Seriously, I spend more time sitting trying to get back mana/health, more than I do anything else in the game. I know this is the way EQ is designed. I know you can get clarity and pots and gear that will help with this, but I mostly play solo and have tried many times to get clarity and pots and only sometimes am I lucky enough to find someone to cast it on me. Mostly I spend hours surfing the internet while I wait to regain mana. It's starting to cause me to lose interest. I have two questions......Does this get better? Currently I'm level 13 mage. Second: Is there is a class that has less downtime than the others when soloing? A Ranger perhaps? Thank you
If you are out of combat, you will regenerate full health/mana in roughly three minutes as long as you are sitting (or mounted).
it get much better at higher levels with all the aa's and rods ( mage rods ) ect, I play a main shaman who are the best at regaining mana at higher levels with cannibalise and spiritual channeling , ect. I box a mage as well and it is not too bad for mana , with chanter buff, both mana return rods ( from mage ) , my alt chanter is not too bad as well, * my druid as a box is the one who got harder time to manage mana. and will be the one going oom faster . but I can kill a lot of mobs before one of my toons going oom.
Try the guild lobby in PoK for buffs, you may need to offer a donation for them. I think around 45? Maybe a bit higher you can get a chanter to cast KEI on you and it lasts 3+hrs depending on their aas and gear. Itll do you right through to 70 or so getting a KEI before heading out and helps a lot.
You should buy a mount. Then you can get full mana regen while fighting. Otherwise you are standing and casting for a very low mana regen.
Stick with it - it gets better as you level - your mana pool right now is minuscule, and you likely have little to no mana conservation items. You'll also need to put it in to context: at level 13 you'll blow through mana quicker per kill but the XP you gain is proportionately large, whereas at higher levels you'll be able to kill more before you deplete your mana, but the XP gain per kill is proportionately smaller.
@ slobbergoat , what server are you playing? if in firiona vie , I can get you a very fast mount for free there . and some more things. btw do you have a merc ? at lower level they will basically kill mobs for you and don't even need heals. one of the best buff at lower level is damage shield , on you, your pet and merc , try to get the best one avail for your level ( like mage level 47 ds ).or druid ds. *a shaman can cast their AA talisman of celerity , haste { will last like 70min ). *chanter mana regen buff , ect.
As a levelling mage, getting the most out of your mana-bar is part of the challenge. You will have to constantly adjust your approach, and vary which of your tools you use. Identify your resource pools, their recovery rates, and how much xp you get out of using them, pr hour. A few pointers: pet hp regen is a lot faster than your mana regen. If you can have your pet do a large part of the work for you, you can sit and med, and have the pet regen back to full very fadt. This requires you to focus on blue mobs, to make sure you have the best pet possible, that you keep it buffed and have DS on, and that you get pet focus when possible. At high levels, when you have a gazillion AA, good gear, etc etc, kepping mana up becomes much easier. A special tool for mages is pet reclamation, I can fill up my manabar in less than a minute. Having said that, EQ is not easy. It is designed for grouping. Having two in the group halves the healing need (mob dies tvice as fast), so that resource is suddenly doubled, for the same ammount of xp. Classes bring synergies and specializations, all adding to the potential of having a great team.
You are so right. At level 13 recovery time is terrible. And as a mage? Really long recovery time since they are all about mana. Some good tips listed above to help. I like going thru quests in the hero's journey since they are at a slower pace and seem to allow time to regen while doing other steps in the quests. Just bear it and grin till you get higher level - it gets much much better and you will impress your self with your killing ability later.
If you are mostly solo, it might be a good idea to set up another account and try boxing. I.e. pair your mage with a chanter or a bard.
With a tank merc, leveling a mage to 20 takes 3ish hours in Crescent Reach. No PL'ing, just solo - oh, I did have a mount to /claim and some plat from Loyalty Vendor to buy newest pets as I went. Conq
Be glad you weren't a bard in the early days... 20 minutes recovery time to go from 0 to 100% mana, just so you can do 3 fades and do it all over again!
I play a Ranger and with a healer merc I have little downtime. When boxing with my secondary account tank I have even less. My Necro takes longer to kill due to the nerf job done on the class, back in the day our spells were much more powerful, BUT I never have to med. Hit the target with snare dots ect and let it chase me around while pet beats the heck out of it. Once the mob dies I'm generally at full mana. Now the problem I'm having at the moment with Necro is finding level appropriate zones to agro kite but that is due to my 15 year vacation from the game and will work itself out eventually.
