How is Mage Tanking Post Hot

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Trex, Oct 27, 2019.

  1. Trex Journeyman

    Thinking about maining a Mage for the new server. One of the draws for me is I like to DPS at raids but I want to be able to tank with my three box group with the wife. She will play a bard and box a cleric. I want to play the Mage as the Main tank with the Pet. How good is the Tank Pet/Swarm pets for tanking group content for Hot and beyond. We really don't want to play a normal tank and rather not use a merc tank. Is this douable without much issue? Or does the Mage pet hit a wall in the future and we will be stuck progressing on flags/augs ect. Also do mage pets get the ability to slow mobs via melee strikes or buffs or aa's in anyway? I know beastlord pets do, just curious if mage pets go also.

    As a side note, how is beastlord for a grouping standpoint as the slower? We are also thinking a cleric/beastlord/and some form of tank (SK, War, Pal). How would this fair in flagging, group content (with 3 dps mercs).
  2. Machen New Member

    Mage pet tank is fine in the group game, especially with raid focus. Should be a very workable trio.
  3. Houseofpain New Member

    In alot of ways mage pets tank better than actual tanks in the group game. With aa's you will be able to drop 3 mitigation shields on the pet every 2 mins and a massive one(companions fortification) every 10. Add to this in the first 10-20% of a mobs health your rampaging servant will be taking most of the damage your pet will be very survivable. The only drawback to mage pets is multiple mobs as they can sometimes get tied up with one and not want to engage adds for you.
    Xanathol likes this.
  4. Numiko Augur

    Pet will tank fine with a decent EM item and your pet AA's done, your only trouble as a mage is lack of CC, but if your wife wants to play a bard you have that taken care of as well.
  5. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    Mage pets in House of Thule were awesom, they were also used for tanking raid mobs.
  6. Trex Journeyman

    Do mage pets get some form of aoe taunt? or have a way to pick up adds?
  7. Morthakia Augur

    Nope. One of their biggest shortcomings.
  8. Chuuk Augur

    In my opinion, mage will tank nearly as well 1-v-1 as a similarly geared/AA'd SK.

    Multiple targets is definitely an issue.
  9. Morthakia Augur

    As someone who has boxed a mage and an SK on every expansion from HOT to Live:

    Mage pet is superior when the tank is undergeared and you’re only fighting 1 target a time. As the tank fills out gear, augs, AAs, and everything else required ... the tank ultimately because substantially better than the pet at both single target and multi-target. This is true even with a group geared tank. However, starting out, the pet will outperform the tank.
  10. Trex Journeyman


    Well let me ask you this. We are ONLY going to three box. CLeric/bard and either mage or SK/Warrior. Would we be able to accomplish more with the mage or the Tank. Which will be faster experience and will there be any limitations to flagging with the mage or Sk (maybe we dont have the DPS to complete flag mission or the pet isnt tankish enough). I see the cleric bard mage as being a big jump in dps....but I see the Sk/warrior combo as safer. But I dont mind being less safe if I can do things fast...but not at the cost of not being able to do everything group related.
  11. Morthakia Augur

    It comes down to how much effort you want to put into the tank. If you’re willing to do everything you can to make the tank as beefy as possible, it will ultimately be a vastly superior option in terms of flexibility to take on various types of content, both in HoT and later expansions. With a mage you’ll be able to do all of the open world stuff (experience group, named, merc quests, etc.). You will eventually hit a wall with some particular missions that will be too difficult for the pet to handle. At this point you can either bring friends or just do something else....

    So up to you. I will say that while the mage pet is viable, it requires a lot more healing than a fully decked out SK/War, which will in some cases require you to have multiple healers or be healing/casting runes from the mage. So for maximum DPS, do a tank and bring just 1 healer — but be prepared to put in the time.
  12. Xanathol Augur

    Short version:
    Mage - loot 1 raid item, pet out tanks group geared tank.
    Tank - fill all slots and augs with group gear, maybe tank equal to mage pet.
  13. Machen New Member


    As others have said, the mage will get you there faster. There are tradeoffs either way. Assuming they don't add the aug quests or just give you augments, it will be a LOT of time and work farming all the AC augs you will need for the SK/War. Until you do that, the tank is going to be on the weak side even with the starting gear. But especially since you are planning to raid on this character, in the long run, few things make group content trivial the way a raid geared tank does. In the long run, the raid geared tank will give your group better survivability and flexibility, but you are going to give up some DPS in exchange.

    Either set up is going to work fine ultimately for you to progress and do most or all of the group content you want to do. Which ever way you go, there will be a few fights each expansion where you will think, "This fight would be so much easier if I had played the other class instead!" Mage pet tank makes some boss ae's trivial, while on the other hand, the SK is going to be much better at handling encounters where the boss spawns lots of unmezzable adds.
  14. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    We're gonna do a Bloody Kithicor raid to get all the servers' mages a raid EM item off the bat right? ;)
  15. Kimidri New Member

    I'd be interested in how mage pets are now I'm thinking starting playing again , I not played for about 5 years but mage was ways my main from 2000
    At times my pet did tank raids but I was heavily raid geared with raid pet focus and a ton of pet AA
    I did try playing when the tlp servers first started few years ago but everyone seemed be a mage guessing they had some kinda boost in low end as in 2000 wasnt that many mages running around;)
  16. TLP Addict Augur

    Being a cloth class, I would imagine quite poor.
  17. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Determined to go Cleric / Bard I would say it depends on if you plan to have a large amount of playtime or only a casual amount.

    Lots of time to play get a real tank, Probably Shadowknight - gear investment is a serious commitment
    Casual time - go with the Mage Pet Tank this requires far less time farming specific gear like AC augments.

    Just my opinion but:
    Best support for a Shadowknight is Bard & Shaman
    Best support for a Mage is Druid & Enchanter