Tips From Mage Players?
 

I'm trying out the mage and I like it, but I'd like to learn the intricacies of the class.

1) How does chain summoning work? Do you wait for your pet to die, then cast another one? Do mages get root, and if so do you root first? Can you dismiss your pet while the spell is about to finish casting?

2) What are the pros/cons of each pet? So far I noticed fire seems to have a damage shield and earth roots.

3) Does playing a mage get harder at higher levels? I'm still only level 7 but since I got my pet at level 4 I feel like it's been even easier and faster than soloing with my necro... does it stay this easy?

4) Any other tips?

1) Mages don't get root. In fact they're practically the only caster that doesn't get root. Mages lack any effect means of crowd control. Having said that, chain summoning works by starting to summon a pet before your first pet is about to die. You then hit the dismiss button right before you finish casting. It can take time to get just right. This method works to down difficult, non-summoning, single targets like Alli in OOT. In most cases though you won't be chain summoning pets to kill 1 mob. A more efficient method is to reclaim energy of your pet once it's health is low and resummoning.

2) Earth - high hp, low avoidance, shitty root, Water - average hp, average avoid, ice nuke Air - average-low hp, high avoidance, stuns Fire - low hp, average avoid, fire nuke, nice DS (better than yours). When soloing use fire pet in most cases. When grouping use air pet.

3) It stays about the same difficulty.

4) Mages solo most efficiently with single target blue con mobs. In most cases it's always less mana to reclaim energy on pet and recast than to heal him (not sure what level this becomes most efficient). Basically it's straightforwarding though......send in pet.....nuke may be once if you have to. Rinse. Repeat. Over and over and over.

That does pretty much sum it up. Researching can be a pain, but a few trusted high levels out there who sell spells if you go that route.

Also when chain summoning, remember that aggro will go directly to you when you dismiss pet for the new one being casted. (Or to a group member) Not a problem with 1 mob as pet will aggro quickly, but with more than one you'll have to do some Back off/Attacks until all of the mobs are on pet again. Kite around or stay still, whatever floats your boat :)

I played my Mage before the pet window so I got used to doing it this way: start casting the next pet and then type out /pet get lost; once the cast timer got down to almost nothing hit enter and the new pet would appear.

Works the same as above, just another method to consider.

Here is a tip. If you want to level fast, don't group with people. We level fast enough soloing if you know where to go. Do not take pity on someone because they need a partner to level.

If you do not want to level faster and like the grouping aspect, that I can understand. If you want to group with someone to camp an item, i can understand that.

just my 2 cents.

Tells to Jify. If you have the components I'll do any combines for free. ;D

(201 Researching skill)

Better to use the earth pet, depends if you mal before the pet roots, always watch for the msg that says its stuck in the ground then begin to resummon the new pet. Go away a split second before the spell finishes up. You'll get better at keeping the mob rooted during resummons.

My fav is to use a monk to pull to me once it's time to resummon the monk call grab agro if he needs to till the new pet gets it back monk fd..
Thats a method you could use the focus item to reclaim energy and keep chain petting all day. Clerics help now to :) Think I had maybe 9 kobolds and the king on my earth pet and the cleric could just cheal the only agro would be summon'd pets.

Does anyone know if canni-pet works in p1999?

I'm confused... how is it more mana efficient to resummon pets than to just heal if it only takes ~1-2 heals at most (sometimes none) to kill something? Plus pet regen out of combat is pretty decent if necessary and I am medding anyway so its not like there's pointless downtime. Am I just too low to see this resummoning method be useful? (I'm SOON to be ~level 28).

It doesn't but it should.

I can't really give you an exact level, but eventually it becomes 100x more efficient to just reclaim/recast than to wait for a pet to regen or heal up a boatload of HP. It depends on the situation though, sometimes the downtime may outweigh the time it takes to get a high level pet if you already summoned one.

Also remember if you have to chain pet on a mob, never do anything that generates aggro, until you know for certain that you've cast the last pet you need to take the mob out, and then you can speed things up with nukes or what not.