Ohh man do I love this topic.
I played a Necromancer and a Shaman as my mains on live. I had access to an account with a max level magician (60 during kunark/velious and 65 during pop etc). I know both sides of the fence quite well.
In my opinion there is no comparison between a Necromancer and a Magician. As already mentioned in the thread by Qaedin, the only thing a mage can do in a sticky situation is gate. All you can do is abandon ship and leave. That leaves magician as such a limited and handicapped class it isn't even funny.
In a similar situation a necromancer can:
-Root
-Mez
-Fear (outdoors)
-Snare and kite adds (outdoors)
-Feign Death
-Invulnerability
-Heal themselves with Lifetap
-Oh ... and Gate.
Necromancer is so versatile compared to a magician it isn't even funny. The problem with arguing with mages is that their response is always, "Well my pet is better!" or "My pet tanks better!". In an outdoor experience zone.. that is irrelevant because a necromancer pet never has to take damage. Whether you are fear kiting, aggro kiting.. whatever.. your pet never has to take damage.
In an indoor zone, unless the magician is like 20 levels above the content, they are going to have a difficult time breaking rooms. Wheras a necromancer can break two spawns with no effort (Screaming terror one and pull the other). Larger spawn groups are more difficult to break, but doable thanks to FD.
The biggest thing, in my opinion, that makes necromancers far more attractive than a magician, I haven't even touched on yet. That is their mana regeneration rate. Magicians have absolutely NO ABILITY to regen mana (no I don't consider pet-canni and mod rodding yourself mana regeneration). Level 49 Necromancer Lich trades 22 Health for 20 Mana. Clarity gives you 9 Mana per tick. It gives you over twice the amount that Clarity gives you.
Necros can snare, root, fear, mez, feign, invulnerability, heal themselves, heal others, use a pet, etc etc etc etc.
Mages can cast pets and cast nukes.
Oh.. speaking of nukes.
Ignite Blood does 1176 Damage for 250 Mana. That is 4.70 Damage/Mana. (Necro best DoT I think?)
Ignite Bones does 500 Damage for 210 Mana. That is 2.38 Damage/Mana. (Necro best DD)
For Mages:
Lava Bolt does 810 Damage for 300 Mana. That is 2.70 Damage per Mana.
The only benefit Magician has over necromancer in terms of dealing damgae, is the ability to deal damage more quickly. Their damage is much less efficient, combined with their lack of mana regeneration.
With all that being said.. Magicians are not gimp. They are great soloers, just compared to a Necromancer.. in my opinion there is no comparison.
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