Some thoughts and strategies of a low-mid level WoW Mage

-Level 15, Stormwind, September 12th, 2004

It started with me arriving at Stormwind City after finally taking the much talked about Gryphon flight around. After I was finished with the flight I headed towards my guild, checked out what was new there then looked around the city for shopping purposes. Having only a few silver to my name, there was little I could really take advantage of at this point. Then that big question popped up in my head; “Where should I go now?”

At this point I wanted to check out that place to the east of the Elwynn Forest; Lakeshire. After only a few minutes in this new province of undiscovered lands I found myself at the bridge that lead to the city of Lakeshire. A few things rushed through my head in the following order:

-New Gryphon Path (Yeah! Less walking)

-New City to check out

-New Quests

-More breathtaking scenery!

Reaching the city I take the first quest I get; a delivery run. I get that one over quick enough then come back for part 2 of this quest series; get some items by killing dragon whelps, no big deal.

Running outside town I found the first “Whelp” I could find. Three seconds into combat I find myself dead as two of the fire-breathing suckers descend on me. I was dead. This was by no means the first time I had died, but this time I came to a realization; I needed to start thinking tactics!

Basic Tactics of Magic:

Alright, the first thing after my “fateful” encounter(s) with the Whelp(s) was that I needed to think of a new way of playing. First off, I needed to find some way of making my character more efficient.

Off to the side you can see an image of my previous magic setup in the “quickbar”; it was mainly setup for what I had at the time and there was little thought put into what was in the bar. This made it difficult to put in all I wanted; its only major use was having everything in front of me in one bar.

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My first change was to setup my “quickbar” into two separate bars. The top bar was to be combat oriented, with all my combat spells out in the open for ease of access. This top bar would hold my fireballs and blasts as well as frost nova and arcane missiles.

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The second bar I setup was much more oriented to the “support” magic that I used so often. The first two spells were the food & water creation spells that are ever important for soloing mages. The rest of the box is filled with support spells and abilities that I setup on activation; the ever-loved frost armor and arcane intellect reside on this bar along with my herbalism skill.

So now that I was organized in what I had; back to killing Whelps, or as I soon found out, back to the graveyard. There was a bit of a better change this time, this time I was able to activate all my “support” magic in a jiffy due to my setup of spells. Now if only I could get over this constant dying thing.

My character spent the next while pondering what he should do. Sitting down on a rock overlooking Lake Everstill. (On a side note resting is often a good idea as doing it for prolonged periods increases experience gained over the next while). I needed someway to kill these silly Whelps, but how…

So I decided to come up with a “series of spells”, this time thinking of a way to cast spells in a specific order to achieve victory. So I came up with a rough idea of how to do this based on my opponent.

1-Arcane Missiles

2-Fireblast while running towards the enemy

3-Frost Nova

4-Frostbolt

5-Fireball

6-Fireblast

7-Fireball

The basic idea with this strategy was to engage the Whelp with arcane missiles as I could hit him with a few before I run in to engage him close up. The fireblast I wanted to get cast quickly as it has a cooldown rate, which I would want to be filling up as quickly as possible. The Nova and frost were to slow the bugger down and give the blast more time to recharge, as well as the nova also being a cooldown spell.

So in I went, letting loose a literal “flurry” of spells upon this lone little dragon thing. This time, to my amazement, the thing finally died! I admit I was slightly disappointed by the fact that he didn’t drop the quest item, but still, I KILLED THE LITTLE BUGGER!

It was from that quest that I began to develop tactics when it came to engaging enemies, as mages often need tactics prepared in advance if they don’t want to keep going on the Graveyard trips.

Spell Timing Tactics of Magic:

It was at this point I made up some basic spell thoughts on how to deal with enemies as I fought them.

Standard Melee Enemies

1-Arcane Missiles

2-Fireblast while enemy runs towards me

3-Frost Nova

4-Step back and Arcane missile

5-Fireball

6-Fireblast*

7-Fireball

*Repeat 6 –7 as needed

Standard Distance Enemies
1-Arcane Missiles

2-Frostbolt

3-Fireball*

*Repeat 3 as needed

Group of 2 Melee Enemies
1-Arcane Missiles the main threat

2-Fireblast while enemy runs towards me

3-Fireball as needed to kill main enemy

4-Frost Nova remaining enemy

5-Step back and Arcane Missile remaining enemy

6-Fireblast*

7-Fireball

*Repeat 6 –7 as needed

These were my basic tactics; of course there is one fundamental flaw in them. At more then two enemies you are SCREWED! This is something that is nearly impossible to deal with; multiple enemies make a Mage’s life hell and force quick retreats. My personal experience of trying to solo the Silver Stream Mine reminds me of this.

Mages Can and CAN’T

Lets be honest here, Mages are a great class. The ability to create your own food, utilize destructive ranged magic, as well as amazing support magic are a great asset to any single PC. However, Mages alone are difficult to play as I have been finding.

In an environment like a Beta, where it is difficult to have highly organized parties with friends, one finds themselves looking to their own characters can’s and cant’s. Mages have several of these “Can’s and Cant’s”.

Can’s

-Amazing at battling enemies at range. The ability to dish out several arcane missiles or singly powerful fireballs can be devastating.

-Hold enemies in place or slow them down with spells like Frostbolt or Frost Nova, which can allow the mages to escape from “sticky” situations.

-The create food/water spells are something that lets the mage stay away from civilization for prolonged periods of time. This is always appreciated during “monster hunting” excursions.

-Assist others with spells like Arcane Intellect and Dampen Magic. These spells often make mages sought after by “quest forming” groups of adventurers.

Cant’s

-Deal with more then two enemies. Once the enemy comes down on a Mage it is difficult to cast spells at any reasonable amount of time.

-A mage cannot last in dungeons for too long without other support. Once enemies begin to respawn and cut off once viable escape routes, the mage is forced to find a place to hide and regain health using created foods and drink or be overrun.

-Engage in close combat with enemies with high magic resistance. Once the enemy begin to resist every second spell you throw at them it is nearly impossible to regain the offensive, even one spell resisted can tip the balance when fighting another ranged combat opponent.

-Last in prolonged combats and requires the use of potions to keep himself alive when engaged with two or even one tough enemy. Without a spare potion a mage can be sorely overpowered.

Last Thoughts

Well hopefully after reading about my “harsh WoW lessons” you’ll have learned something about the mage class. So far I’m nowhere near the higher end levels of the Mage class but I am learning several things about the class.

This article is meant to give those of you who are starting a new mage some insight into what I’ve noticed thus far about the class. This article is also about keeping myself sane during this server downtime (damn hurricanes!), so I hope you gain something from this.

Anyways, I hope to see all you Beta Players soon… and then once the game goes gold all of you readers. Until then, keep casting spells and looking for those meat shields… I mean valuable warriors to group with you!

Finally remember that you can find tons articles, Beta screenshots, contests, good forums, and more at wow.tentonhammer.com. So be sure to stop by for more WoW related goodies!

-Thurston “Ratboy” Hillman