Fascinate advice

[painkiller3]

(warning noob bard here since swashbuckler came to town)

any advice on getting fascinate to work effectively? should i invis in the middle of the mobs and try to fascinate? any tips

[Jhaeran]

I'm a rook as well but here's some base advice.

Differs if you are in a party or solo.

If in a party - if you know the quest - run ahead of the party to fascinate a larger group of mobs, pre-warn the party that they're fascinated. Some people will still AOE, some will focus on single target, shrug. Depends on the party and difficulty of quest. If done right, it can easily prevent excess resource usage and damage.

If solo - you can frequently see a group of mobs ahead of you - if you do so (or know the quest) start the fascinate song before you get to them, ideally timing the end when you're in the middle. It has a pretty good range, but not huge. If you're pretty confident, you can run around aggroing a bunch and then attempt to time the end of the song when you have the most.

I usually make sure I have my buffs up (displacement primarily) and then run past the melee mobs to get to the spellcasters/archers at song end and then focus on any I missed. Hirelings are annoying here so if you feel like it you can set them to passive beforehand.

If you're REALLY familiar with the quest you can aggro a whole bunch of mobs, lead them all to a 'safe' spot and go to town.

In ambush scenarios - its still usually beneficial to pop a song if the end result is a non-ambush (if you can survive and fireballs aren't flying).

[cru121]

invis is ok if you don't want to get hit
however, sometimes you want to be seen so that mobs approach you and you can fascinate them all

main trick with fascinate is: start singing before running into mobs. practice this. you can and should move (and jump) while singing. ladders and climbing interrupt songs though

[ArcaneArcher52689]

invis is ok if you don't want to get hit
however, sometimes you want to be seen so that mobs approach you and you can fascinate them all

main trick with fascinate is: start singing before running into mobs. practice this. you can and should move (and jump) while singing. ladders and climbing interrupt songs though



This.
I'm new to fascinate as well, but timing the song end is the most important thing about playing a bard that i've learned. If you time it right, they don't get more than a couple attacks in.

[gwonbush]

Another thing you can do is use Warchanter Sprint boost to run faster, which gives you a bit more safety when gathering everything up for a fascinate.

[AzB]

Fascinate actually only does anything at the end of the song, so start singing and try to get close to the mobs by the very end.

My experience with fascinate in PUGs, and even guild groups these days is less than satisfactory. I occasionally use fascinate when solo, but really most of the time fascinate is not the best use of your time.

It also doesn't help that coup de grace doesn't work on fascinated mobs.

Enthrall works slightly better as the mobs don't automatically wake up when hit. They still wake up, and fairly frequently, but it's a little better because not all will. Gives you a little more wiggle room with that 2hf wielder, the spray and pray monkcher, and the AOE caster.

[goodspeed]

lol if your in a group expect one thing only. They're gonna cleave, and explosive fireball the hell out of everything.

[PsychoBlonde]

(warning noob bard here since swashbuckler came to town)

any advice on getting fascinate to work effectively? should i invis in the middle of the mobs and try to fascinate? any tips

I find that I have the best luck with fascinate when I START singing BEFORE I run into the group of mobs. With a couple of tries you learn to time it really well, and the effect doesn't fire until the last note of the song. Keep moving until the effect fires, even jump around if you have to, otherwise you're going to get hit. And make sure you have displacement up.

It's generally not worthwhile to try and fascinate EVERYTHING. If you're running with a group skip past a pack of mobs and fascinate the NEXT pack. The party will clean up the first group then catch up with you and take care of the fascinated mobs.

It's sometimes necessary to explain to people how fascinate works. I use a "you break it, you kill it" rule with my groups--if you break it out of CC, you better be able to solo-kill it because I'm NOT going to come rescue you from the aggro you couldn't handle. Nor will I waste my SP healing you if you do this. I'll wait until you die, re-fascinate the mobs, kill them all one at a time, then, MAYBE if I'm feeling generous and you promise not to do it again will I raise you. Of course, if they CAN handle all the aggro, they can GO for it. They will not hear any complaints from me when that happens.

[goodspeed]

lol its for that reason above all costs I make sure to live. I just hate to give bragging rights to a healer hahaha. I'd rather use up my ground tp with a pay 2 win cake.

[kryscendo]

I find that I have the best luck with fascinate when I START singing BEFORE I run into the group of mobs. With a couple of tries you learn to time it really well, and the effect doesn't fire until the last note of the song. Keep moving until the effect fires, even jump around if you have to, otherwise you're going to get hit. And make sure you have displacement up.

It's generally not worthwhile to try and fascinate EVERYTHING. If you're running with a group skip past a pack of mobs and fascinate the NEXT pack. The party will clean up the first group then catch up with you and take care of the fascinated mobs.

It's sometimes necessary to explain to people how fascinate works. I use a "you break it, you kill it" rule with my groups--if you break it out of CC, you better be able to solo-kill it because I'm NOT going to come rescue you from the aggro you couldn't handle. Nor will I waste my SP healing you if you do this. I'll wait until you die, re-fascinate the mobs, kill them all one at a time, then, MAYBE if I'm feeling generous and you promise not to do it again will I raise you. Of course, if they CAN handle all the aggro, they can GO for it. They will not hear any complaints from me when that happens.

Agree with this completely. I run/jump through and make circles around mobs while singing ... never stand still when fascinating or enthralling. Depending on my group, I might enthrall after fascinating, then soundburst/greater shout/disco ball if more cc is needed. I always tell my party ... anything with musical notes coming out of it is my kill, and I don't care what the "official" kill count is.