My last answer glossed over some of your questions. I like the mage for its simplicity and efficiency as a dps class outside of level 60+ raid targets. Basically any time you have a CH chain involving more than 2 people a mage is severely hamstrung…otherwise they are amazing. With that efficiency comes a price, they are not flexible whatsoever without a lot of clickies. That makes them a bad spelunking class without a more flexible partner.
There are a few ways for a mage to kill something:
1. Duo/group - with 2 or more you don’t have to the damage the pet. It doesn’t take exp and you split that with the other player(s).
2. Let the pet do all the work: especially in the low levels buffed up with certain droppable weapons a high summon pet can mow through half a dozen npcs without a break. A 20 mage giving a pet an argent defender hits for 60’s. In the mid levels you can use deadwood staves or other 1h’s for a similar but less dramatic effect. Just afk in a safe place while it regens.
3. Kill pet and clean-up: you use a fresh pet with haste and a DS. Pull a NPC (likely the same one you camp for hours for predictability) and let the pet go to work. Ideally you only nuke as much as needed for the pet to barely win. At like 10% health you kill/reclaim your pet and kill with a single spell. The advantage of this is having a fresh pet for the repop. The higher level pets regen 30hp/tick but that’s only 300hps a minute. That’s only 1800hps after 6 minutes and you are left with a badly injured friend in the meantime. Its usually worth a malachite to start over.
4. Race your pet: The first spell is aggro locked at like 50 hate and is a good indicator of how many hps the npc has…if it takes away 20% health you likely only owe two nukes since the DS doesn’t count to anyone’s damage (removes it from the total pool. The only reason to nuke more frequently is if your pet is losing the fight. Pace the spells to avoid peeing aggro.
5. Chain summon/aggro kite: This isn’t broken but it’s semi-broken. A fresh pet will eventually peel off you with taunt or especially with root if using an earth pet. It’s just high risk because it takes a while and you are quite fragile. In a duo or trio you can throw pets at something all day without fear. Even like Phingal will not summon players unless there are no pets or players for it to attack. A cliff golem duo for example if the necro or ench has a charm break they won’t get summoned if a mage or shaman pet is still on the golem. Basically the old “all aggro is transferred” saying is a misnomer but it’s certainly not as good as it was on live.
In short: Pick your battles carefully and approach grinding like an accountant; boring kills > exciting ones. A mage has little means to regen mana or health quickly so calculate your adventures or rely on a flexible partner to keep it all in order.
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