Charm Time and Setup

[zelld52]

im trying to find it but i saved screengrab of one of the original EQ developers explaining how they coded things like hit chance, spells landing etc -- and the level difference has the largest weight of any of the variables.

[enjchanter]

mob level >>>MR >>>>>>>> charisma

[fortior]

yeah it's really not that big a deal (cha) but it does matter and since charming is all you're gonna do why not optimize it

[Wakanda]

IDK if this is useful info but I started doing the gators in CT at 31... not that long ago. I didn't need charm to last that long since the gators were only good for 1 fight basically, and I would try to use dark elf hide to kill both gators at the end of every fight. I kept root on non-pet gator to help minimize chances of me dying during charm break. I easily got to 35 doing this, but then went to south karana and did gnolls to get through 35 since it was a hell level.

[kaltice34]

From what I've read on the forums deep diving every 6 seconds there is a charm break check. It involves 3 parts. It checks the level difference between you and the charmed pet which tends to be the most important check as people have discussed so far. The second check is a magic resist check. Finally, the 3rd and final catch all is a charisma check. I don't know about the initial check for a charm etc. I would have to look more into that but I've always gone by the 3 check rule where level difference is more important than the others. The other 2 are just a fall back if the first fails to give enchanters that little extra edge.

In terms of the OP's question, it is most likely a combination of these 3 checks failing. If the charm is breaking before even killing one mob I have to go with everyone else and say that mob's level is too close to your own. I find the best range to be if a pet is 4 - 7 levels below you. Low level tash is usually pretty bad but if you're level 30 then you have a decent one. You definitely want to mez, tash, and then charm a pet. It also does sound like your cha may be low. I focused on getting my cha as high as possible before getting any +int items so if you are highly int focused I would switch up your gear as cha is of much more importance. You have clarity so having a huge mana pool isn't as important. I know tash never seems to last long enough at your level but it is definitely going to help. Figure out the levels of the mobs you're fighting and charm something at least 4 levels below you. Lastly cha - get it as close to 205 as you can. The closer you are to 200 the better results you will see. At higher levels enchanter gets a +50 cha buff so you only need 205 to get yourself maxed at 255.

[Goregasmic]

Been soloing in charasis lately on my 55 chanter with 243cha self buffed and in the vast majority of fights I'll get zero charm breaks but sometimes I'll get 3 in a row. I've seen a 60 chanter charm the same mobs dropping 2 adamantite bands on it and he still got more breaks than I would have thought. Charm breaks will happen no matter what but you have some control on minimizing them and outside of tashing (which should be automatic) and dropping -mr gear on them (which you'll rarely do), the other variables you don't really have any control on.

I started fresh on p99 in january so I had zero twink gear and I was perma broke until the 35ish so most of my cha gear was self found up to that point. I'd say charming stabilized around level 28ish and about 150ish cha. Getting to 180 after that also made a visible difference. But like others said, the mob level gap is tighter at lower levels so it is hard to fight something that is lower-end-of-blue. At 55 stuff is still blue level 41 while when you're 30 you'll only have 8 levels to play with and depending on the mob's possible level spread a blue con could be like -5 levels or -1 and the -1 will break often but you don't know until it is already charmed.

Best advice I can give you is:

1- check the p99 consider wiki then the p99 leveling guide and cross reference the mobs level in the suggested areas. Try to find something that is a "lighter" shade of blue.

2- with your extra money go to EC and grab the low hanging fruits for charisma. The 9cha bracers and 7 cha rings shouldnt cost you much. Crude steins often rot. Get a gypsy medallion and some loam boots, opalline earrings and drake hide leggings. All this can be bought for less than 1000pp and most of them you can camp yourself in your 30s. Go quest rod of insidious glamour and incandescent mask ASAP.

3- keep your berserker like rune up at all times. Mana is much cheaper for a chanter than HP. It is a mana hog but you'd much rather med than wait for the hp bar to refuse going up. Speaking of which, getting bandaging to 100 is absolutely worth it.

4- use your color stun line. Truth is if you solo outdoors and hang out at max range you'll be fine with mez/root only until your 50s but when you get a simultaneous charm/root break, stun into AE mez will save your bum. AE mez will require you also keep resist magic up at all time and skew gear choices a bit toward MR until 56 but there will come a point where this becomes mandatory. So might as well get used to it right away.