The Magician's Tower

The mage class has a very wide range of ways to increase DPS. We don't nuke like the wizards, our damage is split up with our PETS doing a large portion of it. So I'll break this into sections.


NUKING-- The Weave

Before the new casting system, it was easy to simply load up your 1 best nuke and click and click and click.

Now, with the new system of faster casting times but longer refresh times, you must load 3 different nukes to make sure at least 1 of them is always refreshed. (RS is there too, but more on that later).

When on raids, I keep Bolt, Jolt of Many, and Fickle loaded (if AtA can be used, that's a different story, see below) and usually fire them in that order.

Jolt is an odd spell because the damage you get can vary depending on the number of PETS the mob has on aggro at the time. However, during raids, there should be plenty of pets, therefore making this the ideal raid spell. It only takes 10 pets to get max damage. I've even used this spell in pet groups (5 mage+1bst), getting 6 or 7 waves depending on how many other pets (RS, swarm, etc) were out.

Jolt of Many has 1 huge advantage over the other nukes, speed of cast time.

Jolt of Many Rk. II
Casting Time: 0.75
Dmg = 743 * 7 = 5201
Mana: 767

Fickle Blaze Rk. II
Casting Time: 3.5
Decrease Hitpoints by 4655
Mana: 822

Bolt of Molten Scoria Rk. II
Casting Time: 3.5
Decrease Hitpoints by 5868
Mana: 1082

So you can see how this spell, on raids with lots of pets, can really help out when you weave it into your mix of nukes. It's faster and more DPM efficient than Fickle or Bolt, as long as you have 7 waves possible. So I hit that one whenever it refreshes.

Ok, so now that we have talked about the primary nukes, it's time to discuss "The Weave".

The Weave is a phrase created by the fact you have those "cool down" timers when you cast a spell. You nuke, and for the next 2.5 seconds you can't cast another spell.

However, you CAN do other things in that 2.5 second period of time.

The DoN orbs, Molten and Lava, are INSTANT cast mini nuke clicky items that you can make before each big fight. They have 10 charges each. If you use up a 10 charge Molten Orb, 700 dmg per hit, that's 7000 extra damage you can do during those cool down times.

Another clicky item you can make pre-fight is the
Summon Frigid Paradox Rk. II
Summoned: Elemental Ice Fragment = 5 charages of
Decrease Hitpoints by 4471

Again, it's an item you can click in between spell casts. It has a long recast delay, but the cast time itself is less than 2.5 seconds.

Any item you can find with 2.0 seconds or less cast time can be used in this way.

I happen to be lucky enough to own this (from Tacvi) -
Dagger of Evil Summons
Effect: Sun Vortex (Casting Time: 2.0)
Decrease Hitpoints by 1600

Again, it's a long recast timer, but I can mix that into "The Weave" on long fights for extra damage. All of your items you made prefight are basically "free mana damage" and you should use them as much as you can.

Anything, including AAs, that can be cast during the refresh time will benefit you overall. You weren't going to do anything for those 2 seconds anyway!

So, a typical hard burn fight for me, can look like this -

Malosenea/Malosinete (I always try to help debuff, plus you don't want to hammer a nuke when they are still positioning mob).

Bolt
Frenzied Burnout AA
Jolt
clicky nuke
RS
Servant of Ro
Bolt
Clicky nuke
Jolt
Clicky nuke
TWINCAST (more on this later)
clicky nuke
Bolt
FIRST SPIRE AA
Jolt
Clicky nuke
Fickle
Host of the elements
Bolt
clicky nuke
Jolt
clicky nuke
Fickle

So, you get the idea. The clicky might not always be up, have to just try it and if refresh timer isn't done yet, then wait for the spells to pop and try again after next cast.

The instant cast orbs don't show up on the Gamparse as "cast" spells, but they are in there.

The Fabled Warlord Gintolaken on 4/22/2009

Zacatac
--- Bolt of Molten Scoria Rk. II - 16
--- Fickle Blaze Rk. II - 14
--- First Spire of Elements - 1
--- Frenzied Burnout - 1
--- Frigid Paradox Rk. II - 1
--- Host of the Elements - 1
--- Jolt of Many - 16
--- Lycanthropic Growl - 1
--- Malosenea Rk. II - 1
--- Malosinete - 1
--- Rumbling Servant Rk. II - 3
--- Servant of Ro - 1
--- Twincast Rk. II - 1

Produced by GamParse v1.0.2

Rumbling Servant, friend or foe?

The mage RS pet spell is probably the most important one we've had added to our arsenal in the last few years. The first one was level 70, a DoDH spell arc (and that spell is now researchable).

It's a huge bonus, but it comes at a price.
Mana: 3071

Now, even if a mage has 30k mana, you don't really want to burn it all doing nothing but RS pet!

Because of this, many mages will only cast the RS spell when GoM procs. While this is a good idea on long fights, it can actually hurt your DPS on short fights.

IF you know the fight is going to be shorter, and you won't run out of mana doing it, lead out with the RS pet on your first spell.

Another trick that can be done, if while casting the RS pet, you get a GoM proc, hit Forceful Rejuvenation AA button, and cast another RS pet! Now you have 2 pets out there going for the price of one.

One major difficulty with using the RS pet is distance from you to the mob. If we are in a fight where I'm trying to stay back at maximum spell range distance, then you really can't use RS. The pet takes too long to travel from you to the mob, you lose all the efficiancy of the spell.

It's better to be as close as you can when using the RS pet. The closer you are, the more damage it will do.

So, you have to balance out your use of this spell. Is it going to be a fast burn fight or a marathon? Are you going to be close enough to use it well? Are you going to have enough mana to keep one up, or only use it on GoM procs?

These are things you have to figure out on your own each time, based on what your mana pool is and what you are fighting. However, casting RS on a GoM proc is usually the best use of a GoM proc.

Another item a mage can add is the older level 70 pet aura, Rathe's Strength. I try to refresh this on my pet regularly, especially before a big fight. By the way, this spell is RESEARHABLE now.

The mage aura is different than most, as it goes on the pet, and not on me.
Rathe's Strength Effect = Increase All Skills Damage Modifier by 10%

Because this is an older spell, it actually does nothing for my pet itself. The modifier doesn't stack with my Burnout 8 spell buff on my pet.
Burnout VIII = Increase All Skills Damage Modifier by 12%
Nor will it help BL pet for the same reason -
Unrivaled Rapidity = Increase All Skills Damage Modifier by 12%

However, this is an AURA that will hit all the pets nearby. That means by having this spell on my pet, it will increase the damage of my RS pet and my swarm pets, as well as anyone else's pets that don't already have a better buff.

So, try and use this Aura during fights, it can add a bit of DPS to the raid.

Annihilate the Anomalous and other AtA nukes.

This spell line we share with the druids. While the base damage might not look like much, the spell has some very beneficial side effects, a 32k extra damage proc!

Annihilate the Anomalous Rk. II
1: Decrease Hitpoints by 4331
2: Chance to create Lifeshard(10)
3: Chance to create Lifeshard(2)

Line 3 is the chance to hit for 32k. Also, line 2 is a 10% chance to debuff the mob

This spell is our only one that has a resist adjustment -
Resist Adjust: -100
And it's much faster than Fickle or Bolt
Casting Time: 1.5

So, what's the catch? It only works on mobs that are SUMMONED or flagged as CONSTRUCTS.

Summoned mobs are usually pretty easy to figure out, but constructs are a little different. All CLOCKWORK type mobs are flagged. There are certain mobs in most raid zones like Anguish or Ashengate that are flagged.

ZiT in DPoB is a flagged. So is Fabled Maenetic Behemoth. Once we start doing some Steamfactory raids, this is the spell you'll want to have loaded!

In fact this spell is so good (when it can be used), I'll often load up my spell line as Level 83 AtA, Level 78 AtA, and Jolt of Many. Then cast the AtA ones as often as possible. The Damage-per-mana on these is great, and you can hit for 32k extra sometmes!

Buy the AA called "Theft of Essence". With this AA, you have a chance to proc a buff spell on your pet when casting AtA nukes. You are basically "stealing" energy from the mob and giving it to your pet. I counted over a dozen going off in the Spindlecrack fight, so my pet basically has this extra buff on the whole time.

Theft of Essence
5: Increase Chance to Avoid Melee by 20%
8: Increase HP when cast by 3000
9: Increase Max Hitpoints by 3000
10: Increase ATK by 100

Duration: 2.0 mins

[Sat May 09 21:55:48 2009] You have healed Gabeker for 3000 points.
[Sat May 09 21:55:48 2009] Gabeker is filled with stolen energies!

Mage DPS AAs

Because our damage is divided into nukes+pets, so are the AAs.

NUKES
Quick Damage
Destructive Fury
Fury of Magic
Spell Casting Fury
Fire Core
First Spire of the Elements
Twincast
Focus of Arcanum

PETS
Companion's Alacrity
Companion's Fury
Pet Discipline
Advanced Pet Discipline
Pet Affinity
Elemental Alacrity
Elemental Fury
Frenzied Burnout
Extended Burnout
Servant of Ro
Host of the Elements
Extended Swarm (also works on RS pet)
Companion's Relocation
Second Spire of the Elements

Misc.
Gift of Amazing Exquisite Radiant Mana
Forceful Rejuvenation
Spell Casting Subtlety
Spell Casting Mastery
Secondary Forte
Theft of Essence

Ok, so most of those you probably know (and hopefully have!). There are a few things you might still need to buy of course (same here), but in general those are the DPS oriented ones.

A few random notes -

Obviously you want to max out nuke AAs. But you don't want to aggro, so you need some subtlety AA along with it. We don't nuke hard like a wizard, so it's not as important, but you will want some. I'm currently at level 9 of 12. (and I never bought any of the clicky deaggro ones)

Many of the mage pet AAs like alacrity(flurry) and Fury(crits) are important because they not only affect your regular pet but the RS pet and the Swarm pets as well. I recommend maxing those ones out.

Forceful Rejuvination is a new one. Hit it and all your spell timers are refreshed. As mentioned earlier, this is a good one to use with RS pet cast.

Twincast AA doesn't work nearly as well as the Twincast spell buff. The spell gives you close to 100% chance of twincasting the spell, while the AA gives you a 1% chance per rank, 3% at best! But 3% is better than nothing, and it does go off once in awhile.

I have yet to buy Third Spire, as the other 2 options don't stack (they share the same timer!) and really I can't see spending more AA on something right now that eliminates the use of First Spire which is a good AA, or Second Spire, which has some uses as well.

Ok, so I've now posted more than people want to read

One other note, don't use RS while you have your TWINCAST spell buff going (unless it's a GoM proc). Twincast doesn't effect the RS, you won't get 2 pets out of it. Just keep hammering nukes until the buff fades to get the most out of it.

I'll add in one last "over the top DPS" trick.

The high end mages who really, really, want to boost DPS to the absolute max will do this.

Have fully buffed WATER pet suspended and ready to go. And by fully buffed I also mean your AAs like Frenzied Burnout, Second Spire, Fortify Companion and Companion's Blessing on it (as well as any raid MGBs) right before you suspend it.

Then, with that pet suspended, make a new pet just to clear trash for awhile and wait for the big fight. By the time you get to the big fight, your Frenzied Burnout will be refreshed. The suspended pet buff timers don't count down. You kill the "trash clearing" pet and wait for the big fight to start.

Now with full extended FBO AA, the buff last nearly 3 minutes. If you have a pet with say 2min 35 seconds suspended on it already, when it wears off you can hit FBO again for another 2 mins, 45 seconds. FBO is a huge dps boost to the pet, and having a double shot of it makes it even more powerful.

Make sure water pet is at the backside of mob. Use Companion's Relocation AA if necessary to get it there in position.

With this kind of setup, your pet alone can hit 1000+ dps.

Larer (Zacatac)
--- DMG: 315654 (1.97%) @ 1688 dps (1661 sdps)

And finally, a note on specilization. For years and years, it used to be the great debate of mages, Evocation or Conjuration?

At this point in life, mages should be EVOCATION as primary spec, and CONJURATION as secondary (you did buy secondary forte AA, right?). While in the past it did make some sense to be conjuration, it really doesn't now.

If you want to change, here is the quest - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=711" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Make sure after you do your quest, you only cast evoc spells until you hit 176, then only cast conjuration until 126. Now your primary/secondary will be set properly and you can skill everything up however you want.

In the past when I would solo a mob, it would take me chain casting pets (conj), or healing my pet (conj spell), and casting RS pets (conj), and occasionally nuking.

Now when I solo a big mob, there is the merc cleric there healing for me. I rarely ever chain pets now. And SoD gave mages a new healing spell (Promised Rejuvenation) to use that is Alteration based. That leaves just RS pet for conjuration, and all my best nukes are evocation.

On raids you will be weaving your evocation nukes primarily, often using RS only on GoM procs. The savings you get from Evoc spec now far outweigh the Conjuration.

Group make-up on raids can play a big part in overall performance. In fact what other people are doing can really make a difference.

We learned long ago on Shyra that DEBUFFS can make a huge difference. Every class that can debuff at all should be doing it. Shaman, enchanter, bards, druids, etc. can all make a difference in how much DPS gets done. A fully resisted nuke is a sad, sad thing.

Druids also have a clicky on their epic that helps. If you get 4 druids on raid, have them click at 80/60/40/20% to boost nuke damage.

If you have wizard in group, they have a group clicky on epic that makes spells less resisted.

Try to get a bard or enchanter in group. Both have abilities to boost your DPS. A necro in group can help with the +mana regen buff for longer fights.

So, while all that information on mages is something you can control, there are lots of outside influences that you cannot.

ok here is silly question i have conjur like u were talking about and second forte as evoc so how should i still swithc to evoc and that will make my main and secon evoc right

mixablekat_3662 wrote:ok here is silly question i have conjur like u were talking about and second forte as evoc so how should i still swithc to evoc and that will make my main and secon evoc right

No, when you do this quest http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=711" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; it resets all your specialized casting and you get to skill up again on ALL counts. So you cannot have primary spec evoc and secondary evoc too.

Oh and beautiful write up Zac, thank you very much.