Charm soloing; any tips out there?

[stefblac]

Hey I've just started a chanter because charm soloing sounds fun. Once I hit 12 I eagerly scribed and memmed up charm. I picked out a lion for my first victim and I quickly set him upon another. They were beating on one another and all was going well until charm broke and they both went at me with all the ferocity of a lion. I managed to root them both in place and mem blur them. I have tried charming a few more times but so far battles have typically ended this way; charm seems to break very soon and I end up having to CC them both. So has anyone got any tips for me? I would look up some walkthough type articles on the net but I fear some things may be different on this server and hence render them useless. My chr is 179 and I have a few more chr items to transfer onto him but that said, what effect will a high chr have on charm? Am I doomed to a life of mem blurring lions until I get higher? help me out guys!

[nicemace]

cha

lots of it.

[Omnimorph]

Charm only becomes usable with 200+cha, so buy cha gear. Charm's determining factor is MR, so make sure that whatever you're charming is always tashed.

Once you get that sorted, you should have a longer term pet. I haste my pet, make him dual wield if he can. I pull the mob i want to kill with tash, i root it, slow it and send in pet. I keep root on it throughout the whole fight so if charm breaks i only have one mob chasing me.

With a full duration charm i can usually have my pet kill 3 or 4 mobs with my nuking once, and then the pet will be low health in which case it's time to break charm and kill it. Med up and restart.

Choosing the right mobs to fight is another key. Preferably mobs that hit above their weights with lower hp.

[guineapig]

To get you started try to obtain the following items through auction, jewelrycraft or just camping them:

platinum star ruby veil +9
(2X) electrum star ruby ring +14
platinum cat's eye neck. +9
(2X) golden cat's eye bracer. +14
crude stein +15
noble's robes +6
siryn hair hood +13
(2x) Opalline Earring +10
Rod of Insidious Glamour +12
---------------------------
Total = 102

Get a buff:
radiant visage (buff) +30
(the shaman charisma buff is even better I think)
-------------------------
grand total = 132 (or better)

If you are a high elf you can put all your starting stats into stamina and int and still have 90 base charisma which would already put you at 222 Charisma.

Hope this helps somewhat.

[Malrubius]

To get you started try to obtain the following items through auction, jewelrycraft or just camping them:

platinum star ruby veil +9
(2X) electrum star ruby ring +14
platinum cat's eye neck. +9
(2X) golden cat's eye bracer. +14
crude stein +15
noble's robes +6
siryn hair hood +13
(2x) Opalline Earring +10
Rod of Insidious Glamour +12
---------------------------
Total = 102

Get a buff:
radiant visage (buff) +30
(the shaman charisma buff is even better I think)
-------------------------
grand total = 132 (or better)

If you are a high elf you can put all your starting stats into stamina and int and still have 90 base charisma which would already put you at 222 Charisma.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Thanks gp - this helps a ton. A few things I've been wondering about...

1 - Would you say that CHA has a much bigger impact (on charm duration) here than it did in Classic EQ?

2 - CHA has a smaller impact here than it did a few months ago, correct?

3 - Would you say that MR has a much bigger impact (on charm duration) than CHA does - just like in Classic?

[pickled_heretic]

Could a jeweler post prices for the cha jewelry listed here or send me a PM?

[guineapig]

Could a jeweler post prices for the cha jewelry listed here or send me a PM?

gold bars cost 10pp a piece, platinum bars cost 100pp a piece.

All the gems you need are available in the blue building in NFP (too lazy to look up the prices at the moment :p ).

Don't let anyone mark up the price too far on you. Obviously they need to make up for skill-up costs but some people can get mad greedy.

[Reiker]

Last shaman cha buff is +40.

[guineapig]

Thanks gp - this helps a ton. A few things I've been wondering about...

1 - Would you say that CHA has a much bigger impact (on charm duration) here than it did in Classic EQ?

I'm not the best person to ask. General consensus is that people back in '99 did not know as much about game mechanics as they do now and usually gave up on charm as a reliable play method until the advent of Dire Charm (PoP era).

I sadly fall into this category, I never attempted to max out my charisma on live before I hit level 65 and by then I had dire charm.

2 - CHA has a smaller impact here than it did a few months ago, correct?

I can vouch for this but I cannot say how much less. It used to be that if your charisma was 201 you could have a charm last full duration without much worry. Recently I had Lava Beetles breaking charm occasionally after a minute or two (at around 232 charisma) , but sometimes lasting as much as ten.
(I don't charm unless I have to so I have not been keeping notes on this stuff.)

3 - Would you say that MR has a much bigger impact (on charm duration) than CHA does - just like in Classic?

I can definitely see a big impact on the magic resistance of mobs. Trying to charm a white con mob in the planes, even after landing tash = pain.

Certain blue con mobs in the planes will also break charm after only a minute or two even with both tash and malo.

I recall 2 of us having Clerics of Innoruk charmed during a Maestro raid recently where both chanters had well over 200 charisma but still had to recharm our pets a couple times before we engaged as well as during the fight.
On the other hand I could charm a kobold in solb and probably not worry about it for a good 12-13 minutes.



Hope I'm helping more than confusing...

[guineapig]

Last shaman cha buff is +40.

Danke!
What Reiker said. :)

[Yoite]

avoid mobs that cast, not only do they do crappy dps b/c they are trying to cast, the cleric and wizard type mobs will have higher MR due to them buffing themselves

[guineapig]

Start super easy and gradually work your way up.
Don't be embarassed to start by killing greens with your charmed pet to get an idea of how long your charm lasts, how strong the pet is, etc.

Find outdoor areas, close to a zoneline. Know the pathing of anything that might aggro before you start. Tons of good places to practice all over the world.

Once you get the hang of greens, do light blues, then blues.

Stuns are your freind!

The aoe short duration stuns combined with the whirl till you hurl line will help you reestablish control. Have a minumum of 2 of these up at all times. get in the habit of retashing before you recharm.

Use troll form to regen if you are soloing. carry bandages and skill up at bind wound.

Don't be cheap, use your AC buff, your lower level rune and even berzerker strength until you feel comfortable enough without them. You have these damage absorbers for a reason.

rooting the mob that your pet is attacking is a good habit so you only have to deal with 1 mob trying to interrupt you when recasting charm instead of 2.

Best way to start charming is to get your gear squared away first then find a group that wont mind you messing with it. The additional DPS can be huge and if the group has a backup healer then keeping you alive should not be an issue.

[Malrubius]

I'm not the best person to ask. General consensus is that people back in '99 did not know as much about game mechanics as they do now and usually gave up on charm as a reliable play method until the advent of Dire Charm (PoP era).

I sadly fall into this category, I never attempted to max out my charisma on live before I hit level 65 and by then I had dire charm.



I can vouch for this but I cannot say how much less. It used to be that if your charisma was 201 you could have a charm last full duration without much worry. Recently I had Lava Beetles breaking charm occasionally after a minute or two (at around 232 charisma) , but sometimes lasting as much as ten.
(I don't charm unless I have to so I have not been keeping notes on this stuff.)



I can definitely see a big impact on the magic resistance of mobs. Trying to charm a white con mob in the planes, even after landing tash = pain.

Certain blue con mobs in the planes will also break charm after only a minute or two even with both tash and malo.

I recall 2 of us having Clerics of Innoruk charmed during a Maestro raid recently where both chanters had well over 200 charisma but still had to recharm our pets a couple times before we engaged as well as during the fight.
On the other hand I could charm a kobold in solb and probably not worry about it for a good 12-13 minutes.



Hope I'm helping more than confusing...

No, that helps a lot. One thing I noticed though...

Ten minutes? 12-13 minutes!?!? This surprises me since in classic the max was about 7:30. Hopefully that's bugged (I'll bug it myself once I'm high enough level to start noticing it :p ).

[Landis]

charm definitely lasted for 10+ minutes at level 60 in live, kunark era.

[guineapig]

No, that helps a lot. One thing I noticed though...

Ten minutes? 12-13 minutes!?!? This surprises me since in classic the max was about 7:30. Hopefully that's bugged (I'll bug it myself once I'm high enough level to start noticing it :p ).


Sorry I should have added I'm using Dazzle. The lower level spells have lower max durations.