Quit my magician after I found out about the Staff of Elemental Mastery: Earth...

Zenren · #1 05-23-2020, 10:01 PM

So I got to 35 as my magician, seemed to finally be coming into his own, when I mentioned I was working towards my epic and some people in my guild said, "don't hold your breath". Well they explained about this one item and how in the last two years no one in the guild had been able to get it (and it's one of the largest guilds on blue) and how I would probably just have to settle for the staff augmented water pet. For me the epic is a major part of what a character is about and not being able to get the epic, or having the epic be so impossibly hard that it will be improbable that anyone with a life and job will get it, seems to be a waste of time. If I know the end game project that defines my class is unattainable, why would I play it? What do other magicians think about this? also, I don't remember this being a problem in retail, so I'm wondering why it is a problem on Project 1999?

ldgo86 · #2 05-23-2020, 11:15 PM

This is kind of the catch of Mage. The class is centred around your pet but without career unemployment you won’t get the kit for the class. I think the idea of the epic is really cool, but implemented very poorly. Mage and Bard both have very bottleneck epics that kind of “complete” your kit.

Guesty07 · #3 05-24-2020, 03:45 AM

Eh it's a shame sure, but it doesn't really bother me. I can still have fun delving into dungeons with my friends without it.

Solist · #4 05-24-2020, 03:50 AM

Why do you want an epic on a mage? It's arguably the most useless epic in EQ after paladin, and is only good as a levelling tool.

Every 60 epic mage on the server uses theirs to.....farm faction in droga, or something. It's just meh otherwise. Nice resists for mainhand though.

jolanar · #5 05-24-2020, 07:34 AM

Quote:

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

Why do you want an epic on a mage? It's arguably the most useless epic in EQ after paladin, and is only good as a levelling tool.

Every 60 epic mage on the server uses theirs to.....farm faction in droga, or something. It's just meh otherwise. Nice resists for mainhand though.

This is bad p99 forumquester logic. Also a farming class in Droga is probably the highest most consistent plat farm in the game that someone can do solo with no risk.

OP the level 60 water pet is pretty amazing. It's not as godly as an epic pet, but don't underestimate it.

But ya... you will never get your epic. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Vexenu · #6 05-24-2020, 10:42 AM

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.

Zenren · #7 05-24-2020, 12:32 PM

After having some time to get over the disappointment, I have decided to play my magician. I enjoy the class. I think it's the most difficult of pet classes to play, in light of the lack of CC, but it's still very rewarding. I may never get my epic, but at the very least I can use it to help gear up my alts when I level them.

loramin · #8 05-24-2020, 01:00 PM

Given the insanely unclassic amounts of other class epics we have on Blue, it makes it feel all the more unclassic and wrong that we have so few mage and bard epics. The "beta" nature of Blue has exacerbated the problem inherent in classic (and, notably, a problem that was fixed shortly after the classic period on live .. just like pet windows and custom UIs).

This is yet another case of "if they fix this with custom content the server will feel more classic, not less."

Sabin76 · #9 05-24-2020, 01:05 PM

Perhaps someone can jog my memory here, but back in the day I had it in my head that the Mage epic was the only one that could actually be completed before you hit 50 (with lucky enough drops). I even tried to be the first level 46 mage on my server with an epic at one point.

Was working on Quillmane and got KS'd 3-4 times in a row and quite trying shortly after that, lol. Also hit 47 in that time and didn't feel like dying just to be back at 46.

What the hell was I thinking?!

loramin · #10 05-24-2020, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sabin76 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Perhaps someone can jog my memory here, but back in the day I had it in my head that the Mage epic was the only one that could actually be completed before you hit 50 (with lucky enough drops). I even tried to be the first level 46 mage on my server with an epic at one point.

Was working on Quillmane and got KS'd 3-4 times in a row and quite trying shortly after that, lol. Also hit 47 in that time and didn't feel like dying just to be back at 46.

What the hell was I thinking?!

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] We were all basically Jon Snow back then; we thought we understood the game, but really ...

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But one thing is for sure: we certainly were not rezzing our way to Shaman epics, or MQing Rogue epics back then!