How strong are mages in their current state as far as being wanted in groups for dps, and maybe solo for farming some content? I know in Ragefire and Lockjaw back in the day, they were OP, but on Phinny were they toned down? Also, do they get stronger or weaker when PoP release?
Hi there ! Mages are not different per se on the three current Luclin era progression servers, same rules apply to all classes, to pets, to nukes, to aggro, etc. On Ragefire and Lockjaw, a mage might be more powerful in the sense it is very common to have support bots with you to assist pet (healing, buffing, slowing, and so on, which makes your pet's life easier and longer), so it can tank harder mobs than on Phinny where you'll have to rely on your mage only if you don't have different computers to box. Regarding PoP, my experience in original PoP -I don't know if things have been tuned down since as it was for GoD later on- as a mage was rather to feel weaker than in Luclin because pet had hard time tanking even in lower planes. There is a jump in how hard the average xp mob hits between Luclin and PoP ; despite pets got a huge level jump between the two expansions (in Luclin, a mage pet is level 48 unfocused, the epic pet is level 49 - in PoP, a mage pet is level 60 unfocused) and new pet heals also came with PoP, it was still a bit rough for pets to tank. Obviously, PoP mage pets can't tank anything in higher tier planes, no tables soloing for mages as do necs or wizzies in Fire in-era. Even with OoW pet it is hardly doable, I remember that too. But also in lower tiers, it won't be easy. Because pets have bad mitigation (the air pet has decent avoidance but not mitigation), a fat hitter is never good for them. On Ragefire and Lockjaw, where boxing is allowed, things will be different as every main mage will have his support boxes for "solo" xping/pet tanking. The positive side of things in PoP are the new pet toys which are really good, almost nothing in tradable loot for pet weapons matches those. The fists especially, which you can give even to low level pets as the proc req. level is low (10 iirc, not 100% sure), are outstanding and have a much higher proc rate than anything bazaar bought with a proc. So pets get a good boost in dps (a level closer to the level of what you are fighting and fast proccing weapons will mean better dps). And one powerful niche : elemental mez and charm. Mages will live in Bastion of Thunder for solo xp. To summarize, higher level pets, better dps pets, better dps and utilities for the mage himself (swarm pets, suspend pet AA), but that's not enough to make PoP pets decent tanks. One atypical exception, mez and charm xping like a chanter in BoT. In OoW things will get better but there will be no tanking revolution for pets, although the average xp mob will be more tankable (not in MPG though, mobs will hit too hard even for the new OoW pets which are level 65 unfocused). The big turn in mage power, the Sunrise every mage awaits, will be in DoD era with the gargoyle secondary pet ;-) But that's still very far ahead of us...
One thing to add. From the Aug 19, 2015 patch notes: So, pets will gain a HUGE defensive increase when LDON releases on each progression server. They will go from relatively weak in PoP to tanking gods in ldon.
You pick back up in DoN/TSS, dps wise, but will never be top 10 still on a good raid. By TBS you can dish some decent damage but end up being more utility than anything still...you will really notice your OPness in SoF when your pet is used to tank named mobs.
Gotcha. Does it mean when LDoN unlocks on TLP servers, pets will have again the defensive boni which were hugely boosted during SoF (I refer to the "Great Pet Patch") ?
Yes, although they were toned down a bit around a year ago. But they will still be much better than current.
@ Machen Great, thanks ! @ AgentofChange Yes, it's day and night compared to Velious, in the raiding department mages parse high on many fights, although you better train your Spell Casting Subtlety - I haven't yet and get summoned constantly, even with fire pet...
Since you asked so nicely, I'll give you some explanation. Parsing is not the sole contribution you offer your guild while raiding. If you think that as a mage, you should have rolled a wizzy or a ranger. What class are you playing on TLPs if I may ask ? For a mage, the first AA anyhow should be /pet hold. And after pet hold, I worked the Quick Summoning AA line to fasten cohs on raids which helps everyone.
