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I tried to see your mage opinion, but the more you talk about it I'm convinced that you're actually just making things up now to support your mage claim, lol. Which isn't surprising, we all know you like to spin your opinions as facts, and will defend them to the death. I can respect that in certain scenarios, but I'm not really sure who are you trying to convince here, other than yourself.

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

The thing about Mages is their toolkit REALLY shines when players know little about the game. This is because their ability to summon items is very important when players don't know where all the merchants are to buy food/drink/bandages for their respective faction levels. When everybody was new to the game, summoned weapons were also actually pretty good. Since most people were running around with Fine Steel weapons, Summoned weapons were better than what they had. On P99, this isn't the case. Everybody knows where the merchants are, or can quickly change their factions. They also have better weapons, so summoned weapons aren't very useful, except for a few situations.

This entire paragraph is completely inaccurate, lol. Mages have a toolkit that actually shines the more you know about the game. Getting a max pet & positioning it, Cothing a puller to clear aggro when needed, keeping DS on the tank, providing muzzles to increase dps, debuffing to help charmers maintain charm for more dps/safety, mod rods to assist the healer in getting more mana. A well played mage is really a nice thing to see in the group scene. Nobody cares about their summoned weapons, lol, nor should that be a factor in considering their overall utility.

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

The reason why I say a Mage's extra DPS doesn't really save the class on P99 is because of their lack of CC. Not having CC means you are still more limited on what you can solo, even with the increase in DPS. In a group their extra DPS is nice, but as I said before, extra DPS isn't always going to increase your group's kill speed. Typically speaking it's better to get a class that has both good DPS and good utility (like a Necromancer), to get the most bang for your buck. In a raid Mages are obviously amazing, but not for their DPS hehe, it's for their utility.

As others have mentioned, you are putting way too much value on utility/CC when it comes to solo/grouping. You don't need all that to get to lvl 60 quickly solo. You need to just know the right camps, and be efficient at killing quickly. Mages can do this very efficiently, unlike a rogue. Utility comes into play more for experiencing different camps & solo artist stuff, which is really niche and outside the scope of this discussion. And as for grouping, Necros are an amazing class, but honestly nobody really cares about their utility when forming a group. Other classes will cover that utility. They would take a mage 99% of the times for superior DPS. Necros are kinda like paladins in the group atmosphere, they can make up for a lot of deficiencies, but overall not really needed. The formula for forming groups is pretty simple here on p99: get a tank, healer, cc, and fill the rest with the best dps you can find.

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

The only reason why I disagree with this is because rogues are designed to work this way. Their kit isn't gimped by P99 knowledge, but improved by it. They also have higher DPS than a Mage, which is the main consideration for Rogue vs. Mage when in a group situation. While Rogues obviously lose out in solo situations, my assumption is most rogue players understand they should be heavily grouping anyway, so for Rogues specifically you shouldn't be weighing solo capabilities as much to begin with.

This whole section is a stretch and I think you're just making up things to support your mage claim at this point [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]. You are claiming that the Rogue toolkit isn't gimped by p99 knowledge, but improved by it. This makes no sense. Rogue's have no toolkit, everyone knows how to /attack and backstab. Sneak/hide & pick lock have extremely limited use in the group setting. Being a knowledgeable rogue doesn't really make a group better, you might just annoy the tank/healer slightly less when you start using your evade hotkey. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Mage's are certainly not the most underpowered class in the game when looking at all aspects of it. It's more like a close tie between Rangers, Paladins, and Wizards, with Rogues not too far behind that. Ranger's are a perfect example of how worthless utility can be. It doesn't make them good soloers, nor does does it really make them well liked in groups, despite the fact that they can also dps. Same with Wizards, they have a ton of utility, but I have no doubt I could out level one on a mage as knowledge/efficiency/minimizing downtime is the most important thing when leveling up solo. Wizards also are despised in groups, despite having a ton of useful tools.