IMO there are 3 problem areas
(1) Mages are cheated on crits on rain spells (PLEASE PLEASE can we address this)
(2) There are far too many encounters where mages are unable to use there full arsenal (are there ANY high end raid zones where a mage is NOT disadvantaged to a lesser or greater extent)
(3) (and a very distant third) Problems with Mage pet.
Unfortunately it appears item 3 is the only one getting any real attention
I disagree with you.
(1) If you want to crit with spells alot, you should have rolled a Wizard, whose entire mechanic revolves around crits. Most mages rolled mages because of the pet, and I think any changes to the class SHOULD revolve around that. Not in making them wizards 'but with rains!' (which wizards get anyway). 1-65 it was you and your pets, trying to make a place in this crazy world of ours. Somehow as you go up the tiers we got away from that and made you a gimped wizard instead.
(2) Everyone has encounters they can't do. Mages just tend to all be in one zone (ToT, and to a lesser extent Pofire) rather than spread out. I could see where you could see frustration if all you ever do is ToT, but a necro loses his efficient, reliable, fire DoTs there too.
(3) As above, I think most people chose a mage for the pet, not to be a crappy wizard. If we have to have 14 classes, we should strive to keep them unique, not just close variants of one another.
On a different topic, after my tests yesterday, it became clear that the share form with pet thing is going to work better than expected! Just need to finalize the stats on the spell.
Of interest, the elemental pets (1-63) versus the relic pet, have HUGE resist differences. Fire pet, as an example, has resists at
30 300 20 50 50 (ya don't ask), versus the relic whose at
80 80 80 80 80. If it wasn't for how ridiculously many more hp (near 4.5x) the relic has over the 63, the it would probably be a nerf.
Knowing this, I'd like the elemental form to grant up to 100 of the particular resist to the mage pet
without giving the mage himself that much. He's already getting a good, stackable, bonus he didn't have before from the proposed changes, he doesn't need it THAT good. I'm working on making that possible.
If anyone has any particular thoughts on other abilities to grant for the particular forms, I'm open to suggestions. I've been informed +atk on pets really isn't noticeable, so I'm dropping that idea. I wasn't too crazy about Dzillons 2 resist idea either, for reasons that make sense if you consider the resists of old pets and what could be for the runic pet.