Lvl 16 magician advice

[Bodybagger]

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

True but either way any can have DS if you like.. Been to long but I remember my DS being 24 at 55. I can't remember when I got that one.

Exactly. The fire pet is like having a 50+ mage around to D.S. your tank lol... vs spending tons of mana keeping an earth pet D.S.'d and being less efficient mana, dps, time, xp wise. *shrug*

Literally, with the torch, a lvl 16 max lvl fire pet with a rusty 2hand sword or scythe can drop 3-4 white-yellow cons with you just support healing, and does it quicker than a group of twinks. D.S. is the almighty DPS tool for low level grinding and you can give it to yourself. HACKS! lol

[Heavydrop]

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

Get torch first. Rest are useless.

No matter how many times I hear this I am always amazed by how wrong it is.
Sure, you can do it all with just fire but why go to war with 3 quarters of your arsenal missing?
I've solo'd in places (Mistmoore Graveyard, and others) thanks to my earth pet's root (used it to break up spawns) that I couldn't have done with fire.

Fire is great for soloing due to its innate DS but if you're grouping you'll want the whole range.
And why not group and negate that 50% exp penalty?
*boggle*

[Bodybagger]

So... You think there should be two mages with torches forming the ultimate alliance? I agree.

Others are useless sub lvl 24. Fire pet solos fuckig entire zones of anything not redcon...

[webrunner5]

I can tell you I USE all 4 of my pets a lot. At least 3 of them sometimes in a 2 or 3 hour solo, and probably 2 of them in a group setting. They all have a use in certain instances. If you only use the Fire pet you are really not taking advantage of half your ability to engage, split, CC etc.

A Mage is a lot harder to play well than most people think. It is not all send in the fire pet and sit on your ass like a LOT of people do on here if you really want to make a Mage really stand out. But I am not knocking people that do it, but they are missing the fun of the cat and mouse stuff you can do on a Mage. They are damn powerful played to the max. And if you are lucky enough to ever have the Epic, and The Burnt Wood Staff ,http://wiki.project1999.com/Burnt_Wood_Staff, Wow hold on. Killing machine.

[Velerin]

Yeah, fire pet DS is powerful and ideal for low blues that won't hit too hard but he's far from some kind of god. He has low hp so against tougher stuff or things that nuke he will die fast. You can use him to chain pets but keep in mind when chaining he doesn't recast his DS instantly and won't cast in combat. One way to get around that is if he hasn't casted yet you can keep /pet back off to unaggro him and eventually he will cast it on himself in between getting hit by the mob.

[webrunner5]

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

You can use him to chain pets but keep in mind when chaining he doesn't recast his DS instantly and won't cast in combat. One way to get around that is if he hasn't casted yet you can keep /pet back off to unagro him and eventually he will cast it on himself in between getting hit by the mob.

Good advice for people new to a Mage. Well done. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Falisaty]

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

Every one keeps making the point that Fire is best because of DS. Don't forget, Mages get castable FIRE DS and can add that to any pet or player they choose making all pets viable solo.

BINGO!!!

[Bodybagger]

Originally Posted by webrunner5 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I can tell you I USE all 4 of my pets a lot. At least 3 of them sometimes in a 2 or 3 hour solo, and probably 2 of them in a group setting. They all have a use in certain instances. If you only use the Fire pet you are really not taking advantage of half your ability to engage, split, CC etc.

A Mage is a lot harder to play well than most people think. It is not all send in the fire pet and sit on your ass like a LOT of people do on here if you really want to make a Mage really stand out. But I am not knocking people that do it, but they are missing the fun of the cat and mouse stuff you can do on a Mage. They are damn powerful played to the max. And if you are lucky enough to ever have the Epic, and The Burnt Wood Staff ,http://wiki.project1999.com/Burnt_Wood_Staff, Wow hold on. Killing machine.

ROFL "mages are way trickier to play not just chain pets BUT if you get epic and clicky nuke stick and just sit back and chain pets and click mana free nukes OMG WTFBBQSAUCE powerful.... [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Cool story!

I would gladly take on any other mage sub lvl 30 with my fire pet only in a dps test to see who can kill faster and solo harder mobs. You will lose. It's pure simple numbers. You stand NO CHANCE. Solo it is no contest. Grouped yes there are options but no way solo. earth pet is junk. It's a meat shield and your nukes suck at mana efficiency harder than pet healing does. I can med and heal within med ticks and barely use mana before the second pet heal at 16 or 20... I have literally solo'd all of Blackburrow fighting groups of even con elites and stuff with a max level fire pet summoned with torch, and burnout on him, with a rusty 2h sword or scythe or halberd. Thing destroys everything.

I have also solo'd gargoyls at lvl 16 in OoT with the same pet at lvl 16. Go solo red con lvl 20ish gargoyls with any other pet and come argue with me.

I've also duo'd with many other casters. Generally a solid duo/trio will be another pet class with their taunt off, or anyone that can heal/buff pet with you. You are literally power leveling yourself. Plain and simple. The fire pet with focus torch is ungodly OP from lvl 1-20 and still very imbalanced til 30+.

Make no mistake. I have ALL FOCUS ITEMS. But I don't ever find use for the others except for group setting where water pet might do marginally better dps with addition of kick/bash and same nuke or air deals slightly less dps with no nuke, but has kick/bash and can interrupt casters. Earth pet is ghetto CC and I don't bother with it, I move on to something more productive if I find myself needing that root to save my bacon. 2 mages+ mages with torches splitting pulls would be insane (and duo is priceless for no XP loss!)

[webrunner5]

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

ROFL "mages are way trickier to play not just chain pets BUT if you get epic and clicky nuke stick and just sit back and chain pets and click mana free nukes OMG WTFBBQSAUCE powerful.... [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Cool story!

I would gladly take on any other mage sub lvl 30 with my fire pet only in a dps test to see who can kill faster and solo harder mobs. You will lose. It's pure simple numbers. You stand NO CHANCE. Solo it is no contest. Grouped yes there are options but no way solo. earth pet is junk. It's a meat shield and your nukes suck at mana efficiency harder than pet healing does. I can med and heal within med ticks and barely use mana before the second pet heal at 16 or 20... I have literally solo'd all of Blackburrow fighting groups of even con elites and stuff with a max level fire pet summoned with torch, and burnout on him, with a rusty 2h sword or scythe or halberd. Thing destroys everything.

I have also solo'd gargoyls at lvl 16 in OoT with the same pet at lvl 16. Go solo red con lvl 20ish gargoyls with any other pet and come argue with me.

I've also duo'd with many other casters. Generally a solid duo/trio will be another pet class with their taunt off, or anyone that can heal/buff pet with you. You are literally power leveling yourself. Plain and simple. The fire pet with focus torch is ungodly OP from lvl 1-20 and still very imbalanced til 30+.

Make no mistake. I have ALL FOCUS ITEMS. But I don't ever find use for the others except for group setting where water pet might do marginally better dps with addition of kick/bash and same nuke or air deals slightly less dps with no nuke, but has kick/bash and can interrupt casters. Earth pet is ghetto CC and I don't bother with it, I move on to something more productive if I find myself needing that root to save my bacon. 2 mages+ mages with torches splitting pulls would be insane (and duo is priceless for no XP loss!)

You are sort of making some pretty silly statements with this post. Not really much help to someone new trying to learn how to play a Mage well. A lot has to do what zone you are in. Fire pet is not the clear cut pet for every one of them. Not all the time with every mob in them.

I will give you credit Fire pet is pretty much the go to at lower levels on average, but there is a reason the Devs gave us 4 pets even when soloing. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Bodybagger]

Originally Posted by webrunner5 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You are sort of making some pretty silly statements with this post. Not really much help to someone new trying to learn how to play a Mage well. A lot has to do what zone you are in. Fire pet is not the clear cut pet for every one of them. Not all the time with every mob in them.

I will give you credit Fire pet is pretty much the go to at lower levels on average, but there is a reason the Devs gave us 4 pets even when soloing. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Who says the 4 pets were for solo? Obviously fire pet is for solo since he has DS and in a group with tank he's useless. Earth is for CC, air is for stunning casters in group, and water is for DPS in group if not offtanking, and backstabs at 54+.

That said, this leaves solo, any duo without a tank, and grouping when you pet offtank as the superior territory for the fire pet. Which means 90% of the time if you play like that (solo, duo with another pet class or caster, or grouped and help offtank/split pulls) the fire pet is superior because it is designed to be so. This has always been my entire point. By all means, get all focus items and pets but if you could only choose one, there is no way it wouldn't be fire. Best tank because of D.S. making it more efficient to heal or chain cast than earth pet and higher dps than any other pet, when tanking.

So I disagree, I think a new player, who may be lucky to have plat for 1 pet and other spells each level, and maybe spend and quest for 1 focus item, would be far better served by "just get the fire pet" (for aforementioned reasons) than to be told "they are all useful and necessary and you need them all". Honestly, if you get a mage his torch at low level he ONLY needs fire pet til 30+ at which point his fire pet can solo the cmaps to farm the pieces for the other focus items. Win/win