Is bard charm worthless, or am I doing something wrong?

[Jakob]

So I leveled to 27 and bought charm. I keep charming mobs and it will only last for around 5 seconds until my song just ends. Then, if I try to recharm the mob, I can't, because he will still be charmed for a few seconds more making him immune to my song....

Am I doing something wrong, or is my charm useless?

P.S. I just thought about possibly charming one mob, then when the song ends, charming the hostile mob, and trading back and forth between the two mobs. Would that even work?

[Tpyo]

Recharm after your song ends?

[Jakob]

Originally Posted by Tpyo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Recharm after your song ends?

Reading my original post you'll see that when I attempt to re-sing the stopped song, the mob is still actually conisidered an ally (like a player) and the song won't stick because the combat chat tells me that my target is "protected" - just like when you try to cast a song on a player when not in active pvp.

[Lazortag]

He said recharm *after* the song ends. Anyways, you're supposed to do this:

P.S. I just thought about possibly charming one mob, then when the song ends, charming the hostile mob, and trading back and forth between the two mobs. Would that even work?

This works very well. On the red server I can down all 8 spectres in oasis before repops, while most solo classes struggle keeping 4 down.

Bard charm is also good for crowd control despite not lasting very long.

[Paumad]

Originally Posted by Jakob [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Reading my original post you'll see that when I attempt to re-sing the stopped song, the mob is still actually conisidered an ally (like a player) and the song won't stick because the combat chat tells me that my target is "protected" - just like when you try to cast a song on a player when not in active pvp.

Could have something to do with all bard songs having ticks issues right now? Don't quote me though, could be an explanation and could be pending a fix.
Charm isn't worthless it's only very situational.

[Kender]

well charm lasts 3 ticks unless you get an early break (CHA helps with this). you can't leave the charm song on the target (like you can with mez) because as soon as the spell lands the target is a pet and therefore an invalid target for a detremental spell. twist a coule songs to help out (slow, regen, mana, whateverelseyourpartymightneed take your pick) then get some distance on the pet and get ready to recharm.

hide breaks charm as well if successful, as does invis song (but that's a pain)

[SirAlvarex]

I thought the low level charm allowed you to keep a pet charmed?

And that the high level charm had a much longer duration (1 minute says on the wiki, but everywhere else I've read just says "a long time").

The low level charm is rather weak, but the higher level charm is just as crappy but takes Mana.

Am I mis-remembering Bard Charm to always work like this, or was Bard Charm actually made *useful* in future patches after Velious?

[Yardcore]

When I was playing my bard back in the day, 2 factors that are helping me the most are the instrument level that I am using and +Cha gears. I noticed that it lasted a lot longer when I used +Cha gears vs regular gears.

[Lazortag]

I believe the kunark .spdat showed that Bard charm only lasts 2 (3?) ticks. If you find classic evidence of it lasting longer that would be sweet (can try castersrealm or everlore on the wayback machine).

Also, the higher level charm is better because it caps at 51 instead of 37, but obviously you should use the lower one if you're fighting specs/other sub-37 mobs because it costs no mana.

[Kevlar]

Bards could swarm kite on live. Pull 10 or so mobs, charm one send it at the swarm. They would all beat on the pet then you break charm when its about dead, only takes a couple seconds. Then chant it down, charm a new one, repeat.

I think proximity pet aggro is screwed on P1999 though so swarming is a no go here. I know I ruled the maidens eye and later on plane of nightmare on Firiona Vie. I'd have swarms of centi guys in the hundreds!