Sunday 13 July 2003

Pic of the day: An enchanter and his ally. Screenshot from Dark Age of Camelot.

DAoC enchanters

I had almost forgotten how powerful the enchanter pet can be, and one patch ago it was upgraded again. I have been testing two pure enchanter characters lately (using the /level command), one level 20 at the cooperative server and one level 30 at a normal server.

(By "pure" enchanter I mean one who specializes in enchantment. A more regular name would be Enchantment Enchanter, just like the most popular variant is called Mana Enchanter. But "enchant enchant" sounds too dorky, so I'll use a cooler name and call them pure enchanters.)

I believe the upgrade is caused by competition from the mana enchanters. This subclass is able to radiate damaging light energy in an area around themselves, hurting all nearby enemies but not friends. They are very popular in groups. They are probably the prime damage dealer of their realm, although they are easily killed in a war against another human realm. If you don't have ranged attacks, though, and cannot sneak up on them, you have a problem. Mana Enchanters are living explosions.

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In contrast, the pure enchanter channels his or her energy into the pet, which is a summoned elf or lurikeen (the same two races who can become enchanters). The pet, or ally as it is formally called, comes in different versions.

There is a spellcaster ally with ranged attacks much like the enchanter himself. Nice if you want to pull enemies from a distance and kill them before they come close - with the combined firepower of two spellcasters you stand a good chance of bringing down the bad guy without taking a scratch. The downtime makes this tactic unpopular, though.

The next ally is a healer. Like the healing classes of Hibernia, he can also hold his own for a while in a fight. Until recently the pet would only heal when you were almost dead ... my guess is around 15% health. This was a bad idea, because as a frail cloth-wearing mage you would often go from 30% to 0% in a single (or double) blow, faster than the pet could react. This was fixed in the afore mentioned Hibernia upgrade patch. The healer also casts a spell that greatly increases healing rate. Probably the best choice in a group, unless you have plenty of healers already.

Finally there's the warrior. Tough, wearing armor, and casting a shield spell on himself, he is perfectly able to take on an adversary his own size. Or much more, if you are a pure enchanter. You will get steadily stronger spells that fortify your ally's strength and agility, and a spell that makes any weapon do extra, magical damage. This last spell can be used on your pet, yourself, and any friendly player you choose. As of the Hibernia upgrade patch, there is now also a "magic armor" spell (pet only) that randomly casts a heal spell when hit. This spell is however only available to those who specialize in enchantment for a long time ... Even the first version requires ca 30 points in enchantment from a possible 50.

As I said, I had almost forgotten just how powerful these pets are when spelled up. At level 21, my healer pet would survive a surprise attack by a red-con Plated Fiend. You are not supposed to take on red monsters, no matter what your level, although necromancers and paladins and friars boast that they can do it at level 50, if specialized right. The idea of killing a red monster at level 21 ... well, it sure can be done, but it is not something most classes would survive. Of course, a pet class is not really one character but two; I stand far away and heal occasionally. (Too much and the monster will run for me instead ... that's a big difference from necromancers.)

Not that killing reds is a good idea. It takes a long time and leaves me with less than half power and the pet at 20% health, and the XP is the same as for orange. There is a cap on how much XP you can get from one kill. Besides being a bother, it is dangerous. You get even a tiny little monster that assists the big one, and you're in deep trouble. Still, it is nice to know you can if you must. And it sure says something about the enchanter class.