Let's talk about Mages.

H

haxbax

Dalayan Beginner
A few general Mage questions.

Should I specialize in energy/defense, so I can do more damage, but also improve pet healing, or should I invest in focus/mind, for the mana conservation. Maye I should split my points down the middle or favor one over the other?

Focus effects don't stack, correct? A companion health I and a companion health II would not give me companion health III.

My default pet is water. I feel that earth lacks dps, and fire lacks hp, so that leaves me with water (slow) or air (stun). Since most mobs melee, I go with water/slow, but a heavy concentration of casters might tempt me to go with air/stun. Is this a logical approach? For the record, I just soloed a blue HG, at level 39, and it was an extremely close fight. I think my water pet had less than 3% health, afterwards.

I'm trying to track down a usable item with focus effect: improved healing. I let my pet do the heavy lifting, and my level 20 pet heal is starting to show it's age. I like to group, but I want the option to solo, and using my level 20 pet heal, on my level 39 pet, while I'm fighting blue mobs at 43rd level, does not sound very comforting.

I can give armor to my pet? I assume 13 pieces total, with only bracers being duplicate slots. Do most high level Mages buy some armor, in town, and equip their pet, or simply give them whatever you loot? Is it worth investing some plat in chain, so you can outfit your pet, or is it a luxury that most Mages skip?

Thanks
 
Hi there, fellow mage :)

Focus effects don't stack, just as you presumed.

I've seen no healing increment item for mages except a tiara from hard tmap (but I doubt you could get that one easily).

I would probably choose same pets for your circumstances.

I give armor to my pet, plate and chain pieces, but only the ones that drop off mobs, I never buy them. He just dies too much on raids to be worth equipping for money. If you can get free armor, then go ahead, the pet will even benefit from hitpoints, ac and stats on armor, but that kind is usually a little expensive. Don't forget to summon your pet daggers :dance:
 
I summon my pet the +20 hit point swords, which work very nicely, and that reminds me; can I give my pet a ring of velocity, or would burnout simply cancel it out?

I'm kind of bummed to hear that you've only seen one improved healing item that can be worn by casters, as my level 20 pet heal just isn't getting it done, and I'm dreading levels 42 and 43, since I don't get a new heal till 44.

I'll have to fall back to plan B, and try and lay my hands on an item with companion health III or IV.
 
haxbax said:
I summon my pet the +20 hit point swords, which work very nicely, and that reminds me; can I give my pet a ring of velocity, or would burnout simply cancel it out?
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The ring and the spell will stack with eachother.
 
I split my points every level between energy/defense and focus/mind. At 65 you will max both no matter how you spend points though.

Correct. Only the highest focus item takes effect.

Your pet choices are fine. I NEVER used earth and rarely used fire outside of groups except on weak blues.

There was a quest in the western badlands involving the river hag that had a healing increment 2 range item reward that was MAG useable, but you're better off using your starfall range or better.

I never gave my pet armor other than the haste ring if that counts. Mostly out of laziness, but I've never seen armor make a visible difference.

Companion focus items greatly improve pet effectiveness and only need to be equipped while summoning or zoning.
 
Your pet choices sound good in general especially for soloing, but be flexible. If you have trouble keeping your pet healed (as in your HG example), try the earth pet. While he will do less damage, he has more HP, so you have more time to do damage (more than the difference between the earth and water pets) before you have to worry about healing. For easier mobs, the fire pet can do just fine and his extra damage and damage shield make for speedier kills.

Also, for grouping if you have a slower I'd go with the fire pet for increased damage. If there are many caster mobs, you might go air for the stuns, however the air pet tends to steal aggro more (stuns are high aggro), and he may end up soaking up some damage depending on your tank.
 
Raliele said:
There was a quest in the western badlands involving the river hag that had a healing increment 2 range item reward that was MAG useable, but you're better off using your starfall range or better.
Click to expand...

I can't believe I never investigated what the River Hag's heart was for! I actually had the heart in my bank, and it was a simple matter of getting a Chanter to cast High Elf illusion on my DE, for me to complete the quest.

I wonder what would have happened if I had just given the paladin the heart, even though he wouldn't talk to me.

Thanks!
 
My general suggestions might not hold up anymore but here they are anyways

Earthpet: Absoultely amazing for soloing as a lowbie believe it or not. This was my primary pet of choice for many many levels. Using a standard tactic of root backoff root backoff root backoff I could take 3 blue mobs at once without many problems (obviously depending on the mobs). After I got my first root however (lvl 61 earthsplit) I've almost never used him. Mostly b/c
a) Worst dps pet
b) people bitching constantly about the root proc
c) inferior aggro keeping ability to just using the root spell
d) Even in no tank groups where one would want the pet to tank air is a better choice if you have melee dps as they need to be fairly close and the pet most of the time just doesnt get close enough to hold aggro through the root.

Firepet: Never used this one too much. He's good dps don't get me wrong, but he drops pretty fast. Generally I prefer my mage to be the one doing the heavier dps w/the pet just designed for a bit of a boost and keeping it off of me, which when the healing recast got put in was apparently what was intended for mages. In groups that are heavy on tanking and have a slower already that are taking mostly noncasting mobs he's my pet of choice however.

Airpet: Best overall I'd say. Keeps good aggro, has a reasonable amount of hps, free stuns (veeerrry handy on casting mobs) and does decent dps. If you cant decide based on zone specifics you really can't go wrong with this one.

Waterpet: If there isn't many casting mobs in the particular area I'm going to, and the group doesnt have a slower already and I'm feeling like pulling another pet up (ie i didnt already use sop and bop like 10min ago on airpet) then this guy comes out. 25% max slow lil lower in hps than earthpet, little lower in dps from what I've seen too, but the slow makes up for it, unless of course you have the clicky drowsy robe and arent too lazy to swap out frequently, if you do, go with air all the way.



While I have tossed armor on the pet before (with soft leather armor being one of the more economical choices if you find a few merched pieces) I really never noticed a difference at all with it. I do however generally toss on bauble of batte. I never really notice a difference with this either. Also I'm going to be testing a piece of cloth armor with searfire augged onto it at some point to see if it affects his proccrits as I would figure it should, but that might be a long ways away.
 
vistachiri said:
Also I'm going to be testing a piece of cloth armor with searfire augged onto it at some point to see if it affects his proccrits as I would figure it should, but that might be a long ways away.
Click to expand...

Seafire is a focus effect and won't affect the pet at all, since Focus Effects don't effect pets and NPC's.
 
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