The 60 water pet focused with the Phinny staff is very good. If you can keep it positioned properly for backstabs its DPS is not far off the epic pet. I've also heard of several instances of long-time Magician mains actually quitting the game shortly after acquiring their epic after years of waiting. Why? Because they'd built it up in their minds over that time as being this OMG AMAZING thing, but once they got it reality set in. The epic pet is very good, but it's not game-breaking or anything. It's still much weaker than any pet a 60 Enchanter can charm. It won't turn you into a solo or duo monster. The epic pet is not immune to the general difficulties associated with using pets in EQ. Is it worth having if you can get it? Absolutely. Does it render the Mage class useless if you can't? Hell no. Your non-epic pet can still put out massive DPS, you've still got nukes and damage shields, items to summon, clickie Burnt wood staff/Velk boots for mana-free DPS and to top it off the ever-useful CoTH.
Even without an epic Mages remain: one of the fastest/easiest classes for solo XPing, factioning and plat farming; the #1 class for group DPS (between pet, DS, nukes & clickie nukes); arguably the best "third wheel" class to add to the standard power duos (i.e. Enchanter/Cleric, Enchanter/Shaman, Monk/Shaman, SK/Shaman etc...) and you are always useful on raids between your mod rods, DPS and CoTH. No other class offers massive sustained DPS, massive burst DPS and the utility provided by summons/CoTH. And you do all this while enjoying some of the lowest APM (actions per minute, aka amount of button pressing required to play) of any class of the game.
If you like playing a Mage, don't give it up on account of the epic feeling out of reach. You can still contribute massively to groups and a guild without one, and their playstyle is unique from every other class.
|