World of Warcraft Guide to a Mage
By DoNu7
Version 1.62
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Version History
3. Definitions and Acronyms
4. Skills
4.a. Arcane
4.b. Fire
4.c. Frost
5. Talents
6. Professions
6.a. Manufacturing Professions
6.b. Gathering Professions
6.c. Secondary Skills
6.d. General Tips
7. Equipment Picks
8. Combat
8.a. PvE
8.b. Small-scale PvP
8.c. Large-scale PvP
9. Disclaimer
10. Helpful Sites
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Introduction
Thank you for choosing this mage guide! I have played my mage for a while now,
and I have found this class to be very intriguing and fun. I would like to
make a few notes before we begin.
First off, much of the information in this guide is opinionated. Some people
may disagree with the facts, while others heartily agree with what I have
written. However, whether you agree with the facts or not, I hope that you
will find some use in this guide.
Another note that I would make is that we mages have burst damage. This does
not mean we are the highest damage dealers. Rather, we deal damage in a short
period of time, but if the fight lasts longer, well-equipped Rogues and
Warriors would outstrip us badly in terms of damage.
While we do not have many abilities that directly help our allies, such as
healing spells, or the ability to tank, we help others by quickly finishing
off enemies, and therefore making the battle safer for everyone. In addition,
we can polymorph enemies and help control large crowds.
Mages also have a number of abilities that help reduce downtime, and that
makes us quite versatile since mages frequently need some downtime to
replenish their mana or health supply. However, we mages have our problems too.
An obvious one is that we tend to have frequent downtime, and some players may
feel that they are slacking off because while they are having their downtime,
they aren't doing anything.
Mages are also very fragile, in fact, second only to the warlock, who must
rely on their pets for protection. However, each class has their problems, so
there is no reason to think that mages are a weak class for in fact, we can
solo very well and we can kill enemies with quick succession.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Version History
1.00 Release
1.01 Tiny update, fixed a couple of minor errors and edited the disclaimer,
added new section (this one), fixed some incompleteness that I missed.
Might add Battlegrounds section at one point, but so far I have never
tried one yet.
1.02 Few errors fixed. Fixed Disclaimer a bit.
1.12 Changes to a couple of sections.
1.22 Fixed more errors. Added new information. Hope I haven't missed out
on anything...
1.32 Many changes to PvP section. Removed part of the group section which
didn't seem to be very useful, but rather a huge waste of space.
1.52 BIG fix, mainly to Combat section (which I pretty much revamped). Note
that I skipped all the way from 1.32 to 1.52, and this was intended as I
considered releasing 1.42, but decided I had more to add.
1.62 Phwew, it's finally out. Made some changes. Added "Ice Block" <-- Yay!
Decided to screw BG section since most of the strategies were covered in
"Large Scale PvP" section. Planning to add equipment section and maybe
introduce some good talent builds.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Definitions and Acronyms
Here is a list of the definitions of some more obscure words that relate to
mages.
Add-Extra monster that enters the battlefield
Aggro-Also called threat, determines chances for enemy to attack it's
opponent. The higher the aggro, the more likely the enemy is going to attack
that player.
AoE-Area of effect.
Buff-Spell or ability that benefits the target.
Caster-Character class that uses spells to damage enemies and heal allies.
Chain Casting-Cast several spells in quick succession.
Dps-Damage per second.
DOT-Damage over time
Int-Intelligence. If someone asks you "int buff please", it would mean that
they want an Arcane Intellect, or Arcane Brilliance buff from you.
Kite-A term that means to keep the enemy at range while damaging them.
NPC-Non-player characters. These are the vendors, enemies, quest givers, and
trainers of the game
Puller-Person that pulls enemies to a party. Mages do not make good pullers,
despite what some may think. Act as puller only if you are assigned to
"silence pull", which means silencing the target with Counterspell so that
they are forced to come to the group and melee, rather than fight from range.
PvP-Player versus player.
PvE-Player versus enemy (NPC's).
Root-Trap the target in place.
Spam-Repeatedly cast a spell on a target as fast as the spell regenerates.
Spi-Spirit.
Stam-Stamina.
Threat-See "aggro".
For a complete glossary, visit this page: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info
/basics/glossary.html;jsessionid=CC6857B8D2332ED6B877B67528439F68.app02
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Skills
The first section covers the uses of the skills of a mage. For information on
the stats of each spell, go to http://www.thottbot.com/?c=Mage.
--------
4.a. Arcane
--------
The arcane line consists of a variety of spells that deal damage and protect
the mage. This isn't the most damaging line, but it has many other uses to
offer.
Arcane Brilliance
This spell is dropped from loot. Basically, it has the same effects as
Arcane Intellect, only it buffs the entire group, so this is a good way to
instantly give everyone Arcane Intellect. In addition, this ability lasts 30
minutes longer than the generic Arcane Intellect.
Amplify Magic
Amplify Magic increases the amount of magic damage taken. This may sound like
a downside, but the good part is that it also increases amount healed. For
this reason, cast it on the party when there are no enemy casters, and be
sure to tell them to turn it off should any casters appear!
Arcane Explosion
This is the spell for the ultimate fast AoE damage potential. It dumps a ton
of mana down the drain, but it dishes out the damage just as fast. With
the proper talents, this spell becomes instant and it can be used to help you
kite a single enemy. This spell is very good to spam when all the enemies are
aggroed by a party member and all that is left is to have someone damage them.
Arcane Intellect
This is an important buff that increases your intellect by a moderate amount.
The amount of mana increased through this buff can't be overlooked however.
All casters love to have this buff, because the increased intellect really
does make a difference in the battlefield. As you learn higher levels of this
buff, it will become very costly, but this is not a problem because the long
term effects of this spell are much more worth it.
Arcane Missiles
This is a powerful spell that quickly dishes out the damage. While it has a
higher dps than most of your spells, the amount of mana used may not be worth
the total damage inflicted. So therefore, it is like a tradeoff, you dish out
the damage quickly at the expense of more mana. Another thing to be aware of
is that arcane missiles is channeled, so if any damage is done to you, it will
reduce the length of the channeling, and may even threaten to cancel your
casting. Fortunately, there are talents to prevent this from happening.
Arcane Power (Talent)
This is a buff learned through the arcane talent line. When activated, it
increases the damage from all your spells by a substantial amount, but it also
increases the mana cost by the same percentage. For this reason, the best use
for this spell is if you want to quickly finish off the enemy, and you aren't
too worried about your mana pool. This is surprisingly useful in PvP because
it can help you kill your opponent so fast they won't have much time to
retaliate.
Blink
Blink instantly teleports you 20 yards forward. This may not sound like much,
but it will gain you quite a bit of distance in PvP or PvE fights. As you know
distance is very important to a mage, so being able to instantly gain some
distance is a crucial thing. An important thing some other people pointed out
to me was that Blink can get you out of stuns. This can be great if a Rogue
Cheap Shots you and you need to get away fast, or if a Warrior charges you.
Conjure Food
The use of this spell could not be underestimated. Conjure food allows you to
conjure food that is quite reasonable for the level you are currently in. The
big plus for this spell is that you can create food out of thin air, and you
do not need to go to vendors to buy food. In some cases, even the hunter's pet
in your group may wish for a loaf of free bread!
Conjure Water
This is similar to food, although it conjures water instead. This is much more
important than food since liquids are the only things in World of Warcraft
that replenish mana. Spells and bandages can replenish health, but not mana.
The only exception to this is the mage's Evocation and the druid's Innervate.
Conjure Mana Agate/Citrine/Jade/Ruby
This spell allows you to conjure a mana gem. In some ways, these gems are like
mana potions because they instantly restore mana. The only difference is that
all you need in order to make a gem is mana! Take note that only one gem of
each type can be in your packs at a time. This does not mean that you can't
have a mana ruby and a mana jade at the same time! Conjuring several types of
mana gems and keeping them in your packs is a very good idea. Although all
gems recieve a cool-down after you use one, some of the longer fights may be
so long that you'll use all your gems in one go. Note that mana gems are bind
on pick-up, so you cannot give it to other players.
Counterspell
This is one of the best ways to anger enemy casters. What it does is that it
halts enemy casting mid-sentence, and they cannot cast any spell from that
school of magic for another ten seconds. The only problem is that it creates a
large amount of aggro, although this isn't a problem during soloing. In groups
use it wisely. Improved Counterspell greatly helps this ability by attaching a
4 second silence to it.
Dampen Magic
Dampen Magic reduces the amount of magic damage taken by a small amount, and
also reduces the amount healed. Magic damage includes anything from poisons to
curses. Of course the downside to this is the reduction of the amount healed
through spells. Use this if there are no healers in the group, or when
soloing. Note that it does affect the amount healed through healing potions
too.
Detect Magic
Nothing special about this spell. It shows the magic buffs on a target. While
this is useful in some cases (such as when they cast a spell-immunity shield),
it won't make a huge difference in combat. I suppose if you are grouped with
a shaman or a priest, you can put detect magic on the opponent so that they
will be able to know if they need to dispell anything. I have yet to try this
out, but I believe it will work.
Evocation (Talent)
Evocation allows your mana to regenerate at super fast speeds for a couple of
seconds. Your mana begins regenerating even if you have just cast off a spell
and you aren't using Mage Armor, or you haven't learned the talent to allow
mana regeneration while casting. Note that this is channeled, so any damage
taken will shorten its length. Also note the long cooldown, so save this spell
for important battles when you absolutely need to quickly replenish some mana.
Mage Armor
A relatively new spell that was added through a recent patch. Mage armor
increases resistance to all schools of magic, and it allows some of some mana
regeneration while you are casting. Unfortunately, it does not provide an
armor bonus like Frost/Ice Armor. If you constantly find yourself running out
of mana while retaining tons of health, you should consider migrating to Mage
Armor. If your mana and health seem to always stay at the same level, stick
with Frost/Ice Armor. Mage Armor is great for groups. In a group setting, you
will rarely get hit, and the only thing you will need to worry about is mana.
Mana Shield
Not a bad spell, but it gets your mana drained pretty quick. The big bonus to
this is that it negates any interruptions. This means that you can cast away
without losing any casting time, or losing your channeling. Also works with
bandages. A good way is to shield then bandage so that it doesn't get stopped.
This also negates daze effects when the enemy attacks your back, so it's a
good idea to use mana shield when you are making a run for it. Mana Shield is
also very good when paired with mage armor. While you are casting, your mana
will still regenerate a tiny bit, and this will help keep up your mana
reserves.
Polymorph
This spell turns the enemy into a wandering sheep. This is definitely the best
way to control large groups of enemies since even putting at least one enemy
out of action would make a difference during solo and group. The downside is
that any damage done to the sheep would cause it transform back. Also, the
target quickly regenerates health as a sheep. For this reason, it is not a
good idea to cast sheep on an injured target. Polymorph can also be used to
buy you, or your group some time as they bandage up, regenerate some mana, or
start a long-casting spell such as Pyroblast.
Portal
This is a special ability learned through a portal trainer at a major city.
Be aware that you can only learn to be able to create a portal to whatever
city that trainer is in. In order to create portals to other cities, you will
need to talk to the trainers in those cities. Only you and your party members
can go through the portal, and once you go through, you cannot come back.
Presence of Mind (Talent)
This is an ability that reduces the casting time of your next spell by 100%.
The only abilities that are not included are portals, teleportation, and
hearthstone. For other spells, this is exrtremely useful. Mages who also go
into the fire line generally get Pyroblast to pair it with this spell as
Pyroblast has a very long casting time, and making it instant is absolutely
killer.
Remove Lesser Curse
Although this spell says "remove LESSER curse", it could apparently remove any
curse as long as it is around your level. This spell doesn't cost very much
mana either, so feel free to use it any time you need to.
Slow Fall
Completely useless. All it does is that it reduces some falling damage, and
there is almost no use to that. You also need a light feather for it, and they
can only be found on the lower levels, which makes it difficult to obtain at
the higher levels.
Teleport
Same effect and rules as Portal, except it only affects you. However, this
ability is cheaper and a rune of teleportation cost only half as much as
rune of portal does.
--------
4.b. Fire
--------
The fire line is mostly centered around damage. Fire spells are best for high
damage while maintaining modest amounts of mana. This makes an efficient line
in which damage is dealt with fair speed.
Blast Wave (Talent)
This is an instant AoE that hits surrounding enemies with a wave of fire. In
addition, it also slows them to 50% normal speed. This can be quite useful if
you need a quick AoE and you do not have Improved Arcane Explosion. Be aware
of the long cooldown, so you'll probably only get to use it once in a given
battle.
Combustion (Talent)
This an instant ability that raises your chance to crit with your next fire
spell by 100%. Paired with a Pyroblast, this can be tremendously powerful.
Another good combo for Combustion is the dreaded combusted Blast Wave. Turn
on Combustion, then run into the middle of a ton of mobs and let loose a
Blast Wave to crit ALL of them and really turn up the heat. Unfortunatly, you
cannot have Combustion and Presence of Mind at the same time, you can only
have one or the other.
Fire Blast
This spell instantly blasts enemies with a hit of fire. It's usefulness cannot
be underestimated. Use it to complement your normal spellcasting whether you
are frost, fire, or arcane as it will increase your DPS by a large amount. Be
aware of the short range and the cooldown.
Fire Ward
This spell is nice to have when fighting fire casters. It'll stave off a few
hits from fire spells from mobs. When fighting other mages, expect it to only
last one fire ball. Still, it will save you quite a bit of health.
Fireball
A very basic spell, this will be the main thing you'll be using if you are a
fire mage. It does have a relatively long casting time at the later levels, so
talents really help. It is more mana efficient than Arcane Missiles, and is a
good thing to use when fighting mobs. Complementing it with occasional blasts
of Fire Blast and that makes things even better.
Flamestrike
The primary AoE of the fire line, it does a modest amount of damage
immediately, but the damage it does mainly relies on the DoT that comes along
with the spell. Indeed half the damage is from the DoT, while the rest is from
the immediate hit. Obviously it'll require the enemy to stay in that spot so
that the spell can do its full damage potential. This makes the spell quite
useless for repeated casting. A good idea is to Flamestrike the enemy, then
Frost Nova them in place and start using Blizzard, or spam them with Arcane
Explosion. A tank at the head of the battlefield will also be useful as they
can keep the enemy in place.
Pyroblast (Talent)
This is a spell learned through fire talents. Sure it has a long casting time,
but the damage it does is tremendous. Use it against unsuspecting targets in
order to get a good head start, or pair it with Presence of Mind during the
course of the battle to unleash a sudden, tremendous attack.
Scorch
A low DPS fire spell that also uses a very low amount of mana, it sure doesn't
do very much damage, but it has a very fast casting time. Use it when you
don't have time to cast a Fireball, or spam it in groups to keep a steady flow
of damage while not consolidating too much aggro.
--------
4.c. Frost
--------
The last line for a mage, these spells do somewhat lower damage than fire
spells, but when used in the right combo, plus the correct talents, this can
be a very potent set.
Blizzard
One of the main AoE's that you will be using, this is a channeled spell that
showers an area with ice. The power of this ability cannot be underestimated.
With the right talents, this spell will also be able to slow enemies down, and
will even gain a chance to freeze the enemy in place. This reduces the need
to use Frost Nova to keep the enemy in place while you pound them. Be aware of
the large mana cost. If you learned Arcane Concentration, then it is a good
idea to cast some other spells to gain a Clearcast, then unleash a mana-free
Blizzard.
Cold Snap
When activated, finishes the cooldown of all your cold spells except for the
spell itself. The spell itself does have a long cooldown, but it can be used
if you really need to pull off that extra Ice Barrier, Frost Nova, etc.
Cone of Cold
This is an AoE spell that hits a cone of enemies in front of the caster with
frost damage. A good idea is to run backwards so that the enemies will tighten
up a bit, then use cone of cold to hit them all. A good combo with this spell
is to use Blast Wave first, then use CoC when the daze affect goes away. Cone
of Cold also reduces the enemy's speed by 50%, so you can use this to
accomplish what Blast Wave fails at. Cooldown is relatively short at 10
seconds.
Frost Armor
A basic and necessary spell, it increases your armor by a substantial amount,
and enemies also have a chance of having their movement speed and attack speed
slowed down. Frost Armor is simply awesome when you have also learned Frost
Bite talent. With each hit from the enemy, they have a chance to freeze in
place. Unfortunatly, it does not stack with Mage Armor, so you have to choose
whether you would have one or the other.
Frost Nova
This is one of the most important spells to use to get you out of melee
trouble. Whether you are in a group, or you are soloing, this is one of the
most important spells you will get. Paired with Blink, this spell becomes
even more powerful. Note that it does have a pretty long cooldown, so you'll
probably only get to use it once during a battle.
Frostbolt
Just like Fireball, this is the spell you will be using most of the time if
you are a frost mage. However, even if you are specced in something else, this
is still not a bad spell to start off a fight with since it slows the enemy
down by a modest amount. This will force the enemy to take some time to get to
you while you dish out spells at it.
Frost Ward
Similar to Fire Ward, except it absorbs frost damage instead. The only bad
part about your ward spells is that only one can be activated at a time
because the moment you activate one of them, the other ward spell also
receives a cooldown. Therefore don't accidentally activate the wrong ward.
Ice Armor
Similar to Frost Armor, except is also increases your frost resistance by a
tiny amount. Like frost armor, it also replaces Mage Armor if you activate it.
This can only be learned later on, after Frost Armor.
Ice Barrier (Talent)
The apex of the frost line, Ice Barrier acts like the priest's Power Word:
Shield, except it absorbs less damage and can only be cast on the self. Note
that it also has a longer cooldown, but it also lasts longer. This is a great
ability to use if you need a little "extra" health and you are low on mana
so Mana Shield would be a bad idea.
Ice Block (Talent)
The second to last spell in the frost line, this is quite useful in PvE, but
is INCREDIBLE in groups and in pvp. While you can't cast for the 10 second
duration, you are completely immune to everything except for a server crash
for those seconds. This gives you time to have a breather and it also gives
you time to replenish some cooldowns. Say you use blink, and you find that
you need to use it again. You can ice block and effectively grant you 10 free
seconds to recharge blink. Ice Block can also be used to remove yourself of
debuffs that are placed on you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Talents
In World of Warcraft, talents are a special ability tree that is similar to
the skill tree in Diablo II. However, talents only help to improve your
fighting capability of your character, rather than being the deciding factor
of how well you will be able to fight as spells do.
--------
Arcane
--------
Arcane talents improve your arcane spells, and they also improve your mage
overall. For example, there are talents that reduce the casting time of your
Arcane Explosion, and there are talents that increase your total mana pool.
Arcane Subtlety
This talent reduces the amount of threat generated by your arcane spells. This
means you'll be able to cast lots of arcane spells during a fight while not
getting too much aggro.
Arcane Focus
Not very useful to me. It reduces the resist rate of your arcane spells by a
small amount, and I don't find much use for it since enemies rarely resist
your spells anyway, unless they are 3 or more levels higher than you.
Improved Arcane Missiles
This makes it so that while you channel Arcane Missiles, you can escape the
chance of having your channeling being interrupted. Note that your
channeling will still be stopped if you are stunned, silenced, counterspelled,
etc; basically, anything that would completely stop a timed cast.
Wand Specialization
Not very useful, you won't be using wands very often, solo or group. Even if
you did put talents in this, you won't do that much more damage since wand
damage is relatively low.
Arcane Concentration
Now things are getting interesting. This talent gives you a chance to gain
a clearcast with every hit from a damage spell. A clearcast causes your next
damage spell to be 100% mana free. When maxed out, this talent gives you a
10% chance to gain clearcast. AoE spells are awesome with this talent because
with each target hit, you get a chance to clearcast.
Improved Dampen Magic
This talent increases the amount of damage that this spell reduces. However,
it also increases the reduction of the amount healed through healing spells.
Therefore, this is sort of a double-edged sword. Choose carefully as to
whether you would like to have this talent, or not.
Improved Arcane Explosion
IAE reduces the casting time of your Arcane Explosion. When maxed out, this
will make your Arcane Explosion an instant cast with no cooldown except the
one second cooldown all spells receive whenever you cast a spell. This allows
you spam the spell, or cast it repeatedly and deal massive damage.
Evocation
See "Evocation" under the spells section.
Improved Mana Shield
This talent reduces the mana drained with each point of damage taken. Although
it will not reduce the mana drained to the point where one point of damage
drains one point of mana, this is still worth it if you choose to use mana
shield often.
Improved Counterspell
This adds a chance to silence the target for 4 seconds. A silenced target
cannot cast until the silence goes away. This makes it great for PvE and PvP
since enemies can't cast spells from different schools even if you've only
silenced one school of magic. I'm not sure whether you can silence to prevent
weapon procs from going off, I have yet to try it out but my guess is that it
won't work.
Arcane Meditation
This talent allows some of your mana to regenerate while you are casting. Sure
it sounds tempting, but it's a very low amount. When maxed out, it will
allow 15% of your normal mana regeneration to continue, while this isn't much,
it's still something, and goes a long way in PvE combat.
Presence of Mind
See "Presence of Mind" under the spells section
Arcane Mind
This talent increases your maximum mana pool. This is quite useful since a
larger mana pool is always good. When maxed out, this talent will allow you
to pull off one or two extra spells with your increased mana. Sure this
doesn't sound like much, but even one extra spell can sometimes be the
deciding factor between victory or defeat in a close fight.
Arcane Instability
This talent increases your overall spell damage, and the chance to crit. It
only increases those attributes by a tiny amount, but they do make a
difference over a period of time. Plus, this is the last talent before Arcane
Power, so there is no reason not to get this talent.
Arcane Power
See "Arcane Power" under the spells section
--------
Fire
--------
Fire talents are to further increase the damage and overall usefulness of
your fire talents. These talents are essential for any mage who decides to
invest in fire.
Improved Fireball
This talent slightly reduces the casting time of your fireball. After being
maxed out, the casting time reduced may not seem like very much, but in this
game, every tenth of a second counts. This talent can make a difference after
repeated casting. Say a mage shoots 3 fireballs without this talent for over a
period of 10.5 seconds. Another mage fires 3 fireballs with this talent.
Instead of 10.5 seconds, this time it would only require 9 seconds. 1.5
seconds is enough to pull off an extra scorch, so as you can see, with
multiple castings this talent could make a significant difference.
Impact
This talent gives you a relatively small chance to stun the target with a fire
spell. The stun also lasts for only a relatively short period of time. This
may not sound very appealing, but in fact this is a very powerful talent.
Stuns cancel any action, movement, casting, etc. If your counterspell is still
recharging, then a stun would help make up for the counterspell. In addition,
a stun would help buy you some time so that you can make a quick getaway.
Ignite
This talent causes the target to burn for a percentage of your spell's damage
for a period of time. When maxed out, the extra damage provided by this talent
is huge. Mix in some talents that increase chance to crit, and the damage
racks up even more.
Improved Fire Blast
Not a very useful talent. The amount of cooldown reduced decreases as you add
more and more points to this talent. Of course it's not bad to be able to use
fire blast more often, but it is a better to use your points on some other
talent than this.
Flame Throwing
This talent increases the range of your fire spells. This is very important in
solo, although it has some diminishing usefulness in group settings. The
reason this is so good in solo is that you can start hitting enemies from even
farther away than normal, and that means that they will have to spend extra
time trying to get to you.
Incinerate
Incinerate increases the critical strike chance of your Fireblast and Scorch.
It only does so by a very minimal amount, but it does help especially if you
also go for Critical Mass.
Pyroblast
See "Pyroblast" under the spells section
Improved Flamestrike
This talent increases your chance to critical with Flamestrike by a large
amount. When paired with Critical Mass, you get a 21% chance to crit with
Flamestrike, and that means that in a group setting, if you take on 5 or more
enemies, it can almost be guaranteed that you will crit at least one enemy. In
addition, you also have a base crit chance, so generally you get a 26% crit
chance, depending on how much intellect you have.
Burning Soul
This talent gives you a chance to avoid interruption when casting a fire spell
. This is very useful, and when maxed out you will be able to avoid
interruption most of the time. This shows its face the best when you cast a
fireball while you are getting hit constantly by an enemy that is dual-
wielding. On the other hand, if you are getting hit, you shouldn't stand there
and try to throw off a Fireball. Rather you should get out of range and not
get hit at all.
Improved Scorch
I. Scorch gives your Scorch spell a chance to make the target more vulnerable
to fire damage, in which the target takes extra damage from fire spells. This
effect can be stacked up 5 times, allowing fire spells to be able to do 10%
more damage against that specific target. Note that this talent will require
you to use Scorch as your primary spell. While this is not a bad talent line,
it does not offer the extreme burst damage provided by Fireball.
Improved Fire Ward
This talent causes some of the damage absorbed by fire ward to damage the
enemy. It may sound appealing, but the damage reflected is very low. In the
long run, this talent won't make any noticeable effects, so this is something
that you should pass by if you were to go for the fire tree.
Critical Mass
This talent increases your chance to crit with any fire spell by 6%. This is
a large amount, and you will definitely see some improvements in the number
of criticals that you will get. Pair this with Ignite and other talents that
improve chance to crit for more chaos.
Blast Wave
See "Blast Wave" under the spells section.
Fire Power
You've got this far, and this is the big reward for your efforts. Fire Power
increases the damage of all your fire spells. When maxed, this talent
increases damage by 10%. That's as much as the fire vulnerability provided by
improved Scorch. For the first few hits, it may not seem as if you are doing
that much more damage to the target. After killing multiple mobs, you will
notice the substantial improvement in your kill rate.
Combustion
See "Combustion" under the spells section.
--------
Cold
--------
These talents severely improve your cold spells. When this line is maxed, a
frost mage can do almost as much damage as a fire mage while using much less
mana. Frost talents are best for soloers and group settings, since in such
places, a slow kill while maintaining mana is often more desirable than a fast
kill with huge amounts of mana.
Improved Frostbolt
Similar properties as Improved Fireball, except it reduces the casting time of
your frostbolt instead.
Permafrost
This ability increases the duration of your frost effects. Note that this does
not include freeze effects, where the enemy is completely frozen in place.
This is best used for situations where you only wish to cast a small amount of
frost spells, although this does have uses in other situations too. For
example, the frost effect of Cone of Cold is much more powerful than any of
your other frost effects, so increasing the length of the 50% speed reduction
would help dramatically. This is the same if you have Improved Blizzard. The
speed reduction is extreme, but it lasts for only a very short period of time.
With this talent maxed out, the effect will last for 300% of its normal
length for Blizzard!
Ice Shards
This talent increases the critical strike damage bonus of your frost spells.
A spell critical is about 50% more damage, so with this talent maxed, your
frost criticals will do 100% more damage. This is a dramatic increase. This
talent is best paired with Shatter and Frostbite.
Winter's Chill
This talent increases the amount of speed reduced by your frost spells.
However, the amount of speed reduced given by this talent isn't a very high
amount. For this reason, it is better to spend your talent points on other
talents than Winter's Chill.
Improved Frost Nova
This talent reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova by a small amount.
Generally speaking, this is not a very significant amount of cooldown
reduction, but it does allow you to cast Frost Nova more often during urgent
times. Plus, this talent is also necessary for a very powerful talent:
Shatter.
Piercing Ice
This talent increases the damage of your frost spells by a small amount. It's
not very significant, but it does allow you to do more damage while using the
same amount of mana. Therefore, it helps to increase the efficiency of your
frost spells.
Cold Snap
See "Cold Snap" under the spells section.
Improved Blizzard
Improved Blizzard adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. The chill does
seem very appealing, and the amount of speed reduction is even more appealing.
However, there is one thing to keep in mind, and that is that when you are
using Blizzard, your opponents aren't supposed to move at all. For this reason
the chill may seem to be wasted because if the enemy isn't supposed to move
at all, then what is the reason to slow them down? There is probably one use
for this, and that is to slow down the advance of a particularly tough mob.
Sure it will drain your mana quickly because Blizzard is an enormous mana sink
but it prevents you from getting damaged too badly. In addition, if you have
learned Frostbite, your Blizzard will also have a chance to freeze the enemy.
Arctic Reach
This is similar to Flame Throwing, except it increases the range and radius of
some of your frost spells. There is something to note about this talent, and
that is that it also increases the radius of your frost nova. This doesn't
seem too bad since it means you can stop enemies from farther away, but it
does mean that it will increase your chance of accidental aggro, or hitting a
polymorphed/sapped target.
Frost Channeling
This is a must have. It decreases the mana cost of your frost spells by a
modest amount, and with this talent you can save hundreds, perhaps thousands
of mana points throughout the game. There is nothing better than having this
talent, and it will increase the efficiency of your frost spells even further.
Shatter
Shatter increases the chance to crit against a frozen target. When maxed, it
will increase the chance by 50%, so you will crit more than half the time if
the target is frozen in place because your frost spells also have a base
chance to critical. Of course getting a critical on a frozen target means that
they will be able to break free 90% of the time, but it is still worthwhile
and you won't be disappointed.
Improved Frost Ward
Not much use. Some of the damage absorbed by your frost ward will go to your
mana pool, but this is in fact a very low amount. It will probably allow you
one more cast though, and that is quite important in this game, but you also
need to consider the fact that there are very few enemy cold casters in this
game.
Ice Block
See "Ice Block" under the spells section.
Improved Cone of Cold
This talent increases the damage of your Cone of Cold by a large amount. With
this talent maxed, plus Piercing Ice and Frost Channeling, it will make it
seem more worthwhile to use Cone of Cold against single targets, rather than
saving it for multiple enemies.
Frostbite
The second to last talent of your frost spells. This is extremely useful in
that it gives your frost spells a chance to freeze the target in place, ANY
frost spells. This includes your Frost/Ice Armor effects too. Constantly
casting frost spells with Frost/Ice Armor on will cause enemies to freeze
most of the time because you'll have a chance to freeze them as you shoot at
them, and they will have a chance of getting themselves frozen simply by
meleeing you!
Ice Barrier
See "Ice Barrier under the spells section.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Professions
There are numerous professions in this game, as well as numerous combinations
of professions. So you're probably wondering, which profession or profession
combo would suit a mage the most? The fact is, any profession would suit a
mage. This even includes Blacksmithing, since in that profession, you can
create keys that help you open locks, and some of the one-handed swords and
daggers that can be made through this profession may have some aspects that
will benefit you. Here is a list of professions and how they will suit you as
a mage. Following that is a section on tips for professions.
6.a. Manufacturing Professions
--------
Alchemy
Best profession to pair this with: Herbalism
Benefits at a glance: Potions to increase mana/health pool for short periods.
Potions to instantly recover mana/health. Increase run speed so you can make a
quick getaway, or speed you up on a delivery quest.
Cons: Some of the potions do not have very important effects. Potion effects
are temporary.
Alchemy is a solid profession to take for a mage. Most of the effects are
instant, short-term effects rather than long-term effects. For this reason,
potions can be notorious for quickly turning the tide of a battle. If you
take part in a lot of grouping and PvPing, Alchemy is definitely the
profession to take up. In addition, there are potions that damage enemies, and
potions that increase your movement speed whether above ground or underwater.
There are also potions that increase your stats, however these aren't very
important. Since you will rarely go into melee, strength and agility potions
are out of the picture. Intellect potions are useless too because your
intellect buff does not stack with them. There are potions that add spirit
and stamina (or they add directly to your health) and these are somewhat more
useful. Possibly the best types of potions are those that increase your spell
damage. Although some of the potions are useless to you, they may benefit
others, so you can go around selling potions you wouldn't use normally and
bring home the money.
--------
Blacksmithing
Best profession to pair this with: Mining
Benefits at a glance: Open your own lockboxes! Create one-handed weapons that
add bonuses if you wish to take up an off-hand weapon. Create different kinds
of fine equipment with which to sell to others to make large clumps of money
Cons: Most of the equipment created through this profession cannot be used by
mages.
Normally, mages don't take this profession because it has very few attributes
that will benefit you. However, it does have some pluses. One of these is that
it can help you earn large amounts of money simply by auctioning various
products. Some of the equipment that you can make later on, such as Phantom
Blade, will really get people to dig into their pockets. One of the direct
bonuses of this profession is that you can open lockboxes by yourself without
the need of a rogue. Blacksmithing also allows you to create sharpening stones
that increase your melee damage by a small amount. Therefore, if you wish to
take up a bit in melee, then these stones are a perfect choice.
--------
Enchanting
Best profession to pair this with: Any, but mages usually take it with
tailoring
Benefits at a glance: Increase the effectiveness of your equipment. Earn tons
of money by selling enchants, likewise you will not need to spend tons of
money by purchasing enchants from others.
Cons: Big money sink at the beginning where people generally don't wish to
purchase your inferior enchants. Takes time and practice to get customers,
although the amount of time and effort taken is often worthwhile.
This is a very good profession to take up if you are a mage. It allows you to
marginally increase the effectiveness of your equipment by placing enchants
on them. You can also earn lots of money later on because usually, people are
willing to spend huge amounts of money on your enchants. Some good examples
include the Icy Chill enchant, which usually sells for around 80 gold, and the
Firey enchant, which usually sells for around 45 gold. Note that this
profession is a big money sink if you cannot get customers. This is because
the reagents you get for enchanting are from disenchanting items that are
uncommon or better. This means that instead of being able to sell such items,
or auction them at the Auction House, you must instead disenchant them. To
sum it up, you will run out of money quickly if you don't find customers fast.
Most people who get lucky off this profession can purchase their mounts
earlier than others because they were very successful through their enchanting
profession. Enchanting effects you over a period of time, so it will not make
dramatic changes in a battle like what Alchemy can do.
--------
Engineering
Best profession to pair this with: Mining
Benefits at a glance: Bombs to help damage, disorient, etc. Cloth head armor
that provide high intellect/spirit/stamina/spell-damage. Numerous nifty
items that help groups and solo. Provide some laughs.
Cons: Big money sink, and once you dive into this profession, there's no way
you can redeem that money, unlike enchanting where you can sell enchants. This
is because most of the engineering products can only be used by other
engineers.
This is also a very good profession to take up. You can use the bombs to
increase the damage dished out during a group fight, but the biggest reward
for this profession are the goggles. These cloth headgear are perfect for
casters, and the attributes that they have can help improve your stats even
more. Of course there's also nothing like a stun with a bomb to disrupt
enemy spellcasting should your counterspell still be recharging. There are
many other pluses as well. A main addition to this profession is that you
can summon pets. Mages have very few options in order to protect themselves,
so a combat chicken or an arcanite dragonling will seriously help defend you
should you get attacked by multiple mobs and you need some backup. One serious
problem with engineering is that it uses up gobs of money. The reason for this
is because the reagents needed for engineering becomes very broad toward the
end. Unless you have alternative characters who have invested in other types
of professions, you will need to go to others to buy reagents from them. This
will cause you to spend a large amount of time and money. Ultimately, this
will be worthwhile and you will well appreciate it.
--------
Leatherworking
Best profession to pair this with: Skinning
Benefits at a glance: Armor kits to provide massive boosts to your armor.
Ability to create numerous leather and mail items to sell to others. Cloaks can
be created through this profession, and these benefit everyone.
Cons: You will not be able to use most of the products.
Leatherworking isn't a very good choice when you are a mage, but it does help
in certain ways. One of these is that you can create armor kits out of it.
The armor boosts provided by these kits will overlap any enchants, but if
you don't have any enchants on that particular item, then it doesn't hurt to
slap on an armor kit. These kits can only be used on the chest, hands, legs,
and feet, but when you put the bonuses on each of these items, the effects
will stack and the overall amount of added armor will be extreme. A good
example are the rugged armor kits. These provide 40 armor each, and 40X4 would
equal 160 armor. Casters generally don't get more than 1000 armor at level 60,
so even 160 armor would help a great deal. Another benefit of this profession
is that you can earn lots of money by creating leather products and selling
them to others. Some of the later leather armor and mail armor are quite
diserable, and many people will surely dig into their pockets in order to buy
one off of you. The last bonus of this profession is that you can create
cloaks. As you know, cloaks can be worn by anyone, so this is one type of
leatherworking product that you can wear. The bad part about leatherworking is
of course the fact that you won't be able to wear most of the products. They
will either have to go to the vendors, or to the hands of another person.
--------
Tailoring
Best profession to pair this with: Any, but most people pair this with
enchanting. Skinning is not a bad choice either.
Benefits at a glance: Create your own high-end armor! Create bags, which just
about everyone needs. Create high-end items to sell to others for a profit.
Cons: Slightly less cash income, due to the fact that instead of being able to
sell your cloth, you'll have to use them, and cloth generally sells for quite
a bit. Also counters with First Aid because First Aid also requires cloth.
Tailoring is probably the best profession for a mage to have, in fact any
caster class would benefit greatly from Tailoring. One big reason is that you
can create some high-end items later on with Tailoring. A couple of these are
bind on pickup, so it becomes even more important to grab this profession
because you will not have a chance of having those items if you did not take
up Tailoring (I personally regret not taking this profession because the
pattern for Robe of the Archmage (http://www.thottbot.com/?i=26850) dropped
for me before and I was not a tailor! So take this profession people!)
In addition, you can also create bags from this profession.
Everyone loves bags because it gives them more room to store their items. At
the Auction House you will generally find many bags that are being auctioned
for. Don't be discouraged, make a ton of bags and stick them in. Most of them
will sell because so many people wish to have bags. Possibly the best
profession to take with this is enchanting. The reason is that you can create
items from this profession in order to level it up, and you can disenchant
these items to get reagents for enchanting. Therefore, the two professions
help each other out. The biggest problem is that you will need cloth to make
your items, and these generally sell for quite a bit. In addition, this
profession also counters First Aid because in that secondary skill, you will
need cloth to make bandages. While you use cloth for that, you will also need
the cloth for your tailoring.
--------
6.b. Gathering Professions
--------
Herbalism
Best profession to pair this with: Alchemy
Benefits at a glance: Gather herbs which are required for alchemy.
Herbalism is best taken with alchemy. The reason is because almost all the
products require herbs. This is a relatively easy profession to take up, and
your herbalism will go up in no time.
--------
Mining
Best professions to pair this with: Blacksmithing, Engineering
Benefits at a glance: Mine ore, and transform them into bars for use in
blacksmithing and engineering. Also gather rare gems that are also needed in
some of the recipes.
Mining is definitely the thing to take when you have Blacksmithing and
engineering. These two professions solely rely on mining, although the
ingredients needed for engineering tends to be quite broad. Note that you can
also get some rare gems that are required in some recipes. In addition, the
stones that you sometimes get through mining will also help as they are used
in certain other recipes.
--------
Skinning
Best professions to pair this with: Leatherworking, Tailoring
Benefits at a glance: Skin the hide of beasts in order to get leather for
certain recipes. Also a great way to bring in large amounts of cash if that
is what you are going for.
Skinning helps leatherworking the most. This is because leatherworking is
mainly reliant on the leathers gathered through this profession. In addition,
skinning also helps Tailoring. One of these is that at certain times, when you
skin a sheep they will drop you some wool. Another thing is that certain
tailoring products will require you to get some leather. Some of the more
popular recipes, such as Small Silk Pack will require leather, and since you
will be making large quantities of them, it will mean requiring large
quantities of leather. In addition, skinning is a great way to bring in the
cash. You can generally make large amounts of money in a short period of time
by selling your leather.
--------
6.c. Secondary Skills
--------
Cooking
Benefits at a glance: Create food to eat. Generally, such foods also provide a
short bonus to certain stats.
Cons: Mages can already create your food, being able to create additional
sustenance is not very impressive, although generally turning a pile of meat
into a steak will increase its sell value.
Cooking is definitely unnecessary. Sure it provides some statistical bonuses,
but these aren't very useful in the long run. Plus, you can already reduce
your downtime through your conjured food and water. A good thing about cooking
is that it will increase the sell value of an item than when it was raw. For
this reason, you can actually increase your income by a small amount. Plus,
it's quite fun to see what types of food that you can cook, and some of the
foods such as Dragonbreath Chili are outrageously wild.
--------
First Aid
Benefits at a glance: Allow you to quickly regenerate health in or out of
combat.
Cons: When you have downtime, you also need to replenish your mana, and this
will not help decrease your downtime since you still have to sit down and
drink. In fact, this will increase your downtime because you cannot bandage
and drink at the same time, while you can eat and drink at the same time.
First Aid isn't very important in some cases, it won't help reduce downtime,
and generally mages die so fast that if they try to bandage themselves, they
will get killed before they regenerate a decent amount of health with their
bandaging. In addition, it will grab off cloth from your tailoring profession.
One of the pluses to this profession is that you can bandage others, so if you
have an injured warrior who is not getting hit, you can bandage him and save
the need of having to have the healer use their mana supply to heal him.
However, for a Mage on a PvP server. First Aid may benefit a mage more than
any other class in the game. When a rogue comes out of nowhere and
ambush/backstabs you to 1/4 health, you're going to want to polymorph him and
use a bandage. First Aid and evocation coupled with polymorph can basically
reset any fight, except against druids (and to some extent shamans, since
they're so hard to polymorph).
--------
Fishing
Benefits at a glance: Fish up fish that can be eaten or sold. Also allows you
to hook up fish that are needed in certain alchemy potions. Sometimes, you
might also get a rare object that will help one way or another.
Cons: Raw fish sells for very little, although cooking tends to nearly double
their sell value.
Fishing benefits your mage depending on which professions you have taken. In
general, this skill helps no matter what you have taken. Fishing can always
allow you to fish up something needed for alchemy, but there are times where
you just might get lucky. One of these are the health and mana potions. These
are generally hard to come by. Another thing that you can fish up are clams,
and just like clams dropped from mobs, they might contain a pearl inside. Then
there are the times when you can fish up a Venture Company crate that contain
various engineering parts, therefore helping you out if you are an engineer.
There are also the times when you get REALLY lucky and you can fish up an
uncommon sword!
--------
6.d. General Tips
--------
Bringing in the Money
There are certain people out there who just like to bring in the cash. There
is nothing wrong with this approach. Generally, these people are able to buy
many quality items from the auction house, and they usually get to purchase
their mounts earlier than others. The matter with this is how to bring in the
money. The most straightforward approach is to take Mining and Skinning.
Leathers from skinning can sell for a ton. The ores, stones, and gems go for
quite a bit at the auction house, especially the high-quality ones. Cooking is
also good to take up. It will help increase the sell value of many of the
items received from beasts. Another, but riskier way of bringing in the money
is to take Tailoring and Enchanting. Enchants can sell for tons of money later
on, and if you get costumers to buy those enchants, then you will get even
more rich than if you were to take Mining and Skinning. The only problem is
the risk involved. You must be able to find costumers, otherwise you will end
up quite broke. Make sure that your enchants are reasonably priced also, so
that people will actually be willing to get your enchants.
--------
PvP Professions
If you are going for a PvP mage, then the best thing to take is Alchemy and
Herbalism. This combo is very nice at changing the way a battle is going.
The potions that regenerate health and/or mana are the most worthwhile. In
addition, the flask effects, as well as the potions that increase damage
or do damage themselves will greatly help too. Just note that with this
profession combo, you will not receive very many long-term effects. Another
good profession is engineering. There are many gadgets and such with this
profession that help change a battle also. The main difference between these
two is that potions tend to center more on defense, while engineering is all
about damage and harassing the enemy.
--------
PvE Professions
The best thing to take for a player versus enemy mage is Tailoring. When
fighting mobs, you'll generally want things that last. Tailoring will allow
you to create items that will benefit you over time. For this reason, any
mage that like to fight mobs will generally like this profession since the
benefits are so useful. Enchanting is awesome too. When you receive a high-
quality item and you wish to put it on, enchant it to improve it further. For
example, if you receive a staff that adds a large amount of spirit, put an
intellect enchant on it so that not only will it provide spirit, but that it
will provide intellect too.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Equipment Picks
Finding the right equipment is important to all classes. Mages need to care
about their equipment too, however, mages don't need to swap equipment as
often as many classes. Melee classes must constantly update their weapons so
that they can do their damage to the fullest. Even priests and warlocks need
to make sure that they have the best wand possible for their level since they
use wands so much. Fortunately for mages, they don't need to update their
items as often as such classes, however it is important to have gear that is
suitable for your level.
--------
Armor
When looking for armor, the primary attributes are intellect, spirit,
stamina, and additions to spell damage. Defense skill bonuses, armor,
strength, and agility are secondary. In fact, attributes such as strength are
not required.
When looking for items that add spell damage, always check to see if there
are other versions of that item that provide huge bonuses to your stats. For
example, chest armor provide high statistical bonuses, so it may be better to
look for one that adds stamina/spirit/intellect rather than one that adds
spell damage. On the other hand, back armor generally provide little bonuses
to stats. For this reason, it may be a better idea to invest in back armor
that add spell damage.
--------
Weapons
When looking for weapons, always get those that add to your stats, or to
spell damage. The only exception to this are wands since they are quite
important for dishing out light damage if the enemy is dying, or if you are
running out of mana.
There is a debate as to whether it is better to use a main-hand weapon and an
off-hand weapon or a staff. The fact is, both of them are really good. However
with main-hand/off-hand combo, you can generally expect more variety than with
a single 2-H staff. With main/off, you can literally customize some of the
stats, while with a staff, you have to stick with whatever stats it already
has. Generally, the stats staves come with aren't too bad.
When looking for a wand, look for ones that deal a high amount of damage. Also
look for those that add spell damage since wands generally provide low bonuses
to stats, at least during the lower levels. Some of the higher level wands
provide very nice bonuses to stats, and these may be more desirable.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Combat
In this section, we will discuss various tactics on playing as a mage. There
will be many tips concerning what to do to handle various situations. Note
that there are many exceptions, so any of the scenarios that are stated will
not always be what they are in this guide.
--------
8.a. PvE
--------
Arcane
When playing arcane, much of your fighting revolves around Arcane Missiles. As
an arcane mage, this is your main ability, and fortunately, it is suitable for
a variety of situations. It does have its problems though. For one, it is not
mana efficient. Compared to spells found in the fire and frost line, this
spell is quite inefficient; you will not be saving much mana. Another problem
is that to me, it is outrageously boring. It's just... spam Arcane Missiles
and throw in fireblasts to complement. Still, for the simpler, casual player,
or for the person who just wants to mindlessly kill, there's nothing wrong
with taking this line.
Start off all fights with a Frostbolt. It does a nice burst of damage, and it
slows them down. Then arcane missiles, fireblast, scorch (squish this in),
frost nova, skirt away, arcane missiles, arcane missiles, fireblast. This
should be enough to effectively take out most of the enemies that are around
your level.
In group settings, just keep on spamming arcane missiles and mix in
fireblasts. Scorch if the enemy appears to be dying, it is not a good idea
to waste this spell on a target with only a hundred hitpoints left.
When
multiple enemies are out in the field, spam arcane explosion. This is a solid
way to take out a large number of enemies at once. Although it does leave
you low on mana, it's worth taking the risk.
If the situation becomes tough, numerous adds are coming and the leader calls
for sheer kill power, fire up Arcane Power, use a Presence of Mind followed
up with fireball or Pyroblast (if you have it) and let the damage fly. This
talent drastically improves kill rate and on the bright side, you won't be
using extra mana as the mana cost and damage increase by the same percentage.
--------
Fire
--------
Fire is more complicated than arcane. Rather than having literally only two
offensive spells, you get a whole smorgasbord of them. I find this line to
be much more fun than Arcane. Plus, this is more efficient than arcane.
I like to start fights with either fireball or pyroblast. After the initial
hit, follow up by fireball, scorch, frost nova. Then, gain some distance
Scorch, fireball, scorch again and that will usually be enough to finish
them off.
During raids on 5-man instances, e.g. Scholomance, fights are usually
relatively short, so I use a fireball followed by scorch and fireblast. This
usually is enough by the time the enemy has died.
Blast wave is an awesome spell that is learned through fire talents. It does
heavy damage and provides a daze, which is a 50% speed reduction.
Unfortuantely, its 45 second cooldown limits its use. Still, it's a great
spell to use during aoe sessions and as another plus, it has a nice visual ;).
When AoEs are called for, I like to start off with a preliminary Flamestrike.
I then follow up with frostnova, another flamestrike, blast wave, and arcane
explosion the rest of the way. Use Cone of Cold as necessary to keep the
enemy snared while you blast away at them with instant AoEs.
--------
Cold
--------
Cold, frost, ice, whatever you like to call it is perhaps one of the best mage
builds so far. It allows you to stay on top of the damage and recieve higher
defensive bonuses. There will certainly be rebalances where fire and arcane
will be improved so that they are up to par with frost.
Like arcane, solo with frost is also quite simple. Start fights off with
frostbolt, and repeatedly do so until they are point-blank with you. Frost
Nova, retreat a SHORT distance and fire some more frostbolts. This should
usually be enough to kill your enemy.
In group settings, I also like to continuously use frostbolts. They won't
generate too much aggro for you, but they will still deal heavy damage.
When AoE's are called for, I like to start with a Flamestrike. Followed up is
Frostnova. I then use Cone of Cold and then trade off Arcane Explosion and
Cone of Cold until they are dead.
8.b. PVP
Before I start off on the pvp section, I must admit that regrettably, there
is no "easy" class to fight against. You can't sit on any class to kill them,
you must execute a specific series of spells to vanquish your enemy. That's
what makes playing mage hard, and that's what makes mage the class that
requires the most skill to play.
Normally it is not a good idea to try defeating other players by yourself,
unless it is a duel. When PvPing, you never know if there are other players
nearby. Also, when PvPing, you won't be able to defeat enemies of a higher
level. If you had a higher level person to help you, then you can go for
players of a broader level range.
The following will contain strategies for killing each class of enemies. Note
that situations will change depending on your talent line and depending on
the level of the enemy as well as the talent line that they picked.
Druid Difficulty: Medium/Hard (Mainly because they're now immune to Poly)
Druids can offer a pretty difficult fight, mainly depending on your spec. If
you're fire or arcane specced, you may have an easier time since you don't
need to rely on your snares and roots so much. With frost, druids are nearly
impossible.
Start off simply by blasting away at them. Polymorph won't hold them off for
long unless they're a newbie. Druids can pick and choose from three different
trees. Two of them focus on ranged damage, the third one (feral) focuses on
melee damage. Either way, they are both very tough. Ranged druids often spam
moonfire on you. It's very annoying because it causes you to lose a ton of
casting time. Feral druids have some nice melee damage, but what's scariest
feral charge, which is similar to the warrior's intercept, but can lock down
the type of the spell that you're casting for several seconds.
Don't try stopping them with snares or roots. It may stop them for a few
seconds, but they'll react fast enough to make it a small matter for them.
Concentrate on throwing as much damage in their face as possible. Once they
begin attacking you, use arcane missiles. This ability, when improved with
talents, cannot be interrupted, so you are free to cast this without losing
casting time.
If you can manage to bring their health down to the point where they have to
heal, counterspell their healing and that'll bring their end.
Hunter Difficulty: Hard
Hunters can make a very difficult fight. Polymorph them first, then, when
their pet gets close, frost nova the pet and let off a flurry of shots at the
hunter. If you can, Polymorph the pet afterwards. Hunters have a region where
they cannot fire at you, and they cannot melee you. This is between the 5-8
yard range. Most hunters won't let you get into this secret spot, so it's
imperative that you frost nova the hunter at some point (provided that it has
recharged) and get a few moments where you won't get damaged. Marksman
specced hunters have a nasty trick where they will use scatter-shot, feign
death to get them out of combat, and set a freeze trap at your feet. There is
no way to combat this unless you are frost-specced and you decide to blow an
Ice Block. Even then, the hunter's scatter/feign/trap is only on a thirty
second cooldown, compared to the five minute cooldown of Ice Block. So the
next time the two of you battle again, you won't stand much chance. After you
are frozen, the hunter will move away, use Aimed Shot followed by Volley and
a regular Auto-shot. Usually, this is enough to wipe away one-half of your
health if they don't crit, and you'll probably be dead if one of them does
crit.
Use instant abilities or Arcane Missiles when they can fire at you. Hunters
can shoot very fast, preventing you from using timed casts. Also make sure to
have mana shield or Ice Barrier on. If they get lucky on their crits, you'll
lose in no time.
Mage Difficulty: Easy to Hard
The difficulty of fighting another mage is quite varying. If two mages have
similar builds, it will mainly come down to resistances and stamina. For
example, if the fight is between a mage with an arcane build and a mage with
a frost build, then it's almost a no-brainer. Arcane builds have too much
burst damage, and they'll most likely win over the frost mage. On the other
hand, skill and equipment, which is stated above, are also involved. Maybe
the guy behind the mage with the arcane build doesn't even know he has
presence of mind. Maybe the person with the frost mage has all these
extreme spell damage gear and deal 800 damage frostbolts. It really is
varying. However, there are a few key things to know. First off, remember to
use Counterspell. If there appears to be a spell that the other player uses
often, counterspell that and force them to try something else. This breaks
them off their rhythm as they attempt to find an alternative. In addition,
never forget your ward spells. If you are getting pummeled by frostbolts,
throw up a frost ward to reduce some damage. Make sure you are buffed up at
all times. I prefer Dampen Magic, Arcane Intellect, and Mage Armor when
fighting other mages. The damage reduction, intellect boost, and resistance
improvement really help.
Paladin -Medium
Paladins can prove to be a somewhat easy fight. Most people get the feeling
that Paladins don't die, and that they are the most difficult things to beat.
While this is very true for a warrior, it's definitely not true for a mage.
As always, start off with Polymorph, then let fly as many spells as possible.
By the time they reach you, they'll most likely be down to 1/3 of their health
and they'll have to shield and heal. Gain some range as they patch themselves
up. Then turn around, and when their shield drops, Fireblast them and start
shooting. Don't worry about taking a few hits, even if they have an
Arcanite Reaper and their Seal of Command procs, you're not going to die
instantly. Other things to remember are that they can despell DoT's, snares,
and roots. They also have something called Blessing of Freedom that makes
them immune to roots and snares. This can be problematic, so I like to slap
detect magic on them. When I see the blessing wear off (it has a cooldown),
I would attempt to snare/root them, but that's after I silence them first so
that they can't cleanse.
Priest -Easy/Hard (somewhere between)
Priests may seem easy, fragile beings, but they're not. They're Mind Blast
does some bad damage, and they also have a shield as well as numerous
healing powers. Holy priests are cakewalks; they don't deal enough damage
and while they have some impressive healing, their damage can almost be
ignored. Just concentrate on stopping them from healing and that's really
all you have to worry about. Discipline priests are hard. They'll
continuously shield themselves, and will mana burn you dry. Don't let fights
against Disc. priests last too long, although that's quite inevitable.
Shadow priests are tough cookies as well. They swap around between mind blast
and mind flay and deal a heck of a lot of damage. Don't waste your
counterspell on their shadow spells. The damage might be threatening, but if
they manage to heal themselves, then you're in for the worse.
Rogue -Easy/Hard
The difficulty of a rogue is quite varying. If they're the type that uses
Cheap Shot to open up the fight, they generally won't pose too much of a
threat as you can just blink away to cancel the stun. If they are the Ambush
kind, then things will be tougher. Their Ambush, when used will most likely
drain 1/2 of your health, even with mana shield. Your best bet is to try and
reveal them with rank 1 Arcane Explosion. I like to use this against rogues
so that I may get a chance to detect them while stealthed. Once they are
revealed, get some distance and polymorph them. If they chose to vanish, try
to find them again, or use bandages to regain any lost health. After they
come out of their second stealth, get distance, polymorph, and start firing.
Just don't let them get close enough to Gouge/Blind you and you should be
fine
Shaman -Run
Shaman are nearly impossible to beat, which leads to the saying that they are
"overpowered". Don't even bother to try and duel one. Run and come back with
friends. If in the event that you have to fight one, there are some things to
know. First off, most shaman will have Windfury Weapon up. This shaman buff
gives them a chance to gain two extra attacks that have extra attack power.
If their Windfury procs, be ready to face some major damage. It's a bit hard
to stay away from a shaman because most of the time, they will use Frost Shock
to slow you down then move in for the kill, so it is imperative to slow them
down as well. Save up your counterspell as well. When you see them heal up,
Counterspell to prevent their healing. Watch for their purging as well, they
can use it to strip you of buffs and can even remove your wards and shields.
The main reason Shaman are "hard" is because they have very good damage and
they also have plenty of health. You can pretty much think of Shaman as
Warriors that can heal and have higher damage, but less armor. This can
make it so that Shaman can toast any class, even one that has excellent
mobility like a mage.
Warlock -Medium/Near Impossible
Warlocks will be, by far, your toughest fight. While they probably won't pose
much of a threat if they have an imp or Voidwalker out (just polymorph caster
and kill the pet), it will be near impossible to kill a warlock with a
Felhunter. The Felhunter can counterspell you somewhat like how you can
counterspell a warlock, and they can also eat your buffs.
Some warlocks also use the Succubus. What they will do is make the Succubus
seduce you, then they fear you and use Soul Fire or Shadowbolt. If they get
lucky, you'll still be feared and they can fire some more spells at you
before it breaks, but by then, you'll probably be down to 1/2 health and you
won't survive much longer. So whether you're fighting against a warlock
using Felhunter, or one using Succubus, be ready to face a heap of trouble.
In large scale PvP, warlocks generally won't be using Felhunters because it is
a far to specialized pet. In this case, you'll probably have a leg up them and
they will most likely prove to be a medium-hard fight.
After you kill a warlock, you will generally die after their DoT's get through
their full duration. Therefore, it's a good idea to have a priest along your
side so that they can despell magic effects. However, even if you do
eventually die from the DoT, they won't be able to get you as an honor kill
since they're already dead.
Warrior -Medium
You can almost be sure that they'll start off with Charge. After the stun you
receive wears away, Frost Nova them. Polymorph them so that they can't shoot
you with ranged weapons and hit them hard. After this, you can be sure they'll
use intercept you. If they don't have enough range, they'll scooch back a bit
to get their range. Note that Intercept also has a 3 second stun attached to
it, so blink away immediately after they pull off this ability on you. Throw
some more spells at them, then when they close the range, Cone of Cold or
Blast Wave them. Afterwards, start walking backwards or sideways (whichever
way to get a bit of range) and spam Arcane Explosion. If they don't have
adequate resistances or health, they'll go down fairly quickly. However, if
they have around 5k health and have modest resistances, then they'll be able
to close the range eventually, and give you a nice Mortal Strike. If you
don't have enough health, you can be certain that you will die.
8.c. Large-scale PvP
So far, I think PvPing with a raid party is the most fun. There are so many
people, and it is very chaotic and quite exciting.
When PvPing in a group, the first thing to remember is to keep your range.
Stay inside large crowds, or hide behind obstructions so that enemies will
have a hard time getting at you. Use AoE's whenever enemies are clumped
together in one spot. Oftentimes, if you use ranged AoE's such as Blizzard,
enemies won't really know who's casting it. If you use stuff like Arcane
Explosion, the enemy players will generally be able to home in on you. If you
get sighted, don't panic, try to dish out as much damage as possible before
you die. Frost mages and mages who take Alchemy and Herbalism have an upper
hand here. They can use an Invulnerability Potion, or an Ice Block to stop any
incoming damage. This buys them plenty of time, and by the time the effects
wear off, the enemy players will probably have lost interest on you and would
have gone after other targets.
There really isn't a right or wrong target to fight, so long as it is not
labeled as "Civilian". However, you should consider which targets to take
down first depending on their role in the battlefield.
Priests in the enemy group should be taken down first, or taken out of action
by polymorphing them. Priests not only can heal, but their AoE Fear can be
devastating. Once the priests are down, or put out of action, go after other
targets. Take out mages and rogues first to prevent them from doing their
damage. In addition, take out Warlocks so that they can't start fearing when
their priest is gone.
Targets that can't deal much damage, but have high survivability can be put at
the back end of the list since they won't pose much threat to your group. One
example would be the paladin, and being on the Alliance side, it is a pain to
see a paladin mindlessly beat on horde in an attempt to bring them down while
the horde almost completely ignore them and go after the softies, like me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
