[Zuranthium]

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

First year Enchanters were the buggiest class in the game. I've read the posts from that era and Enchanters didn't even mem mezz because it never worked due to line of sight issues. Mezz was a stun at first

Enchanters were an OP class from the start, most people just didn't realize it. I don't recall Mezz being different from its current state for long, and Whirl Til You Hurl was ridiculously powerful at launch anyway. The "problem" with Mezz during early era EQ was average groups didn't understand how to play with it and were constantly breaking it.

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

14 months of classic era then 8 months between Kunark and Velious, probably about 10-12 months of that time Charm should be unusable except for outdoor run speed boosted use or in situations where a group or raid is helping the Enchanter manage things. An Enchanter could not control a pet solo in a dungeon without dying more often than not.

This is inaccurate. Nothing about the code itself changed to let Enchanters suddenly be able to control a charm pet much better. They had the ability from the start and it's not hard to use Color Flux/Color Shift to stun the broken pet, then CC it and re-charm.

There are a large number of factors that contributed to it being less common back then as compared to p99, aside from charm itself being a bit too good on p99:

1.) Color Shift was a research spell so not everyone had it during the first year
2.) Most players back then didn't know about global cooldown reset for spells, so without Color Shift, there's a delay between the aftercast of Color Flux + Mesmerize that means the Enchanter gets hit right before Mezz finishes casting
3.) Channeling was a bit weaker then, so slightly higher chance of Mezz being interrupted at high level, and moderately higher chance at mid level
4.) Much more lag and much less visibility
5.) Less players had high CHA stat
6.) It wasn't as understood to charm something much lower level and drag it around as a pet
7.) No pet window and no "charm wore off" message for the first 10 months
8.) People were simply scared to do certain things back then

There's no doubt Charm would have been nerfed back then if everyone understood how to do it optimally, but it was very powerful from the start and the best players did use it effectively (even if not to the degree that it gets used on p99).

Enchanters didn't need to use Charm to be good at solo/duo during 1999 anyway. The animation pet when being given Daggers (or Gnoll Hide Lariats! Those were super in demand) did huge DPS. It was easy for that pet to chew through slowed/stunned MOBs. Giving a pet low delay weapons did take some time to become common knowledge, but even with a basic pet Enchanters could solo better than most other classes.

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

Green launch had level 30 Enchanters using back stabbing goblin pets in sola soloing kindle area in 1-2 weeks.

I mean yeah it's BS, but this is also largely because people understand the game so much better now. Charm pets shouldn't be allowed to backstab or dual wield, the damage is imbalanced.

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

Tola robe kinda pointless anyway due to haste caps.
Clickie haste + muzzle already 73% haste, close enough to haste capped pet.
Can get to 79% with wonderous but usually not needed

Which clickie are you talking about, the epic? It should be 77% with that and muzzle.

Is the pet haste cap not 100?

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

Quite a few screenshots like the one above, where it can't be proven that the mob was charmed (as it could easily be aggroed onto a player instead), but the angle suggests it may have been attacking the raid target.

Something that's wrong on p99 is using charm pets against raid targets that can Fear. There are stories of a charmed Imp Protector doing 50% of the raid damage to Nagafen on the first Green raid of him. Like...how? Pets should just be getting Feared away all the time. Their level and MR is too low to ever resist it.

Also, there was a 4-pet limit implemented in Classic EQ. No more than that could attack a target at one time. This was never put into p99.