Mage nerf..

New patch note:
- Fire pets between levels 51 and 60 will cast lower-damage spells until Planes of Power opens on that server so they better match the reduced damage that other pets do in those eras.

Seems not only mage nerfed, also this
- Beastlord, Paladin, Ranger, Shadowknight - Spell Casting Reinforcement no longer extends the duration of disciplines.

Well, the mage adjustment is a rather surgical thing obviously aimed at progression --where we remain far more powerful than any class was in era. If it made sense to make everything more difficult (which it probably doesn't) they could just reduce player damage by a large % across the board (but is done for some raid encounters). That's not even getting into how "not classic" the pet class experience is in these early eras.

It's funny, mages were seldom seen in the grouping/casual game on my original server. Raid guilds would have a few, but it wasn't until well after OoW that they became a common class (arguably the dominant class --it would be interesting if actual census data backed that impression). I'm sure other servers were different, but I am not sure if any class has been buffed more overall by direct and indirect changes to the game than magician.

SCR change sounds global (so into the live game too). I'm assuming there is a good reason for this, possibly as simple as some discs are shared and pure melee aren't itemized for SCR?

I played a mage in original EQ at the very beginning. It was the first character I took to level cap.

You are right. The experience then was radically different. Mages were a somewhat broken, red-headed step-child back then.

double post

My first main in classic was a Mage and there were a few things that sucked. No invis with pet. If invis broke in a dungeon you gated or died. No pets on zoning. Recasting all the time sucked. Pets agroing everything with their low level and no beta neutral faction also sucked. Those changes later made them 100x more fun to play.

I remember on most raids during Kunark/Velious, the mages weren't even allowed to spawn their pet on most of the stuff, worrying that they might agro some funky that would wipe the raid, which actually could happen a long the way.


But Call of the Hero was an awesome tool back then to be sure of a full agro clear as a FD class.

There were no such thing as an Icon with Swords/Hourglass to tell you if out - or still in combat, n'or a message telling you that your enemies has completely forgotten you.

I wish we used coth more. I remember frequently having to /q while pulling hate, and it took like 10 minutes to log back in in those days.