Soling in HoT

[kalipto]

Hey guys,

I'm really thinking of picking my mage back up. The new spell line-up is pretty enticing. But I hear that some folks are having trouble with pet's not being able to take hits?

I don't solo exclusively but I really enjoy having the capability to do so. I'm wondering how it's going in HoT. Are pets too weak to take on trash? I know in recent expansions we could take on named mobs. But I don't expect that from my mage, just so long as I can kill stuff in HoT without going OOM every pull, I'd be satisfied.

The new 13k nuke looks awesome and so does the new "harvest" type spell. I kinda figured that'd lead to a pretty nice dps boost.

Anyway, feedback would be great!

[Danille]

Pets are doing good. Solo game is good. Group game is good. For the most part no issues there.

We have all agreed that our raid dps is subpar compared to the other DPS classes and needs attention.

[kalipto]

Raiding is a possibility for me; how subpar are we talking about? And what's the limiting factor? Is it that we run out of mana or that we just can't push as much damage out because of a lack of burst abilities?

Looks like our main nuke is only a few thousand damage short of what the wizards get so I sort of figured our burst dps would be pretty fair. But running out of mana has always been a concern of mine.

[Danille]

with the last expansion our utility, group and solo game greatly improved. Unfortunatly our ability to produce raw dps in a raid setting did not keep pace with our dps competition. Is it game breaking for mages, not really. The only mages who could get negative impact in terms of a seat on a 54 person raid would be in the very top tier guilds who measure DPS output as an overreaching reason for a raid seat on very difficult content.

[kalipto]

So basically things did get better, but they got better for everyone not just us? Sounds like it's still definitely worth putting in the effort to pickup the last few levels and start gearing up.

My main is a t4 group geared sk and although I love playing him; there's just something about a mage that's always drawn me in. My sk's getting around 4k dps depending on the content I'm up against, I imagine my mage could easily trump that given the dedication.

I also have a monk who sits around 5-5.5k dps in groups and a wizard who can barely make 3700 The mage is the least of all these right now. I think that as far as solobility and achieving good dps goes, the mage may be the best choice. Other than the sk, the other classes can't really solo all that well. And I get the feeling the mage can out solo the sk pretty easily.

I'll have to find out for myself! Thanks for the input Danille

[Malleria]

Raiding is a possibility for me; how subpar are we talking about? And what's the limiting factor? Is it that we run out of mana or that we just can't push as much damage out because of a lack of burst abilities?

Looks like our main nuke is only a few thousand damage short of what the wizards get so I sort of figured our burst dps would be pretty fair. But running out of mana has always been a concern of mine.

It's a bit of both. We can't put out the kind of burst dps other classes can, and our mana runs out far too quickly to establish ourselves as a sustained class.

[svenalo]

Raiding is a possibility for me; how subpar are we talking about? And what's the limiting factor? Is it that we run out of mana or that we just can't push as much damage out because of a lack of burst abilities?

Looks like our main nuke is only a few thousand damage short of what the wizards get so I sort of figured our burst dps would be pretty fair. But running out of mana has always been a concern of mine.

It's a bit of both. We can't put out the kind of burst dps other classes can, and our mana runs out far too quickly to establish ourselves as a sustained class.

From a raid perspective you can say that last part again with emphasis. Even with both mana return augs, a mana return weapon, the evo stone, the conj stone, bard music, chanter spires, all those C type buffs (C, beastie SE, etc, etc), max aa's, popping thaum as it comes up, popping gather as it comes up, click rods as they come up, clicking any other mana clickie if its available, and around 48-50k mana in the tank at the start...with all that a mage will still run oom pretty fast if they are doing a garg-spear-bolt/clash-fickle weave burn on a mob if the fight goes more than five or so minutes. Now if your guild can lay down enough DPS that you don't hit the fumes the problem is somewhat camolflagued...for me, right now and assuming I don't get killed by something stupid, I only hit fumes on TFC in convo by the end most of the time, and definitely run oom on convo 3 (the sessi) before its dead. On the rest of convo and the HoT stuff we are doing now (T1 and T2 raids - farming keys for T3), though, mana hasn't really been a problem. On any of those, though, if the DPS is off for some reason (some of the wizzies out or whatever) it becomes noticeable again VERY fast.

Also, with all the help the other classes got with respect to ours not getting a dps boost much if at all, our relative DPS shortage is very noticeable. Mages in my guild in UF were usually in the top 10 on raids even if we were slacking. This is no longer the case unless the fight is fairly short (i.e. Cleaner in Convo), and even then it is a contest to get into the top 10. Clearing we get blown away cause our stuff takes too long to cast, mid and long fights we lose out because our hammer, as it were, isn't as big (in relative terms) as it was previously when compared to other folks. About the only time we get a big burst is if we get lucky and double crit spear really large on a twincast...or if you go fight the red shrooms in the fungal raid in UF hehe...

Despite all that, though, it still is fun to raid...

[Failcon]

The pets are not that bad at all, being you are farming MC/SS get the EM8 ear and you will be sitting with most mages pet wise. Then you can handle any trash. Also if you have good AA's, up to UF defences for pet you can handle most names, including MC/SS.

As for raids, it depends on alot of factors. In my guild the mages are one of the most organized and team focused mages I have ever seen. As such we post top 10 parses often 2 out of our 4, with the occational 3rd. That requires team work though.

Mana now that is the downfall, if you cast all out, soloing you will OOM often after 2-3 mobs easy. A named can eat the whole pool depending on playstyle. This gets a lil better with T4 gear and AAs but not by alot.

[Danille]

Last week I upgraded my shoulders from t4 group (17%) to T1 raid (22%) It may not look like much but I notice the improvement in mana preservation while raiding.

[svenalo]

I have that COM3 shoulder from creation so I won't be upgrading them for a while unfortunately. But I can see where that would help...

Failcon what group makeup do you get for your mages? We usually are getting a druid and chanter combo with ours, but it is a constantly "training" opportunity to get them to cast the right auras, etc.