Effective Charm Kite Guide (for Encs lv 12-19)

[myxomatosii]

This guide focuses on naked enchanters with stock stats and no jboots/buffs from obtaining charm until they get their first great Color spell, which is lv 12-19. These techniques carry over to higher level enchanting as well and are only made stronger by incorporating and mixing with greater spells.

I find myself encountering new enchanters fairly frequently that make simple mistakes and miscalculations, creating a barrier between them and the world of charm kiting.

These rules all change as certain spell lines become more prevalent such as Color, Slow, Haste, and Rune but in my opinion starting out these spells aren't too necessary and create a money-sink for a brand new player that just wants to buy his newest nuke. Having started an enc on red in the past month, I know what its like to be a new enc with no money. Jboots aren't even necessary to avoid taking damage despite the help they most certainly provide.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Necessary Skills, Practices, and Habits -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Essential Spell Gems and Mem Opinions

Really only five spells are needed for this technique. I recommend staying buffed with your appropriate 'Shielding' line, Cha Line, and when you get it, Breeze.

1. Root (The spell you'll cast the most)
2. Color
3. Mez
4. Charm
5. Tash
6. Choke (Seems to rarely resist, good dmg/mana ratio)
7. OPEN
8. OPEN

Pet Macros

Why?
-- Personal preference and greater control, if you like just use the pet window, at the minimum I create 4 buttons

pATK
/pet attack

pFOL
/pet follow me

pSTAY
/pet sit down
/pet guard here

pSTOP
/pet back off

Strafing

Why?
-- Appears to increase run speed by exploiting hit boxes, significant boost that will cause you to outrun the majority of (all?) non-sowed mobs.

How?
--Hold Right-Click and walk forward while holding either the left or right turn key, this will cause you to travel in an angular fashion and will save you any of those times you end up in the middle of no where without SoW and a passing yellow/red con agros you out of no where. It is also useful in charming.

--An alternative is to bind the sidestep keys and hold that key in combination with forward, removing the need to hold Right-Click.

Lv 4 Mesmerize (Mem Blur Component)

Why?
--This spell has a component that can cause memory blur, (effectively the same as everyone on its hate list feigning death successfully), if mem blur is successful when it lands the mob will pause, begin to heal at 4% a tick and path back to its origin. I don't know why, but compared to other mezes the proportionality of blur on this spell is HUGE and seems to work on blue cons about 90+% of the time, on evens/yellows I would say its <50%. Not sure if this is working as intended, but for now it works and saves the enchanter the need to keep Mez AND Blur memmed, saving mana.

How?
--To see if the blur aspect worked there are a few ways to check. First let's say you're fighting an 'apprehensive' mob. After attacking any monster that isn't 'ready to attack' the con will change to 'threateningly' during the fight. So to check if your blur worked simply check to see if the mob's con changes back to its pre-fight status.

--But some monsters are always 'threateningly' or 'ready to attack', how do i check them? Well as stated before, if a mob successfully blurs it will passively heal at 4% a tick. Obviously if you mez a mob and you or your pet stand right beside it then it will instantly re-agro and not heal. That can also be another indicator, if the mob suddenly snaps around and respams its agro message (assuming it had one) then you also know it was successful.

--A final method, when you have no charmed pet, assuming you have invis/hide/ivu/iva you can mez the mob and then use whatever ability makes you invisible to their mob type and it will con 'indifferent' if blur was successful.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Necessary Skills, Practices, and Habits -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-


-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Starting the Fight -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Assuming you read the previous section and got the hang of the terms strafe and mez blur, this section will focus purely on steps and not on details to keep it simple. Refer to the above section or ask a question in a reply if any step is unclear.

1. Find an outdoor area or any dungeon that allows you to create distance between yourself and mobs via pathing or strafing.
2. Choose a pet.
3. Stand at max casting range and tash your pet.
4. JUST before tash finishes casting, exploit server latency and begin to strafe the opposite direction, the spell will still land.
5a. You'll have to sort out the timing yourself, but run a bit then start spamming Charm
5b. To avoid interrupts when casting after running, its a good idea to do a 90° turn or hold right click and twitch the camera back and forth just before casting, experiment is key just like with step 5a.
6. Your pet is charmed, depending on the zone bring it with you or tell it to stay and go find an enemy.
7. Pull with tash at max range, strafe to camp, attack with pet.
8. As with step 5a, root the pull
9. Maintain root throughout the fight, letting it wear off a few times to figure out how often you need to cast it is fine. Don't waste mana, you're naked!
10. Med as much as possible, sitting at max range
11. At this point one of three things will happen
A: The pet will win
B: The pet will lose
C: Something goes wrong


-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Starting the Fight -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-


-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Finishing the Fight -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

A: The pet will win
11: Be sure root is fresh and call your pet off, preferably at low enough hp that one nuke finishes the enemy
12: Lv 4 mez the mob
13: Check blur, if successful go to step A14, else, repeat from step A12
14: Nuke, win
15: If the pet is low move onto step B12 below

B: The pet will lose
11: Be sure root is fresh and call your pet off
12: Tell pet to stay and run to max casting distance
13: Break charm however you can: hide/inv/ivu/iva
14: Nuke, win
15: You now have a few options
W: If the mob is low enough, you can root and nuke/dot it down
X: Find a new pet and continue fighting the rooted monster, starting from step 2
Y: Use the rooted mob as a pet, starting from step 2 and rooting your new pull on top of your pet until the original root wears off
Z: Mez blur the remaining mob and med up, good choice if it took very little damage, you're out of mana, or you have to log!

C: Something goes wrong
11: Stay calm. Don't get hit. Strafe

Likely either charm broke, root broke, BOTH broke, a pather agrod your pet, a pather agrod you (bad camp), or a multitude of other problems. This is where you choose creativity, learn, and embrace the true meaning of an enchanter, or you falter under pressure and die/run. That is not to say its never a good idea to run, its OFTEN a good idea to run. But I can't tell you how many times I've been caught with 3 mobs at 25% mana and managed, using a combination of root, fear, mez, hide, and gate that I've lived and often defeated all 3 mobs (especially after breeze when recovery is easier).

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Finishing the Fight -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-


I will clean this up over time and respond best I can to questions, I'm curious what experienced enchanters might be able to add or critique so feel free to pick me apart. As stated I intentionally left out spells I considered extraneous at lower levels, would like to hear if I left out something that proves a huge boost. Given as my strategy is to NEVER come within melee range of my mobs I don't bother with color (outside of the rare healer which I avoid) or Rune which is expensive.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

Excellent guide! A couple of factual edits to consider putting into it:

- Strafe running doesn't actually increase speed. What it does is exploits a hit-box. mechanic where you are essentially putting yourself just out of range by virtue of the mob having to run in a diagonal line (the way I've understood it anyways).
- Mem blur/mez with blur will have the enemy regen at 5%/tick not 4. Another helpful tip to consider is if someone does choose to us root+blur vs. Mezz, the enemy will stare off into yonder instead of facing the nearest target on its agro list.
- If I do multiple charm kills back to back I rarely use my next pet to kill my previous enemy, if when blurred. The only time I do is when I know I've done over 50% to their remaining HP and I know my pet won't take the XP.

As I said before though, great guide!

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

I forgot to mention that if you're pulling mobs that spawn at a stationary camp (I.e. Not roamers) a successful mezz blur will have them face back towards their camp in that when they break mezz they will start to path back to their spawn loc.

[myxomatosii]

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

Excellent guide! A couple of factual edits to consider putting into it:

- Strafe running doesn't actually increase speed. What it does is exploits a hit-box. mechanic where you are essentially putting yourself just out of range by virtue of the mob having to run in a diagonal line (the way I've understood it anyways).

Addressed.

- Mem blur/mez with blur will have the enemy regen at 5%/tick not 4. Another helpful tip to consider is if someone does choose to us root+blur vs. Mezz, the enemy will stare off into yonder instead of facing the nearest target on its agro list.

% was from memory, I'll have to log-on and test it before I change it. Fairly minor anyway, as long as its healing ya know it worked.

- If I do multiple charm kills back to back I rarely use my next pet to kill my previous enemy, if when blurred. The only time I do is when I know I've done over 50% to their remaining HP and I know my pet won't take the XP.

I would prefer to finish both at the same time and get back to full mana at this level range. And sometimes I'd choose an extra difficult enemy to grind through a couple of my pets if I'm feeling bold. That way I'm charming the easy to charm mobs and chaining pets at him to wear down a big exp prize. Sometimes I'll even take down the high mob using a combination of fear and holding agro with tash if I have a lot of room and agro isn't an issue.

And yeah, if I pet an enemy to 20%, then after blur the nuke only takes it to 5% I'll just let the charm finish it since I did over half of the damage after blur.

As I said before though, great guide!

[Estu]

1) Taper Enchantment is a great way to break charm since it's cheaper than invis (the mana difference is actually relevant at low levels), though if the pet has other effects on it then it might take more than one cast.

2) I don't like to use Choke to finish monsters at around level 12. I prefer Suffocating Sphere. Costs a lot less mana, more efficient than Choke, and you can generally get monsters down low enough so that a single cast will finish them, sometimes two - in any case, you save a boatload of mana.

3) I prefer using mez->tash->charm to charm. Mez only lasts 3 ticks or so and you can avoid running around trying not to get hit. Would be especially useful in confined quarters.

[myxomatosii]

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

1) Taper Enchantment is a great way to break charm since it's cheaper than invis (the mana difference is actually relevant at low levels), though if the pet has other effects on it then it might take more than one cast.

2) I don't like to use Choke to finish monsters at around level 12. I prefer Suffocating Sphere. Costs a lot less mana, more efficient than Choke, and you can generally get monsters down low enough so that a single cast will finish them, sometimes two - in any case, you save a boatload of mana.

3) I prefer using mez->tash->charm to charm. Mez only lasts 3 ticks or so and you can avoid running around trying not to get hit. Would be especially useful in confined quarters.

Good tips, I never really played around with Taper so that is good to know.

Sphere as well, I think being the poor enc I was I didn't buy that one so I never tested it since I've been playing enc on p99

I do that indoors but only if I'm fairly certain getting hit will interrupt me, mostly I focused on outdoor areas like LS or EK. Some fights would literally finish with me at 5% mana so the goal of this guide is not only to use the least mana possible but to also fight in areas where you won't have to cast extra spells. Its not a guide for the cautious, but its not for hazardous players either. It can be done very safe, in the right conditions.

[Tecmos Deception]

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

Strafe running doesn't actually increase speed.

A couple years ago I actually tested this, and strafe running definitely did increase my travel speed. 15% or more I think? Can't remember exactly.

It's easy to test. Just find a road in game and follow it as best you can to cross a zone, once with normal running and once with straferunning.

[myxomatosii]

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

A couple years ago I actually tested this, and strafe running definitely did increase my travel speed. 15% or more I think? Can't remember exactly.

It's easy to test. Just find a road in game and follow it as best you can to cross a zone, once with normal running and once with straferunning.

A stopwatch and some loc readings should do it:
Initial and final position.
Time.
Find displacement.
Divide.
If I do it I'll report in this thread.

[Velerin]

Got my enchanter to level 12 and found something kinda fun. Charm a wisp and send it after anything less than lvl 12. They can't hurt it since not magical. (I think at level 12 is when mobs start being able to hit magic creatures)
Fun having a wisp clear the EC orc camps.

[myxomatosii]

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

Got my enchanter to level 12 and found something kinda fun. Charm a wisp and send it after anything less than lvl 12. They can't hurt it since not magical. (I think at level 12 is when mobs start being able to hit magic creatures)
Fun having a wisp clear the EC orc camps.

That's hilarious, wish I'd have thought of that [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]