I've been jumping back and forth between my mage and sk this last week, trying to decide on one to stick with. I like both classes. That said, I've heard that the RoF mage pets are very powerful. I'm curious what kind of gear/ AAs would be equivalent to the focused mage pet in RoF? Tier 2 gear and 2k aas? Just wondering since I don't know if I'd want to stick with the sk if it's going to take 4x as much work just to almost be as good.
Any player taking hits needs gear. They need AAs. That is the same for pets. However, SOE makes it so gearing up pets is easier (considering the Magician needs all the same gear as a tank would), they also do not give pets anywhere near the same type or amount of AAs. Meaning the tank will be required to gain more AAs by design. So, yes going the pet route is easier. However equally geared/AAed tanks tank circles around pets. They can also hold aggro with melee in range whereas pets can not. Not to mention a SK has great abilities to keep them alive while tanking. They have self healing where the pet does not. They also gain AAs (with the appropriate gear) at a much faster rate then a Magician could. It all depends on personal preference. There are some terrible Mages out there that will make pet tanking look ridiculously hard, there are also some terrible SKs out there that will make SKs look god awful. Play what feels right.
Getting a pet able to tank is at least four times easier. Far fewer aa's and only one piece of gear needed (an ear ring with enhanced minion), compare that to a tank. Tanks need much more of everything. Higher aa count, every slot with the latest gear, and every slot with ac augs. It takes allot of work to bring up a tank. Anyone telling you otherwise is padding the truth to say the least.
The clincher is that pets can only tank in a ranged group; if that's your plan (i.e. exclusively boxed or solo) then yes, it is much easier to gear up for a pet tank. You are still going to need a lot of AAs for the mage, as you need their dps and utility AAs as well as those that contribute to the pet, and gear and spells as well. Given a clean choice, I'd always take a player tank over a pet tank (I mostly play a mage). But a mage lets you take random groups with success.
Pets have 3 large issues compared to tanks 1. Pet damage is alot more spikey than many tanks. 2. Pets cant really handle adds well. They don't have aoe or agro affects. And they love to let things hit them from behind without moving 3. Nobody can be in melee range with a pet tanking. That means you cannot use a rogue, berserker, monk, ranger, beastlord, bard, warrior, paladin, or shadow knight to melee. 3a. That also means if someone has agro, the pet (which has no instant agro abilities) cannot regain agro until it both has gotten agro, and all players are out of range.
Lots of things already pointed out in the above posts. Most important (IMO) being no player / merc can be in melee range of the mob, or they will be hit over the pet. As a pet class, you also need to work on more AAs for the pet defensives, and to up your DPS / survivability. Picking between the 2 should be easy, what do you like playing more? Very different classes.
If you want to be able to fill the tank role in as many situations as possible your always going to way to choose a tanking class IMO (War, Pal or SK). Mage pets can tank, but it limits your groups in very important ways. (See above.) However, if you want to be primarily a dps class that solos well and can use their pet to tank in a small number of circumstances then I would stick with the mage.
A friend of mine switched to a mage, seemingly full time now. His mage is purely group geared and has over 5k AA's. I'm impressed how well the pet tanks and how quickly mobs go down. It tanks better than the mercs for his level. He actually prefers his pet to tank but when I'm hanging out with him, he will switch to a merc tank so I can at least contribute a little to the group being I play a melee character. There is one exception though he has me stand back while he swaps back to the pet when he takes on named mobs. I think he over the weekend dinged 100. I've considered dropping my group of characters I play to go with a similar group that he has.
A lot changes from expansion to expansion both for the pets and for the group tanks as well. In Voa it was not hard for a mag to get an earring from a T4 zone, while group tanks like the SK had problems tanking many names while wearing gear from one level down.
