays from 58-60... Chardok? Karnor?

[Splorf22]

Where would you solo nowadays from 58-60... Chardok? Karnor?

At L58 you are high enough level to do both. Karnor's is easier as the mobs are lower level, but Chardok has caster mobs to manatap - I had literally 0 downtime there. Of course the caster mobs also make things more dangerous. Also some of the Myrmidons and Aruspices summon, which definitely adds to the difficulty level. There is nothing quite so obnoxious as getting 'Your target has resisted the Allure spell'. From a pure XP'ing viewpoint though, I preferred AoE groups in Skyfire. The XP rate was about the same, but it was a hell of a lot less work.

But, why would you want to? I ended up deleting my character like 2 weeks after I got level 60. Raiding Hate and Fear aren't too bad for an enchanter, but in Sky you are total buffbot. And forget about Dragons - if you want to do the real endgame content you a) must join a powerguild like TR and b) be on call and ready to log in at all times. And again, you'll basically just be buffbotting. From what I understand Velious is more of the same, since giants and dragons are all immune to stun and therefore mez. Really the only thing you can do at L60 is farm gear for an alt or two. Which I did, but in the end I decided I had basically beaten the game anyway :)

[Messianic]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

One last thing, I have about 500p to spend...what items should I focus on? +int, +cha, +hp/mana??

I don't really have anything for gear at this level except a stein of moggok and a Flowing black robe.

Buy 55hp 5 ac rings. You will get more mileage out of those than anything else.

[Faywind]

Awesome, thanks for all the great information guys!

So from what I understood here, if I don't have 200+ CHA then I would be better off soloing using my animation instead of charm soloing. I doubt that I can get above 150 CHA right now with my limited funds.

Thanks again everyone!

[Striiker]

For the times that I was soloing, I used my animation up to 30ish in SolA exclusively. I only charm when I have a valid exit close by. I found a great spot in The Mines of Nurga which I used to solo now and then through my 30's via Charm. This place is caster heavy and I pretty much always had caster vs caster.. Made life.. interesting. Loot sucked there but XP was great.

I do urge you to group as much as possible as that is where the fun is. I would solo when I only had about an hour available or when I anticipated having to go AFK suddenly (like my daughter waking up). I've found that getting an enchanter in a group to be a challenge at times (when playing my SK). I therefore had great success starting new groups with my enchanter as the challenging role was already filled by me (Crowd Control). Getting a healer was often fairly easy. Getting a tank can be a challenge. Filling out the rest with DPS / backup heals etc. was a snap. The point here being that you should take it upon yourself to form the group instead of waiting for someone to notice you.

[Autotune]

I could be wrong about that - I got mine off the rotting corpse of the courier directly and in a rather lucky fashion. I would pay almost any price for it though - a Gazughi Ring will help you way more than a Hierophant's Cloak, for example.

One last thing: IMO the main fun in soloing is testing yourself. A well played enchanter can solo camps no other class can come close to (I laugh at the guy who claimed necros can solo better than enchanters. The reality is for 1-59 enchanters are by FAR the most OP class in EQ).

But ultimately the fun in EQ is about making friends and spending time with them, not racing to 60. I can tell you from experience that being level 60 is rather boring, especially as an enchanter. Basically, your class abilities are so OP that Verant simply disabled them for most high end mobs (imagine being able to charm or mez Nagafen). So raiding for an enchanter is mostly sitting and casting clarity/haste on people that ask for it.

Necros can solo better than enchanters. Period.

Enchanters might be more OP, but definitely not better at soloing.

[greatdane]

I leveled an enchanter to 52 almost exclusively through charm-kiting, I'd have done it to 60 if I had cared to keep playing the character. I did like ten levels in the Cazic-Thule sewers, wearing pretty modest gear, so you don't even have to be extremely safe to do it. It's definitely harder now without the bugged whirl and troll illusion, but it's perfectly doable. You'll want to have 200 charisma, more than that is nice but not necessary, and you'll want to wear HP gear in every slot you can find. If you can't afford charisma gear, make that your top priority after 5/55 rings. Most of the gear is dirt cheap by now, and you can quest for some of it yourself in your mid-30s or so. Things like Rod of Insidious Glamour and Incandescent Mask that used to go for 1k each can now be bought for a few hundred if you're patient, and the rest of the set is stuff like JC bracelets and drake-hide leggings that you can get for pocket change. This is what you'll want to aim for:

Neck: I know there's a new one in Kunark but I can't remember the name, so go for the JC one or that gypsy medallion
Head: Siryn Hair Hood, should be under 1k, maybe under 500 now
Face: Incandescent Mask, used to be upwards of 1k but probably also 500ish by now, can quest it fairly early if you get someone to kill the Mistmoore mob for you
Earrings: Opalline Earrings from Unrest (should be like 50-100 each, you can just camp them in your 20s)

Rings: 5/55 ones, don't wear charisma rings in the one slot you can get great HP in for little money
Wrists: Those JC ones, they should be like 75 each or something
Arms: Nothing really, you could get Gatorscale if you care, or even Azure Sleeves
Hands: Nothing affordable, just wear whatever you have at hand (hehe)

Shoulders: Nothing much, there's that HP/mana cape from LGuk but it's not that cheap
Chest: Noble's Robe
Back: Not much to be had on a budget, don't spend on +int if you're poor, goal would be Hooded Black Cloak for 3k or so
Waist: Again nothing, maybe Braided Cinch Cord down the line
Legs: Drake-hide Leggings, should be like a couple hundred at most
Feet: Nothing much except maybe Kobold-hide Boots

Primary: Rod of Insidious Glamour, 500-1kish, can quest it in your 30s
Secondary: A Crude Stein, loot it in Oggok whenever someone is camping the guards
Ranged: Nothing worthwhile

All those little +10 HP from things like Gatorscale Sleeves, Braided Cinch Cord and Kobold-hide Boots add up nicely, but charisma gear is by far more important and it's the only thing you really need. When you have 200 charisma, you're ready to charm-kite. Notes:

- Make liberal use of your level 4 mez. It's great, costs almost no mana, and is conveniently short. You should always have this memorized, and you should use it whenever you might otherwise take some damage. When charming a mob, for instance, I'd first mez it, then tash, then charm.

- Don't fuck around with stupid things like hasting your pet and/or slowing its target. Your goal is to have your pet kill its target while retaining as little HP as possible so that you can break charm and kill it afterwards. Trying to make a pet last more than one kill is dangerous, not only because there's a higher risk of charm breaking at a bad time when you keep it that long but because a charm break on a hasted mob is bad news.

- Target mob should be rooted at all times, and you should be far enough from both that you can quickly mez your pet if charm breaks, before it reaches you.

- Always keep Gate memorized and don't be afraid to gate if the situation looks likely to turn bad. Don't hestitate to do it or it'll usually be too late. You're better off gating 10 times when it wasn't necessary two of those times than you are dying three times. Also keep your best AoE stun (the color spray line) and use it whenever a mob gets up to you.

- Keep your rune up at all times. When you get higher level and your runes start costing peridots, just keep using the one that costs a bloodstone or jasper or whatever it is. It'll do the job most of the time, you should get any situation under control after one or two rounds of melee.

- Your spells generate huge aggro. All of them. Don't expect your charmed pet to hold aggro unless you don't cast anything in the target mob. It should always be rooted anyway, but still keep it in mind. Also, when your charm breaks, all the aggro your pet had generated is transferred to you. Never try to get your pet to take aggro, always just root the target mob.

- Avoid caster mobs if at all possible. You're super frail and they'll wreck you if things don't go perfectly. If you have to deal with a caster, charm it and then try to make sure it's almost dead when it kills the target, then break charm and instantly mez it. If one nuke won't kill it, walk right up to it, then nuke it, immediately stun it with your color spray variant, then mez, then nuke again. You do not want to risk getting a big fat poison dot on you or letting the mob heal itself so you have to nuke it several times. You'll get mana back much faster than you can regen HP, so don't be afraid to spend a little extra to prevent damage.

- If you have to wait for anything while you have a charmed pet, try to have it guard somewhere fairly far away from you if possible. That'll let you mez and re-charm it without getting hit in case it breaks. Sitting right next to your charmed pet should only happen in small spaces or unsafe places where it can't be avoided.

- Remember to keep troll illusion up at all times. It used to be bugged and hugely overpowered, providing like +5 regen. It only gives +1 now, but it's still worthwhile, you take forever to get HP back and every little bit helps.

[Splorf22]

Necros can solo better than enchanters. Period.

Enchanters might be more OP, but definitely not better at soloing.

For single targets outdoors, sure. For undead, it's probably a toss-up. And it does take a while to get that 200+ charisma. But anywhere else? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think a necromancer could solo even something easy like the Chardok entrance, let alone something tricky like the King in Guk. For example, soloing 2 dark blues as an enchanter is lull/mez/tash/charm/root/pet attack/l1 nuke/charm break/stun/mez/recharm/get XP/break charm/mez/nuke. In 3-4 minutes I can kill two L45+ mobs and still be FM at the end. If you can do that as a Necromancer, my hat is off to you.

Regarding CHA gear: Great Dane has pretty good advice. Incandescent Mask (+7) and Rod of Insidious Glamour (+12) are both pretty easy to get at L30 with some help. Crude stein (+15) is I think 100p or so in East Commonlands, but I got mine for free just running down to Feerot and asking to loot from someone killing the guards. The CHA bracers (+7 each) are also cheap, and Opalline Earrings (+5) and Nobles Robes (+5) are also cheap, as well as Drake Hide Leggings (+5). So that is +68 charisma for under 500p. For another 1K you can get a Gypsy Medallion (+9) and a Siryn Hair Hood (+11 IIRC), bringing you to +88. The L34 charisma buff is something like +30, so that's +118, meaning you are close to 200 even if you started with a low charisma race. AFAIK the effect of charisma is linear up to the soft cap, meaning if your average charm is X at 100 charisma, it will be 1.5X at 150 charisma, and 2.0X at 200 charisma.

I don't recommend memorizing gate - enchanters just don't get enough spell slots for it. Instead, make a spellset with ONLY gate in the bottom slot (all others empty). You can the /mem gate and cast fairly quickly, although you do have to pay the recast time.

[Yinikren]

Also, a note about caster mobs: Dotting mobs are usually ok to solo. The cool thing about mobs is they can't damage you when they are your pet. If you get dotted by a mob, due to charm break or whatever, recharm it and your dots will all drop. Useful when charming a caster.

[Galanteer]

nice thing about enchanter -can effectively charm solo at most levels, can effectively solo with animation at all levels, can effectively duo with most classes, and is highly desired in groups.

[Snagglepuss]

Hi all,

I haven't logged in since last December, and I remember charm being very dependent on charisma levels over 200 as well as being ineffective pre-39. I've searched through the forum, but I was wondering if anyone could re-cap the current charm situation for Enchanters with regard to its effectiveness at lower levels and realistically obtainable charisma levels.

I solo-charmed on live almost exclusively to 50, but I would get very frustrated on p1999 when charm would only last 20 seconds or so at level 20. I read somewhere that charm is no longer as charimsa dependent? Is this true?