Regarding this part I recommend half elf female

actually maybe enchanter so you can change it up

I remember my Magician was excellent for solo'in throughout all the levels....

I've just started doing this (though not with swarms that big yet) and am dying a lot, but getting better. It's insanely dull, but sometimes at the same time quite fun in that you cannot drop concentration for even a couple seconds.

At level 10 though I only have the level 2 dot which has a really small range.

Shaman / Ench

Funny Magician is always the first class that came to mind on live for soloing. Not here though. Perhaps due to the fact that pets suck. (Casting isn't accurate, taunt is garbage, resists are possibly wrong)

There was a time on this server when everyone and I mean EVERYONE was playing a mage and chain summing fire pets like a mad man. All good things must come to an end though...

I played a druid on VZ and it's a great class. I love to travel so the freedom is great. I never wanted to play a mage because it seemed like easy mode but lately I've been experimenting with one. What I've discovered is that I love easy mode. Kiting is click intensive. I'm really enjoying just telling my pet go there, kill that.

Necros are actually more versatile because they can fear/dot and also charm undead. I grouped on my warrior with a necro that was charming undead on the second floor of CoM and the xp was money.

Back then, pet tanking ability was crazy good, pets taunted fast and hard, and you could form a one-man group with yourself to avoid the XP penalty from your pet doing most of the damage. I got my mage from 1-49 in something stupid like 60 hours of played time with no PL and no twinked gear except a Torch of Alna. The old Kedge ZEM helped too.

Magician former OP glory aside, the real reason for that glut of mages was Sky.