I have to ask how he came up with that. You would need to carefully log hundreds of charms to be sure of that. Our current algorithm was inherited from the EQEmu code. I merely fixed something that was wrong with the implementation of Kayen's algorithm. I did produce my own logs from Live and tried to verify if it matched what data I could pull from my own charm logs from AK however. It matched close enough that I moved on. See http://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/charm-changes-over-nerfed.2575/#post-13018 for some results. Charisma not affecting duration mostly comes from old forum posts of enchanters, plus Kayen's investigation. My druid also had terrible charisma and it didn't seem to hurt much if at all. (granted druid charm could be different) Of course it could be easily unnoticed if your MR debuffs and level advantage simply reduce MR enough to not make charisma a factor. I find no evidence of a 5% minimum resist chance on charm casts in my data, from Live or AK. Per-tick charm break chance is probably not possible to know precisely without code leaks or Sony dev comments. There are so many ways that it could be implemented. The way Kayen has it, there is a roll before checking MR at all.
This is the spirit of AK. The AK EQ server was old, outdated, decrepit, and running on its last shreds of hard disk. But its population was the finest group of folks I've ever gamed with, and I've been gaming online since the stone ages. EQ is a fun game, it's not the latest greatest game, and our server isn't the hottest most up to date one out there. But the people who play here are different. We're more like a family than a community. We're more like a community than just about any other game server out there. The spirit of AK is one of cooperation, and fun. You won't find that very easily anywhere else.
Ghakim, do you think an SK in place of your monk would still be good? Less DPS but a little more tanking and self healing? What you have sounds like a fun trio.
idk where a SK fits in our era or velious, but a paladin would reign supreme beginning in luclin as a tank (and dps in undead zones) imo SK is the worst class in PoP UNLESS they implement the mental corruption bug which gives them infinite mana, then they become balanced
SK/Cleric/BL would be a great comp imo. SK would be easier on your cleric and you'd have a much better snare. As a 3-man I think that would overall be a stronger trio than Monk/Cleric/BL but yes you would have less DPS. Thing to keep in mind though is if a monk is a sufficient tank for whatever you are doing and you can pull non stop without cleric going out of mana you are doing better with a monk than with a tank class simply because better DPS. If your monk is not a sufficient tank and have to take breaks to med than you're better off with a "real" tank class. In kunark my monk has tanked things like Myconid King, the area where iksar betrayer spawns in chardok, and also Tranix without needing to stop to med so personally feel like in this era no reason to bring a "real" tank. However monks will not be sufficient tanks for a lot of PoP and some Luclin camps. This is all very marginal as well. SK/BL/Cleric would be easier to play than Monk/BL/Cleric that is for sure. Guess it all comes down to what class you actually want to play and what classes you want to raid with.
Towards the end of Alpha testing, I made an all Iksar group of SK/SHM/BL that was very effective. SKs have great aggro management spells and BL DPS is very good. Both tanks could self heal a bit which made up for not having big heals on the SHM. BL and SHM abilities dove tail a bit, but it only made the BL and pet be stronger with powerful buffs. It's also great to have a slower who can take a few hits from powerful mobs. All in all a great functional combo. A brilliant player from AK once explained to me that the SHM 75% slow is the most powerful spell in the game. Kangol recently reminded me of just how powerful it is in the right hands.
Thanks for the answer, Torven! The 5% thing is my mistake - on looking things over again, I think it's actually part of something else. In any case, your point about MR and level advantage making the effect of charisma hard to discern is a good one, and I suspect it's on the money. You and Surron are right that it'd be very hard to prove CHA should affect charm duration without a code leak, and I agree that the current function feels pretty accurate from the player's standpoint.
