magician dd worthless?

[Mizaro Moonfire]

Have a level 14 magician. Outside of using my level 1 damage spell all I do is let my pets kill everything for me. Although this is effective I find it quite boring. So far I've had no use of any other damage in spells as they bring Aggro on me. Is this something that will last throughout the game? Will I pretty much have no use for my damaging spells while leveling?

[Ele]

If your pet does greater than 50% of the damage to a mob it will eat half the xp earned, unless you are grouped.

You can start trying the dismissing once the mob flees and nuking the rest of the hp away method of leveling, which will net you all the xp allotted.

[Mizaro Moonfire]

So aside from pet chaining there is no reason to use our DD spells soloing. Other then when dismissing and using a finisher? Then needing and recasting pet over and over till you get the highest level pet then rinse repeat?

[Swish]

So aside from pet chaining there is no reason to use our DD spells soloing. Other then when dismissing and using a finisher? Then needing and recasting pet over and over till you get the highest level pet then rinse repeat?

That's the way it is at the moment sadly. However, find someone to duo with and you'll kill twice as fast and without the penalty :)

That, or bring bags of malachite with you...and it's not too bad if you can get into a routine of suiciding the pet on 5% (with fleeing mobs) and using a low level nuke to finish.

[Estu]

Magicians are a very monotonous class to play. If you want a pet class that's more interesting, play a necromancer.

[Mizaro Moonfire]

How hard is it to outdamage a fire pet. Does its fire shield count?

[Woahnelly]

Fire shield does not count as pet damage. At lower levels I would not try to chain or out damage pet, just heal. After level 29, or whenever pets become 200 mana, I would recall pet when mob starts to run and then nuke for full xp.

[Estu]

At all levels, what you want to do is recall when the mob is almost dead and then finish it with a low level nuke (or melee it if you're really low level). Do this as soon as you can afford to buy a lot of malachite. Don't try to outdamage the pet, it will cost too much mana.

[Woahnelly]

I respectfully disagree. At lower levels up to 29ish it is more mana effiecient and faster leveling to just heal your fire pet. Let him eat half the xp. You will still level faster than most other classes.

[Swish]

...and if that's the case you're still levelling faster than your troll/iksar SK counterparts :)

[Estu]

I respectfully disagree. At lower levels up to 29ish it is more mana effiecient and faster leveling to just heal your fire pet. Let him eat half the xp. You will still level faster than most other classes.

I'm baffled as to how you can kill two monsters, wasting mana on heals, with the same amount of mana it takes me to kill one monster, recalling when it's almost dead (regaining much of the summoning mana) and using a low level nuke. But since we clearly differ here, the original poster should try out both methods and see what works best.

[nosrek]

If you use the re claim spell to kill off the pet, then nuke mob for the finish do you get the full xp? I was under the impression you had to do the go away command (losing out on mana) to get the full xp.

Also anyone have tips on where to get over that 4-12 hump?

[Berendar]

I respectfully disagree. At lower levels up to 29ish it is more mana effiecient and faster leveling to just heal your fire pet. Let him eat half the xp. You will still level faster than most other classes.

This is what I am finding at level 19. It's just not mana efficient to keep reclaiming the pet because if the pet is severly damaged you gain very little mana (this is how it seems to work anyway).

Also if you happen to summon a low level pet, as is often the case, you have to heal it just to keep it in the fight.

[Estu]

This is what I am finding at level 19. It's just not mana efficient to keep reclaiming the pet because if the pet is severly damaged you gain very little mana (this is how it seems to work anyway).

Also if you happen to summon a low level pet, as is often the case, you have to heal it just to keep it in the fight.

Or you can reclaim it and summon another one if it's dying. This is often (though not necessarily always) more efficient than healing it.

[Berendar]

Or you can reclaim it and summon another one if it's dying. This is often (though not necessarily always) more efficient than healing it.

Maybe as you get higher, but the problem I'm finding is that the mana you get back from a reclaim is based on the pets health I believe (?) and so pretty much nothing.

I find that it's better at my level to keep summoning until I get the level 17 pet and just chain pull blues, throwing a heal when needed. I don't have the focus torch thinymajig. Maybe that helps alot.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong :)

[Sarius]

Torch of Alna makes a huge difference for sure. Try to get this ASAP. Fire pet up to 24ish has low enough HP that it should regenerate to almost full health in between pulls, so there will be little to no down time with the heal method.

[Mavric]

It does become mana efficient the minute that you start treating your pets as an expendable spell and learn how to effectively hurl them at foes and control them, including their required deaths for your next summon. This is not specific to mages, but you ARE talking about mana-to-damage efficiency the likes of which no other class in the game can achieve with a single spell.

Aye, you should practice it early whether mana efficient or not so you get a grip on chaining during fights or in a oh shit situation which pet control (cc) + resummoning will save your life and allow you to do things other heal mages cannot do.

[Fistandantalus]

Lots of Wisdom in this thread. Mages rock! period.. they become a very necessary end game class when its all said and done. duo'ing with a necro/druid is awesome in those lax times between full groups. You'll learn how to not over nuke with practice. generally wait till the mob is below 70% and cast one of your conjuration discipline nukes. which probably takes 20% or so more health off the mob per cast. if you chain cast nukes, You'll figure out fast how many nukes it takes to steal agro from your Ds'd pet,and will likely die unless you can zone or out run the mob. using sow pots rock till you get your Jboots. The true skill in playing a soloing mage is knowing "when" to cast Gate... oh yeah... Mages Freakin' Rule ...