Questions on playing a coercer

[bdjam]

<DIV>I've spent the last two - three weeks trying out different classes on the Isle, trying to get a feel for what interests me in the game, and what I want to play.  I'm very intrigued by my coercer, but I have some serious concerns/questions I was hoping to resolve before I go full steam ahead.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1)  In terms of damage - Should I think of a coercer like a pet class, where the pet tanks and I launch some spells.  Or is the coercer more like a wiz/warlock where I root/nuke, and the pet just happens to be adding some dps?  The reason I ask this is that I've been trying to act like a pet class, but it's not working well.  The pet takes no aggro it seems, and with my first nuke I'm getting pounded.  I'm young yet, so maybe this changes with more spells in my arsenal.  But mostly, I'm just wondering what the mindset needs to be.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2)  Groups - Grouping has been limited so far, but that's natural at this level.  But I want a class that is easy to get a group for.  I don't have huge stretches of time to play, so I hate wasting minutes looking for a group to no avail.  The coercer seems like I could solo while waiting, which is one thing that attracts me to it, but I don't want to be permanently soloing.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3) Charm breaking - How do people handle this?  Right now, I root and re-charm, or maybe just get pounded and recharm.  At my level, I can take the punishment.  But is that what you do at high levels too?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4) AoE's -- Do we get many mass mezz/mass root spells?  I'm finding multi encounters of 4+ challenging, but of course I only have a single target sleep and root. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for any help you can provide, I hope this coercer life works out.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <P>Message Edited by bdjames on <SPAN class=date_text>07-10-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>12:06 PM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by bdjames on <span class=date_text>07-10-2006</span> <span class=time_text>12:07 PM</span>

[Noct1234]

1)  In the early levels, you can either be a pet class if you want to stand around for half the fight while your pet gains aggro, or you can be root/nuke. You want to have at least Adept III of your current charm and then charm mage or priest class mobs to be a pet class.  When you get a Master 1 charm, you are definitely a pet class. 2)  You will do poor DPS in a group until level 23, when you get Sybillant, or 24, when you can make it an M2.  It can be dangerous to grab a ^^^ pet in groups in dungeons; you can be assured that the charm will break just after an add with the healer low on power. Try to grab a ^ near the dungeon entrance.  They won't be so life threatening when the charm breaks. Charm takes a lot of concentration slots, so you will have to decide between 3 buffs or a pet. I was in RoV with a small group of Monk, Bruiser, Fury, Coercer, and we won fights we had no right to win in my opinion. 3)  Keep the creature you are attacking rooted, and target through your pet.  Make sure you spend the time to max your defense, focus, and subjugation skills. +Sta is as important as +Int to Coercers; Agility is also important.  You need to be able to take a few hits. 4)  You get a short AoE daze at 11, a short AoE stun at 16, and AoE mezz at 25.  If you want to to fight groups of 3 or more early, start out without a pet. Start charm, as charm is casting, target another mob.  When charm completes, send the charmed mob to kill the mob you are targeting, then switch to the third mob and root or mez it and the fourth mob too, if any.  If there is a healer, charm that one. <div></div>

[Outerspace]

<div></div>Some good tips there, thanks.I rolled a coercer and he's up to 43 at the moment and I have to say I love the class. Soloing an orange con level 46 Thulian Magus at level 41? Can't do it with any other class.I've been experimenting with a few strategies for soloing green heroic mobs and/or groups. Heroic groups that are all no-arrow mobs - you can just charm one mob like the above post says, and AE mez/root/stun to your leisure. But for triple-up mobs I have a hard time. I find that if I apply DoT's, the mobs break root all the time and I really don't have enough DPS to get the mobs down quickly. I find I am running out of power quickly just spamming Seizure. One thing that worked for me was root and Anguish (DoT/Power steal). It took forever even for a green Vallon Savage and he did break root and hit me a few times. Obviously if he had been closer to my level I would have died pretty quickly. Same for Gurk Strongarm. My question therefore is - are there any good strategies for killing triple up mobs? Is it even possible? Most pets I have charmed (Adept 3 Beguile) are not that effective and don't nuke anything like the numbers quoted in the pet guide on here. I don't quite have the corpse candle yet although I have seen it's awesomeness in action.<div></div>One other question - when you charm a member of a heroic group, for example if you charm the construct of Thule that comes with a Thulian Magus and let the Magus kill it then release the Magus and kill that - does it affect the loot table?<p>Message Edited by Outerspace on <span class=date_text>07-11-2006</span> <span class=time_text>03:19 AM</span>

[Alaeth]

Most of the numbers in the pet guide are given assuming master charm; with adept III, you should see numbers approximately 1/3 of those. The strategy for ^^^ mobs assuming you have a decent pet is fairly simple: if the mob isn't stun-immune, run through a stun cycle while your pet is attacking, then back off your pet and mez the target until your stuns are up again. Rinse/repeat until it's dead. If it is stun-immune, root it, then joust your pet at maximum cast range, using your Ego line (nuke+daze) as an emergency backup if root fails too early. It gets faster for stunnable mobs once you're past 52 and have your full complement of stuns, but one thing you always have to watch out for is your pet putting a DoT on the target, which means you'll have to root it (and stay far away) rather than mez it while waiting for stuns to recycle.About charm affecting the loot table, it does not. You can charm one member out of a heroic group, use it to kill off the others, then kill it and upon its death receive the reward for killing the heroic encounter.

[Outerspace]

Great <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Thanks for the advice.<div></div>