This skill is a prerequisite for Hydra. For almost all characters, this is the only reason to invest in this skill, and a one point investment will suffice for that. Enchant adds some fire damage to weapon-based attacks, including melee, bows, and thrown weapons.

The amount added is hefty for the time period in which the skill becomes available: Act 2 Normal. The increase with added skill levels is only one more damage point per skill level, though, and the added mana cost is extreme, so these factors make pumping this skill up an unattractive option, to say the least. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that Fire Mastery does affect Enchant damage. The other thing to remember is that enemy fire resistance also affects Enchant damage.

There are only three uses for Enchant. First, it's a primary skill for the weapon-oriented sorceress character. If you are using weapons, particularly melee, but also bows or thrown weapons, as a primary attack form or even a frequent situational attack form, then Enchant would be useful. This is the only situation when you might want to invest more than one skill point. Even an Enchant specialist would be hard pressed to want to invest more than a few points here, though, due to the extreme mana cost increase per use.

The other situations for Enchant use pertain only to Enchant as prereq for Hydra. If you have to invest a skill point to get to Hydra, and you have Enchant just lying around, you might as well use it. It's useful as melee support all the way through normal difficulty if your sorcie bothers to swing, shoot or throw a weapon at all. And Enchant never goes out of style as a support skill for coop partners. If you happen to have any +skills items, they can seriously boost the damage and duration of Enchant in combo with Fire Mastery, to make it still worth bothering with for any allies that don't have insane weapon damages. You needn't bother for Martel barbs, but most paladins and amazons will appreciate it, as will any character with low damage or rapid attacks: jab, zeal, fend, frenzy... you might as well. Every little bit helps, and over the course of two or three minutes, Enchant can end up doing hundreds, if not thousands, of bonus fire damage for busy allies.

You cannot cast Enchant on coop partners while in town, unfortunately, but you can cast it on yourself there. It can also be tough to cast it on moving players. Expect to miss now and then, and "waste" the casting. You have to directly target an ally to cast Enchant upon them. Otherwise it affects you. Also, you can renew Enchant before it expires, even though it won't show the fire swirl.

I am looking forward to seeing what changes this skill undergoes in the Expansion Pack. I am hoping they add some moderate Attack Rating bonuses, for one thing.

| Next Section | Main Page |