[Zuranthium]

Originally Posted by Messianic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Kunark hadn't been released yet. So that's what made them great.

Mages and Necromancers were the top DPS classes in the game pre-Kunark (aside from fighting Dragons/Gods, because of the pets being feared away). The necromancer pet in particular was off-the-charts ridiculously powerful during the first 6 months of release, because of being able to dual-wield and drastically improve their attack speed by giving them fine steel daggers. The Level 44 and 49 Mage pets were also extremely strong as well, though, and were nerfed at the same time the Necro pets stopped getting attack speed boosts from weapons. Even after those nerfs, Mages and Necromancers were still the top DPS.

Shortly before Kunark came out when Mage pets became able to dual-wield, then Mages slightly overtook Necros as #1 DPS. In terms of expansion content those classes became far less powerful, though, because melee got immensely better gear and new abilities, whereas the pets became far less powerful in comparison to the power level of monsters and caster damage also became significantly less powerful. Necromancers were rather balanced in the expansion, though, whereas Mages get the short end of the stick...they get some of their power back with the epic, but the Mage epic was THE hardest to get. Even by the end of Velious there were very few Mages with epics, and in Velious melee classes get yet another round of buffs, whereas Mages don't really increase in raw power at all.