I have been 2 boxing a Druid with my Bst for a long long time now. Since returning to EQ though my usual guild hunting group has that Druid base covered. Figured I would spin up a Mage. Would be interested in any lessons learned or tips and tricks from people who have made a similar transition or who normally box a Mage. When it comes solo (boxed) play I have a little trepidation since I am used to having that heal from the Druid. For example I wondered about getting a Fungi staff till I looked at the spell list and saw we had a 20pt regen spell at 64 (guessing they don't stack). Will also have to make a new spell list that includes a toon heal. Minor things there but I wonder how much I will have to rethink how I use mana and might possibly have to change my play style. Any items out there I should look at getting? Know I should bump some lifetap augs up on my list of things to get – maybe even pick up a Barbed Knuckleblade of Brutishness to kick start that. Any AAs I should bump on my list of things to buy (beyond Hobble/Fetter am guessing of which I have neither).
I welcome any input or thoughts.
My suggestion would be, bring the mage out when you have healing covered, otherwise if you are just boxing, bring the druid out.
You're going to want to max out all of the Healing AAs (Adept and Gift). I've still gotta finish the last level for OoW on each, but I'm a slacker with a pocket cleric and druid. :-D
I'd also suggest getting SCF3. The beauty being you can get both an Exceptional Heal and Critical Blast on lifetaps, which for me currently works out to 625 from a 125 pt lifetap.
While the mage will allow you to burn things down faster, it's not going to make enough of a difference to completely elimintate the need for spot healing.
I've got the bases covered with mage, druid and cleric and I while I'll go many places with either just the cleric or druid tagging along, I can't imagine trying to solo with BL\Mage combo.