charming puzzle

[Werlop]

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

Best way to approach the charming as an easy means to score 2 kills with 1 stone: you charm 1 mob, and make it fight its friend, and help it just a little bit, so your pet survives with just a few hp left. Then you break the charm and finish it off.
Its also a great tool to help your group to break a tough camp

But do not take charming as a means of getting a pet that you can run around with all day long.

If charming would be that reliable that it could last uninterrupted for 20+ min, you could very well have given chanter a permanent pet 10 levels higher than he is, compared to what normal pet classes get.

As a level 58-60 enchanter, I was reliably getting 8-9 minute charms on the level 45-48 skeletons in Howling stones. I would run with a cleric and sometimes monk and give my pet haste, weapons. etc. This was immediately after the last charm nerf.
I didn't touch charm before level 40 because my gear was too bad. If you plan to charm at low levels, twinkage is a must. Charm can be reliably used as a dps tool in exp groups as well as solo, but it requires having good enough gear to survive the breaks as well as an awareness of both the mobs and your group. It's not something to do at low levels, as charm becomes more reliable as tash gets better and exp mobs start being much lower in level than you.

[Kevlar]

I play a druid that has charm soloed for most of my levels. What seems to be happening to me is that mobs well below your level, like 5+ levels below you, will rarely break early.

Mobs close to, but below your level, will break early most of the time, but are usually good for killing 1-2 other monsters before they break. These monsters I have found charisma boosting items to help with. Getting my cha from 75 to 105 has a noticeable effect on my charm duration with mobs just under my lvl.

Charming equal or higher level mobs they last a couple of seconds no matter what you do with your charisma.

[Galanteer]

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

I didn't touch charm before level 40 because my gear was too bad. If you plan to charm at low levels, twinkage is a must.

well not twinkage, but at least adequate gear. Enough mana to pull through things, enough HP when it all goes to #@*@%, enough charisma....

I had two enchanters on live (one on SZ and one on MM). Once when they were near the same level I tried to do what I could do with my bluebie well geared enchanter (charming the named cycle in Griegs and revamp Droga). On the well geared enchanter it was trivial, on the poor geared enchanter it was impossible.

[vageta31]

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

As a level 58-60 enchanter, I was reliably getting 8-9 minute charms on the level 45-48 skeletons in Howling stones. I would run with a cleric and sometimes monk and give my pet haste, weapons. etc. This was immediately after the last charm nerf.
I didn't touch charm before level 40 because my gear was too bad. If you plan to charm at low levels, twinkage is a must. Charm can be reliably used as a dps tool in exp groups as well as solo, but it requires having good enough gear to survive the breaks as well as an awareness of both the mobs and your group. It's not something to do at low levels, as charm becomes more reliable as tash gets better and exp mobs start being much lower in level than you.

For this exact reason I'd actually recommend new enchanters start charming at lower levels. It will be tough and they will die sometimes, but it will make it that much easier at higher levels. Basically if you can successfully charm without being twinked, then down the road things will be the proverbial piece of cake.

I started charming at level 12 in Crushbone. My gear at the time was basically cloth with a few items I got as gifts or by selling a ton of bone chips. I had a plat fire wedding ring, adamantite band, advisor robe, chipped bone collar and a pair of golden jaded bracelets. I wasn't twinked, I got these items legitimately in EC selling things and being helped out by others. Essentially nothing that anyone new to the server couldn't probably acquire themselves if they put their mind to it. Note I had zero CHA gear and as a Dark Elf putting all points into CHA I was rocking 95. Yes, 95.

It wasn't reliable, but I successfully made my way to 16 mostly by charming legos and having them fight cents and other legos. I got in trouble a few times, but for the most part if was a valid way to level and much faster than using my pet. At 16 I moved to Oasis and began charming DB crocs and orcs and was successful at that too. By level 20 I decided to help myself out and took a bunch of gear off of my necro and put it on my enchanter which made life easier. But it wasn't due to any CHA gain, purely from having more mana/hps. I went from 20 to 24 extremely quickly charming deepwater gators/caimans, often getting about 8 kills per bar of mana or until I ran out of targets. These were 2% a kill.

I'm level 30 now and have uber twinked myself with both hps/mana and cha and after playing around with it for awhile I've realized at this point the extra mana/hps is far more valuable than having 200+ cha. Perhaps at higher levels that will change, but for now the extra cha simply doesn't help enough to warrant the loss of mana/hps. A mob can last 1 tick or 5 minutes, it really boils down to luck most of the time. With no cha specific gear I sit around 140, fully buffed it's about 209 and from my testing I see little difference.

I recommend all enchanters looking to charm later in life to start early and learn the ropes. By the time you're going to be charming guards and earning massive exp, you'll already have mastered the art and won't have any learning curve.