How well can Enchanters solo these days??

[Peiagh]

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

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 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Nanto]

Originally Posted by Splorf22 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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]

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

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 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Messianic]

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

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.