Returning player.. 85 Heroic Mage.. Need Help!!

Discussion in 'Casters' started by Toxicus, Mar 30, 2014.

  1. Toxicus New Member

    Hello everyone!

    I have just returned from not playing since 2007. After talking in general chat for a while, I finally decided I would use my free Heroic upgrade on a Mage. The only issue now? I'm lost!

    So this is some info I am looking for
    - As a brand new 85 Mage with all this Heroic gear and AA's, what should my spell line up be if I'm looking to solo content?
    - What utility does a Mage bring to the table for groups? Other than Damage of course.
    - What buff's can I provide myself and my pet?
    - I am a Gnome Mage, are there any recommended Trade Skills I should use?
    - As a lvl 85 Mage, what is one of the easier ways for me to bring in Plat to fund my character's progression?
    - Can you provide me with any hints, tips, shortcuts, etc... to make the life of a Mage more streamlined?

    Thanks in advance for any and all assistance! I greatly appreciate it :)
    Toxicus The Nubcake!

    EDIT: This is my only account, so I will not be boxing anything.
  2. Yedrin New Member

  3. onyuyan Augur

    Alright, so I’m gonna take a crack at answering some of these questions. I’m by no means an expert on the class, but here are my suggestions:

    Here is the spell lineup I would suggest (+/-)
    1: Rumbling Servant – Mage Swarm Pet; lasts for 18 seconds (plus extension AAs… maybe around 22 seconds or so?) with a 12 second refresh. This spell can be used for damage as well as off tanking for your pet. It is fairly mana costly though, so you have to be careful when using it
    2: Bolt of Molten Scoria – Biggest Mage DD at this level (surpassed by Spears later)
    3: Fickle Blaze – Second Mage DD; 25% chance to proc an increase in damage of your next fire DD, 1% chance to weaken fire DDs for a short period of time
    4: Twincast – 6 minute reuse; allows you to cast two damage spells every time you cast for 18 seconds (be careful, you will generate a ton of agro without spell casting subtlety).
    5: Thaumatize Pet: 2min 30 sec-ish refresh; increases mana regen for 45-ish seconds
    6: Burning Pyroshroud: 5 +/- min damage proc for pet (probably optional unless you need extra DPS)
    7: Promised Rejuvination: 18 second delayed very large pet heal; useful for oh crap situations or if merc dies
    8: Aegis of Kildrukaun: Gives a 9 hit block on pet; useful for oh crap situations before you get the AA
    9: Renewal of Cadwin: Pet heal… pretty small heal, but useful if merc dies
    10: Wand of Etheral Transvergence: Summons Mod Rod… Probably unnecessary unless you’re having mana issues, more of a stopgap before you get the AA
    11: Chaotic Boon: 11 +/- min buff that lets DDs also heal pet; optional – pretty negligible effect
    12: Etheral Symbiosis: 10 +/- min mana regen self buff

    With mage spells, there are only 6 or so spells that are must haves, and the rest are situational. I use slot 12 to switch to other spells when the need arises. Some other spells you may need:
    • Malosenea: Resist debuff… Most mages I know use the AA because it is more reliable, even though the debuff is weaker
    • Mala: This is an unresistable debuff… the AA is almost never resisted but this could be necessary at some point
    • Circle of Dreamfire: AFAIK the 81/84 mage DS only have about a 30 min duration so you will have to refresh this often
    • Rathe’s Strength: This will increase the damage mod on pets around your pet (especially RS pets) by 10% (burnout already does this for your pet). Arcan Distillect is a 15% mod, but it centers around you rather than your pet, and the range is limited.
    My suggestion would be to set up a multibind key (info here: http://www.eqmagetower.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=100) with Rumbling Servant, then Bolt of Molten Scoria, then Fickle Blaze, then the AA called Force of Elements. Then create a second key that has all of those except Rumbling Servant.

    Here’s a brief overview of the levels ahead (only at 96 so can’t speak for 100, but it’s similar to 95):
    90:
    You will get a spear, so now your weave should be RS, Spear, Bolt, Fickle, Force of Elements. Also you will get a very powerful short term DS through the surge line (the 85 one won’t work on your pet), you will get Aegis and Mod Rods as AAs, and you will get Gather Potential (large mana pump).
    95:
    If you want, you can finally start using Rain spells (weave would be RS, rain, rain, spear, spear/bolt, force). These are AoE spells, meaning they will hit everything around your target. This makes them situational (and you have to make sure your pet has agro on all the mobs), but they are way more mana efficient than the costly spear line.
    • Your pet can tank most content (would probably go with earth, or maybe air), as long as no one goes into melee range
    • You have some of the best Damage Shields in the game (especially with surge)
    • Resist Debuffs – Malo is really important
    • Offtank – RS pet, your main pet, or your host of elements AA can offtank if necessary
    • Pet toys – mage pets come summoned with pet gear, but necro pets (and maybe other pets too?) really benefit from your summoned pet gear
    Pet Buffs:
    • Burnout VIII – Very important; Pet haste/stat buff
    • Rathe’s Strength – Pet aura; increases swarm pet strength
    • Circle of Dreamfire: Group DS
    • Iceflame Efflux: Very important buff; It has a damage proc with a recourse called prism skin, which blocks the next 2 hits the pet takes
    • Burning Pyroshroud: Damage proc buff
    • Tiny Companion: Should be a clicky on your ear… Shrinks pet to a more manageable size
    • Velocity – Makes your pet run faster (optional); pets are supposed to come presummoned with this but it’s clear they don’t

    Self Buffs:
    • Shield of the Void: Self HP/AC buff
    • Empyrean Guardian: Mana/HP Regen self buff
    • Hulking Bodyguard: Self buff that summons a short duration (6 seconds? +swarm pet AAs) earth pet if mobs hit you (limited counters). Can be very useful; earth pets can root
    • Chaotic Boon: Lets DDs heal pet
    • Ethereal Symbiosis: Mana Regen self buff
    • Perfected Levitation (AA): Makes you levitate
    • Armor clickies: A bunch of your non-visibles will have clicky buffs
    *Skipping tradeskill question*
    Go kill some stuff in beza/zeka… will give you xp and the loot sells a lot at vendors. Also, especially more into the 90s, kill some named mobs in T1 HoT/VoA/RoF/CotF where the loot is tradable… that stuff sells well in the bazaar and the named aren’t too challenging.

    Gear won’t be as important to you as other classes. I’d recommend running some HA’s (with a group probably, they’re soloable at 85 as a mage but it’s a struggle), which will give you marks of valor to buy top tier gear from Underfoot (don’t spend money on this gear), HoT, VoA, and CotF. I’d buy the Robe (and maybe the 2H primary) from each expansion (the robe has an RS duration extension), and buy some arms from the bazaar with a focus effect that goes to level 100.

    There are a ton of AAs to go over, but here are some of the useful ones:
    Offense:
    • Frenzied Burnout
    • Virtulent Talon (Lvl 95)
    • First Spire
    • Fire Core
    • Improved Twincast (Lvl 90)
    • Silent Casting (especially when twincasting)
    • Spell Casting Subtlety (must have; doesn’t come with heroic character)
    • Quick Damage (I believe there is one rank not maxed out)

    Pet Stuff:
    • Host of Elements: Use this for offtanking; it’s temporary, but it can really help
    • Fortify Companion: This is a must have… it makes a really big difference in your pet’s tanking (also be sure to max out all pet defensive AAs)
    • Companion of Necessity: This is one of the most useful AAs you can get. It will mez and then memblur up to 3 mobs. Beyond the obvious uses (a bad pull, when your pet dies, etc), you can experiment with it and even use it for splitting and pulling
    • Replenish Companion: Basically an instant, giant pet heal

    Other Stuff:
    • Large Mod Shard (lvl 90): Very useful for mana
    • Fade hotkey (remember your merc will not fade and you must be out of range of the mob and your pet must be alive):
    • Call of the Hero: You need a regent, but this AA is very useful for transporting your group, and it can be used for pulling in some very creative ways

    Items:
    • Runemaster’s Robe: This is the OoW T1 Robe (T2 is from anguish, haven’t gone there yet). This gives a 30 second 50% damage mod bonus to your pet every 5 minutes. It is definitely a struggle to get the faction and the drops for this (one of the drops is from raid mobs that only spawn every few days), but it is definitely helpful if you put in the time
    • Vicious Rabbit: This is from the loyalty vendor in the PoK… It’s a rabbit swarm pet that does decent DPS
    • EM Focuses: Get the very best EM focus you can. Your character comes with EM 5. There is an EM 6 ear from the level 85 group vendor in Ethernere West Karana and a tradable EM 8 ear from the bazaar. EM 8 should carry you through level 92 when you can buy an EM 12 focus, which is the best you can get until 98 and probably fine until 100 (where you’d get EM 15 from Mass of Spite in Neriak).
    • Twincast Rk. II: Twincast is still relevant at level 100, so at some point it is probably worth your time to either ask someone with faction to buy the Rk. II for you or to get faction to buy it from the vendor in Oceangreen Village (IIRC)

    Pet choices:
    For soloing, I’d use either the earth or air pet. Here is the breakdown:
    Earth: The main tank pet… Has the most HP and tankiness, but the least damage of the pets. It can root, but this is pretty unreliable. I’d use this pet for names, tough group content, and multiple mobs (where air pet stuns are less effective).
    Air: The air pet has less hit points than the earth pet, but it uses stuns so it gets hit less overall. It also handles agro better than the earth pet and does more damage. The 81 air pet will stun up to level 90, making it the best choice for most content around that level. However, starting with the 86 air pet also only stuns up to 90 (91 stuns up to 95, 96 stuns up to 100), reducing the usefulness against high level mobs.

    For grouping with a real tank I’d use either air or water:
    Water: does the most damage of the pets when fully buffed, but will limit its use as an offtank (less hp)
    Air: Can stun, helping mitigate damage on the tank and can also offtank. However, you lose some DPS compared to the water pet.

    So that’s a lot of stuff… Hopefully you can digest it. If you have any more questions/clarifications, please ask.
    Hogarth, Delphwind, Quatr and 6 others like this.
  4. Toxicus New Member

    Oh my dear lord!! Now THAT is what I call a well thought out response! I can't thank you enough!

    Now to take it all in and actually apply it in-game!
  5. Qest T. Silverclaw Augur

    Enchanter charmed pets benefit the most from Mage toys as without a 2nd weapon, most of them will not dual-wield. But, NEVER give a charmed pet summoned jewelry! It has Magic Resistance stats which will cause the charm to break more often!

    I didn't read the whole thing yet as my Magician is set aside for now because I'm having too much fun with my Enchanter. But, I really appreciate the work you put into that! I'll save it for later.
    fransisco likes this.
  6. Tessiebessie New Member

    This was a fabulous write up. Thanks so much for taking the time. I learned a lot and will now be able to play my HC mage more effectively.
  7. Random_Enchanter Augur

    For tradeskills they are optional, however i personaly would max all of them as there are some rather nice quests and clickys out there that are created as a result of tradeskills.
    Noteworth items are Prayer Shawl of the Duke, Merchant's Brew, Merchant's Feast, Repeating Crossbow(use during spell cool down). There also exists the COTF gear, and infused items that are very nice to have and exist within ~90% top ranked power level for gear for about 10% of the cost

    There is also the ability to make a MASSIVE amount of money from tradeskills, but these are easter eggs that i will leave you to find
  8. Toxicus New Member

    First - If I altered my original post to include that write up, this should be stickied! That response was fantastic!

    On my 64 Shaman I am GM Alchemy, and 200 Jewelcrafting. As well as over 100 in most of the other skills.

    Is EQTraders still a viable option for trade skill leveling guides? Or has some other site taken the throne for the end-all-be-all trade skill site?
  9. Random_Enchanter Augur

    the guides still exist but are rather outdated depending on the tradeskill - JC/pottery haven't realy changed, Fletching/Brewing got some nice combines to make 300 faster, baking/smithing/tailoring got easy modes to 300 implemented. Alchemy got new stuff to make thus making it much more useful, it now does some stuff better than most classes. Tinkering is still a pain, but there are some realy cool items that result from it (Goo Gun!!). Poison making just adds utility but for the most part does the stuff that clickys can do slightly better.

    Between EQTC and Allas/EQresource you should beable to find what yoru looking for, if not drop into the serverwide tradeskill channal and ask.