Hmmm will not let me edit... 40 mobs in 30 minutes comes out to 45 seconds per mob. I would have to look at logs later, but that does not seem entirely unrealistic. Especially with a water pet doing much more DPS than an earth. And I know during FBO, ITC phase you can probably kill a trash in 20-30 seconds. What makes me pause about the number is (a) having an easily and large amount of mobs close by to pull from, and (b) handling roamers if you are not in a safe spot. If you are in a safe spot of zone, there tends to be longer runs to pull mobs. If you park close to mobs, there tends to be more roamers that can overrun you. I do not say it is 100% unrealistic to kill 40 in 30. Just seems higher than actuality. Unless I look at logs and see I have done it before...
Denial_Sinfae is paying attention at least... I said that I've been fighting with a bard box lately, so yeah 40 in 30 mins with a bard running off and dragging a new one in before the first one is dead and then singing and attacking. not that big of a deal. Without the bard I believe I was doing 30 (had burns up when I zoned in and attacked first mob), then burned one set after the lobby ones wore off. and they would recycle one more time and I could get 1 lobby set of pet burns and another 2-3 during lesson too.
Does attunable gear poof when you zone or suspend pet? Fanra's site is saying that attunable visible gear remains on zoning/suspending, but non-vis will poof.
Moloing 30 OT mobs in 30mins is about on the top end of what I'd expect a well-geared mage with a lot of temporary (ex: druid/enc/bst etc) buffs to do. I'd expect that a 2boxed mage/bard (with two mercs) to do better than 40 OT mobs if the mage was really getting everything out of the bard (easier said than done, the skill-cap for this is actually pretty high compared to other twobox setups because the bard can regularly kick out a ton of swarm pets which allows the mage to use their Of Many line). If a top-level mage was just using a bard to pull + melody + epic + fierce eye + quicktime + vainglorious/boastful, I think 40 OT mobs in 30 minutes is again on the top end of what you'd expect. That being said, Dichotomic Companion is a big disappointment, it'd be much better if the duration was doubled. However it definitely has its uses as another way to heal + offload tanking responsibility to a swarm pet as long as it didn't offload tanking responsibility to the mage.
Can I hijack this thread just a little? 105 mage returning after 3 years away and I am overwhelmed. Other than the obvious--grinding to 110 asap--any have any more tips? I was an end-game raider when I retired but it's shocking how much you forget in 3 years. Any must-have items that I should prioritize as a mage (other than an EM earring--I'm going to buy one straightaway)?
You asked about EM in your other thread, but to keep everything in one place, here's my answer: According to your Magelo, you have EM 23 (Os Avus). The highest group EM is only 19, so you're still far ahead of anything you can obtain without raiding. In terms of upgrades, EoK's pet ear, Compressed Copper Stud, is EM 24 and drops from the Queen raid. RoS has two pet ears, Prickle, which drops from Overthere, and Summoner's Phlogiston Earring, which can be made by using Summoner's Conflagrant Earring (a group TS item) and two Flawless Conflagrant Diamonds (six drop from every RoS raid). Both RoS ears are EM 25. For mechanical changes, this might help. RoS was basically a copy/paste upgrade. The only exception is Elemental Union, which now stacks (and is multaplicative) with Heart of Flames and should, as such, be used in conjunction with your main burn. Item wise, Tome of Obulus has a nice proc for soloing, although 2HB's are still better DPS. There are new Type 5 augs you can buy via currency from RoS missions, but those are fairly time consuming and just give extra Heroic Stats. Progression from EoK and RoS would probably be good to do. There are Sarnaks in the last EoK zone (Kor-Sha Lab) and a few RoS zones/missions that cast really harmful AEs/spells. Having EoK progression done blocks those abilities (the achievement is Essence of the Dragon I). RoS progression will get you keyed for Veeshan's Peak. It has a pretty good 2HB, Jeweled Sarnak Focus of the Elemental Deathseeker, which can be upgraded to a raid 2HB with only one Flawless Conflagrant Diamond. I'd probably recommend getting a Conflagrant BP too, as the click on it is far better than the TDS robe click, and the focus is better at 110. That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm happy to answer specific questions about things.
Heart of flames lasts nearly 6 minutes now, so it should be used often during group play. As Sancus said, Elemental Union is now used in conjunction with Heart. Theft of Essence is a nice boost for pet defense and offense, it procs off of Storm/Volley or Annihilation. It is an aura that lasts around 3-4 minutes. I recommend keeping it on at all times.
Perhaps I wasn't too clear with my question above. I was referring to giving pet attunable gear as it was described previously in this post. Fanra's site states the following: http://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Talk:Pet_gear You can give your pet various dropped gear. Attunable gear will automatically be converted to no-trade & therefore destroyed once the pet zones, which includes being suspended ... but the pet will not destroy visible armor. So is this still accurate?
Thanks for the definitive answer. The uncertainty for non-vis attunable pet gear has been gnawing at me for a long time.
With relation to gear for pets. Does the water pet benefit from backstab mods you find on some chain gear?
