Getting close

So Halls of lightning is a bitch, even on normal. Got the boss on the second try, and at about 40% we had no healer. good thing he doesn't hit too hard if your where you should be.

Hit 78, got two more levels to go.

Tailoring is a massive money dump, with nothing but a flying carpet at the end. This makes me mad.

I Don't Have the spirit.

Well, don't want it at least.


Spirit is crap for a Mage.

So why does all the cloth in Wrath have +hit and +spirit?

WTF Blizz?

I don't have a 5SR. I'm not an Oomkin, or an S-Priest. And I'm sure as hell not a Lock.

I get nothing from spirit. (nothing usefull at least)

I think that Mages got left out of the itemization as far as stats are concerned on the new gear.


And I have a suspission that the +hit going to pets still isn't uping the Ele's hit like it should...more to follow.

The leveling begins again...

WEWT!!!

I'm 72 actually, but the servers are down, so that screen will have to wait.

I'll be There....

Got Wrath, it's installed.

I'll be out there for the next few days.

If anyone (not that anyone reads this) here is on Guru, I'll see you there.

Cleaned up the Addon List.

The old addon list over there was gettin' a little outa hand.

Cleaned it up with the new stuff I'm using now, most of which you can see in the attached screenshot.



More to come, if I can ever get home and delve into the Ex-Pack.

We'll see

Cleaned up the Addon List.

A Fix to the AOE Post.

They have changed Blizzard. Completely changed the way frost AOE works. This small change to blizzard makes the frost AOE spec much easier to work with, and much more efficient.

Blizzard can crit.

This is certainly not a brand new thing. It's been in affect since the Echoes of Doom patch.

With the way blizzard works now, there is no reason to skip over some of the talents in Frost when specing for AOE.

The talent that used to be avoided...

Frostbite
This used to be a no no, because this would cause random mobs to be frozen into place too long as your group trudged towards their certain death. Not the case now. If you have Frostbite, then Blizzard will proc it, which will in turn make Shatter cause Blizzard to crit. The mob wont stay frozen long enough to break up your grouping, and it adds a serious amount of extra damage.

The new hotness

Finger of Frost
This is a new talent, we just got it in 3.0.2. Why is it good for AOE? Same reason that Frostbite is. This will give you a shatter with your Blizzard, without freezing the mobs in place.

Shattered Barrier
Some say that this is also a must have for AOE now as well.

My stand on it is that if your really AOE grinding, then being hit by all those mobs long enough the break your ice barrier, and get the free nova, is far too risky. When I AOE grind, it's never less that 20 mobs, which can still drop my pigtailed clothie butt really fast. i don't like being that close to the mobs that are supposed to be no where near me.

Chilled to the Bone
Once you can get to it, this is another very good AOE talent. Not for the increased damage, but for the 10% speed reduction. This combined with both Improved Blizzard and Permafrost add up to a 85% speed reduction to targets getting pummeled by your much improved Blizzard.

An oldie but a goodie

Ice Shards
Ice Shards is another good talent that might have been passed up before for a pure AOE spec. This will give 100% more critical damage to your Blizzard crits, which will happen a lot.

With these improvements, what do we end up with?

This spec at 70, for pure AOE.

And this spec at 80, again just for AOE purposes.

I went into the fire tree for the 80 spec to grab the increased crit to Blizzard, Cone of Cold, and Arcane Explosion.

Keep in mind that these are not a must, just a little tip from someone who has spent a lot of time researching this spec. As always, spec how you want, and make sure your having fun.

Its's your $15 right?

Looking Forward too...

There's a few things I'm really looking forward too in the expansion. Leveling isn't really one of them, although seeing new content and figuring out new quests is a source of enjoyment for me.

Leveling professions on the other hand. That I do enjoy. Seeing something that can be tracked step by step. Grinding enough cloth for one more Tailoring point. Not vending all the quest rewards I get, but disenchanting them to further another profession. This is one of my favorite parts of WoW. The profession system is very in depth, but not so much to the point of being overwhelming. I've seen other profession systems, like the one for EQ2. I would get lost in there. Not a clue what to do after awhile. Too many things to track.

And as much as I don't enjoy the process of leveling, I do love seeing that gold explosion at the end of every XP bar.

Now if I can just find a reason to ninja all the green or better drops from the wife as we're leveling together. She's a tailor and enchanter as well. And I don't really mind sharing cloth with her, as getting enough is never an issue. The DE mats get a little scarce if your sharing them though.

A Small Bit of Nothing

I've been reading quite a few blogs.

Well...quite a few is a variable understatement really. The list of wow related blogs I keep up on latley is stagering. And I know as soon as I'm back home, the reading will drop dramatically, and the writing should, hopefully, increase.

Untill then, I think I'll do a little spring cleaning. Re-furbish the addon links on the sidebar, as most of those are out of date, won't be working for WotLK, and I no longer use quite a few of them.

Maybe a clean up of the blog links as well.

Add a few things to the links links too.

I have to find something to keep my busy around here until I can get back on the Mage and continue finding things to write about. Until then, anything Magley on this forum would most likley be just theory and hearsay. I have no way of testing it, or experiencing it for myself.

So cleaning up the blog it will be.

We'll see how this goes.

Pre WotLK Plans?

Do we have any? No

Would we like to? Yes

I would love to hit 60 on Zuile (my newly started Enh Shaman) before the refer a friend bonus runs out. The wife and I started a couple new toons one night, and ended up really enjoy the classes we chose. So I rolled a shaman and she, normally the healer, or hunter, rolled a warrior. Which makes for a good leveling combo. She tried prot, and didn’t like that she couldn’t do any damage. Then tried Fury, and new from seeing a friend (EYK, whom I’ve mentioned before) play an arms warrior, new her numbers could be higher. So she tried arms, and that is where she’ll stay me thinks.

Don’t think this will become a shaman blog though. Might not find much shamaning in here either. Maybe if I had had the chance to play a little at 70 pre xpack, but that doesn’t look like it will happen.

We would also like to see the inside of BT, HS, and SWP. But, we probably wont get the change to do so before Wrath hits.

Oh well.

Did we completely miss the whole “Plagued zombies run around attacking everyone and you could become a zombie and attack your best friends” thing? Yup!

Are we a little angry about it? You bet. Sounded like fun.

But again. Oh well.

On another note; I did get to play with the new frost tree right before heading off the places unknown. And my official word on it is:

ZOMGWTFDPSBBQKTHNXBYE.

The new procs and rotations are far too much fun.

The new and improved Blizzard is way too much fun.

And being a frost mage and killing a rogue (I hate ’em) with an instant cast fireball is far too much fun.

Can’t wait to be able to put a whole 71 point tree together and make that fireball just that much nicer.

Little Ignite action. Not to mention Master of Elements.

Should be fun.

Please Allow me to Introduce Myself…

I really do love the Rolling Stones, even if they’re some of the roughest to play on Rock Band.

There’s an explanation for that title too, just a sec…

When I started this blog a few months ago, the idea was to have a place I could toss some good info into, vent a little, or just put some stuff out on paper. I never thought of how bad my personal life would affect me being able to blog. Or not blog as the case may be lately.

I doubt anyone reads this on a regular basis, and would be surprised to see that anyone does. Especially since I haven’t had the chance to update it.

So, as for a slight introduction;

I am in the military, the Navy in fact. I signed up for a few years to see how it would go, hopefully getting to see some of the world while I was at it. So far so good. I’m three years into a five year sentence. Yes, I said sentence. No the military is not evil. For some people it can do a lot of good. It’s even done a lot of good for me. I just don’t enjoy the politics involved.

I have seen more countries by the age of 22 than most people see their entire life. So I can’t exactly nock the whole travel aspect. Although it’s not the premier way to travel, it’s still gets you some places.

Now that you know the work I do, and considering the way I work (sometimes months at a time), it’s been rather though to post here. I pull out of home port, and I’m stuck on a horrible connection that has no way of getting to any blog hosting services. There are some more obvious reasons for that, and I understand them well enough, but it still sucks. So I’m going to try something new. I’m going to write these blogs up, and send ‘em to someone who might be able to post them for me. We’ll see how it works.

It might work, it might not. The most enjoyable part of blogging for me so far is seeing the end product. All posted with nice little links and matching the color theme of the rest of the site. So we’ll see how it goes.

It's Been Awhile...

I really don't like Nickleback that much, the title just seems to fit.

So, little while from the last time I posted.

What's been new?

Quite a bit!

Gruul and Mag are officially on farm for Bada Bing, and we have step foot into TK!

Void Rever, is of course, cake, Solarian gave us some troubles.

PAY ATTENTION!!!

Best advice I can give you for TK is pay attention. If your not aware of whats around you, or on you, you can easily kill yourself or the whole raid.

Did we kill our raid? Of course not! We knows what we're doin!! Did a few Bada Bing'ers kill the raid? One or two.

But that progression, and it happens. Tier five shoulders went out to a few including our MT and MH. Gratz to them.

We even tried fire for a while.

GASP!!! Fire you say? Teh Sunrath going back to fire?

NO!

We tried it, it sucked. Still doing good damage, but just didn't seem as much fun. And fireball is a very long cast. I don't remember it being that long. But it was. We did hit pretty hard with those Pyro's though. About 4k non crit, and well into 5.5-6k crits. That was fun. And we crit ALOT!!!!! switched out our frost gear, and we we're promptly at 36% unbuffed, with 980 fire damage.

Not the best, but damn fun.

Not fun enough though.

Maulgar and Gruul Down

So the guild did Gruul's, and it was a success. Quite a few of us had been in there before, but for some it was the first time, and for a few thier first time in something larger than a 10 man.

2 Mage shoulder tokens droped, but we got neither, we did pick up the pants though.

The stats are to show the DPS I'm doing still gem'd out for haste, still need to do the dailys for some re-gemming cash. Even as higher DPS and lower damage out, the Mage did really well on Maulgar. Spent a lot of time running from cave in's, or ice blocked cause some of the newer folks were running to close.

4 tries for Maulgar, and 2 for Gruul. T4 token's were had, everyone happy.

Good run in all,

Gratz Bada.

The Verdict on Haste

Ran Kara with the guild a couple nights ago, and finally got to put my new haste set to the true test. By the "true test" I mean that I was in there with three of the best dps the guild has. So I was comparing my self to some decently geared people.

Over all my DPS was higher, but my damage out was lower.

So the verdict:

Haste for DPS
+ Spell damage for damage out.

Me thinks I'll swtich to damage gems this weekend for Gruuls, which we finally have enough people sighned up for.

Wewt!!!

Saturday Sucked.....

The internet was down, couldn't go, missed an easy 23 badges, and another chance at the T4 Gloves, as well as a chance to see how much my damage increased in a raid setting.

Damnit all the fucking hell....

The Haste...We Haz It!!

Yes. That's right. We've got haste...and a decent amount too.

114 to be exact. The Healadin had a stockpile of cash at hand, and decided to through the Mage an early birthday.

So the belt and the pants are mines.

So what did we deck the new gear out with?

6 New Blue Gems

6 New Yellow Gems
and
2 New Red Gems

That, plus our new cloak, put the Mage at 114. That's a 7% haste increase.

Kara on Saturday...we'll see how it goes...

Damn yous T4!!!!!!

Full Kara clear this morning, 'cept Illhoof, we had no locks, and I was the only ranged DPS. Not a great make up for Kara, but it worked.

Had horrible luck with the Inferno's on Prince, they completely cut us off from our tank 3 times on the second attempt, including landing on Prince and the melle twice.

Curator still refuses to drop my T4 glove token, but I did get the head off of Prince. Not better than what I have, but I'll take it, you never know right?

No mind blade either....grrrr.

Did get enough badges for the new back though. Cloak of Arcane Alacrity. Yes it has resilience, but show me a better dps back with haste and decent stats...I dare you.

Up to 1010 frost unbuffed, and our dps went up alot from the last run.

Guild Woes...

So,

The Grull run didn't happen. As much as people were talking about it, there weren't enough signed up. No go for the 25 mans.

We've had a massive influx of people in the last couple of weeks. A guild on our server broke up over some drama, and we have assimilated quit a few of the suddenly guildless individuals. As such, there has been a little "non drama". Some people getting adjusted to our loot rules, and how newer people are on a trail basis for a couple weeks.

I'm still leveling the priest, she's 51 now, and I have plenty of time to go.

Can't wait till the wife gets back.

The Healadin is off of leave, and back in town, so maybe I can get him to try his hand at posting soon. He really has some good stories, which I think he should share.

Things to come...

Few things in the pipeline...

Bought a new computer, or the parts at least, and am waiting on just the case now. It's gonna be tasty. 3GHz Quad Core, two nVidia 9800's, 4 GBs of RAM, and a couple TB's of space...can't wait.

Gonna try and organize a decent "About Me" to put up on here...

Gonna try and get the healadin I mentioned in my first post to stop by and explian how Blizz handles Power Leveling Services. It's an awesome story.

The Wife is back in the states, and I have the house to myself for 18 more days. can someone say a 70 shadow priest? I can.

The guild is attempting our first 25 man on sunday, I think we're all a little over geared to be in our first 25 man, but we have been working on getting enough people for a little while. Well, now we've got 'em. Gruul, here we come...

I just picked up the Spellstrike Hood, and it's got me thinking about the pants too, and maybe the Belt of Blasting while I'm at it. They aren't huge upgrades, but they'll keep my spell hit up, and allow me to be a little more free with my gems. What am I thinkin' when I say a little more "free".

These....mmmmmmmm.

One Click Wonders: Part 2

Time for part two of the fantastic Mage macros.

For part two I think I'll post a few usefull PvP macros.

The first being the ever loved; "Ele, Freeze, and get your Shatter combo" macro.

/cast [target=pet,dead] Summon Water Elemental; [nopet] Summon Water Elemental
/stopmacro [nopet]
/petpassive
/click [pet] PetActionButton5
/petattack

Break it down!!!

Line one will pull out your Ele, if it is dead, or doesn't exist.
Line two will stop the whole thing if you can't get a pet (cooldown might not be up)
Line three will put your pet on passive so it follows you.
Line four clicks the Ele's "Freeze" spell, and will give you the targeting reticle to use.
Line five will make your pet attack the target you want. (if none are selected, it will attack the Nova's mob/player)

You'll need to click this macro,(or smash the button) a few times to get it to go through, but it's a pretty nasty one when used right.


The next one is a Focus and CS macro.

/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus,exists,harm] Counterspell
/cast [target=mouseover,harm] Counterspell;Counterspell
/cast [exists,harm] Counterspell

First line stops your casting, so that you don't have to jump, or move, or hit esc.
Second line will set your target to focus, or target your focus, and if they are casting anything, it will Counterspell them.
Third line will Counterspell your mouseover if you have no target/focus.
Fourth line will target your focus, and Counterspell them if you see them casting.

The last is for those pesky Grounding Totems. You know the ones that can soak up an intire Pyroblast, or ruin a good Shatter combo?

Well this will take em out with hardly any mana...

#showtooltip Ice Lance
/stopcasting
/target [exists] Grounding Totem
/cast Ice Lance
/targetlasttarget

First line shows the Tooltip
Second line stops your casting.
Third line targets the nearest grounding totem if there is one.
Fourth line will cast Ice Lance (or any other instant low mana spell)
Fifth line will retarget whomever you had targeted before.

Lessons Learned

A few lessons learned last night in Kara.

Make sure you don't start AOE'ing during Nightbane's flight phase, until you are positive that some one has taunted them. Those mobs went through my Ice Barrier, Mana Shield, and Evea's Power Word: Shield, then my health. All before I knew i was taking damage.

Accidentally running three instances of Vent just might make you freeze up every time you do something more than take one or two steps.

Going into a boss fight with no Mana Gems is a big no no.

And last but not least, every time you go in there, and you need 3 or less pieces, you will never see them drop.

Ever.

All I want is my T4 Hands, T4 Head, and the Mind Blade. That is not too much to ask. Specially when three melle dps in the guild have the dagger, and all the Mages so far have seen the token 8 times each.

One Click Wonders: Part 1

I've got a couple of friends that have leveled Frost Mages, and they were going over some of the more useful things for Mages.

They asked if I knew of any good macros.

Which made me think I should probably put a few of the more handy ones up here. And maybe add some macro links to the blog as well.

I don't use a ton of in combat macros, although there are a few that EVERY Mage needs to be very familiar with. I'll start with those.

One of the most important ones, both PvP and PvE is this:

#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell

This is the "Quick Counterspell" macro. Lets break it down.
The first line will show your tooltip, very optional.
The second line will interrupt any cast you are in the middle of, so you don't have to jump, or move, or hit esc.
The third line casts Counterspell, to interrupt a cast.

A good thing to note about the macro above, is that it can be used for anything else you might need, be it Ice Block, Ice Barrier, Mana Shield, Fire/Frost Ward, etc. All you have to do is change the tooltip, and spell name.

Another good macro for Mages...

#showtooltip Polymorph
/cast Polymorph
/stopmacro [noexists] [dead] [help]
/p Sheeping %t. Back off it.

The sheep and announce macro, basic, but still works well.
The first line, again shows the Poly tooltip, optional as always.
The second line will cast your Polymorph (if you want Pig or Turtle you'll need to specify).
The third line determines what you will announce. If the spell succeeds, you will say in party chat, "Sheeping . Back off it." If it fails, or your target is dead, it will not announce anything in party.
The last line is what will be announced. The "%t" is a command that will substitute in your target's name.

The next macro works wonders, and performs the same function as above, while adding in some more little tricks.

#showtooltip
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/script SetRaidTarget("focus", 1)
/cast [target=focus]Polymorph
/stopmacro [nogroup]
/s --== Sheeping and Marking "%f" ==--

This one is a monster. But the only thing is does differently is that it deals with the "focus" ability.

Lets break this down...

First line will clear your focus if your old focus target is dead, or doesn't exist anymore.
Second line will set your focus on what you have targeted if you don't have a focus already.
Third line will place a Star marker over the head of the focus target (if you are group/raid leader/assistant)
Fourth line will polymorph the Focus target
Fifth line will stop the announce if not partied.
Sixth line will announce the sheeping.

We like this one better, usually.

This allows us to have another target frame, specifically, the focus frame. This frame will not change until you change it. So you can target your tank and type /focus, making another, completely independent frame show up. Or in the case of this macro, it will provide a frame with which to keep an eye on the mob you need to CC.

This one is to make conjuring and using those items easier.

/castsequence [modifier:alt] reset=120 Conjure Water, Conjure Food, Conjure Mana Emerald, Conjure Water, Conjure Food
/stop macro [modifier:alt]
/use Conjured Manna Biscuit
/use Conjured Glacier Water
/stopmacro [button:2]
/use Conjured croissant

This will conjure water, then food, then a gem, then water, then food, as long as you are holding the "alt" button.
If you simply click the button with your left mouse button, then it will make you eat Mana Biscuits (if you have any) or the conjured Food and Water. (the conjured food and water will both be used at the same time.)
You will need to update the macro as you level, and change the fourth and sixth lines to include the highest ranking foods/waters that you can make, so that they will be used properly.

This one is for Porting. As a Mage, you'll be using these spells very often, and this will make it easier.

#show Rune of Portals
/cast [modifier:alt] Portal: Shattrath; Teleport: Shattrath

This will allow the alt button + left click to cast Teleport, and the regular left click to summon a Portal. City names can change as needed, and if five macro's are made, it will allow you to have all your Teleports and Portals only take up five spots. The first line will show the number of Runes you have with you, and if you use the "?" icon for the macros, the picture will change depending on which spell you are casting.

The last one I'm going to include in this post is a mouse over macro, which is pretty handy if you don't use decursive.

/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Remove Lesser Curse

This should be bound to a key (I think mine is F1) and will allow you to mouse over another player, or his/her pet, and it will cast Remove Lesser Curse on whoever you are moused over.
One thing to note, is that you can make a Counterspell macro the same way, just replace the spell names, and possibly include a /stopcasting before the rest of the script.

I might go a little more in depth into Frost/Fire macros later, but for now, I'll stick to the more "essential" ones.

I'm Back...to blogging at least.

So, been a few weeks since I last posted on here.

I started the blog, was pretty excited about it, got really busy, and haven't posted in awhile. To make up for it, there's two posts today. The first is about how raiding on Italian Internet is loads of fun, and the second...we'll see.

So, been a little over a month without raiding, which is what I built my mage for. Why you ask? Am I not in a decent guild? Not enough time? Work getting in the way? No, no, and only every now and then.

The guild I'm in has two Kara groups a week, and ZA a couple times too. We've just gotten enough 70's for 25 man content, and as soon as a few of em pick up a little more gear, we should be stepping into Grull's or Mag's. Until then, I'm hitting exalted with the SSO and getting a really tasty neck. (I know I said I was aiming for the PvP neck, but hell, this one isn't half bad, and has a crazy proc rate.)

I've got plenty of time. All it takes to make it to a raid is not have duty that night, and get a little sleep so I'm OK to be up at 1 or 2 AM.

And, as I said above, work doesn't get in the way unless I have duty.

So what is stopping me from raiding? Quite possibly the worst ISP ever brought into existence. Let me tell you all something, and please take it to heart, I would hate for you to find out the way my wife and I have.

ITALIAN INTERNET IS NOT THE SAME AS AMERICAN!!!

This is the best connection they have, and every night after 9PM, it gets as unstable as bad dial up.

I took being in the states for granted while I was there.

A Step or Two on the Other Side...

Over the past couple weeks I’ve been watching a lot of PvP videos. Mostly Magely PvP, as I will readily admit, that’s what drew me to the class. Some of my favorite PvP happen to be none other than Taco’s videos. He exerts skill and classiness into his Maging.

And of course, with every decision in WoW comes the question, is it just for fun, or is it good for the toon? I’ll mostly be PvPing with the wife, who has fallen in love with this new toon of hers, and is dead set on getting the Main Hand. It’s a damn good mace, and from my understanding, very difficult for a priestly healer like herself to replace until 25 mans.

So what might I get in this little bit of squishy destruction? (Please note that because my wife and I have maybe 30 resilience between the two of us, it will mostly be the squishes getting destroyed)

This is the first thing that caught my attention.

Guardian's Pendant of Subjugation

Pretty nice neck, no?

And it’s gots a socket. You’ll be hard pressed to find one better that is also that easily attainable. 15,300 honor, and 10 EoTS marks, that’s pretty hard to pass up. Even for a PvEer like myself.

So I think the Mage will step into the BG’s a little this weekend, and a little more after that. I’ve got my eyes set on that neck.

Must have.

I can haz portz plx?

A shorter post, but I think and important one.

I was talking to a friend today about what can be expected, or should be expected, from each class in a pug. It amazes me how little some people know about other classes and are still able to make it to 70.

“Is it too much to ask the Mage to sheep pull, so that their mob stays out of my consecration? Why are Mages so uncomfortable with sheeping that way in pugs? And why does every Mage insist on a Shat Port now, without asking if anyone else wants to go to a different city. Is it too much to ask for a 90S Port to Org instead, after I just got done taking about 12G in damage for him/her?”

This little bit here, although not verbatim, as the conversation took place a few hours ago, raises some good points.

The reason, I think, most Mages wont sheep pre pull in a pug would be because they can’t be sure of the tank/rest of the party. If I sheep the mob, and gain the initial aggro, what guarantee do I have that the tank can pull them off fast enough for me not to die. Especially in a heroic. And if the tank can’t pull it off fast enough, can the healer keep me up? Will the rogue Cheepshot to keep it from killing me? Will the hunter trap/pet the loose mob to save the squishy? It’s a pug, so you can’t be sure. I personally will not hesitate to sheep pull so that my sheep can stay way away from any AOE effects. In fact, in most pugs, I insist on it. If the rest of the party can’t find some cohesion after a pull or two, then I’m done. I move on.

The portal thing. If you want a different port ask. I ALWAYS tip the tank and healer, it’s just good karma to do so. I’ve done it from the first few times I’ve pugged. And you know what; a 5 gold tip to the tank at the end of the instance is a great way to get re-invited. So if I can tip the tank, I can toss up a different port. It shouldn’t be too much to ask at all, the tank/healer/dps has just helped you complete something you didn’t have a chance on completing on your own, why not help him/her get to where they are going much faster than they could otherwise?

There are some things that you as a Mage will have to put up with. Whispers for ports, food, water, biscuits, and buffs sometimes are the basics. And it’s not like it’s the only class that has that issue. You think everyone that plays a Warrior/Pally/Drood don’t get tired of hearing “can you tank?” from some random person. Same goes for every class that can heal. I really feel bad for Pally’s/Drood’s, as they get both “can you tank?” and “can you heal?”. There are some fantastic addons if you are tired of being asked for ports/food/water, but there’s really no reason to be rude. Too much rudeness out of the Mage class, and the next thing you know people will be giving our spots to hunters. (Although, in my case, that’s not such a bad thing.)

By George, I've Got It...

Who was George anyways?

As a small accomplishment I've found out what was wrong with my wowhead links, a small misplaced, and very mischievous comma was mucking about in the code somehow, and has promptly been removed. All links should now work as intended.

/bow

/passoutforrealthistime.

Choosing how to start.

Before I get started, why won’t that damn sig at the top center right. It seams like no matter what option I choose, it sits about 7/8 of the way it’s supposed to and refuses to move….

This angers me greatly.

I realize that I have posted on a few end games focuses, but not much as starting a Mage.

I did touch a little on AOE at 30, but not much more than that.

With that thought in mind I think I’ll delve a little into starting a Mage. Your first big decision in starting any new toon is the race you will want to play. There are many ways to decide, and as it’s your 15 dollars a month, there’s no reason why you can’t choose what you want and enjoy it. So if its looks, or a certain dance you prefer, then skip a paragraph or two. If you’d rather take a second to look at what each race has to offer the mage class, then don’t skip the next couple of paragraphs.

Horde:

Troll. I’m fairly fond of trolls; my first toon (and first 70) was a troll. I think they’re mannerisms are awesome. The way they all just slouch around, and they are all so “chill”. They have some interesting racial abilities, but not all very usable for Mages. Berserking is fairly useful for PvE during boss fights, as it provides a self buffed spell haste. Regeneration is nice, but not something you can count on. Beast Slaying is an ability often overlooked, however, as there are many beasts encountered in both Azeroth and Outlands, it’s not a useless racial. Throwing and Bow Specialization are both completely useless to a Mage.

Blood Elf. I really happen to like my stuck up, prissy little blood elf. Not only can you get some gold by stripping down and dancing on mailboxes, they also look the best in the Christmas Outfits. Mana Tap, another decent PvE ability. Useful for boss fights, but not a must have, and pretty nice to tie into Arcane Torrent for AOE grinding sometimes, as it can help stop heals, or other casts. Decent PvP talent to give another spell interrupt/silence. Arcane Affinity and Magic Resistance aren’t a very big deal. The first is OK if you’re planning on being an enchanter, but the second is pretty useless at 70.

Undead. One of the more popular PvP races for the ability Will of the Forsaken. Cannibalize, Underwater Breathing and Shadow Resistance however are not a very big deal, although cannibalize is a lot of fun sometimes.

Alliance:

I was never real big on alliance, so I don’t have much of an opinion on these. If I did have to chose, it would be Gnome, they’re racials seem best for a Mage.

Gnome. Very small, very annoying. Escape Artist is good for both PvE and PvP. Expansive Mind is very good for casters in general, as it expands your mana pool by a decent amount, and scales with gear. Arcane Resistance and Engineering Specialization aren’t that big of a deal, and shouldn’t be taken into account unless you’re really focusing on level an engineer too.

Draenei. Gift of the Naaru and Inspiring Presence are both very good PvE abilities, however their next two are the same as Gnome and Blood Elf racials. Gemcutting and Shadow Resistance.

Human. Perception is mostly a PvP talent, as in the middle of a raid, you won’t usually have an unfriendly rogue behind you. The Human Spirit is a decent Mage ability as the recent changes to spirit have made it much more useful for mana regen. Diplomacy is very good for rep grinds, but Sword and Mace Specialization are both useless to Mages as they won’t be doing much Melee.

So there you go. A not so quick breakdown of the races that you can choose when thinking about starting a Mage. If I were to give my opinion (and I’m going to whether you want it or not) I would roll horde every time. Not because I like horde better, but because the racials seem much better (except maybe the Gnomes).

And as I’ve stated in an earlier post, I would level primarily fire, until 30, when you can make your choice to stay fire, for big crits, or go frost, for AOE.

Which ever you choose, make sure you will have fun with it. It’s a little counter productive to get a toon to 30ish and decide you can’t stand the way it walks, or runs, or laughs etc.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's a little after 4 am, and I am just about brain dead, and cannot come up with a better ending than this right here.

/passout.

A Little Bit on Spell Hit...

Spell hit is a very important thing for a PvE Mage. It is the single best way to increase your dps and mana efficiency. Take this with a grain of salt however. I say it this way because no matter how much spell damage, haste, or crit you stack, if you’re not capped on hit, you’re going to miss. And when you see resist across your screen, you might as well count that as a big, huge, fat, stinking zero.

So how is spell hit calculated? Quite simply in fact. Let’s try a couple scenarios real quick, shall we?

Scenario A:

You’re 70, and you’re grinding the blood elves on top of Black Temple, trying to get some more Scryer Rep. So you and your mob are both 70, and you have a base of 96% to hit that mob. How much plus to hit do you need to be capped against this mob? You need 3% more hit, or 37.8 spell hit rating. For those of you who just did the math, yes, that’s only 99% to hit. Well, that’s the way it is. Blizzard has implemented a cap on hit, so you always have, at the very least, 1% chance to miss. It does not matter how much plus hit you stack, you will never have greater than 99%.

Scenario B:

You’re 70, and enjoying your first Kara raid with your guild. They’ve stressed that as a Frost Mage, you need to get at least 164 spell hit rating before you can start getting epic loots with them. For most trash in Kara, you won’t need to be hit capped. You might need a little as some of the trash is a level higher than you, but it’s only 4% (or 50.4) more. However, you clear you first bit of trash, and you come to your first Kara boss, Attumen the Huntsmen. Now, if you check the link there, you’ll notice that he is level ??. This means he is a raid boss, and for all intensive purposes, he is mathematically 3 levels higher than the highest level person in the raid, and in this case, level 73.

This means that you will have to have enough spell hit to not miss a mob 3 levels higher than you. That is a total of 16% spell hit (or 202 spell hit rating), which must be attained through gear and talents.

However, I did specify Frost Mage didn’t I? Yes I did. As a frost mage, there is a talent that reduces how much plus to hit you need to acquire to reach your cap. Elemental Precision is one of the first talents as a Frost Mage, and it’s not uncommon for PvE Fire Mages (or PvP Mages, as you only need 3% to not miss a player the same level as you) to have the talent too. It reduces the mana cost and chance your target has to resist your fire and frost spells by 3%. So by having this talent, you’ve already taken care of 3% spell hit, or 37.8 spell hit rating.

So how is spell hit calculated? For a level 70 Mage, 12.6 spell hit rating is 1%. So, as stated above, to cap your hit rating against a level 73 mob (Raid Boss), with no talents pertaining to spell hit, you need 16%, or 202 hit rating.

So now that you are a little more educated on spell hit, wether you'r looking into PvP or PvE, you have a reason to get at least 3% spell hit.

On the matter of CC:

Not only does a Mage supply one of the highest amounts of damage (assuming of course that the person playing one isn’t a complete moron, or pulls agro and spends 40% of the instance/raid dead). They can also supply one of the best buffs in the game, food and water, and one of the most reliable CC’s in the game.

Rank 1 Polymorph

This is rank one. Lets take a second to look at this, yes?

This spell works on Humanoids, Beasts, and Critters. Critters aside, this is arguably the single most effective way of CC’ing Humanoids and Beasts.

30 yard range. This is pretty decent range on a CC. The range allows you to keep your squishy little self well out of harms way and cast.

1.5 second cast. Not the fastest of cast times, but that shouldn’t matter if your keeping an eye on the mob like you should.

And for 150 mana, it’s a pretty cheep spell to use.

Last 20 seconds, with the highest rank lasting 50 seconds. For PvE, the duration of this spell is amazing. For PvP it’s not quite as useful due to diminishing returns, but will still work as an interrupt if you can get the cast off before your opponent. So, you cast Polymorph, your mob becomes a fluffy little sheep (or Pig or even Turtle)

So, how best to use this fantastic spell.

As I don’t PvP much on my mage due to the fact of me having exactly zero resilience, I usually use this spell for PvE. Since that is the case, I tend to use this macro for most of my “pigging”

/cast Polymorph: Pig
/p Sunrath is CC’ing %n, break it and you can tank it!

The first line allows us to cast Polymorph Pig (which not many in my guild have, so it’s handy to have different looking Poly’s), and the second line tells my party that I am Pigging a mob. The "%n" is a function that will place the name of my current target into the line of text.

Another good macro to use while sheeping is this little piece of work.

/targetlasttarget
/cast Polymorph: Pig

This will let you target your last target (presumably the one you are sheeping) and cast polymorph as long as you are facing your target. This works well for re-casting in the middle of a pull, when you know you aren’t going to be ready for the CC’d mob to come to the party.

The final two macros I’m going to post for this spell can be used when you don’t use your focus for the tank. I tend to keep my tank as focus, as it helps my slightly ADD self attacking the right target.

/focus
/cast Polymorph: Pig

This will set your current target to “focus” and then cast Polymorph. This is a very useful way of keeping an eye on your mobs, as it will add a target frame to your UI where you can see his status.

/target focus
/cast Polymorph: Pig

This will let you target your focus, and re-cast polymorph.

One thing to keep in mind when sheeping, is that the mobs, or person, you sheep will receive a buff. Yes a buff. Not a debuff, although it can be removed like one. It is considered a buff because it allows for a very high health regenerate while in the sheep/pig/turtle form. That being said, it’s not usually a good idea to sheep a mob/person when they are close to dead, as only a few seconds under the spell, they will regenerate most of their health.

One last thing, and something that most 70 Mages don’t realize right away, is that you can spellsteal from a mob that is polymorphed, with our breaking the CC. This is very useful when CC’ing in Magister’s Terrace. You can sheep, then steal all the fantastic buffs that those mobs have to offer.

AOE Frost: The How To

After thinking about it for awhile, I decided my second post would be about the speccing, gearing, and how to of an AOE Frost mage. I know this isn’t exactly were to start, or how to finish in a since either. But it’s currently my favorite part of the game. There’s nothing like flying up to BT, seeing a Warrior and Priest combo grinding their way through the mobs, making a decent amount of money, and picking up signets left and right, and then showing them up ten fold.

So. Where to start.

Hmmm.

Spec would be the best I think. That’s the easiest way to really screw yourself on a frost mage. I’ve seen a lot of people that think they are AOE specced, and then I prove to them that they have no idea what they’re doing.

First and foremost, don’t even try it till 30. Stay fire, enjoy some big hits. And if you don’t have a ton of patience and you’re looking to really get leveling on the ball, don’t do it till 40. Seriously, a mount and Ice Barrier is what it’s all about.

So, the spec.

At 30 you, to maximize AOE ability, you should look a little like this.

Improved Blizzard, Improved Ice Armor, and Permafrost are a must for aspiring little frost mages. DO NOT. I REPET. DO NOT GET FROSTBITE!!!! This is one of the biggest killers of frost mages trying to AOE everywhere. AOE is about control and predictability. This will toss a real monkey wrench in the whole damn thing. As you level, look to put points into talents that either: lower mana costs, reduce Cooldowns, increase frost damage done or increase slowing effects. A frost mage can crit, and crit well, but it is not a focus of AOE’ing. You want even damage.

Once your specced right, you need to take a gear assessment. Gear is a huge factor in being able to AOE effectively. As the spec is about killing many mobs at one time, it is very gear dependent. You need to focus on stam and int at lower levels. You won’t have enough + Spell damage to make a difference. If you’re going to pick up spell damage at lower levels, then make sure your looking at good stam/int gear as well.

Blizzard is an expensive spell. And you’ll be using mana shield a lot until 40. The combination of these can drain your mana fast. Once your mana shield is down, you’ll need to be able to rely on raw hit points. (it shouldn’t come down to that, but if it does, you’ll need it)

So your 30. You’ve re-specced to frost, and picked up the right gear so you can enjoy all AOE has to offer. But your unsure of how to use this new spec to it’s fullest.

How to AOE:

Find a place that has a decent number of melee only mobs and ideally two to three levels lower (this level difference will minimize resists and crushing blows when they get to you). Beasts are usually good as they don’t often run, however, anything that won’t stand at range and cast is good. At lower levels, stand in a spot, where you have about 4/5 mobs in range to wand, and pull away. This will help you conserve mana, while still gathering mobs. Once you get Ice Barrier and a mount, then run through some shit to gather ‘em up.

Once mobs are gathered: Frost Nova and move away. It is almost always better to just blink in the direction that your mobs just came from. That way you’re not backing up into other mobs.

Start your blizzard: Place the blizzard in a position that covers all of the mobs you are kiting. You want them all equally slowed, and damage to be dealt as close to the same across all mobs as possible. As soon as you click and start your channeling, you can position your next one, guide it in front of your groups of mobs and try to get the farthest edge of the circle to cover all your mobs. You’re attempting to position the Blizzard so that the mobs have to walk all the way through it. If you have chosen your mobs correctly, you should be able to finish them off with a Cone of Cold, and maybe a couple Arcane Explosions.

Loot.

Eat and Drink.

Rinse and repeat.

The Intro

My Intro:

The reason for this Blog: I can't find any damn Mage blogs that update on a regular basis. So I'm going to try my hand at my own. This will be primarily a Mage blog. Although there might be a few huntering things tossed here and there. Having said that...

This little beauty hasn't always been my main.


In fact, This PvE soloing machine was once my main. I felt un-stoppable with that toon, and still call on his assistance from time to time.

Yes, that’s right; my main was once a hunter. At the time, I wasn’t grouping much, was soloing my way through each zone, one after another. If I came across something I couldn’t best at my current level, I would toss it on a shelf, and come back to it.

I always got my mark.

Then there was a hiatus. About 8 months went by and my 38 hunter sat unused and missed on the server I had created him.

Then something happened.

I met someone, and they used to play, and wanted to start playing again. Then two of our friends wanted to play as well.

The four of us started new accounts (or re-activated our old ones). It would be that same core group of real life friends for the next 60 levels.

I of course picked my hunter up from where I had left off. Helping them and guiding them as they learned this new game.

One friend started a Warrior, having expressed the intent of wanting to beat the shit out of stuff while taking heavy hits. He quickly excelled at the whole tanking thing. Speccing Prot right off the bat, and was known as Azunai.

The other friend that leveled with me and the warrior started a hunter as well. This worked well for questing, not so well for instancing.

We were pugging a lot. And as I'm sure you know, that's not always the greatest experience.

Then we ended up hitting 45’ish about the same time. And we met a very enthusiastic shadow priest. This worked well. We had another DPS to grind with, a warrior and two pets to hold agg, and the priest could shift out and heal when needed, it was a dream combo for just about anything.

Then he invited us to his guild. Not our first leveling guild, but definitely one of the better ones I’ve ever been in. We started playing with these people on a regular basis. Ended up finishing out our last 15 levels with this small rag-tag group. The warrior, the two hunters, the shadow priest, and usually a rogue or lock from the guild.

Let me back track a little, as this friend will come up often in my ramblings. I mentioned four of us, and only explained three. My fourth friend started a warrior as well. Specced fury, hit 29, and we twinked him out. That was his goal. And that is where he stayed. For quite a long time, and that is where Spax enters and exits for the time being, although you will hear more about him, in another, much longer, story.

By the time we hit 60, we were all very well geared, and PvE oriented. All of us having a barrel of…well something fun. (I don’t like monkeys that much) We dove into the end game content, explored PvP. A few of us becoming fairly familiar with MC, SG, and AQ.

Then the Burning Crusade. We all raced to 70. Enjoying the new content, and the new gear. The Prot warrior went arms. Then my wife started playing on a regular basis. Spax was abandoned, and a Blood Elf Healadin was born (more of which you will hear about, maybe from the Healadin himself.)

And I was pugging a lot. I found out very fast that outside a core group of friends, hunters are not well liked. Even though I played him well. Could chain trap, off tank, and stay just bellow pulling agg. I would have (and still would) get the BRK growl of approval, I’m sure of it.

But my lack of invites was becoming quite irritating, and I was loosing interest.

Then one day while questing in SMV I got one or two shotted by the same PoM/Pyro Mage 6 times.

Wait, wasn’t I a DPS class? What is this Mage think he’s doing taking away almost 11,000 health in just a few seconds? This just isn’t right!!

I rolled a Mage.

I was in love.

I leveled one to 50 as fire. All out big crits. Then at 50, when most try POM/Pyro for the first time, I tried frost. It was then new hit thing. And AOE grinding looked like way too much fun.

I am a 70 Blood Elf Frost Mage. And I'm here to share my experiences, (good and bad, fun and horribly boring) with you, the reader.

So this Blog, this little space on the Internet, will be my place. My place to vent, to share, to teach, and to learn.

I do believe in the English language as a whole, and I won’t hold any punches when it comes to most words. Having said that, if you are easily offended by what most people call foul language, you should look else where for fantastic, exhilarating Magely endeavors.

I will try my best to stay as up to date and entertaining as possible.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sun