Chardok DPS (Mage)

[Bohab]

At what level can a Mage start representing themselves for Chardok DPS? 55?

Thanks!

[Ele]

You get Scintillation PBAOE at 51, but it has a 6.5 recast time plus 3 second cast time. Meaning you drop one AE every 10 seconds or so versus wizards dropping 2-3 AEs in that same time period. Unless you add in Flame Arc (level 39), which isn't all that useful at 181 damage for 199 mana.

You aren't replacing a wizard as a DPS at 1-to-1, there will need to be another supplemental DPS class in or out of the xp group (druid/cleric/mage/wizard).

Groups will probably want you to be 55 for resists purposes.

If you really want to get into the AE group, start farming Droga for faction to be a puller and get 55 for Call of the Hero.

[Jaxon]

At level 54 on a mage 5-10% of the mobs were outright resisting my AOE each cast. I didn't look at the number of partial resists but I'm sure there were a lot of those too. I would say 56 at minimum, and the higher the better.

Edit: After taking into account partial resists, the effective resist rate at this level is 20%. On average you will only do 80% of Scintillation's maximum listed damage per mob.

The spell casting / recast time isn't really an issue. You will go OOM before the enchanters do. The mage though does have certain disadvantages over a wizard:

1. Your AOE spell is less efficient than Jylls. ~1.7 damage/mana on Scintillation vs ~1.9 for Jyll's Zephyr of Ice: 10% less efficient.
2. You as a mage are likely specced in Conjuration while the wizard will be specced in Evocation. The wizard will receive a 10% reduction in his casting cost and you will only receive 2.5%.

If you take steps to reduce the disparity like respeccing and maximizing the size of your mana pool you can successfully do DPS, but you will not be as good as an equally leveled and geared wizard. Expect to get the boot if the group wipes because you ran out of mana and were unable to finish the mobs.

[Bohab]

Word. Back when I did AoE on my Ench (+2yrs ago) we had Mages doing DPS very often... I just didn't recall what level the Mages had to be. Chardok AE has turned industrial since then... it's actually rather sickening what it has become. Fact of the matter is today's Chardok AE produces inadequate high level players/characters and is typically run by inadequate players that are obtaining hordes of platinum to purchase equipment/MQs they didn't earn. Furthermore it would not surprise me if there was RMT side of Chardok AE going on... Regardless there is no point in bringing a Mage past 55 anyhow. ;)

Thanks for your informative replies gents!

[BarackObooma]

You get Scintillation PBAOE at 51, but it has a 6.5 recast time plus 3 second cast time. Meaning you drop one AE every 10 seconds or so versus wizards dropping 2-3 AEs in that same time period. Unless you add in Flame Arc (level 39), which isn't all that useful at 181 damage for 199 mana.


This isn't always the case. There is still the bug?/feature where the top spell in your bar is reset if you use an instant click item after casting it. This circumvents the 6.5 second recast time.

But yeah, a mage is not a good replacement for a wizard.

[HethGnome]

Embrace the grind, say no to exploit leveling.

[Tuljin]

Bohab one of the few calling it like it is!

Before it was the industry it is today Chardok often had mages simply because it wasn't as popular and there wasn't a 24 hour wait for a DPS slot. Mages would be necessary just because there weren't enough Wizards around to get the group off the ground. Wizards are still quite rare - before Chardok AOE and the raid play-nice rotation they were even more rare.

Now if you look at the P99 player distribution data website you'll see that Wizard now has a staggering number of level 60 toons relative to total number of toons that were rolled. Druid, for example, has the highest population yet half the level 60s of Wizard. Druid is also easier to get to level 60 than Wizard (without Chardok AOE of course)

Mages ARE useful for Chardok AOE, but now with the industry it has become the plat-hoarding neckbeards don't want to run any more risk of a wipe. There is always a percentage of failure on an AOE pull and when you get EQ P99 min/maxers involved the Mage gets put on the chopping block.

[Latege]

People literally live off the RMT they make doing Chardok AoE so you're unlikely to ever get into a group there as a mage because you will be cutting into someones livelihood.

[Velerin]

Wizards can kill faster than mages (2 nukes with less recast) but mages have some tricks wizards don't.
Mod rods for everyone = extra mana, hand rods to all the exp sponges before fights so they can hand you their rod after you burn yours
Pet = 400 mana battery , keep pet up so you can reclaim him for more nuking power

[Raev]

they can hand you their rod after you burn yours

....