I understand your dilema *perfectly*. I have a 20th enchanter and a 47th
bard which, as I said, share a lot of capabilities. At lower levels my bard
used to plead with my group to let me lull the mobs and bring back singles
or doubles instead of whole camps, but they rarely listened. About the time
that I'm halfway through trying to explain what I'm doing some loose cannon
is shooting an arrow at one of the camp pulling them all down on top of us.
Sound familiar? I know it does.
There is no solution except levels. The higher level you attain the more
likely the players are to understand your capabilities. However, even today
at level 47 fighting in lower guk's Frenzy or Lord (two of the hardest
non-planar camps in the game) it amazes me how totally ignorant some people
can be about other classes' capabilites (and even their own classes'
capabilities sometimes). The other night we had a Bloodthirsty Ghoul and a
couple of Dar class frogs in the Frenzy room to pull. My group was bracing
themselves for a hard fight that they might not win when I convinced them to
let me pull. I lulled the two Dars, brought the Bloodthirsty and we killed
it. I went back, lulled one Dar and pulled the other, we killed it, etc.
My group was astounded.
At higher levels enchanters are well understood and often highly sought
after for groups (beyond just Clarity). Crowd control in places like Sol B
and especially Lower Guk is very important. In the Planes and on dragon
raids enchanters have become more important as well.
It does get better, but the problem never goes away entirely. If you have
the option, find a competent group and hand out with them routinely.
As for getting groups, I don't have any secret there.. One thing I would
say is that when you get to your mid-twenties go to Cazic-Thule. This is a
place where crowd control is *very* useful and the experience is great.
Because of the dynamics of most of the camps there you won't have to explain
the need and value for crowd control.
Chiming
> From: Jenni <freya@...>
>
> I have tried oasis, but it's always crowded, and there never
> seems to be enough
> crocs to go around (grouped or solo) :(
>
> I agree about the downtime. And I agree about us being a group
> class. I find
> it VERY difficult at my level to get a group. Nobody seems to
> want an enchanter
> in the group. I have been successful in getting groups in South
> Karana fighting
> at the aviak village, but my spells resist most of the time-even
> with tashan,
> and I'm usually grouped with low 20th level characters. The exp
> is ok, but not
> that great. When I do find a group that's closer to my level,
> it's rarely a
> 'good' group. People out there don't understand the purpose of
> the Enchanter
> class, and good strategy for that matter, and they will most of
> the time get us
> all killed. They don't understand what I do, and they get angry
> when I'm not
> blasting the mobs (as if I'm a wizard or something. :) ) instead
> of trying to
> debuff/mez/charm/control them. At camps I try to soothe and I
> tell my puller
> which to pull. But before I'm even through (after telling my
> group what I"m
> doing 8 times) my group is fighting the whole camp. It's really
> frustrating. I
> know the higher level players on my server appreciate Enchanters, and love
> having them in their group, but the players my level just don't
> get it yet. I
> have proven to many players what enchanters are capable of, but
> It's not seeming
> to matter when it comes to finding myself a group.
>
> Bards are great as well. My roomate plays a bard primarily, and
> absolutely
> loves it. The Bard class is also great at crowd control. He has also
> successfully stopped bad trains, and he's been fighting in lower
> guk, grouping
> with level 40ish players since he was lvl 35.
>
> I might check out unrest, but I think I might wait until I"m
> closer to 20, even
> grouping, I tend to run out of mana really quick. After a couple
> levels my
> spells will be a bit better on the mana I think.
>
> Any suggestions on how to approach finding a group? I've tried
> asking nicely,
> just plain saying I need a group, and even shouted the benefits
> of having me in
> the group, but I dno't get responses. Once in ooc someone
> responded who would
> want an enchanter? I proceeded to get into an argument with a
> few people over
> whether or not our class is even beneficial to a group.
>
> Ezrae