Melee Enchanter Walkthrough

[shieldladaoc]

A few people have asked about how this works, so here's a basic guide for anybody insane enough to try to convert your enchanter into a melee class:

First of all, this is a melee enchanter because most of the damage done is melee damage. It's not necessarily your personal melee damage though, so it doesn't mean you're going to be whacking everybody to death with your sword. There is plenty of swording to do which will be explained later though. This is also a strange build so dont expect to min/maxers to want you, but I've been able to get over 240 solo kills with it this season and it works in our group at nights too.

Tested Class Spec:
- 49 enchantments spec
- 22 light

This gets you the following key items:
- 20 dps pet damage add
- 10 dps damage add for yourself and others
- Good pet specs
- super pet haste
- Weak AOE ASR
- Weak melee damage debuff
- 65% mez reduction for pet

Next you need the Underhill Friend. All other pets are useless. This is going to be the source of most of our melee dps. The friend offers the following benefits:
- It dual wields, so it's 25% harder to block and evade
- Each hand will benefit from the 20 dps damage add
- Each hand will benefit from the damage boost from Juggernaught
- It tanks reasonably well compared to the other pets
- It attacks at cap speed with the super haste

Before we get into CLs, RAs, and swording stuff we need to break some stereotypical caster nonsense.

With most pet classes, it's normal to kite when there's a big hungry troll or sneaky assassin trying to kill you. Our goal is to kite as little as possible. We're taking this approach because kiting will reduce our melee dps, and that is not acceptable. We will still kite a little bit here and there, but only if necessary for survival. This establishes a very important rule which is in PvE the pet tanks for me, but in RVR I tank for the pet. As a best practice, anybody attempting to force you to reverse this role should be immediately timer dumped and eliminated asap regardless of class or realm rank.

The next thing we need to do is accept that this is not a nuking build. We will have some ranged dps, but if you want to be a nuker with a pet then play Light spec or make a Light Ment. We are not going to try to be a nuker. This means we dont need to go into the realm of aug dex to max cast speed because we dont care. We aren't kiting, our spells will be quick casted (no dex bonus), and our debuffs/haste is instant cast. If we are healing the pet, something is going wrong as per above.

This is also a very timer dependent build. When your timers are up, you will be powerful. When they are down, you will have to rely more on trying to kite or use item charges.

Let's look at RAs, CLs, Useful Uses and stuff:

Realm Abilities:
- Juggernaut 4. The pet is level 44. This will add 25 levels making it 69. The theoretical cap is 70, so another level of Jugg would only add 1 level for 7 RA points. A level 4 RA is a high priority timer to have up. Imagine being a tank with IP4 and not having it up for a hard fight...
- Toughness 9. I currently have 2733 health at full power. You need health to tank.
- Aug Con 5+. Because you don't need aug dex but you do need more tank.
- Wild Minion 5+. Remember, both hands can crit on the friend...
- Purge 1. This may seem odd, but it's really just to clear long effects. With no PD or desire to kite, the melee stuns aren't as annoying as they normally are. The timer aligns with Juggernaut.
- Bedazzling Aura. I don't have it but want it.
- Longwind 1 /spew
- Protection of the Underhill - This is really what makes you tank. It will take my 2733 health and make it 4733, and it also allows me to take more hits to reverse proc more ablatives / 5% heals over time. It protects against magic damage too. This is equally important as Juggernaut in this build. I macro link this to shield of war for extra effect.

CLs
- Bases for the pet
- Shield of War
- Resilience Melee Style
- elemental/soul resist buffs
- Aoe heal

Useful Uses
- Enchanter Staff 10% health / AF charge
- 5% heal over time charge
- 50% power charges
- Tempest snare charge
- Ablative Charge -> Spec AF charge -> Str Con charge -> Dex Con Charge -> Enchanter CL staff buff. I do not use dex/qui charges anymore.

Stuff we care about in template
- resists, hits, dex, int, con, AF
- %healing eff
- % debuff eff
- % Duration (max)
- % Buff (max)
- % Range
- Good Dual Proc weapon. I use dual DD because it was cheap and available.+

Yes, we want a good dual proc weapon to hit people with using the CL style Resilience. Why would we do this?
- If you don't dress like a caster, this can actually confuse people and cause them to switch targets. Nobody expects a caster to stand ground and hit them back.
- This CL style creates a big fire effect that looks like somebody else is suddenly nuking your opponent. The dual DD adds to this chaos, and in duels i've actually had people stop and look around for where the nuker is.
- What else are you going to do standing there?
- This lets you use that great 10 dps damage add from earlier
- This also gives you a permit to use a damage shield as a caster
- Do not sword people with high reflex attack

Mainly you are whacking people with your sword or staff to confuse them rather than damage them. This is no excuse for having a bad weapon though. A perfect hit in rvr would look something like this:
35-50 melee damage.
20 critical damage
30 champions flame
15-20 damage add
70-90 proc 1
70-90 proc 2

Here's how fights usually go:

Step 1: For Melee let the enemy walk up to you and start whacking you. Encourage stealthers to perf you. For casters, try to hide behind walls and in confined areas where you can LoS or lure them into close range. Do not attempt to fight other casters in the open field with no cover. Avoid Shamans if possible.
Step 2: Debuff everybody as quickly as possible like a Champion
Step 3: Most RR1-3 can be beat without cooldowns. For dangerous opponents pop the RR5. For very dangerous opponents, use RR5 and Jugg. As mentioned before, dump everything on anybody who looks at your pet strangely.
Step 4: Support the pet while it fights. Ideally you tank for it, QC stun, maybe sneak in a quick baseline dd or two, and go back to tanking while the pet does it's thing. Try to keep the pet behind the target so it doesn't get parried. It may need healed occasionally.
Step 5: The rest is just reacting to things that happen during the battle.

Some bonus stuff / final notes:
- In raids, buff every melee with the damage add. You'll contribute large damage just by being there that nobody will appreciate.
- You can also buff keep guards with damage add
- Use the Elf Juggernaut if you want to try to manipulate the Hib BG or nearby groups into charging. Use the Lurikeen version for less attention.
- You can /switch for a FSLS for celerity, but it's not recommended in RVR.
- Most groups will not know how to interact with you, but you can farm hulks and solo Dommel as a consolation prize.
- I'm sure there's a caster version of this where you use dex, kite more and nuke, but that's not the purpose of this guide.

Enjoy

[damien9709]

would love to see a video in action.

i always dreamed to have this viable even if it sucks a bit.

[Redzus]

Weapon skill vs. Defenses

1. You wont really bypass blocking.
2. You give free evade.
3. You give free Parry.

[IGhOsTI]

please make a short video showing this off I would be really interested in seeing it in action budd

[Jsafe87]

This is very interesting and something I will look into, sometime in the future after a high RR. Looks really fun and I never seen anyone doing it.

[kafadrian]

do you have a zencraft for the gear associated with this?

[shaundoesstuff]

I just recently hit 50 while working through this build and leveling almost entirely through the BGs.

It's a very different style but also a lot of fun.

[vogelmann_94181]

Any template for this build?

[sedare]

You know this might not be doing well when Casters build MELEE templates.

Sounds exactly like my RA build for 15 years minus juggy and add MoC and Go mana like a normal human.