Question for 60 mages

[Selene]

Wondering what people who still play lvl 60 mages do with their toons besides raiding? Trying to figure out if leveling my 56 mage to 60 is worth the trouble....I generally like to solo things but am also up for small group adventures.

Is there lots to do as a 60 mage solo? Or is it pretty much out of the question trying to hit valuable targets?

What about loot camps or plat camps or group adventures? Are they still overshadowed by other dps classes for a spot in such groups? Thanks

[eisley]

Unfortunately, there is very little a 60 mage can farm outside of something like Droga for maybe 700-1000/hour or Coldain heads in Great Divide or things along those lines. Before the root net nerf and the chain summon nerf and the aggro transfer nerf things were different, but as it is now there's not much a Mage can do other than send pet, spam Scars and hope for the best. No CC, no trickery, no preparation or strategy. I wish I had more opportunity to play my epic mage but they just can't do much.

Things change in a duo, especially with a Cleric (especially if you have epic) but yeah, solo a mage is not even in the same stratosphere as a Enc, Nec, Sham, whatever.

[Jimjam]

Mage is a melee class like war but played from 3rd person perspective.

[eisley]

That is an incredibly good and accurate way to put it Jimjam. Instead of 'press q and watch' its 'send pet and watch [maybe spam Scars of Sigil])

[Jimjam]

That is an incredibly good and accurate way to put it Jimjam. Instead of 'press q and watch' its 'send pet and watch [maybe spam Scars of Sigil])

When I play a magician, I like to pretend I'm a roving news reporter with a huge 80s style videocamera on my shoulder, trying to capture footage of a super hero (the elemental) smacking down the villain of the week (mob).

Kinda like April O'Neil in those 1987 TMNT cartoons. But less sassy.

[eisley]

When I play a magician, I like to pretend I'm a roving news reporter with a huge 80s style videocamera on my shoulder, trying to capture footage of a super hero (the elemental) smacking down the villain of the week (mob).

Kinda like April O'Neil in those 1987 TMNT cartoons. But less sassy.

Now playing my mage will be a lot more fun :D

[TheBlob]

1) Raiding/helping guildies with fights

2) Farming Droga or Mistmoore (gargoyle eyes) for platinum

3) See what I am able to kill to help gear my other toons progress. Last I did was targets in Kedge Keep: I did the Seahorse Patriarch and Matriarch.

Next on my list are:

Soloing Ice Burrowers
Clearing Lower Guk

4) Farming Skyshrine for rare loots.

5) Faction Quest (friend with all of Cabilis, might try Neriak, Oggok or Grobb next).

6) Go to Kaesora and Paw to get some Deadwood Staves and Gnoll Hide Lariats to give my pet for harder fights.

It's not as exciting as soloing high end dungeon targets, but I like the chill playstyle.

[WarpathEQ]

Only one thing left to do with a 60 mage, cry about how hard it is to get an earth staff.

[PatChapp]

If you have friends,mage is a great toon to park for tola and prot. Nice little spot to abandon your toon and play it with a few friends now and then

[Ripqozko]

Wondering what people who still play lvl 60 mages do with their toons besides raiding? Trying to figure out if leveling my 56 mage to 60 is worth the trouble....I generally like to solo things but am also up for small group adventures.

Is there lots to do as a 60 mage solo? Or is it pretty much out of the question trying to hit valuable targets?

What about loot camps or plat camps or group adventures? Are they still overshadowed by other dps classes for a spot in such groups? Thanks

My mage is purely to raid on, quadding is fun. If ya don't enjoy quadding then they are boring with rods and coths. My alts are better farmers. Almost all of them are better farmers.

[Snaggles]

A level 60 mage with a water staff can do some solid DPS with a lot of burst on blue cons. COTH is very handy. The damage shield is great.

Most of the non-raid game is being a +1 dps. If you don’t already have one of these characters, a mage isn’t a bad pick.

Solo they are frustrating. They are very inflexible but strong for a few things. Add a partner or two and life gets much better.

[TheBlob]

My mage is purely to raid on, quadding is fun. If ya don't enjoy quadding then they are boring with rods and coths. My alts are better farmers. Almost all of them are better farmers.

My idea of quadding is kiting four snared mobs all at once and that was only possible with wizards and druids. Do you mean something else when you say "quadding" in this context?

[Jimjam]

My idea of quadding is kiting four snared mobs all at once and that was only possible with wizards and druids. Do you mean something else when you say "quadding" in this context?

Some raiders erroneously consider it to be a type of massed kite cheesing DA clicks and manabattery recharges or something, but the correct definition of quadding applied to magicians is when you use all four types of elementals to defeat a single mob.

[WarpathEQ]

My idea of quadding is kiting four snared mobs all at once and that was only possible with wizards and druids. Do you mean something else when you say "quadding" in this context?

He meant Quad DA'ing. Mages have access to 4 DAs (with clickable items) which allow them to run around for roughly 90 seconds with invulnerability. In the end game guilds often use this method to create large trains of mobs they don't want to kill, move those mobs out of the way and allow them to engage on big targets quicker (namely used in north ToV).

Its one of the main uses for Mages in the end game aside from cothing and mod rods. Some strategies even expand this by using multiple mages (or other classes since you typically only need 1-2 DAs to maintain a train out) so you can extend the ~90 seconds and run a continuous train out for the entire length of a fight plus time to rez the dead, and loot the mob, and leave the area before the trained mobs return.

[TheBlob]

Oh nice I didn't know about that! I love being useful in unique ways in raids so I can't wait to try this technique with my guild :D

[enjchanter]

I have an epic 60 mage and basically the only thing it's good for is farming droga and camping drusellla with URN

There's basically nothing to do with a 60 mage because pug groups that are relevant to level 60s don't exist on p99

[Troxx]

Wondering what people who still play lvl 60 mages do with their toons besides raiding? Trying to figure out if leveling my 56 mage to 60 is worth the trouble....I generally like to solo things but am also up for small group adventures.

Is there lots to do as a 60 mage solo? Or is it pretty much out of the question trying to hit valuable targets?

What about loot camps or plat camps or group adventures? Are they still overshadowed by other dps classes for a spot in such groups? Thanks

My voice will likely be an outlier. I haven’t read all the responses. I had a ton of fun leveling to 60 in random xp groups. With the exception of charmed enchanter pets (hasted and quadding) no other class puts down as much raw damage as mage. Leveling through the 50s some super twinks (endgame velious raid gear on rog alts etc) would give me stiff competition at times.

It’s a nice, easy, relaxed class to play. Raiding isn’t all that fun - you’re mostly there for support role stuff (DA shenanigans, coth and mod rods)

[Crede]

A level 60 mage with a water staff can do some solid DPS with a lot of burst on blue cons. COTH is very handy. The damage shield is great.

Most of the non-raid game is being a +1 dps. If you don’t already have one of these characters, a mage isn’t a bad pick.

Solo they are frustrating. They are very inflexible but strong for a few things. Add a partner or two and life gets much better.

is air staff'd 59 pet actually the best non epic all-purpose pet at 60?

[Ripqozko]

is air staff'd 59 pet actually the best non epic all-purpose pet at 60?

all purpose yes, dps no if you can bs with water. pets are pointless in a raid guild tho minus your level 4 pet.

[enjchanter]

Mages are a great dps class it's just that there's no lfg scene at level 60 for them to thrive in.

[Troxx]

Mages are a great dps class it's just that there's no lfg scene at level 60 for them to thrive in.

Indeed.

They never will but if they ever did give us Luclin AAs (without kitties on the moon) - they'd have a good productive job to do after hitting 60 other than being CoTH bots. Had a blast playing and leveling my mage ... but now that she's 60 there is no reason to ever log her in really other than to do necessary guild/raid functions.

[Eisai]

Mages are a great dps class it's just that there's no lfg scene at level 60 for them to thrive in.

Or any other 60 :(
Delevel to 59, sell some essence and flag LFG is what i do. Or, ya know, roll another char, is what i do. (really)

[Balimon]

is air staff'd 59 pet actually the best non epic all-purpose pet at 60?

100%

[enjchanter]

Or any other 60 :(
Delevel to 59, sell some essence and flag LFG is what i do. Or, ya know, roll another char, is what i do. (really)

Monks shamans enchanters clerics and super geared sk's to an extent can all do relevant camps at 60 like crypt , fungi, lodi, drusella, juggs etc

Mages will never be invited to these things based on class alone.

[Goregasmic]

Is there a particular reason why sebilis is dead on p99? Back on live it was swarming with people. Pretty much the place to be 55+. Last time I went there was like 2 players in there.

[loramin]

Is there a particular reason why sebilis is dead on p99? Back on live it was swarming with people. Pretty much the place to be 55+. Last time I went there was like 2 players in there.

I think it's largely because of staff choices: they changed the meta of what counts as a camp, and also changed the positioning of the mobs around the fungi king.

Before (on live and here) Seb had two highly in-demand group camps: fungi king and crypt/emperor (plus other less-popular ones, like disco or bugs). People would happily come out to Seb to fill groups for those camps (or a lesser camp while they wait). As a result, the zone could support 24+ players.

But then the staff split crypt into four individual solo camps. P99 is all about efficiency, so if one Shaman is able to solo Heiro cloaks, that's going to become the standard ... even if it means there's now half as many highly desirable camps for 6-man groups.

Around the same time, the staff also did something (fuzzy on the details) with the mobs around the king, making it possible to farm him without less than a full group. Again, if you can just trio (or whatever) a fungi tunic, there's no reason to have a full group involved, so that became the standard.

With both fungi and CE gone, no one is gonna come out just to do Bugs or Disco, so at this point it's a BYOG zone. If it ever started to become a popular PUG spot again, the soloers/duos/trios would just take the best items and drive everyone else off.

[Jimjam]

I think it's largely because of staff choices: they changed the meta of what counts as a camp, and also changed the positioning of the mobs around the fungi king.

Before (on live and here) Seb had two highly in-demand group camps: fungi king and crypt/emperor (plus other less-popular ones, like disco or bugs). People would happily come out to Seb to fill groups for those camps (or a lesser camp while they wait). As a result, the zone could support 24+ players.

But then the staff split crypt into four individual solo camps. P99 is all about efficiency, so if one Shaman is able to solo Heiro cloaks, that's going to become the standard ... even if it means there's now half as many highly desirable camps for 6-man groups.

Around the same time, the staff also did something (fuzzy on the details) with the mobs around the king, making it possible to farm him without less than a full group. Again, if you can just trio (or whatever) a fungi tunic, there's no reason to have a full group involved, so that became the standard.

With both fungi and CE gone, no one is gonna come out just to do Bugs or Disco, so at this point it's a BYOG zone. If it ever started to become a popular PUG spot again, the soloers/duos/trios would just take the best items and drive everyone else off.

There was also a period where you couldn’t xp in raid zones if you wanted to fight the raid boss when it spawned.

[Goregasmic]

Aww gotcha. Disco isnt a bad camp but if you're going to split it into possibly 5 camps (pickler/grup/commander/brogg/frenzied) then it isn't worth it as much. Hell you don't even have to split it, if one jerk just comes and takes one of your most profitable camps that's very irritating. I understand why they did it like that though, if you started defining every camp in the game it would never end but they could have made an exception for sebilis due to its layout instead of killing it.

And if I remember correctly for the fungi they changed the pathing so you can't really duo (much less solo) it now, you have to be 3+ to handle some pulls. Not the end of the world but it makes it potentially less profitable.

[enjchanter]

Yeah I remember back when I was coming up on p99 and it was not only reasonable but expected that I could sit at seb entrance and find a group. Now the zone is completely empty. I remember even joining random xp groups on my raid geared enchanter just to hang out and help for fun.

Now the only spot where you can go and expect to find a group is CoM and KC , I don't think even velks is a group zone anymore

[Snaggles]

It’s not because of staff choices.

How many people are on blue or green vs any server from live around 2001?
How long have we lived with Kunark vs that same memory of Seb from live?
How much of that gear is either valuable to use or sell?
How many people here group to 60 instead of solo/duo?

Time is the factor here, with server population being the other. Even if we had 1500 people on one server despite the old hat of Kunark still being true, you would see more people dispersed through the zones.

If p99 had some new blood I would go back to Seb in an instant. It’s a wild zone. We just know enough to not sit in Seb all day this time around, and nobody is there so that’s even an easier choice.

[Goregasmic]

People sit in KC all day and every night you get a LCY/RCY group going and the leftovers are pulling stuff around entrance or soloing. Seen a couple basement groups too. I tried soloing but most of the time I charmed a mob and I couldn't find a target to use it so I just left. Plenty of 55+ too but if you're a class that can't really solo what are you gonna do. I don't think we're lacking players. On double exp weekends the zone basically has zero mobs up.

I think it is possible seb could be more viable if people couldn't just barge in and claim some of your named mobs. People claim wings all the time in HS even though you technically can't and I saw more traffic there even with the zone being a lot more hostile by design and thus being BYOG.

[Eisai]

Best bet is to chat some people up. Everyone secretly wants to do something fun with cool people that don't suck. If you can convince them you're "that dude" they will follow you anywhere. Also, prepark a pocket cleric so worst case scenario still makes you look like a boss.

[PatChapp]

Haven't been in a while,but usually whenever I wanted to goto seb everything but fungi and ng are open. Occasionally someone's doing a crypt mob or all of em but pretty rare.
This is on green though,maybe blues different

[eisley]

Around the same time, the staff also did something (fuzzy on the details) with the mobs around the king, making it possible to farm him without less than a full group. Again, if you can just trio (or whatever) a fungi tunic, there's no reason to have a full group involved, so that became the standard.

What do you think staff did with Fungi king? before sneak nerf, you could pull the PH solo over the water with sneak pull and push him onto the island, making for a very easy duo monk/shaman.

All they did was ban camping on the island, which only made things slightly harder as now you have to sit in the brain room or zone out, and sneak pulling is gone, but it's still just as easy to duo, you just can't login every 28 minutes and kill the PH then log out quickly. I've farmed a lot of fungi tunic duo dating back to Kunark and I can't think of any change to the mobs around king. It's absolutely harder now than it used to be, I agree with that, but it was the island ban and sneak pull nerf that caused that.

[loramin]

I've farmed a lot of fungi tunic duo dating back to Kunark and I can't think of any change to the mobs around king.

If you actually played since Kunark on Blue then you surely remember king as a full group encounter, because it was for years. Maybe you meant since Kunark on Green?

[Troxx]

The challenge with content being out for as long as it has is a lot of people’s memory goes into a time warp of sorts. A lot of the things people have been doing for eons on blue was not the case on blue before velious or early into kunark on blue.

There was a time when things actually were more challenging and the borderline exploits the broader community now uses were either not yet discovered or otherwise not widely known about.

That … and gear powerflation and full spell books …

Ya know?

[Snaggles]

The challenge with content being out for as long as it has is a lot of people’s memory goes into a time warp of sorts. A lot of the things people have been doing for eons on blue was not the case on blue before velious or early into kunark on blue.

There was a time when things actually were more challenging and the borderline exploits the broader community now uses were either not yet discovered or otherwise not widely known about.

That … and gear powerflation and full spell books …

Ya know?

Why I think if top guilds want to earn neckbeard points they should go back to killing velious dragons with kunark gear. Might as well have a golf handicap if there is no player competition.

[Eisai]

Mage is a plat farmer, a coth nexus and a summoned items vendor..?

[Danth]

If you actually played since Kunark on Blue then you surely remember king as a full group encounter, because it was for years. Maybe you meant since Kunark on Green?

Depended on the specific timeframe. Go back far enough, early on in Kunark it was mostly two/three man groups farming fungus tunic during the invis pulling era. When invis pulling got nerfed--mid 2012 if I recollect--that camp largely went to full groups pulling to the zoneout room for a good while. Even at the time I suspected it was more community culture and less strict need since many of those groups would invite characters who weren't absolutely needed and fill out to 6 when they didn't really have to. Camp was "open" enough that the majority of groups I got there during that period were random /tells from someone looking to replace another tank. Later still the smaller forces become predominant again. Camp spots changed now and then as rules shifted over time.

[Duik]

Why I think if top guilds want to earn neckbeard points they should go back to killing velious dragons with kunark gear. Might as well have a golf handicap if there is no player competition.

This is a great idea. Very few "beards" would do it though.

[Ripqozko]

I did it 9 years ago when it was fresh on blue, im good.

[Snaggles]

I did it 9 years ago when it was fresh on blue, im good.

Oh come on, feed that nostalgia with a fresh set of medium banded armor!

[eisley]

If you actually played since Kunark on Blue then you surely remember king as a full group encounter, because it was for years. Maybe you meant since Kunark on Green?

No, I mean on Blue. Specifically I mean towards the end of Kunark, when the server pop was low and the camp was always open, and the island strat was a thing. In early Kunark it was only a group camp because it was permanently camped by a group, not out of necessity.

It was surely much harder to duo on green without sneak pulling.