"If you made the chains decision with a ranger or druid in a pick up group
from my server and forget ever being invited on
a raid or dungeon crawl again."

That's a sad thing. My problem is having to turn the raids down (seems most
folks are on the West Coast, which doesn't work out well for me on the East
Coast), and I've Chained since level 23.

"A lot of times our method for dealing with runners when snare fails these
days is a BIG blast from our nuker and a BIG
dot from our shaman..."

A spell can be resisted either way, regardless of whether it's Chains or Ice
Comet. There's still some chance the runner will get away.

"I also don't always have chains loaded... even for backup. [...] Thanks
god the other bard had chains :)."

Exactly :). I'm "the other bard." (Not literally)

"Maybe here I'm a bit spoiled also since my guild is primarily shamans and
slowing MOBs down usually only becomes my job on super high magic resist
mobs like Ogre Guards."

Heh, you are. Hug your shammies, I don't think they're appreciated enough,
especially with the whole stats fiasco going on right now. Again, if I have
both a snarer and an attack speed debuffer in the group, I can find
something better than Chains to play for that 3rd twist.

"What level mobs are you fighting? In my experience it is a rule, not
exception... "

Bats, LDC's, dars, boks, etc. The standard Sol B/LGuk mix. My unbuffed CHA
is 121 (I always carry more CHA equip, but mainly just wear it for Lament
breakins). Dex is about 120 unbuffed. I've used Chains in all the dungeons
except Kedge (keep meaning to visit that place), and haven't had many
problems.

"Oggok bouncers, specs, giants, etc... you simply don't need to stop these
things as they really don't run far and if they do,
so what. "

Aye, outdoors, I LOVE snare + Screech, because runners are no big deal, and
if I'm using weapons, I get to be lazy and just leave one song playing
(Screech). Once you hit 48, though, it's Screech + CoC + Screech + CoD...
sigh, no rest for the weary.

"I still say that you are asking for trouble with pixie, charm or chains in
places like Paw or Sol A..."

Actually, I've done all three in Sol A and Paw. Of course, when I was in
Paw, I pulled to a relatively safe spot deeper down in the dungeon than most
people go. It was much safer there, since the only trains were my own, and
smart pulling avoids trains.

"I don't think you would disagree with my assessment of chains on things
like Efreeti raids or dungeon crawls though :)."

Nope, I agree with you -- you generally have 12+ people for those, always a
snarer and an attack speed debuffer. No need for chains when you have both
of those present. But I still keep it memmed. Besides, Screech with Fire
Giants is much more fun. ;p

"Hmmm, I've always wondered what it would be like to fight for XP in lower
Guk"

Heh, those were the days. Hopefully the expansion pack will relieve some of
the crowding down there. Live side isn't nearly as camped as dead side,
though. I went back to my old hangouts the other night, just to see if
crowding had affected them yet (got my ego busted when I finished the two
minos in the Patriarch room and only had a bubble of health left, even after
doing some mez/healing when I was down to one).

Raiel