Shattered Kingdoms

Is charm still imbalanced?

There is currently only one way to escape from it because most of your abilities and commands are disabled.

The cast time has been increased, so..

You decide for yourself.

So pk in the game is entirely based on taunt and charm still?

Not really. Charm isn't used much because there aren't many sorcs and I guess other stuff is cooler.

And there aren't a lot of swashes either, plus taunt requires concentration or some such.

If your assumption were true then everyone would be playing either a sorc or a swash.

Charm actually got a ninja buff recently.

Charm is pretty balanced now, it takes forever to cast and people with enough willpower are pretty resistant so it'd a gamble really to cast it in a PVP situation anymore.

whats the cast time on charm now?

Sorcs received a large nerf recently. You cannot order NPCs to change their stance, and controlled NPCs stay on stance neutral, meaning sorcs can't walk around with Lathron and Losquaty on mood aggressive, or use Bill and Waish on mood defensive. Also, in order to use a magical item such as a scroll or wand, the caster must have the necessary concentration available as though he were actually casting the spell.

Charm is still extremely powerful when used against PCs. It is just as difficult to save against as when you played, but its casting time is a good bit longer. Someone currently playing can say exactly how long it is. Charm also cannot be scribed and no charm scrolls exist in the game. You definitely still need a ton of willpower if you want to tangle with a sorc.

Swashbucklers are still torn apart by barbarians, and taunt now requires a small amount of concentration to hold. Taunt still has no save except for wisdom, however, so I'd imagine that you would have the same complaints against it today as you did the last time you were playing.

On another note, necromancers were nerfed so that they can only animate a maximum of 8 undead at a time (but the timer on animates was doubled). Combined with the changes that nerfed sorcs, necros are no longer completely ridiculous.

Warlocks and scouts have received buffs. Both can have pets, and stone skin isn't bypassed by split-damage weapons.

That sounds like a good summary.

EDIT: Except that stone skin only reduces half the damage from split weapons.

Charm is now basically willpower's petrification as far as casting it during fights is concerned.

HOWEVER

At the risk of taking away all my bones, charmed NPCs and PCs shouldn't recall with you.

Reason: c charm XXX, quaff recall. GG that guy. At least petrification requires you to hold the field. Having charmed PCs recall with you allows for too much reward with very little risk on part of the sorc.