Tips From Mage Players?

[Kraftwerk]

Elissa let me try and give you a rundown on why it's so effective:

At higher levels the pet heal is for 200hp at cost of 100 mana. 2hp/1mana.
Summoning a pet will be about 600-1000 hp depending on level, mana cost being 170-200 (depending on spec). Use focus item to reclaim energy old near dead pet for, lowballing, 100 mana. So now you cast a new pet for, including reclaim mana, 70-100 mana. That is 600-1000hp/100 mana or 6 - 10 hp/1mana, much greater than 2hp/1mana with pet heal.

Using this process you have pet attack and kill, you use lvl 1 DD and reap benefits then med while pet kills. Keep going until pet goes below 15% then reclaim recast and effectively you never have to stop killing, your only limit is the number of mobs you can clear in a single cycle using high powered DDs at your own discretion.

[Insedeel]

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

It doesn't but it should.

Although I think I remember a dev saying that they remember pet canni, and plan to look into it, but needs to know what % the mana return was based on hps. The way it worked in the past was that you got a specific % of the pet's hps back as mana, and the level 49 earth pet had the most hps to mana cost ratio to summon of any of the pets through 60.

I remember the % was 10% of the pet's hps, but the proof of this was lost a long time ago (I tried finding it again, but haven't had any luck yet, but as soon as I find the proof, I plan on making a post in the bug reports section of the forum). The level 49 earth pet has around 3k hps unbuffed which at 10% of 3k is 300 mana returned for 200 mana cost to summon the pet. That may seem like a lot of mana, but it's not as much as some may think do to the fact that you won't be sitting and getting meditate mana, and it takes 9 seconds to summon a pet, so it's like 100 mana every tick and a half.

I can't really give you an exact level, but eventually it becomes 100x more efficient to just reclaim/recast than to wait for a pet to regen or heal up a boatload of HP. It depends on the situation though, sometimes the downtime may outweigh the time it takes to get a high level pet if you already summoned one.

Reiker is right about this. At your level (28) pet's cost a TON of mana in comparison to what you have for a mana pool, so for now it's going to be far more efficient to heal, or let the pet regen to full. Currently the level 24 pets cost 240 mana to summon, which at level 24 you should only have around 700+ mana depending on how much int gear you have. The pets also don't have that many hps at that level (around 6-800 hps) so your 150ish hp heal for 100 mana is pretty efficient. Your pet mana cost goes down to 200 starting at level 29 pets, and doesn't go any higher for mana cost until level 51+ (Kunark)

Now think about at level 49, say if you're using even your fire pet which has the least amount of hps of the level 49 pets. The level 49 fire pet has 2100 hps with pet focus. Say you've solod a few mobs, still have 70% mana, and are ready to continue, but your pet is down to 200 health. At 30hp/tick your pet would take 63 ticks to regen to full without heals. It would take about 9 heals to heal your pet to full (or 900 mana to heal it). Or you could reclaim the pet, get at least 100 mana back for reclaiming it, resummon a new pet for 100 mana (since you got 100 back from reclaim), rebuff burnout (150mana)

Long story short.

63 ticks (over 6 minutes) to regen on it's own

900 mana to heal the pet with pet heal

Or 250 total mana to reclaim, resummon a new pet and cast burnout

[Itchybottom]

I think a focused water pet is the best for soloing. I spend far less mana keeping it healed, than I would healing or chain summoning fire pets. Earth pets are pretty situational, and get hit too much. After the patch that changed pet DPS, I feel that around level 20, fire pet becomes less useful for a soloing mage. The incoming damage at, or around that level becomes too dangerous for the additional DS to really make that much of a difference. ~Level 29

Reclaim Energy is going to be too costly for me at end-game too, since I am going to rely on air pets, with two gnoll-hide lariats. But I'm probably playing "wrong."

[Eyry]

Level 29 is the transition level where you will start re-casting pets. It cost 100 mana to do a heal for 145 (which isnt much of anything at this level, maybe a bubble of health). And casting a new pet is only 200 mana. So its 2 heals = 200 for 2 bubs of health, or just resummon a pet with full health. Total cost of the compromise...1 malachite.

I think its worth it.

However, I enjoy summoning the highest DS pet for my level, giving him 2 swords and burnout II and watch him Quad. Very powerful pets.

[Insedeel]

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

I think a focused water pet is the best for soloing. I spend far less mana keeping it healed, than I would healing or chain summoning fire pets. Earth pets are pretty situational, and get hit too much. After the patch that changed pet DPS, I feel that around level 20, fire pet becomes less useful for a soloing mage. The incoming damage at, or around that level becomes too dangerous for the additional DS to really make that much of a difference. ~Level 29

Reclaim Energy is going to be too costly for me at end-game too, since I am going to rely on air pets, with two gnoll-hide lariats. But I'm probably playing "wrong."

There is no playing "wrong". Play however makes you have the most fun I say. There will always be theorycrafters out there that'll crunch everything down to exp/hour gain, but for some people it's not about getting the most exp in the fastest way possible. Every situation, camp, etc is going to be different.

I personally still use my fire pet at level 20, and even though it takes dmg quickly, it's actually to me the fastest exp because I have spots that I know I can get single pulls, and never need to worry about an add. With how much damage the DS does in return, I can kill mobs far faster, and with far less mana usage than any other pet do to the DS being pretty much like free manaless damage. If I plan on camping something that I have a good chance of adds though, I tend to use the water pet since it's the most well rounded.

Like my previous post stated, at level 29 it's still going to be the most efficient to do what you're doing now, pick your favorite pet and keep it healed. At high levels though the pets start having too many hps for it to be the most efficient to just try to heal your pet if efficiency is what you're going for.

[Vyal]

15k hp earth pets are fun to heal for 180hp a pop :P

[Drakul]

Thanks for the responses, this has been a big help. I've been able to solo some red mobs where I can't keep up with the heals by summoning 2-3 pets during the battle and waiting until the end to cast and DD spells to get full XP. I like the fire pet the best so far, but I might try the one with dodge soon.

[rioisk]

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

Thanks for the responses, this has been a big help. I've been able to solo some red mobs where I can't keep up with the heals by summoning 2-3 pets during the battle and waiting until the end to cast and DD spells to get full XP. I like the fire pet the best so far, but I might try the one with dodge soon.

What do you mean waiting until the end to cast and DD spells to get full XP? Just load your lvl 1 nuke. You only need to do 1pt of damage to receive full xp.

And yes, you should be able to solo red mobs in the method you just described but let me you tell you it's nowhere near as efficient to solo reds. Chain blue mobs and reclaim energy on pet when it has low health. Do 1pt of damage with lvl 1 nuke.

[Elissa]

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

Elissa let me try and give you a rundown on why it's so effective:

At higher levels the pet heal is for 200hp at cost of 100 mana. 2hp/1mana.
Summoning a pet will be about 600-1000 hp depending on level, mana cost being 170-200 (depending on spec). Use focus item to reclaim energy old near dead pet for, lowballing, 100 mana. So now you cast a new pet for, including reclaim mana, 70-100 mana. That is 600-1000hp/100 mana or 6 - 10 hp/1mana, much greater than 2hp/1mana with pet heal.

Using this process you have pet attack and kill, you use lvl 1 DD and reap benefits then med while pet kills. Keep going until pet goes below 15% then reclaim recast and effectively you never have to stop killing, your only limit is the number of mobs you can clear in a single cycle using high powered DDs at your own discretion.

Thanks for clearing this up, that definitely makes a lot more sense.

[Jify]

Imo.. Fire pet till 50. It's just awesome for anything that doesn't hit extremely hard. That DS shreds.

Now, those earth pets... Awesome for killing hard hitting mobs that you're required to chain pet for. Best efficiency pet.

At 50, the earth pet actually has about 3khp. Reclaiming, lets assume a low ball of 75 mana.

For 125 mana you're getting 3000hp.
For 100 mana, you could heal for 200hp.

So ya.. Go go pet chaining! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]