Low end mage pet question

[Xaks]

Heya gang!

I played a mage sparingly back in the day....I think I got into the 40s with that one. I have a terrible case of ALT-itis and I hop around a lot.

Anyhow, back then, the water pet was generally accepted as your best soloing pet if you didn't need the root of the earth pet.

Now, in the limited time I've been back, I'm seeing a lot of fire pets out instead of waters. I understand the built-in DS is nice...but is it really THAT big a deal, especially at lower levels? (I just hit 16, btw)

I remember back then, the relative fragility of the fire pet relegated it to specific trash cleanup duty or (due to the inherent rests) MTing only very specific targets.

Is that somehow different now?

Thanks for the wisdom up front, guys!