soloing with a mage for dummies, need help

[commongood]

Hey there,

I've been reading the two guides to leveling a mage on the wiki and while they have a lot of merit I've finding it hard to come by answers to my questions...

I have a level 11 mage. I've MQd velious robe and pants. What should be my strategy for soloing my way to 60? Not asking for advice on which camps to do, but more on a strategy level...

Which pet do I use? And do I just summon and buff a pet and let it tank and heal it? Or do I do any shenanigans with dismissing it before mob dies for more exp?

[Christina.]

Hi I responded to your p.m but after reading this post I don't think I elaborated enough in the reply pertaining to your request you have here.

As a magician we have 4 pets. Fire Water Earth Air.
Being you want to solo your way through the game (pre 50) you'll only want to be using the Fire and Earth pet. I used the fire pet back when I leveled because they had an insane regeneration rate and it made things incredibly easy with their damage shields. Even without the regeneration they had back then they are really good for soloing. If you find them too squishy hp wise for your liking you can summon a Earth pet and throw your highest Damage shield your able to cast on it, it won't be anywhere near high as your fire pets natural DS but it's something. Earth pets can root n are tankier while fire pets have less ac/hp but have crazy Ds an a little nuke. Fighting with a fire pet you'll notice you'll be pulling faster kills but finding yourself summoning him more. Fighting with Earth you'll notice the slower kills but also the security, duration and sturdiness. Here's where you have to decide which you want to have for a situation. Play around with them, see what you like.

While soloing your pet will more than likely do more damage than you so you have to just deal with them stealing some xp, I wouldn't go through reclaiming them before a fight ends just to get full xp then having to waste all the Mana in order to summon another.. Just let your pet do majority of the damage while you throw in 1 (at the MOST 2) of your biggest nukes for your level in a fight.. if your nuking more than 2 times a fight, id advise finding mobs with less hp being it would be more efficient for downtime /mana. The strategy is #1 make sure you summon the highest level pet possible, at your level you can determine this by it probably Considering you Yellow or Black, once your more experiencd you'll be paying attention to how hard it hits. #2 Once he's the highest summon possible, ALWAYS buff him. You'll get a spell that pumps his ac/HP / gives him a awesome haste. #3 Always Be Prepared to summon another pet. You'll want to start casting a new pet once you see your pets HP around 10-15% ..depending on how fast you see his hp dropping..if your gonna win the fight cool, let him endure it till death.. just always stay ready... If find yourself having to chain-summon in a match just make sure once the fight is over you reclaim him when he's at 100% HP this way you get full refund on Mana it took to summon him then resummon until you've gotten your Max level pet again. Don't ever waste your Mana Healing your pet after level 12. When your Max level pet is winning his fights you want to sit him down so he regens while your waiting for the mobs to respawn

I hope my advice was helpful lol I felt like I was writing a book so i stopped but yeah, mages rock lol

[Snaggles]

In the lower levels I'd stick to places you can bum/buy buffs. EC and WC are crappy zems but pretty easy to find a regrowth and a bored cleric/pally to give your pet an extra 1k+ hps. Same thing once you get into your mid 20's if you wanna hit highkeep for the ZEM. I'm sure it's not a big deal at 45+ but in the lower levels doubling a pet's HP's makes for some easy grinding. Plus easy to find rezzes in those locations.

The best thing I did with my warrior was to camp a bag of root nets. Obviously not the same thing as a mage but the game plan is pretty similar when soloing...single target, no backup plan, etc.

[Christina.]

Steamfont Mountains till 12
12-19 Lesser Faydark Sisters by MM Zoneline
19-20 Oasis Group (only time I groupd unles bored)
20-24 Eastern Karana Crag Spiders
24-29 Elf sisters at dock
29-34 Guards. (I did Freeport)
34-50 Oasis, Ferrott Spectres
49-50 Seafurry Cyclops (If you want more of a challenge)

POST 50+ soloing isn't efficient so you'll want to group, sebilis groups 55+

This is the same guide I use anytime I play EverQuest and starting out fresh.. Using my method you wont need any players buffs and you'll make enough platnium pieces to buy amazing gear [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[loramin]

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

Hi I responded to your p.m but after reading this post I don't think I elaborated enough in the reply pertaining to your request you have here.

As a magician we have 4 pets. Fire Water Earth Air.
Being you want to solo your way through the game (pre 50) you'll only want to be using the Fire and Earth pet. I used the fire pet back when I leveled because they had an insane regeneration rate and it made things incredibly easy with their damage shields. Even without the regeneration they had back then they are really good for soloing. If you find them too squishy hp wise for your liking you can summon a Earth pet and throw your highest Damage shield your able to cast on it, it won't be anywhere near high as your fire pets natural DS but it's something. Earth pets can root n are tankier while fire pets have less ac/hp but have crazy Ds an a little nuke. Fighting with a fire pet you'll notice you'll be pulling faster kills but finding yourself summoning him more. Fighting with Earth you'll notice the slower kills but also the security, duration and sturdiness. Here's where you have to decide which you want to have for a situation. Play around with them, see what you like.

While soloing your pet will more than likely do more damage than you so you have to just deal with them stealing some xp, I wouldn't go through reclaiming them before a fight ends just to get full xp then having to waste all the Mana in order to summon another.. Just let your pet do majority of the damage while you throw in 1 (at the MOST 2) of your biggest nukes for your level in a fight.. if your nuking more than 2 times a fight, id advise finding mobs with less hp being it would be more efficient for downtime /mana. The strategy is #1 make sure you summon the highest level pet possible, at your level you can determine this by it probably Considering you Yellow or Black, once your more experiencd you'll be paying attention to how hard it hits. #2 Once he's the highest summon possible, ALWAYS buff him. You'll get a spell that pumps his ac/HP / gives him a awesome haste. #3 Always Be Prepared to summon another pet. You'll want to start casting a new pet once you see your pets HP around 10-15% ..depending on how fast you see his hp dropping..if your gonna win the fight cool, let him endure it till death.. just always stay ready... If find yourself having to chain-summon in a match just make sure once the fight is over you reclaim him when he's at 100% HP this way you get full refund on Mana it took to summon him then resummon until you've gotten your Max level pet again. Don't ever waste your Mana Healing your pet after level 12. When your Max level pet is winning his fights you want to sit him down so he regens while your waiting for the mobs to respawn

I hope my advice was helpful lol I felt like I was writing a book so i stopped but yeah, mages rock lol

As a counterpoint, on Teal I've used the Water pet exclusively up to 25, with zero regrets.

It's way tougher than the Fire pet, but has a useful (ie. damaging) proc instead of the Earth pet's (generally useless for leveling) root proc. Sure the Earth pet might have a few more HP, but in my experience the Water pet kills faster, and that more than makes up for it.

YMMV, and I'm sure what specifically you fighting matters too.

P.S. For my leveling path basically just click the Magician filter on the Per-Level Guide, as I've tried to add every spot I use to it.

[Balimon]

From my experience I prefer Fire or Earth pet as well. 29-51 Fire pet is hard to beat with a torch, you can reclaim level with almost no downtime. 51-56 the only pet you can really use solo is the 49 earth.

I personally feel like the water pet is over hyped. Every pet has it's role: Earth has huge HP and root, great for nuke leveling, reclaiming, or just powering down stuff. Fire has that huge damage shield and a fire proc, pre-50 it literally melts mobs down. Air has a stun, which is great for holding aggro, and it can invis allowing you do some tricky things.

Water has a proc.....and some hit points? It just doesn't fill any niche role we need. Earth fulfills the HP much better, fire has the same proc + the damage shield. On some of my mage toons I would use it 1-24 or so, but I find myself leaning towards air and earth for those levels now. At 49 it is almost useless in my opinion, the proc is so tiny, there just aren't many situations where that proc justifies pulling it out.

Water becomes really nice at 54 with the first rogue pet and finally comes into it's own as a real pet. Sadly the fire pet turns useless until Dyzil's at 56, but that's another story.

[Christina.]

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

Water becomes really nice at 54 with the first rogue pet and finally comes into it's own as a real pet.

The first water pet I buy to be honest lol, before he's a rogue he doesn't serve me.

[Christina.]

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

29-51 Fire pet is hard to beat with a torch

Fire has that huge damage shield and a fire proc, pre-50 it literally melts mobs down. Air

Facts. I forgot to mention focus items.

[commongood]

Thanks for expanding your answer Christina. I'll try out the different things you suggest [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Tethler]

At low level, fire pet is a beast. The DS is amazing. I leveled my blue mage from 12-30 using only the fire pet, pulling with level 1 nuke, and tossing a couple pet heals. Was even soloing red giants at the warsliks giant fort in the mid-20s. It's dumb. Once you near 30, your pet won't survive anymore and you'll have to change tactic to pet chaining.