Why didn't mages get root?
 

What was the classic thinking here, all other pet classes do get root so root-chain petting doesn't seem to have been a valid concern for the developers.

You might think it was balance but really think it was more to be thematic, perhaps even channeling AD&D specialization where you choose to excel in one school (such as conjuration) but can't use any of the opposing school such as alteration (root).

I don't think was based on any other logic. Look at SKs for instance. Necromancers have better roots over their career than clerics but for some reason SKs can never even figure out to cast the first level root, yet paladins get several of that spell line.

And they mainly were expecting people to group primarily, not solo, so didn't focus on balancing for solo play.


Hybrid exp penalty thing is straight out of AD&D too and also wasn't properly balanced.

dmn is right, it had nothing to do with balance, most of classic wasn't balance based. Mages where entirely theme based. elements. Root has not considered an element and was given to one of the pets.

Nothing balance was taken into account, it was pretty funny.

if mages got root they would be ridiculously overpowered and could break and solo almost any camp

there is a root earing from cazic 2.0 that had clickable instill, it sold for big bucks and was removed from game pretty quick

Necromancers and enchanters get powerful pets too, and they have root though.

Enchanter pets are extremely squishy and necro pets cost waaay more mana and are still a decent bit weaker in tanking then mage pets.

Hmm did not know the difference was that big. Interesting!

Will that item drop for a time on Green then?

no, from beyond this timeline.

Back during original EQ development, one of the devs shared how he had a carefully created chart with all the different roles and powers on them and made sure no one class stepped on too many toes. Mages are unique in being the only caster that CAN'T root.

Truth be told one of the three healers should of been stripped of root too.

for balance.

why would you get a root and a pet, that would be too strong for a non CC class.