It's not until 55+ that mage pets kind of drop off vs good xp mobs. Up to that point feel like a superhero.
There's still good spots for mages to kill blue mobs all the way to 60.

Its crap, especially w/o epic. Since most cash camps require 3-4 players max, there just isn't any room for a mage unless you've got some friends that don't mind bringing you along. Mages bring basically nothing to the table in single group late game stuff.

On raids - your responsibilities are as follows:

- Cothing people to the raid

- Mod rods for clerics

- Quad DA trains in ToV (shiny brass idol, sky ring (recharge 1x on fly w/ void box), earring of frozen skull)

I mean, that's basically similar to everyone's job in raiding, it's not that exciting, but at the same time, this is also a pretty narrow view of raiding imo. On long fights, definitely, you need mod rods. A ton of targets though die so fast you aren't sitting there spamming mod rods, you're dps'ing.

Like, you're not wrong, but also there's a bunch of fights where you're just playing your mage like you normally would, so if you like playing a mage, play a mage.

Please guildremove the pelican mages who are dpsing.

I enjoy it a lot, my mage is useful on just about every fight. I don't get the mage hate on the forums, how is coth, rods and DA trains that different from CH chain, rez click, casting aego? People have strange ideas about skill and whats boring and what isn't. Playing a rogue on a raid is super boring IMO, backstab, move in and out of AoE, bump when a tank dies. Annnnywaays...

There's different parts of end game, just being 60 and running around killing stuff for cash or quests mages do just fine, even without epic. You don't need it, it's amazing, but seriously get a Air staff from sky and use the 59 air pet you'll thank me later. It's all you need for solo play, my epic pet mostly just allows me to kill faster/more efficiently. I was able to solo most of my Coldain ring stuff to 7, just had help on the Corbin escort. Can easily solo most of the shawl quest, faction in droga for profit, can do some interesting things in chardok especially with a cleric. I'm able to solo most of ToFS just need help with Tserrina, although I swear she is possible to solo, I just need to keep trying. You can fight blues at 60 no problem, people just aren't creative or lack the proper kit. Mage is allllll about kit, spells just don't scale like other classes do, so you need to pick up clickies to make up the difference. The difference between my mage and most people who say mages suck is my backpacks full of click gear, resist gear and potions. Go beyond the spell book!

Lower tier raiding mages are excellent, the pet brings 40-70 dps, your DS, mod rods, click sticks, rune swords and occasional nuke are all valuable. Hate/Fear/Kael/Kunark fights are all easy for any class, you can even nuke a lot here and bring some pretty good DPS with Scars of Sigil and Sirocco. Mages even get PBAOE which is great for CT/PoG clears.

Some fights like Dain or King Tormax mages aren't as useful for, but that doesn't mean you can't put out DPS and drop rods, sure you can swap to a rogue for those fights but so can pretty much everyone else who isn't a cleric, so that's a moot point IMO.

Mages really shine in NToV, this is where you absolutely 100% need mages who have gear and know how to play. Even if it's just one or two, that's fine, bots can replace some aspects of play like an initial coth up or DA train out. However you need someone who is ready to coth people in from the lobby literally constantly throughout a NToV clear, the more targets that are up, the more you need mages watching the lobby, pulling in pullers, people with refreshed SoW for kiting etc. Rods are ALWAYS needed and it's stupid not to have some people laying them down especially in 100+ person raids. Any bot can do this you say? Fine, any bot can be a cleric or a rogue, but will that cleric or rogue bot heal as long, or DPS as much? You want a mage that has hit points, resist gear, clickies, potions to stay alive. Having experience playing a class means something. Anyone can be a chain cleric and help out the raid, anyone can play a coth bot and help out the raid, but people who main those characters are going to be better at it, and more efficient for your force.

If you like playing mage, play it. If you want to play something else, play that. Enjoy the game, enjoy the journey!