Enchanter or Mage, which levels faster?

[Vanessa]

I know that pre-Kunark Mage's were one of if not the best / fastest / most efficient levelers in the game. Ive been gone for a while now so I don't really know what changes happened to them exactly, but I've heard people say that they got nerfed really bad and there nothing compared to what they used to be. So I was wondering, what are they like now? How bad did they get nerfed, and did are they still the best solo levelers in the game? Do groups want them for anything?

Also I was kind of curious about Enchanters too, I figured if Mage isn't what it used to be and is pretty bad now then maybe Ill try giving Enchanter a shot. I've heard there very hard to play, and can only really solo if there twinked but can level quickly if they are?

[greatdane]

Back when troll illusion was bugged and gave the equivalent of the Regeneration spell, a twinked enchanter with 200+ charisma leveled a little faster. Now you have to be a lot more careful and selective with mobs because taking any significant amount of damage means having to sit and rest for ten minutes. It also depends a bit on the level range, because a magician can pretty much always find something to grind on while an enchanter needs a fairly specific array of mobs. They have to come in pairs, must be fairly close to eachother so you don't spend too much of charm's duration on looking for a target, have to be melee and very similar in power, and they can't have some ability that makes for huge fluctuations in damage between the charmed pet and the target. There are some level ranges where this is difficult to find, and if you can't consistently have your charmed mob finish the target off with 5-10% health remaining, it won't be as efficient. It's more or less doable the whole way, though, and Breeze might give the enchanter an edge in the long run where you previously had to wait until Clarity at level 28 before med times became tolerable.

[baalzy]

Pets are currently bugged and don't do as much damage as they should. Otherwise the only other 'nerf' was the ability for 39+ pets to dual-wield without being handed weapons was removed and this hurt their DPS when chain-casting at mid-high levels. This will eventually get patched back in and pet damage should go up again with this new patch (shouldn't be as-high as it used to be but hopefully will be close as I felt that pet damage was pretty spot on, the only issue was min hits were higher then they should have been).

[Vanessa]

Pets are currently bugged and don't do as much damage as they should. Otherwise the only other 'nerf' was the ability for 39+ pets to dual-wield without being handed weapons was removed and this hurt their DPS when chain-casting at mid-high levels. This will eventually get patched back in and pet damage should go up again with this new patch (shouldn't be as-high as it used to be but hopefully will be close as I felt that pet damage was pretty spot on, the only issue was min hits were higher then they should have been).

Really? But I heard so many people talking about how Mage's in Kunark and no where near as good as they were in Classic etc. Was there no big changes to them or anything? There still just as good in Kunark as they were in Classic, other then the recent patch that your referring to damage being lowered?

[Slave]

Enchanter is going to make it to level 60 long before a mage because enchanters will be invited to groups.

[Slave]

Really? But I heard so many people talking about how Mage's in Kunark and no where near as good as they were in Classic etc. Was there no big changes to them or anything? There still just as good in Kunark as they were in Classic, other then the recent patch that your referring to damage being lowered?

It's the fact that mob hps goes up exponentially on exp mobs in Kunark and mage dps stays relatively constant. So you're absolutely forced to chain pets and that is pretty much no longer viable with an OVER 50% pet dps loss with the last two nerfs.

[Slave]

Back when troll illusion was bugged and gave the equivalent of the Regeneration spell...

Troll illusion always gave troll regeneration on Live, or at least it did by Kunark. If it is not giving regeneration, then it actually should be considered bugged now rather than the converse. If you're saying it was giving you spell regen and was reduced to racial regeneration bonus, that's correct and I'm sorry. But 10 minutes seems excessive for a chanter 'medding' up to full hps under either condition.

[Nedala]

I always try to never loose any hp. I keep rune up all the time, cause "medding" hp really is a pain.
For charming for exp i suggest you charm a mob, buff it up (haste,ac) give it 2 weapons and then rootpark it at a good spot.
Then you charm other mobs and get them killed from the rootpark mob, realase your pet(s) when its <5% hp and nuke it with the lowest lvl nuke that does the job.
I guess with this strat you exp faster now than as mage, cause a duel wielding hasted charm "pet" does a lot of damage. After each fight i mem blur the rooted mob so it regens hp (5%/tic). This is also pretty save cause the strong mob is always rooted, not much to worry on a charmbreak. If you have a caster you can always interrupt its cast with pet-sit.

I suggest you get a goblin bazhegul ring for this (insta charmbreak clicky). If the mob you rooted has mana you can also always use ToT on him when its up, works like a mana batterie. SKs are very good for this (sepulcher skel, and gw skel in hs).


Edit: Just to be clear, the "rootpark" mob is never charmed except at the start when you get him into position, and buff / give him weapons and each time you refresh haste.

[Zuranthium]

A good Enchanter should be able to solo better than a Magician when they hit Level 29. You don't even need to mess around with Charm, they are superior with the animated pet alone. Getting access to the Damage Shield (take the time to research this spell!) makes the animated pet just as good as a Magician pet in terms of raw ability (you can't command it, of course) and gaining access to Clarity gives the Enchanter superior efficiency. Then you add in the Enchanter's ability to root and lull and slow, and they are not only more efficient but also much better equipped to take on a wider variety of camps. I soloed the AC as a Level 29 Enchanter while also constantly killing all of the Frogloks near that area. It was excellent for both exp and money...the next day I was level 33 and had made about 4k in cash, plus was wearing a pair of Gatorscale Leggings and Sleeves myself.

[DevGrousis]

Troll illusion always gave troll regeneration on Live, or at least it did by Kunark. If it is not giving regeneration, then it actually should be considered bugged now rather than the converse. If you're saying it was giving you spell regen and was reduced to racial regeneration bonus, that's correct and I'm sorry. But 10 minutes seems excessive for a chanter 'medding' up to full hps under either condition.

Troll illusion gives +1 regeneration. I dont know what trolls have as far as regen, but it does give you some regen, just not trolls full regen.

Enchanter pre whirl nerf was super easy to solo. pull with anything take a hit, perma stun while pet eats mobs. Clarity + troll regen = pwn. only down time was the length it took for pet to kill mobs

[VincentVolaju]

Is that all Mage's have though is there pets? I mean can't they nuke well too, or not really? That does kind of suck that pet dmg doesn't scale well with Kunark mobs, cause if pets are all Mages have really then I guess the class is kinda poo now?

[Slave]

Is that all Mage's have though is there pets? I mean can't they nuke well too, or not really? That does kind of suck that pet dmg doesn't scale well with Kunark mobs, cause if pets are all Mages have really then I guess the class is kinda poo now?

Pets are basically all a Mage has... that, and COTH. My CC consists entirely of nuking a mob until it charges me instead of whatever it was attacking. My nukes are consistently resisted by raid bosses even with Tash and Malo landed on them, and even my trusty pet has now been nerfed into insensibility.

And we're not even the hardest hit population atm... devs need to absolutely do more testing before breaking classes.

[Aro2220x]

Troll illusion always gave troll regeneration on Live, or at least it did by Kunark. If it is not giving regeneration, then it actually should be considered bugged now rather than the converse. If you're saying it was giving you spell regen and was reduced to racial regeneration bonus, that's correct and I'm sorry. But 10 minutes seems excessive for a chanter 'medding' up to full hps under either condition.

I agree with this. It should be like it was in 1999 otherwise you're turning this into a custom server and in THAT case there's a TON of things that you could stand to change to make the game less tedious.

But then I probably wouldn't even play since the nostalgia factor would be gone.

Anyway, this is relevant to me since I played a mage and I think that's terrible!

[Aro2220x]

Is that all Mage's have though is there pets? I mean can't they nuke well too, or not really? That does kind of suck that pet dmg doesn't scale well with Kunark mobs, cause if pets are all Mages have really then I guess the class is kinda poo now?

Also the mage has the 2nd best direct damage nukes in the game...and I think the best damage shield (but its self only, lame). They also have some decent DD AOEs.

Aside from that they have a few goofy summon spells that are fun but not too much else. They are fantastic to start a new toon on the server with, level up, and then use it to kill steal lower end mobs to farm items.

Only wizards can kill steal from an equal mage. Obviously a much higher level druid or something is going to ks a mage every time and enchanters can out aggro a mage easily but not out dps it against lower level mobs.

So if you want to get a mage up to 20-40 and then use it to farm plat and loot for your next class that would work well. But end-game nobody wants a mage because they are not the best dpsers in the game, they die just as easily as any other pure caster if they get aggro, and unlike nearly every other class in the game mages don't have many, if any, helpful spells to the group.

It's not like they can SoW or buff or heal or tank or hold aggro or crowd control or pull in dangerous locations (no feign death) or anything like that. Things like that aren't very effective solo since you only buff 1 target but when you are buffing 6 or more people now the benefits of all those things goes up drastically.

If you REALLY know the game well Enchanters are fantastic but one mistake and you're dead whereas a mage (or even a necro, which is just as good, better in groups and all you lose is your kill stealing dps, big deal lol, nobody will like you if you kill steal anyway) has a pet that could hold aggro a lot more, and won't be fighting groups of mobs at a time since they can't mez so its not like they could pull it off even if nothing was resisted ;-)

What was great about mages were their pets but they've been nerfed so many times since the release of EQ it's kind of a moot point.

[Slave]

Also the mage has the 2nd best direct damage nukes in the game...and I think the best damage shield (but its self only, lame). They also have some decent DD AOEs.

Aside from that they have a few goofy summon spells that are fun but not too much else. They are fantastic to start a new toon on the server with, level up, and then use it to kill steal lower end mobs to farm items.

Only wizards can kill steal from an equal mage. Obviously a much higher level druid or something is going to ks a mage every time and enchanters can out aggro a mage easily but not out dps it against lower level mobs.

So if you want to get a mage up to 20-40 and then use it to farm plat and loot for your next class that would work well. But end-game nobody wants a mage because they are not the best dpsers in the game, they die just as easily as any other pure caster if they get aggro, and unlike nearly every other class in the game mages don't have many, if any, helpful spells to the group.

It's not like they can SoW or buff or heal or tank or hold aggro or crowd control or pull in dangerous locations (no feign death) or anything like that. Things like that aren't very effective solo since you only buff 1 target but when you are buffing 6 or more people now the benefits of all those things goes up drastically.

If you REALLY know the game well Enchanters are fantastic but one mistake and you're dead whereas a mage (or even a necro, which is just as good, better in groups and all you lose is your kill stealing dps, big deal lol, nobody will like you if you kill steal anyway) has a pet that could hold aggro a lot more, and won't be fighting groups of mobs at a time since they can't mez so its not like they could pull it off even if nothing was resisted ;-)

What was great about mages were their pets but they've been nerfed so many times since the release of EQ it's kind of a moot point.

A lot of misinformation here mixed with some decent points~

2nd best nukes in the game... but none have a good resist modifier like you get with necromancers and wizards. Making them bounce against pretty much any raid mob. Necros and even SKs will deal more nuke damage against the mobs that matter.

Decent AOEs... but only fire-based. You cannot AOE in SF, the most valuable place to do that in the game.

Best Damage Shields in the game... that you can cast on anyone.

Group utlity: is actually VERY good, compared to most dps like rogues and wizards. Mages can arm pets, give them haste items to improve all pet damage by 11%, damage shield anything, and COTH to prevent group wipes or GREATLY improve mobility.

Necros have a pet that can aggro more? No. Mage pets are the best pets in the game at everything, no question.



So if you want to get a mage up to 20-40 and then use it to farm plat and loot for your next class that would work well.

This part is pretty much true. :)

Oh and... necromancers CAN mez.