High level mage question: Will I ever be able to nuke when soloing?

[Velerin]

Pet aggro on here is lousy. Bug report already added but doubt anything will change due to the overpoweredness (sp?) of pets in classic eq with chain petting. I'm about to hit 39 and just wanted to ask higher level mages if you ever nuke when soloing?
Even if I wait until 50% more often than not I will pull aggro with a nuke. Chain petting is amazingly efficient and what I've been doing but it would be fun to use these nuke spells I get once in a while solo.
Btw, my level 34 pet still takes up to 2-3 rounds of combat to outaggro the level 1 nuke I pull with most of the time. Good thing is I at least have maxxed out defense skill!

[NegaStoat]

I started to play a mage, got a span in, and realized the grim truth that pet aggro here is Fooked and there's probably not going to be a lot of fixin' put in for it, considering all the other tasks being worked on.

On old retail pre-Velious I distinctly remember getting my mage to the 40's, jamming over to the Hole to blow up the entrance rows of Golems using my anti-summoned Nuke. Pet used was focused Water elemental with a fire shield applied, and I had zero (0) problems fighting in close confines while managing aggro on the pet, medding, and keeping the nukes happening to outdamage the pet.

I sincerely doubt I could pull that off here with the same situation.

After the Hole at level 49-51, I was blowing up Felwithe guards for cash and prizes. That's another area where you're forced to fight in close confines, but again, zero (0) problems keeping the mob on the pet without having to choose an Earth type for the root.

I really wish this could be tested and tweaked to reflect those situations being possible again.

[Retti_]

Use earth pet and run around like a mad man until root sticks

[Rhun]

Try the air pet. I know it dies quicker and doesnt do as much damage, but it actually holds aggro best of all. Most of the time I can just reach 50% damage with my nukes before the mob dies without getting aggro. From 34 to 43 I nuke once at about 80%, then at 60 to 50 and then until the mob dies.
Sometimes I get aggro, but the stun of the air pet really does a lot of aggro, so mostly I am lucky to not get beaten to a pulp, because the pet gets back aggro quickly enough. Sometimes not, but still better than all the other pets, since there is also an issue of the pets not casting enough, and thus the earth pet root doesnt help that much.

In live you couldnt even nuke fast enough to get aggro from an air pet, go figure.
Right now I am thinking of shelving my mage because of this aggro issue. I find chain summoning highly boring and feeling that I am not using my class abilities to the max, when I do it. I mean why use sword of runes or muzzle of mardu (not to mention buy it for 20k) and burnout if your pet dies all the time anyway?
The mage solely depends on his pet, thats why he doesnt have any other defensive spells. If it doesnt work properly, its useless. I would never try to camp lower guk or similar solo with a mage at this state because I am sure the earth pet would not root enough and thus runners would kill me and I wouldnt be able to kill mobs quickly enough without getting pounded to death all the time.

[oufnacdj]

Time to reroll necro? A lot of the gear is the same ;D Feign death makes pet aggro easy. On demand snare and root (but not at same time), etc.

[NegaStoat]

Agreed with Rhun. When I was playing a mage here, I solely used the Air pet after I determined it was the best for solo use. 1) The air stun did no damage, he stopped to cast it, which meant he did a bit less damage and was easier for me to do more than 50% in the damage race against him and... 2) That air stun DID generate substantial aggro.

I still felt pet aggro in general was way lower than old retail, but the stun would turn stuff around IF you were fighting at near max casting distance.

Edit - and yeah, I did go Necro. Iksar necro. I swear, the moment I faded into the game it printed the words " YOU WIN! " and the game credits started scrolling.

[Rhun]

Yeah I thought about a necro already, but I havent given up yet. I had a necro several times before on live and always wanted to get a mage to 60.
Never tried an iksar necro, though.

[Velerin]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I love mages. I did play around with the air pet some and he does seem to be able to snap aggro the best. Maybe I'll switch back to him for indoor stuff. And maybe someday pet aggro will be fixed here.. I also made an ikky necro to play around on. Pet classes are great, let them do the work!

[SamwiseRed]

Use earth pet and run around like a mad man until root sticks

exactly what i did lol