Mage - Need a bit of clarity (no, not mind candy!))

[PatriotPanda]

Hey Mages,

I'm picking up my 18 mage to play with my wife who is resurrecting her 14 enchanter (both of these chars are naked and my 28 druid is funding them for now.)

You guys have put together AMAZING guides on where to level - I'm left a bit foggy on the suggested mechanics / strategy for lower level mages.

1. At 18, and upwards through 39 or 40 when most guides say start chain summoning pets - should I just damage shield my pet and let it solo mobs?

2. When I played live I thought I remembered pets taking 50% of the xp if the mage didn't do 51% of the damage to the mob. Is this still true? If so, is it worth the ease of just letting the pet do the heavy lifting anyway?

3. (closely related to question 1) Many of the guides recommend not really nuking at all. If I tag a mob with a low level nuke, do I really get full xp credit for it?

4. During the fight - should I bother healing my pet, or just let it fight 'till it's pretty much dead and summon a new one?

Sorry for the noob'ish questions - it's been a long time since I've played my mage and want to make sure I'm maximizing my efficiency.

If it's relevant, I'll be playing this mage almost exclusively with my wife's enchanter. If she's not online I'll likely be levling my druid.

Thanks in advance,

Panda

[Tipsyer]

Been awhile but I'll give it a shot;

- The pet taking half the exp if you don't do more damage than it only applies to soloing. If you're grouped with her, that's null.

- Chain summoning is, again, more of a soloing type deal. If she has a charm pet I do believe that will take agro over your pet thus rendering the need to chain summon null.

- In a duo, you'd probably just want to nuke towards the end of the mobs life to finish it off quicker. If you're the puller, than a low level nuke to get it to camp will do. (Really though, enchanters make excellent pullers so make her practice it.)

- In regards to healing your pet... The only time I could foresee it being necessary is if her charm pet gets low, it's backed off and your pet takes over the tanking roll. I recall mage pet heals being fairly inefficient (at least early on and dependent on your mana pool) so you may just have to gauge the situation and the mobs your fighting.

Important points that may help your duo;

Keep her charm pet malo'd and DS'd. Malo will help the charm last longer and DS for the added damages.

Fire pets if you anticipate your pet will need to tank some (their self DS is pretty sick but are fairly squishy).
Water pets if she has an op charm pet that can handle pretty much all of the area your at (higher dps of your pets)
Air pets if your fighting healers/casters (stuns too good).
Earth if you have runners and she can't/won't/is too busy to root.

I'm pretty rusty but this should all still be pretty accurate. And if it's not, I'm sure some one will point out what's not. :)

[Egilmn]

She can also use her highest animation and haste it, have rune up on herself for each mob then step in for one hit and out. Give it summoned mage weapons until it innately dual wields. Slow the mob you are killing. It is easier and safer, good enough damage but less than a hasted/dual wielding charmed blue mob. Mage/enc is a very good duo.

[fan D]

god bless you OP

[Izmael]

Quit the mage and play some kind of healer with the enc.

[Auchae]

Quit the mage and play some kind of healer with the enc.

Best advice. Cleric or druid thrown in makes for just such a nasty charm pet from 12 on up. Ench doesnt need a mage with them to dungeon crawl at all.

[Yoink1986]

Yah don't listen to em. Play ur mage.

[Fishbait]

1. At 18, and upwards through 39 or 40 when most guides say start chain summoning pets - should I just damage shield my pet and let it solo mobs?

Up until near 40 this is correct. Most importantly look at the pet information guide on the Wiki, max level summoned pets are very important and will do more damage/tank better. When you hit a hunting ground, spend a few pulls to make sure you have the strongest pet you can summon, DS it, and keep it alive with some heals if needed.(If in a group, if solo, refer to answer 2)

2. When I played live I thought I remembered pets taking 50% of the xp if the mage didn't do 51% of the damage to the mob. Is this still true? If so, is it worth the ease of just letting the pet do the heavy lifting anyway?

Solo, you need to do 51 pct of the damage but there is a trick to this. You summon a pet, sick it on the target, wait until the target is at 10pct or lower, reclaim energy on your pet to get your mana back, nuke and kill the mob in one shot, and you'll get full XP for the kill. Once a pet is dead/reclaimed the amount of damage it did to the mob is forgotten, you then only need to do 51 pct of the remaining HP of the mobs 10pct for full XP. In any group this doesn't matter, just let your pets hammer away and you'll get full XP even if the pets did 100 pct of the damage.

3. (closely related to question 1) Many of the guides recommend not really nuking at all. If I tag a mob with a low level nuke, do I really get full xp credit for it?

Depends, if you are tagging for a group, simply use the lowest level nuke to drag it to camp. If solo'ing refer to my answer to question 2. You'll only need to nuke to finish off a target for full XP after you reclaimed your pet.

4. During the fight - should I bother healing my pet, or just let it fight 'till it's pretty much dead and summon a new one?

Covered a bit in answer 1, up until mid 30's, its more efficient to have a max summoned pet and keep it alive IF in a group. Past 40's the amount of Pet HP you get for the mana cost outweighs healing it, it's more efficient to simply summon another pet once it gets hurt enough.

If you are solo'ing past 40, you need to do the chain summoning tactic. You summon a pet, send it in on a target and sit back a safe distance from the fight. Once your pet starts getting low on HP you start summoning another pet, a second or two before your summon cast goes off, tell your pet to go away(killing it), the new pet gets summoned, and you send this pet on the target again. Rinse repeat until the mob you are fighting is sub 10 pct, then reclaim energy your pet, and nuke the mob for full xp.

The mage focus items that let you instant click reclaim energy is a very useful tool and lets you be more exacting in getting a mobs hp as low as you can get it for the cheapest nuke you can use to kill it.

Also at certain leveling points the Fire pet is the best one to use, it has the weakest HP by far, but the innate DS can do insane amounts of damage to targets netting a quicker and more mana efficient kill. At later levels you get Dyzil's Deafening Decoy, a fire pet with earth level pet HP levels...simply fantastic for chain summoning end game solo.

/end book

Hope this helps.

[Vexenu]

As long as you have the Torch focus you don't need to start chain summoning pets until 50+. Hunt low blue con mobs and your focused fire pet should be able to tank them down fine all through the 40s. Mob selection is key, however. The difference between a low blue and a high blue is night and day.

[Wiley]

The difference between a low blue and a high blue is night and day.

I believe once you hit the teens and into the early 20s you could tell the difference by the con message:

"Dangerous" was the high blue
"Risky" was the low blue

Wish they had kept doing that later on, after a certain point all blues con "dangerous" even if their about to turn green

[Baler]

Rough draft guide to chain summoing. (Powerlevel yourself as a mage)

1. Get this: http://wiki.project1999.com/Magician_Focus_Items#Torch_of_Alna
2. Get the highest level fire pet spell you can for your level.
3. Make a macro line1: "/pause 1, /pet back" line2: "/pet follow" (without the "")
4. Summon your fire pet and make sure it damage shields it self before you begin combat.
5. When your fire pet begin to get towards low life ~30% or less (you judge what low life is!) Begin casting summon fire pet. Target the monster you're fighting.
6. Just before you finish summoning your fire pet. Click go away on your current pet. Then click attack for your new fire pet.
7. Once the new fire pet has agro, tap the hotkey in step 3 until your fire pet thinks it is idle and damage shields it self.
8. rinse and repeat till level 51

[Wiley]

Having only leveled mage to the early 30s I really dislike the above leveling strat. Pet spells mana cost keeps escalating til Lv24 where it's a kinda absurd 240 mana. Lv29 and on its normalized at 200 up to and including the lv49 pets.

If not a twink with a ton of INT/mana gear then you probably can't sustain reclaiming or chain summoning.

I much prefer weaponizing a focused water or earth pet and just using burnout/ds and heals. Sure you take a 50% penalty but if mages are good at anything it's efficiently killing low blue con mobs.