Why are mages not more popular?

[Troxx]

I’ve been curious since my necro first hit level 53. New rogue pet.

I’ll start with a disclaimer: I parse everything. I like to know how I’m doing, what others are capable of, how individuals stack up compared to others of their class, and what I’m capable of when playing a similar class. I parse in real time with active display.

On getting my 53 rogue pet I was taken aback at the damage output. By itself it was doing more damage than most all other 50s melees I was grouped with. On parsing my epic monk and later my warrior 1-60 ... same deal. The pet alone was pulling more weight than all rangers/warriors/Druids/wizards ... all non-twinked monks and even most rogues. If you considered the dmg potential the necro casting added it was no contest.

Well I recently picked up my Mage. I’ve gone from 26-43 so far and it is no different. Properly summoned, buffed and hasted it simply does more damage then most melee for its level. I’ve parsed other mage’s 57 earth per at 60-65 sustained dps. 60 water pet higher... and epic pet well north of 80 sustained dps. This is pet alone mind you ... it doesn’t factor in the sustained dps or burst potential of the mage itself.

Mage (and to a lesser extent necro) seem to be seriously underrated. Why don’t we see more mages? Is it because their raid role and value are for boring tasks like twitching and rods? Is it because pets are unreliable on raids? For group content they just seem godly compared to alternative dps options.

I’m enjoying the mage so far and I haven’t even broken into the upper tiers of pets where the power curve takes off.