As a mage, gear isn't the highest of priorities. Sure a few more AC and a bit more mana is helpful, but it isn't going to make or break my toon. I don't claim to have the best gear ever, but at this point, any upgrade is going to come from raids or will cost some insane amount of plat. And with kunark right around the corner, I'm not in a spending sort of mood.
And I'm not really an "alt" kind of person. I have my main and that is who I play. And right now, I don't have a ton of play time, so I can't do the long farms with groups for the few items I could really use (like phinny's water pet focus staff).
And I'm at max xp. So what are my options for the hour or two I have to play? I could go fight people for seafuries (bleh), get a few hundred plat at IGs or specs (which I have been doing quite often, and kinda burnt out on), do tradeskills (dear god no!), or farm item_X to sell in EC. Or I could farm up some pet weaps that will actually improve my toon (in certain situations). I really hadn't thought much about pet weaps until I made this thread, so I've never farmed them, so it is something new and fun for me to do.
As for SHFD, it really depends on the situation and how cheap I find one for. Since it is ranger only, and not even that great for a ranger, I am guessing they will be pretty inexpensive. I could easily see myself using it for a day of grinding in Seb or something like that. Some day where I know I will be in one zone and will be on all day. If it procs for pets on this server, it is TOTALLY worth it. Or give pet one on a raid without massive AEs (aka, times when pets will actually live). Might be useful then.
As for the root sword. In classic, giving 2 of em to a fire pet is FAR FAR FAR superior to an earth pet with non-procing weaps. Not only does the root sword proc a root, but the spell does 50 damage. In classic, earth pet's root does 0 damage. And the best mage DS tops out at 25, whereas fire pet tops out at 43 (with torch I think). So you will see a massive difference in DPS, and the faster killing = less damage pet takes, completely negating earth pet's additional HP/AC.
In almost all situations, the increased DPS from the fire pet will negate the HP/AC advantage of earth pets. This changes once kunark hits, but for the next few weeks this how it is.
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