Question about Mage DDs. Currently I am 3 boxing a Mage/SK/Bard.(level67) I have some basic hotkeys set up for the Mage to blast away after I have aggro established. I have been using the fire los bolts. I start the double blast macro when mob is at 65% or so. The long casting is perfect for that. Those spells hit harder than any other I have. Not sure why I would use anything else? Maybe (likely), I am missing something? Also, when is a good time to look for pet focus items? I have read some stuff about them but still new to the game and haven't run accross anything yet. Thanks
Depending on your worn focus effects, Bolt may not be your hardest hitting spell. Specifically, Rain of Jerikor (which hits three times against one target) may be higher damage than Bolt of Jerikor. The rain is certainly more when there are two or more targets, since it gets four hits. It's also less mana. There is the downside that rains are unsafe to use around mezzed mobs. At 70 there's another rain spell Star Scream that'll be worth looking at. Anyhow, eventually the bolts are not the hardest hitting spells. So when they're not, then you'd cast the other stuff to hit hard. You also cast other things when some factor other than hitting hard is your primary motivator. Like when cast time matters or mana efficiency or mobs resist fire or the bolt is being eaten by furniture in the way, whatever.
It's sad how my preconceived ideas can hurt my game play. I have an AOE on my bar and do use it when I get more than 1 mob. I have never ever considered using it on a single mob. Simple math dictates that maybe I should. Thanks for the info. Can't believe I completely missed it.
I made the same mistake, slowhand. I don't recall AoE's doing super good, mana-effecient damage until the lev 97 Rain of Blistersteel jumped from 6k (from the level 92 one), to 15k!!!!! for the lev 97 rain. There was no big jump in mob hp (like there is in TDS) at the time to warrant that. I guess the devs just decided to make rains more effective, given their challenge in use I love the concept of rains, as a grouper/solo'er. You need to pay attention to pet aggro, mez/roots, and everything else to use them effectively. Nothing is more fun than backing your pet back from an off-tanking gargoyle swarm, so that you can still rain on 2 mobs and not hit the 3rd so you won't rip aggro from your off-tank Sometimes I stand my mage in my own rains (they will hurt you but not your pet, mercs, or groupmates) just because I'm a bad.a.s.s edit: oh and spears will always be much bigger, faster damage than bolts, at a much bigger mana cost. I've always kept 1 spear and 1 bolt memmed (where the spear and bolt will be off cooldown by the time you've worked in 2 rains, a servant, and a salvo into your dps rotation) unless against a named, although some mages only use multiple ranks of spears. I'll oom too fast with just spear spamming pet focus items have been around so long I forget which was my first, I believe it was The Sweeper (lv 65). You can buy an earring with a really good focus (for the level) from the loyalty vendor in PoK if I recall (elegant summoner's earring, lv 70). I googled and found this http://www.eqmagetower.com/wiki/PetInfo/PetFoci, might help. From lev 60-70 onward you still should try for the best pet focus you can get, even after they were nerfed, because they still matter when it comes to swarm (rampaging servant line) off-tankability and their damage
As a wizard, Ive always loved rains. At mid levels there was even a stage where we could use 2 at once! (tears of ro and any other) If focus affected them they would be the highest dps of all our spells; even on single target. And awesome efficient.
