Necro vs. Mage

[Arterian]

Hey guys, looking for a little advice.

I have a lvl 90 necro with about 900 AA and all of my T4 group gear from HoT. I have a lvl 73 mage alt that I'm enjoying. I'm very much the type of player that leans towards having a strong pet, and as much as I enjoy playing in new content I also enjoy going back and farming and soloing stuff from expansions past.

My 87 pet is pretty decent with EM8 focus. I'm quite envious though of mages and their kicking pets.

I love feign death and my mana regen, FD saves my butt many times a play session. That being said, I feel like my pet is substantially weaker than mage pets.

Are you guys happy with your class/soloability? I'm leaning toward leveling up the mage, but it's a decent time commitment to go from 73-90+ and get all the AAs along the way so I want to make sure I don't make a mistake.

Thanks guys!

[Foaaniel]

my suggestion is keep leveling the mage and duo with the necro. You will be a EQ god with these 2 pet classess

Example:

necro and mage go to MC
set up at waterfall camp
necro pulls
necro FD
mage pet starts to spank mob
necro adds his pet and DOTS
mage fires weave
mob dead
total time 5 min TOPS

[Calebe]

I am level 94 traveling through and getting lost as usual in Temple on my way to Pillars. I was jumped by a yellow and a dark blue mob. I killed the blue, got jumped again by another yellow. Killed the 2nd and the 3rd one. I was using a merc. Still as I was on the move, I was not setup or pulling. Just unexpected and I thought that wasn't to bad at all. The 94 earth pet is one great tank. I am using EM12 at the moment. So if asking how the pets are. I would say the earth pet is doing great.

Calebe

[micker]

I have a 91 mage and 91 necro(along with an 85 Pally, SK, Shaman). I have played both fo a long time, with many breaks in between. I love my necro, and solo, only my SK is better soloing becasue of swarm kiting. BUT, I just have always had this fascination with pets in EQ.
I remember seeing a mage, back in the original EQ 1999, soloing in unrest in the house!! Unheard of back then. I watched as the pet would basically solo the mobs. I started my necro at that time and with fine steel daggers with delay 19(pets used to use the delay on the weapon you gave them) my pet at level 50 with the focus from Hate was a killing machine!! Necro pets were better then mage pets back then, because I don't think mage pets would dual wield. When the epic pet came out for the Mage, that was such an overpowered pet lol. Just awesome at the time.

Now my mage pet is much tougher then my necro pet. A lot of it has to do with the AA that mages get and pet spells. Iceflame procs a 2 hit rune and that can absorb a lot of damage against hard hitting mobs. Stuns used to make a huge difference, but the cap has been lowered, so doesn't help on higher level mobs. Along with being summoned with armor and being able to give our pets the haste mask and weapons easily, mages pets are pretty amazing. Using all our pet AA and spells, Frenzy burnout, stance, Fortify, Ageis, etc, mage pets can tank with the best of them. Its kind of like walking around with a badass bodyguard lol, feels good!!

Boxing the mage and necro are awesome. You have a tank, dps, puller and healers with mercs. Very fun to play. The thing I don't like when on the mage is that when crap hits the fan, there is no real FD button to hit. Yeah there is CoN, but after playing a SK and necro, it really sucks having to worry about aggro, bad pulls etc.. Just get use to that get out of jail free card that is FD.

All in all, I think the necro is more fun/interesting to play over a long period, just seems like I can do more and have different ways of killing/doing things. My mage seems more limited in the different things he can do or what he does in a fight. BUT its just so cool having that awesome pet and its a nice change from some of the other classes I play.

[Kraymerica]

I too, struggle with this decision. I have an 86 necro with 600 some aa and EM6, and an 85 Mage with 800 some aa with EM5. When I play the mage I wish I had FD, and could stack the dots. When I play the necro I wish I had a monster pet and could just send it in and sit back and launch a few nukes.
I go back and forth and wish I could just pick one, could get a lot farther in progress if my time wasn't divided. But I keep bouncing back and forth, so I am not much help for you. Just saying there are good and bad to both classes and they are both fairly strong, imo, in the group and solo department.

[Savil]

Mages can do some wild things in group settings, but when we die, its usually spectacularly. We med more than necs by a LONG shot. A well played nec is prob the most powerful class in the game for not dying. So it really comes down to play style. The main difference (IMHO) between mage nec is : mages can handle summoning mobs very well, necs can struggle with these. Given that a LOT of mobs summon in EQ now, it can be an edge.

Just keep in mind what they call a mage without a pet.... *dead*

Savil

[svenalo]

Just keep in mind what they call a mage without a pet.... *dead*

So true. So very true!

[dorfillya]

Just keep in mind what they call a mage without a pet.... *dead*

So true. So very true!

I chain cast servant pets always, so even if main pet goes down, you should always have time to click an insta-gate thingie from the cauldron, of which I always have 6-8 in my bags. This usually beats dying. And, I don't think I have ever seen it fail like the AA or cast gate. Insta-gate clickie is highly underrated.

[Savil]

From my experience the following happens a lot: air pet out, chaining RS pets on target, mob is a summoner. I'm DPS as well, main pet dies, mob ignores RS pet and summons me over and over until dead or I get off CoN if up.

Its a balancing act, if your DPS the mob hard, your RS pet will NOT hold agro after your main pet falls. If your not DPS'ing hard it it will agro the RS pet giving you time to get a new pet up, but if you were DPS'ing you prob wouldn't have lost the main pet anyway!

From my experience its usually best to DPS all out and hope you don't lose that pet! IE on mobs that summon. This is will max gear / AA's / pet focus btw.

Savil

[svenalo]

Just keep in mind what they call a mage without a pet.... *dead*

So true. So very true!

I chain cast servant pets always, so even if main pet goes down, you should always have time to click an insta-gate thingie from the cauldron, of which I always have 6-8 in my bags. This usually beats dying. And, I don't think I have ever seen it fail like the AA or cast gate. Insta-gate clickie is highly underrated.

I use my gate to beza/zeka clickie for that very thing. But in some zones where you are fighting in cramped quarters, you dont have time to do much if things go south...