My mage is 38 now and I must admit that the fastest way to level has now become grouping. However, when I solo, I cain earth+DS or fire depending. Fire allows me to kill a few more mobs per bar of mana and kills faster but is more risky due tot he pet's fragility, earth is more for a relaxed pet (allowing me to regenerate more mana during the fight although this doesn't seem to compensate completely in terms of efficiency vs fire pet).
Mages have an issue when fighting 2+ mobs as you may have noticed by now. A great trick I've found deal with this is as follow (if I see the pull will be a multi pull, works with adds but is more tricky):
1- Stay far away, I mean it, far away (if you can maximum distance you can be to send your pet in)
2- Send you pet in
3- The 2+ mobs will aggro your pet
4- Sit
5- All the mobs your pet is not hitting will come running for you
6- Just before they arrive and turn you into red gnomish pulp. stand
7- The mobs return towards your pet as he is now higher on their aggro list (you have lost sitting aggro)
8- Before the mobs arrive at your pet, resume from point 4
This works well although chaining pet becomes a fine art (which I haven't mastered to this level) when doing this so I tend to prefer doing it with the earth pet which is more resilient.
For group, I use:
- air (to limit damages done to the tank if need be)
- water (to get max dps)
- earth if we must prevent runners which very rarely happeens.
Always chain summon pets until you have a max hitter, considering your pet will stay around for a long time, it will make a noticeable difference in damage output (not only are the max damage higher, but the pet being of higher level will connect his hits more).
Hope this helps.
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