Why are mages not more popular?

[Pope Hat]

For me it's the lack of utility. I really like pets but they get old pretty fast. Also how are you supposed to handle more than 1 mob at a time while solo? Without clickies like root nets. I got mine to like 24 and then stopped.

[StoneyOneKenobi]

Can confirm, soloing 50+ as a Mage sucks bad. If you pull more than 1 mob, you're basically screwed without root nets. Not to mention the xp penalty if you don't out-damage your pet (or kill it before the mob dies).

Mages are an incredibly focused class and offer a small amount of utility (malos, DS, summoned crap, dispell, COTHs) but the lack of any type of root or snare is tough. Literally every other casting class, including hybrids, get either a root or snare or both.

[Izmael]

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

For me it's the lack of utility. I really like pets but they get old pretty fast. Also how are you supposed to handle more than 1 mob at a time while solo? Without clickies like root nets. I got mine to like 24 and then stopped.

If you can not kill both mobs, you have to get somewhat creative, like helping the pet to kill one mob by nuking it down, gating/zoning, coming back, pulling 2nd mob.

Basically it sucks ass to not have any CC beside your pet and root nets.

There's one thing a mage excels at, post 50: farming low-mid levels camps. You don't need to worry about anything, just keep the pet /guard'ed at the mob's spawn, work on something productive on the side, and check the game window once every 10 minutes or whatever to see if the named has died.

[wooseon]

epic is hard

[Pope Hat]

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

If you can not kill both mobs, you have to get somewhat creative, like helping the pet to kill one mob by nuking it down, gating/zoning, coming back, pulling 2nd mob.

Basically it sucks ass to not have any CC beside your pet and root nets.

There's one thing a mage excels at, post 50: farming low-mid levels camps. You don't need to worry about anything, just keep the pet /guard'ed at the mob's spawn, work on something productive on the side, and check the game window once every 10 minutes or whatever to see if the named has died.

I haven't played in a while but I remember when I got 2 trying to burn one down so that I am only left with the one, but the mob I am ignoring would always aggro me after I nuke the other. So that rarely worked for me. Good on low hp mobs, however.
I like the gate/zone and come back idea. I haven't played him in like..4 years? All this talk makes me want to pick him back up.

[bomaroast]

No root or snare, just the pet. No utility other than summoning arrows/daggers and CotH. No mana regen. Very little health regen. All of this equates to very boring and very squishy. And to top it off: it's a low utility dps class, that is out damaged by almost all the other dps classes.

[Jimjam]

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

If you can not kill both mobs, you have to get somewhat creative, like helping the pet to kill one mob by nuking it down, gating/zoning, coming back, pulling 2nd mob.

Basically it sucks ass to not have any CC beside your pet and root nets.

There's one thing a mage excels at, post 50: farming low-mid levels camps. You don't need to worry about anything, just keep the pet /guard'ed at the mob's spawn, work on something productive on the side, and check the game window once every 10 minutes or whatever to see if the named has died.

Just break camp on a geared 60 then switch to the toon you want to xp on... Doesn't everyone do this?

[bomaroast]

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

Just break camp on a geared 60 then switch to the toon you want to xp on... Doesn't everyone do this?

Wipe it clean!

[Kubaton]

Magi = are never played to their full potential. It requires a lot of work pet controlling and belling casting to lower resists - most people are super lazy and or too scared to belly cast. Pet position increases damage. Especially with the rogue pet.

Magi = Epic bottle neck still exists on P99 - sickly overpriced quest items. Live corrected the biggest problem by moving the Earth Staff to a "a forsaken revenant (male)" spawn in PoH that would have % chance of staff. This happened before the release of Velious. (On live: Sky crown was typically 8-10kp, Staff was around 20-30kp after changes). I dont remember what they did after PoH revamp as I moved on to higher things by then on live.

Magi= lvl55+ has serious mana regen issues. big time suck - might as well play a cleric if you're going to be sitting on your poo generator so much.

Overall, Magicians became a rare commodity on live - many lost interest in playing due to the mana regen issues and crap Raid Event dps. Resists were VERY high against Magicians in Velious - super frustrating. Guilding and keeping a CoH Magi on live was a big challenge.

[Izmael]

Mage gets a little more interesting when epic'd. You can duo some fun stuff with a cleric (WW dragons...). But, honestly, even that gets boring quickly in my experience.

The class is just way too one-dimensional and straightforward. But man was it good for farming a truck load of beads and alliance necks. After these two camps got nerfed, I pretty much shelved the mage and played classes that have actually useful spells.