How to Play an Enchanter (RoF - Current)
Let me start off by saying I am not the best Enchanter. I do not know the class as well as I know other classes and on my box team therefore you shouldn't read this guide with the assumption that I am the best at this class.
This guide is going to talk about how to play an Enchanter from the Rain of Fear expansion until current (TBL) EQ. Since so much in EQ changes over the years this guide will not always be relevant; people reading it on a TLP server prior to say House of Thule will not be able to follow this guide since the class changes so much. Maybe one day in the distant future this guide will become out of date too and things will change again, that's the nature of EQ.
If you'd like to see how my interface is setup and the way I play, head on over to my Everquest Boxing Guides and you'll be able to view my setup there.
For an example of how much DPS I can do during a full burn I'd recommend you check out my Kissassist/Boxing DPS Guide or just view this parse here. Mezmezmez is the Enchanter in this parse and his pet is the one that does the least amount of damage out of the two pets.
As for the guide, playing a caster in EQ usually has you use two different rotations. You're going to want to use one rotation while burning (when cooldowns are active) as well as one rotation when you're low on mana/when Cooldowns are down. Everquest is a game completely designed around cooldowns. Every raid and difficult mission is centered around and made easier by when and how you use your cooldowns, if you're wiping it's probably because you aren't burning at the right time or you're improperly using your cooldowns.
If you're doing crappy DPS it is also most likely caused by you using cooldowns improperly. There are of course situations where cooldowns do not matter as much, such as while you're killing enemies in the field and just leveling up or doing mercenary tasks yadda yadda. However, end game EQ has been centered around cooldown usage for as long as I can remember. If you've ever raided in EQ you probably already understand this and that's how this guide is setup - around this concept.
The idea is to get as much DPS out of your cooldowns as possible so you use your highest mana cost hardest hitting spells/abilities while they are active then when they're not active you switch to a rotation that uses a lot less mana.
To get started let's take a look at the spells I have on my spell bar as well as the primary hotbar that I use to play.
Top: Mindslash, Mindsunder, Psychic Appropriation
Bottom: Dichotomic Reinforcement
As I said before, I am not that familiar with the Enchanter class. I mean, I have talked with many Enchanters who are in top tier raid guilds and I have looked at the rotations they use and why etc etc but I am admittedly not super good at the class. Don't take this advice as an end all be all way to play an Enchanter but rather a stepping stone to becoming good at the class.
The first rotation is the one that you'll spend the least amount of time in, your burn rotation. Basically this is the rotation that you use when you pop Improved Twincast and all of your other burns. Despite Strangulate being a DoT it also has a very powerful nuke attached to it so you'll want to spam it for that reason. During the burn rotation the idea is to use your hardest hitting spells as much as possible because damage is multiplicative with burns active.
Burn Rotation:
Mindslash
Strangulate
Mana Conserve Rotation:
Mindslash
Mindsunder
Psychic Appropriation
Dichotomic Reinforcement
Now the rotation that we will be spending the most time in is what I would call the Mana Conserve rotation or even the normal rotation. In this rotation you'll use Mindslash and Mindsunder for damage as well as Psychic Appropriation (for mana and some damage) as well as Dichotomic Reinforcement for ADPS and mana.
Mindslash is the level 110 hard hitting nuke and Mindsunder is the level 105 version of basically the same spell. Psychic Appropriation is more of a support nuke, it does very little damage but also grants some mana back to your group, which is why I use it. If you're part of a small group that is mostly melee or you're boxing a small group that is mostly melee and you wouldn't find this bonus mana useful then you'll want to substitute a different spell.
Dichotomic Reinforcement is in the same kind of group as Psychic Appropriation, it's only useful if you're in a group of casters. Don't use this spell unless you're boxing a group of casters or grouped with a regular group of casters otherwise it's just a giant waste of mana.
With my rotation out of the way, let's take a look at all of the macros I use on my Enchanter which are unique to this class as well as which AAs I use in my burn line up. Don't forget that I am a boxer and my Enchanters aren't boxed on my team. This means that this guide is written from the perspective of how to play a boxed Enchanter. While it'll definitely help you out to play an Enchanter regularly there will be things that you will want to differently if you're say learning how to play for a raid guild.
Mini Pets:
This macro serves two unique purposes, the first and most obvious of which is it's a small boost in DPS. The second purpose is if you've got a Mage in your box group as this will give him a few more pets on his current target for his Volley of Many line of spells.
Doppleganger (/alt act 261) - Summons 3 Dopplegangers which cast any spell you have memorized & do other nifty things. They attack your target for 1min 15s
Phantasmal Opponent (/alt act 1122) - Summons a single Doppleganger of your current target to attack your target. This is the stronger of the two Enchanter swarm pet AAs.
Rune of Tallon Clicky - Summons a Swarm Pet that does a decent amount of damage. More Info about Rune of Tallon clicky
Protection Macro:
This macro shares the same keybind with group heal so that while you're spamming group heal, it'll also spam this macro. Basically what the Protection macro is designed to do is, if the Enchanter is the one currently under attack by the enemy or if your whole group is taking lots of AoE damage this macro will aid the Cleric in keeping the character alive.
Reactive Rune (/alt act 2209) - You should be buffing yourself with this ability when you do your buffs but incase you aren't or forgot to rebuff recently this will use it to help save your hide.
Glyph Spray (/alt act 578) - Again you should be buffing yourself with this when you do your buffs but just incase you aren't this macro uses it.
Rune of Banishment (/alt act 2200) - This absorbs melee damage that you take and also has an effect you may find annoying, it pushes enemies back and roots them 30 feet away.
Debuff Macro:
This macro has two of the main debuffs that you'll want to use on your targets, Slow and Tash. I've also included a third AA, Mental Contortion, which is a nice DoT that I don't use anywhere else on my Enchanter box. I've included it in this macro just to make use of it, for those of you who are actually playing the Enchanter and not boxing it - you may be able to make a better decision about when it gets used than put it in here.
Slowing Helix (/alt act 753) - Casts the highest rank of Constraining Helix that you have scribed.
Bite of Tashani (/alt act 1125) - Hits all creatures around your target with the highest scribed rank of Decree of Tashan you have.
Mental Contortion (/alt act 602) - Reduces the targets melee accuracy, damage and applies a weak DoT to the target.
Burn Macros:
Calculated Insanity (/alt act 534) - Increases the chance that your next XX amount of spells will crit as well as slightly increasing the amount of critical damage they do. However this comes at a price because it'll increase the mana cost of these spells as well.
Improved Twincast (/alt act 515) - Probably the most important cooldown all casters get. For the next 20 or so casts all your spells will Twincast guaranteed.
Silent Casting (/alt act 500) - This burn is situationally important or not at all important. If you're just DPSing chances are you won't pull agro but if you're doing typical Enchanter stuff while DPSing it'll help out a lot.
Fundament: Second Spire of the Enchantment (/alt act 1381) - I chose to use second spire because with Calculated Insanity and your base crit you have a 100% chance to crit. There would be no point in using Third Spire at this time to increase your crit chance even further since it can't get any higher. Instead of using Second Spire an alternative is to not use any spire at all at this time and save Third Spire for after burns fade. This is what you'd want to do in a raid scenario.
Illusions of Granduer (/alt act 2202) - This burn increases your crit chance as well as significantly increasing the amount of damage your crit spells do as well as DoTs. Illusions of Granduer is the most important Enchanter ADPS spell. Also something to keep in mind is that with IoG and Calculated Insanity you have 100% chance to crit.
Focus of Arcanum (/alt act 1211) - This makes your spells extremely hard to resist and is another bread and butter burn that you'll want to use to increase your DPS output.
Chromatic Haze (/alt act 2205) - Chromatic Haze increases the critical strike chance of your groups next two spells by 100% and increases the crit damage they do by 380% (or higher if you're reading this in a future X-pac).
Synopsis of A Long Fight On An Enchanter
This section will give you an indepth detailed look at how a long fight will go while playing a Enchanter. The only fights I know that last this long as TBL missions and raids - those of you reading this who aren't doing end game content will most likely defeat all bosses/missions during your full burn and never have to plan for what comes next. This section addresses what comes next.
After you use up all of your Improve Twincast charges you will want to change which spell rotation back to the Mana Conserve rotation we talked about earlier. You'll also want to use Third Spire at this time assuming that you didn't during your burns.
1. Full burn the enemy using the burns I mentioned above
2. When Improved Twincast fades use Third Spire
Mezzing On An Enchanter
Of course the real purpose of an Enchanter is not to DPS on and yet that's all this guide has talked about so far! As you probably already know Enchanters are made for crowd control purposes and for this they use mez spells. There are a few different mez spells to use for an Enchanter but only I only ever put two of them on my bars. They are...
Mez Spell: Chaotic Delusion (mezzes the target and provides the Enchanter a twincast for their next damaging spells). You will want to use this line of mez spells instead of the mez line with Delude. If you're not boxing the Enchanter then you'll want to make use of the twincast proc on Chaotic Delusion every time you mez a new target
Mez AoE Spell: Perplexing Wave (mezzes your target and several nearby targets. If you're standing close to your target this spell can also mez you
The reason I choose Chaotic Delusion over Delude is entirely because of the Twincast component that comes with it. Kissassist doesn't make use of the twincast aspect of Chaotic Delusion because Kissassist isn't that good so if you're 6 boxing and using that to help you box using Delusion over Delude won't be that big a deal.
However if you're actually playing the Enchanter in a raid scenario or a group scenario mezzing a target then nuking to use up the Twincast is the rotation you'll want to do. This will also help you stand out as a pro Enchanter. Most Enchanters don't parse high as well as mez - only the best ones do!