What separates good vs bad mages 51+

[Melissa]

I see a ton of lazy and shitty mages so here are some of my thoughts having played one...

1) Know what kind of pet to use in situations including group vs raid vs solo. I use earth or water when soloing...depending on how hard the mobs hit. I use Air on caster heavy camps. Water about 90% on raids. I see way too many people using the wrong pets in the wrong situations and not maximizing the mage's potential...

2) Know how to position your water pet so it can backstab...don't be bad...you move your body or /pet guard so that your pet is doing the additional DPS! Anytime i see any pet, especially the rogue water pets not behind the mob i /facepalm hard.

3) Did you know that you can use AE spells on single pulls...they are more efficient if each round hits...so know which mobs have high resists...

4) Did you know that you can single pull? Use root nets liberally...they're cheap as fuck to recharge! Root nets+CoTH= single pull...try it!

5) Chaining pets still works...sorta...but really it works...so don't waste your mana healing your pet...just time the recast and /pet goaway at the right time and you will be more successful. Malachites are retarded cheap...Chain pet=Pet CH.

6) Do try using the clicky burnt wood staff...time it right so you don't draw aggro...but really the cast time is so long that u can click it in the beginning and be fine...just be positioned right so that you can actually land it. Even I manage to miss a bolt about 25% of the time...

7) Manage your mana...this is why you try to use the bolt clicky as often as possible...in my opinion, I usually keep at least enough to resummon a pet as an emergency escape! I might solo with a water pet, but if for some stupid reason i'm getting low on mana and the situation gets shaky like repops or me being dumb with respawn timers and getting adds, I'll budget my mana in such a way in which I know i have enough for an earth pet and gate. In this case, I'll cast earth pet and /pet goaway and pray it roots one mob and and i can quickly /pet back and /pet attack 2nd and/or 3rd mob. You should have time and the hp to do this...nothing sucks more than the cast gate with 2-3 mobs laughing at your channeling.

8) I personally don't use a lot of pet weapons...but when I'm duoing, I'll throw in snare or stun weapons...but I chain pets alot, so I don't really feel like it's the best use of my plat to throw them away like this...

I'll have more as i think of it! Mages can seem like a one-dimensional class, but they're a ton of fun if you use everything that's available to you!