Why so few mages on P99?

[kaev]

Originally Posted by arsenalpow [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Long ago proud herds of magi roamed the plains, but they were hunted into extinction by the white man.

Go home to Britannica paleface!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tuljin]

The reason there are so few mages on this server is not because of the various nerfs that have happened over the years. It is a combination of the two ends of the spectrum of players here - the pixel-hungry-RMT-style-min/max-permacamp-Tranix-and-King-for-two-months-straight crowd, and the nubs.

The min/maxers roll their Iksar Monks and Ogre Shamans and grief everybody else along the way. Then they sit at Fungi Camp for weeks at a time, griefing everyone else in Seb in OOC, and many of them RMT their loots.

The nubs don't roll mage because its a hard class. You cant root, you have to understand pet XP and pet agro. Many people who roll mage don't make it very far.

The truth is, a good Mage can solo pretty much every cash camp in the game without an epic. Also, a good Mage is a welcome addition to a dungeon group, with an awesome DS, good pet dps, COTH, nukes, clicky staff, and an awesome magic/elemental debuff.

The asinine banter about how much other classes "suck" versus the OP ones is the primary culprit of the low mage/wiz/ran/pal population on this server. Comically enough, the class that gets a really bad rap at higher levels, the Druid, has the highest population on the server, but about as many 60s as Mage.

Its incredibly easy to get a shaman, enc, monk, or cleric to 60 on this server. Classes like Mage where you have to work a bit and think outside the box to move the XP bar are a different story. This is the main reason for the low Mage population. How many Wizards would be 60 if it wasn't for Chardok AOE? Not many.

[Bboboo]

It could also be Mages are kinda boring to play.

[fishingme]

Mage is dominately a pet class with a pet that doesn't hold aggro well. An Enchanter can charm an insanely powerful pet for a ridiculous amount of time and when charm breaks its not a problem due to the spells that one has. Mage is only cool now for large badass looking pets and monster summoning come velious.

[Velerin]

I'm sure lots of people tried and quit mages back when the pet agro was horrible. You could still be very efficient with pet chaining but it made a 1-dimensional class even more 1-dimensional. (pretty much if you nuked once you were tanking)
Mages are awesome solo against single mobs. As soon as you get an add things change fast. A mage must is a stack of root nets, which are relatively cheap but not really feasible for large usage or low to mid levels. CotH becomes a fun skill after you learn how to utilize the agro wipe component.
The most efficient mage solo is the most boring thing in the world. Make fire pet, pull mob, send pet in, med, chain pet if needed, reclaim at end and finish with low level nuke. In a place like OT you can do this with 0 downtime and move the bar pretty quickly. I personally found it much more fun to go into dungeons, utilize different pets, learn how to burn things down and control your pet when you get adds etc.
High level mages can do some decent solo kills and even some that typical "OP" solo artists have trouble with.
I've done:
Efreeti (had help clearing spawns though)
Sebilis bug camps
Undertow
Heirophant (almost.. got him to heal mode that lasted forever then finally ran oom and had to gate)
Black Dire (if something has high MR and doesn't summon a mage can kill better than anyone)

[Clark]

Root nets, a mages best friend.

[Arclyte]

Yea, i've got a 40 mage w/ jboots, and a 20 iksar necro w/ jboots/cos

I really like the idea of the mage, but at lvl 20 my necro has so many more options and just feels like a complete class by comparison. Still nothing beats a fully buffed water/air pet smashing shit. It's like 2boxing with a warrior.

[Fame]

Played a mage mostly solo to 56ish on red. The shit is a joke. The biggest thing about em, and I hear this is fixed but I haven't even bothered testing because fuckmages, is that when you cast a bolt spell (our main line) you are locked out of doing anything, no pumice, no jboots, no other clicks of any kind, or it cancels the spell. Oh yeah, any they are slower than sow, so if someone knows this and wants to be a dick about it, they just run from your bolt for 15 minutes while you chase them and eventually your jboots start to fade so you're in a position of having to click them to keep up the chase but losing your bolt, that's usually when they sneak a spell in on you and then run from your bolt again.

They are pretty good in open solo situations but like others mentioned, adds will fuck your day up. On that same note, someone has to do it..reclaim energy is a fucking waste of a gem slot. See for yourself, the mana reclaimed is based on the HP the pet as at the moment the spell goes off, >5% hp and you don't even get a noticeable tick. Save yourself the hassle and just click go away right before your new pet is summoned. This might not be that big of an issue on blue but on red where preparedness is key to survival it's just not worth it. Learned this bit soloing hill giants in rathe from lvl 34 to 53.
Red plug :lvl 34-53 I often had the place to myself or maybe one or two other players that I was friends with. I killed most of the other people that came into the area.

I think there is something bugged with summoned items now too, last time I logged on the mage if you had summoned items when you camped they would still be there when you relogged, if you touch them tho you go LD as if mages didn't already have enough game breaking fuckfest issues already.

Anything else? Probably but I can't remember and truth be told it was actually pretty fucking painful to write this because I loved my mage, still do, but more of a love like you would have for a retarded child, they're not number 1, but ya still care about em.

[BarackObooma]

The bolt spells have been fixed. I use the 333 dmg Burnt Wood Staff, cast it (a bolt spell) and can immediately cast another spell and my first bolt still continues.

Note too that aggro has been fixed somewhat. I can start chain casting the click stick from the beginning of the fight and never get aggro even from the 49 fire pet. The 56 fire pet (Dyzil's Deafening Decoy) you can cast regular nukes on if you want, it has very high aggro keeping abilities (ae aggro even).

There is a bug with summoned and temporary items which is being fixed with the next patch. They aren't poofing when you log. I've kept food, bandages, keys, arrows, etc. for weeks.

I've never heard of clicking on them making you go LD. You might want to report that. I read the bug reports and never saw that. I don't know if its your system or a red thing but it's not happening on blue.

I don't know any Mages (other than red I guess) that would waste a spell slot on reclaim energy. Swap in your focus item.

Reclaiming does only give a % of your mana back based on what % of health your pet is at the time so if you are chaining pets, most times you'd want to just stand way back and hit "go away" right before you finish casting a new pet. To be close enough to reclaim you won't be far enough to cast a new pet without getting pummeled.

I have a 58 wizard and when your mana is done, so are you. You also waste a lot of mana when you get aggroed by greenies. With the mage, your pet can do your light work and you can still dps even if you're out of mana. Mages also get the 333 dmg burnt wood staff which sells for less than 2k. Wizards can get a Sololist's Icy Wand that does 38 dmg for 3.5-4k. The shaman's bracer is 20-25k and does like 263 as reference.

[Fame]

That's actually pretty good news haha, I had abandon all hope for mages.