For those of you out there who haven't been using mesmerize, not only have
you missed one of the most useful spells in the game, you have made your
time adventuring unnecessarily difficult. To grasp the effects of mesmerize,
just think about what its name implies. What it does is 'distract' the
critter (i.e., makes em start daydreaming). This is the 'stun' effect of
this spell. NOTE: If you attack the critter while it is 'stunned', it will
no longer be 'stunned', and you will have just wasted your spell, because it
will begin attacking you once again. That would be akin to seeing a friend
of yours daydreaming, so you punch em in the shoulder to 'bring em back'.
This is where I assume most go wrong with this spell. While the critter is
'stunned' he is dead to the world. He doesn't care what's going on, as long
as it doesn't involve him. If the critter is normally non-agressive, when he
comes back from la-la-land, he will just go his merry way. If he is normally
aggressive, and you are still in his aggression range, he will attack you
once again. And the tricky situation: If the critter is a normally
non-aggressive swarmer (wisps, fire beetles, spiderling, etc.) and you are
fighting one of its kind, you can kill the one you are currently attacking
without disturbing the critter who was mesmerized. HOWEVER, if you change
targets to another of the same type of critter, the previously mesmerized
critter registers this attack and will join in. (Example: You are fighting 3
wisps. You mesmerize one. You are now fighting 2. You can kill the one you
are currently fighting, but when you attack the 2nd one, the mesmerized wisp
will join in again.)

This is an incredibly useful spell. Play around with it, I think all of you
will like it.

Qinie, High Elf Enchantress
(16th Level, Mith Marr)

P.S. I just made level 16, so I haven't had much chance to play around with
the AE version. I'll let y'all know if it is as useful as the single target
one...