Another one of those "is it worth it?" threads!

[statman26]

<DIV>First off this is my first EQ2 character, and Im currently at level 9. Im coming from the original EQ where I played for 3 or so years as mainly a wizard or as a necro. Its apparant from what I have read on here that the EQ1 chanter doesnt equal an EQ2 chanter.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> I was set on playing a wizard, then suddenly last night I thought, hey, chanter! So I did some reading an sorta have a few questions:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Ok, im evil, as are my friends, so my choice is Coercer. Now I see all the posts about massive nerfage, Im not too concerned by this as Im sure things will even out in the long run. Firstly though, how much attention do you have to pay during fights? Ive never played a buff class, as previously stated I was a wizard/necro in EQ and didnt really do much half the time. Atleast on the wizard anyway. So basically Im just asking is it easy to keep up the haste/breeze rotations or what not without totally f'ing up and [Removed for Content] people off?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>What situations require mez? From most of the posts it is hardly used, but when exactly is an appropriate time for it, an exactly how does one do it? Ex. With multiple adds, how do you utilize the mez, stuns, an roots etc?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also what is the chanters purpose on a raid? Are we mezzers, buffers, wussy wizards?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Well thats all I can think of for now. My gaming computer is currently awol so I have some time to think things over. Thanks in advance!</DIV>

[Toogel]

<DIV>Attention: </DIV> <DIV>You will always be doing something, if you find yourself idle you are doing something wrong.  When you arent buffing with Refresh and Haste, you are doing as much DPS as you can dish out and stunning as often as possible.  Stuns give the healer a chance to catch up if they are falling behind or just save the healer a little bit of healing in the long run.  A good chanter is one that has a spell cast coming out of them almost every second and maintains their cool when adds happen.  During pulls you will be using your consume spells to gain power back for the next fight.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Mez:</DIV> <DIV>You will likely NEVER mez a mob in a standard grouping experience for exp unless you get adds.  The only exceptions are if you are working with only 1 healer and they are low level.  Then it may justify throwing mezzes out as you can, be warned that you have to tell the group to watch their AoEs and HOs, many spells and Heroic Opportunities screw up mezz and make it difficult on an enchanter, besides... the way the game is designed, a level 30++ mob is just as difficult as 3 level 30 regular mobs in one group.  Mezz is never used in grouping except for controlling adds. However...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Raids:</DIV> <DIV>A chanters main role in a raid is to breeze, haste, and mez.  Most raid mobs will be EPIC meaning they will have 3 arrows up and come in packs.  Having a chanter mezz these can sometimes make the difference between failure and success for a lower level raid group.  Obviously if you have a higher than neccesary tank the mezz thing more or less becomes moot.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Overall:</DIV> <DIV>Dont expect a lot of tells asking you to group, usually desparation as you might be the only thing within level range of the group.  Sadly, anything an enchanter can do, a bard  or some other class can do better.  Bards get mezz, haste, and power regen spells as well as other things to help the party AND they do more damage too.  As an enchanter, you may want to start your own groups usually.  Some people out there are religious users of enchanters, but the stigma is that enchanters overall are weak dps and their utility doesnt make up for it in comparison.  Dont let it get you down, we are the fastest soloers in the game as long as you arent greedy.  Dont try to take group mobs solo, instead take a ton of whites and blues solo mob and you can pull nonstop indefinitly, yellows with some downtime but minimal at most.  When it comes to raids amd special instance events, you will be the most cherished player in the group/raid as your abilites to control combat are much more prized in these instances, like Nektropos Castle and Cauldron Hollow.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I hope that helps answer a few questions for you.  Know that having a guild with players around your level makes grouping much easier, but if you freelance or dont have grouping guildmates, your grouping life is much more challenging.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Valdaya]

<DIV>The recent increase in buff timers has made it much easier to keep all the important buffs up on everyone who needs them.  Before if you wanted to keep Breeze on every group member, it would eat up around 1 minute out of every 3 for buffing Breeze, which would get old pretty quickly.  Now there's little problem with keeping people buffed.  The 'Maintained Spells Bar' can fill up pretty quickly from these buffs, but there's a fix for that in the workd to allow it to display more spells.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Mesmerize can still be useful.  It's not so much that the spell is vastly different, as it is that the EQ2 system is vastly different from EQ1.  In EQ1, 3 creatures were 3 creatures.  Each was powerful in its own right.  With AE spells generally not worth the effort, mesmerize was necessary to survive in many areas.  In EQ2, there are different types of encounters.  A single ++ enemy, 2 + enemies, or 3-4 enemies without any + marks are all one encounter.  They're all roughly the same strength.  While in EQ1, a group of 4 enemies at a higher level could pound you down very quickly, in EQ2 an encounter group of 4 enemies is just as powerful as an encounter of a single ++ enemy, just split in 4.  Because of this, tanks can handle multiple enemies within an encounter, healers don't get overstrained, and mesmerize isn't the necessity it was.  It's by no means useless, it's just not godly like it was before.  The main use you'll see for mesmerize is when you get adds (another encounter agros while you're engaged with one).  Against an encounter of two + enemies, it's often advantageous to mesmerize one to remove half the encounter's DPS until you're ready for it.  Against groups of 3-4 or more, mesmerizing is usually wasted effort, as AE spells are helpful to bring them down, and the damage output of each individual creature is quite trivial on its own.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>On a raid, enchanters buff.  That's about it, really.  They can be wussy wizards in some cases, and there might be rare occasions where crowd control helps, but buffing is the main role.</DIV>

[mino]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> statman26 wrote:<BR> <DIV>First off this is my first EQ2 character, and Im currently at level 9. Im coming from the original EQ where I played for 3 or so years as mainly a wizard or as a necro. Its apparant from what I have read on here that the EQ1 chanter doesnt equal an EQ2 chanter.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> I was set on playing a wizard, then suddenly last night I thought, hey, chanter! So I did some reading an sorta have a few questions:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Ok, im evil, as are my friends, so my choice is Coercer. Now I see all the posts about massive nerfage, Im not too concerned by this as Im sure things will even out in the long run. Firstly though, how much attention do you have to pay during fights? Ive never played a buff class, as previously stated I was a wizard/necro in EQ and didnt really do much half the time. Atleast on the wizard anyway. So basically Im just asking is it easy to keep up the haste/breeze rotations or what not without totally f'ing up and [Removed for Content] people off?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>What situations require mez? From most of the posts it is hardly used, but when exactly is an appropriate time for it, an exactly how does one do it? Ex. With multiple adds, how do you utilize the mez, stuns, an roots etc?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also what is the chanters purpose on a raid? Are we mezzers, buffers, wussy wizards?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Well thats all I can think of for now. My gaming computer is currently awol so I have some time to think things over. Thanks in advance!</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> I played a 34 coercer up until just recently and I am telling ya man go with the Warlock best DPS atm mana tap added to some DD spells and kind of a cool concept as well should be alot of fun to play.

[xev]

<DIV>So far from my experience, you do have to pay attention throughout the duration of the fight. In fights, I rotate the camera around alot, watching for adds. A Coercer can only keep two mobs mezzed with any effectiveness. So if the add is 2 ^'s or a single ^^, CC comes in. If you get an add encounter of 4 or more mobs things can get kinda hairy. Sometimes, I just tell the group, I'm going to mez the original target(s) while they AOE the larger add encounter. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Stuns in the upper 30's take a long time to cast. So far in my experience, by the time you successfully cast it, the MT has pulled aggro from either you or the Healer.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Haste/breeze rotation is fairly easy. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The damage output of a Coercer is pretty negligable, I often just throw out spells just cause I'm bored and have full power :smileytongue:. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The overall impression of this class (at close to level 37) is:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Cast haste every ten minutes.</DIV> <DIV>Cast power regen spells every 15 minutes on most/all the group.</DIV> <DIV>Crowd Control if the situation arises where it is needed.</DIV> <DIV>Stifle Boss mobs (except raid mobs).</DIV> <DIV>Stand their waiting for haste icon to start blinking and repeat the above.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Toogel]

<DIV>Xevan:</DIV> <DIV>A Coercer can only keep two mobs mezzed with any effectiveness. So if the add is 2 ^'s or a single ^^, CC comes in. If you get an add encounter of 4 or more mobs things can get kinda hairy. Sometimes, I just tell the group, I'm going to mez the original target(s) while they AOE the larger add encounter. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>A single mezz resets fast enough for you teo keep 3 mobs mezzed with the same spell, maybe 4 if you can stretch it.  So with 2 mezzes at 22 you acn effective keep 6-8 mobs mezzed (8 being a bit hairy).  I do it all the time, especially on Boat Rides where you get like 10 mobs per pull.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Target > Mezz > TAB > Fasc > TAB > Mezz > TAB > Fasc ....  just keep rotating your target with the TAB button, as long as you are in an engaged encounter you will continue to TAB through only the targets in that engaged encounter.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This isnt common practice as there are VERY few situations where you need to do this, and there are gaps where only 1 mezz will work as a mob is too high for the other ones. However there are some interesting scenarios that I have done this before:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1. Enchanted Lands boatride, had a level 25 tank and 1 27 healer.  By mezzing every mob in the encounter except the one that the tank was on I was able to minimize the damage the tank to keep the healer from stressing.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2. Any INSTANCED zone, the one I did this in was Nektropos Castle.  The group was about to wipe, 4 members died, only the assasin and me were up... I made sure that the assasin stopped attacking and I rotated mezzes, called for help, used my feather on one of the priests, kept the mobs mezzed while the priest conducted rezz of remainder of party... we got all buffed and continued to beat down the potential party wipers. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Multiple mob mezz is important to know, just not used very often.  Remember that if you are breezed and with your consume, you can keep 6 mobs mezzed indefinitly.</DIV>

[statman26]

<P><SPAN>Toogeloo:</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN><FONT color=#ffffff>In regards to your post I have a question:</FONT></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN><FONT color=#ffffff>Does recasting mez on an already mezzed mob increase its duration any? Having not played a chanter in eq1 im not sure if it worked that way or not, however snares would reset the timer if you were to cast it on an already snared mob. Just wondering if mez works in this way, although im doubting due to the fact that mez doesnt really have a set duration.</FONT></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT></SPAN> </P> <P><SPAN><FONT color=#ffffff>Thanks for the replies so far guys!!</FONT></SPAN></P>

[Valdaya]

<DIV>Yes, recasting mesmerize does refresh the duration.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As for having a set duration, mesmerize spells do indeed have a set duration.  There are two variables that can affect it.  An enemy having a high mental resist might cause the spell to break early (this rears its head most often when you charm something, as that creature then gets all your buffs, including your great Mental resist ones), and as well the quality of your spell determines how close to the maximum duration you can get.  An Apprentice 1 Mesmerize spell might last at most for 30 of the possible 42 seconds, an Adept 1 36, and a Master 1 all 42.</DIV>