Friday, February 1, 2008
Mages
I like blasting things from range, hence hunters. But I have also enjoyed mages, until it comes to the first talent point. And then I can't decide what to do next. Frost is supposed to be better for leveling, unless fire is better. And what about arcane?
We have about five or six baby mages scattered across the Realms Where We Roam. Three of them are at about level 10 and that first talent point. Another one, the original mage — Sheeshuu — was actually doing fine up until level 25. She had a kind of a random Arcane build with a bit of fire and a hint of frost (10/3/3), but she also had the Phoenix pants (+4 int, +10 fire) and Phoenix Gloves (+9 fire). Add the Dwarven Magestaff of Fiery Wrath with +13 fire damage. And an elixir of fire power (+10 fire), Minor Wizard Oil (+ 8 all spells) and the Bronze Band of Force, we're getting a +58 spell bonus to fire spells. Add some Frozen Wrath Booth with +11, and we're looking at +38ish to frost spells, as well. With this get up we have 1686 mana.
Okay, then we also have Azure Pants with +6 int, and +10 frost, along with the Spidersilk Boots (+4 int) and the Cresent Staff (+ 7 int). When we change into this gear, mana increases by almost 100, but fire spell bonus plummets, although frost goes up a bit.
She sits in Orgrimmar, buying and selling herbs and potions. So I don't know what to do with her. And I don't know what to do with the rest of our herd of mages. /Sigh
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3 comments:
When I levelled my mage one of the first thing I put my points in was arcane missiles, even though I put all the rest in frost. As a baby mage it can be a life saver to have one uninterruptable spell, especially before you get the hang of timing the fost nova just right :)
Personally, I found fire to be the best talent tree for PvE levelling, when coupled with all of the +Spell Damage / +Fire Damage gear you can get your hands on. Before I hit 57 and could get more broad-spectrum gear, I was almost exclusively "of Fiery Wrath", Cindercloth, etc. The net Result is, one on one, you could burn down almost any mob with a Pyroblast-Fireball-Scorch-Fire Blast combo before it could get more than one hit in on you when pulling from max range. Low mana and health to be sure (very dependant on enchants for +Intel or +Stam) but a wicked fast levelling build. Sometimes ran into trouble when faced with more than 2 mobs (or unsheepable beasties); the usefulness of this build as a high-end nuker in instancing is awesome, too. Just lock onto the Tank's target and blow it away.
Frost is very much a useful PvP build where snares and movement supressors are often more useful than outright damage. Unfortunately, the inability to burst something down in seconds can prove difficult if you are only moderately skilled with the weapons at your disposal. Having said that, watch a competent frost mage AOE farm sometime (Lost Rigger Cove pirates come to mind). It's a thing of beauty. Useful as and end-game build as well where mage utility becomes as important as damage.
Not too many people go deep into the arcane tree, usually only enough to make the fabled "3-minute mage" for PvP. It's a bit of an odd duck, but certainly has its uses. More frequently, a player will spend their talent points in-spec until they achieve their desired results and then augment it with a light delving into arcane spec to get clearcasting and such.
I hated my mage until he hit 20, kind of like you guys... then I went for straight +Damage gear and fell in love with him - he was my second Character to make 70. :)
Thanks,
I'm going to do one with fire, and try another with frost and see how I like em.
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