Minstrel charm.

[Verena]

After reading some posts from US players I was convinced that the charm in version 1.48 would be incredible useless. Well after playing around with it for 2 days I must say I'm pleasantly surprised.

No it's nothing like the sorc charm and it takes some time to get used to. Last night I was doing that Secret Orders quest and I had to kill a guy in Odin's. Well turned out that he was orange and was right inside a camp. I charmed a green Snowshoe Bandit Mage inside that camp and he started bolting my target while I could sit back and wait till he lost enough health so I could melee him to death.

Snowshoe mage

Running through Lyonesse I was jumped by a orange telamon and it resisted my stun+mez so instead of running I just charmed it. Lvl44 telamon charmed by a lvl42 minstrel. Not bad if you ask me.

Telamon


The good thing about the new charm is that it's a insta shout and it no longer uses a instrument. You can fight alongside your pet while it stays charmed.

Fighting

Yes you get resists once in a while depending on the level of your pet but I found that at 42 a lvl40- pet will stay with you very well and will only resist once in a while. The song has a 10sec duration and it pulses every 5 seconds so if it resists 1 pulse you still have another chance to regain it on the next pulse without loosing the charm.

You can still use all your other songs but it does require twisting but once you get the hang of it it's very managable. Give it a try, it's a very nice feature if you get used to how it works.

Any minstrels out there who tested it and who'd like to share their experiences with it.

 

[fatgit]

I tested it out in the BG on my 26 minst with less than useful results :/

Charmed a goblin that came to me, then shot off on its own and hit an orange wolf.
Goblin then returns tome and wolf starts chomping whilst gobbo stands there doing as much as a mezzed middie.
Goblin then resists the charm and joins in with the wolf, leaving me face down on the grass :/

 

[Lusse]

lol fatgit sorry for laughing mate but it did sound funny

 

[Danya]

First tried it on Gorre, grabbed a few mobs around cam hills then went down to lyonesse and dragged a telamon back up to castle excalibur, got a few "wow"s off people on the sauvage pad.

I find charm very useful. One think to note - unlike other instas, you can't use charm while you have your sword out, you have to sheath your sword and wait for the combat timer. Still I managed to solo the entire Keltoi ant room with my lvl 30 minstrel today, used a spiritualist and a banisher pet during the fight, mid fight pet changes are great.

On the resist thing, I find it's fine on anything yellow or lower. Oranges tend to resist at annoying times (mid fight normally ). Also if you get a single resist, when your charm next ticks you lose the pet for a split second, if this happens in a fight you get a nice transfer of all your pets aggro on to you... not good when using a pet to tank.

As for pets themselves, I find the best tank pets are telamons (lyonesse) and daughter of medb (breifine), both are great for tanking, level 44-45. Nuker pets are harder to find, snowshoe bandits (odin's) are ok, but a bit low for RvR use. Icestriders (odin's, jamtland, uppland) are good as they have instacast roots. Up in hadrian's wall there's the pictish druids which have root and poison which is quite nice. Also in pennine is the best pet camp. Isolationists. Get a cleric pet, it'll buff you, heal you and smite people. Starting level is about 47 though.

 

[Verena]

Originally posted by Dannyn

As for pets themselves, I find the best tank pets are telamons (lyonesse) and daughter of medb (breifine), both are great for tanking, level 44-45. Nuker pets are harder to find, snowshoe bandits (odin's) are ok, but a bit low for RvR use. Icestriders (odin's, jamtland, uppland) are good as they have instacast roots. Up in hadrian's wall there's the pictish druids which have root and poison which is quite nice. Also in pennine is the best pet camp. Isolationists. Get a cleric pet, it'll buff you, heal you and smite people. Starting level is about 47 though.

Can't wait to try out those Isolationists. Apperently you can even charm sorcerers who will charm their own pet, read something about this on the US forums. Wizards are supposedly nice too cause they fire bolts that hit like trucks.

So far best pet I've found are the Peallaidh's in Lyonesse, I've had one lvl41 for 2hours last night and it only turned on me once. I can't wait to charm a realiable telamon cause so far the problem wih telamons is that if they resist my charm they're gonna chop me down in no time cause they hit so damn hard.

 

[Coren]

Just wait untill you can reliably charm bloodletters in Breifine. Once you charmed one, you're hooked.

 

[Danya]

Tele's aren't too bad - they're slash which minstrels are pretty good against. My level 30 managed to hold a level 30 rooter for about 3 hours today while I chain killed skeletons. Charm is great

 

[Myshra]

isolationists are the best pets ive seen, iso wizards use the lvl 50 bolt, but it seems to have been upgraded to not be blocked by the shield it seems, as every time ive seen one as a pet it hits like a bus constantly. the cleric one is also great, not only does it smite and heal everyone, but it actually buffed me when jaas made one his pet, and even better it gave me the right buffs, acurity of the seer and 2 dex buffs!

some would say hes better than some of the clerics in our realm

the isolationist camp is neutral (i think) and can be found if you follow hte stones up the pennines its to the right up the hill just past the first set of freybugs

 

[old.Flamin]

Can you use speesong when you have a pet charmed?

 

[old.linnet]

Twisting with charm

Yes, you can twist other songs with charm, but I'm rapidly concluding that it's not worth the effort.

I do think the new charm is a great improvement though. The main problem I have is when I want to dump the pet. Best I can do at the moment is to park it somewhere, and then run off with speedsong up (you need to be playing another song because otherwise charm will pulse), which is not so good for telamons since they can catch you. Best to have a helpful group nearby (who will not all be too busy laughing to help).



Linnet
44 Minstrel -- faster than a speeding goblin, but NOT faster than a speeding telamon

 

[Coren]

To speed with a charmed critter:

Charm it first and keep the pet selected all the time while twisting. Then equip your drums and press the speed button. This will stop your charm, but the pet will remain charmed for a while after that. Then press the charm button again, which will kill your speed, but recharm the critter again (you won't get a message though). Then press the speedbutton again and repeat the process.

Linnet: It's indeed hard to release a charmed fast moving pet, but can be easily done with some effort. Just set the pet on stay and move away (don't speed, because this will stop the charm). As soon as you loose control of the pet (or decide to release it), put speed on. You will be in combat mode then, so the speed won't have effect then. It will take a few seconds for speed to effect you again, but the distance you moved away from the pet + some sprinting should be enough. Ofcourse you can just stop the charm (you don't need to be playing another song for that, just press charm again), release the pet, stun it and mez it. But that's a waste of power.

 

[old.mattshanes]

lol coren yeah those bloodletters rock they r red at lv48

 

[Coren]

The ones I charm are level 49-50, not touching the higher ones.

 

[old.mattshanes]

 

[Danya]

Speedsong 5 is faster than a telamon so you should be ok releasing them. I dumped one at pryd bridge and it killed a vet guard on gorre