A tale begins...one AOE mage and...?

[bonemage]

Curse of elements, healthstones, soulstones, minions if things get too hairy.  But especially curse of elements. :)
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I agree, a warlock would make a good partner for a mage. However, AoE doesn't work too well without healing, and isn't effective against elites (works wonders on non-elites) unless they have been hurt pretty seriously. However, a warlock with a voidwalker would be an effective companion.

1) Send in voidwalker
2) Pick target together
3) Mage casts amplify magic while warlock casts curse of elements
4) Mage and warlock pull out very big guns and nuke target for massive damage
5) Goto 2

I regularly play with a mage (I'm a warlock) and we have great fun with curse of elements, pyroblast and soul fire. Curse of shadows (also brings down arcane resists) with arcane missles and shadow bolts works very well too with the tactics above.

Those are single target tactics that are proven, but here's an AoE idea that's completely unproven but might be worth trying, especially as this grouping idea is based on AoE.

1) Send in voidwalker in group of baddies, uses suffering (AoE taunt)
2) Warlock uses curse of shadows on everything and no other skills except a DoT or two on the voidwalker's target (we don't want the warlock grabbing aggro)
3) Mage wanders into pack and lights up with arcane explosion while warlock bandages him
4) Warlock sacrifices voidwalker and uses Hellfire to help clean things up if needed
5) If things go badly, the warlock can resurrect himself with a soulstone while mage runs to corpse. If preferred, these two roles can be reversed. ;-)