Mage Life

[serjordanmormont]

Hoping to learn the basic ins and outs of the class as I'd like to roll one.

What is expected of you and how welcome are you in groups?

How well do you solo?

What's expected in raiding/end game?

Any races superior to others?

Intelligence the stat to focus on?

Any help is appreciated.

[Gnomish Elite]

Overall a pretty fun class. Mostly sought after for damage early on in groups and later in raids more of a utility role for COTH. They solo pretty well until later levels. Intelligence is your number one stat but you may want some stamina for HP. Pick your favorite race as they're really isn't enough of a difference to matter.

[jolanar]

What is expected of you and how welcome are you in groups? You are a dps class. Generally speaking people expect you to send in pet for some solid sustained dps occasionally throwing in some nukes but saving most of your mana for burns from bad pulls. Also casting damage shield on the tank.

How well do you solo? Magicians solo well. They start to struggle a bit in the 50s like most other classes when the hp / dmg out of mobs goes way up. Your best bet is always to at least start a duo since it removes the exp penalty from the pet.

What's expected in raiding/end game? If allowed, send pet in. Use Call of the Hero when requested. Summon mod rods non stop. Nuke if nothing else to do.

Any races superior to others? Mage is one of the few classes where race makes no real difference.

Intelligence the stat to focus on? Int and Stamina. But gear is not very impactful on a mage. Get your focus quest items ASAP that's the main thing.

[Pumpedup]

Gnomes are superior.

[korilla]

Hoping to learn the basic ins and outs of the class as I'd like to roll one.

What is expected of you and how welcome are you in groups? you are the ultimate lazy character and decently sought after for groups based on dps. only thing you really need to do is assist and DS.

How well do you solo? you can solo up to 50 really fast. you can still solo up to 55 by killing old world mobs, but i would suggest finding a cleric or shaman partner to duo as it's the most effective in terms of exp.

What's expected in raiding/end game? you are a modrod bitch and a coh bot. expect to be bored on raids.

Any races superior to others? DE so you can sneak, but it really doesn't matter on a mage.

Intelligence the stat to focus on? yes and put the final 5 points into STA.

Any help is appreciated.

[Izmael]

Hoping to learn the basic ins and outs of the class as I'd like to roll one.

I played a mage to 60, raided, grouped and soloed on it. I suppose I have a decent view of the class. The class is all about your pet, which is beefy, but that's all you get. Your nukes are decent, but if you want to nuke, play a wizard.

Otherwise, your tool box is very limited. It's really all about the pet. This makes doing a lot of things easy for other classes with more tools challenging or impossible. But you'll always have the best pet, except for temporary (and unreliable) pets that charming classes can charm.

The mage epic quest is considered one of the hardest (or the hardest) epic quest of EQ. Lots of mages, a few bottlenecks. It's also pretty much the class defining quest. Your class is all about your pet, and your epic quest is a pet. Not only the quest is arguably the hardest of all epics, but it's also very useful. Bear this in mind if you plan on going places with your mage.


What is expected of you and how welcome are you in groups?


In pickup groups you won't be very welcome most of the time except for the lower levels when nobody cares about anything. Mages are often troublesome in groups as controlling the pet can take a while to learn and nothing gets a group in trouble quicker than a pet which isn't controlled properly. People know that, so bear in mind that at levels 50 and higher, finding pick up groups will be harder for a mage than for quite a bit of other classes. However you can solo for exp with relative ease and safety to counterbalance that.


How well do you solo?


It's all very situational and relative. A lot of stuff that an enchanter or necromancer can solo, mage can't, often because they simply can't get there or they can't pull the target without adds, etc. Mages get no crowd control so engaging several non trivial enemies and winning will often require contorsions on your part.

At the lowest levels you solo very well for exp as your pet is really powerful. That fades quickly and starting at level 25 or 30 you'll need to either learn chaining pets (not hard), or find friends, etc.

At 60, mages are great for mass killing green mobs. The pet is perfect for that. For killing hard mobs, however, other classes will often do better.

Basically, if you want to solo to farm items at higher levels, mage can be an option, but sure won't be the best one. Enchanter or Necro will so so often outsolo the Mage. I think the only situation where a Mage would outsolo an Enchanter or a Necro would be the mass green mob killing situation such as farming Droga or something like that.


What's expected in raiding/end game?


Casting Call of the Hero and Summon Mod rod. That's pretty much it. Your nukes will often be resisted by raid mobs. Pets are often not an option.


Any races superior to others?


Gnome great for looking through walls.
Otherwise play what you think looks coolest.


Intelligence the stat to focus on?


Yes, I'd say so.

Having played Enc, Necro and Mage, I'd say, all in all, fun wise it's Necro > Enc > Mage.

[serjordanmormont]

I played a mage to 60, raided, grouped and soloed on it. I suppose I have a decent view of the class. The class is all about your pet, which is beefy, but that's all you get. Your nukes are decent, but if you want to nuke, play a wizard.

Otherwise, your tool box is very limited. It's really all about the pet. This makes doing a lot of things easy for other classes with more tools challenging or impossible. But you'll always have the best pet, except for temporary (and unreliable) pets that charming classes can charm.

The mage epic quest is considered one of the hardest (or the hardest) epic quest of EQ. Lots of mages, a few bottlenecks. It's also pretty much the class defining quest. Your class is all about your pet, and your epic quest is a pet. Not only the quest is arguably the hardest of all epics, but it's also very useful. Bear this in mind if you plan on going places with your mage.



In pickup groups you won't be very welcome most of the time except for the lower levels when nobody cares about anything. Mages are often troublesome in groups as controlling the pet can take a while to learn and nothing gets a group in trouble quicker than a pet which isn't controlled properly. People know that, so bear in mind that at levels 50 and higher, finding pick up groups will be harder for a mage than for quite a bit of other classes. However you can solo for exp with relative ease and safety to counterbalance that.



It's all very situational and relative. A lot of stuff that an enchanter or necromancer can solo, mage can't, often because they simply can't get there or they can't pull the target without adds, etc. Mages get no crowd control so engaging several non trivial enemies and winning will often require contorsions on your part.

At the lowest levels you solo very well for exp as your pet is really powerful. That fades quickly and starting at level 25 or 30 you'll need to either learn chaining pets (not hard), or find friends, etc.

At 60, mages are great for mass killing green mobs. The pet is perfect for that. For killing hard mobs, however, other classes will often do better.

Basically, if you want to solo to farm items at higher levels, mage can be an option, but sure won't be the best one. Enchanter or Necro will so so often outsolo the Mage. I think the only situation where a Mage would outsolo an Enchanter or a Necro would be the mass green mob killing situation such as farming Droga or something like that.



Casting Call of the Hero and Summon Mod rod. That's pretty much it. Your nukes will often be resisted by raid mobs. Pets are often not an option.



Gnome great for looking through walls.
Otherwise play what you think looks coolest.



Yes, I'd say so.

Having played Enc, Necro and Mage, I'd say, all in all, fun wise it's Necro > Enc > Mage.

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

[Nirgon]

damage shield also real good for fire resist, don't discount it

slob mages don't buff ds

[HeyNomad]

Always amazes me how rarely mages/druids keep damage shields up on their tanks. DS isn't flashy but it's incredibly efficient damage. Mages' best ds (http://wiki.project1999.com/Cadeau_of_Flame) does 33 damage per hit. Even if the tank is only getting hit 10 times a minute, over the course of its 7-minute duration that's 2310 dmg for only 155 mana. It's a very underappreciated mage/druid group benefit, in my experience.