Why are mages not more popular?
 

I’ve been curious since my necro first hit level 53. New rogue pet.

I’ll start with a disclaimer: I parse everything. I like to know how I’m doing, what others are capable of, how individuals stack up compared to others of their class, and what I’m capable of when playing a similar class. I parse in real time with active display.

On getting my 53 rogue pet I was taken aback at the damage output. By itself it was doing more damage than most all other 50s melees I was grouped with. On parsing my epic monk and later my warrior 1-60 ... same deal. The pet alone was pulling more weight than all rangers/warriors/Druids/wizards ... all non-twinked monks and even most rogues. If you considered the dmg potential the necro casting added it was no contest.

Well I recently picked up my Mage. I’ve gone from 26-43 so far and it is no different. Properly summoned, buffed and hasted it simply does more damage then most melee for its level. I’ve parsed other mage’s 57 earth per at 60-65 sustained dps. 60 water pet higher... and epic pet well north of 80 sustained dps. This is pet alone mind you ... it doesn’t factor in the sustained dps or burst potential of the mage itself.

Mage (and to a lesser extent necro) seem to be seriously underrated. Why don’t we see more mages? Is it because their raid role and value are for boring tasks like twitching and rods? Is it because pets are unreliable on raids? For group content they just seem godly compared to alternative dps options.

I’m enjoying the mage so far and I haven’t even broken into the upper tiers of pets where the power curve takes off.

It's... booooring. I had a mage alt on live, and it was a nice fallback character to go solo with a pet that wrecked things. I never hit max level with him or anything, but I played him a bit.

However, on P99, classic mage is just a deathtrap. If I moved from classic to Kunark content in the mid levels, I could not solo down a blue con before going oom chain summoning pets, with all four focus items. Two mobs is insta-death unless you're twinked with root nets. Every solo camp in the game is taken 24/7, if you're trying to go that route.

They feel so underpowered with no utility, then on raids all they do is summon rods. I can understand why people don't want to play them.

bring it on jibekn!

- a rogue

They seem really boring and slow compared to my shaman. So much lack of tools.

When they get epic they get pretty strong as a duo class but still boring and there's still stronger duo's for the amount of time and effort it takes to get mage epic.

Necro in comparison gets a million more tools. Their pets aren't that different from non epic mage pets. FD, mana regen, healing, charming(significantly stronger than epic mage pets right?), rez, DD's, strong dots.

Yah lack of utility, boring raid class, people asking 850k+ for the Hate staff. Kinda disheartening to know you probably will never complete your epic. They are pretty damn strong in groups though. Those pets wreck.

Totally disagree with an epic Mage ever becoming boring though. Impossible

I leveled a mage to 35 here and the lack of tools compared to other classes, pet exp. penalty and pets being kinda meh on some raids just killed any desire to keep up with it. I got to 35 and just thought to myself "Why am I not just playing a necro?" and stopped heh.

You’re either shamelessly exaggerating or just plain bad. I’ve been in kunark for the last 8 levels and have had no problems chain soloing blues with no down time. I prefer to grab a random healer and duo but solo is no problem. At all. Honestly it’s some of the easiest exp I’ve experienced.

Fair statement. I figured as much.

What about the reports of epic mage pet parsing as high as endgame velious monks? Or is this a problem because many high end encounters have aoes that knock the pets out of the fight or having pets up cause problems with adds?

Or maybe you don't know what level I was or what I was killing. This isn't RnF, bucko, don't be a jerk to people who reply to you.

There are plenty of zones out there where the mobs would surprise you by how they can overpower a mage pet. I tend to roam instead of stick to boring static camps.

Sorry but when you say you can’t solo a dark blue in mid level kunark even with chain summoning pets ... you have to clarify and explain that. I’m not trying to be a jerk but that quality of such a reply is just ... well ... a lie?

If you want to say mages are boring - ok.

Mage job during a raid blows? Sure.

Pets don’t work out on raids? Fine, makes sense.

But don’t say a mage can’t solo a dark blue in medium level kunark.