I'm playing a Magician right now, which seems to be pretty fun... but I'm getting lost quickly as I level up. My first issue is that I understand that I'm suppose to give my pets weapons/armor (the whole foci thing is beyond me for now which is fine). My problem is though, when i summon the gear, I have no clue how to give it to my pet. I could spend 5 minutes trying to trade it and be unsuccessful. I just keep getting asked if I want to drop the gear on the ground instead of a trade window popping up. Is there a trick to this? I'm actually trying right now with my air pet unsuccessfully. I'm starting to lost in my spell rotation. Leveling up, I would just send in my pet with a tank merc and the two would destroy things, and it wouldn't matter much what I was casting. As I level up, its becoming more important. Do I bother putting our little DoT on it? or just nuke away? This is for normal group play...i haven't done any kiting or anything like that. Are there any lower level magician resources? The only other one I found is concentrated on level 75-100 mostly. Thanks!
With a tank merc you will probably level far too fast to concern yourself with pet focus or even gearing the pet. At level 65, (you can get buffed with best ROF buffs) is a good time to stop and collect some AA, - Pet affinity and pet discipline should be near the top of your list. In order to give items to your pet you open a trade window with them as you would an NPC or player (only 4 slots) they won't use no trade items. Some time past level 70, look for pet focus you will want items with Enhanced Minion 1 or better, also about this time your merc tank will be less the mass killer and become susceptible to mobs without a healer, you will need to consider changing to a merc healer so as to keep your pet up. As mages have the best Damage shields in the game, keep one on your pet, unless a higher one has been cast on it. Nukes and or your pet is where your power lies, develop them both.
Thanks! I find out my problem with not being able to trade with my pet. I had "Click through pets" enabled in my options Is it necessary to give your pet a full suit of Phantom armor everytime? I'm in the lv 50's atm. And I was told by the trustworthy General chat in game that I'll almost always use Air pet (make ure Damage shield is on it). Is that accurate?
The only things I would worry about giving your pet for the moment, is weapons and worn haste armor. Until you switch to pet tanking somewhere between 60-70. Then give em all the armor.
Oh wow, I had the same problem on my necro with the whole not being able to give them anything and seeing Sayntess' comment about "Click through pets" I totally did a /facepalm. Thanks!
It's not absolutely necessary to give your pets a full set, but it does help their damage mitigation. If you have the time, it's probably best to summon armor and (once you are high enough) some of the focus jewelry. As for the pet type, Air Pet has the advantage of being able to stun opponents. This reduces the damage they take and increases their aggro a bit, and can be noticable against caster mobs. Some people prefer other types for various reasons. Earth is the quintessential tank (high HPs and AC, but less avoidance), Water is a rogue-type (so decent DPS), Fire is a wizard (nukes for additional DPS, has a built-in DS, but can't take as many hits as the other pets, so...) Different mages have different preferences, but Air is the most common pet most mages end up sticking with.
General advice above is good, and covers a lot of the important areas. Up to level 49, the fire pet is a great solo pet, thanks to it's damage shield; it is low in hp, but a cleric buff can take care of that. However, most of the time to 61+ you will be using a tank merc, so the pets DS won't be of use. Just buy and use the first pet out of each series (e.g. Greater Summoning), but be aware that the earth pet is lower melee dps, and roots, so you may get hit it you stand closer than your merc. In the 71+ range, magician pets come summoned with gear; you just need to give them weapons (and, I think, a haste mask). At lower levels, you can give them a full set of armor and focus items as well; below 61, thanks to the tank merc, there's little point in doing so. Pets equip the highest AC armor they are given, so choose if you want AC from the summoned bracers, or HP from the focus bracelets. Once you are 61, start to look for items with pet focus (lower level pets won't be affected, apart from the four quest items and some extremely rare drops - and the epic pet). Some of the purchasable earrings from Plane of Knowledge have decent focuses if there is nothing usable in the Bazaar.
and don't fokus on the DoTs, AFAIK they don't get any upgrades beyond Lvl 60. To be honest I don't know why SOE gave DoTs to MAG in the first place */shrug*
For the pets: - since MAG don't have snare the root from earthpet was once quite useful to keep the mob from running away at low health. But nowadays I don't think this is needed anymore. - the water pet backstabs when it hits the mob from behind - not as high as a ROG does, but quite decent. But you need a Tank that always turns the mobs back to your waterpet. And since a tank merc doesnt do that, using a waterpet with tankmerc or as tank-pet is quite pointless. But if you're in a group and have a cooperative tank, the waterpet can make quite some decent dps hiting from behind. - in higher lvls you get a spell that roots your pet (IIRC it also boosts you pets manaregen). So if you use firepet and that spell (named Earthen Stance or something?) it will stay at your side and do only range attacks - which are relatively high regarding firepet (compared to your other pets). But I don't have really any experiences with that tactic. I only saw it on some raids up to now. - the airpet has high avoidance and it stuns - which more or less compensates the lower AC and HP compared to earthpet. Does decent dps, the stuns also help when its not tanking - alltogether its the Jack-of-all-trades. Thats the reason why so many mages use it, I guess.
If you don't have a pet focus item, there's an item that higher level mages can get from their summoned Cauldron of Many Things, which has a single-shot pet focus ( http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=72353 )
I used the water pet instead of air when I was in my 60's farming AAs. I would get a damage shield in the lobby and I didn't want the mobs stunned. I wanted them beating on that damage shield as much as possible.
Just to clarify, the water pet now does backstab even when tanking (I.e., even when attacking from the front). You can see the backstab damage on gamparse when pet tanking with a water pet.
