Mages?

[paravar]

Hey all,
Recently discovered P99 and loving it. Have always played a mage or nec on live servers since beginings. Started a mage and have been liking it to this point. Tried to ask some higher lvl's about the class and how they are enjoying it. Only prob is..there don't seem to be many. Tried everyday this week when server was at a pop of over 1100 and could only find 4-9 on using the 50 60 range search. I looked at every other class and besides the wizard they were too many to show.

Why are there so few magicians? I figured they were solo gods along with the nec? Heard shaman do well as does enchanter. Just wondering if should change to another class while i'm so low...lvl 8. My time will be primarily spent soloing due to time constraint with a lil grping thrown in.

Any advice appreciated!

[Grubbz]

-50% exp if you dont out damage your pet, keeps people away from the class.

[Asap]

Pets on here have trouble holding aggro. It's one of the reasons people stray away from Magicians. Another one is unless you do 51% of the damage, your pet will eat 75% of the experience per kill.

The way to bypass this is chain summoning, reclaim your pet when the NPC is at 5% hp, and finish it off with a low level nuke. You will receive full experience for the kill, and it's actually quite mana effective.

Grouped, magicians can add substantial, sustained DPS via pets and nukes. At 55, they also receive CotH, which is a game changer for many groups/raids. You probably don't see many on because they are playing alts, as the mage class is one dimensional unless you have root nets and other clickies.

[mwatt]

I too play a 56 Mage (from time to time). I think the reason you see less than expected is due to a number of things. Here are the things that I think are limiting Mages:

1. Some "nerfs" (classicaly appropriate) in the not too distant past, particularly the one where if pets do 50 or more of damage they take 50% of experience when solo. There are ways around this but it constrains your play style if you adopt them.

2. Difficulty of getting epic. High end content, until recently at least, has been pretty much locked down by one guild, making it difficult to get the very best thing a mage can get.

3. Much of Mage DPS is provided by pet, and yet pet control is not ideal in this time frame on P99 (i.e. in this era), which may at times limit desirability in dungeons and in raids. For example - and this goes for all pets - a pet has no qualms about attacking a mezzed mob.

4. You have a very sophisticated player-base here, on the whole, a bunch of EQ experts. I think it may be that many people feel that playing a Mage is a bit simplistic.

[Fame]

are a joke, don't waste your time

[Asap]

Loraen (Splorf on forums) has also brought attention to the fact that Magician pets do not cast their roots/DD's/Stuns often enough on here, hurting their usefulness. Feel free to make a bug report to display your qualms with the class, it may help [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[loramin]

One more factor: Necromancers (in the P99 environment) are largely superior to mages. As my friend put it "Necromancers can do everything Magicians can, plus they get a lot of utility features". Having never played either class at a high level I can't say for certain myself, but it does seem like (for example) Feign Death > summoned items.

P.S. My friend used to have a Magician as his main, and leveled it in to the 50's, so he's not just a Necromancer player hating on Magicians.

[Swish]

Originally Posted by Asap [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...unless you do 51% of the damage, your pet will eat 75% of the experience per kill.

Has that been tested/confirmed? Everyone else has always said 50% for pets who outdps their masters.

People are weird, mages are good in a group...why not group a mage to 60? Pet damage doesn't matter if you're grouped.

I'd say play one if you enjoy it, the server has 100s of necros.

[Asap]

Originally Posted by Swish [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Has that been tested/confirmed? Everyone else has always said 50% for pets who outdps their masters.

People are weird, mages are good in a group...why not group a mage to 60? Pet damage doesn't matter if you're grouped.

I'd say play one if you enjoy it, the server has 100s of necros.

Mages are awesome in groups, but people seem to roll them here expecting to solo easily to 60.

Mages are also great as a duo. Diplo has stated on here he has duo'd crypt in seb with his 57 earth pet

[errorlvlacro]

Playing what you enjoy is usually the most important IMO.