| Minosvaidis | Date: Tuesday, 2011-12-20, 20:20 | Message # 1 |
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>>This is a copy of my post on KEA forum.<<
Hey, over the time, day by day, whenever i felt bored i added something to my first ever Mage guide. This took me about a week or a bit more. I wrote this not in one go so it came out in a form of a big mess of info :P
This is directed mostly to newbie players who have chosen the Mage class.
Stats.
Before you start doing anything you must know what stats are needed for one or other thing you do.
When leveling you should stack Intellect, spirit, stamina. Spell Power (SP), Crit. chance and other dps stats are above all of-course.
When raiding... (from most important stat to least)
.. in Fire spec: Hit Rating (if not capped) > SP > Crit. chance > Haste.
Intellect > Spirit > Stamina.
.. in Arcane spec: Hit Rating (if not capped) > SP > Haste > Crit. chance.
Intellect > Spirit > Stamina.
Note: i now never raid in arcane spec.
.. in frost spec: ??? - Blizzard keeps failing at making Frost a good dps spec for raiding. They keep trying tho 
Note: Hit cap for mages in raiding is 17%
When doing PvP..
.. in Fire: Same as in raiding, but far less hit rating, you need only 4% hit chance. Note that i've never taken Fire seriously as a spec for PvP, therefore i don't know much about it.
.. in Frost: Hit Rating (if not capped) > SP > haste. Don't even bother with Crit. chance, because your goal in frost pvp is to cast spell when the target is frozen or when you have fingers of frost proced, so overal crit chance is basically a waste.
.. in Arcane: Hit Rating (if not capped) > SP > haste > Crit. chance.
As for attribute stats (stam, int etc..), choose what you prefer more. Stamina for more survivability? intellect for more mana and Crit. chance? Spirit for mana regen and more Crit. chance? (last one for arcane and fire mages only). Every mage decides for himself. Tho you pretty much can't choose, all PvP gear has same fixed stats
Rotations.
Using the right rotations and timing is very important if you want to achieve maximum dps.
Frostfire: Apply scorch for the debuff, cast Living Bomb (LB), Frostfire bolts until you need to re-apply scorch or LB, with instant Pyroblasts in between ofcourse. Before using Combustion make sure you have scroch on, because you really don't want to waste that huge crit chance on a low dps spell. Never use Fire Blast, it is a low dps, huge mana draining spell that has most use in pvp, not raiding. Also... some mages don't cast scorch after they get a critical hit with any other spell, this is because they don't want to risk overriding the DOT with the smaller DOT that might come from a scorch critical hit, i sometimes do that too, do what you think is better.
Fire: Same as with Frostfire simply replace it with firebolt. Nothing really changes much.
Arcane: That's a bit tricky, and something i haven't used for quite a while. If you are not careful you can drain your mana very fast. You need to combine your rotation to the situation. Basically it's all about stacking Arcane Blasts and firing Arcane Missiles when they proc. Some say to apply 4 stacks then use AM... i simply don't understand that cuz if you do that you will find yourself out of mana before boss goes down to 70% hp. Best solution is to simply test it for yourself and see. Stack enough AB to deal good dps, but with maintaining mana at the same time. Casting Arcane Barage is for only when you have 4 stacks of AB and no AM proced, if you cast one more AB you will lose loads of mana, so you must drop those stacks somehow, Barage is the answer.
That last part might be wrong, i am not sure about the current status of AB stacking in our server, i will edit it if i find out something more.
Leveling.
When it comes to leveling mages can chose from 2 specs: fire and frost. Choosing Arcane only makes sence when you have access to it's main talents which are at the bottom of the arcane tree.
If you are leveling a mage for the first time, i suggest choosing the fire spec. It's easier to use, more "shiny" and more fun (cuz making leveling fun is kinda important imo). After gaining a few levels you will get your main area-of-effect (aoe) spells like dragon breath and blast wave, which allow you to nuke groups of mobs quite fast if used right.
If you feel more advanced you can choose frost. It may be not very powerful at lower levels, but the more you level up the more survivability and Crowd Control (CC) you gain. I prefer frost over anything when it comes to leveling because you take less risks when dealing with elite or high level mobs. When you finally get the all mighty frost barrier, death is something that is easy to avoid. But in order to use this talent tree at it's maximum potential, you have to know a thing or two about CC, keeping distance and the whole mechanics of frost spells.
As for arcane... get the last 4 or 5 talents in the arcane tree and just keep pushing those 3 buttons (arcane blast, arcane missiles and arcane barage). Well and sometimes Slow if needed..
Talent builds.
The one thing i am sure about is that it is always more fun to make your own builds, thats how you make it "your style" and you learn more about talents and aswell.
Here are mine:
The mighty Frostfire spec for raiding: http://www.gamingconsortium.org/tools....:ILi0Vz
Frost/Arcane talent spec for PvP: http://www.gamingconsortium.org/tools....:qjmczV
Ok a bit about my builds.
Frostfire.
To understand this build first you need to understand the mechanics of how the Frostfire Bolt works. It benefits from both frost and fire talents, which means it gets all the +dmg, -threat and all other good stuff from BOTH trees. This build makes the best of it and really works for me. Approved by Minosvaidis.
As for the frost/arcane pvp build, i made it in a way to obtain as much survivability as possible. Damage doesn't suffer much, maybe doesn't even suffer at all actualy.. Anyway, i really enjoy playing with this build and it works for me quite well.
You can find lots of other builds in http://www.wowwiki.com/Mage_builds
What should a mage choose for raiding?
From my experience i now see that fire specs can be teh same or even more powerful than arcane. But it all depends on what you want and what you like. Here are a few things you should consider when choosing a spec:
Arcane...
It provides a massive +6% Hit Chance from talents,
very good Threat reduction,
an aura that provides +3% damage to your whole raid.
Becomes boring quite fast.
Limited aoe abilities, which drain a lot of mana.
Frostfire/Fire TTW...
Huge crits that never get boring,
Many aoe ablities.
+5% spell crit chance for the whole raid.
If a tank doesn't generate enough threat you can agro a boss very easily and die (been there..)
With a timed use of living bomb you can nuke many boss adds very quickly (like at Gluth for example).
Glyphs.
Glyphs that i am using are in the Talent calculator links above.
Usage of Dampen Magic and Amplify Magic
Quite often i see fresh mages fail at this. These buffs must be used with caution, because sometimes they can do more harm than good.
Amplify Magic boosts magical damage/healing on you, Dampen - makes those effects weaker.
In raids, these buffs should be used for certain fights only. For example, you can use Amplify Magic on all raid embers when killing Gluth and Patchwerk in Naxxramas. Simply because they don't use any magical spells.
As for Dampen Magic, i do not really know where it can be used in raiding, it's simply not worth reducing healing done at he cost of a slight damage reduction.
In pvp, it's usually best to keep Dampen Magic on yourself at all times, unless you are in a fight against melee players in which case it has no use at all and you can go without either of those buffs. In battlegrounds and arenas it is quite useful, even a few points of damage reduction can sometimes save your ass + it's one extra buff that can be dispelled from you, so less chances of losing a shield or some other good buff.
Screw hit rating, go for SP and pawn!,- said the noob before i killed him.
Hit rating is something that should not be taken lightly when it comes to maxing our your dps. In raiding, the hit cap is 17%, in PvP - only 4%. This is because bosses in raids are lvl83 (even tho you see only "skull") and players you are fighting are lvl80. Stacking hit rating is important, because if you miss with let's say and instant cast Pyroblast, you miss out on a big ammount of damage that a few SP points you chose instead of hit will never compensate.
Arcane mages have it easy, they receive a +6% hit chance from talents. Frostfire mages get 3% and Fire TTW get 0%. Where is the fairness in that i will never know.. This is besides the point but arcane have a 40% reduction on Threat and Fire/Frostfire 30%, (Frostfire bolt alone gets 40% because of frost channeling talent, yay ).
Addons.
Personally i really like to modify my User Interface (UI) and game controls with many addons. Here are few of them...
Mage Nuggets - This addon shows your main dps stats like SP, crit chance, hit and haste in a small window that is really useful. For example it let's you see your "real" hit rating because it adds up all the bonuses provided by your talents (it's a big buged on GC, hit rating showed is 1% too high :P). And some other cool stuff like debuff/buff monitors and so on... I really recommend this addon.
Bind Pad - This addon is meant for keybinding. You can set different binds for different specs, they change automatically when you activate a talent spec. This is very easy to use and i strongly recommend using this addon. While i am on the subject.... Use keybinding to make your casting and movement faster, you'd be surprised how dps can improve by using the right binds. Please do not be a clicker.
MageAlert - This addon alerts you when some spell/talent procs, like Fingers of Frost, Hot Streak etc.. There is a cool voice too along with a screen flash. This makes you never miss out on your procs, really useful.
Might add some more later if i find some other good ones..
Ego.
Always say this class is the best, Amen.
Who you should and should not listen to.
Ok this is something everyone should read. I've seen this many times, some *Enter class name here* tells a mage what to do, what stats to go for etc. Most of the times people just talk like they know something, tho they usually pretend to be know-it-alls. If you want to find something out, make sure the guy you are talking to has rolled a mage or knows what he is talking about. Many people like telling others what to do, this lead some players into failing. I've seen it happen..
And some screenshots to show how my interface looks, recounts, etc..
http://i56.tinypic.com/2a64ljk.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/2jf0qrq.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/2poslcw.jpg
i will add more when i have some good ones.
Ok that's the end of this thing i called a guide. If you have any questions regarding the Mage class feel free to ask here. There are many things i didn't write here, so if you see that i missed something pls tell me . I am always up for discussions and helping out.
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| Serotonin | Date: Tuesday, 2011-12-20, 20:52 | Message # 2 |
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| Quote Who you should and should not listen to.
Ok this is something everyone should read. I've seen this many times, some *Enter class name here* tells a mage what to do, what stats to go for etc. Most of the times people just talk like they know something, tho they usually pretend to be know-it-alls. If you want to find something out, make sure the guy you are talking to has rolled a mage or knows what he is talking about. Many people like telling others what to do, this lead some players into failing. I've seen it happen..
I've seen people that play their own class totally fail at theorycrafting. You don't have to roll the class to know basic mechanics or know what talents are total crap. I've had a druid flip shit at me because I didn't take improved mangle for my cat spec, she was like "omg how long you play druid". Yay 6 energy every minute  Also a rogue telling me to get rly rly bad talents lol
In short: Just because they play the same class doesn't mean they know dick about it.
[ Synapse : Tryptamine ][ Serotonin : Mørphine ][ Chloroform : Dimethyl ]
Message edited by Serotonin - Tuesday, 2011-12-20, 20:54 |
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| WTFNESHA | Date: Wednesday, 2011-12-21, 10:21 | Message # 3 |
Infernalis
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| why there is no frost pve spec?
anyways, thanks for this awesome guide, i might learn how to play mage some day lol
Quote Arcane: That's a bit tricky, and something i haven't used for quite a while. If you are not careful you can drain your mana very fast. You need to combine your rotation to the situation. Basically it's all about stacking Arcane Blasts and firing Arcane Missiles when they proc. Some say to apply 4 stacks then use AM... i simply don't understand that cuz if you do that you will find yourself out of mana before boss goes down to 70% hp. Best solution is to simply test it for yourself and see. Stack enough AB to deal good dps, but with maintaining mana at the same time. Casting Arcane Barage is for only when you have 4 stacks of AB and no AM proced, if you cast one more AB you will lose loads of mana, so you must drop those stacks somehow, Barage is the answer.
That last part might be wrong, i am not sure about the current status of AB stacking in our server, i will edit it if i find out something more.
you might wanna try Arcane again, things been fixed lately 
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| Minosvaidis | Date: Wednesday, 2011-12-21, 11:47 | Message # 4 |
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| Quote (WTFNESHA) you might wanna try Arcane again, things been fixed lately wink
That would require a total reconfiguration of my gear. Not worth it. My dps is already one of the best in guild.
I played arcane some time ago and it was really boring, even tho dps was not bad.
Fire is more useful for raids. Mage is the best aoe class in game, combined with this spec taking out adds is very easy. Not to mention nearly unlimited mana for long boss fights.
Anyway, 20k+ crits ftw
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| Voo | Date: Saturday, 2011-12-24, 12:51 | Message # 5 |
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| man I can't argue with stuff you poped up there but certainly ffb is too much dependable on gear dont forget that arcane is the universal i would say cause of easy rotation and not so big requirements from gear. and 1 more thing so that is wont forget arcane with 53 and fire with 18 to improved scorch with right rotation is allmost like ffb but the huge dmg spikes are bit reduced while they are added to minimal dmg of instants did the math ffb was only 300 dps higher. you can nvm this but yea its only my experimenting with TPC again. Oh and i tested it on target dummy as on HC and on 10 man was. Yea and i forgot totally the arcane tree has still some free will so pple can adjust it as they would need and for parties up to 10 mans should be good configuration well it in adition helps the raid with 10%crit and 3%dmg so f yea converted some of ffb dmg output to some scaleable use.
And best configuration of spells is really not dependable on gear so much mind that man i wont argue with you on point that are clear but you are free to help me with the talent tree experimenting but i guess you had your share of that stuff. ill throw up the TPC link here once i finish up with that rotation and some more testing of the config.
TOO MUCH COFFEE
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| Minosvaidis | Date: Monday, 2011-12-26, 13:42 | Message # 6 |
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| It is true that frostfire spec is very gear dependant, but all you need are a couple of naxx raids and you are good to go.
With bad gear in arcane spec you will go oom in 3 minutes, so i still go for fire even when in blue gear.
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