Another returning magician requesting help.

[Skizoke]

I've been away for many years. I'm guessing at least 6 because the newest item I have on my Magician is Ruby Ring Of Embellishment. I created my Magician September 28, 2000 which I think is the day Tholuxe Paells went live.

What I do understand is Pet Focus is very important. I see from looking at the FaQ that I do have one of the focus items and would I be correct in saying it is what you all are calling EM3?

My gear is severely outdated even though some of it was raid gear from back then. I've noticed the defiant gear that I understand drops off mobs makes most of it look way outdated. My first plan is to replace my gear with easily accessible defiant gear and then get some AA. From reading the forums I understand I shouldn't level past 70 or so until I get a ton of AA. I'm only sitting at 236 at the moment.

Looking over my AA's I see I spent quite a bit on raiding AA but If I plan to solo or molo? (I don't have a merc yet but I plan to get one) then I will need some AA's to improve my pet. Should I just keep browsing the forums or if one of you don't mind please give me some advice on what to work on first.

Edit: I do have epic 1.0 if it matters.

I'll post what I have here so you know what I already have.

General:
Combat Agility 3
Innate Intelligence 3
Innate Stamina 2
Origin
Natural Durability 3
Planar Power 6

Archetype:
Fury Of Magic 6
Innate Enlightenment 5
Mental Clarity 3
Mnemonic Retention 1
Pet Affinity
Spell Casting Fury 3
Spell Casting Mastery 3
Spell Casting Subtlety 3
Suspend Minion 2

Class:
Advanced Pet Discipline 2
Elemental Alacrity 2
Elemental Form: Air 1
Elemental Form: Earth 1
Elemental Form: Water 1
Elemental Fury 1
Frenzied Burnout 1
Hastened Mending 1
Host Of The Elements 3
Mend Companion
Pet Discipline
Quick Summoning 1
Servant Of Ro 1

I'm sure I probably wasted some AA in the past. Please don't be too harsh

Any and all advice is welcome.

Thank you,
Zinj on Bertox

[sharrien]

For soloing you definitely want to invest in pet survivability AAs increase avoidance, mitigation and hp, these are found for mages in both the archetype and class tabs. Also, extended swarm will add some time on your rage pets which also aids in the survivability of your main pet since they tend to steal aggro and absorb some hits before they expire. Get Companion of Necessity when you can for Oh-smurf! escapes, it grabs aggro and then wipes aggro from the target after a short time.

There are a bunch of AA now that replace spells and are nice to have. Malo, invis, CoH, Aspect of Zomm, gate to name a few and at higher level even IVU and mod rods.

Make sure you update your EM item as you level. These are a lot easier to get than the old days. Decent ones can be found on armor venders or loyalty vender in PoK. The new level-specific quests that are linked to achievements offer armor pieces as rewards, those are probably worth doing as you level up or just buy defiant gear or compartmented jewelry with cut gems in the bazaar.