Ench - when to start HS?
 

I've been charm soloing and grouping a little in the Hole for L51-52. Nearly L53. When can I start charming in HS?

Now. You can start in the entrance/basement until you get comfortable. Then move to north. West when you get to 55 or so. You can use ToT on all of the skeletons other than the plaguebones.

I started at 53. Have mostly done entrance so far, with a little basement. I just dinged 54. I will tell you, that entrance break is no joke. ALWAYS Rune 5/Berserker Spirit, mez the scorpiki in the orb, TOT it, ivu, and then enter.

Thanks - yeah I've only zoned into HS with entrance already broken. Given I play offpeak I'll likely have to do it myself.

Breaking isn't too bad once you get the feel for it. If you lull the scorps outside and IVU you in, you should be fine. A double Harmtouch is what's going to give yout he most problems. 1 HT and a living mob is totally manageable and probably won't even pop your runes.

Don't forget to bind up top. Getting a port to Skyfire for a CR sucks. Not many people are super excited to port there.

Also, duo up with those necro's that live there. Necro/Enc duo in HS is the bees knees. By far fastest clears I've done in a duo was with a solid necro/enc duo.

I agree that 53 is a good level to start doing basement. HS is incredibly efficient but beware that doing 7 levels there can get tedious and boring and you will want to switch it up from time to time. Lots of opportunity to f#ck yourself over bad as well. While not the norm it is also not uncommon to get yourself triple-HT-insta-gibed if you are not paying attention. If you veer from the basement it is also incredibly easy to get stuck with a nightmare corpse run. Often times the zone is nearly empty so getting help is not guaranteed. Super fun zone with some nice loot and XP but make sure you are prepared

Protip: Carry your own Essence Emeralds and Tiny Inlaid Jade Coffins and you are 1000% more likely to get a rez/summon from a Necromancer than if you are just hoping to buy reagents off them. Any character 50+ should just buy 10 EE's and carry them around incase of emergencies IMO.

See you down under friend (basement)

~Ayliket Vy'Neroth 59 Necromancer

What is the best solo method in HS? Is it charming and not buffing the pet and then just killing it/swapping every time it's low? Or get a good pet going and calm heal it every time it gets low?

My preferred method is to actually root 3-4 in a group and let the non charms kill my charm super fast and break <6% life for a quick life tap XP kill. Rinse repeat until all are dead

Even if you are conga line rooting I see very little advantage in not just switching pets when it gets low. I have the Bonecaster Pantloons which gives me a mana free haste so I typically haste all my pets with that regardless of what i'm doing.

Once you get into the flow of things and with paralyzing earth there really isn't a ton of danger 55+ in the basement. A rogue skeleton HT is about the only danger and even that takes a fair amount of RnG to become a problem

I'd always had entrance recommended to me, but seems like you really need to be on top of your spawn timers etc. Is the basement a bit less tight? or is it all pretty rough?

As an enc, entrance is pretty much easy mode. Except for center mobs, everything spawns in pairs of the same non-caster mob that can both be messed byAOE mez simultaneously. If you’re patient, you can aoemez the center mobs too. Then tash/charm, root and tash the other. After you’ve broken you can sit in whatever area you just cleared without any fear of a mob popping and give yourself enough space to mez before anything can hit you. Just stay away from East and be careful of the center spawns when you’re coming up on the spawn timer. For this reason my rotation when I’m doing entrance is center, south, west, north. It gives maximum space and the least likely screw ups to agro additional mobs unnecessarily.