Bard AE Mez
 

I just wanted to start a discussion here about bard AE mez, Kelin's Lucid Lullaby. I had an experience the other day that made me realized I don't really "get" the mechanics of this song on a deep enough level. I was powerleveling a friend in EC by pulling a bunch of mobs, using AE mez to keep them from swarming him as well as to hold aggro on them- it makes a great taunt in addition to keeping mobs under control, and what ended up happening was he was able to just down the mobs one by one without taking any damage-and I noticed at level 40 an unbelievable percentage of my casts were getting resisted. I would say each mob resisted about half to 75% of the mez casts. These are level 5, 6, or 7 mobs, and I couldn't even keep them mezzed. Later that day, I went into Sol B, where every time my group would pull multiple mobs I would cast my AE mez and the level 35 kobolds were kept pretty under control- I had a couple resists, but it mostly worked- by the same mez. This was a pretty pleasant surprise, as lately my mez has been seeming less and less reliable, but never as bad as it was in EC.

What's the deal? Why do level 5 mobs resist while level 35s don't? I have 145 cha, which Ive noticed has helped my charm a great deal and seems to have cut down the resists on my mez, but what's the deal?

I made this thread because I figure if someone has the answer to this question, it will probably involve a few bits of information that will help me be a better mezzer anyway.

The AE Mez was nerfed in classic, because it was waaay overpowered. It works funny. It's one of the few spells that gets worse as *you* level. So, by being level 40 or so, it actually is *worse* than when you were level 20. I'm surprised you had luck in SolB, as I never had much luck with it when I grouped there back in my 40's. I'd get maybe 1 wave of hits, then a bunch of waves of resists, then I'd get jumped.

Is it classic to be as bad as it is? Eh, dunno. I have no references on it. But if it were to actually work as an AE mez, we'd be easily the best CC in the game. Even if it resisted just half the time, since we can recast it so much.

I find it easier to just use the single target mez.

Yeah when I was in my 20s and AE mez stuck every time it was pretty sad how OP I was. I was in unrest holding onto 4 or 5 barely-blue mobs at a time while meleeing and talking shit and my groups were all hero-worshipping, but deep down I just felt like a fraud. I'm almost glad those days are over, although now I feel a bit useless cause all I have is my 10 second charm, my garbage dps, and my mana song.

if u cant hold 4-5 mobs on ur own without ae mez ur doing it wrong

sing ae snare, sing your ds, have guy do 1 point of damage to them....
sit down repeatedly...

QFT. It's easy to hold 4 down. And 5/6 can be done if the mob is low enough to not get a resist.

Tell me more. I'd like to know if there's something I haven't been doing. If you're talking about AE snare, like the guy below you, I'll just say AE snare/run away/sit doesn't work so well in Sol B windows. If not, I'd like to hear more ideas.

He is level 40, and is ACTUALLY grouping. Instead of calling him about for apparently being unskilled, how about trying to help him. Being a little pretentious on a 14 year old elf-simulator, eh?

What do you expect him to explain? Pixie strike takes three seconds to cast and lasts 18 seconds. That means you can use it on five other mobs and be casting again on the first by the time it breaks.

Interesting. I haven't been using pixie strike because I just assumed a single-target mez wouldn't last long enough to be worth it on multiple mobs (the same way lull song doesn't last long enough to cast on three before a pull), and single adds I can just charm onto group target. Guess it's time to start practicing pixie strike rotation. Thanks for the input.