High level mage question: Will I ever be able to nuke when soloing?

[Velerin]

Pet aggro on here is lousy. Bug report already added but doubt anything will change due to the overpoweredness (sp?) of pets in classic eq with chain petting. I'm about to hit 39 and just wanted to ask higher level mages if you ever nuke when soloing?
Even if I wait until 50% more often than not I will pull aggro with a nuke. Chain petting is amazingly efficient and what I've been doing but it would be fun to use these nuke spells I get once in a while solo.
Btw, my level 34 pet still takes up to 2-3 rounds of combat to outaggro the level 1 nuke I pull with most of the time. Good thing is I at least have maxxed out defense skill!