So I made a mage to be my main on mangler and he is currently 35. I keep hearing people say how OP mage pets are and my question is, what am I missing? I have the lvl 31 water pet and I have the stein finished for bonuses plus burnout 2, but my pet still can't solo a blue even with my best dmg shield on him. I have to nuke the mob half way or the pet gets destroyed. I remember back in 2004 when I played last my pet could easily solo a blue but I wouldn't get decent xp unless I nuked it also. What am I doing wrong? Do my stats help the pet in any way? Is there some classic gear I am missing other than the stein to help with pet bonuses? Also the stein only adds a bit of health to the pet correct? No level bonus or stat bonuses right?
At your level, my guess is that one magician pet is not "over powered", but a group of six magicians sending six pets at a mob can be looked at as "over powered".
TLP servers don't showcase Mage OP'ness very well because you need to unlock the pet AAs to really see it. Once you get your pet to the point where it tanks as good or better than most PC tanks, you will functionally have 2 classes in one. Until that point its actually rough to crawl your way up the ladder. I don't know how autogrant works on TLP but you may need to be cautious about leveling up past your pet AAs. When I was lvling up my first mage, I got myself into a situation where I leveled up too fast and didnt purchase pet AAs. Then my pet couldnt tank the mobs that were now blue to me. Point is, you may need to slow down lvling to keep your pet functional if TLP doesnt autogrant.
Also, try another element? Water is quite squishy (rouge), Air and Earth tank better, and Fire has a huge damage shield to compensate for the lower abilities as tank.
You're always going to have to nuke if you're just solo'ing, one nuke per mob (dark blue, sometimes a white con if you land it at the right time and/or get lucky with partial resists) should be plenty while throwing a less than ideal, efficiency-wise, pet heal here and there. Also to note, a dark blue to you at 35 may not be dark blue to your level 31 pet, which is probably lower than the level you get the actual spell. You may not feel very powerful when your pet can't solo a mob by itself, but you're still leaps and bounds above other classes in solo power. Whereas you can go through let's say 5 mobs before needing to stop and rest, a rogue or ranger will more than likely have downtime between each mob. You'll be a very welcome addition to any group, especially if you are attentive with your pet and when you get a feel for when to nuke to be most efficient, for both damage and mana. Water will tend to be pretty squishy in the lower levels. Like Ibliz mentioned, the fire pet's ds is pretty gnarly and accounts for a good bit of damage. Throw in his nukes and melee, when you put it in range, and they can put out some damages. They are squishier than water pets though. Air and earth will be the beefier ones, air with stuns and earth with roots. You'll probably be seeing a lot of earth pets around. Stopping that mob in the basement of Unrest from running up into the main building and calling some friends to help them is quite a bonus, as an example. Epic pet is a whole 'nother beast that comes with it's own pro's and con's. The advice about AA is a long way off and not very effective for a level 35 mage to worry about. Mangler is still in classic and won't see the beginnings of AA until next year, and even then it's the basic foundation of the deep sea of advancement ahead of you in your mageing career. It's still good advise, but for a later time. Since Mangler has focus effects disabled, does that affect the 4 focus items?
theres more than enough people on the TLPs where you should never have to worry about pet being able to solo anything because you should be in a group. When I make groups on my Warrior after I get the Enchanter I look to fill with Mages for DPS.
@Arhok There is no pet renewal spell on classic. Those didn't come out until Kunark so I have no way of healing my pet which is part of my problem.
I played a mage out the gate when EQ came out and yes it was tough compared to now. I never used water unless grouped or kiting(if sowed by shammy or druid) with taunt turned off. Earth was usually first pick unless outleveled by higher air or fire pet. Air was a 2nd choice, and then Fire. The real trick was learning how much time it would take to recast a new pet right before your present one dies. I would start casting a new one around 5% to 10% life left and have one pop up as the first died. I've managed fights using that method but I also had to carry a lot of Malachite... >< When grouped and we had a tank I always had taunt off and didn't use earth. The root would always aggro the mob off the tank. Water was great choice especially if kept behind the mob, Air was kinda 'meh' hit or miss on getting an interrupt.
Oh the joy of typing /pet get lost, cast new pet, and then press enter a second before the cast completed .
