Hello, I am new to the server. Give me your two cents of what I should know.

[Estu]

Originally Posted by Occam's Butter Knife [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

ENCs are slow at soloing but grouping is never an issue.

ENCs are actually very good soloers, I think. Their pets are underrated. They may be better soloers than druids because of more free damage (pet) and clarity, hence less downtime. Plus troll form gives a ton of HP regen. This is not even speaking of charm.

[tristantio]

I didn't level my live enchanter until 08 but they definitely are powerful soloers on live with proper charming.

[hablabba]

Enchanters cannot efficiently charm solo on this server without a lot of cha (200s) due to the mechanics. That said, cha gear is still fairly cheap to get so charm soloing is definitely viable.

The other soloing option (hasted pet/slowed mob) is also viable but not as good as other pet classes. I think that enchanters need to do >50% damage or else xp is nerfed though - someone care to confirm?

[Occam's Butter Knife]

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

ENCs are actually very good soloers, I think. Their pets are underrated. They may be better soloers than druids because of more free damage (pet) and clarity, hence less downtime. Plus troll form gives a ton of HP regen. This is not even speaking of charm.

From my experience back in the day, ENCs can but they are not the most efficient soloers. Pet is some free damage but you need to toss in a Tash Languid Pace, root and DOT to keep the mob rooted and dying. Even then every other fight you'll have a root break to deal with and an occasional add. At lower level pet soloing means sitting every fight. At mid levels it improves but at that point kiting mobs way out strips ENC in efficiency.

The at mid-levels with decent +CHA gear charm soloing becomes doable and improves an ENCs solo play. There will be an annoying run of breaks leading to a CR, so it carries a high risk. Still I have fond memories of charm soloing the giant guards in Velious.

[Estu]

Originally Posted by Occam's Butter Knife [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

From my experience back in the day, ENCs can but they are not the most efficient soloers. Pet is some free damage but you need to toss in a Tash Languid Pace, root and DOT to keep the mob rooted and dying. Even then every other fight you'll have a root break to deal with and an occasional add. At lower level pet soloing means sitting every fight. At mid levels it improves but at that point kiting mobs way out strips ENC in efficiency.

The at mid-levels with decent +CHA gear charm soloing becomes doable and improves an ENCs solo play. There will be an annoying run of breaks leading to a CR, so it carries a high risk. Still I have fond memories of charm soloing the giant guards in Velious.

Swishahouse seems to perform surprisingly well sharing the tanking between himself and his dagger-pet in troll form in his 30s. I might be mistaken, but troll form seems to give way more regen than it should.

[Wizerud]

I don't see the QQ in having to med up from zero to max after killing FOUR mobs. I'd be happy if I only used 25% mana on my wizard or shaman after killing one mob.

[Estu]

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

I don't see the QQ in having to med up from zero to max after killing FOUR mobs. I'd be happy if I only used 25% mana on my wizard or shaman after killing one mob.

Shamen and encs have mana regen abilities to make up for possibly more mana-intensive kills, though.

[Occam's Butter Knife]

We seem to have hijacked the the OP's thread into a discussion of who has a harder time soloing among casters. If this discussion is to continue we need to do two things:

1) Open a new thread

2) Agree at the end of the thread that Necro's should be nerf'd.

Item 2 is required. It was how it was done on the classic boards.

[Grod]

The efficiency in which you level depends on quite a few things. Furthermore, there also isn't a "set guide" for the most effective way to level as from what I've seen the strategy changes based on when new spells are available and which mobs you are fighting.

For example, for some levels the pet was weaker relative to the mobs at that level in which case the best strategy for the most efficient leveling was to chain cast pets as they were dying.

In the mid level ranges when haste became available it made more sense to get a high level pet then buff it and keep it alive however initially they had slow regen so the most effective way to level was to alternate taking damage (with troll regen on) with your pet.

At higher levels the pet regen is higher so you can leave the pet on it's on far more often, especially if the area has caster mobs where you can stun them and the pet can regen during the fight for very minimal downtime.

There wasn't a point where slowing the mob was effective to leveling. Yes, you can do it, but it wasn't the most efficient way to level due to the mana cost (and agro) associated with slowing the mobs. It should be used very sparingly, if at all. If a particular mob hit hard it was far more effective to stun it with whirl then to slow it. As well, feedback (damage shield) ends up being a pretty effective spell (without slow) providing you are keeping the pet alive through above listed methods (alternating fights with casters or moving in and taking damage to regen with troll form on).

Combing that with calm (can split rooms), invis, invis to undead, mez, haste and clarity the only downside to an Enchanter compared to the other pet classes is the lack of control on the pet however that can be mitigated due to proper planning and control before and during the fights.

It's hard to "judge" based on something 10 years ago but it seems like pets are definitely more powerful here as well. However, based on the effectiveness of the Enchanter pets on THIS SERVER (probably more powerful then they were on live) it would appear they are the more effective soloing class in the right hands. They require a bit more skill to play with better rewards. In any case, for someone completely new to EQ I'd probably go with a Magician or Necromancer over an Enchanter.

[Occam's Butter Knife]

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

There wasn't a point where slowing the mob was effective to leveling. Yes, you can do it, but it wasn't the most efficient way to level due to the mana cost (and agro) associated with slowing the mobs. It should be used very sparingly, if at all. If a particular mob hit hard it was far more effective to stun it with whirl then to slow it. As well, feedback (damage shield) ends up being a pretty effective spell (without slow) providing you are keeping the pet alive through above listed methods (alternating fights with casters or moving in and taking damage to regen with troll form on).

I agree with what you say. Much of the variation happens because of the cyclical nature of pets. At the level one gets them they are mighty but at the level before the next spell set they need a lot of care. For my current level (14) slows work since the pet dies pretty quickly since most of the mobs a higher level. With slow I end up with a pet at 50 - 75% health and without it at dead to 50%. Once i get Quickness (and Breeze) at 16 that will change.

I have been playing with WTYH in groups and it is better than I remember but the pet still has issues holding aggro when it wears off. I attribute this to the number of misses I see scroll by.

Reading this thread and others are pushing me to do some log parsing, even though this time around I wanted to spend more time just enjoying it.