For those of you new to instances or raids I'm puting this together to give you an idea of what it is you should and shouldn't be trying to do in those dungeons.
First a bit of advice....Dungeons are for players that like the team concept and want to be a valued part of that team. Second, things will inevitably go bad at some point in your wow raiding career for your team, don't start blaming everyone around you. If you succeed in a raid or instance, your team succeeds, if you fail, your team fails. It's all or nothing. I personally never point the finger in a way that assigns blame to someone, instead I point out something they could do better and ask that they do the same. There's more than one way to let someone know they did something that was less than beneficial to the progress of the group.
Mage's are casters and high damage dealing killers with no survivability without the other members of their group. Their job first and foremost in a raid or instance is to deal the maximum amount of damage without getting the attention of the mob they're killing. A properly specced fire mage handing out the proper spell rotation will out dps just about any other similarly geared character in the game. I personally have a fire mage with just over 600 spell damage and in Kara I out dps both of the shadow priest in my raid group with well over 700 spell damage. Some of it might be that I understand very well how to play my mage, and some of it is that I'm supposed to out dps them.
When you're in a raid or instance, first recognize your cc assignment in any pull that's about to go down. Make sure you get that assignment done as soon as the pull is made so as not to effect any aoe that might take place. The further away the sheep is the better. Make sure throughout the pull you maintain that cc. A great addon for that is sheep watch. It broadcasts in chat the amount of time left on the cc, and gives you a bar at the top of your screen that lets you know how much time is left on the cc. After you've sheeped your target, switch to the first kill target. It's very important that you don't screw this up. If you start casting fireballs of fury at something no one else in your group is doing damage to you're going to die. If I was the tank in a group and someone hit a target out of order, I might taunt it once and ask them to please not do that again. If they did it twice, I'd let them figure out how to kill it. Something else you need to do as a mage is download a threat meter. Omen 2 is working pretty ok right now, as a mage you'll need it.
When you begin casting on the main target don't unleash your hardest hitting spell first. Throw something light, like a scorch and see what it does to the threat list. It's a quick spell and will give you a good idea of how far you can go on your next spell. I've played with tanks that just had a hard time building initial threat quickly. I don't blame anyone when this happens, I just scale back my attack for a little while. I hate people that pug a group and pull aggro every fight, then blame the tank out front because he can't "hold aggro". Don't be a jerk in group, you never know when you'll need someone in that group to help you out later. Also, you have to toe the line between pulling aggro and maxing out your damage. Pulling aggro is never a line you want to cross, but you also don't want to scale back your attack so far you're not doing enough damage. It's a fine line for a great mage between pulling aggro and doing enough damage.
Recognize the target and what he's vulnerable to. If you're getting resisted alot, change spells. One spell you have that almost never gets resisted is arcane missles. Yes it's a mana hog, but sometimes it's better to use them and do the damage, than cast a spell that gets resisted every other cast.
Another thing that's not only your job, but everyone else's in the group, is protecting your healers at all costs. If you see that your healer has pulled the aggro of whatever you're fighting, jump in there. You have immobilizing spells for a reason, use them. If you're a frost mage, slow the target down with frostbolts, and look for the MT to get that aggro back. If your MT is having a hard time getting back that aggro, frost nova will almost always stop them dead in their tracks and give your MT a chance to whack him a few times to get that aggro back. If that fails, you need to go all out on whatever it is that is going after your healer. Sacrificing yourself to save your healer is never a bad thing. If you save the wipe by giving your MT enough time to get the target back and kill the rest of the pull your healer can rez you and will be very greatful. You will also know that you did everything you could for the good of the group.
Spell rotation is going to be what seperates you from every other mage. Know what spells do what and why. Learn how to effectively use those spells on every single pull. If you're a level 70 firemage with the 10/48/3 raid spec and you're opening with fireblast, you need to stop playing the game. In a boss fight, your spell rotation is crucial to how much damage you're going to be able to put out. For the fire raid spec scorch spells make your target more vulerable to fire damage and it stacks five times. So start with a scorch, then cast a fireball, then another scorch, then fireball, toss in a fireblast every now and then as well. The reason I say every now and then is if you use fireblast every time the cooldown is up you'll run oom before then end of the boss fight, I promise. After you've stacked five scorches, stick with the fireballs and a fireblast from time to time. Watch the 30 second timer for the scorch stack and when it's close to being up throw that scorch to refresh it, then it's back to fireballs and blasts. Make sure you pay close attention to the fight at hand, doing your job also means staying alive with as little help from the healers as possible. They have enough to worry about without having to save a mage that doesn't know where to stand for a fight. Don't get angry if you get assigned to adds, part of being able to do hella damage is downing adds quickly. Do your job! I don't get mad in Kara when I get assigned to the adds for curator, i don't say "hey jackass, I can out dps everyone here I should be on Curator!" No, I do my job and kill the hell out of those bastards. It's your job to do the same. Mage's are elite killers in dungeons and raids, they are feared because of the powerful spells they wield, but they also have a responsibility to the other members of their group to be beneficial in every way possible, you represent mages everywhere...so do your best to be a great mage...learn from your mistakes as you are definately going to be in that situation again I promise. If someone asks that you do something in your group....don't hesitate or refuse. If you have issue with it, try it their way to the best of your ability and if it doesn't work then suggest something else. I know you know your character better than the guy asking you to do whatever, but he doesn't understand that so just do as you are asked. Then in the back of your mind you can say "I told you so" when it doesn't work. Anyhow, if you have any questions I'd love to hear them...so ask away. Hopefully this will make you a slightly better mage in those groups and make you more sought after to fill out the raids.....
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