How bad are mages solo in level-appropriate dungeons?

[Snaggles]

What are you referring to? Past like SolB no mage is crawling anywhere with blues.

Also CC or lull is only needed when you can pull solos so you better pick a brilliant path or just avoid some places completely. Earth pet as CC? Lol ok. That 3 tick OP root proc.

Even if you had perfect chain summoning ability a mage would get smashed in any real dungeon. Outside factioning with Chardok and walking up to a few very easy spawns that can be killed.

[Zuranthium]

I didn't say earth pet as CC, I said pet. If there are 2-4 MOBs being pulled together, a chain-summoned pet continually takes all the aggro, in actual classic EQ and in previous eras of p99. I don't know off the top of my head exactly when aggro transfer became broken on p99.

The earth pet CC is sufficient enough in some cases though. It does enough to prevent a runner and in some situations it can allow chain-summoning to still work with the broken aggro transfer mechanic, since the primary target will be rooted and extra MOBs should still aggro on the pet if you're standing far enough back, since those MOBs shouldn't have taken any aggro damage yet and the pet will take the proximity aggro.

[Snaggles]

Looking forward to your Seb crawl vid.

[Vivitron]

It's weird to me that aggro doesn't transfer from bard charm breaks* but does for mage pet swaps -- does aggro transfer for both pet dismissal and pet death or just one of them?

(If you charm down a Cliff Golem on a bard, which involves a couple dozen charm breaks, at the end the charm pet still pulls aggro on the first swing.)

Anyway if mages can convince staff to reverse the recharge cost nerf to root nets that would probably be pretty fun for my bard too.

[Snaggles]

It's not 100% transfer. Phinny kill for example...one epic mage pet, one lvl 49 mage pet, one shaman pet. If Phinny kills the epic pet the second highest hate would only be about half of the epic. Yet, epic mage will not get summoned unless the other two pets die as well.

Another example, if you do 90% of the damage and kill your pet and someone does 10% they will get the xp. They just have to overcome a bit of aggro you built in. It's not 90% though.

So rule of thumb but not a legitimate 100% transfer.

[wuanahto]

Getting to level 4 will be your biggest challenge
The willpower to level up Blacksmithing so you can make Banded Armor will be your second hurdle. Armor helps pets. Your fire pets will be king.
Damage shield damage is "neutral", you have a chance to outdamage your fire pet. or you can eat the 50% exp loss like a champ and soak up more cash
Use stamina/health gear because more often than naught you have to tank for your pet. RNG can still fuck a max level and max* geared fire pet. Phantom armors now makes more sense.
Your level 1 nuke is a good pulling tool

Level 4-16, blackburrow
16-20, crushbone castle, you can push it to 22-24 because the throne+tower will still give exp.
20-29, mistmoore. will be rough at first but at level 24 or so you will be king of the pond
29-34, highkeep goblins
34-39, unrest basement. 38/39 will be slow but steady
39-42ish, i turned my brain off and camped the ancient croc in uguk for like a week while i played other games 16 minutes at a time
42-49, gornit. 42-44 you might have to help your pet out with hit trading but 44 is a new pet.
49-55ish seafuries AND gornit. i stopped around there.

[Crede]

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

Getting to level 4 will be your biggest challenge
The willpower to level up Blacksmithing so you can make Banded Armor will be your second hurdle. Armor helps pets. Your fire pets will be king.
Damage shield damage is "neutral", you have a chance to outdamage your fire pet. or you can eat the 50% exp loss like a champ and soak up more cash
Use stamina/health gear because more often than naught you have to tank for your pet. RNG can still fuck a max level and max* geared fire pet. Phantom armors now makes more sense.
Your level 1 nuke is a good pulling tool

Level 4-16, blackburrow
16-20, crushbone castle, you can push it to 22-24 because the throne+tower will still give exp.
20-29, mistmoore. will be rough at first but at level 24 or so you will be king of the pond
29-34, highkeep goblins
34-39, unrest basement. 38/39 will be slow but steady
39-42ish, i turned my brain off and camped the ancient croc in uguk for like a week while i played other games 16 minutes at a time
42-49, gornit. 42-44 you might have to help your pet out with hit trading but 44 is a new pet.
49-55ish seafuries AND gornit. i stopped around there.

Good post. The torched fire pet is a beast and can easily take you to 55. Maybe even 60. You want to pull with an actual nuke though, because the pet can just rip aggro pretty easily after that. Then I’d do another one and the ds was enough to give me full xp. Prob the easiest class I’ve ever leveled to 55.

[NPC]

I solo'ed a Mage to 60 on P99. You can most definitely dungeon crawl, but at higher levels the clicky staff from Chardok is essential.
When soloing always use your earth pets, they have the most Hp's and if you get adds you can malo and use the earth pet root to help split mobs. But some mobs are more susceptible to that than others. I was using that tactic into the 50's in Karnor Castle, Lower guk. My mage could take 3-4 mobs at once if I was nuking and splitting right with malo + pet roots. My 40's I could solo the mid level spawns in Lower guk, like the Sage room has 4 mobs and I would just burn them down with a pet up. Ya it was sometimes close fights, but you can do it. 50+ I could solo anything but the Ghoul Lord. But the best exp on the server is Permafrost Bear pits, I was soloing those 50-60. With the clicky staff your down time is minimal too, I would routinely get free 2k-3k dmg a mob. With clicky staff, malo root with my earth pet an clicky till it breaks back up and do it again. I could lock down half of the bear pits by myself, plenty of solo mobs there if your smart.
The Hole, I could solo the entrance to the pit, although it would sometimes take some janky kill and then zoning. The Mage 49 focused Earth pet is probably one of the best summoned pets in the game due to the HP's (up to 2800), casting root, but most importantly only 300 mana casting cost. At 60 you can regen 300 mana in a little over 2 min, combine that with free clicky dmg and you can virtually non stop kill mobs in zones like Karnors at full mana. Making sure on the killing blow you dismiss your pet and get full XP btw. Which cannot be done with the Hotkey either, you can kill your pet the instant before you spells go off. So you can be casting a killing blow to get full XP or making a new pet to keep mobs busy. That's the real trick to unlock the mages true power. Before they nerfed it, you could cast clickies while medding, then as the casting timer finished if you stood in time the spells would go off. My Burnt Wood clicky staff would cast for 13.5 seconds I would immediately sit med for that many ticks, stand for a moment, let it go off, click it again and sit back down. It was pretty broke. Free 333 damage while medding. I used to wait on spawns at the bear pits.
Here's the spawns I used to level-
Najena 8-15
South karana hermit 17-22 (4 min spawn)
South Karana Treants 23-35 (4 min spawn) - hurts druid ring faction and Queynos Faction
East Karana Guards 34-47 (East Karana guards are higher level then North and West)
High keep Nobles 48-54
Bear pits 51-60

[NPC]

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

I didn't say earth pet as CC, I said pet. If there are 2-4 MOBs being pulled together, a chain-summoned pet continually takes all the aggro, in actual classic EQ and in previous eras of p99. I don't know off the top of my head exactly when aggro transfer became broken on p99.
.

Chain pulling was nerfed 6 months after Green launched.

[Bulzie]

I have 60 epic mage, you cannot dungeon crawl unless it is in say a 30-40 level zone. If you get 2 blue mobs on epic pet it will take alot of damange, usually have to nuke some. 3 and you have to nuke alot. I have free DD boots which helps. The aggro transfer was the game changer and put us out of sustained solo business. Mages still fun to play, just more limited now.