The Spirit Realm

Malicious Decay is great for getting VP to last full duration, but Putrid Decay may be a better choice. Since it debuffs poison as well as disease, it will make it better for Sting and any poison DoTs you use.

It's amazing at how many mob types VP works on in TSS zones. I chain pulled the Icefall bears from the caves for some serious grinding before everyone moved up to Ashengate and Valdeholm. VP, clicky root pants, and Malos for pulls worked wonders for handling 2 and 3 mobs on incoming. Ancestral Guard and Union of Spirits were great buffers for that imminent death. Pulling is one of the more fun roles for the adventurous shaman.

And people wonder why enchanters are bitter....

because they don't eat enough sugar?

Jaraman
Philospher-King
Joined: 27 Jul 2005
Posts: 1000
Server: The Rathe

Grats!

VP is amazing in Ashengate. In my hunting there, I've found I can land VP (after MD) for full duration on mobs that are too high for the enchanters to mezz even. I understand why you're jealous Unmei, but consider that I can only lock down 1 mob with it, and only once every 2 minutes. By the way, you could mem root also.

2 minutes, and thats null if a melee gets on the wrong mob and breaks root.

/shrug
When your guild enchanters are all locked into set groups, you gotta make do. If you're bitter because our root actually works, you have some serious problems.

When discussing balance, each class is going to have one or two (or five!) other classes to which it will be compared. Paladins will naturally compare themselves to Shadowknights and Warriors. Rogues will compare themselves to wizards, necros, mages, and berserkers. Druids will compare themselves to wizards, clerics, and shamans. And so on.

So the question of why Unmei is coming to the shaman boards to occassionally discuss the enchanter class can be answered very simply - this is an excellent board. It is one of the most active Everquest boards still around. The posters here are mostly mature, intelligent people, and the owner of this board is one of the best you'll find for any community.

Add in the fact that, in a few keys ways, the enchanter and the shaman class overlap in abilities, and I think it's pretty apparent why an enchanter would want to have a discussion of their class on this site.

Why do you invite an enchanter to your group? If you have an enchanter and another class looking for a group and have only 1 spot to fill, which would you take first (personal reputation aside)?

Enchanters were gods for a while. Back in Kunark, definitely. GoD as well. But you'll notice that for each 'god' era of the enchanter class, which typically revolved around 1 aspect of the class, a corresponding 'nerf' or change in gameplay paradigm occured.

Remember aoe groups in Sebilis? The enchanter class was a key component of this because of their stuns. Remember as well when this content was actually challenging, and you didn't have all the tricks to keep people alive? Where aggro was a real concern, and casters were lucky to break 2k hp. Back in those days, groups would *stop* if the enchanter left, or if you couldn't find one.

And look what came about because of that. Content these days does not absolutely require in-camp crowd control. Mobs are generally further apart, and there are a number of classes that can single pull with a modicum of skill. Gameplay has changed so that enchanters are no longer required.

Then you have charming in GoD. A single dual wielding pooka would out dps the entire group, easily. So because of a bad gameplay design, charm was completely nerfed in future expansions. Thankfully this appears to have been repealed a bit, and from what I've heard, charm is relatively viable again. Needless to say, this makes me happy.

Anyway, some things that I would really like to see that would improve the enchanter class -

A low resist, low duration, fast casting, shortish duration, high mana cost mez. 24 second duration, 3 minute recast, -500 resist rate. Sorta like a VP for enchanter, just this is a mez instead of a root.

I also think that enchanters could use some alternate crowd control improvements beyond mez. A fast cast, low resist root. A debuff that perhaps lowers the damage spells and abilities do. Something.

I think there's a lot that can be done to the enchanter class that won't over power them.

*gasp* you healed a ranger?!? heresy! rangers are to be rezzed, not healed!

I've honestly been a little bored with this expansion...everything seems run-of-the-mill cut and dry with upper-end zones. probably more fun to the lower-level crowd and I think I'll find myself enjoying it more as end-game progression is figured out....or maybe if I stop getting sucked into vergalid key-farming groups lying about going deeper in, when they're just killing lblues at ZI.

I won't say that shaman are the most powerful class in EQ...perhaps one of the most flexible. we've gotten a few good things with this expansion. (i'm especially happy with canni AA, and SotQ). but as far as power, there are by far more powerful classes out there, and weaker ones too. I can't compare my experience of healing and DPS to all players, as I will freely admit that raiders are more capable of coping with higher-level content than non-raiders. however. much of it is a mindset. an approach.

hate to sound cheesy: whether you think you can or you can't, you're right.

I agree with Veril. The idea that a mesmerize should work perfectly until level 78 and then be completely ineffective at 79 is weak.

The same should be true of stuns.

I also agree with Unmei that its silly to have all giants resist mezz, all the time. That was a hassle back in velious and kunark, and its a hassle now.

That would be a fairly large shift in game mechanics, though. As it is, there are zones in the new expansion where enchanters are effective (mesa, steppes, icefall, sunderrock, direwind, ashengate) and zones where they are not effective (valdeholm, frostcrypt).

So, the question is this: why can't enchanters just hang out in the zones where they are effective? The answer is unfortunately that they can't do that because those zones are not worth going to. At 75, your choices are really direwind, icefall, valdeholm, frostcrypt, or ashengate. Icefall and Direwind are both "ok", but hardly destinations one would prefer to go to because the expereience isn't as good and the drops are sub-standard for the most-part. Valdeholm and Frostcrypt are out becase of the "giants-are-uber-and-therefore-can't-be-mezzed" mentality. That leaves... Ashengate. A good enough zone, I guess, but being rail-roaded into one zone isn't much fun.

Enchanters need some help. If they can't have degrading mez/stun, they need a VP-like ability. In fact, GIVE THEM VP. I don't have a problem with that. In fact, give them a version with a faster re-use time (ie: every 6 seconds, like the ranger root). Ths wouldn't hurt us, and it would help the enchanters.

Enchanters are unfortunately a one-trick pony right now; they can do CC, and thats it. Nobody cares about mana regeneration anymore, and the difference in hastes isn't enough to make much difference, and charm is pretty much pointless now (when it will even work). Enchanters need help, and badly.

Someone asked earlier in the thread "when would you group an enchanter?". The answer is, I wouldn't. I would group pretty much any other class before an enchanter, unless it was a guildee -- and then only because it WAS a guildee. Aside from CC, an enchanter doesn't add much to the group, and if the enchanter is not able to even do CC, then theres just no point. (My first main in EQ was an enchanter, btw -- its not like I have something against enchanters. They were a great class at one time, but right now they're hurting pretty badly.)

WhileI'm throwing out ideas, can someone tell me when it became sensible for bards to have a mezz thats just as good as an enchanters mezz? I started a bot bard (74, 177aa now) and I was quite surprised to find that at some point my mezzes got to be good enough that I could fill in for the role of an enchanter at CC. (Yes, enchanters have a better chance to land their mezz, and more varieties of mezzes, but even so bards were always very deliberately kept below enchanters in terms of mezz caps.) When did that change? (Also note, I'm not suggesting it get changed back, I'm just curious.)

Heh...all I wanted to do was let Shaman know that VP works well in Valdeholm and FC.