What's the deal with mages?
 

Are they really as bad as people say? I like the "boring" classes, but all I ever see about them is how bad they are. Starting up on green again and they seem like a solid class from a relative noobs standpoint.

Mages are a great class. Whoever said they are bad is probably talking about the raid scene where they just become coth bots.

Their pets are effective both solo and in groups. You will out dps most other classes in an xp group as well unless maybe against mega twinks or charmed pets. They’re also a good raw pp farming class if you want something easy.

I’d recommend enc as a first class for a higher earning potential, but if you want something simpler who doesn’t need much and can farm you some pp while still being an effective soloer/grouper then mage is a good choice.

Mages are just very weak at higher levels. Their great up to that point,and if you get some of their clicky items can be fun on raids.
Epic is very rare,hotly contested. Don't go on thinking you'll ever get one,but some people do

zero CC

This is the reason why Mages are weak unfortunately.

Their stronger pets do not make up for the loss of CC.

They can do good DPS in a group when the pet isn't tanking, but they aren't the best group DPS class.

Enchanter or Rogue is going to do more DPS on average. Mage can do good burst damage in a pinch, but you drain your mana, so it isn't sustainable.

Mage with Epic pet is going to be much closer to a Rogue in terms of DPS, but it's the hardest Epic in the game to get.

TLDR: They aren't as good at soloing due to lack of CC. They aren't as good of a group DPS as other DPS classes until you get Epic, which is probably not going to happen.

This is why they end up as CoTH bots. You are going to get more mileage from another class, unless you really like killing bunches of green mobs in Droga.

They are as inflexible for gameplay as warriors or rogues. Just the caster version.

As a +1 DPS for group or duo/trios they bring a lot to the table. The pets are underrated because most people dont parse or understand how DS' add up. My focused water pet has smoked many monks and some rogues in non-raid situations.

It's worth noting that while that's true, it's only true because P99 is (deliberately?) unclassic.

If P99 was actually like live EQ circa '99-'01, Enchanters would not be the highest damage dealers (Rogues would be, and Mages would be 2nd best).

Eh, I love mages but you might throw some fine print on this. On live Mages were notoriously unpopular too, maybe less so since CoTH wasnt used as often.

Positives

Super easy leveling 1-55
Great in group exp brings good utility, and DPS
Requires little to no gear
Easy laid back play-style, assist/pet attack and nuke occasionally

Negatives

Hardest epic to get (if you like completing epics big kick in the balls)
No CC
No Lure Nukes
Most raid fights you don't want or care about summoned pet DPS
Solo farming is not anywhere near what a ENC / SHM / NEC can accomplish


Raid role is super important but most people dont like "investing" or making their main a mage just to COTH ppl and summon rods at raids. Hence why every major guild on p99 has several if not a dozen+ mage bots

DA training mage is even better. But not gear dependent (other than having the sky ring) so again can be covered by bots

Solo: they can do it better than many but not top tier. Lack of CC holds them back.

Duo/Trio/group: They are top tier dps in groups, really only second to charm pets. Melee aren’t really going to be able to keep up, other than an exceptionally well geared rog (not your typical “I have epic and an EC bought offhand). They are cheap to gear and relaxed to play.

Raid: their job changes completely. pets typically not allowed in many boss fights. Nukes have a hard time landing if at all. No lure or bane. They typically are gonna mod rod and coth along with some DA tricks.

Summary

Cons: very limited utility. No CC at all other than offtank with pet.

Pros: they are monsters in the dps department for group content. For what they do, they do it exceptionally well. For anything else, you’re going to be disappointed.

I xp’d for a few hours on my mage today. I don’t have water staff. My unfocused pet properly positioned averaged 80-85dps with max summon and self buffs only. Toss it a str or str/focus stack and it would have been higher. Average combined dps for the 3 hour session was 115dps plus whatever my 33pt DS on the tank was contributing on all the unslowed mobs. Highest burn was 3 mobs in a bad pull back to back with combined dps 200+ during the fun. We cycled three rogues (2 over 55 with epic) through the group and none of them were even close.

It’s not a “they can do good dps in a group” situation … the only thing that will beat them is a charm pet quadding and hasted (scaling up depending on the zone/content).

Again. From today’s session I could only parse pet hits, backstabs, DD procs and my own nukes. Every time someone in the group got hit by anything, add another 33 damage points. I wish there were some way to effectively parse that as well without going back and counting each time someone in the group took a hit.

PS: properly positioned a water pet not tanking will do more dps than epic pet. If epic pet is tanking it’s no contest due to that monster DS and water let’s inability to backstab.