New Mage, should I continue or pick another class?

[Vermineux]

I played a Wizard back on live and always found myself being a bit envious of Mages, mostly because of the epic and their cool AA abilities. That being the case I decided to roll a Mage to scratch my EQ itch, but I'm reading a lot of troubling stuff about Mages.

I know there will never be AAs on this EMU and that's fine, and I also realize Mages at 60 in raids are basically mod rod/COTH bots and nothing else, I can accept that, but I'm level 16 at the moment and I have 600p farmed up, and I want to make a final decision about class before I go any further.

1.) The epic is basically unattainable for most people because of the Earth staff. I almost had my Wiz epic back in the day, and I also had a Rogue and Paladin with their epics. I don't mind doing the work for an epic, but if it's something that pretty much isn't going to happen, that's a huge bummer. I'll never be a gigantic raider that plays for years and attends every single raid to be able to earn the DKP/guild credit and trust while also waiting in line for the drop, so it basically takes it off the table for me. I could let this go, but...

2.) Pet aggro dumping upon death is busted. This is a nail in the coffin for the class for me, especially since it seems like its been months now without the problem even being acknowledged. Does this not basically destroy a Mages ability to solo anything level appropriate at anything other than low levels? I know one of the main strengths of the class is farming raw plat from massacring greens, but when it comes to EXP soloing in anything near a safe/efficient way, how can Mages pull this off with chain casting pets not working due to the aggro accruing to the Mage on pet death/go away? The only idea I had was using the air elemental and hoping the stun makes up for the problem, but then that's just a bandage.

I do plan on doing a lot of grouping, but I also really want to be able to dungeon dive and solo some camps at mid/high levels. Given the aggro problem, combined with the other concerns, should I just call it quits now and roll another class? I was thinking Iksar Necro, even though its uninspiring to me and seems really pedestrian ;p. I was also thinking of playing a Paladin again since tanking is extremely fun, and Pally gear is pretty cheap. I can't make up my mind...

Does anyone think the aggro issue has a chance of being fixed? Do the devs on here have a history of ignoring stuff for a while, not even acknowledging it and then out of nowhere patching it?

Anyhow, I'd appreciate others thoughts and opinions on this. Cheers.

[loramin]

I also realize Mages at 60 in raids are basically mod rod/COTH bots and nothing else

This isn't exactly correct. In many encounters (especially in Velious) it's true that we can't summon pets, so we just drop mod rods and CotH all day. But for plenty of other raids we absolutely want to bust out our pets (eg. Plane of Sky).

1.) The epic is basically unattainable for most people because of the Earth staff. I almost had my Wiz epic back in the day, and I also had a Rogue and Paladin with their epics. I don't mind doing the work for an epic, but if it's something that pretty much isn't going to happen, that's a huge bummer. I'll never be a gigantic raider that plays for years and attends every single raid to be able to earn the DKP/guild credit and trust while also waiting in line for the drop, so it basically takes it off the table for me. I could let this go, but...

That's mostly correct, but it's worth noting that the recent introduction of Hate minis will help some. More importantly though, you don't have to be "a gigantic raider that plays for years and attends every single raid" to get a staff. You just have to be in one of several top guilds (one that can do Hate minis), go to as many raids as you can, and be patient.

Keep in mind that once you get 60 there's very little to do but raid, so you may very well want to spend lots of time raiding then.

2.) Pet aggro dumping upon death is busted. This is a nail in the coffin for the class for me, especially since it seems like its been months now without the problem even being acknowledged. Does this not basically destroy a Mages ability to solo anything level appropriate at anything other than low levels? I know one of the main strengths of the class is farming raw plat from massacring greens, but when it comes to EXP soloing in anything near a safe/efficient way, how can Mages pull this off with chain casting pets not working due to the aggro accruing to the Mage on pet death/go away? The only idea I had was using the air elemental and hoping the stun makes up for the problem, but then that's just a bandage.

This in no way stops us from soloing :) Use an earth pet, start casting a new pet when your pet is at 10%-ish (it will vary depending on how hard it's being hit), type "/pet get lost" ... but don't ht enter.

If your old pet hasn't died right before the new pet is about to appear, hit enter to kill it. The new pet will arrive and proc a root soon, quickly taking agro.

should I just call it quits now and roll another class? I was thinking Iksar Necro, even though its uninspiring to me and seems really pedestrian ;p. I was also thinking of playing a Paladin again since tanking is extremely fun, and Pally gear is pretty cheap. I can't make up my mind...

Play what you want to play. Necros do a million things: DoT, summon, FD, root, fear, harmshield, heal, rez, twitch, etc. Mages are pretty one-dimensional: we summon (pets, people, and mod rods). But no one else can do what we can do, and the class can still be fun even if it is a bit monotonous.

Does anyone think the aggro issue has a chance of being fixed? Do the devs on here have a history of ignoring stuff for a while, not even acknowledging it and then out of nowhere patching it?

It simply comes down to whether someone can prove the agro thing worked differently in classic. If they can, I can all but guarantee Nilbog will want to fix it, because ... look in the upper-left corner of the screen.

[Ripqozko]

Sky is group content not a raid , hope that helps.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

For the agro dump issue, you could try kiting the mob with JBoots. This would be restricted to outdoor zones, but you could just run away after summoning the second pet, and let it beat the mob down until death, or your pet regains agro.

If you got deep pockets, you could also get a bio orb. Just blind the mob so it will attack the nearest enemy, which would be the chained pet.

Could also try chaining earth pets, the root proc may keep the mob in place between pets. Could try using https://wiki.project1999.com/Herbalist%27s_Spade as well if you can afford to take a few hits, see if you get the proc off.

[Echomez]

I leveled up a mage about 6 months ago on Green. At the time, I had enough of playing super twitchy, intensive classes and just wanted something very chill and relaxed. It was awesome... I had such an easy time leveling up, farming, etc. Mages are so strong the entire time because of the pets and great damage capabilities. I found the class to be extremely one-dimensional. The mage is in the upper 50's now, after spending a long time in the Hole, among other places. It's still fun to play in groups -- which is my favorite part of the game. The pets are just a beast, plus you can haste them, give it Muzzle of Mardu, a great damage shield, etc. If you enjoy group content and want an absolute powerhouse dps class that is very chill and relaxing to play -- maybe you talk to friends on Discord a lot or you have shows going on a 2nd monitor -- then mage is the class to play.

2.) Pet aggro dumping upon death is busted. when it comes to EXP soloing in anything near a safe/efficient way, how can Mages pull this off with chain casting pets not working due to the aggro accruing to the Mage on pet death/go away?


Since I am on Green, there is no chain-casting pets. You can't begin casting a pet until your current one is dead. So this means that all of the chain-casting tactics that were possible on Blue don't work on Green. I am fine with that b/c I don't have a mage to solo loot camps in a dungeon.. if I wanted to do that, I would have made a necro or a shaman, but those are a *LOT* more involved classes without the raw dps burn potential.

However, I do get to go to loot camps with friends, as duo's or trios, or with guild groups... and the pet is a monster; CotH is *extremely* useful for getting friends into camp, etc. I have the water and air staves, so being able to summon a beefed up water pet is awesome. The 57 earth pet is very tanky with it's root capabilities if needed, and it doesn't take much mana to summon one if it dies. I really enjoy playing a mage in groups. It rounds out a duo or trio and is just very relaxing without having to work too hard if you like that kind of gameplay.

I also really want to be able to dungeon dive and solo some camps at mid/high levels. Given the aggro problem, combined with the other concerns, should I just call it quits now and roll another class?

Yeah, you are not going to be doing much of that on a mage solo. The only CC you have comes from the earth pet's root. I personally don't want to mess with root nets, especially since you can't chain pets on Green. If you just had one other person to go to a camp with you, then you instantly become a *POWERHOUSE* duo (or trio) of rolling destruction. It's so much fun being able to round out a group and hang out with a couple of people in high level camps. It's the part of the game I enjoy the most by far.

As long as you have someone to root mobs, and maybe help heal the pet, then you can destroy all kinds of camps at high levels. The mage is an absolute monster of a class, but they can only do one or two things. You really need someone to provide CC and maybe some heals unless you want to churn pets -- which is fine b/c malachite is so cheap, I carry at least one backpack full at all times.

If you absolutely have to be able to solo camps, then roll a necro or a shaman.. the latter will take tens of thousands of plat to get to where they can solo *well*. Shamans really need their epic and torpor to come into power... at a minimum they need the epic. Why is that? It's quite simple really. The shaman epic dot does the same damage (basically) as other classes but in *HALF* the time required. If I remember correctly, it's basically Splurt but with a tick or two taken off. The whole dot is used up within 90 seconds for 1425 dmg. source: https://wiki.project1999.com/Curse_of_the_Spirits

If you look at other classes whose epics also provide a dot such as a necro or a druid, theirs takes double the time to tick off. This means that shamans can churn through mobs doing double the damage for free on a clicky compared to others. Combine this with their ability to slow mobs 75% or so, use canni for mana regen, and use Torpor (if you can ever get it), and Shamans can solo some amazing things, but that is just not the playstyle I wanted. I don't enjoy having to obsessively buff people over and over ad nauseum. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze to me, which is why I chose the mage personally.

If you can handle the obsessive-compulsive nature of constantly keeping a shield up at all times, then you might enjoy a chanter. I used to play one to the mid-50s, but I grew so frustrated with the style of gameplay. Firstly, I personally don't enjoy the game playing solo all the time trying to camp mobs with no one else to talk to (on the subject of solo'ing loot).

Secondly, there are so many buffs and spells to manage, with only 8 spell slots, you are constantly changing spells every 20-30 seconds, swapping things in and out, always having to keep a shield up, bedlam, etc, then having to manage a pet, roots, haste (on the pet), keeping mobs mez'd, using Lull + Blur which can be a huge pain to get it to stick, etc. It's a *VERY* active playstyle.

You can't take a phone call; you can't put a show on the 2nd monitor; you can't check email; you can't look at the wiki; you can't even get up to take a quick bio break.. if you turn away for 15 seconds, the charm pet can break & you have a handful of seconds before you are splattered all over the ground. I just hated playing it at high levels. I really enjoyed being in a group, managing mez on mobs, interacting with other people, etc. I ended up getting my chanter to where i wanted him and realize I hated playing him solo, so the only time I would ever log on would be to get a group in the Hole or when a friend wanted to go to Seb, etc. This is just me and doesn't reflect anyone else's experience. And there is no way in all hell that I would ever play a chanter in a raid. I tried that a couple of times.

If I were going to start all over, and I wanted to focus on soloing or even duo/trio'ing, and I wanted to go after loot... without a second thought, without a single doubt I would roll an Iksar necro. They have such a huge toolkit, root/rot, nukes, can twitch mana to healers, summon a corpse, get FD which is huge, heal themselves, get the best mana regen in the game hands down. Necros are just amazing in loot camps especially with another person or two to help out, but they can still do so much solo, with the ability to recover, plus they get a pet and undead charm... that would be my choice for the play-style. One of these days I might get around to rolling one after my cleric is leveled up.

This is just my opinion; everyone else has their own. Take it with a grain of salt, etc.

[Vermineux]

Thank you for the thoughtful replies, guys. I'll take all this into consideration.

One more question:

At what point do you recommend that I start to worry about killing enemies with no pet out, or doing 51%+ damage, as opposed to just mowing enemies down and not worrying about the exp hit? I imagine the answer is sooner rather than later so I don't miss exp, but at low levels its so easy to just buzzsaw blues that it hasn't mattered. Any specific range where I should start caring?

[Guesty07]

Of course you can chain pets on green, however due to to agro mechanics not working as they should, as is classic, it's abit more difficult. Earth pet root helps alot with mobs that can be rooted. You do not need to chain pets AT ALL below level 50. Fire pet will eat everything for lunch

[derpcake2]

Since I am on Green, there is no chain-casting pets. You can't begin casting a pet until your current one is dead.

You can start casting new pet and right before cast finishes you type /pet get lost.

Anyway, besides coth mages are terrible at everything, avoid them.

[Crede]

You can start casting new pet and right before cast finishes you type /pet get lost.

Anyway, besides coth mages are terrible at everything, avoid them.

You should be able to make this a hotkey on the socials tab as well of your ability window or whatever it’s called

[Echomez]

You can start casting new pet and right before cast finishes you type /pet get lost.

Anyway, besides coth mages are terrible at everything, avoid them.


Okay so this is some new information that I just found out. I haven't played much for about 3-4 months. I just logged in and tried this... apparently you can chain pets now on Green which is pretty awesome.

When I leveled up, I was under the impression that it was completely disabled for the life of the server because it was suppose to be a "classic" change. I guess it gets patched in at some point in the timeline. So that's good to know at least for someone else who might be looking at this in the future.

[Toxigen]

Iksar Necro is in no way "pedestrian" once you start charming undead.

Also, necros can do a lot of fun things on raids (including some playmaking duties like trainups, DA engages, etc)...and the "real" epic is simply a drop out of VP.

[Vexenu]

The Mage is basically a one-trick pony. But it's a really, really good trick: your pet enables you to DPS, tank and pseudo-heal (by resummoning a new pet). Charming classes can do the same, but with greater restrictions and with much greater risk to themselves. If you think about it from this aspect, the Mage sort of functions as a War-Rogue-Cleric trio by himself. This ability to fill multiple roles is what makes Mages such exceptional duo and trio partners. Any class that can provide CC and/or actual healing capability shines with the Mage.

50+ your damage is really insane, even without Epic. Get the Phinny water staff and position the 60 water pet for backstabs and you will be outdamaging most Rogues. Factor in the added damage from your DS, nukes and nuke clickies and it's just ridiculous how quickly mobs melt.

The question of playing a Mage versus any other class comes down to what style of gameplay you prefer and what you mostly want to do in-game. Solo? Group? Raid? Farm plat? In general, at least among the casters, I'd say if you're more casual a Mage, Necro or Druid would serve very well, the Mage if you like a relaxed playstyle, the Necro if you place a high value on versatility, the Druid if you're ultra casual and just like questing/exploring/nostalgia. If you're really wanting to raid play a Wizard or Cleric. If you're a powergamer/min-maxer who likes a busy playstyle and pushing the envelope solo an Enchanter or Shaman might be up your alley.

[Tunabros]

mage is the most boring class in the game after rogue

reroll to necromancer, the most fun caster class

[Snaggles]

The water pet properly positioned does more dps than the epic pet. Give or take 20% more. It's an easy focus item to get.

In groups mage pets do amazing dps; not far off most rogues/monks without counting your burst or utility. Damage shields are icing on the cake and while dont end up getting you Parse points they do directly equate to what you bring to the table.

It's really not until raid encounters mages fizzle out. At that point it's coth, rod, clicky stave, and DS duty. All great tricks to have.

[Vaarsuvius]

mage is the most boring class in the game after rogue

reroll to necromancer, the most fun caster class

Cough… Clerics…. Cough

[putrid_plum]

Play what you enjoy or want since it's a game and your enjoyment that comes first.

[Snaggles]

My last answer glossed over some of your questions. I like the mage for its simplicity and efficiency as a dps class outside of level 60+ raid targets. Basically any time you have a CH chain involving more than 2 people a mage is severely hamstrung…otherwise they are amazing. With that efficiency comes a price, they are not flexible whatsoever without a lot of clickies. That makes them a bad spelunking class without a more flexible partner.

There are a few ways for a mage to kill something:

1. Duo/group - with 2 or more you don’t have to the damage the pet. It doesn’t take exp and you split that with the other player(s).

2. Let the pet do all the work: especially in the low levels buffed up with certain droppable weapons a high summon pet can mow through half a dozen npcs without a break. A 20 mage giving a pet an argent defender hits for 60’s. In the mid levels you can use deadwood staves or other 1h’s for a similar but less dramatic effect. Just afk in a safe place while it regens.

3. Kill pet and clean-up: you use a fresh pet with haste and a DS. Pull a NPC (likely the same one you camp for hours for predictability) and let the pet go to work. Ideally you only nuke as much as needed for the pet to barely win. At like 10% health you kill/reclaim your pet and kill with a single spell. The advantage of this is having a fresh pet for the repop. The higher level pets regen 30hp/tick but that’s only 300hps a minute. That’s only 1800hps after 6 minutes and you are left with a badly injured friend in the meantime. Its usually worth a malachite to start over.

4. Race your pet: The first spell is aggro locked at like 50 hate and is a good indicator of how many hps the npc has…if it takes away 20% health you likely only owe two nukes since the DS doesn’t count to anyone’s damage (removes it from the total pool. The only reason to nuke more frequently is if your pet is losing the fight. Pace the spells to avoid peeing aggro.

5. Chain summon/aggro kite: This isn’t broken but it’s semi-broken. A fresh pet will eventually peel off you with taunt or especially with root if using an earth pet. It’s just high risk because it takes a while and you are quite fragile. In a duo or trio you can throw pets at something all day without fear. Even like Phingal will not summon players unless there are no pets or players for it to attack. A cliff golem duo for example if the necro or ench has a charm break they won’t get summoned if a mage or shaman pet is still on the golem. Basically the old “all aggro is transferred” saying is a misnomer but it’s certainly not as good as it was on live.

In short: Pick your battles carefully and approach grinding like an accountant; boring kills > exciting ones. A mage has little means to regen mana or health quickly so calculate your adventures or rely on a flexible partner to keep it all in order.

[Tunabros]

Cough… Clerics…. Cough

clerics are the most chill class in the game :D

[Vermineux]

Thanks for all the responses guys, I appreciate it.

[Zenren]

So I quit Magician for many of the reasons you mentioned. Other people encouraged me to go on, but my feeling is it really isn't the magician class I enjoyed playing. I am focusing on cleric and druid now and enjoying them immensely. I would suggest you do what you enjoy, but don't let anyone talk you into doing something you don't want to do.

[starkind]

One of the reasons I like mage, cleric, wizard, rogue, warrior, paladin. Is that these classes aren't very complicated.

Mage, wizard, and cleric all basically can just nuke stuff and afk. Especially with an instant clicky and nuke in the top slot this gets even easier. Fights are pretty short and you can kill a lot of decent mobs. So you don't have to have a really intense attention span or click a lot of buttons and rely on mechanics or resistances and chance too much. It's easy to reliably kill a "light" or low blue with these three classes and then forget you where ever logged in.

Necro, shaman, ench, bard are all way more powerful, they also generally require a lot more effort, work, gear, spells.

If you're a dedicated solo artist mage is definitely not really strong. Maybe even weaker than a wizard.

Druids can nuke/afk too. Just being a tree hugger/wolf isn't my idea of super amazing.

Mages can level fast, faster than wizards pre 39 ish if you pick the right mobs/camps and play to their strengths. Especially ungeared.

If a wizard can get good gear and twink items tho like clicky DDs and good +mana they will dominate leveling. Even charming is terrible compared to a solid quad/quintuple. And yes, I was killing 5x mobs at once easily. By 55 you can pretty much root/nuke to finish any incidental adds, extras even if oom because of good mana regen.

Now a lot of people don't base class power off of "oh, I'm naked and lazy".

They want to solo epic MQ drops or something weird in dragon necropolis or munch fungitunics all day. Or have some list of items they are going to farm. So they pic enchanters praying to waste as little time as possible instead of just enjoying their mains.

[branamil]

1.) The epic is basically unattainable for most people because of the Earth staff. I almost had my Wiz epic back in the day, and I also had a Rogue and Paladin with their epics. I don't mind doing the work for an epic, but if it's something that pretty much isn't going to happen, that's a huge bummer. I'll never be a gigantic raider that plays for years and attends every single raid to be able to earn the DKP/guild credit and trust while also waiting in line for the drop, so it basically takes it off the table for me. I could let this go, but...


You will most likely never get the Earth staff. There are raiders who have been playing for years who still can't get one. They might have saved up all their DKP but then it's so rare, it drops when they aren't on that raid.


2.) Pet aggro dumping upon death is busted. This is a nail in the coffin for the class for me, especially since it seems like its been months now without the problem even being acknowledged. Does this not basically destroy a Mages ability to solo anything level appropriate at anything other than low levels?


Yes. It's really sad that level 60 mages have trouble killing camps that a level 45 enchanter could do.


I do plan on doing a lot of grouping, but I also really want to be able to dungeon dive and solo some camps at mid/high levels. Given the aggro problem, combined with the other concerns, should I just call it quits now and roll another class?

Sadly yes. Maybe you could powerlevel your mage with a real class if you still want one at some point. Mages are super weak in Velious, and it's fixed somewhat in Luclin and PoP, but of course those will never happen on this server.


Do the devs on here have a history of ignoring stuff for a while, not even acknowledging it and then out of nowhere patching it?


Yes they do. The p99 devs seem to have an aura of silence that leads you to believe they don't care about the server anymore. They just trickle out small but meaningless changes like restocking baker's muffins while ignoring major non-classic problems.

[Vermineux]

Just as a quick update, I ended up going with a Necromancer. It has been pretty fun, and I've managed to fully gear myself and bank 2500p up until 34 so far. I did level a Magician till 18, and the total lack of CC besides the Earth pet, and the pet dumping its aggro onto me after it dies was just too frustrating - this is all as someone that has to solo 98% of the time. If I had a duo partner, or grouped more often than not I think I would have still enjoyed the Mage. The power of and options that a Necro has are just too much vis a vis what a Mage can do, imo.

[Zenren]

Just as a quick update, I ended up going with a Necromancer. It has been pretty fun, and I've managed to fully gear myself and bank 2500p up until 34 so far. I did level a Magician till 18, and the total lack of CC besides the Earth pet, and the pet dumping its aggro onto me after it dies was just too frustrating - this is all as someone that has to solo 98% of the time. If I had a duo partner, or grouped more often than not I think I would have still enjoyed the Mage. The power of and options that a Necro has are just too much vis a vis what a Mage can do, imo.

Someday I hope they fix mages. I think a lot of people will say "they're still a strong class" and maybe that's so, but they're not as fun to play as other classes now and other classes certainly solo much easier, Wizard included... let that sink in. Wizard soloes easier than Magician. Only in the imagined world of Project 1999 Blue.

[unsunghero]

Necro master class, Iksar master race. An unbeatable combo

[Tann]

Wouldn't mage pets dumping threat on death be a positive thing for aggro kiting? Long as the mage has jboots or sow pots and using the pet sow spell expedience.

I would imagine you could kill anything that doesn't summon given you have enough threat that it ignores the pet entirely.

[ReoDobbs]

Wouldn't mage pets dumping threat on death be a positive thing for aggro kiting? Long as the mage has jboots or sow pots and using the pet sow spell expedience.

I would imagine you could kill anything that doesn't summon given you have enough threat that it ignores the pet entirely.

A mage doesn't have a snare, if you dismissed a pet you're also not going to have time to cast experience. You can still only pull singles. Before your level 55+ water pet why would you want to aggro kite even if you could?

[loramin]

A mage doesn't have a snare, if you dismissed a pet you're also not going to have time to cast experience. You can still only pull singles. Before your level 55+ water pet why would you want to aggro kite even if you could?

When doing Spirocs in TD I would sometimes mis-time my pet kills, and wind up with no pet and an angry half-dead bird man trying to kill me. With jboots and enough time running (basically to the other end of the island) I would have enough time to make a new pet, allowing me to kill said angry bird man. I've also done similar things in places like GD, with frost giants.

Did it take forever, and was it dumb? Yes and yes. But mages have very limited tools available, so you do what you have to.

But back to your original point ... no, I never deliberately agro kited either.

[Tann]

A mage doesn't have a snare, if you dismissed a pet you're also not going to have time to cast experience. You can still only pull singles. Before your level 55+ water pet why would you want to aggro kite even if you could?

Unless I'm grossly overexaggerating the usefulness of aggro kiting, why wouldn't you want to?

Seems like free exp almost, you run around in a circle singing sea shanties like a bard, pet isn't getting hit, so if you did burn any mana on summoning the pet, or casting expedience, you get a bunch back when you reclaim.

I'm for sure probably misunderstanding just how much aggro you get from pet death, didn't the threat always poof into the ether realm and as long as you didn't do any damage directly a new pet could pick it right back up? Nowadays is all that threat transferred to you? I remember the bug post about this but couldn't replicate the issue with my wee 29 mage.

[Jimjam]

Not having the problem on a 29 mage?

Could be something to do with the ‘never forget’ coding for 35+ NPCs, where they won’t completely forget about a FD player until the mob is back relaxing at it’s spawn point.

[Tann]

Not having the problem on a 29 mage?

Could be something to do with the ‘never forget’ coding for 35+ NPCs, where they won’t completely forget about a FD player until the mob is back relaxing at it’s spawn point.

Not saying the prob doesn't exist at lower levels but I could reproduce what they were talking about in the bug forums.

I think I went to Iceclad and sent an air pet at some random blue mob, let the pet die and summoned a new one, pet never had trouble getting threat with taunt off, I even used malo and cancel magic, pets instantly got threat every time.

maybe i'll try again with fire pet, but you'd think that DD the air pet does would transfer a bunch of threat to me.

[ReoDobbs]

Not saying the prob doesn't exist at lower levels but I could reproduce what they were talking about in the bug forums.

I think I went to Iceclad and sent an air pet at some random blue mob, let the pet die and summoned a new one, pet never had trouble getting threat with taunt off, I even used malo and cancel magic, pets instantly got threat every time.

maybe i'll try again with fire pet, but you'd think that DD the air pet does would transfer a bunch of threat to me.

Are you doing this on Blue or Green, I have no problem on green either

[loramin]

pet never had trouble getting threat with taunt off, I even used malo and cancel magic, pets instantly got threat every time.

I've never had a problem with the pet eventually getting the mob off me ... I've had problems with dying before they get it off me ;) This is why I like earth pets when chaining: the root gives you an extra buffer of safety.

As for the "why" of agro kiting, it's largely pointless vs. straight chaining. To agro kite you'd need a lot of hate, and as you noticed one pet death doesn't give you enough hate to keep agro, so if you try to agro kite after one pet the pet will just start fighting the mob normally.

In theory you could kill a few pets first, but there are very few mobs in the game that can't be killed by 1-3 chained pets, but can be killed by 1-3 chained pets followed by an agro kiting 4th pet ... an agro kiting 4th pet that will inevitably stop kiting and start fighting at some point.

I think I've heard people speculating about a Mage doing an Ice Burrower this way, but in practice I don't think anyone has succeeded?

[starkind]

I've never had a problem with the pet eventually getting the mob off me ... I've had problems with dying before they get it off me ;) This is why I like earth pets when chaining: the root gives you an extra buffer of safety.

As for the "why" of agro kiting, it's largely pointless vs. straight chaining. To agro kite you'd need a lot of hate, and as you noticed one pet death doesn't give you enough hate to keep agro, so if you try to agro kite after one pet the pet will just start fighting the mob normally.

In theory you could kill a few pets first, but there are very few mobs in the game that can't be killed by 1-3 chained pets, but can be killed by 1-3 chained pets followed by an agro kiting 4th pet ... an agro kiting 4th pet that will inevitably stop kiting and start fighting at some point.

I think I've heard people speculating about a Mage doing an Ice Burrower this way, but in practice I don't think anyone has succeeded?

that'd be nice! iceburrowers would be fun as a mage

[Tann]

Are you doing this on Blue or Green, I have no problem on green either

Blue, someone has to keep the KWSN alive!

As for the "why" of agro kiting, it's largely pointless vs. straight chaining. To agro kite you'd need a lot of hate, and as you noticed one pet death doesn't give you enough hate to keep agro, so if you try to agro kite after one pet the pet will just start fighting the mob normally.


And that must be what I was reading incorrectly on those bug posts.. I swear it sounded like people were saying once a pet dies you'd have threat forever making mages "unplayable" in some eyes.. instantly make me think of aggro kiting red mobs all day.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

that'd be nice! iceburrowers would be fun as a mage

https://youtu.be/5fsvt1xfuqY I have a video of agro kiting an Ice Burrower on my Shaman. Takes a while hehe, but would probably go a bit faster on Mage. Not sure if you could keep mana up as easily as a Shaman. Maybe if a mage has a clickie offensive spell of some kind they can spam?