Life At 60 #1: Water Boy! Get Over Here!

A Look at Life for Mage's at 60

Here we are, the first ever installment of the weekly Journal called "Life at 60". TTH will be taking a look at the concerns, comments, questions, tips, tactics and general know how of each class individually over the next few weeks, and asking for some feedback from you guys, the players! We have seen how there are so very many how to guides for leveling, for deciding which class to be, for starting areas, for the latest patch changes, but very few people have available a place where they can go to, to find very relevant topics concerning their class at 60, the level which we all play the most at, and which the information is most useful. To start things off, I will be looking at the Mage class, or the "Vending Machine Dream Team". A brief summary of what you all know and love about mage's, their supposed roles in groups and raids, their concerns, their enchant debates, their builds, their AOE farm lists, and much more will be listed here, and will be constantly added and looked at as time goes on, just as every other class. So please, sit back, and enjoy this brief look at some of the important issues Mage's are facing right now at 60.

What is a Mage?

When Blizzard speaks to us about the class role of a Mage, they tell us in a nice, short, concise paragraph of what we should expect when playing the class:

"When seeking someone to introduce monsters to a world of pain, the Mage is a good choice. With their elemental and arcane attacks, it's a safe bet something they can do won't be resisted by your chosen enemy. Damage is the name of the Mage game, and they do it well. Their arsenal includes some powerful crowd control spells, also, giving them the ability to keep hordes at bay -- in fact, these abilities can be used on the most common creatures in the game, thus making them extremely valuable for this purpose. We're not telling you how to play the game - one of the fascinating practices of this genre is the ingenuity exercised by the players every day!"

No where in that description do they tell you what the life of a Mage at 60 ACTUALLY is. There is no, list that entails the following; Being treated as a snack vending machine by entire 40 man raids, being a "smart buff" bot for 40 man raids, being a AOE machine that gets yelled at for dying when they do their job too well for 40 man raids, being out DPS' d by Warriors, Rogues, Hunters and Priests constantly. Well, after seeing that secondary, unmentioned list, why do players play them at all?

Mage's are a extremely needed class for 10, 20 and 40 man raids, and a key member of 5 man groups. They bring many useful skills that really benefit your members, and can save many lives. They, along with classes like Druids and Warlocks, have many abilities that not only help themselves advance and contribute in content, but the group as well, and are very much seen in a different light. They are feared in 1 on 1 conflicts, oh yes. There, nobody wants to face a mage, but in Raid content, they begin to lose their stature and power, in comparison to the rest. Is this fair? Not in the least. Though as Blizzard is working on their talents, making the correct changes to put them in their place again, Mage's must continue to trek on and have faith that Blizzard won't leave them behind in the dust.

Policy for Vending

"Giv me da Pwn wtr nub"
"err... no"

Many Mage's, in fact probably all Mage's are harassed daily for water and food by fellow faction members. This includes Guild Members, Farmers, Friends and people who just want to save money. Depending on what mood your Mage is in, if a guildy asks, we are more than willing, when a random person comes up to you, what do you do? I have no problem if someone asks me nice or politely for some water or food, and I know that clicking the 0 button a few times and opening a trade window will make this person's day. I do have a problem when people go "H20 me Nubzor". A little kindness goes a long way with most, and charging your faction cash for food, unless it is a tip, is horrible. Remember, most really appreciate it when you spend the 15 seconds of your time to help them out, the way you would want a mage to help you if you were on an alt.

Most Useful MC Specs

Due to the way most mobs in MC resist all fire based spells, Mage's must look to their Frost and Arcane talents for damage output. Here are the 2 most common and useful Talent Specs as used by many mage's on Horde side Thunderhorn:

26 Frost/25 Arcane Efficiency

A PvE build built around efficiency, ideally used with Mage Armor and Frost bolt. Absolutely great for raiding. Core Talents: Arcane Mind, Arcane Meditation, Arctic Reach, Ice Block, Frost Channeling.

Arcane Talents (25 points)
# Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
# Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
# Evocation - 1/1 point
# Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
# Arcane Meditation - 5/5 points
# Arcane Mind - 4/4 points

Frost Talents (26 points)
# Improved Frost bolt - 5/5 points
# Ice Shards - 5/5 points
# Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
# Winter's Chill - 2/3 points
# Cold Snap - 1/1 point
# Shatter - 5/5 points
# Frost Channeling - 3/3 points
# Arctic Reach - 2/2 points
# Ice Block - 1/1 point

30/21 Frost/Arcane

This is great for many players making their transition form Tier 1 equipment to Tier 2 equipment.

Arcane Talents (21 points)
# Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
# Arcane Focus - 2/5 points
# Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
# Evocation - 1/1 point
# Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
# Improved Counter spell - 2/2 points
# Presence of Mind - 1/1 point

Frost Talents (30 points)
# Improved Frost bolt - 5/5 points
# Ice Shards - 5/5 points
# Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
# Cold Snap - 1/1 point
# Piercing Ice - 2/3 points
# Arctic Reach - 2/2 points
# Shatter - 5/5 points
# Ice Block - 1/1 point
# Improved Cone of Cold - 3/3 points
# Frostbite - 4/5 points

Spell Damage vs. Intellect

Many Mage's argue both sides to high end enchants, and at the going costs in game these days... You had best make the right decision! I While searching for the answer, I found and great breakdown by a Blizzard Community Manager, of what + Spell power really does. Intellect is always a great thing to have, especially the +22 enchant. Gives you a boost for your %to crit with spells, gives more mana to your casting pool, and makes most of your Epic staff options even better. Here is the breakdown of Spell power:

"There is some confusion about how these effects work and how effective they are, so I wanted to explain what they do.When an item has the effect "Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 20", the damage dealt or hit points healed by one of your spells will be increased by a fixed amount up to 20. The actual amount that the spell is increased by is not determined randomly, but by which spell you are casting. You are not receiving a random bonus value between 1 and 20 whenever you cast a spell. Some random items, such as those with the property "of Shadow Wrath", indicate that they provide "+X Shadow Spell Damage". The actual amount of the bonus is again determined by the spell being cast. There are a few items that do provide a random bonus, such as Dreamweave Gloves, but their effect notes the randomness by stating that item's bonus as "up to 1 to 19." Once again, the bonus received could be reduced depending on the spell being cast.

Spells with longer casting times such as Fireball and Greater Heal will receive the full bonus listed every time they cast the spell. Spells with instant or short cast times receive a fraction of the bonus listed. As an example of such a spell, Flash Heal (Rank 7) only receives approximately 43% of the item bonus. Talents or other effects that might change the casting time of the spell will not change the bonus; the amount received is a property of the spell being cast. Most long duration Damage and Heal over time spells have the bonus divided amongst every tick. So Renew, which lasts 15 seconds and heals an amount every 3 seconds, has 20% of the bonus applied each tick. In a similar fashion, channeled spells also have the item bonus divided amongst every tick of the spell's duration. Lower level spells receive a greatly reduced benefit from these effects.

These effects all stack. So if a Mage is wearing 3 items that provide up to +20 Fire damage, you will have a combined +60 to Fire damage. This means every high level Fireball cast will inflict an extra 60 damage to the target. These bonuses are also added to the effect of the spell before the 50% bonus from a critical spell hit is applied. Note that there is currently a bug in the game that affects heals over time such as Renew and Rejuvenation. The +healing items worn by the caster are only providing the appropriate healing bonus if the caster is also the target of the spell. Direct heals such as Greater Heal work fine, and the +Healing bonuses are being appropriately applied. Damage over time spells are also working properly."

How to: AOE Grind

-Start with only 1 or 2 mobs.
-There is no reason to start with more, and if you can honestly kill 1-2 mobs using this technique (unlike madly running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, AEing and flame striking taking massive damage) then you are only limited on how many mobs you can pull.
-13 mobs is are people's usual un mounted record. Obviously it's easier on a mount, with ice barrier.
-An un mounted pull goes as follows: Without walking on top of the mobs, enter the agro area of the 1-2 mobs you want to start with. Once they are close enough (arctic reach helps later), frost nova.
-Quickly turn 180 deg. and blink. Turn another 180 deg. and cast Blizzard. Make sure to place the top of the Blizzard target area on the closest mob to you. Once that Blizzard is about to expire, cast another in the same fashion.
-By this time, your FN should be back up, if not run the other direction (wont be more than 1-5 sec.) before rooting them all in another FN.
-Blizzard one more time to watch them fall at your feet.
-Average mounted pull is as follows: Ice barrier, mount, pull as many as possible, but keep them in a tight group. If they are not in a group tight enough to be caught in your FN, you shouldn't start the sequence. Once they are FN, blink away, and start sequence like stated above.
-Experienced mounted pull is as follows: Ice barrier, mount, pull as many as possible with out losing the agro of any, ice block till they all group around you, un-ice block and FN. This will secure the agro of that group, now run around insta casting and pulling more. Cold snap, ice barrier, ice block, wait till they are all tightly around you, un-block, FN, blink, and start the sequence. Watch the numbers fill up the screen, as you enjoy full health from a safe distance.

Reward: enjoy 20-45k/hr exp with very little down time.

Places and Locations to AOE Grind, level 45 mobs and up:

(Level: 42-45) Badlands
(Level: 45) woodpaws in Feralas
(Level: 48-50) Southsea Pirate Compound
(Level: 50-53) Searing Gorge - The Cauldron (Level 46-48 Dwarves)
(Level: 50-53) Burning Steppes- Various Areas (Level 50-53 Imps)
(Level: 50-53) Feralas- Rage Scar Cave (Level 46-48 Rage Scar Yetis)
(Level: 50-53) Feralas- Northspring (Level 47-50 Harpies)
(Level: 50-53) Tanaris- Thistleshrub Valley (Level 48-50 Nature Elementals)
(Level: 52-53) Blood something pirates behind the caverns of time in taranis
(Level: 50-55) Castergrips (the blue caster class hippos), northern azshara peninsula
(Level: 57+) Felwood
(Level: 57+) Ogres in Deadwind Pass
(Level: 55-60) ice thistle yettis, eastern winterspring
(Level: 50-60) Sorrow Hill
(Level: 50-60) Western Plaguelands Scarlet Lumberjacks, Hearthglen, All Feilds
(Level: 50-60) Eastern Plaugelands Andorhal, Tier's Hand

Good News For Mage's!

Posted recently by Tseric, is what specifically they will work on for Mage's in the latest Patch. Hope comes here!

Mage Community Concerns/Desires

"Overview-
As the game has progressed in development and other classes have been reviewed and/or buffed, it is a common sentiment that the mage class has been surpassed in effectiveness and players feel relegated to a utility class rather than a master of ranged damage. Several elements serve to illustrate a disparity between this class and others:

* Itemization for melee classes is more robust, allowing for versatility and/or involvement in many aspects of the game. An example being the selection of PvP rewards for melee as compared to caster.
* How damage scales between melee and caster classes in the high-end game is felt to be inconsistent. With basic improvement in stats, the melee classes garner more potential damage output, while casters receive benefits through improved stats that do not assist in improved damage output. An example of this is how crit% can be increased through agility for melee, but caster classes must rely on specific items to improve crit%. With spell effectiveness being capped through spell level, melee classes do not have a similar damage curve, as weapon/armor upgrades are common and allow a continued damage increase at the high-end.
* While mage's have the potential to deal solid amounts of damage, this is curbed by the challenge of aggro management. So while mage's may still possibly be the best direct-damage casters, in practice they must hold back in raids/dungeons due to a lack of aggro management spells/abilities. This is a paradox of paper/practice that mage's would like addressed.
* Increased melee damage is allowing players to get closer to “one-shotting” mage's As a mage’s health pool is lower than most (if not all) of the other classes, this makes large crits and single melee hits more effective against this class

Spells/Abilities-

* In terms of damage-dealing, the Arcane tree is considered weakest. Any consideration to add more damage potential to this tree would be desired (especially in relation to Arcane Subtlety)
* Added teleportation would be desired. Possible bonuses due to reputation standing for portals. An example being a free/reduced-cost self-port to a main city with which you had Revered status.
* The DoTs added from multiple-sources of spells such as Fireball and Ignite should stack instead of taking up valuable “real estate” in the de buff slots.
* Ice Armor/Mage Armor does not scale at the high-end, decreasing effectiveness as players progress through the end game.
* Amplify/Dampen Magic is not used much as spells; The talents for improvement, less so.
* Continued increases to stats/mana pool drives the need for higher level Conjure Water to keep up with demand. It is regarded as simpler/more efficient to make Conjured Water regenerate by a percentage rather than by set quantities.
* Mage's would like some enhancement to the functionality of Detect Magic. As it stands, there are few circumstances where this is found to be useful.

Talents-

* Because many mage's regard Improved Arcane Explosion as necessary, it would be preferred if it was simply made into an instant-cast spell available through training alone and not through talent point expenditure. The same sentiment applies to Evocation.
* Arcane Focus and Subtlety should affect all spell schools instead of just the Arcane tree.
* Wand Specialization is deemed by many to be worthless.
* Arcane Power is regarded as overpowered and generates “cookie-cutter syndrome” or a necessity to spec in the arcane tree to obtain it.
* The cost and restraints on Combustion do not seem to be worth the talent point investment.
* Improved mana shield would be preferred to scale better.
* Improved counter spell should be merged with the spell, as warlock pets get the silence effect flat-out and a player ability should be more powerful than a pet.
* Pyroblast has an excessive cast time compared to talent point cost. It’s damage compared to other fire spells enforces its undesirability in usage.
* Ice Barrier would be considered more effective if it scaled with +dmg gear.
* Ignite is preferred to have the DoT effect removed and have damage dealt in one lump sum.

Items/Itemization-

* It is regarded that fire-resistance on items is too proliferous. This can greatly affect the PvP environment, where melee classes do not necessarily have to sacrifice other bonuses to have a great deal of resistance to a spell school. As it stands, fire spells are having damage mitigated through resistance to an excessive degree.
* Due to game mechanics, +dmg bonuses affect instant cast spells to a lesser degree than longer cast time spells. In PvP, with a desire for burst DPS and overall speed, this is considered to be unbalanced. Melee classes can maintain a consistent damage output while casters are relegated to longer cast times to get the most from +dmg gear.
* Set bonuses for the Arcanist set are regarded as lackluster.
* Zandalarian Hero Charm and Talisman of Ephemeral Power are highly desired and regarded as overpowered (mainly due to the stackable nature). In comparison to other trinkets, the combination of these two stick out quite dramatically.
* The Royal Seal of Eldre’Thalas is felt to be incomparable with other, similar classes’ trinkets.

Stats/Mechanics-

* The nature of binary spells works in a way to mitigate damage in a way that is not comparable to other types of damage mitigation. Unlike fire resistance damage reduction, a resisted frost spell will not deal any damage.
* The distinction between how Str/Agi effects melee class damage output and Int/Spi effects Mana cap/regen is not one that sits well with mage's It is regarded that this distinction allows melee classes to continue damage improvement easily, while mage's are left only with +dmg gear to increase damage.
* Dispellable effects/talents are a thorn for mage's, particularly in a PvP environment. Many top tier talents are desired to be undispellable or incur some cost to dispelling them.
* Melee classes can get crits on sitting characters, while casters can not.

Misc-

* Numerous bugs which have been prevalent for a while affect gameplay negatively for mage's Mage's would like more attention invested to correcting these (espc. Blink, Arcane Missiles)

Wish list-

* Allow for some control of direction with blink. An example being, blink in the direction you are moving/strafing.
* Reduce cooldown for Evocation
* Remove the reagent cost for slow-fall
* Mana stones should not be soulbound
* Invisibility!
* A talent that allows for multi-target sheeping
* A knockdown/back effect with Cone of Cold (possibly talent based)
* Make Silence affect Hunters
* A method by which to interrupt melee attacks, much in the way melee classes have caster interrupts
* An Arcane Ward similar to Fire/Frost
* Some manner of dispel (aside from remove curse). Or even, trade spells with the priest class"
Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? We would love to hear from you! Please email me at [email protected]