Why is it so hard...

[patrickhvr]

<p>Okay I'm up to 35 and debating even playing my Coercer anymore.  I really struggle playing him in groups, solo, wether or not to charm the pet, what to do, what spells to cast, what aa to do...</p><p>There's hardly enough DPS to get by on your own fighting mobs without draining power, they take on more than 3 and die (I have MC gear and Adept 3's).  So am I doing something completley wrong or should I roll a new class, or wait for SOE to do something about the Coercer....</p><p>HELP!</p>

[Rijacki]

The places where coercers are "broken" is in the 70+.Coercer is not the easiest class to play and does take a certain level of.. umm.. finesse.  There are tough patches because of the types of pets you can get and the ease of charm breaking.  And.. you need to embrace the idea you -will- die and you will die a lot.But... your spells are important.  For charm, that is the one spell you want to ransom your soul to get at master.  The others at adept 1 to adept 3 are good. Soloing is when you use charming.  Those who are really adept use a method of charm cycling: charming one, rooting another, sending the charmed against the rooted and letting the rooted get the charm nearly dead, mezzing the rooted one, uncharming the nearly dead one, killing the former charmed one, charming the rooted/mezzed one, and so on.  I can't do it consistantly, I don't have -those- cajones.  Pick and choose your targets. Don't charm one in a group unless you mez them all first.. and keep the ones your pet isn't attacking mezzed.  That's the only mostly reliable way to keep them from attacking you.If you want to have one pet for a while, find a yellow to you caster or healer that's not part of a group (and not near anything social to it).  With your pet, root your intended target and send your pet against it.  You can try "/pet ranged" (you have to use that after each time you charm or re-charm) to get your pet to cast instead of melee. If you make sure your pet hits it first and for more damage than you, even without casting demeanor on it, you can keep the target wanting to attack it and not you (and if you keep the target rooted, neither you nor your pet need to get hit).Stun, daze and stifle, while they do lower your dps potential, are what you can use to reduce the amount of damage being done to you, your pet, or a group member.In groups, it's rare that your ability to charm would be wanted over your buffs that take concentration.

[Aurumn]

Rijacki laid it out pretty well. Coercers are tricky but wicked fun when you get the hang of it. I don't bother taking on more than 2 at a time solo if I can help it unless I really feel like mezz juggling on a sliver of health. Groups will often ask you not to charm because of the worry of the pet breaking at a bad time and their preference for the buffs as mentioned before. EQ2 Wiki has a great pet guide to help you pick your pets in each zone. Other wise it's all about picking your targets. I usually stun/root/mezz my target(s), layer on the debuffs and reactives, start plinking and let em run up on me. Once they start hitting/casting the reactives do their job and they go down fairly quickly. The problem being you have to be able to take a hit or two, or have a pet up to take em for you. In groups the challenge will be getting your spells out fast enough to get any dps in before they burn down. AGI line is your friend. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />A master charm, 5 points in Charm on your coercer tree and chronosiphon (imo) do a lot for survivability. I usually carry a few healing potions for those skin-of-the-teeth moments, too. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Lleinen]

[Removed for Content]...sorry couldnt help myself

[Grimlux]

<cite>patrickhvr wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Okay I'm up to 35 and debating even playing my Coercer anymore.  I really struggle playing him in groups, solo, wether or not to charm the pet, what to do, what spells to cast, what aa to do...</p><p>There's hardly enough DPS to get by on your own fighting mobs without draining power, they take on more than 3 and die (I have MC gear and Adept 3's).  So am I doing something completley wrong or should I roll a new class, or wait for SOE to do something about the Coercer....</p><p>HELP!</p></blockquote><p>If there is nothing you like about the coercer at this point then you probably will be happier in the long run with another class. Coercer's are a class you have to actually work on to level. Most DPS classes are easily played by trained [I cannot control my vocabulary] monkeys. Some people just do not want to work. Furthermore, at 52 when you get mindbend it will increase your soloability by a ton. In fact, i'd reckon to say from 52 and beyond Coercer's are the best solo'rs. Til ROK.</p><p>Edit: NO... im not saying all DPS classes are trained [Removed for Content] monkeys <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[RingleToo]

<p>Just wanted to suggest that a good place I found to hone your solo skills playing a coercer is Splitpaw (particularly Harclave instance). I died A LOT in there. I stopped counting after 20 deaths lol (Yeah, I wasn't really very good at playing my coercer lol) But, you know, by the time I finally beat that last mob in Harclave I really understood  how to play my coercer and use those tactics Rijacki mentioned. </p><p>If you have RoK, you have this adventure pak, and it scales to level (though I forget what the lowest level is that you can go in there). Read up on it, be sure to go the solo route not heroic lol It's a lot of fun...if you don't end up throwing your computer out the window <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Need to edit this to say that I didn't die 20+ times in Harclave...that's how many times I died by the time I got around to doing Harclave lol Fortunately, because of that 8 hour lock out, I was much better by the time I did Harclave - "only" died 4 or 5 times in there I think. </p>

[patrickhvr]

Lol tryed Harclave and it was deathalicious...to say the least I got stuck in a heroic instance with my pals and had to call out and didnt get my call of Splitpaw...so I havnt returned to try