Potential new player with a few questions.

Perhaps you missed the part where I said that it was possible that I could be mis-remembering the origin of the skill. That allowed for the possibility that my memory was incorrect.

IOW, the horse is dead. Continuing to kick it won't make it any less dead, but it might make it less of a horse.
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Regardless, I would still recommend that the OP try out more than one of the pet classes. That way, the OP won't feel locked into a class that they end up hating down the road. Certain classes appeal to certain personalities, and a player is more likely to stick with the game if they are playing a character they enjoy playing. If the OP starts to hate one of those classes, the deletion of the character belonging to that class (after transferring anything of value off of the character) remains an option.

Ultimately, though, it is up to the OP.

/sigh, no I didn't miss anything, It's not about you lol. I wasn't correcting you to be clever, I was letting the OP know what the facts were so that they don't go looking for an aa PE for the next 6 months when it doesn't in fact exist. So you see, the horse was not only very much alive, it was carrying the news in the wrong direction Even so, you managed to confuse them, see the OP's post after yours. You really shouldn't take it so personally. That wasn't how it was meant at all. Now p'raps we can get back on track which was trying to give good, accurate and up to date advice to the OP

I would agree that trying all the pet classes can be fun. No issue there.

To the OP, PE IS a Spell, it's level 65. On Splitpaw the expert is avail on the broker for 22p and the master for 240p or you can master it out using research which will be around 15 days without potions.

Charm is also a spell (lvl 10) but you can augment it with aa points in the Coercer tree which will reduce it's resistability.

The link you made is quite a good one, I linked another a few posts back. They are both out of date as far as current tier goes but will both give you a good idea of how to play and level a coercer. By the time you get to Tier 7 you will have cracked it

Ok thank you Ranga. I thought I was blind looking all over the AA trees trying to find PE & it wasn't there.

Thanks to all for all the feedback on the different types of pet classes. While I may end up trying some of the others, I do believe I shall main this Coercer. I'm familiar with a class from DAoC that had the same type of resist-able charm spell. They could potentially charm a purple con mob to a max level player(the equivalent of a red con here) though with a very high resist chance/rate. This type of class trades potentially higher level pets & the ability to pick pets from the zone to match the job at hand with the need to micromanage the pet more and keep re-charming it. Plus I like that I can combine that with PE once I get to the correct level, even if it is just a PE of myself, so I'll always have pet options. I have also read in the mage boards that one of the expansions especially added a lot of mobs which were charm immune, so yet another reason to have both charm & PE.

If anyone is playing on Freeport, feel free to PM or mail Cearissa with any useful Coercer/newbie tips & tricks.

Replied via PM so as not to derail the thread.

Ok another question. Do I still get the "first time killed" AA experience for named/special mobs if I turn off combat experience? I'm thinking of using that option for no combat experience when I hit around level 15-18 and running all the quests/exploring in each starter zone.

I'm not going to rush this character to max level quick as I can. I'm probably going to roll a healer that I'll rush to a higher level quite quickly for grouping, later game raiding & just to see some of the content my Coercer won't see for some time yet. I want to get as much AA xp as I can as I build this Coercer so I'll hit each zone in each starter, do all the quests, kill each named, etc. This way I can also farm lower level transmutables, raise my gathering skills & basically take my time to do her right.

That one i'm not 100% sure of. However, if you are a Gold Member (sub/krono) you can move your AA slider to 100% and then all of the experience will go into AAs instead of Adventure levels. That will keep you from leveling while doing quests and also build up your AAs a good amount

No worries, people can't remember everything about this game so sometimes there is some worse than useless info given. Like I said, I am sorry you had to waste your time looking for stuff that was never there in the first place.

I hope you have fun with your coercer and if you need any tips on it, drop me a pm.

So I've got up to level 14 & now have my first set of 4 options under the "Coercer Training" tab of the AA window to pick a spell to start training to grandmaster. As a bronze level free player, if I pick a spell what happens? As it trains up over time will I be able to use the adept level when it gets there since bronze is limited to that level...does it even level over time or is it instant...do I lose the spell entirely once it levels to a tier I cant use...how does that all work?

I play a Necro on Freeport, shoot me a PM if you need any questions answered or help on anything. I am level 88 but I have some lower level toons that I could help you with.

just a sidenote here: should you at any time get bored or frustrated with your choices and want to try anything else, just put the cash down for the merc option from AoD. quite honestly, once you kind of get a rhythm going with the mercs so much becomes soloable. dual boxing becomes less of a necessity and more of a 'want to' option.

seriously, with a merc you can solo an amazing amount of content on any class.

I probably will do that at some point. I don't really need to dual box if I can just hire a healer to follow me around. How much control do you have over your merc if you get one? Is it basically like a pet you can give basic commands to or can you fully control it as if it were another character?

It's a pet style thing, you can make them be peaceable or go running in like a crazed fool. They have bunches of mercs, Stamper is a healer, Jennis is a pally, Daeron is a monk (and born of dragons! But I'm sure he'll tell you all about that. And how!)

In short, you can find one to compliment your class and style. I love my mercs. They're one of my Norrathian family now heheh.

people have varying results with the mercs, as with any AI in a game. which is why i mentioned getting in a rhythm with them. once you figure out what they will and won't do and a little bit about why, then you're good to go except for the occasional bad pull.

people swear by Stamper, but i and a few others have been killed by the little rat a few times. one of those awful dungeon moments from WoW when you realize that the party is wiped and the healer had a full mana bar...

i like Bdorn the dwarven Templar, he actually can tank a bit too, which is surprising, but can work well if you get a feel for it.

the key to the healers that i have learned is to turn off all their options basically. no protecting you, no protecting themselves, and then suddenly they remember to heal

but you should probably read a guide and talk to some others about what works for them.

And on a funny note, the tank in my guild? Hehe, his merc has a hilarious habit of picking fights. Halfway across a zone. Rest of the mercs in the party are all standing around, whistling, humming, hanging out. Not his. He has a merc that is the equivalent of a scrappy rooster. Constantly dashing off, and bring back "friends".

Mely, our healer: everybody good?
Aro, the tank: yup!
Rin, the dps: hey..... Where's Aro's merc?

Pause

Uh oh. This might hurt.

And thus we learned that mercs approach "protect character" very seriously, if not always wisely.
-winks-