The chanter/cleric thing.

I tend to run into a *lot* of shaman, and though I'm not doing the post-50
Kunark dungeons yet .. we are poking about in 30-45 Velious areas. I came
back to EQ (had honestly deleted my account AND my Bard when the broken as
intended statement was made) b/c they helped out our CC songs. My vision of
my Bard was a pied piper and singing to reduce down ( not a self-service
tank). Sooo .. I do CC .. a lot ... and sometimes have done CC even with a
chanter in group (not going oom has won me that post a few times). And my
favorite thing to hear after I join a group is "Pull! Pull faster! Pull
harder things".

With someone root parking to help, or a necro assisting, its not hard at
all. But, a few of the rooters that play with me before - now happily wait
with the mob smacking on them for me to mez/charm (whatever I called) so
they can continue thier heals/burns (why waste mana when mana-less is about
to do the task?). And I'm at the level again (finally!) where most groups
assist. Yay! Repeat group-mates are more and more just assuming I'm CC and
hitting thier rythm fast. There have been many times we have gone deep
with neither cleric nor chanter, times we have unexpectedly cleared out
places considered too risky to try without Cleric and Chanter, and my max
contolled pull was six so far in tower of frozen. First pull, pick-up
group, only five, no chanter, one healer only and a druid (he was good
tho) - no one died. A couple of groups have even started calling for
multi-pulls if the pull distance was long to keep the pace up hehe. Oh and
the one pick-up group of five Paladins and a Bard simply couldn't pull mobs
fast enough to keep busy lol!.

One thing I would suggest is hotkeys with /g says in them on charm & mez and
when sending a charmed mob after a target. With pick-up groups getting
communication in the first few multi-pulls quickly often the margin between
some deaths as members panic w/o thier chanter& cleric security blanket or
thier going about business and getting a good flow/assist pattern going.
I've been in groups with cleric and/or chanters that have had deaths b/c
that flow wasn't established (early?yet?) sometimes in spots I had soloed.

So I think there is plenty of opportunity to practice this well before 53.
I'd rather go nasty places with me and two (shaman or druid) and a tank-like
object and a coordinated group than me and a full group of six with the
usual cleric/chanter/snarer-evac/burn or BS/main-tank/me and one person who
panics and poor group coordination. I think the reason the just mentioned
"standard" group is so successful (warrior & CHeal aside) is that the roles
are well practiced and most non-career solo players will know thier part and
coordinate quickly on the initial breaks/pulls. The number one line I hear
when recently dead is "Oh sorry, I didn't know bards could do that", number
two is the afore-mentioned "Wow you die fast!".

- Menuette(the second)