Revision as of 21:11, 15 September 2012

Crowd Control

One of the most powerful abilities of an Enchanter is the ability to put mobs to sleep with our line of Mesmerization spells. In principle crowd control is pretty simple: your puller brings a train pull, the main tank starts killing one, everyone assists, you target a mob that isn't getting beat on and hit the mez key, and repeat until everything is locked down. The hardest part about playing an enchanter is convincing your groupmates to not break mez, and with the generally high level of play on Project 1999 this usually isn't a problem.

If your teammates aren't breaking mez left and right, the main trick is to configure the UI. Go to the options window and bind 'Target Nearest Mob' (the mob beating your face in) and 'Cycle through Nearest Mobs' to hotkeys (mine are ~ and TAB respectively). This lets you quickly tab through the pile of mobs without using the mouse; the safest strategy is to mez mobs at 100% HP. You should also create a /assist X hotkey (with X being the name of your tank), so you can hit assist/tab/mez/tab/mez until things are under control. I also recommend creating one of those irritating spam macros '/cast 1 /g %t is mezzed'.

Mez spells can be refreshed as long as the duration of new spell is less than or equal to the original spell: Dazzle will overwrite Dazzle, Entrance will overwrite Entrance and Dazzle, Mez will overwrite anything, etc. In addition to the main single-target mez line, you get two AE mez spells: mesmerization at 16 and fascination at 52. In my personal opinion, Mesmerization is extremely powerful and should always be memorized. Locking down 4 mobs at once instantly transforms a wipe into just another day at the office. If you want to have some fun in Howling Stones, pull an entire room at once, hit them with AE Mez and AE Tash, and then have a Shaman follow up with AE Slow. Do be aware however that Mesmerization will hit you as well, so until you are 56+ and level immune make sure you have GRM up!

Your other primary crowd control spell is the Root line. Before 49 these are quite inferior, but both Paralyzing Earth and Fetter last a very long time. Both will last longer than Dazzle, require less mana, and have no recast. Fetter will also cast significantly faster. On the other hand, they can break early and don't prevent summoning, casting, or getting beat on when you step into melee range. I use root quite frequently for CC and recommend another spam macro. A rooted mob will also attack whoever is nearest regardless of its hate list. If your MT is a warrior or monk, just root everything you mez anyway. Even with two taunts there is a good chance the mezzed mob will be coming for you; its a lot easier on your cleric's mana to just root everything. Paladins and SKs should not have this problem.

Finally, you have the extremely powerful color flux line of PBAOE stuns. In his guide Xornn calls these the mortar and mez/root the bricks, which in my opinion is pretty accurate. The key spell is Color Shift, which casts in 1.5 seconds as compared to Mez in 2.5. Whenever you have an xp mob on you, my suggestion is Color Shift/Mez rather than mez directly; you'll eat a lot fewer hits. With 2-3 mobs on you this is really not optional. These spells also require very little mana and are great for interrupting casters, especially annoying spells like Turgurs, Ice Comet, or Complete Heal.

These guidelines need a few tweaks for high level mobs. Throwing an AE Mez on a bunch of revenants in the Plane of Hate at L55 will wipe you and then your raid (that is not a personal story! you believe me, right?). Many enchanters have a tendency to try to do too much. The worst thing you can do is panic throw a stun into a huge group of mobs that are on the MT (he won't die, and if he does it'll be a new experience for him. Warriors don't die much compared to enchanters) thus transferring them to your squishy ass. If you are dealing with very high-level or otherwise resisty mobs, do one at a time. Rapture is a huge help in this area at 59+. For example on the Spirocs in Sky my order is Dazzle/Rapture/tash/plead for malo/Dazzle when Rapture wears off.

Pulling

Of course the best crowd control is to simply pull one mob at once, and Enchanters are extremely good at this as well if you don't mind dying once in a while. Currently on Project 1999, if you are invisible mobs that cannot see you will not social aggro. So you can invis up and facepull Drusella Sathir (an undead) in Howling Stones right by her golems. There are quite a few named that see invis with guards who do not (like Tolapumj) or who don't see invis and their guards do (like King Tranix) who can be pulled in this manner. With a double invis, you can pull the Crypt Excavator or Embalming Fluid anywhere you want in Howling Stones.

If you have a partner, you can cast invis/ivu on him so that it lands mid-cast, and then drag the mob anywhere in the zone. The best pulling spell is Lull, which doesn't require line of sight (this is how an enchanter+cleric can pull 4 named in HS South to the invis wall tunnel). You can also mez something, invis up, and ghetto SK pull it somewhere more convenient; a great example here is the froglok armsman who can be dragged out past his guards. Finally, if the named in question does not see invis, you can charm it, hit it with a bracer of the hidden, zone/cap out and come back and invis pull it normally. The only use I've found for this so far is pulling the myconid spore king, because the zone out is right there.

If you are hit in melee while invisible with Rune up, invis will not drop until Rune does. Usually when I zone into south, I just cast rune/bedlam/ivu and run to one of the pulling spots, dragging any biles and feasters with me. If I have to cap out, I can then just ivu down easily rather than lulling every live mob. I don't really like invis pulling (I think it trivializes the game too much) but it does seem to be classic and therefore here to stay.

Your other main option is the Lull line of spells, which reduce a mob's social aggro radius, allowing you to separate him from his friends. Lull spells are resisted much more frequently than normal spells, and sometimes you will get a critical resist where the mob comes after you. I recommend as much charisma as possible for lull which really lowers this chance; I would say at 200+ charisma you should get maybe 1/30 critical resists. I recommend using the L20 Calm spell which lasts for 3 minutes and costs only 50 mana; Pacify only lasts 48 seconds or so. Make sure to have AE mez up (or gate!) in case you do get a critical. You obviously want to lull the lowest level mob first, so go by con, name (boks before krups), and then rotate. Cast Calm on each mob in turn, skipping mobs that are already calmed in each successive cycle.

Because Lull does not require line of sight, you can play some tricks with the camera. For example, to calm a room in Howling Stones, stand facing into the wall right next to the door, zoom backwards and rotate slightly. This will let you target the mobs without them seeing you. You can also bind sight to one of the mobs inside and use that for targeting (example: the bat/ghoul room in Gukbottom).

Once you are down to one mob, your usual pull spells are slow and tash. Initial aggro is capped at a small value; a charmed pet will pull a mob pulled with slow off you almost instantly whereas if you slowed it after the engage it would need 10-20 seconds.

Buffs

Clarity/Haste/GRM/AC/Charisma

Debuffs

Tash/Slow Dot/Cripple/Weaken lines

Getting Around and Other Tricks

As an enchanter you should be able to get just about anywhere you want in a dungeon. Just invis or ivu, lull the mobs that see you, and move on. Aggro on Project 1999 happens on ticks, so you can also try to just run by. Make sure you aren't full HP and mana, wait for your hp/mana to go up, wait about 1 second, and run. It's probably a good idea to have rune on and ae mez memorized if you want to try this.

Suggested Spell Lineup

Dazzle Tashanian Fetter Color Shift Color Skew Theft of Thought Mesmerization

Recharming

I titled this section recharming because any idiot can charm a mob. The challenge is not dying when charm breaks.

Your first choice is what to charm. The primary determinants of charm duration are Level and Magic Resistance (charisma has a small effect, but its worth nothing that Save, one of the best enchanters on the server, wears a Fingerbone Hoop and a Helot Skull Helm). So tash anything you charm and get Malo if you can. For reasonable charm durations my recommendation is to charm something 0.75-0.85 times your level; at L60 this works out to L45-L50; 51 is possible but risky and 52-53 is almost certainly going to be a short trip.

Your next decision is what type of mob to charm.

Finally you have to decide whether to haste/weaponize your pet or not.

Level/MR/Charisma Charming casters To Weaponize or not to Weaponize Recharm routines: root + mez, ae mez, stun/stun/boltrans, root and back away

In my personal routine the best recharm routine is Color Shift + Mesmerize or Mesmerization. This casts in 1.5 seconds.

Character Creation

Enchanters are one of the most forgiving classes when it comes to race selection because of our various illusion spells. Your choices are, ranked in my opinion from best to worst:

High Elves and Erudites tie for the best total intelligence/charisma after the 5 point Erudite agility penalty, and High Elves get infravision. Dark Elves however get Hide which is extremely useful both for breaking charm and for going AFK and in my opinion is worth some stats. Gnomes look the best, get tinkering, and most importantly can see through walls - solo enchanters should in my opinion spend all their time in Gnome illusion. Humans are traditionally the gimp race of Everquest but aren't that bad as enchanters because of their high charisma, with only 8 fewer total points than Gnomes.

Generally speaking it's hard to screw up creation as an enchanter unless you do something silly like putting all your points into stamina. I've heard people make this argument, but considering that 25 points in Stamina is worth 56HP at L60 and considerably gimps your character in the mean time its hard to make this case for Enchanters.

Gear

Enchanters are the most gear dependent of the 4 wizard classes; in a group a naked Mage, Necro, or Wizard is about 85% as effective as a fully geared one. Not only do Enchanters need both Intelligence and Charisma, but we get beat on a lot more, making resists and HP/AC a lot more important.

My gear suggestions: Classic: Magelo_Blue:EnchanterGuideClassic, Planar: Magelo_Blue:EnchanterGuidePlanar, and Kunark BIS: Magelo_Blue:EnchanterGuideKunark

The most important clicky for an enchanter is the Goblin Gazughi Ring which lets you break charm instantly. Get one. And don't wear it permanently; swap it out. You need the HP. After that go for two Leatherfoot Raider Skullcaps which will save your life while charm soloing for the minor cost of 200p. Finally, if you can afford it Puppet Strings are great for instant recharm or when you run out of mana.

Conclusion

I haven't held back much in this guide; if you follow these recommendations you should be able to do quite a bit solo and grouped. So just go out and practice, experiment, and find out what works for you. If you level up a bit, try out the solo artist's challenge [[1]].

If you have questions or suggestions, try not to vandalize this page too much and chat with me in game on Loraen or Radium on Blue or occasionally Loraen on Red.