I'm looking to add to the box crew. Which would you prefer and why? This is not just a DPS argument since there are other pluses, but for the sake of argument, stick to DPS.
Magicians can summon mod rods, which give you more Mana, which allows you to cast more spells, which increases your DPS. Therefore I would go with a necromancer...
Not fully aware of them beyond the fact mages are seriously unhappy right now. That's why I'm asking.
With that many in the crew, a mage has CotH. And pet toys the Ench pet can use to make him pretty decent.
Mage hands down, i have both a mage and a necro at max lvl with a bunch of AAs .. the only thing the necro can do that the mage cant do better is FD *edit* before the trolls start up, yes i know necros can dot and mages cant, but a mage will out dps the necro, has a better pet, has CotH, has tougher swarm pet, mod rods etc
A mage will offer more to support a box crew (group coh, normal coh, backup tank ect). Also its more boxable since they don't need to worry about dot agro. As a box, go mage. As a main? I'd go necro. The current dev cycle assumes having a pet makes you overpowered. Mages have gotten nothing but nerfs for years now. Each time they see themselves losing ground. Also, I'd ignore Brohgs comment about the mage community. Its a little off.
With your group I would consider a bard. Even if he only /melody on follow, he will add a lot to that group on both offence and defence, and especially on mana regen. You have tanking covered, with a much stronger tank than a Mage pet, and you have better DPS in the form of a wizard, which I suspect will be doing more than half of your current damage in the group. I make my bard melee, it only takes a couple of seconds pr mob or less, and while not impressive, it easily beats a DPS merc (with mashing of bard abilities etc). If you insist on a pet class, perhaps consider Beast Lord, if you insist on a cloth, perhaps consider another wizard, which I suspect will give you a higher peak DPS, against the Bards all round contribution, quickening of gameplay, and plain bard awesomeness. The way I find out that my bard is not singing is when the DPS meter is perhaps 60% of what the group normally delivers... -ish A necro is said to require a lot of attention, I have no real experience with playing a necro myself, but based on that it would not make for an optimal boxing character. A mage is a class you play "con amore", for the sake of doing just that. The value of a mage increases a lot if you have no other tank, but as soon as you have a true tank, the value significantly decreases, and while DPS is not bad, it is no where near a wizard.
imho, for this group, Mage better group DPS (generally) better group support utilities (mod rods, CotH, DS, pet armor / weapons...) better backup tank
I'd agree with others saying Mage. It'll be easier to get more DPS out of them in a group setting while boxing, and they do have CotH/mod rods. In a one on one comparison the Necro also has quite a lot of utility (root, snare, FD, rez, etc), but the classes currently in your group make a lot of that utility redundant.
Thanks guys. I was intrigued by the necro because he has the mana drain/feed to the group and the group heal, plus all those swarm pets (epic, WTD, chattering bones). But I was looking at a ton of work to catch up with the rest of the crew. I'll stick with the mage. A bard would be nice but I get worn out boxing as it is. I don't want to think about boxing a bard.
My experience playing wizards and magicians with EOK spells is that magicians have higher sustained damage available against group content. I say I'm not a great magician because my burns are and I know it (like 1/3 of wizard, and I know they should be like 2/3 even w/o a bard); it doesn't matter. As group geared & half-AAd magician (Ninin profile linked below) using all parts of the buffalo (rod*2, all the procs for +dmg & +mana, servants, rains, Chaotic, Firebound, /pet swarm... probably forgetting things off the top of my head) between the uses of Improved Twincast I more than catch up with my own pace exercising the same skills on a raid geared & full-AAd wizard (Hotpants profile linked below). This may not be the situation when someone is multiboxing so it's more challenging to stay on top of everything, or if someone is just learning one class or the other. This may not be the situation raiding. I've only raided as a wizard, so I can't compare me-versus-me in the same way. But the magician class is in a pretty great spot right now as far as caster damages go.
Bards are easier than any other class to box, depending on what you want from one. The floor on their group contribution, via Aura & /melody only, is quite high, and you get the side benefits of runspeed, Tracking, and Lock Picking.
Mage hands down. At least for a box addition. Why? Because if your tank goes down for a dirt nap at least you have an earth pet to finish the job. If you are sporting an H20 pet then well..hopefully you at least had the mob slowed....but yeah...most box groups are killing trash and its less than a 20 sec fight so a necro doesnt get it best like a mage. Just saying from first hand exp..
For a long time I just had the bard on /follow and /melody, easiest box thinkable. After a while the lure is to utilize more than that, but the songs are great in themselves . This is a surprise . I would have expected the reverse. He has an enchanter (break mez) (The last quote is fake, and meant as a joke for Brohg).
The only thing I see that a necro can do better than a mage is solo XP, and that is only where the content still supports kiting. Mages have more group contribution, their DPS fits better in a group situation, and they handle named better than necros. As with any advice in this game, the best thing is to always play what you enjoy playing. If you are weighing group contribution, particularly for progression, I think the mage adds more.
