Mage - how to get there from here?

Jethiel

Jethiel

Moderator
I know most of you don't want to answer questions that have just become common knowledge or even instinct but I am trying to learn this game and am actually fairly nervous about how to build my mage.

Fresh on the farm for the last week has been kinda cool. Just learning basic interface with the game has been a bit of a challenge. What I am after is a straight DPS build, whatever gives me the best stamina for mana use (i hope this phrase makes sense...just hate running out and want to take steps in decrease how much mana my spells use and increase the amount of mana I have). Chatting with Alan has been cool; he helped me get pointed in the basic direction of building talents into my Frost tree (which I absolutely love). Beyond that I decided on learning enchanting; just thought it makes sense but suggestions on 'keeping me in line' would be great.

Any advice would be great - if some of you prefer to just steer me to websites my only danger is not knowing what to look for. I do have the feeling that if we were all gathered in one room most people would just say that learning by doing is probably the best way.

Also, thanks for the friendly chat and comments already. Just getting to know some of you and have yet to meet the majority in TF. Looking forward to seeing everyone in game at some point in time!
 
tailoring and enchanting are traditionally the two skills that go together.

as far as recommendations on keeping mana, let me know when you find one. my mage is at L67 and always runs out of mana. the higher level you get the better it will be to a certain extent. also the more int you have the more mana you will have and the more spirit you have the quicker your mana will regen. arcane builds i think are the best for mana consumption, but it has been a while since i have really looked into the different builds.
 
Arcane is great for mana at lvl 80. I have no mana issues in ICC 10 or anything before that. I would suggest frost build for leveling though. Wowwiki.com has a number of builds you could check out.
 
Thanks guys, I've already been trying to snoop around looking at different builds. I think Frost as primary talent tree and then arcane as the fill in was suggested by Alan; breaking it down I see the benefits.

I usually tend to enjoy fire rather than ice on characters and it seems like you do more straight damage with fire but concur on leveling being more attainable soloing with Frost. Would it be strange (or goofy) of me to use Frost until a specific high level and then respec into Fire once I am teaming to gain more DPS? Just blabbing...maybe I'll find the answers in all the endless reading there is out there. Bad trade off; having time only in some evenings where I'd rather play but must familiarize myself with this massive game!
 
Yeah, there's no rule that says you have to stick to one spec. You most definitely can switch and try different things - Frost is great for solo work, but Fire is probably more damage if you're doing a lot of group work, where you have a tank to take damage for you.

Arcane really doesn't shine until level 64 when you get Arcane Blast.
 
[7F]LarryBoy;372164 said:
...Arcane really doesn't shine until level 64 when you get Arcane Blast.
Click to expand...

On the contrary...Arcane looks nice and shiny when I use it! "look at the pretty lights!"

hehe
__________________________

Great to hear about Fire being used in groups because solo'ing is difficult for me. I'm a people person and one of the reasons I am slogging out these lower levels is to be able to play with you higher folks!
 
[7F]EhUd;372118 said:
Thanks guys, I've already been trying to snoop around looking at different builds. I think Frost as primary talent tree and then arcane as the fill in was suggested by Alan; breaking it down I see the benefits.

I usually tend to enjoy fire rather than ice on characters and it seems like you do more straight damage with fire but concur on leveling being more attainable soloing with Frost. Would it be strange (or goofy) of me to use Frost until a specific high level and then respec into Fire once I am teaming to gain more DPS? Just blabbing...maybe I'll find the answers in all the endless reading there is out there. Bad trade off; having time only in some evenings where I'd rather play but must familiarize myself with this massive game!
Click to expand...

Just stick with frost until you hit 80. Getting to 80 is a race...frost gets you there much faster.
 
I leveled as Frost as my main spec till 80 enjoyed it very much only changed to arcane for the DPS.
 
There are some toons I min/max as much as possible, my mage is not one of them however. For me, I like the frost style of play the best. While I have a dual spec into a (not quite properly built) arcane spec, it rarely gets used. I know, absolutely and without any doubt, that I can do more dps as arcane, but I personally do not enjoy it. There is nothing about the fire spec which moves me either. For me, at the moment anyway, its frost or I play a different alt.

That said, the nice thing about mages is that you can do what you want to....just have fun with it.
 
I have been very happy learning things right from the get go on my mage too. Probably the easiest selection for a newb like me to learn on. I have also created a gnome warrior out of curiosity but this mage will be my main for quite a while.
 
War is definitely NOT a good class to start to learn the game. In my opinion its one of the toughest to play, especially if your tanking. Now if you like a challenge, go for it. I find war to be very FUN to play, but there is little face rolling involved (where you basically roll your face on the keyboard and no matter what key you hit, it still does decently), compared to many other classes.
 
Yeah, warriors are one of the more complex classes, which is funny because it seems like it's the first class that many people try. Mages are pretty basic, as are paladins (i think).
 
Paladins were at one point by far the most complicated class to play in the game (unless you were healing.) They're still fairly filled with functions.

Druids are one of the easiest.
 
Actually, in raids druids are more complicated from a healing basis than either priest or pally (at least the ones I have played). While I agree druids are easy to tank with from a mechanics perspective, healing there are a LOT of option, each of which have their use.
 
Druid tanking is easy until you start tanking at a much higher level then its a little more involved at least, its not just swipe, its more about using other skills/talents at the right time.

Feral dps is more complicated then tanking, you should have 4-5 debuffs/buffs going at all times and keeping them up and timing it right makes it interesting and a challenge.

Healing as a druid is the same, you have so many different options it can be a challenge to play at the top of your game.

Moonkin i can't say really, AoE is easy for them but to push single target dps theres more to it for sure.

And theres the extras that make them fun as well for all the roles, innervating a party/raid member, battle rezzing at the right time, switching to bear to survive an accidental aggro pull, cycloning/rooting a mob that jumped on the healer etc, lots of extra to play with there :)

As with all classes its the extras that really make a tank/healer/DPS stand out from others.
 
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