How do I use Beguile?

Question from Esmee Shade incoming!

Hi! Aspiring Death Wizard Esmee Shade here. Question is about the spell Beguile maybe you can help me with. Obviously useful in pvp, but when I cast on monsters in the game they just seem to pass, best case scenario, or it does nothing and they still attack me. For example, I was fighting two monsters in Hyde Park, I went first, cast Beguile on the second monster . On their turn, the first monster attacked me, then the second attacked me as well. OK, I thought, maybe it takes a round for this to kick in but no, they both attacked the next round as well.

So what’s the deal with this spell? I want to use it cause it fits in with the evil death wizard I am but I just don’t get how!

Ok, Beguile can be a weird spell, but I don't know if I've ever seen it glitch like you describe where they still attack me. I ran a few tests in Hyde Park to see if I could get it to glitch out on me, and it never did. /shrug If others know about this glitch, then please let me know on this thread.

**UPDATE: For more information on the Beguile spell click here. Death Wizards get the spell after beating Krokotopia**

So, that aside, let's talk Beguile! Beguile is the only charm spell in the game. I'm not talking about the kind of charms that Christina talks about in her really cool guide over on Diary of a Wizard; I'm talking about the classic MMO charm spell. In classic MMOs like Everquest there's usually a class or two that can charm a creature and make it work for our team for a limited time. Charm spells usually have a limited duration and act as a sort of "crowd control" spell (where I have one less bad guy attacking me). Beguile works the same way; it acts as crowd control and it puts the targeted monster on my team for a round or two.

You can see in this picture that after casting a Beguile I am now able to see what spell my O'leary friend is unloading on his former buddy. He NO LOVES HIM! WOOT! It's going to work perfectly! He's going to expend his pips on a cyclops and kill off his teammate! This is the best case scenario for Beguile.



Unfortunately, (in PvE) the duration of the spell is dependant on who goes first. If my team is going first, Beguile will take effect on the next turn and last one round. If my team is going last, Beguile will take effect on the next turn and last two rounds.

And again, unfortunately it's a little random what your charmed monster will do since you don't get full control of their deck. Your charmed monster may attack his friends, he may shield you, he may pass, or he may shield himself. So it's kind of a luck of the draw situation with Beguile.

Knowing what spells your opponents cast will help you improve your success with using the spell. Down on Unicorn Way opponents cast level 1 or 2 pip damage spells pretty much every round. However, In Krokotopia through Dragonspyre, opponents tend to blade and shield and cast a two, three, or rarely a four pip spell or above . . . even malistaire is fond of casting ghoul after ghoul and vampire after vampire. Knowing this means that you probably don't want to cast Beguile on an opponent when they have 3 or 4 pips showing because they'll probably expend them before your Beguile takes effect. You want to cast Beguile when they have one or two pips showing so by the next round they are primed to cast a damage spell (if the odds are with you).

Side note: Over on the Mali-fest video, you get to see the death wizards play around with Beguile (fast forward to around 32 minutes into the program). You can kind of see the effects of that spell and how it didn't really work out for us as we planned. We were hoping for the gurtok and his buddies to shield us and instead they decided to use two-pip attack spells. You also get to see how ineffective beguile can be when facing opponents that are the same class: ice spells against ice casters are not very effective.

So in the end, Beguile is very situational and kind of random, therefore, making it a little less awesome than it could be out in the PvE world, but still a fun spell to play around with and still beneficial . . . you just have to guage if it's really worth the three pips or not, and sometimes it is (like in the picture above) and sometimes it isn't (like in the mali-fest video).

Now in the PvP world that's a whole other story. In PvP it can shut an opponent down for a round or two (or perhaps even sway things significantly in the battle). I'm definitely not a pvp expert, so I can't talk in specifics for Beguile in pvp, but it seems to be on the most hated list of pvp spells besides Wildbolt. Perhaps someone in the comments can talk specifically about using Beguile in pvp? (Thanks in advance!)

Hope this helps!

Happy Dueling!