The Magician's Tower

Hi, I've got a few questions, I've been looking around here and other places but they seem to be a bit too beginnerish...

Ok, I've just hit 54, about to hit 55, banked almost 30 aa as xp seems deleriously freely available these days (Returning player from Oow era) and I'm mainly soloing and revisiting older zones so I'm in no hurry to level.

Pet questions.

I'm sure I read about the differences between the four pets, but I'll be damned if I can find them now. In the beginner section of this forum there's a discussion of nuke weaving which is a little above where I am at the moment

So pre 50 I was using fire pets a lot now I'm using earth, I've no idea when to use a water or air pet. In fact I've no real idea of the different roles they play generally.

I'm loving mercs, I've been using a healer merc, but did experiment with a tank merc. They extra dps was excellent, but I couldn't get the pet to be main tank, no idea if that's possible, but my merc refused to heal quick, so it didn't work out so well in the end.

50+ spells, I'm having a struggle to get a lot of these. I can go the spell research route I guess, is there something new going on there that I should know about? I had a look over at eqtraders and the info looked like nothing has changed in a while. I thought there was something that made it easier to level spell research now...

Ok, thanks for all that, really appreciated.

Deq's

In my actual experience and what I have pulled from the mage sites and serverwide channel.

General pet overview
Fire - pre-50 it was a great pet for melee because if the innate ds, post 50 it seems to be a better wizard type pet, but has very good dps
Earth - can root but not very reliable, best at taking melee hits, dps is weakest of pets, good pet for tank and burn
Air - best overall pet, tanks very well, can stun, good dps
Water - rogue style pet, best dps pet if positioned properly behind the mob, not a good soloing pet, good for groups or raids, or if you are out merc'n

In general if you are soloing you are using an air pet or earth pet. Air pets can stun the mob (including runners) and for most situations you will find the air pet most useful.

I don't recall where I switched over from my fire pet. Once I had my epic 1.0 back in the fifties, I rarely used anything else. It was epic 1.0 pet until 61 when I went mostly air pet for group and solo.

A 61 you will see nice upgrades to all pets until level 85. You can get a pet focus at level 59, do it!!! Pet focus is as essential as your Raging Servant spell at level 70.

Water pets work best in groups or raid situations. Unless you have a tank merc so you can position your water pet behind the mob more maximum dps. Parries and ripostes can reduce your water (rogue) pets dps.

Unfortunately, your pet can never be the main tank when other players or mercs melee.

Look for spell researchers on your server. Depending on the spells, you may not want them depending on your rate of leveling. 61 is a big change for pets for mages so it is a good spot to level to, then stop and grind out a lot of aa's.

Look in their title or /ooc in the guild lobby. If you are on the 7th hammer, I will happily make critical spells for you free. Just don't come to me with a list of 30 spells!! haha I have had that happen a few times.

That's excellent, I'll carry on until 61 then, that seems to be about two hours work at this rate !! I'm almost longing for the old days of a hell level in the late 50's just so I can catch my breath. I noted they've changed how you get AA xp so you get a bonus that reduces as you gain AAs. I've got about 40 or so today and a few levels and I'm really not grinding, just pootling around. I've invested in some run speed and an extra spell gem so far, I'll be looking for what to spend AA on shortly as I can't remember what's good with things like SCM, etc.

I'm on AB server, but thank you for your kind offer I'll have a poke around on AB and see if anyone can help.

/bow

Re: pet foci, here is my current understanding (for what it's worth) of the natural pet focus progression for casual players:

0. Staves of Elemental Mastery from the Plane of Hate focus 49-59 pets, but if you plan to go straight to 61, you can skip them.
1. Summoner’s Boon, affects 59-70 pets. Available on Intricate Summoner's Earring, which you will be able to buy at level at 55 from Liason Yureska in POK for 2,032pp. Alternatively, the same focus is available on Chaos-Imbued Platinum Band - check the Bazaar.
2. Minion of Darkness, affects 59-75 pets. Available on Drowned Man's Hair and Enchanted Harpy Blade, required levels 53-55. You can buy the same focus at 65 from Liason Yureska in POK for 4,284pp.
3. Minion of Eternity, affects 59-75 pets. Available on The Sweeper, required level 65, a common drop from a named that can be soloed by a mage in the 70s (?)
4. Servant of Chaos, affects 66-85 pets. Available on Elegant Summoner's Earring, which can be purchased at 75 from Liason Yureska in POK for 6,068pp.
5. Spire Servant affects 66-85 pets. Available on Kraxz' Earring of Command, required level 71. Also available on Energized Wire Coil, required level 75, from Fenden Helter for 747 Faycitum (9 days worth of quests?), also in the Bazaar since it's droppable.
6. Enhanced Minion II, affects 71-85 pets. Available on Red Dragon Tooth (Type 3 Aug) for 21 brews at Old Man McKenzie. The average group level needs to be 80 to get a mission.

Forgot to comment about:

50+ spells, I'm having a struggle to get a lot of these.

If you are heading to 61/62, then you can just camp PoP parchments on your way there. If you decide that you want to get some 50s spells after all, then Howling Stones and Sebilis are good places for hunt for them. The other day I killed about 100-110 mobs in Howling Stones and got 7 spells of different kinds, one of them for the "trade-in" quest for Kunark spells. Sebilis has a similar, if not better, drop rate, but watch out for SOW'd frogs that take off at low health and come back with many many friends. Howling Stones mobs generally don't run, although there are a few exceptions, and, at 55 with the 51 pet and a healer merc, I can take on up to 6-7 at a time and win as long as the merc off-tanks a few. 3-4 mobs, which is typical in Howling Stones, are not a problem. It's even better at the moment since it's a hot zone and the keying requirements have been relaxed, although not completely eliminated.

If you are after the Luclin spells like Veil of Elements, I suspect that the Bazaar is your best bet since, as I recall, camping spells in Umbral Plains was slow and tedious. Mobs have lots of hit points and the drop rate is not all that great, unless things have changed in the last 5-8 years.

For those hard to get spells I'd suggest just becoming friends with a researcher on your server.

For research first you need some type of "dirty" scroll. These scrolls come in level groups of 5 and are global drops off mobs in that level range. For example the level 50-55 scrolls are just called "spell scroll", and for each level they have a different prefix:

50: Grubby crude spell scroll
51: Shabby rough spell scroll
52: Grimy spell scroll
53: Shabby fine spell scroll
54: Dirty runic spell scroll
55: Stained fine runic spell scroll

Note the pattern. First word is some type of flaw with the scroll, second word (or two words in the case of the 55, and none for the mid-range 52 one) gives an indication of the qualtiy, and then the last words give the tier. This pattern pretty much holds for all research scrolls above 50 (usually there are only 5 scrolls per tier, from rough to fine runic) with "spell scroll" being replaced by the scroll type for the tier (vellum, parchment, paper, etc).

There's not really a need to know this progression since if you inspect the scroll it gives a recommended level, which is the same as the level of the spell that scroll can be used to make. However once you learn it you can immediately identify the level of the spell without needing to inspect the scroll. Also note that for spells available to multiple classes, such as our malo line, you'll need the scroll corresponding to the lowest level class that can use the spell. So if shammies get the spell at 52 and we get it at 53 you will need the 52 scroll to make the spell.

These scrolls drop from caster mobs of the appropriate level range, so any level 50-55 caster mob has a chance to drop any of these above scrolls (a 51 mob, for example, can drop a 54 scroll). Once you have some of these they need to be repaired through research and don't have a very high trivial (53 in the case of the fine runic spell scroll). With a little effort/pp you can probably attain this yourself and not have to bug a more experienced researcher to do it for you (just make celestial cleansers until you have a skill of 54, and save a few since you'll need them to repair the scroll). To repair a scroll you'll need the appropriate scroll solution, which you can either buy (more expensive) or make yourself (cheaper but chance of failure, though again, at 54 skill these are trivial and you'll only have a 5% failure rate). Combine the solution, damaged scroll, and celestial cleanser to create the repaired scroll. Repaired scrolls have the same name as their damaged counterparts, but without the first word. So a grubby crude spell scroll becomes a crude spell scroll. The solution names are the same as the final scroll names, but with "solution" on the end (crude spell scroll solution).

You then have the choice of either trying to raise your skill further and then attempting the combines yourself (considerably higher trivial, in the 150s), or find a friendly researcher who will make the spells for you. The cost to do the combines (not counting what you already spent to repair the scroll) will probably be in the 25-50pp range, assuming you don't make your own inks and whatnot. I do recommend learning research, as it's not only helpful for getting your own spells up through level 75, but it can be quite profitable as well to make hard to find/quested/faction needed spells and sell them. If you do decide to continue in the research profession, be sure to both: 1 - get your research trophy asap, since the higher your skill when you get it the harder the materials are to find and the more expensive the combines are, and 2 - Save all binding powders you find. Binding powders are the cheapest way to raise your skill, especially at higher skill levels.

For more info, such as individual spell recipes, visit www.eqtraders.com