Magicians are a sweet duo partner! In terms of solo, magicians can definitely solo. That said, I believe the "nerf" you are referencing is this:
If a magician is fighting a mob and the magician's pet outdamages the player himself, the pet will "eat" half of the exp that the player otherwise would have earned.
As magicians' pets are the strongest in-game, this "half exp consideration" is more of an issue for mages when compared to necros and shamans. Ways to get around this:
1) Grouping - the entire "pet eats half exp thing" is not a factor as long as the magician is grouped with at least one other player. Makes them great for duos! Not a helpful suggestion for solo
2) Kill off pet / chain summoning - basically, you make sure that the magician pet dies *just-before* the mob dies, allowing the player to get 100% exp by finishing the mob with a nuke.
Though trickier at early levels, it becomes a viable strategy to "chain summon" pets at later levels as magicians' pets don't really cost more mana to summon as you get higher up-- summoning a lvl 29 pet costs just as much mana as a lvl 49 (only like 200 mana).
Thus, for harder solo battles, magicians can employ several pets over the course of one fight by timing out their summon spell with "pet go away" or the pet dying. For shorter battles, you can simply tell your pet to "go away" once the mob is low to nuke + finish for full exp.
Another nice factor is that the regeants for mage pets (ie the material item cost, like bone chips for necros) are quite inexpensive, especially as you get higher. This makes killing-off your pet in solo situations not quite as bad as it sounds.
Hopefully this insight helps! Also, even in worst case scenarios, killing off x2 mobs with the same pet (and pet eating half exp) is still an easier and faster solo route than many melee classes
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