Overview

Enchanters are one of our strongest and most unique classes, with high group utility and desirability. The Enchanter update was fairly light, focused on some quality of life changes where needed, but also a key adjustment to Charm to bring it more in line the intended power of the class.

Enchanters are primarily a group-focused class, which lines up with their unique and powerful kit of buffs, debuffs, and crowd control abilities. Mesmerize, charm, and stun give you more ways to take an enemy out of a fight than any other class, and a buff suite built on mana regeneration, haste, and mental stats makes you worth bringing along even when crowd control is not required.

Your mental buffs (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) consolidate into a combo buff, your core self-buff bundles a variety of effects into a strong package, your Shadowkin pet has less upgrade ranks but always summons at your own level, and two of your signature buffs now have a group-wide version for when you'd rather just cast it once. Charisma also pulls more weight than it used to, contributing to your damage spells, your runeskin, as well as Charm and Lull.

One key topic to talk about up front: Charmed NPC damage has been reduced from its previous level. While charmed NPCs are certainly weaker, they are still a strong source of extra damage in a group situation, and Enchanters are still able to solo by buffing their charmed pet, and debuffing their target NPCs. Certainly with weaker charmed pets, soloing will not be as efficient and fast as it was previously, but it is still viable.

This is a topic we've received lots of feedback on during Beta, and not everyone will agree with this change. In the past, charmed pet damage often exceeded the amount of damage you could get by adding 2-3 more DPS classes to a group, and was unquestionably the highest damage spell in the game by a wide margin. This change will be good for game balance, and allow us to tune difficulty to be more reasonable for diverse groups.

While we're highlighting this change in the Enchanter Deep Dive, this does affect the Charm spells of Elementalists, Druids, Bards, and Necromancers as well.

Crowd Control

Mesmerize, Charm, and your point-blank stun all work exactly as they always have - your CC suite was already the deepest in the game, and it didn't need reinventing. This is a unique and powerful kit that is the core strength of Enchanters.

One small tightening: your pacify line, which lulls enemies and makes it easier to split groups, now works on only one target at a time instead of several at once - similar to the changes we've made in previous class updates.

Charisma and Power

Charisma now has additional value for more of your kit. Your mental-affliction damage line, your channeled damage-over-time spell, and your rune shield all scale up further the more Charisma you have. Additionally, Charisma is still a key stat for Charm and Lull spells.

Sagacity

• Inspire your target, increasing their Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom.

Three previously single-stat buffs - Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom - are now merged into a combined buff.

Vespyra's Veil

Vespyra's Veil

• Encircle yourself with a magical shield, increasing your maximum Health, Armor Class, and Magic Resistance. You also gain the ability to see invisible entities and sense magical effects, and attackers have a chance to be dazed when they hit you.

Your core self-buff lasts an hour and combines many helpful effects you'd always want active. This replaces your spellshield line

It’s mentioned above, but enemies have a chance to be dazed briefly if they hit you, getting you a few precious seconds to get them under control or make your escape.

Group Support

Two of your signature buffs now have a group-wide version. Cast once, and your whole party gets the same benefit you'd otherwise be handing out one ally at a time. Both of these require a reagent, and are available to purchase on your spell vendor.

Group Sagacity

• Inspire your party, increasing their Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom.

Group Enlightenment

• Enlighten your party's minds, increasing their Mana Regeneration.

Your Pet

Shadowkin Defender

• Invoke the mirror realm, manifesting a friendly shadowkin to fight alongside you.

Your pet is still a solid source of damage, though it has been reduced some to differentiate it from the dedicated pet casters: Elementalist and Necromancer. Your Shadowkin now summons at your own level as you grow, instead of falling behind between upgrades.

Retained Spell Lines

Utility

• Root

• Shrink

• Reclaim Essence

• Recharge Item

• Bind Vision

• Enduring Breath

• Dispel Magic

• Soulbind

• Gate

• Polar Alignment: North

• Enchant (metal bar line)

Detection

• Unveil (Merges Sense Magic and See Invisible)

• Invisibility

• Invisibility versus Undead

Illusions

• Every racial illusion

• Minor Illusion (the inconspicuous object)

Buffs

• Haste

• Strength

• Clarity (mana regeneration)

• Runeskin

Damage

• Torment (Direct damage with a mental debuff)

• Mindshackle (Channeled damage that also snares your target - renamed from Psionic Hemorrhage)

Debuffs

• Fracture Magic (Resist debuff)

• Vertigo (Physical stats debuff - renamed from Enfeeblement)

• Exhaustion (Melee slow)

Removed Spell Lines

• Enchant Ally - We've removed this for now but intend to revisit it in the future. While it's a interesting ability, it needed some more time and implementation polish to work reliably, and it didn't feel critical to the core Enchanter toolkit.

• Amnesia - Enchanters have a few ways to blur the memories of their foes, didn't need quite as many variations

• Greater Invisibility - We'd like to keep some risk in stealthy travel, and leave the most reliable version as a defining trait of the Rogue. Enchanters retain their Invisibility spell, and all casters are losing Greater Invisibility.

Thanks for taking the time to look this over, and for your participation in our ongoing Beta. We look forward to getting your feedback after you try out the Enchanter update!