The first choice you must make is your Race. Let me give you a little pointer first--no matter what race you choose, your experience requirements are going to be the same, and you will quickly gain the ability to become whatever race suits you. Intelligence and Charisma are your primary stats, and while High Elves will have the highest average of the two, they aren't necessarily the best class. I recommend taking whichever class you find the most appealing through roleplay.

Human - The basic race. The most universally accepted faction, though this really shouldn't be an issue for the enchanter. Blind at night, and has... balanced stats. I can't say that a human is a good or bad choice. Your INT and CHA will start at 100 with a balanced point-split, so you won't be terribly disadvantaged. You'll be strong, have good stamina, and basically no stat that's "lacking". You just won't blow anyone away, either.

High Elf - The most commonly picked enchanter race. This is because their average of INT and CHA is the highest. They also have the lowest STR of all the 'chanter races, something which continues to plague Xornn when I start getting encumbered. Infravision is nice, though you might find yourself looking like a clone of every enchanter around.

Erudite - The highest base Intelligence of the 'chanter races. Not an overly impressive Charisma, but it works, considering how much Intelligence they have to make up for it. They are blind, but remember this is only a factor for the first 3 levels of a 'chanter's life... after that Illusions will remedy the problem, although it can be annoying recasting them repeatedly.

Gnome - Impressive Intelligence, weak Charisma, but again it balances out well enough. Gnomes have a few things going for them--they have a great hunting area with Steamfont Mountains, a great city to explore, being the shortest race in the game makes it feel like you're running really fast even without Spirit of Wolf, and you get Tinker. Add to that infravision, having every wood elf druid you meet rubbing your bald little head, and charming a giant to follow you around, and you'll see why Xornn uses Illusion: Gnome all the time!

Dark Elf - Dark elves have high Intelligence, second only to Erudites, just above the gnomes. They have a weak Charisma as well (only Human and High Elf start with 100+ CHA without devoting most of your points to the attribute. Faction is a huge issue for dark elves, but not for dark elf enchanters, who truly utilize the power of all our illusions. Lastly, add ultravision. At 29th level all enchanters can cast this spell, but will be renewing it every 30 minutes--there's something to be said for natural, inborn ability to see.

When it comes time to spend those 30 attribute points, there are many schools of thought on the matter:

Intelligence - The first school, and the most popular, is that you should put 25 points into your Intelligence, and the remaining 5 into Charisma, Strength or Agility (Agility especially for Erudites). Make sure your starting Agility is 75 or you will have a movement hindrance till you get some AGI equipment. The reasoning behind the Intelligence school is that Intelligence items are much harder to get the high raises in, whereas Charisma items tend to come fairly easily. By raising INT as much as possible, you can reach the goal of 200 INT and 200 CHA quicker and cheaper by getting a head-start on the difficult stat.

Charisma - The second school supports raising CHA as high as possible for two reasons. Firstly, many believe that high CHA has a profound impact on charm durations, stun-locking, fear durations, and mezzing. Nearly all enchanters give credit that it does help, especially in charming scenarios. The second reason is that most Charisma items do not have an armor class raise attached. At higher levels, enchanters start steering toward AC/HP/Mana items, and many INT items carry those stats, especially AC. My research has proven to me that CHA has a profound impact on charming, without a doubt. Mezzing is slightly impacted by it, as my mezzing resists are always lower with high charisma, but only barely lower, so much that I had to cast it 100 times and keep track of the resists to be able to tell. I haven't tested it with stunning and fearing yet... that's next on the list.

Balanced - And this is where I fall. 15 points into Intelligence, 15 points into Charisma. Viola--an enchanter is born. Hitting 200 INT/CHA is still quite easy to do by the time our Charisma and Intelligence buffs come into play, and leaves plenty of space for that precious AC/HP/Mana gear later on.

Religion should be Agnostic. I can't stress this enough. Many times, just changing your race is not enough, and I chose a religion for role-play value with my first enchanter, Bromm. I finally decided to delete Bromm after 13 levels, because I could not get into Neriak, even with Illusion: Dark Elf and Alliance. If you insist on a religion be warned of this chance. As Agnostic, I managed to walk into Neriak as a Gnome using only Alliance.

Where you start is up to you, it really doesn't matter. I'm not going to write a guide on where to level and what to fight, when to sell your loot, or such as that. I'm letting you know how to fight, what tools you should get used to fighting with, and giving you fair warning as to what to expect when you use them..

First 3 levels First Circle

Once in the game, complete your newbie quest, and spend your first 5 skill points. If you plan to become a trademaster (as I did with Xornn), you might not want to spend any skill points at all--but I recommend at least blowing them for your first 4 levels when you really need the skills. I recommend you dump all five points into your weapon skill--and suggest One-Handed Blunt as soon as you can get one. Later on, as you start maxxing your melee skill before using all your practices, drop a few into Sense Heading to get it going better. You should be practicing Sense Heading any time you can, because you will come to love knowing which way your facing in the future.

First, let's look at your spells now:

Lull - Lowers the aggro radius of the target. Used to allow one to pull from two mobs without bringing both. When successful is a non-aggro spell. When resisted is often considered hostile. More successful with high CHA. I've never used this spell seriously. Only to fiddle with orc camps when I was 29th and testing if high CHA helped. Druids and Rangers gain Harmony, an area-effect non-aggro version of Lull. There is some upheaval about this among enchanters, but I must admit, allowing enchanters a non-aggro version of this could very well make them broken. Still, the Lull-line of spells needs the resist rate drastically lowered.

Minor Illusion - Turns you into an immobile copy of the nearest inanimate object. Kills Spirit of Wolf if you have it cast on you, and makes your faction Indifferent with almost all mobs.

Minor Shielding - Self-Only buff that gives +6HP +3AC at 1st level, capping at +10HP +6AC at 5th. You should always have this buff on in combat. Also the lowest casting cast Abjuration spell you get, tied with Tashan, both of which can be repeatedly cast to train your Abjuration. 27 minute duration.

Pendril's Animation - Your first pet spell. Strategy and tactics with pets will be discussed later. Requires 1 Tiny Dagger as a spell component, and your pet is a rogue. Hits for decent damage with low delay, but has weak HP. They don't tank well--and can never be commanded. They just attack anything that attacks you. After a bit of research, I've compiled the damage you can expect from your pets. This animation will hit for a max of 8 damage, and this is will always /con as a level 1 pet. It will always hit for 8 maximum. I don't know the hit points of your pet, but it's never good, so don't rely on your pet to take damage for you very long.

Reclaim Energy - Used to unsummon your pet, and recover about 25% of the pet's casting cost in mana. Not worth using till about the 5th Circle, when your pet will cost 85 mana.

Shallow Breath - Targetted Damage-Over-Time (DOT)/Debuff. Max damage of 5, lowers STR & AGI by 5. You will get many upgrades to this spell, though it will see less and less use as you advance. At 7 mana, this is the cheapest Alteration available--cast it on yourself or your pet repeatedly to max your Alteration.

Strengthen - Targetted STR buff. +10 STR for 10 mana by 6th level, and the only STR buff you'll have for a long time. Get used to casting it on everyone and everything. 27 minute duration.

Taper Enchantment - Targetted reduces the duration of top enchantment/buff on target. Will see little use as by the time you need something to remove enchantments, you'll have two upgrades.

True North - Spins you to face North. Is also the cheapest Divination spell at 5 mana. Cast repeatedly to train Divination to max.

Weaken - First of the Weaken line, targetted debuff--lowers STR of target by 15 max at 10th level.

Completing the First Circle is fairly simple. At first level kill white mobs by pulling with shallow breath and meleeing them. You will ding quickly. Save all money you make for your first spell purchase, Pendril's Animation. Once you are able to summon a pet, continue to melee, and your pet will act as a free "dot" since he just wails away on the mob. You can even back out of a fight for a moment, but don't let the quiet guy tank very long... he's a real wimp, just a damage factory. Always stand on the opposite side as your pet in a fight, because he'll hit more solidly from behind.

The next spell you should pick up is Strengthen, because you need to buff you and your pet with anything you can get. Continue killing blues and whites till you finish off this spell rank, and mobs such as Fire Beetles are wonderful for their loot. The remaining spells don't really matter as to order of purchase, save Minor Illusion, to allow you to be indifferent with all merchants when selling--this very often will allow you to not have to zone for a good selling price.

Hoard your money for those fourth level spells, because you're going to need several of them...

2nd Circle Lvel 4-7

At level 4 you have reached the Second Circle, and learn several of the enchanter's key powers. Let's look at the new tools available.

Color Flux - Drops an AE stun in the area immediately around you (melee range) which lasts 4 seconds. The recast delay on the spell is 12 seconds. Not terribly useful to you quite yet, this spell will become second-nature for you to regain control of a fight in the future.

Enfeeblement - Second in the Weaken line, -18STR -3AC to target at 4th, capping at -20STR -3AC by 8th. (Which is curious because further upgrades to not affect AC of the target.) Quite honestly, debuffing (even -70 STR at the 8th Circle) has very minimal effect on mobs. During the 2nd Circle, it's still better than nothing. Shouldn't make it priorty to get though.

Fear - The first of our Fear line. Lasts for up to 18 seconds, and has some limited applications, which I'll discuss.

Gate - Simple teleport self to bind point spell. All casters (start lvl 1 with spells classes) get Gate.

Haze - First of the targetted AC buff line. Gives target +4AC at 4th, capping at +5AC by 5th (note that you may see as much as 6AC from this spell, but the spell data shows this is a server-side formula we aren't aware of).

Illusion: Half Elf - Change form to half elf (w/ infravision).

Illusion: Human - Change from to human (w/ normal vision).

Invisibility - The first class to get the spell. Target group member becomes invisible. Use /con to tell if mobs can see you. (If not indifferent they see you.) Has random duration, but if holds over 10 seconds it should last awhile, with a 20 minute max duration. Turning invisible kills your pet, even if it's nowhere near you.

Juli's Animation - Summons new animation. 2 Tiny Daggers required, hits harder now, has some more HP's, still no tank. (Little hint... without help, it will never be a tank.) I've seen maximum hits of 8 damage for a 3rd level pet, up to 12 damage for a 5th level. Later on you will Reclaim and resummon pets till they hit for max damage, but it's not really necessary at this level. Your pet can pretty much destroy level 1 and 2 mobs when you're 4th level.

Mesmerize - The first of the Mez line, arguably what makes the enchanter the most powerful group member around. It's a targetted stun that lasts for 24 seconds, so long as the target takes no damage. (Debuffs are fine.) Can be cast over itself to renew the duration. This is an aggro spell, so nearby mobs will attack if they normally assist in fights. Mezzing one mob to pull the one next to it is called Mez-Pulling, and a very common tactic in camp groups. I'll be covering the uses of mezzing throughout this guide.

Suffocating Sphere - Upgrade to Shallow Breath. Does 10 damage on impact, followed by 8 more passive damage one "tic" (6 seconds) later, and lowers STR & AGI by 5. You'll still be using "DD/DOT/Debuff" a lot, as you have no nuke yet. Duration finishes after about 12 seconds.

Tashan - Single target unresistable magic resistance debuff. -9MR (Magic Resistance) at level 4, capping at -13MR at 10th level. If you don't open up your attack with Mez, you'll open up with Tashan. If you open up with Mez, you follow with Tashan. You must land Tashan always. We don't have enough mana to screw around with resists, and Tashan drastically helps lower resists. At 4th level, you might not open with Tashan, but I'll discuss that later. While -13MR isn't much, bear in mind that when a spell like Root is cast, the mob makes a save based on it's MR + 25 (spell data reveals this), and this makes it MR + 12. You make the call...

For your soloing career at this point, I recomment casting Strengthen/Haze/Minor Shielding on yourself, and Strengthen/Haze on your pet. Pull mobs with Tashan, drop Suffocating Sphere on them, and melee till it dies. The pet is a nice helper, and can give you a breather if you're having trouble landing a spell in between attacks. If you want to drop Enfeeble on the mobs, it will have a slight affect on the damage you take, but it's really not that apparent when you take so little from blue mobs anyway. You don't need to open with Tashan at 4th level, however. As you will just literally be walking through the blue mobs right now, just pulling with Suffocating Sphere is sufficient, or even just running up and whacking them. However, around 5th or 6th, it will begin to matter if Sphere only hits for partial damage, in which case you should start pulling with Tashan to ensure the DD/DOT/Debuff goes on for full damage.

Fear is a spell I will cover now, that has some limited application right now. "Kiting" is the practice of slowing a mob's movement and running away from it and nuking or DOTing from a distance. "Reverse-Kiting" involves slowing the mob's movement, and making it run away from you while you nuke and DOT it. Necromancers are famous for this technique, and with someone to slow the mob's movement, you can help create the scenario. Honestly, most necros don't need a partner at this level though, and they are the only ones that can slow the mob's movement. [Whoops! I was wrong on this call! I did not realize that Druids get Snare at level 1! Druids are a VERY viable option right now, as the two of you dropping yellow mobs is great, safe experience!] Still, if you can find one, you make a great team, since the necromancer slows it, you fear it, and you both kill the mob. It evens the mana load on the two of you (since a necro is able to fear the mob already), and will speed how fast the experience comes.

While 7th will be a challenge to reckon, you will eventually reach the Third Circle, I promise.

As is true of most Circles, the enchanter gains a multitude of new spells again. Many of them will see large use for quite some time to come. At a glance we have:

Alliance - Increases your faction with the target's faction category. The range on the spell is excellent and will often allow you to get past normally KoS (Kill on Sight) mobs with illusions. An example would be a dark elf trying to slip into a human city he's KoS to. This spell doesn't seem to affect mobs that are dubious or greater, and Illusion: Human may only take you from Scowls to Threatening. So instead you use Minor Illusion to become indifferent, then cast Alliance to become Amiable. When you turn into a human again, you will very likely be dubious. This same technique will get you into the brownie city in Lesser Faedark for your Thicken and Crystalize Mana spells later.

Bind Sight - Utility spell that we get called weird for using. Allows you to see through your target's eyes. May be recast from new target, but the next destination must be in range of you (spell does not require LoS). Honestly I only use it to have fun. Drains stamina bar slowly and expires when stamina runs out.

Cancel Magic - As mentioned before, this is your first upgrade to Taper Enchantment. In PvP this may see more use... but I think I've cast it once, ever. Most spells I would cast it on (like Blind) don't last long enough to even make it worth it, or occur often enough to warrant memorizing the spell.

Chaotic Feedback - Our first DD (direct damage)/stun spell. The damage is 43 to 48 (increases gradually) for 45 mana. At 8th level this is actually a decent ratio, but the recast delay is horrid at 8 seconds, and you had better get used to it. Our nukes will always be slow and poky to recover, and all the other casters will get more and more efficient with their mana. This spell is magic based, and a resist really blows because of the recast delay alone. Be sure to drop Tashan first. Honestly you will rarely nuke in group situations, except to stop runners, but you have another spell better for that. I kept it memmed all the time, but normally as a "if I toss this nuke <so and so> doesn't die" spell. Our nukes are very aggrovating to mobs, and will later be known as "Mega-taunts". This is because I have seen a wizard do over 610 damage to a mob with 4 nukes, while I plinked the mob with 150 damage and a split-second stun (from Chaos Flux), and when Root broke the mob charged me! The stun on this nuke is instantaneous, but it will interrupt casting every time. Kamikaze-Soloing blossoms with the addition of this spell to our arsenal.

Enchant: Silver - Turns one silver bar into an enchanted silver bar. Pretty simple, really. Used to make Enchanted Silver Jewelry.

Eye of Confusion - Blinds your target for up to 18 seconds. If you blind a mob before fearing it, this will cause it to run erratically sometimes, but not slow it down any. This spell sees plenty of use in PvP I'm sure, but I have used it very little.

Illusion: Gnome - Shortest race in the game--usually goofy looking--gives infravision.

Illusion: Wood Elf - Shortest elf in the game--looks naked because they can't be enchanters--infravision.

Lesser Shielding - Self-only buff. +20HP +6AC +7MR at level 8, capping at +30HP +9AC +10MR by level 18 (when you will have a replacement spell, go figure). In many cases you will notice the AC raise you receive from spells is increased; I feel this is due to increasing Defense skill applifying the effectiveness of AC raises.

Mircyl's Animation - Next pet. Requires three daggers. This and all further pets are bought in Highpass Keep. This animation hits for 10 to 14 damage now, and I'm not sure what levels they summon as--anyone want to offer that--and Bashes. Getting to be very good at shelling out fast damage.

Root - Amazing spell, still using it at 30th level. Keeps the mob from moving--overwrites movement hindering spells like Snare or Clinging Darkness, and takes priority over Fear. (So a Rooted & Feared mob will behave as if rooted till it breaks, then run away.) Root costs 30 mana, last up to 48 seconds, and takes 2 seconds to cast (0.5 seconds faster than Mez). Combined with your pet and nukes, you really advance in your soloing ability with this spell. The target makes a save to break the effect every 6 seconds, or every time a direct damage spell effect lands on it. (Like our nuke or our DD/DOT/Debuff first landing.)

See Invisible - Allows you to see invisible mobs. Useful when keeping your party invisible, and also on PvP servers. Casting See Invisible on your pet will not keep him alive if you go invisble, and this spell does not make Shadowed Men visible.

Sentinel - For the longest time I have seen this spell as just amazingly annoying. It centers on the area you cast it (even if you move) and continues to notify you of any an all movement in that area. It surrounds anyone triggering it with mana flashes, and you have a constant mana flash around yourself as well while the spell is going. If you're near the area of effect, you also hear a constant spell noise. This spell cannot be turned off, and lasts around 5 or 10 minutes. I cast it off the end of a dock when waiting for the boat by myself so I can run errands in town, and I also discovered that you get faction hits from mobs that dies in the area of effect. (Was discovered accidentally at an orc camp.)

Soothe - The upgrade to calm. If there were two mobs at an orc camp and I wanted only one at this level, I just mez one. The other one charges, the group fights it. I've got 24 seconds till I re-mez or they pull it. I have never cast this spell--not even once.

Okay, the first, and most boring thing you need to do is raise your Evocation. Chaotic Feedback is the first spell you have of this type, and getting it to at least 20 is my recommendation if you don't want to sit around having a fizzle-fest. Your cap for 8th level is 45 in Evocation, and I reached that cap before proceeding. It takes a lot of nuking your pet to get there, but it's worth it when you never fizzle this mana hog.

Root and Chaotic Feedback, plus a pet upgrade really transform your ability to Kamikaze-Solo, by crossing it with a technique known as Root-Kiting.

Root-Kiting is what wizards and shamans do. You immobilize the mob so it can't move, then either nuke or DOT it until it's dead. If the Root breaks you renew it, and you keep this up till the mob is history. Enchanters do basically the same thing, except we have a pet to help out too. Mobs at 8 to 11th are getting to be too strong for you to melee anymore, so your pet is stuck doing all the work now. Unfortunately, the enchanter pet will always have terrible hit points, so you have to help him out a lot. When Kamikaze-Soloing now, here is the technique I advise:

You should have Strengthen/Haze/Lesser Shielding up, while pet has Strengthen/Haze

Open with Tashan, killing magic resistance and pulling the mob. Take a hit to put your pet in (I was calling him "the shiny guy" at this point in my career), then back out. Drop your DOT (Suffocating Sphere) on the mob if you like, though later on you're going to get out of this habit, then watch the fight a sec. Now toss on that nuke. Many times, the first nuke won't be enough to make the mob charge, so just wait for that ungodly recast, and toss another one. This time it will charge. I've never seen a mob take two without charging unless I let my pet really tear it up before nuking (meaning pet probably won't survive the fight). Now at this point, you have a very pissed off mob rushing you, and you must remain calm, because two things are happening right now:

1. Youre pet is wailing on the mob from behind. As a rogue, he actually does more damage to the creatures back consistently.

2. Your pet isn't getting hit. Sacrificing a little of your life for the team is what having a pet is all about.

But you don't want to take a pounding... when you are ready to let the pet take over the fight again, drop Color Flux (because you should be really good at timing the spell between attacks now), then take a step back while the spells ungrey, and drop Root as soon as you can. The mob will spin to face your pet again, and depending on how the fight is going, you can open up with the nukes again. What's important to do is try to outdamage your pet, because you get full xp for the mob if you do. Otherwise the pet gets half the xp--but it's better than no xp at all because you can't kill the mob. (In groups pets take no experience by the way.)

Using the Kamikaze technique with a wizard partner is also very sound. The wizard is quite familiar with Root breaking, and the two of you become quite adept at letting whoever isn't being charged renew the hold. Plus wizard nukes can get just absurd!

Finding a necromancer that wants a reverse-kiting partner is much more likely at this level, and finding a level 9 druid to reverse kite with is easy too. (They get Snare at 9th level, their Third Rank.)

Now to complete 8 through 11th, you can solo like this, but I recommend finding an orc camp and sticking with it. You will learn a lot of valuable things about interacting with the other classes here, and discovering the strengths and weaknesses of the other races and classes. While grouped, keep Strengthen on all the members that will be meleeing, and Haze on the ones who are taking the main damage. The reason you don't Haze them all is mana-management... it's too much of a load to keep them all buffed. Shaman and Enchanter buffs rarely stack, and some Cleric buffs clash with ours as well--so learn what spells you need to add in those cases. Every single pull, land Tashan on the mob, followed by Suffocating Sphere. If you like, you can drop Enfeeble, and there is an effect on the damage, but it's not drastic, and rarely worth the mana. Dropping a nuke on the mob that will finish it will save about the same amount of health lost, really, and frees up a spell slot, which you're probably beginning to see is getting very crowded when you have to choose only eight spells from our thickening spellbook.

Your real time to shine is on multiple pops. Mez one and the second will charge. (Called a mez-pull.) Your party has 24 seconds to kill the mob. Or, you just re-mez to start the clock over again. If there are three mobs it gets tougher but still isn't hard if your group cooperates. Mez one and two charge. The tanks intercept, and you mez one of the two they are on. As soon as the mez lands they back up (causing the non-mezzed one to follow) and begin fighting. Now you keep the other two mezzed. You can do some amazing things with mez, and this is the time to expirement, when a mistake won't necessarily get the party killed. For the most part, you'll be medding a lot, dropping Tashan and DOT on every mob, and nuking the bigger mobs to help finish them. As long as you've always got mana, everyone will love you when there's an extra pop that charges right into a mez.

You should keep a pet summoned, but I wouldn't let him go into combat unless you're on a single pull. If mez resists, your pet can buy you valuable time to let the party switch to the mob your pet is on while you mez the one they were fighting. (Since "the shiny guy" won't back out of the fight, and breaks mez.) Your pet is your bodyguard--not your personal tank. However--during a single pull where you would like your pet to be doing extra damage, or you're on the last mob of a series and need the extra damage the shiny guy puts out, Root the mob. By standing on the mob, it will swing at you (rooted mobs swing at the closest target, almost always). The attack will bring your pet into the fight, and only took 30 mana, as opposed to the large amount of nuking that might have been required otherwise. At the higher Circles, the chance to aggro a 27th level mob that the paladin is fighting involves using 100 to 200 mana in nukes, and the mob will not leave you alone after that without more casting. Or you can Root for 30 mana, take an attack that often misses anyway, and your pet is in.

Let me take a moment to explain why DOTs are going to see little use in the future. When you drop Suffocating Sphere on a mob, it will do 18 damage over the course of 12 seconds, so it's worth dropping onto a mob. But at the Fourth Circle you obtain Choke, which takes much longer to do it's full damage. If a DOT is only working on the mob for half it's normal duration, it's only doing half-damage. Therefore, it becomes more feasible just to use nukes if you want to contribute to damage. But at the Fourth Circle, you obtain your primary debuff line that you'll be using from now on... but more on that later. The other thing to bear in mind, especially when trying to outrace your pet, is that a DOT only counts as your damage for the first hit. All the rest of the damage is "un-named" and counts as from nobody. So the damage your DOT does is not outracing your pet. [Note: This has apparently changed! DOT damage is now considered assigned damage to you! This is a good thing, and makes DOTs feasible for outracing your pet finally!]

The Third Circle is an extremely important level for you, as it's when you truly begin learning to group. The orc camps and Kamikaze can take you all the way into 12th, and you find this is actually a very easy Circle to finish, as your spells are in their prime for the mobs you are fighting. As always, I suggest soloing steady blue mobs to avoid not only downtime now, but death. See you in the next Circle!

Welcome to 12th level. You've done well and truly proven your commitment to Enchanting at this point. You have come very close to obtaining all of your spell lines now. This is also the last Circle you before you must begin the task of Research, so enjoy the following spells...

Bind Affinity - Sets new bind point for target group member. You can bind yourself virtually anywhere (save places like Timorous Deep), and anyone else in "city zones" such as Freeport, Highhold, Qeynos, The Arena, etcetras.

Charm - Here it is. The big dog. The secret to uber-soloing. When you cast this, the target mob (max level 25) becomes your pet to command. NPC mobs hit much harder, have more hitpoints, and basically outweigh all PC pets in every way. If two mobs fight (one as your pet) and you nuke the enemy once, your pet should win the fight, though almost dead. Then you kill your pet for full experience. No class can touch our ability to solo with this method. Dropping double-yellow mobs with two bubbles of mana is basically mind-blowing, and double-blues can be great xp still. It's also extremely hazardous. I really don't feel we have the ability to charm solo until the Fifth Circle, when you have our entire spell-line available. If you insist on trying it now, you'll just have to skip ahead and find a work-around to not having Mesmerization, which I feel is critical to be successful. Also, you need a massive Charisma. I'm talking about 170+. At 182, I'm semi-comfortable with Charm-Solo, and I still prefer Kamikaze-Solo.

Choke - The next in our line of DD/DOT/Debuffs. The DD hits for 18 at 12th level, capping at 20 by 16th; the Debuff is -7STR&AGI at level 12, capping at -10STR&AGI by 18th, and the DOT inflicts 12 damage every tic for 30 seconds (60 damage). This spell completes the duration in 36 seconds, netting 80 damage and some good debuffing, as AGI decreases lower AC of targets. Fights at this level are just starting to take 30 seconds, so this spell will do usually still do it's full effect. However, I often found that my primary debuff was a much better investment as at this point, and I'll cover that later. Our DOT stacks with Druids, but not with most Necromancer DOTs. If you know the fight will last long enough for your DOT to do full effect, it is much more efficient than nuking--such as a Snare-Kite or Reverse-Kite situation with a druid--but if the DOT will not expire before the mob dies, don't bother wasting your mana on DOTs when a nuke will be just as mana-efficient. As the weakest damage-output class in the game, you really have to squeeze every last point of damage from your mana. Remember, DOTs don't outrace pets. [Note: Again, this is no longer true--if that DOT will do full damage to the mob, drop it on there... if not, just blast it.]

Ebbing Strength - Targetted STR debuff -21STR at level 12, capping at -25STR by 20th. As stated previously, even landing a full debuff spread in the higher levels only drops the damage your party takes by up to 35% or so. Our best debuff line we get (mentioned further down) will achieve the same effect as our current debuff spread with only one spell, as opposed to two or three casts, higher chance of aggroing the mob, and not landing all of them till the fight is half-over anyway. This spells sits tucked neatly in the back of my spells now--only to occasionally surface for a duel.

Enduring Breath - Target needs no air for 27 minutes. Spell regent is 1 Fish Scale. Useful if you spend a good amount of time underwater. I cast it once and awhile, but more of a utility spell.

Illusion: Erudite - Turns you into the tall, dark-skinned High Men. No special vision, and only useful for faction adjustment, really. Because they can be enchanters your equipment will still show up.

Illusion: Halfling - Turns you into the wee-folk. Looks cute, and I like it in Rivervale so I don't have to duck to get in doors. This is one of the illusions only found in Erudin.

Illusion: High Elf - As I'm a high elf, I was accused of being weird for buying this one. Hey... I like having all the spells. Besides... it's funny to cast Illusion: High Elf when someone is trying to figure out what race you really are.

Kilan's Animation - The next pet, now an axe and shield! Uses only 1 Tiny Dagger again, and is actually a rather impressive pet. You're getting to the point that you should /con your pets to make sure you have a good one--Reclaim Energy will actually see some use here. Now you will see the animation hitting for 12 to 16 damage at most, bashing, plus getting in the occasional double attack--and its hits are considered magical! Truly our pets start turning into damage machines at this Circle.

Languid Pace - This is the greatest debuff line we get--Tashan line excepted--as it slows the target's attack speed down. At 50 mana this may seem really expensive at this level, but I assure you it's not. Casting Ebbing Strength and Choke is 85 mana, and will lower the damage the mobs inflict about the same amount, after both spells have landed. Languid Pace increases the mob's attack delay by 18% at level 12, capping at 30% by level 60, though by level 23 (the last level before the upgrade spell) you can expect a 24% increase to attack delay. This translates to a 3 second attack tic becoming 3.72 seconds! In other words, a mob that would take 20 swings at your pet in 60 seconds will now take only 16 swings! That means with one cast, 20% of the mob's damage is stopped. This debuff line will make your pet amazing in solo, make your party take less damage from the very beginning of the fight, and even buy you time to cast in between mob attacks. I cannot compliment this spell enough--learn to love it, because this spell is going to see a lot of use in the future.

Memory Blur - What an amazing spell this is. It wipes the agg list of your target, and is unresistable on mobs 30th level and down. The agg list is wiped by erasing the record of who has done what damage, so the spell gains many uses. The ones I'll mention: preventing a killsteal (Memblur - Nuke), powerleveling (Memblur almost dead mob - they finish it), outracing your pet for damage (Memblur - Nuke), getting the mob off your healer (Memblur - tanks re-acquire agg), saving people from a mob chasing them (memblur period), stopping a fight you want out of, such as when your pet dies (Mez - Memblur). At 30th, I refuse to not have this spell memorized. It's invaluable.

Mist - Upgrade to our targetted AC buff--gives +6AC at level 12, capping at +8AC by 16th.

Serpent Sight - Gives your target Infravision (finally allowing Erudite enchanters to stop using illusions to see), and often cheers that monk in the group up. Usefull utility spell.

Thicken Mana - Used to make Viscious Mana, required for Wu's Fighting Gauntlets. I know of no other use for this spell, and it's difficult getting the spell from Lesser Faedark at the Brownie city. I've explained the secret to getting them with Alliance-Minor Illusion.

Whirl Till You Hurl - This is a massive stun-spell, basically. For 55 mana, it will stun your target for up to 12 seconds. It looks like Root, except that it informs you the target is spinning. The target is totally helpless while under the effect of Whirl Till You Hurl, and it is arguably an extremely powerful debuff. However, there are serious penalties from this spell. Any other stun will overwrite it, effectively breaking it. If you cast Color Flux on a whirling mob, the Whirl breaks, and the mob is free four seconds later when Flux expires. If you toss an enchanter nuke on the mob, they all have weak stuns with them, which break the effect. At one point, bashing (which stuns) also overwrote this spell, meaning our pets would break the effect. This has been fixed now, and bashing stuns no longer break the effect. Outside of the extremely high mana cost, this spell could allow a Sixth Circle enchanter to maintain a complete stun-lock with ease--albiet sucking up the mana a lot. More on this when appropriate.. A total stun-lock is capable at this level now, but rather expensive mana-wise. By tossing WTYH onto a mob while your pet is attacking, you can Color Flux the mob when the Whirl breaks, then re-Whirl it. You can also just stand back and keep Whirling over and over, but this really isn't mana efficient at all. When you reach higher levels there may be some practicality to this. At the moment, 55 mana is better spent on nuking to make sure you outrace your pet. If you're counting on WTYH to hold a mob for more than about 4-6 seconds, you're going to be disappointed--as the mob gets a save to escape the effect every time it is damaged.

From this point on, rather than telling you what and where you should fight, or what spells to pick up, I'm going to only explain the changes to our various levelling strategies.

Kamikaze-Solo - Now that you have Languid Pace, the battle is really going to change. You should have Mist/Lesser Shielding, and pet should have Strengthen/Mist. As you shouldn't really see any melee action at this point, I wouldn't bother Strengthening yourself. Always /con your pets, and try to re-summon till you get the best one possible. Make a chart of the max damage they inflict for their level, and you won't regret it. In the future it's the only reliable way to tell your pet's level.

Find your blue mob (I always fight blue mobs unless Charm-Soloing--and even then I suggest blues, but you can manage white/yellow), pull it with Tashan, as per usual. Take a hit, then drop Languid Pace on it. Your pet has a serious advantage already. As the fight progresses, nuke to assist your pet. If you get rushed Color Flux/Root to get out of the fight, and resume nuking. You need to do over half the damage to the mob for full xp. If you wish, you can begin Blur-Nuking to outrace the pet, but I find it's usually not worth it yet. There are very few mobs your pet can take without you nuking a fair amount still, but if you think your pet has done more damage than you during the fight, when it's getting low (leave time to cast) toss Memory Blur on the mob, then Chaotic Feedback. You will easily do half the remaining health to the mob, giving you full xp for the kill. I also refer to this Kamikaze-Solo as "Root-Kamikaze", as you develop a new method of pet-solo in the Sixth Circle.

Grouping - Dervish Cutthroats and Bandits are going to be very popular camps now, and your services are going to become much more sought after. Mez-pulling takes on a new facet with the addition of Memory Blur to your spell list, and here's how it goes:

You should do just about all of the pulling for the group in all honesty. If a single mob, pull with Tashan to kill magic resist right away, and let the tanks intercept it on the charge. If there are two, Mez-Pull and let the tanks intercept. Then, make your decision. If they can drop the pull quickly, just let the mez break in 24 seconds and they fight it next. If they are going to take awhile, then just Memory Blur the mezzed mob and make sure everyone is out of aggro range. It will forget all about being mezzed, and the party can take their time pulling it. In most cases, blurring will not be necessary yet, as you're not fighting rough enough stuff to worry about needing to re-mez.

Now, once your group is fighting a mob, there are only two spells you should consider throwing: Tashan, followed by Languid Pace. This single spell drastically reduces the damage the tanks are taking, and they will notice, trust me. Choke has the same casting cost, and will rarely be on the mob for full duration, thus rarely do full damage. The only other spell that might see use is Whirl Till You Hurl, but as I've stated, it often breaks too easily from any stun effect. If the bashing patch has been added, Whirl Till You Hurl could be a valuable addition. However--Languid Pace doesn't aggro the mob to you, only has to be cast once, and lasts the whole fight. With most fights at this level lasting 20 seconds, you will have to cast Whirl Till You Hurl a minimum of twice, for 110 mana. The bottom line is coupled with mezzing, blurring, tashan, and keeping Strengthen/Mist passed out, you're not talking practicality with mana. Whirl Till You Hurl serves better as a last ditch spell to keep a mob stunned when the tanks are hurting bad, though a good nuke will probably just finish the fight anyway. (You may notice, I'm not a big fan of Whirl--I prefer mana efficiency.)

Reverse-Kite-Partner - This applies to Reverse-Kiting with Necromancers and Druids. There is effectively no change to Reverse-Kite with necros, except that I recommend not using it. Just let the necro cripple movement, and you cripple attack speed, your two pets will destroy mobs. With a Druid, you Tashan, they Snare, you take hit and send pet in, then choose if you wish to Fear it. I usually do, but you and the druid will keep it agged easily, and your pet will still follow swinging. I like Fearing because it walks slow instead of running slow. Toss Chaotic Feedback followed by Choke then another Chaotic Feedback. This helps do something during the recast delay of your nuke, and still lands the Choke early in the fight. I recommend the same tactic for the druid (Nuke/DOT/Nuke), then the both of you should just let your pet and the DOTs do their jobs. When the DOTs wear off (if the mob isn't dead), finish with nukes, unless you think the DOTs will do close to full damage.

Charm-Solo - Nope. Told you... wait till Fifth Circle. If you insist on trying it without all the required tools, skip ahead and read it.

I have armed you with your weapons for this Circle. Go out and complete your training--you are becoming a master of your class now, and not many make it this far, actually. Upon reaching the Fourth Circle, you open up the final powers of enchanting, and become truly amazing; and desired in groups! The rewards are hidden, but fruitful to our profession, and I will see you again in the Fifth Circle!

Take a moment to pat yourself on the back now. You have reached the transitional Circle now. It just keeps getting better from here on out. You now have access to all the tools of our craft, and I'm going to show you how to use them to maximum effectiveness. The Fifth Circle not only completes your line of spells, but leaves you holding many key upgrades which you will come to live and die by:

Breeze - That's right, patient ones, the first in the Clarity line, added when Ruins of Kunark was released. Increases mana regeneration by 2 mana/tic. Mana regeneration to the best of my research is like this: When standing, each "tic" you receive 1 mana. If you are sitting this number increases, I'm guessing to 3 per tic, like HP do (since HP are 1/tic standing also). When Meditating, you receive (Meditate / 10) per tic, or you Meditate level per minute. So at 16th, with a Meditate cap of 85, you receive 85 mana per minute of meditation. However, Breeze gives you 2 mana each of those ticks, whether your sitting, standing, running, or casting a spell. Breeze gives you 20 mana per minute, for 27 minutes, all at the bargain price of 35 mana. If you don't run with /roleplay on, expect a lot of requests for it. I never had this spell not buffed on me once I got it. (Bought from enchanter merchants in Firiona Vie or The Overthere strongholds.) When Breeze is buffed, you receive 3 mana/tic standing, 5 mana/tic sitting, and 10.5 mana/tic meditating. The effects of the clarity line are most visible when not meditating obviously, as Meditate truly dwarfs the mana regen of Breeze. However you see the difference over time still. A level 16 enchanter with 150 Intelligence has around 480 mana. It would take 57 tics for them to regen to full mana, or 45 tics with Breeze buffed. That means you saved 72 seconds, or 12 seconds per bubble of mana! When in a group, shaving 12 seconds of your regen time for a bubble of mana is a huge impact, especially when you need mana to re-mez!

Chase the Moon - Super-fear. Lasts up to 36 seconds, and I swear I cast this spell more than Breeze at this level. Has no recast time, unlike Fear, and resists less, holds longer, and any necromancer to see it in action suddenly likes reverse-kiting with enchanters! You will use this spell for a long time to come, especially when partnered with a druid/necro/ranger.

Disempower - This impressive debuff affects the target with -11STA -15STR -7AC at 16th level, with -20STA cap at 34th, and -9AC at 28th. This spell sits near the back of my spellbook. I've explained the usefulness of debuffs already, and believe me I've tried both ways... Ebbing Strength + Disempower + Choke is about the equivalent of just casting Languid Pace, if that, and one of the debuff spread always resists. It's just not worth the time, the mana, or the spell slots taken up to memorize them all. Still, if there is someone else in the group to slow the mob's attack speed, lowering the mob's AC will help the tanks hit it. But attack slow should have priority. Researched from Tasarin's Grimoire Left & Right page 24. Also purchased in Shaman Guilds.

Enchant: Electrum - Turns an electrum bar into and enchanted one for use with Jewelcrafting.

Enthrall - Upgrade to Mesmerize. For 50 mana, it holds the mob for 48 seconds. This becomes awesome in later levels as fights begin lasting for up to two minutes. I don't use Enthrall all the time, only when I know I need the mob to sit still for awhile. Will also be useful at higher levels, as it has no recast delay, unlike Entrance or Dazzle at 39th and 49th.

Identify - It's supposed to tell you stuff about Lore items. On the last page of my spellbook, and it's never worked on any Lore item I cast it on. To be fair though I only tried about four items..

Illusion: Barbarian - You're tall, blind, and have face-paint of some sort.

Illusion: Dwarf - You're short, have infravision, and have face-hair, regardless of gender. (Correction: Apparently only one female dwarf face has a beard.

Illusion: Tree - Just like Minor Illusion, you get fairly neutral faction with this illusion. Often times, Tree is better when there is nothing to turn into nearby, or you want to look inconspicuous while hiding. I stayed a tree for an hour in Mistmoore Castle one night while watching one train after another just trot by me, killing the poor bastard next to me who's invisibility broke.

Invisibility vs Undead - Very powerful spell, though I only use it to traverse across Kithicor Forest. Does exactly what it says, must target group member. For some reason, your pet classifies as undead too, because he commits suicide when you cast this. (After more checking, I've found this spell less useful. In dungeons of undead is very useful, but for the occasional wanderer you can't keep both invis and invis to undead up at the same time.) Maximum duration (random) of 27 minutes.

Levitate - Another very handy utility spell, requires a Bat Wing for spell regent. Mobs cross elevation slower than levitating people, so actually useful to flee in hilly areas. Allows you to stay above most water, and you drop slowly rather than plummet from cliffs. I use this spell in chasm areas, deserts, and crossing large bodies of water. Encumberance won't affect a levitating person as badly, either--but it's not a massive aid. Researched with Tasarin's Grimoire Left & Right page 23. You can also buy this in any Shaman guild.

Mesmerization - This is the big-dog. Area Effect Mez. The area is pretty large, and you need to just experiment to figure it out. The reason you need to discover the range well is because it's possible to catch yourself in the AE. No one in your party need worry, but catching yourself is very embarrasing. During dungeon-crawls, if the puller brings in 4 mobs, after they arrive and swarm around the tank, I target the tank, then fire off Mesmerization, and watch four "<mob> has been mesmerized." messages scroll up, followed by one yellow indication of mez breaking. (That's the mob the tank is fighting.) The rest of the mobs politely sit still for 24 seconds, at which point I re-mez them before it breaks and calmly return to meditating. This spell is what defines the enchanter as you advance through the Circles. Mesmerize, Enthrall, and Mesmerization do not stack, and you must let one expire before putting on another. For example, if you have been AE Mezzing three mobs, and you want to switch to Enthrall on them, you'd best root them or something while they're under the AE mez, and when the effect breaks quickly Enthrall them. I recommend just layering the AE mez on until there's only one mob. You want to have a massive CHA for doing crowd control in groups, as mezzing four mobs at once leaves you very likely to get a resist on one, which means you have a pissed off mob trying to show you how much he appreciates you trying to stun him. This can be bad, and learning to calmly Color Flux/Enthrall that mob becomes critical to you not dying, quickly. Researched from Tasarin's Grimoire Left & Right page 26. You must research this one folks. See below for notes on researching.

Quickness - We got Languid Pace to start off the attack speed debuff line, and now you have Quicken to start of the the attack speed buff line. Starting out at 28% haste at 16th, and capping at a 30% increase to attack speed by 20th, you will quickly find your pet shines with this buff on. (The actual formula EQ uses for this is somewhat of a mystery, but with a pet swinging 40 times per minute normally, Quickness will give 12 extra attacks in that time period! 30% attack speed increase is literally a 23% decrease in attack delay, changing from 3.0 seconds to 2.3 seconds.) Only has a duration of 11 minutes, but it's well worth the cast on your pet or tanks, and will become vital to every group. With a group that has three tanks, keeping Quickness on all of them, swinging 2.5 times every 2.5 seconds (180 attacks per minute, 60 per tank) will result in 54 extra attacks! With a mana cost of 80, for 240 mana every 11 minutes you've just added a 4th tank to the group that never needs healing! That's indirect damage at its best.

Rune I - This is a targetted damage absorber. It will cause the first 27 damage the receiver takes to be absorbed at 16th capping at 55 damage by 21st level--though it will not prevent stuns and interrupts--before the shield fades. You need a Cat's Eye Agate to fuel this spell, and quite frankly mobs do 55 damage in two swings at this level. It's really not worth it to use in most cases. But some enchanters keep it memmed in their "swap slot" (usually the eighth slot, where you mem your different buffs for casting, and frequently change the spell--enchanters are the only class that truly needs a swap-slot) to drop an emergency rune when the Cleric is trying to heal. However, I don't mean to write this spell off. During soloing, that Rune will often last two or three fights, and your loot off one mob will usually cover the cost of the gem. I wouldn't drop it on the pet, but it's worth considering putting on yourself, as that's hit points you don't normally have.

Sanity Warp - We finally get our upgrade to Chaotic Feedback! This spell starts off at 88 damage for 75 mana, and finishes at 95 damage by 23rd level. More efficient that Chaotic Feedback, it has a our magic-induced stun attached, and also has a casting time of 2.75 seconds, with a recast delay of 8.0 seconds. Still, it's an improvement that was sorely awaited, and only wizards and mages are nuking out of our league at this point. This spell is a heavy-duty taunt, especially compared to most classes' primary nuke. It's a side-effect of the stun.

Shalee's Animation - Axe and shield still, needs 2 Tiny Daggers to cast it. I've seen this pet hit for 12 to 20 damage now--I've been informed that the 16th level pet hits for 20, leaving a level range of 12th-16th level--and double-attacks much more commonly now! It's strikes (and all pets from 12th on) are magical, and combined with Quickness you will just shrivel at the damage it can put out. The hit points are nothing to celebrate though, so get used to making fights either very fast to keep your pet alive, or find a way to keep it from getting hit. I highly recommend resummoning pets till you get a good one now (18 to 20 point hits), as Tiny Daggers aren't expensive--however as long as you get 16 or better (fairly common) you should be alright.

Shielding - The next in the line of self only buffs all pure casters get, +46HP +12AC +12MR at 16th, capping at +50HP by 20th, and +14AC by 21st level. Really getting impressive now, and you should always have it buffed, 50 mana to cast and a 36 minute duration.

A new type of levelling is viable now, Charm-Soloing. However, I'm going to save it for last. Before preparing to level, you should do the following:

If solo, you should have Breeze, Mist, and Shielding up, and your pet should have Strengthen, Mist, and Quicken. You'll need to keep Quicken in a spell slot most likely, as you'll be renewing it a lot. Optionally, keep Rune I up on yourself all the time if you might get hit. That little buffer can really come in handy.

When grouped, plan on keeping Breeze on all casters at all times, and Quicken on the tanks, this mana load may seem prohibitive, but it's the most efficient way for you to affect the combat--mana regen and haste effects are the enchanter's realm of mastery, and you should start getting used to throwing out short duration, high casting cost haste spells repeatedly. I suggest getting some sort of timer to keep at your computer for timing when you have 1 minute left in the haste duration. Strenghten and Mist will need to go around as usual, though there's usually someone else to handle those buffs if your group has any size at all. It's hard to discipline yourself to keep Mist and Shielding on yourself at all times, but when that resisting mob rushes you after a mez gone bad, you won't regret having taken the time. If mana is tight, Mist can fade, but Shielding is a must.

One thing you need to learn now; if you're not casting or targeting, you need to be meditating. Always. Mana management is what you're going to have to get very good at as you progress in levels, especially when you're out of mana, you just enthralled the stray mob that can kill you in ten seconds, and the group is taking another two minutes to kill the current mob. You have to find the mana to re-enthrall that puppy at least two more times, and the only way to do this is meditate and watch those mana-tics, 6 seconds a tic. When you hit 6 tics, stand up and re-mez, then drop down and start watching. If you time it right, you can even sit again before the next tic. Every 36 seconds allows you time to recast on a resist, or to let the party know you're about to need some serious assitance. Okay, enough of this, on to the strategies, the most familar ones first:

Kamikaze-Solo - The animation just keeps doing more and more damage. (I was calling him Mr. Quiet Guy at this point.) Tashan pull, Languid Pace, and your Quickened pet proceeds to just wail on the thing while you lob in Sanity Warps. Color Flux/Root is a wonderful tool to get the mob attacking your pet again, and outside of Quicken making your pet do more than its already impressive damage output, Kamikaze-Solo doesn't see much change.

Reverse-Kite-Partner - Replace Fear with Chase the Moon, and upgrade to Sanity Warp for the nuke. Pretty much the same drill otherwise. The biggest thing about Reverse-Kite method is that I don't recommend blue mobs anymore--yellow to red is my advice. You can't land spells on mobs more than six levels above you, so shoot for 2-3 levels above. You will rake in amazing experience, and have challenging fights. Reverse-Kiting blues is a joke with a partner, as you and your pet could handle that easily; however, if you can find a steady supply of blues, you will see about the same xp because of low down-time.

Group Tactics - I've covered all of your roles in group--AE Mez is the huge change to the battle plan. Note that having AE Mez doesn't mean the party should depend on it; it means that you can take 3 to 5 mob pulls. Remember that when mobs resist you are the first to get attacked for it. Demand that the healer keep you at full health all the time, and anyone able to Root/Snare/Stun is responsible for helping you gain control of stray mobs. Landing mez on a pissed off mob is possible, especially with Color Flux--but what if it resists that? Not to fear because the cleric just rooted it for you so you can drop Enthrall on it and get back to medding. In situations where you don't have several mobs to mez, you drop that Languid Pace and meditate, because you need to always be raising your mana back up. Try to stagger your buffing, say dropping Quicken on the tanks, next Breezing everyone, then after the next pull dropping Strengthen or Mist around if needed. That way you can manageably keep the buffs on people without having to hold up the pulling of the group while they wait for you to get mana. I usually buff myself before buffing the party (unless something like Quickness) so that when it starts flashing on my screen I know it's time to refresh. The tanks love it (as well as the casters) when Quicken stops flashing before they can inform you it's fading. With a spell like Quicken that has a a short duration, just get used to how many pulls it lasts, and have them send you a /tell when time to renew if you haven't caught it, or keep an egg timer or something nearby set to 10 minutes, start rebuffing in that last minute--this saves spam on the party, and makes you look really good too, since they never see anyone asking for buff renewals. If you can do all this buffing, keep crowd control mezzing in order, and find the time to drop Languid Pace once and awhile, the groups will beg you to stay when you decide to go. When I was 19th level, I had groups volunteering to pay for teleports if I would come group with them. Many times I didn't even know more than one person in the group. A bad enchanter leaves a horrible taste upon the group that they long remember.

Charm-Solo - Okay, you've patiently waited all this time because of my recommendations, but enough is enough, and you want to try charm-soloing out. Get CHA gear and get your CHA to 170+. If you think I'm kidding, try these methods without it. Below 150 is suicide, and below 170 is difficult at best. Let me explain in the simplest terms what the goal of charm soloing is:

Find a mob that you probably can't kill with your pet.

Cast a spell that makes the same mob your pet for a random duraton.

Attack another mob that you can't kill with your pet.

Pray that the first mob stays your pet long enough to kill the second mob.

Make the first mob no longer your pet on purpose (making it ultra-aggro to you) and kill it.

That's all there is to it. Charm sometimes holds for 5 minutes. Other times it holds for 5 seconds. Just for those of you who aren't math wizards, if charm breaks during the fight, that's two very aggro mobs rushing you. Now I'll tell you how to get through a charm-solo, planning on the charm to fail.

As I turn invisible the severely wounded former-pet (since Invis broke Charm) is rushing me. I drop Root on him, and it resists. Piss. I Color Flux and mash the Root key to lock it back up. Lob in another Warp... you mean wizards have to fight everything like this, yeesh. This time it hits for 95, killing the mob, giving me full experience for one nuke. Total mana? Just over two bubbles used, one bubble of life lost, and half-xp for a yellow mob plus full xp for the even. I could do this with two yellows in my sleep. The crazy part is that one on one either of these mobs would have slaughtered me if I tried to fight them one on one with no pet--but I can take both of them out without breaking a sweat, right?

Wrong. While the ease you dispatch mobs with is amazing, when things go wrong it can go really wrong. When charm broke, what if Root broke? That's two mobs beating on me now. What if Color Flux resisted? Not going to get Charm off while getting beaten on--or what if Color Flux on gets one of them stunned? What if the second Charm resisted? Getting beaten again. What if the initial mez bounces? I'm stuck dealing with a very aggro mob and have no pet.

To summarize, Charm-Soloing involves one of three stages:

1. Gaining control.

2. Re-Gaining control.

3. Re-Gaining control.

A word on Research:
Okay, you just dropped a point into Research. Now what? Well, it's really simple, and extremely frustrating. You buy the Tome of Enchantment, and you carry it around with you when you want to research spells. You must find two page "halves" that go together (like page 23 left & right of Tasarin's Grimoire) or two consectutive number "whole" pages (example page Page 8 & 9 of Velishoul's Tome). Put both of these into your Tome and press "COMBINE". Now it will do one or two of three things:

Give you a skill raise in Research. (Research raises very fast, 2 in 3 combines raise usually till you cap for your level.) Still, it gets so hard to find the pages you need, most chanters get the skill capped by their late 20's and then just dump points into Research each level to keep it maxxed. With Xornn, I combine spells I already have for training research each time I ding, and if I'm not capped in the skill when it's time to research a new spell I need, then I max it out. This saves me some practices for other junk like raising Defense, and also leaves me a lot of researched spells to give to other chanters. (I never sell them, ever.) You become trivial at a certain level of spells, meaning the level of spell it produces) about the time you hit the following Circle (assuming Research stays capped). So I at 39th the 34th spells are trivial for me to combine now.

Second thing that can happen is you get a new spell! Congratulations! Get to scribing! Now you can still combine the spell (with more pages) for practice, and you don't have to worry about failing!

OR, you fail to combine them, and lose the pages. Easy come, easy go.

Sometimes you'll see reference to "faded" pages. That means that to get say... Velishoul's Tome page 108 (the first faded page you have to research for a spell), to pair up with 109 for Feedback, you must find a "Faded Velishoul's Tome page" and put it into your Tome and press combine (all by itself) which may give you a skill raise, plus give you page 108 or fail. However, levels 24, 29, and 34 all have a faded page in their list of needed pages. If you get a "faded page of salis writ", you can bet it's the right side of salis writ page 90. But if you get a faded Velishoul's, it's either page 108 (level 29 Feedback) or page 16 (level 24 Invigorate--cleric spell). I'll try to find a faded page to offer a merchant soon, and see how much they offer for it, because the 16th level page sells much cheaper.

Now, getting pages is the hardest part. They will drop off certain mobs from the level of the spell and about five levels up. So typically you either have to group to fight the bigger mobs that drop your pages, or else you go to a zone with that type of mob and auction. Mesmerization is the first research spell you have to research. Going to Oasis and auctioning "/auc WTB Tasarin's Left & Right 26" will get you a lot of help in getting the pages, as crocodiles drop enchanter research materials. (Actually crocodiles drop necro pages too... and maybe some mage. Don't remember seeing any runes--wizard.) Mages only have to research pets. Necros have to research pets and a few dots, a lot of which shadow knight guilds have. Enchanters must research 3 to 4 spells a level, but at least 2 are available to wisdom casters (who don't have research). Wizards only have like five major spells they ever need to research, and the rest are typically AE nukes that they will have better versions of by the time they research it.

Regardless of which method appeals to you the most, you have learned enough at this point to make your own choices as to which methods will carry you on... into the Sixth Circle...

By this point you have probably caught onto something--the method you use to advance further in your enchanting career changes very little now. Only the tools available to you. Should you choose to perform crowd control in groups, solo kamikaze-style, kite (or reverse) with a steady partner, or truly show nerves of steel with daring charm-solos, you have seen the avenues lain before the enchanter, and gotten a feel for the spell lines required for each, as well as learned to manage your eight spell slots well. From the Fifth Circle on, it's pretty much only upgrades to your current arsenal. My presentation style will change now, with less hand-holding explanations, more commentation on spell upgrades, and tactics broke into sections with summaries of changes to previous usage. Without further ado, let's examine this Circle's additions.

Benevolence - Upgrade to Alliance. I take Dubious mobs to Indifferent with this spell, and Apprehensive to Amiable. Combined with the proper race combination, you can go pretty much anywhere, and even complete most quests--even ones not intended for your race/class!

Berzerker Strength - +20STR 30HP Shield -15AGI at 20th, increasing to +25STR by 30th, and 50HP Shield at 60th. Targetted spell costs 40 mana, and honestly sees little to no use. With a short duration of three minutes or when the HP Shield is used up, plus the AGI decrease effectively lowering the target's AC by 5, Strengthen is really just a better spell, especially when you can cast Strengthen 5 times for only 5 more mana than this spell. Back of the book spell here. Research spell with Tasarins Grimoire page 30 left & right.

Calm - Upgrade in the Lull series. I hate this spell--actually, I hate this series. Maybe I've just never learned to use them correctly, but it seems every time I throw this spell, the results are completely random. Sometimes it aggs a group of mobs, other times it resists without aggroing anything, and other times it actually does it's purpose and lowers the aggro range of a mob. Maybe one of these days this whole series will seem useful to me, but it's yet to happen so far. [Update: This spell line is a piece of dung, and Verant isn't going to fix it. They know it's a piece of shit, they just aren't going to do anything about it.]

Cloud - Upgrade in the Haze series. Offers +9 AC to target at level 20, capping at +11AC by 25th. Clerics and Shamans have a better AC buff than this by now, but when they aren't around this does nicely.

Color Shift - One of your uber-spells. Upgrade to Color Flux, as well as key piece of one of the last techniques the enchanter must learn, stun-locking. At 40 mana, this 1.5 second casting time stuns a larger area (25 foot diameter) of mobs for 6 seconds, for 40 mana. Combined with the 20 mana and 4 second stun of Color Flux, you can basically stun a mob for 10 seconds using only 60 mana. During that 10 seconds, the melee damage to the mob isn't being answered (the tanks aren't getting hit back), which the tanks love. The area of effect is much larger than Color Flux, and you must learn how far is safe... but about a small room is the radius. More on Stun-Locking later, as a good enchanter is prepared to stun-lock during all group combats. Research spell with Tasarins Grimoire page 312 left & right.

Crystallize Mana - Used to make... well... I've never actually cast the spell. Just bought it from the Brownies in Lesser Faedark and scribed it to complete my collection. It makes something for some obscure armor quest I was once told, but I honestly never cared to check.

Endure Magic - As you encounter more and more spell-casting mobs you are going to fall in love with this targetted buff. Raises Magic Resistance +20. Research spell with Tasarins Grimoire page 375 left & right, or obtain at Cleric Guild.

Feckless Might - Upgrade to Ebbing Strength, -26STR at 20th, -30STR cap at 28th. While a full debuff spread is quite impressive by the numbers, this pure STR debuff will do little to nothing to impact a fight. While the number of full strength hits a mob inflicts will be reduced slightly, casting Choke once will shorten the fight enough to duplicate it's impact. I still suggest not bothering with it outside of dueling situations (which still I don't recommend it unless you just want to humiliate someone). You'll blow half your mana or more to debuff a mob with a full spread, then struggle to outrace your pet with the rest. In a group, blowing mana this frivilously is out of the question. Debuffing has its place in the enchanting way--Player vs Player.

Illusion: Iksar - This spell is obtained through a long and difficult quest in Kunark. I bought the spell from a very high level enchanter, and honestly until you reach the Ninth or Tenth Circle, you have little chance of getting this spell. After two weeks and three deaths in Kunark, I only obtained 2 of the 4 quest components before breaking down and purchasing the spell. (Infravision & cool-looking)

Illusion: Ogre - The Ogre cannot be stunned from the front. (Infravision)

Illusion: Troll - Troll form gains regeneration and infravision. Bear in mind this regeneration is 1HP per tic, standing or sitting. Over the course of 36 minutes, you will receive 360HP. (Assuming you never hit full health.) Still, regen is regen, just don't expect to be blown away.)

Shifting Sight - This spell is the same as Bind Sight, only you have Infravision when you use it.

Sisna's Animation - Meet your latest damage factory. Requiring 3 Tiny Daggers again, the last of the "axe" series can be expected to have maximum damage outputs of 14 to 22, depending on its level. If you can, resummon till you get the 20 to 22 hitter--it will make a huge difference in not only the damage per hit, but the higher level pet hits more. This animation also gains the ability to Kick, and double attacks just about every round. Double-slash, bash-kick, double-slash, double-slash, bash-kick. That's what this things fighting looks like now. With Quicken it brings tears to your eyes.

Sympathetic Aura - The first of our Charisma buffs! +16CHA at 20th, +18CHA cap at 24th, and really helps boost your CHA without needing equipment, and more importantly helps a great deal with charm soloing.. This and Breeze were always buffed on me, even when just travelling.

Tashani - The upgrade to Tashan, giving -20MR at 20th, finishing at -23MR by level 26, and a mana cost of 20, while retaining the 1 second cast time. This spell is a welcome addition to our easily resisted nukes we carry in our spellbooks.

Strategies and changes to those strategies are listed below, but first let me start with an analysis of stun-locks.

Stun-Locking has a multitude of uses, all of which I will mention below, and it also offers almost a complete soloing ability by itself. Here however, I'm just going to explain how stun-locking is accomplished. Color Flux has a 1 second cast for a 4 second stun. Color Shift is 1.5 second cast for 6 seconds of stun. Both have a re-cast delay of 12 seconds. Drop Color Flux, and when the spells become available to cast, you have around 2 seconds to cast. If you can wait just a split-second, then cast Color Shift, then you land the six second stun right as the Flux wears off, leaving the mob unable to move still. Now if you truly landed the spell perfectly, the stun will go out to a 10 second duration, meaning that Color Flux is just becoming available as the stun lifts. Typically the mob will get one swing, then the stun lands again. Whirl Till You Hurl can be used reliably to fill in this 1 second the mob is unstunned, but doubles the mana cost of stun locking, and typically isn't worth it. Stun-Locking causes a very large amount of aggro in the mob (stuns do this), and I will discuss this in each tactic area stun-locks are used. After much practice, I am able to restrict a mob to a maximum of one "attack tick" every ten seconds, for 60 mana every round of stunning. Oftentimes, I actually re-establish the lock before the mob's "attack tic" occurs (as apparently your tic for when to swing runs even when stunned), making for a seamless stun. Do not believe that you can chain-stun without ever giving the mob a swing, though. 4 seconds + 6 seconds = 10 seconds. You need 13 seconds for it to be a total stun-lock, as after Color Flux ungreys (12 seconds of stun later), you still have the 1 second casting time.

I can't emphasize just how powerful this is. Now let's look at your tactics.

First a look at your buffs. When Solo, you should carry Breeze, Sympathetic Aura, Cloud, Shielding up. Your pet should have Strengthen, Cloud, Quicken. (You might drop Strengthen on yourself too. You aren't ever meleeing anymore, but it doesn't hurt to have 10 STR to help with encumberance, and you already memmed it to put on your pet, too. Quicken is going to have to be renewed frequently, and you might as well just set a spell slot aside for it unless you really like memming spells. I'm used to switching spells a lot, even three or four times during battle, but I still don't like it.) Group buffing will be a little different; you need Breeze and Sympathetic Aura up at all times, and you should find the time to drop Shielding. Cloud will most likely be surpassed by another AC buffer (such as Cleric or Shaman) and let them fill this role when they can--otherwise Cloud goes on anyone who is supposed to be taking damage. Strengthen on anyone that is going to melee (often covered by Shamans as well), and Quicken on whichever party members will be meleeing... as it's going to be your most profound damage assistance.

Kamikaze-Solo - The traditional Kamikaze-Solo still entails taking your Quickened pet, pulling a mob with Tashani (always blue, less downtime, easier fight, great experience), take a shot to put the pet in, drop Languid Pace, Sanity Warp, tank till you take a decent hit, then Flux/Root and back out, then Sanity Warp till Root breaks, re-Flux/re-Root, and continue till the mob dies. You and your pet don't take too much damage, you easily outrace your pet, and mana used will return at about the same rate your pet heals. Using this method, whenever I had the mana to take something on, my pet had the health too. I love Kamikaze-Solo, and to this day, I still use it. Stun-Locking can be used if the fight is going poorly and your pet is looking really tore up, by just stepping in and Stun-Locking as long as you can. Bear in mind that the aggro from stun-locking will make your pet unable to taunt the mob off you in all likelihood, but it will keep your pet alive, and you have to take one shot every ten seconds. Not bad. There is a whole new solo-ability based on this, which I'll cover later on. Basically, the only change to Kamikaze-Solo is the use of Tashani over Tashan, and the ability to Stun-Lock in a jam, which will apply for the rest of your career.

Reverse-Kite-Partner - I won't mention Kite-Solo anymore, because anytime your partner can snare you should Reverse-Kite. Your pet equals not only a damage factory, but consider it an unresistable DOT that costs you the life needed to get it fighting. That's worth it. You Tashani, they Snare, you take a hit, then Chase the Moon. Nuke if you're wanting to speed things, but with a decent CHA Chase the Moon will hold for ages and ages. I usually just plod along after the mob dropping Chase the Moon when it fades, and toward the end of the fight, just nuke it to finish (when it would be a waste to fear again). Necromancer's Fear isn't as good as Chase the Moon (they pass our ability in the Ninth Circle, and we catch up in the Tenth again), and the Clinging Darkness series of movement impeding isn't as effective as Snare. However, pets follow the slightly faster mob with ease, and the Darkness line is a DOT. Druids and Necromancers are always going to be amazing partners for enchanters.

Group-Tactics - In the group, you take on a whole new role: Stun-Lock. First off, let me talk about Quicken. For 80 mana you grant a 30% attack speed increase to one group member for 11 minutes. If you're just dropping Tashani and Languid Pace on incoming mobs, this is worth it, as you'll be doing crowd control and meditating at all times. Dropping that single Languid Pace is also the equivalent of dropping Quicken on your entire group of melee members, but you will have to do this for every pull. If there are three people in the melee, you can often skip Languid Pace, because with three tanks you'll be casting Languid too often, and a quick stun lock will totally stop damage for 10 seconds at the same mana usage, which will be more effective than Languid Pace. But, with Languid you can med during the fight. What it boils down to is how much mana you have to play with. Now I've mentioned stun-locking twice so far, and let me explain when you do and don't use it.

However, on a single-mob fight, when it's safe to (you learn quickly when Color Shift will aggro mobs not in the fight--the range isn't that big, though), you drop Tashani on the mob, then step in and begin to stun-lock. Two amazing things will happen; first, you will watch the tanks rip through the mob without taking any damage. Second, the aggro you build from stunning won't matter, as it continues staying aggro to the tanks. Consider this: Stunning for 10 seconds, with just my pet and Muadan, the 30th paladin I travel with usually, Muadan will inflict about 200 damage over that ten seconds, and my pet will do about 150 (this doesn't include Augmentation, an attack speed buff that lasts 30 minutes). That's 350 damage inflicted for 60 mana, during which the tanks took no damage--that makes stun-locking the equivalent of an uber-nuke. The mob will then take one swing at Muadan, then the lock re-establishes, for another 350. Each bubble of mana I have as High Apprentice of the Eighth Circle represents around 175 mana. I can stun for 30 seconds (getting over 1000 damage on the mob) and use one bubble of mana. This is just with a paladin and my pet--I hope you can see the amazing power of stun-locking.

Charm-Solo - Tashani is a beautiful addition to Charm-Soloing, and one you will love. Keeping Color Shift instead of Flux memmed will buy you an extra two seconds for regaining control, though it's typically not needed--during charm-solo you want the faster casting time of Color Flux. Stun-Locking can be used to make sure your pet wins the fight when it's close, but I recommend against that because Charm breaking right after you stun can make regaining control very difficult. Just nuke it if it looks close. Soon you will have a longer casting time charm spell, and then Color Shift will be mandatory.

Now after all your patience, I give you what I find to be our most powerful and reliable solo-technique to date:

Kamikaze-Stun-Solo - That's right, take Kamikaze ability of fast, free damage from your pet, and combine it with the cheap damage prevention of Stun-Lock. The end result is that you have a highly effective, mana efficient method to drop steady blues. However, you will not be outracing your pet, which is why I avoided this technique for so long. The idea of Memory Blur and Nuking to outrace your pet doesn't interest me, as the little damage factory can often outrace you before the long casting time of the nuke finishes.

Tashani pull, then get your pet behind the mob, and Color Flux, then Color Shift--your pet is hitting for great damage, and you're waiting for Color Flux to ungrey. Rather than just standing there, after Color Shift finishes, you've got 6 seconds before Color Flux will be available to cast. Sanity Warp takes 3 seconds to cast. As soon as Shift lands I just fire off Sanity Warp. Now, when the stun lifts the mob will be aggro to you for sure, and your pet is tagging it in the back, which we know is always good. Color Flux, Color Shift, Sanity Warp. The nukes assure that you outrace your pet, while the stun-lock keeps your pet healthy. If you Flux/Root, your pet is getting hit the entire time you're nuking. The idea is that you nuke the mob out before your pet dies. In this technique, your pet hits for more from behind, and you keep anyone from taking damage. Consider how small a change this is from normal Kamikaze-Solo; you're replacing Root with Color Shift. (Flux/Root/Sanity Warp vs Flux/Shift/Sanity Warp) You still keep Root memorized, and if you decide you've taken too much damage for one fight, then just Root the mob and step out. Your nearly undamaged pet can finish off the mob with ease, and if you don't think you've outraced Mr. Kamikaze, just Sanity Warp again. The reason I am so in love with this technique is also spell slots. Tashani, Color Flux, Color Shift, Sanity Warp, and Root. That leaves three more slots open, which is beautiful. I keep Enthrall, Memory Blur, and Quicken usually. Bear in mind that if you get in trouble and lose control of the fight, Root the mob and back out, and if the pet dies, back out of aggro range and Memory Blur. You don't have to Mesmerize first. Root doesn't cause aggro after it first lands.

Take the tools you have been given, and move to your next major level of upgrades in the Seventh Circle!

Welcome, Disciples, to the Seventh Circle. I'll waste no time with social bantery. You're here to see the spell upgrades I spoke of--behold:

Alacrity - Upgrade to Quicken, 34% increase to attack speed at 24th, capping at 40% by 36th. 115 mana for an 11 minute duration. The mana cost may look disturbing, but the sheer number of attacks this grants makes it all worth it. Even at level 24th, you pet (taking 2 swings every "tic" and kicking and bashing constantly) goes from 40 attacks to 50 attacks. Hitting for an average of 13 an attack, that's 130 damage per minute of combat, that will last two or three fights.

Beguile - Upgrade to Charm. Max level able to charm now is 35. Casting time of 3.5 seconds, and seems to last a little longer than Charm, though little research to that. Color Shift will be required to stun for recharming now.

Chaos Flux - Upgrade to Sanity Warp, 143 damage at 24th, capping at 150 by 28th. 100 mana cost, 3.5 second casting time, and that horrid 8 second recast delay still. Compared to other Seventh Circle nukers, Enchanters are beginning to fall behind in the mana:damage ratio still, but especially in the damage:second department, as casting this spell repeatedly yields another 150 point bomb 11.5 seconds after the first lands. (Cast it on yourself once.)

Enchant: Gold - Turn a gold bar into an enchanted one for Jewelcrafting.

Illusion: Earth Elemental - Raises your STR 10 and makes you Kill on Sight to most guards (all elemental forms do). Also makes you Dubious in many places, such as Runnyeye (not to the Evil Eyes, however).

Illusion: Skeleton - Turns you into a skeleton (doesn't show your name) and you have no special vision. Faction changes with some undead, and I hear you can walk around Befallen safely. [Note: Verified, you can roam around Befallen non-aggro to nearly every mob in the dungeon.]

Invigor - Stamina regen, short duration. If you are partnered with a tank, actually keep this spell memmed to renew their staminar bar during long fights. (Though you shouldn't have long fights with stun-locking. :P) Research spell with Velishoul's Tome pages 16 (faded) and 17, or obtain from Cleric guild.

Major Shielding - Upgrade to our self-only buff. +69HP, +17AC, +14MR at 24th, +75HP at 30th, +18AC at 28th. 80 mana for a 45 minute duration. Keep on at all times.

Rune II - Upgrade to Rune I, obviously, targetted HP buffer, stops up to 71 damage at 24th, capping at 118 damage by 30th. Needs a 5 gold Bloodstone for component, only use occasionally when buffing newbies, or dropping on the puller. 5 gold becomes pretty trivial fast, and this spell will see a little use, but not much. If you have a healer for the puller, don't bother. However, in solo situations I often keep this spell buffed, as mana for a rune comes back a lot faster than HP.

Sagar's Animation - Upgrade to our animation, a scimitar and shield now. You're back to using only 1 Tiny Dagger, and during my testing I saw maximum damages of 16 to 26. Each pet spell rank, the lowest and highest max damage typically increase by 2. This animation will Bash, Kick, and Double Attack almost every round. Truly amazing damage machine now.

Strip Enchantment - Upgrade to Cancel Magic. Very powerful spell. Strips up to 4 buffs off your target, either a mob or group member. Useful when fighting mobs with damage shields, or removing Charm from one of your party members. Sometimes requires multiple castings. In PvP, lead off with this spell to kill SoW and most other buffs anyone will have. This will remove mezzes, so be careful with it. (Research spell with Tasarins Grimoire Page 390 left & right.)

Tepid Deeds - Upgrade to Languid Pace. Cuts mob attack speed by 32% at level 24, capping at 50% by 60th. However, you receive the next upgrade at 44th, so at 43rd this spell is increasing the attack delay of the mob by 42%. Doing a 38% slow debuff means that a mob swinging 40 times a minute will swing14 times now on a 4.14 second attack delay. Casting between swings becomes child's play, your pet lasts much longer soloing, and the damage tanks take is drastically reduced, while you calmly meditate in preperation for renewing Alacrity. Research spell with Velishouls Tome pages 8 & 9.

Taking a look back, you might notice something about these spells: Eight of the twelve new spells are not only upgrades, but upgrades to spells we use commonly. The Seventh Circle is an awesome transition.

Buffing-Solo - You should have Breeze/Sympathetic Aura/Cloud/Major Shielding (Strengthen optional), and Mr. Kamikaze should have Strengthen/Cloud/Alacrity.

Buffing-Group - You need Breeze/Sympathetic Aura/Major Shielding, Breeze on all casters, and Strengthen/Cloud passed out to tanks that need it. You should have some really good CHA gear by now, and if not start getting it. Crowd Control, Stun-Locking, and even Chase the Moon are CHA based, and Beguile is going to start seeing some group usage by now if you haven't started already.

Kamikaze-Solo - I'm going to lump Kamikaze-Root and Kamikaze-Stun into one group now, since the only difference is whether to stun-root-nuke or stun-stun-nuke. I prefer the latter to keep my pet healthy and keep me occupied during the recast delay on our nuke at this rank, but as mobs begin hitting harder and harder I started moving back to rooting later on. Tashani to pull, Tepid Deeds replaces Languid Pace if you're Root-Nuking, and Chaos Flux replaces Sanity Warp. At this point, you will be using the same spells I use in the Eighth Circle. I memorize Enthrall, Tashani, Chaos Flux, Color Flux, Color Shift, Root, Tepid Deeds, and the eighth slot is my "swap slot". If for some reason my pet should die and I want out of the fight, I mez, sit down and memorize Memory Blur. When using Kamikaze-Stun, I keep Alacrity here, and swap it out for buffing. When I'm fighting a mob that can't be stunned, Color Shift is replaced with Tepid Deeds and I switch to Kamikaze-Root. (I always have Color Flux memmed, however, in case something else attacks me.) Recently, I began combining them slightly, by dropping Tashani to pull, Flux/Shift/Root, then Flux/Shift/Nuke repeatedly. The reason for this is that I can leave my pet closer to the mob than myself, and the mob swings at my pet during the gap in the lock rather than me. This helps keep a fast-swinging mob from breaking out of the stun-lock as easily, and also makes switching to Root-Kamikaze very easy.

A Word or #### on Chain-Nuking

From level 16 on, the enchanter has a primary nuke (Sanity Warp) as well as a secondary "fall-back" nuke (Chaotic Feedback) which have some applications. First, and most obvious, is a "finisher" nuke when the mob is almost dead, but just won't quite die. Rather than firing off a full-strength blast, it is often more advantageous to just fire in a downgrade nuke to take that last little sliver of health out.

The second use is for a "filler" effect between recast delays. Example: At 24th, you have Chaos Flux and Sanity Warp available for chain-nuking. You are out for a lovely day of Kamikaze-Solo. You spot a lion that you feel needs killed, and drop into battle mode. Tashan pull, Mr. Kamikaze step in, Languid Pace, and you chuck in a Chaos Flux. As the lion rushes you a quick Root and you step back. Another Chaos Flux cascades into the lion, and you're sitting there waiting for that horrid 8 second recast delay to cycle. Meanwhile you hear some sickening crunching noises coming from the direction of your pet, who is doing its best to show off it's lack of defensive tactics. (Probably been watching its master's melee tactic--take it on the chin.)

Casting a Sanity Warp during the recast allows you to do some positive damage, shortening the fight, and keeping your pet alive. Now at level 20 to 33, this will not be needed often, mainly because Color Flux, Color Shift and Chaos Flux are a perfect match, as the pet not getting hit is great. However, by the time you hit 34th, Color Shift is really hard pressed to cover Anarchy's casting time, so you almost have to switch to Root-Nuke style of play, and at that point you will be very thankful for having knowledge of how to chain nuke.

As always, I leave it to my students to recognize the proper time to chain-nuke.

Reverse-Kite-Partner - Chaos Flux replaces Sanity Warp, and you should keep Alacrity on your pet. Outside of that there is no real change to this technique.

Charm-Solo - Beguile just allows you to charm bigger and badder mobs now. Color Shift replaces Color Flux (since Flux doesn't give enough time to re-charm the mob). Chaos Flux replaces Sanity Warp, but other than that it's the same tactics as the first. The great thing about Charm-Solo is that it's the same method at level 12 as it is at 44th level.

Group-Tactics - Your role in groups is clearly defined in this point. After the buffing guidelines above, you have two real jobs: First, you must do crowd control, of course. Then you either Tashani/Tepid Deeds (which has an amazing impact on the fight), or if a single mob stun-lock when mana is surplused. Tepid Deeds uses 100 mana, while stun-locking for two "rounds" uses 120 mana. It is unlikely the stun-locking will go past two rounds (the mob will die by then) and the tanks will have taken practically no damage.

You've probably noticed that these Circles have become short and sweet facts and recommendations, as opposed to long and drawn out explanations from earlier. The reason for this is because you've now been shown basically every tool the enchanter has from the Sixth Circle on. Now I'm just pointing out the upgrades to those tools and letting you know which are good, and which are lemons.

You are only five levels from Clarity. Go seek knowledge and experience, young master. I await you in the Eighth Circle...

Well done. You have reached 29th level, and if requests for Breeze weren't enough to drive you to /roleplay, I'm sure Clarity will do the trick. At the time of this writing, I am now an Apprentice of the Eighth Circle (30th), so I will be speaking much more personally about the spells at this level, rather than from memory. A look at the new spells:

Augmentation - This is a targetted melee buff. For 90 mana (10 more than Quicken), you get an attack speed increase of 22%, +19 AGI, +6 AC (not counting the AGI raise), and Stamina regeneration. This increases to 28% haste at 52nd level, +30AGI and +9AC at 50th. The buff lasts for 27 minutes, and is basically Clarity for melee-types. Amazing spell. The haste effect is effectively Quickness that lasts for 27 minutes, plus a giant AC and AGI buff (AGI aids Dodge skill and AC). Many times I used this spell over Alacrity, especially when the groups were very tank-heavy, and Alacrity was proving just just be too much mana. Many tanks will request this spell also, as the stamina regen is getting critical as the haste buffs drains that yellow bar.

Clarify Mana - How's this for cool? Another thicken mana spell that I have no idea what it's used for.

Clarity - You've worked long and hard, and you deserve this one. Replenishes 6 mana per tic, which is just amazing. 7 mana/tic standing, 9 mana/tic sitting, and at 29th (maxxed Meditation) you get back 20 mana/tic! 70 mana and a 27 minute duration. Beware the mindset you will encounter that this is what your purpose in a group is--it's just a perk. Enchanters are capable of so much more, you can just stagger a group now with the power you bring to the table.

Curse of the Simple Mind - Targetted INT and WIS debuff. Not terribly useful, though is often dropped in a duel on people, for it does affect their mana pools. More importantly, this cheap debuff gives the message, "<target> looks stupid." -15WIS -15INT at 29th, -20WIS -20INT cap at 48th.

Dyn's Dizzying Draught - This spell is Whirl Till You Hurl with some debuffing combined. Spins target for up to 12 seconds (same duration, same save method meaning it breaks instantly when being fought in melee), -9AC -50Mana -30AGI at 29th, -15AC -50AGI cap at 49th. 150 mana to cast this spell, and it has a 35 second recast delay. This spell is less used than the illusion of your own race.

Enstill - Upgrade to Root, 60 mana, lasts up to 96 seconds, and allows the mob a save every 6 seconds still. Outside of that... the chance to save is the same, and the mob still gets a save every time hit by direct damage. If you wish to drop Enstill, followed by a DOT, then this might be worth using... I've never messed with this spell yet, as the 2.5 second casting time makes it less useful when I need it--while trying to escape a mob. Research spell with Velishouls Tome pages 75 & 76, or buy at Shaman guild.

Feedback - Targetted Damage Shield. When target hit the attacker takes 11 points of damage. Decent passive damage spell, which is very useful to throw on your pet when soloing (the damage the mob takes hitting your pet really adds up) and a great way to add some damage in a group if you have some spare mana. Throw on the main meat-shield (the tank getting hit the most). Research spell with Velishouls Tome pages 108 & 109 (faded).

Illusion: Air Elemental - Grants Levitate, needing no Bat Wing. Carries the KoS to guards.

Illusion: Water Elemental - Grants Enduring Breath, needing no Fish Scale. KoS to guards.

Listless Power - Upgrade to Disempower. Targetted debuff for -24STR -24AGI -12AC (though dropping AGI below 75 incurs a massive AC penalty). Effects cap at -35STR -35AGI -18AC at 50th. I'll comment on debuffs in the Eighth Circle later.

Nullify Magic - Cancel Magic upgrade. Pretty much guaranteed to nail 2 buffs without fail every cast. Research spell with Velishouls Tome page 67 & 68.

Obscure - Upgrade to Cloud. Targetted AC Buff. +12AC, capping at +14AC by 34th.

Suffocate - Upgrade to Choke. DD for 34 damage, followed by DOT effect of 11 damage per tick for 18 tics (108 seconds), plus a debuff of -15STR -15AGI all for 100 mana at 29th level. DD increases to 65 by 60th, and debuff to -20STR -20AGI by 38th. The problem with this spell--takes too long. 1 minute and 48 seconds is a long time to wait for a DOT to do its job, and because of that, this spell sees limited use in reverse kiting yellow/red mobs, when it will do full damage, but most fights will not last 1 minute and 48 seconds, so Suffocate doesn't see a lot of use still. Most fights last 1 minute tops, which is about 150 damage. Just Chaos Flux if doing indirect help isn't keeping you happy.

Uleen's Animation - This animation I've done the most research with. It varies from 20 damage max for a 21st level pet, to 28 max for a 25th level pet. This mob Double Attacks, Dual Wields, Bashes, and Kicks. With Augmentation or Alacrity, this pet is just amazing. In order to make him dual wield, just hand him any one handed object that isn't restricted to primary hand (like a spear) and he'll start using it. If you hand him a weapon with a delay below 26, then the graphic will change to the weapon (say a dagger) for both weapons. Watching the hits will reveal it's still slashing and piercing. If you want your pet to nothing but piercing, you must hand him two daggers. I can tell you now, the delay or damage of the weapon you hand your pet makes no difference. Your pet always attacks at 26 delay, even if you hand him a 17 delay weapon. The only way damage would go up is if you hand him a weapon with a max damage of 29 or higher. If you have a one handed weapon that hits like this, sell it for a lot of money. That said, weapons which have a proc effect (like the Magician's Sword of Runes) will proc when used by your pet, and quite frequently, actually. In fact, handing an enchanter pet 2 gnoll hide lariats (proc Stun) is pretty much hilarious. He'll stun lock mobs for you. However, that's way down the line when you can afford stuff like that to just give to your pet. For now, just hand him any weapon. I think daggers look cool, or rapiers look the best, but I often Clarity a magician in exchange for a Dimensional Pocket with 4 Daggers in it. By the way, if you aren't used to the pattern by now, this animation requires 2 Tiny Daggers to cast. The second weapon will add an extra attack to the "round" when it "procs", basically guaranteeing 2 swings per round (since it has double attack and dual wield now), and often getting it 3 swings now.

Ultravision - Targetted buff, grants the target Ultravision. No more risking KoS with Illusion: Dark Elf, has a duration of 36 minutes. (Research from Velishouls Tome pages 43 & 44, or can be purchased from the Gypsies in Oasis of Marr.)

Buffs-Solo - This is getting easy to figure out now. I keep Clarity, Sympathetic Aura, Augmentation, Obscure, and Major Shielding on myself when soloing. The first two increase my solo ability, and the last three raise my AC and/or HP higher. My pet has Strengthen, Obscure, and either Alacrity or Augmentation. When Kamikaze-Stun-Soloing, I use Alacrity for maximum attack speed increase. When Kamikaze-Rooting (vs mobs that I can't stun, like giant class), I use Augmentation. The attack speed increase is 10% less, but includes a large AC raise which I want when Mr. Ginsu is getting hit more. (Mr. Ginsu was thusly named the first time I handed him 2 daggers.)

Buffs-Group - Clarity on all the casters. Augmentation or Alacrity on all the tanks. Augmentation doesn't need renewed all the time, but isn't near the haste of Alacrity--but in tank heavy groups, you might not have the mana for Augmentation. Drop Strengthen on the tanks if someone else isn't doing so, and Obscure doesn't hurt, but at this level Clerics and Shamans not only have better buffs, but they are always in your group now. If you just keep Clarity and Augmentation on the group, they'll love you. [Note: If the casters call for a Clarity at the same time a tank tells you haste is fading, always renew the haste first if in combat--it's more important to getting things dead. If there's no combat, renew Clarity first, as the haste is just wasted duration when not fighting.

Kamikaze-Solo - Other than choosing between Root- or Stun- Kamikaze, there's no change to the technique, except less downtime with Clarity, and Chaos Flux is hitting for a full 150 now. I've made mention of chain-nuking previously, and it's usually necessary in the next spell rank--but it can have serious application at this level, too.

Reverse-Kite-Partner - Clarity makes it to where you can usually meditate back the mana used to Chase the Moon before the duration expires. Suffocate is extremely mana efficient, especially combined with your pet. You'll have trouble getting druids to just DOT mobs, but if you can, you can drop yellow/reds without too much trouble, and only using half your mana each. If dropping blues quickly, just get your pet in and fear them, maybe nuke once. The mob will die, and very quickly. You can usually drop three or four blue mobs in a row without pausing if you just meditate during the fearing. There is another use to reverse-kiting blues now though, besides being absurdly safe, and good xp in a blue-heavy area; weapon skill raises. You pet will maintain the aggro the whole time, so you can follow along practicing that One-Handed Blunt (which you will actually use with the Incandescent Wand--more on that in Group-Tactics).

Reverse-Kite-SOLO - Would you like to hear about this!? If you drop a full de-buff on a mob (Feckless Might, Listless Power, and Suffocate), then Chase the Moon, it will behave as if Snared!

Charm-Solo - Clarity gets you mana back faster for less down-time. That's it. As I said earlier, Charm-Solo changes very little. Oh, you'll have difficulty finding pairs of level 30-32 mobs, too--but pairs of blues are pretty good experience still, and much safer, really.

Group-Tactics - Remember the two roles you have? That hasn't changed, though it should be redefined to three jobs you must be performing at all times to be a great enchanter:

4. All extra mobs must remain controlled until ready to be killed.

5. Mana regen and haste must remain on all applicable group members.

6. All mobs receive Tashani, and either Tepid Deeds or Stun-Lock, when you have surplus mana.

These are listed in the order of importance. All crowd control must be performed first. After that, everyone in the group needs Clarity or Augmentation/Alacrity, then you worry about actually assisting in the fight. If they are only fighting one mob, it's because of you in all likelihood, so they won't complain if you don't jump in there. If you have time, Tashani it. If the fights are actually lasting awhile, Tepid Deeds it, or if it's the last mob of a series, Stun-Lock it. Otherwise, meditate--no one ever complains when another mob pops in on a near dead group, you Enthrall it, and say, "Well, I've still got 50% mana. Everyone med up and I'll hold it." The tanks ask how long you can hold it while they heal up, and you notice with Clarity you've already meditated almost twice the mana Enthrall used. "Forever," you answer.

And thus my guide has come not to an end, but to pause. Honestly, you haven't needed this guide since the Sixth Circle. From then on I'm only telling you what is obvious--use the upgrades to your big spell lines, and learn to fill your eight slots wisely. Regardless of what path you choose to advance in, you have been shown the powers of the enchanter as they were meant to be used. Master these powers wisely, and you will be hailed as a master-enchanter. [Note: Obviously I passed this rank long ago, but I leave this here for nostalgia.]

Xornn Mier'noen, Apprentice of the Eighth Circle