Question - This group in end game content?

[xogon]

Hi everyone,

I played a long long time ago, a friend told me about MQ2 and now I want to give it a shot.

I really love the mage class and was thinking about this group:

4 mages (1 earth pet tanking)
1 cleric
1 enchanter

Will this group be able to accomplish anything in the current end game content? Except just exp grinding to 110, I mean.

Another thing I like about this setup is that Im not as gear dependent as other groups, but will the earth pet tanking work all the way?


Cheers!

 

[vivviv]

Its doable, but if you replace the enchanter for a real tank you are much stronger and push further to end game. Or replace one of the mages for a tank.

 

[Nutsack]

Long ago mage pet tanks were the best in the game and better than real player tanks. Much has changed since then and a mage pet is no longer better than a real tank class. Mages are also not very high in the DPS department when compared to other DPS classes. Anything more than one mage in your group is pointless. I love mages and I always have on in my box group . Your current group plan has no real tank or DPS and I think you would struggle. You will also be using the "/kissassist pettank"command vice the "/kissassist tank" command that you would use on a real tank class. The 'pettank' option seems to be more sluggish compared to a real tank and gives me lots of 'Oh Shit" moments while the pet tank takes a few seconds to grab aggro.

Your group also lacks a puller. Mage's are too squishy to pull. I like using a SK tank that pulls using the "/kissassist pullertank" command. 4 mages is really super lame.

 

[vivviv]

I dont agree with Nutsack but each his own opinion

Mage pets tank t2 end game group bosses and if you run 3 mages you are more then ok in the DPS department. My 2nd group is 5 mages, 1 druid (all 110 and doing ros/eok). Most powerlevelers use army of mages as well as far as i know.

 

[Nutsack]

I dont agree with Nutsack but each his own opinion

Mage pets tank t2 end game group bosses and if you run 3 mages you are more then ok in the DPS department. My 2nd group is 5 mages, 1 druid (all 110 and doing ros/eok). Most powerlevelers use army of mages as well as far as i know.

A mage pet is not as good as a tank class and mage DPS is just OK like you said. So why have more than one in your group? I have 4 mages in total across my 12 boxing accounts. I love the mage class, but cannot see why I would need more than one.

I could make a 4 mage box group tonight with all the ones I have on my accounts. Give me a good reason to try it? My mages are 66, 85, 90, and 104.

 

[Many_Whelps]

gotta recommend using a PC tank. Gear dependencies are not nearly as bad as they used to be. The current end-game group content meta is to farm Gnome Memorial Mountain heroic adventures. They mobs are dead easy to tank, even for an under-geared PC tank and the HA drops 3 items every run with a chance for a 4th if you get the named to spawn. You can gear up very quickly off that.

Mages are very good DPS though. I run a mage and a zerk in my group and I've seen both pop off burns of over 400k DPS. Do you *need* more than 1? Probably not, but it could make for a fun group to play.

 

[Sum1]

Your group also lacks a puller. Mage's are too squishy to pull.

He didn’t mention he’d be doing this afk, which makes the /pullertank thing kinda moot. If I’m not running my SK (which often I am) I pull with my enchanter. With runes up chanters can pull anything you need them to. Hell, sometimes “pulling” is mostly “tag everything and sort it out with mez.” I love my chanter for that.

Case in point, I pull the FF mission with two tags .... one to pull the first 12 mobs (mez, kill), then one tag to pull the next 7 mobs (mez, kill), then the last 4 auto agro (mez, kill). Enchanters trivializes content in wonderful ways.

 

[da Man]

as stated before I suggest a real tank. (warrior)

 

[Mcgoo]

Depends on EM.

 

[Rycekryspie]

Agree with needing a real tank, disagree on mage DPS not being good. Especially if you're able to use their AE spells. Can you out DPS them with a Zerker or a Wizard? Most of the time, but if the dude loves mages it's not like he's going to be handicapped by using them instead especially if he needs an offtank every once in a while.

However, based on experience from essentially starting in the same spot I will say that Enchanter is going to pay off many times over when you're trying to break into TBL. Maybe not so much in GMM HA's (though their DPS is decent too), but that's only going to get your tank partially geared (no visibles). Mez alone on fight fire is going to save your butt many times over until you can get that tank geared up and your type 5 augs filled out. Which is unfortunately kind of counter intuitive to using mage's AE rains if you're having to mez a lot to save your butt early on, but it will be worth it.

I'd go 3 mages, clr, enc, and whatever tank you want to play, but try it whatever way you want and have fun. It's your setup.

 

[Rycekryspie]

Also, highly recommend @SA_krycek 's mage ini if you need a good one. Maybe want to tweak it a bit if you're running 2-3 in the same group, but it works very well!

 

[VorpalChicken]

Also remember nearly everything in TBL counts as summoned, so drag out the summoned creature only spells for some extra DPS, and turn summoned smacks hard

 

[Sum1]

Also remember nearly everything in TBL counts as summoned, so drag out the summoned creature only spells for some extra DPS, and turn summoned smacks hard

I didn't know that... that's a great tip!

 

[Woola]

IIRC with at least 3 mages you can proc alliance. Also you may not wish to use Dissident Companion since there is an agro reducer built in, if you don’t have a real tank. Volley of many will hit hard with that many pets on a mob. (3 mage pets, 1 enchanter pet, 3 swarm pets, etc).

 

[Onamatter]

Whatever you do Dont drop the enchanter, nearly everthing in TBL can be mezzed. If anything drop a mage for a tank, but tanks are really dependant on basically everthing to be decent. GMM is way to easy for the gear rewards, TBL will eat your tank.

 

[xogon]

Thank you all for your replies! I should consider a real tank then.

 

[Akatora]

with MQ2Berzerker and mq2rogue id look at both of them as well.. i slaughter stuff with my rogue and berserker

 

[Maxflo]

Get a real tank (warrior or sk) and you'll thank us later. Yes it's a pain in the ass to gear them but it's a long term investment that you can't go wrong with, no matter the expansion or whatever else EQ throws at you.

 

[Sic]

Real tank is very important if you're planning on doing missions and such

 

[surfdog21]

Dont underestimate the abilities of pulling with an enchanter pet. As it stands, you can /target mob then /pet attack and chanter pet will go get it, even through mountains if it is close enough, then /pet regroup to camp once it is in the extended target window. Of course, at the helm controls. Wont work afk probably. Mage pets wont do that. Wont go where chanter pets will. I know first hand. Also, you have to have crowd control or you wont get to end game so you really need that chanter for that too.

If you have 4 mages, two with earth pets, I bet you could go np. Bouncing pet aggro could cause the cleric ini to go bonkers but...I would love to see that group go with 4 earth pets tbh just to see how that would work out.

Go get the Diminished Muhbis visibles on all toons as well as the GMM non vis stuff and that group will rock and roll!

What Sic just said though...that group makeup will have a tough time in a few of the missions but should slay all normal group content/named. Getting passed the trials will require outside help. A bit of a bottle neck at the moment but...

Welcome back by the way~

 

[q8reflex]

Even in T1 i wouldn't venture in TBL without a chanter, period.

 

[stvski]

I run 3 or 4 mages, chanter and cleric/shammy as my main group. Once i got conditions set right for mage alliance spell i average 250k+ dps on the mages. Mages are T3 geared,maxx AAs and EM21. Their dps is good enough to handle just about all the named in TBL. If you run mage group make sure to add chaotic munificence spell to your buffs. With 4 mages running it your cleric will have an easy time healing. I often switch to shammy and use him for dps with only 2 healing spells and I have no problems in TBL/GMM.

 

[FV_Remnant]

My main caster group is a Paladin, Druid, Enchanter, 3 mages. It’s pretty comical how quickly mobs fall over. The group has incredible synergy and namers fall over with an alliance rotation.

 

[Maxflo]

What .ini are you using for your mages? (if you don't mind sharing) I haven't been able to find a really solid one.

 

[trippa3]

He didn’t mention he’d be doing this afk, which makes the /pullertank thing kinda moot. If I’m not running my SK (which often I am) I pull with my enchanter. With runes up chanters can pull anything you need them to. Hell, sometimes “pulling” is mostly “tag everything and sort it out with mez.” I love my chanter for that.

Case in point, I pull the FF mission with two tags .... one to pull the first 12 mobs (mez, kill), then one tag to pull the next 7 mobs (mez, kill), then the last 4 auto agro (mez, kill). Enchanters trivializes content in wonderful ways.

Im in this same boat, i drive with my enchanter and wouldnt change it... Any tricky pull ill just pet sac pull it then mez everything back in camp. I dont even bother with calm i just pull whatever and mez everything... Enchanter has way to many tools to pass up.