Factions, Factions, and yes, more Factions

Ishbel may have taken forever to finally hit 74, but it was no time at all to hit 75. I dived into Kunzar Jungle which has always been the RoK zone I hated the most – not this time. This time I loved it. I moved at my own pace, and learned where things were this time through. Last time I quested here I was so turned around and lost most of the time it was a wonder I managed to get anything done. At first I charmed my typical vespid, and then I found an amazing pet. No, I’m not going to name it here, because then I’ll get to enjoy having it nerfed.

With my new pet in tow, I wandered to the outside of CoM (City of Mist) and did a few quests there, then randomly thought to myself. Hmms. Level 74. I wonder….

I stood back.. and set my pet against a level 77^^^ heroic.

Two minutes or so later with the resounding thunk of a treasured chest dropping, the mob was dead. I was ecstatic. I’ve never been able to solo heroics my own level before with any of my characters, let alone something three levels higher then me. Ishbel’s got 0 masters (aside from her charm) and she’s wearing nothing but treasured gear, far under the gear the rest of my characters have. Now, it’s not that easy, don’t let text fool you. It’s a lot of work, actually, and then there’s always the “what happens when charm breaks” factor that can go off like a ticking time bomb at any second (and usually does RIGHT when you don’t want it to) and how to control those situations.

So how did I manage to do my CoM quests by myself? Well. Like any mage, I have to use the root and nuke method. I put my pet on ranged (who is also, conveniently a nuker) and before sending them in I start with a root. I have aa into this line to speed up the casting. I’m also an enchanter down the perpetuity line, so I machine gun cast making it easy to re-cast root when it breaks, and it does break quite a few times. If the mob is immune to root I of course have a much much harder time. I also use my stuns and even mez’s in between roots while my dps pet works down the heroic.

If charm breaks while I’m doing this, and I have no adds, chances are pretty good that I’ll live. The mob I’m tackling is rooted after all, a bit away from me. I quickly target my un-charmed pet, and cast a mez (made faster, by the fact that I’ve been chain nuking with perpet) and then re-charm – hopefully before the rooted encounter breaks and eats me. It doesn’t always go as planned, of course.

Adds are the same way. I mez whatever I need out of the fight for a bit, and then take them down one at a time – resists allowing, of course. Resists are my bane. Especially when I’m fighting things three levels higher then me.

Do I sound excited?

You betcha. It’s been a while since I’ve been so excited about a class, and don’t get me wrong here, I DO enjoy grouping as well, but I’m typically on early on in the day when no one is around, and I don’t want to LFG for hours. So while I level myself up to a “useful” level, I enjoy soloing. Grouping is for evenings, when people actually need enchanters. Well, not that we’re ever really needed. It’s nice to be able to handle things on my own, and it’s great that it actually takes work and makes me think and keeps me on edge. I’ve also of course died, a whole lot. I die probably once or twice an hour, some times more — if you can manage to get around the resentment of dying so often with a class, the time between deaths, is VERY worth it. Ishbel is level 75, with 10 days played time on her. I’ve been upgrading all of her T8 spells to adept3 (dang it enraging demeanor, you’re never going to drop are you.. ) so she’s finally making what I’d consider some progress.

I’ve kept her unguilded, so I could get to know people, and figure out the whole guild thing at a later date. Too many times do I just try to throw myself into a guild just because they’re looking for a class I play, as opposed to looking for a guild where I know people, who I have a community with, and where I get to play a class that I honestly, just want to play.

Oh, and I’m really looking forward to the next GU when ever that goes in. Sounds like a lot of interesting things, even though the whole “faction faction faction” grind that I’m expecting with epics certainly won’t be fun. At all.