So How are mages?

[solduios]

I am not looking for the most uber class out there in the late levels I want something that can farm relatively well and may go into dungeon crawl. Thought about necro but thats almost cheating :rolleyes:.

My biggest concerns are pet tanking and pet agro I know even on live pet can have a hard time holding agro from mage.

I havnt done much mage on live so fairly low experience on this class max lvl 15-20 if I recall right.

If I make one might go human or gnome.

Human: pros str is much higher carrying bags and loot easier.
cons: bland race and no vision at night.

Gnome: pros small can fit into tight spots good faction if agnostic
cons: average str plp like to punt gnomes :D

Religion while usually it doesn't matter too much is there anything cool I am missing out on by not taking one ... or even going an evil gnome/human mage for flavor both can worship The Plague Bringer?

(Human can worship more good gods not sure if anything useful there item wise)

[quido]

Mages are the scourge of Norrath.

[Tethyr]

Religion wise it's better to be agnostic; there's really nothing amazing for mages that is religion specific and agnostic makes faction way less complicated whether you are a good/evil race. As far as race goes, just pick whatever looks cool. It's very easy to hit the int cap and mages really don't need gear at early levels.

As far as soloing pet tanking really isn't a problem. Most people are going to recommend you solo with the fire pet, I leveled my mage fairly quickly using the fire pet exclusively (the innate damage shield on the firepet typically outweighs the benefit of the increased HP of the earth pet).

Make sure you do the Sol magician quests for the mage focus items ASAP, Torch of Alna, Shovel of Ponz ect. These items increase the HP of your pet and make a very big difference, especially at lower levels.

If you're pulling aggro from your pet, then you're doing something wrong. Your basic routine is going to be:

1. Use level 1 nuke to pull mob
2. Send pet in
3. Wait
4. Once mob starts to run either use the clicky from your focus item or hard cast reclaim energy. This will kill your pet; the reason to do this is that you've done almost no damage to the mob, your pet has done all the work. If your pet does more than 50% damage you only get 50% experience from the kill. The solution is to reclaim your pet then nuke the mob down, getting full exp.
5. Resummon, rinse, repeat.

There are some variations to the above (you can chain summon etc.) but generally that is what is safest/easiest. The real problem with mages is that they have no CC: you will be able to dungeon crawl solo to a degree but will inevitably reach camps that you cannot break yourself (which is lame, we don't even get root). This really isn't a huge deal if your interest is farming plat; mages make pretty good farmers and require no gear to be effective, though the clicky cinder bolt staff certainly helps.

[diplo]

doesn't really matter what race you pick, you can lvl a mage up to 50 more or less naked.

DE has hide ability..i guess that's kind of cool?

[Potus]

Mages the most broken non-classic class on P99. Stay away.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

Mages the most broken non-classic class on P99. Stay away.

[Asap]

I love my mage :)

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

I love my mage :)

No one said you can't have fun with them but the class does not play even close to the way it did on live.

[Aborath]

No one said you can't have fun with them but the class does not play even close to the way it did on live.


In what way? Just curious...

[Exmo]

In what way? Just curious...

Pet threat.

[Potus]

In what way? Just curious...

Pets do no taunt. At all.

[Nagash]

Pets do no taunt. At all.

Actually they do. I saw several times a mob turning away from me after I blasted it several times and my pet got a lucky taunt in. However, this implies the pet being higher level than the target (which won't happen after level 30-35) and getting a successful roll on their skill. Add to this the fact that they generate very low aggro with their hits and you have a point where you can't technically say the pets don't taunt and tank but no one will flaw you if you consider that they don't.

[Mirana]

For the record, Haynar has been working on aggro and believes it is fixed on the beta server.

http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105069&page=6

[element08]

also

Dont hold you breath on double bolt yet. Need more specifics on what triggers it. But I was looking at bolt speeds and how to add collision detection. Very hard stuff.

someone buy this man a drink!

[Mirana]

Oh nvm, misunderstood

[Skitzoh]

Pets do no taunt. At all.


I can second this. I usually use my earth pet if I need to cc at least it has a root.. Which is better than nothing.

[Morningbreath]

Load up on SOW potions like any other caster that doesn't have SOW and you'll solo fine.

[baalzy]

Mage pets also only cast about 30% as often as they should so Water pet/Fire pet DPS is lower than it should be. Air pets aren't locking mobs down with stun as much and earth pets aren't keeping things basically permarooted like they should.

[azle]

Listen .. http://portalpark.net/10204/17/w.png

[Fame]

If red oh hell no, if blue who gives a shit

[Frug]

The latest patches seem to have pet agro... working, at least. Granted very low level, but my level 4 water pet was able to keep agro on a mob through at least 3 nukes, and then me sitting.

[Frug]

...and earth pets aren't keeping things basically permarooted like they should.

I don't remember perma-rooting on Classic, ever. They may not be nuking as much as they should, but it was never perma-root.

[baalzy]

Pet aggro has definitely been fixed. Noticing at the high end I can cast 3x dots before a mob starts running to me which feels about right (i did a boatload of research on the subject).

[Iumuno]

Yeah feels right for enchanters too.