So you want to be a mage. Raiding? Yea I’ve done that from ICC, to Molten Core, and everything in between. PvP: Been there done that, I use to PvP when all we had was Tarren Mill, and Crossroads. I’ve maged on the Horde, and Alliance side. Now the thing with guides is they tell you what to do. This isn’t really a guide, more like a bunch of collected tips gathered from years of experience. Some of these tips will be well duh? but others might not played a mage or cloth class before, and may need a little help.
Mage Philosophy:
So Welcome to Mage School, I’m your instructor. I am not infallible so please if I make a mistake please pipe in, and correct me. First thing you have to understand it takes a certain type to be a mage. Why? We are the red haired step children of WoW. Sure we DPS, and DPS well, but we won’t have the survivability some classes have, or the utility other have. What we do have is power….that and unlimited water.
As a mage you will get a bad rap for being a complainer, and get beat by a low life Warlock, or get beat on the meters by a blue geared DK…you to will start complaining…you will. The minute you decline someone for a portal, they’ll call you an asshole too.
If we are so hated, and our class sucks so much…why play?
Cause essentially we are all lazy as mages. We like to sit back, and shoot lasers. Take a boat or a Zeppelin? When I started my mage, I didn’t know Alliance had boats. Seriously though as a Mage DPS, I had some of the most fun I had in the game, that’s why it’s my main, and I continue to play to this day. If you are just starting to play a mage, stick with it. It gets better….way better. Just got to get over the hump of leveling.
Leveling Tips……
There is much debate over how to level, to me it’s about playstyle. On my very first mage I leveled AoE, frost spec. Let me tell you pulling Gnolls in Redridge with no Ice Barrier, man you got to have balls, and some skill. I don’t recommend it to everyone. Arcane is even doable, but you need alot of stamina, again this is more of a single target spec. I did level one mage as arcane, I grabbed the non pushback talent, and just Arcane Missiled everything, and went “pew pew pew” the whole time. I don’t recommend it.
- Level as Fire, then switch to Frost after your able to get Frost Barrier.
- Look for “of the Eagle” gear, or STA cloth to begin with. It helps in keeping you alive.
- Stats while leveling ….Spellpower>Int>Sta
-Get some Rested Xp, and do alot of quests. Quests don’t burn your rested xp.
- If your comfortable with AoEing try it, and hammer on those kill X many type mob quests.
- Load up on potions, they saved my ass many times.
- Sometimes the water I enchant isn’t quite quick enough for my level in those awkward in between levels, and sometimes the Vendor has a little better water at my level, so I spend the money for the faster mana regen…don’t be cheap.
- Look around for Auction House quest items you can buy, and turn in. It’s faster than hunting for the crap all the time. I’m looking at you douchebag hunter dorf guy in STV!
- With the LFG tool, it might be easier to find groups, Oh wait your DPS…don’t worry only take you forever to find a group. Since it drops you back where you were ok, to queue up, but plan your quests out, do them, and don’t wait in a city thinking you’ll get insta-queue.
- Fire spec look for single type mobs, I like to take on little higher levels, Frost spec/AoE find mobs clumped together with no more than one caster…like gnolls, or murlocs. Usually you want to go a level or up to 2 levels below you. Cause if things do fudge up, you want to get out of that mess. Watch out for stunning mobs.
-Even though we might be the opposite spec, don’t forget we have the other schools tools to use. Frost Nova, Chill effect of a Frost Bolt. Use them. Now I don’t know if they fixed this, but back in the day when I was leveling Fire. I would still start with a frost bolt to slow the mob. For instance my rotation would be Frostbolt +Fireball+Fireball- Fireblast, Frost Nova, Fireball until dead if needed. Usually I found out if I led with a Fireball the mob would come in quick, and still only be able to get off 2 Fireballs. So learn all the tools at your disposal as well, like when Molten Armor would be better, then Mage Armor, and so on.
- Same or higher Elites suck as a mage unless your Frost, and you got all the skills at you tips..otherwise don’t bother soloing…You think you’re a pally or something?
- Head to Outland at 58/Northrend 68 – better xp for mobs, and quests.
Any other mages have some tips for the youngbloods, please post them.
Class Dismissed.
