Charm Time and Setup

[Bulzie]

I'm just level 30 but seems like my charm is breaking really fast like before even killing 1 mob. Sometimes it lasts a good while but not too often. Could it be my Cha is too low or should I make sure I tash the pet every time before charm? Any other tasks I am missing on a pet to make it last longer or not really at my level?

[DeathsSilkyMist]

I'm just level 30 but seems like my charm is breaking really fast like before even killing 1 mob. Sometimes it lasts a good while but not too often. Could it be my Cha is too low or should I make sure I tash the pet every time before charm? Any other tasks I am missing on a pet to make it last longer or not really at my level?

What is the level of the mob you are charming? Level difference can be a big factor in charm breaks. At lower levels it is often tempting to charm a mob that is white, yellow, or only 2-3 levels below you.

[Bulzie]

Most are blue to me.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Most are blue to me.

Yeah you should take a look at the wiki to see roughly what level range the mob is. Unfortunately at lower levels, mobs green out in a smaller level range than at higher levels. For example, a level 5 stops getting experience from a level 1 mob, while a level 60 can get experience from level 40 mobs.

This makes lower level charming a bit more unreliable, because you are forced to charm mobs closer to your level if you want them to be a blue con mob. A level 60 could charm a level 45 mob, which is 15 levels below them, and still get experience from them. You are probably charming a mob only a few levels below you.

Tash the mob for sure if you can, this will help. You can also give your pet -MR gear, but if you aren't keeping the pet, this can be impractical.

[Vivitron]

Level difference is huge, and yeah tash it and cha probably helps.

If you get resists on your other spells (stun, early root breaks, etc.) it's an indication you're probably going to have increased charm break rate too (and you are less likely to survive the breaks; resists make charm breaks much more dangerous). On easy pets you probably still get an early charm break about once per 6-7 minutes or so.

[Toxigen]

205 cha is your end goal

get as much of it as you can

itll get easier as you gain levels - blue con mobs will have an increasingly wider gap to your own

ideally, try to stick with mobs that are just barely blue con for now...if theres a small mix of XP greens here and there thats ok...everything will go a lot smoother

[Wakanda]

I know this isn’t really relevant to OP, but idk t want to make a separate thread, but why is necro charm so OP �� my necro has negative charisma and I’ve never had charm break, I always end up killing the mob or letting it die

[PatChapp]

I didn't hit 200cha buffed until 50+, as stated your maybe just charming too high level of a mob. Should aim for around level 25 stuff at 30. The lower end of dark blue is usually safest, you'll die less and spend less mana.

[fortior]

I know this isn’t really relevant to OP, but idk t want to make a separate thread, but why is necro charm so OP �� my necro has negative charisma and I’ve never had charm break, I always end up killing the mob or letting it die

Necro charm doesn't rely on charisma at all. It's a lot more random as a result. Enchanters have a -MR spell and can use charisma to boost their charming ability even further, so as you gear and level up your charms become more consistent than a necro's.

Necro lull/paci DOES use charisma.

@OP, like the others said, level difference is the thing that matters most for charm durability. As a level 30, a level 26 is gonna con blue to you, but the level delta is only 4. At 60, a blue con might be as much as 15 levels lower than you. Additionally, you'll have even more -MR debuffage then. Just assume charms will break relatively fast until like lv40 or so, and watch your own safety. You can use -MR items to help, but know that it's mainly level difference that'll make the diff.

[zelld52]

As others have said the level difference is the most important factor for landing any spell, not just charm.

You'd think that a mob that is blue con would be easy to land spells on - but it's not. As a 60 enchanter, I still have trouble landing spells on level 51-55 mobs. But, the level 40-50 mobs very rarely cause any trouble.

charisma does not have an effect charm duration. it supposedly has an effect on the initial cast - but the real reason enchanters stack charisma is to avoid critical fails on pacify.

even if you have 255 charisma, give your pet -40 MR in gear - if the level difference between you and the pet isnt large enough - the charm will break early and often.

[zelld52]

im trying to find it but i saved screengrab of one of the original EQ developers explaining how they coded things like hit chance, spells landing etc -- and the level difference has the largest weight of any of the variables.

[enjchanter]

mob level >>>MR >>>>>>>> charisma

[fortior]

yeah it's really not that big a deal (cha) but it does matter and since charming is all you're gonna do why not optimize it

[Wakanda]

IDK if this is useful info but I started doing the gators in CT at 31... not that long ago. I didn't need charm to last that long since the gators were only good for 1 fight basically, and I would try to use dark elf hide to kill both gators at the end of every fight. I kept root on non-pet gator to help minimize chances of me dying during charm break. I easily got to 35 doing this, but then went to south karana and did gnolls to get through 35 since it was a hell level.

[kaltice34]

From what I've read on the forums deep diving every 6 seconds there is a charm break check. It involves 3 parts. It checks the level difference between you and the charmed pet which tends to be the most important check as people have discussed so far. The second check is a magic resist check. Finally, the 3rd and final catch all is a charisma check. I don't know about the initial check for a charm etc. I would have to look more into that but I've always gone by the 3 check rule where level difference is more important than the others. The other 2 are just a fall back if the first fails to give enchanters that little extra edge.

In terms of the OP's question, it is most likely a combination of these 3 checks failing. If the charm is breaking before even killing one mob I have to go with everyone else and say that mob's level is too close to your own. I find the best range to be if a pet is 4 - 7 levels below you. Low level tash is usually pretty bad but if you're level 30 then you have a decent one. You definitely want to mez, tash, and then charm a pet. It also does sound like your cha may be low. I focused on getting my cha as high as possible before getting any +int items so if you are highly int focused I would switch up your gear as cha is of much more importance. You have clarity so having a huge mana pool isn't as important. I know tash never seems to last long enough at your level but it is definitely going to help. Figure out the levels of the mobs you're fighting and charm something at least 4 levels below you. Lastly cha - get it as close to 205 as you can. The closer you are to 200 the better results you will see. At higher levels enchanter gets a +50 cha buff so you only need 205 to get yourself maxed at 255.

[Goregasmic]

Been soloing in charasis lately on my 55 chanter with 243cha self buffed and in the vast majority of fights I'll get zero charm breaks but sometimes I'll get 3 in a row. I've seen a 60 chanter charm the same mobs dropping 2 adamantite bands on it and he still got more breaks than I would have thought. Charm breaks will happen no matter what but you have some control on minimizing them and outside of tashing (which should be automatic) and dropping -mr gear on them (which you'll rarely do), the other variables you don't really have any control on.

I started fresh on p99 in january so I had zero twink gear and I was perma broke until the 35ish so most of my cha gear was self found up to that point. I'd say charming stabilized around level 28ish and about 150ish cha. Getting to 180 after that also made a visible difference. But like others said, the mob level gap is tighter at lower levels so it is hard to fight something that is lower-end-of-blue. At 55 stuff is still blue level 41 while when you're 30 you'll only have 8 levels to play with and depending on the mob's possible level spread a blue con could be like -5 levels or -1 and the -1 will break often but you don't know until it is already charmed.

Best advice I can give you is:

1- check the p99 consider wiki then the p99 leveling guide and cross reference the mobs level in the suggested areas. Try to find something that is a "lighter" shade of blue.

2- with your extra money go to EC and grab the low hanging fruits for charisma. The 9cha bracers and 7 cha rings shouldnt cost you much. Crude steins often rot. Get a gypsy medallion and some loam boots, opalline earrings and drake hide leggings. All this can be bought for less than 1000pp and most of them you can camp yourself in your 30s. Go quest rod of insidious glamour and incandescent mask ASAP.

3- keep your berserker like rune up at all times. Mana is much cheaper for a chanter than HP. It is a mana hog but you'd much rather med than wait for the hp bar to refuse going up. Speaking of which, getting bandaging to 100 is absolutely worth it.

4- use your color stun line. Truth is if you solo outdoors and hang out at max range you'll be fine with mez/root only until your 50s but when you get a simultaneous charm/root break, stun into AE mez will save your bum. AE mez will require you also keep resist magic up at all time and skew gear choices a bit toward MR until 56 but there will come a point where this becomes mandatory. So might as well get used to it right away.