The Magician's Tower

Unless I'm chain killing I leave my merc in reactive mode. Mana was more of an issue for my merc when I wasn't using T5, but now that I've upgraded my merc usually has more mana than I do. Only on really long fights or against really high DPS does she become in danger of running out.

But of course you're right, real clerics are much better equipped to handle spikey damage.

svenalo wrote:1. Elemental Cataclysm - ice/fire/magic nuke on the pet's target, similar to chromatic but going only after the 3 resists listed - dmg somewhat less than bolt, replacing shock line.

I guess I missed this, just saw it posted on eqlive.

NO NO NO NO NO.

That request is asking to reduce our dps, not increase it. The shock line at full strength is better than our bolt line, and it's also a major spell when maximising spell damage. We should be pushing for the shock line to be continued and improved, not replaced by something worse than our bolt line. Add this as a new spell sure. But absolutely remove the 'replacing shock line' garbage. BADBADBAD.

I think they were talking about our magic line of nukes: Shock of Discordant Steel. Not our Jolt of Many line, unless I misunderstood the poster.

Piemastaj wrote:I think they were talking about our magic line of nukes: Shock of Discordant Steel. Not our Jolt of Many line, unless I misunderstood the poster.

Hmm, well, still not a great idea. Pet target lessens its usefulness and a chromatic form of damage isn't always a good thing either. Still stands, make it a stand alone spell, but don't ditch any of our current nuke lines for it.

Yeah I was just clarifying lol. I agree we shouldn't try and get rid of any of our spells as of now, we should be trying to get new spells to add in with our current spell line-ups.

There is a contingent of Mages with somewhat disdain of the Earth pet. I normally keep quiet about it and smile, because the debate ends up like Religion, and as a class we are normally cordial, not confrontational. These days, anyway.

The Earth pet is mitigation, and the Air pet is about avoidance. The Earth pet is simply an incredibly strong and useful pet when you are on an aggressive walk-about, particularly when you get adds, and yes I know about repositioning for maximum effect. The spiky damage that the air pet receives due to missed stuns and/or additional MOBs, and particularly with the incredibly hard-hitting MOBs today can in lucky rounds destroy an air pet while the Earth pet just keeps on trucking. Do not mis-read this as a personal disdain for the Air pet, for that it is not. Each of our pets is now extraordinarily designed and useful in its niche.

One really nice thing is that we, as different and individual Mages, decide our definitions of niche, and thus do not play a cookie-cutter style. When I group with other Mages I smile as I observe our separate and different, yet effective playstyles add variety and real enjoyment and vigor to what is without-a-doubt the best class in the game.

This is a genius class and unlike any other I have seen in the several other games my sons have played. When Norrath is gone... alas....

The variety of our pets and their strengths in various situations is something that is an extremely powerful, and it is unique to Mages, and certainly not something we ever want to diminish.

If anything I would want one "bonus pet" as our Monster Summon used to be (someone mentioned this in an earlier post in this thread and I think it is a fantastic idea). I was disappointed when we lost our slightly better than our out-of-box-pet, air-like Monster Summon to attrition particularly because it, albeit in a diminished way, took a slot once reserved for the Revered Epic Pet. Slightly better, definitely cool, took awhile longer to get. MS4 with Jennu's blew your mind. (And that was in its nerfed form. It Beta it was The Destroyer.) I missed my Epic companion, and this cousin took the sting out of that, and added a quirky conjuration to dazzle friend and destroy foe.

So please, let us agree to leave the Earth Pet alone for its diversity and situational strength, and to also consider asking for a bonus pet, which would require extra work (not Epic work) and some kind of fused or enhanced abilities, the details which we could work out before the Beta.

And one more thing, please, while I'm on it. We fought long and hard for a de facto definition of our tank-Pet to be able to, out of the box, be used to solo with his Mage master a dark blue MOB out of the box. Let us continue to maintain that standard, and not let mercenaries insinuate a nerf of attrition.

Baramos Brinstar

I'd like to see our summon pet weapon line revamped. Instead of summoning a bag (forcing us to always have a bag slot open if we want pet weapons), break the spell back into individual weapon lines. Make them targetable and summon 2 at a time that go on the cursor. It'd be nice if we could target our pets, cast, and have them auto-equip, but that might not be doable. Would just be a nice bonus. On top of our normal 4 weapon lines (magic, fire, cold, and hate) I'd like to see a defensive line of weapons added. Give them no proc, but have them add AC (maybe 50-100 AC each) and have a larger HP bonus than the proc weapons (maybe 1000-1500 each).

Baramos wrote:There is a contingent of Mages with somewhat disdain of the Earth pet.

I hope no one is calling to remove the earth pet. For me, the only reason why it's my least used pet is because I don't solo much anymore. My order of hunting these days from most to least goes like this:

Raid --> Box --> group --> solo --> molo

Was it ever to become the other way around, I'm sure earth pet would be right up there, probably 2nd most used pet.

The only time I have ever used Earth pet tbh is when I am trying to root park a mob while I am CoH pulling. Idk, it doesn't tank as good as air pet to me, and it doesn't put out DPS either. Its utility is just not there anymore, hell even Fire pet is better then Earth with its revamped casting and spells. Wuld love for Earth pet to get maybe an AE type of spell or something to make it a warrior like tank for when we get adds or wanna do TS farming.

Just my 2cp.

I really can't remember the last time I used an earth pet. I can remember using an earth pet when soloing in the original game and in my 50s before I completed my 1.0 because pets taunted like crap back then and earth pet root was key to not getting whacked while soloing. I think once the 1.0 pet stopped being useful the air pet instantly became my preferred solo (and group) pet and haven't really touched earth pets since then.

What I think would be nice is if they would make the earth pet a better tank than the air pet, beef up it's taunt ability, and significantly reduce its DPS just for balance purposes. But I don't know if they would ever let a pet tank better than the air pet does now, even if it was doing crap DPS. I was just kind of thinking of the Voidwalker pet from my brief stint in WoW where it tanked awesome but did negligible DPS.