Selo Server - Chanter Gameplay and Power OOW to End Game - Are they worth playing?

Hi guys. I have some questions on Enchanters and how well they hold up over the long haul. Right now I am running a 65 Mage but while fun I miss playing a Chanter. The reason I rolled a Mage instead of a Chanter was that from what I read, the Mage is pretty consistent and holds up well all the way through all the upcoming expansions on Selo’s. However, as I said I miss my Chanter which admittingly, I only got up to level 53 on Corinav and only up the Luclin release before its slow XP rates got to me.

What I want to know is how well the Chanter holds up from our current OOW expansion all the way through max level and end game. I have heard that in the very near future, within the next expansion or so, Charm gets a serious nerf, which sucks the super powerful pet was the reward for all the hell, hassle and heartache that goes along with Charming a pet. I also heard they get super powerful again later to finally be nerfed to oblivion again at the very upper levels. However, unlike the Mage which seems to receive pretty consistent remarks all the way, there seems to be a huge debate about Chanter power with remarks ranging to them being total crap to still being extremely go despite the ups and downs in power levels.

So help me out here. Are Chanters worthwhile to play all the way up through the long run or should I just stick with my Mage?

IMO a (good) enchanter will always be a powerful and desirable class. It just might not be ridiculously OP like it is in Classic -> POP.

You’re gonna spend a lot of time on raids waiting for those few encounters that mezz is needed or is preferable. Honestly, there aren’t many and you’ll spend most of your time refreshing buffs, tashing and in tells for buff complainers.

In example, you can mezz bats for the Sisters encounter for 20 minutes; you can mezz orcs if you get overwhelmed for Performer.

You do get to run a pet on a boss encounters in GoD, and again in Omens.

You can also play the mezz game for the drunken trap event for the undead room and also the trash in the final boss fight until they depop for PoR. Edit: you also can charm pets on floor one as well.

Some TSS also calls for mezz, so either charm / mezz stays relevant for a while but nothing that calls for more than 2 chanters in a raid.

It’s better than nothing in the raid scene, but as far as OP charm pets you know from classic -> PoP; it won’t be the same and is severely limited.

Mages are a bit easier on the player from the Luclin CoH roles in VT, you’ll still call late comers/looters and your DPS while not always T1 isn’t marginalized like it was with motm and pet nerfs. People still like their rods and will still forget to get fresh ones that lead to asks for new ones mid fight.

If you like to raid then you need to seriously consider how they are on raids. Some people just flat out won't do it. It's a very "unglorious" but quite busy role from buffs to tashing every mob, and oftentimes, little "fun" involved. For some people it's ok, but others just won't do it.

Now, in groups already charm is far past its prime. I haven't been in a charm group in a while. It's probably still viable, to be sure, but player power has skyrocketed since the days of Plane of Fire/PoP. That's probably when charm shined and then dropped off precipitously.

I would want to say an ENC will always find a spot in groups, however, because they still slow, haste, and cast clarity. Those are always welcome and a mage cannot compete there. But the days of wanting 3 ENC in a group are long gone. I would be surprised if that ever came back in later expansions considering how over-used charm became early on
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Hmm. It isn't sounding too good for the Chanters it seems and based on what your saying, sounds like raiding as a chanter kind of sucks. Honestly it is kind of sounding like they aren't much fun post-PoP at all. I mean even at the Luclin/PoP era aside from mezing (which is admittingly important) and buffs/debuffs, I felt kind of useless in a party when I couldn't bring a big nasty charmed pet to the table so if charmed pets aren't desirable in groups post-pop did the Chanter get anything to compensate for it in terms of damage output?

Also how are they solo post PoP because I have to admit, their ability to solo was one of the big draws for me to the Chanter.

As far as raiding. Is their really any caster class that is super fun at raiding? Seems Wizards and Mages just nuke and Necros just DoT.

Well if you can nuke there are meta games to max and measure dps. For enc you can dps but its like druid... you'll have to prioritize other things so you can't ever really indulge.

As far as fun though, it's a continuum and I would say buff classes lean to the less fun side just because of that.

Mezzing in groups is probably only a thing in very weak pug groups if you like that it's not really even a thing given how powerful characters are. There are definitely some raids that require enchanters to charm or mez but not many.

If you have to ask, no.

I am asking because I don't know. If I had to base my decision on a level 53 chanter during the Luclin/PoP release, I would say, "Hell ya" but it seems like they got tons of changes (nerfs?) that could take a lot of the early period enjoyment out of the class. No information out there really gives straight answers though, one person says they are amazing, even after level 100, other say they aren't worth playing shortly after PoP.

Enchanters don't change so much as the game does. Things like player power skyrocket while zones become wider and mob density lessens. Doing group CC becomes just a gimmick rather than a thing that is needed, I think the last time I had to seriously mez for a group was in vxed, 11 expansions ago. On raids you are relegated to tash/buff/adps while also dpsing, runeing, or browsing youtube, whichever makes you the most useful for the event. There are some raids where you are forced to do some little mez/charm/stun mechanic but these are the exception.

So if you play to raid, probably not unless you really like the class.
If you play to group, maybe, but keep in mind the group game kinda dies off hard after pop anyways. You can always solo as an enc.

imo

If you like big damage, the best you’ll see is probably a wizard as people may ohhhh and ahhhh at crits. They probably won’t unless you draw attention to it though.

If you want a real challenge, try parsing well as a necro. The king of dots is the only class to not have its dots revamped which is tragic. You’ll need to figure out for each encounter how to maximize DPS by casting 12-18 spells/AA/clicks and keeping them all burning on the mob. The best part of being a necro? No one will notice if you end up being a bad necro because the bar is so low.

A good enchanter will always be able to dominate group content. The only crappy era for enchanters is all of the level 70 expansions because charm pet damage was nerfed too much. However, soloing in vxed is still phenomenal exp until level 75 so you still have a great viable solo option (much easier with a cleric box). Raids can be pretty boring for enchanters outside of Overlord Mata Muram and Queen Sendaii. We aren't a dps class on raids. But you still should have plenty to do with debuffing and slowing mobs, plus enchanter stuns are very powerful at helping tanks mitigate damage.

Group-wise, they regain some dominance from level 75 (TSS era) on. Charm pets dualwielding with equipping a haste item will pump out pretty good dps and have enough hp to tank named. On top of all this, enchanters are great pullers with all your tricks so there's plenty to do to keep busy if you want to be a good enchanter. If you want to sit in camp the whole time and be low risk, you should re-roll to another caster or realize you won't be wanted too much in groups because you won't be making a big difference.

Enchanters are never bad. They do not stack well in mass on raids, but then they never did even in their op early heydey. At this level 70 point the game is in meleequest and encs are at a lowER point, but so is every silk. You want a slow basically everywhere you group and you want cc most places too, so the role never loses its luster even if charming does. Eventually casters recover, and enc get some cool new tools alongside it, so basically enc on selo can expect things to be ok but mediocre now, pick up a bit by 80, and stay good but not op.

I also think a lot of people underestimate how /lfg or /g lfg! tend to work. Tanks are the most common bottleneck, dps the least, and bards rarely pug. You can pug quite fine as an enchanter, my guilds couple have no issues getting people to party with, and outside observing faceless I don't see theirs ever bored lfg for long. It's mostly dps from the top guilds in lfg, and sometimes clerics on a lopsided day. Never tanks, never bards, never raiding guild enc amd rarely casual ones for long.

Note - amtrak cleric main bias here.

Question for you about raiding. You say they are pretty boring on a raid and I do have the option to play a Mage however, I was thinking that they have to be pretty boring on raid too. I mean what more do they do besides order the pet to attack and drop nukes on things? Wouldn't the chanter even with its limited role, be more active and engaged than a Mage?

As for the later group game, what you describe kind of sounds like fun. Heavy CC was great and all but became such a focus a times that you couldn't do anything else but CC. It seems like it would be kind of nice to be able focus more on doing other things like adding in your DPS spells, stuns, give Rune to the tanks, pulling, etc.

As for solo, it sounds like Chanter still keep most of their solo options open even into the end game. I am assuming reverse charming since the pets can't keep up with the mobs in terms of DPS that is. Root the hostile mob in place, sick charmed mob on him until your charmed mob is almost dead, drop charm at the last min. drop a nuke on what was previously your charmed pet to finish him off for XP, charm the rooted mob he was attacking and repeat. That about right?