A Mage's Guide to Instances and Raids

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.....

Hit 70

Hit 70 over the weekend and got my flying mount. Yay! Now I'm stuck with making a decision about what to do next. I need to farm honor to get the pvp staff, but I also need alot of rep with different factions. I went over the Caverns of Time to do the Dark Portal quest and ended up running Black Morass 4 times. I'm now honored with Keepers of time and was able to get the enchanting recipes that I wanted. Yay me! Now I'm trying to run Shattered Halls and Shadow Labs to start building rep with all the factions that I can. In between all of this I'll be doing bgs to get that staff. Wish me luck as I try to get the gear together to do my first Kara run.....

68 YAY!!

Hit 68 over the weekend and parked bobmage up at blade's edge. I like Blade's Edge for the kill quest(s) I've done so far. I like quest that require a certain amount of killing intead of drops. It always takes too long to get the drops done. The quests I've done in Blade's Edge have mostly included killing the big ogres. I like killing them, it makes me feel like my mage is very powerful to down such a big dumb enemy. Though most of the quest I've done so far are below my level I'm still getting decent exp and will continue in Blade's Edge until I reach 69, then I'll decide what I'm going to do next.....Bobpally hit 35 this morning in Arathi Highlands. I'm going to try to stay in the Eastern Kingdoms all the way to 68 with him. I don't like the Kalimdor stuff very much. I'll keep you posted on the cool new abilities I get from leveling my awesome pally....

67 and Counting

Hit level 67 over the weekend by doing Mana Tombs again. I got a nice pair of boots out of there from the last boss as well. I don't think I'll have them very long, but they're cool for now. I guess it's time to go up to Blade's Edge which I'm not looking forward to. It seems like every time I have an area figured out I've leveled out of it and have to move on. Oh well....Bobpally will be getting alot of playtime this week as I am resting bobmage to get that coveted double exp. Bobpally is 32 right now and on the cusp of 33. I'll try to run him through SM as many times as I can to get the crusader mail set even though I'll be changing to plate at aroung 40 or 41 by doing as many ZF runs as possible. Several of the guild members are in Outlands now which is really cool. I like helping my fellow guildies and getting some help in return.....I'll post Bobpally's progress tomorrow....

Ring Of Blood

There's a quest in Nagrand up north called "Ring Of Blood" where you have to fight 5 elites in a row to complete. I got whispered by someone I've never played with before asking if I wanted to do the quest. I wasn't doing anything of importance so I said "sure". So I met up with the group of 4 (which is basically required to complete the quest) and accepted the first fight for the quest. The first elite is basically a tank and spank fight. Fairly easy, the second fight isn't too much harder. Two elite "twins" spawn and you tank and spank again. The third fight is against something that looks like a void spawn who hits hard but doesn't have much hp. I don't remember the fourth fight very well except that it wasn't much harder. The last fight however is a tough one if you're not paying attention. It's against the shaman ogre standing next to the quest giver and he puts totems down as well as heals himself. The trick to the fight is dps never pulling aggro and downing totems quickly. He heals himself several times in the first phase, and he also hits pretty hard. It's best to have a tank stay down in the pit with him and make sure they're always in melee range. The second phase starts after you kill him the first time. He is rezzed and it starts all over again with him enraged. Dps has to work quickly to down him before your healer runs oom, the first time we fought him I didn't expect the rez and was caught a little off guard as were we all. The second fight went alot smoother and we were able to take him down. The reason I made a post about this is for mages the quest yields a very cool staff that you will probably keep until lvl 70, so if you can put a group together for the quest make it a point to do so....

So much fun So little time....

It seems like the leveling with bobmage has slowed some. Could it be that each level from 60-70 increases xp required almost exponentially? Well, I'm getting to the point that I'm going to have to leave Hellfire for Zangarmarsh. I'm going to try and do as many of the quests I have left as possible before I leave. I should be able to make 62 before traveling next door. I wish there were some more dungeon quests for me as I love to run those instances. Being part of a team really appeals to me. I like having a specific job to do, and making sure that it's done well. Bobpally might be taking a back seat for a while, even though I'm having a blast playing him. Bobmage is getting close enough to 70 that I'm really going to have to focus and get him there. I'll keep you posted....

Bobpally Leveling Progress

I played a little on Bobpally yesterday evening. He's level 21 now. I downed the two elites in Ghostlands with the help of a healer, I also completed the Paladin quest that gives "sense undead". Now I have a small conundrum to deal with. To complete the next Pally quest sends me into every dungeon available to me just about, for a sword that's almost the equivalent to the quest sword in Ghostlands. So do I complete the Paladin quest? Damn right I will. I love running instances, I love tanking with my pally, and I really want to do things differently with Bobpally that I didn't with Bobmage. I never did any quests for mages with Bobmage. I just spent all my time leveling with the easiest quests I could find. I'm also treating my professions a little different with Bobpally. I'm leveling them and gathering with mining as much as possible. I plan to be maxed out with both as quick as it's available to me. I'm going to try to be able to make good armor for Bobpally so I'm not as dependant on drops and AH stuff. I'll also try to make as much money as possible off of my blacksmithing profession as well as mining. I only have a few quests left that I have to do in Ghostlands before it's off to the Sepulcher and Tarren Mill. I really liked leveling in Tarren Mill, killing those farmers and all the humans. I have a couple of unspent talent points, I'm just not sure what to do with them yet. I might put them all in the ret tree for now and respec at 30 or 35 to prot to be more effective as a tank. It was nice grouping for SFK last night because I could fill either roll of healer or tank at my low level. I won't have to completely commit until later. It's nice to be Bobpally.....

Level 60 finally

Last night I made level 60 in outlands. I'm pretty much restricted to Hellfire for now, but I don't really mind too much. Most of the quest that are there are pretty easy and keep you in hellfire. I haven't made a complete Ramparts run yet....I'll probably just pug for it this evening. My crits are hitting for 1900-2100, which is really fun. I respecced my fire last night, only cost 10g and was well worth it. I went into imp scorch to get the bonus damage for my fire spells. I'm now 40 fire, 11 arcane. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to go 48 fire to get max damage, or 21 arcane to get to presence of mind. I really like the idea of pom and instant casting pyroblast. With combustion up and imp scorch stacked 5 times then pop pom, pyro, fireblast....ouch. Death to all who oppose the great fire mage....Well except stupid locks....I hate locks in pvp. My new spec build isn't really centered on PVP, but there are some pvp worthy talents in there. Alot of people consider pom a pvp talent, but I can see how it would be useful in lvling, and 5 mans. In instances I usually open with fireballs because of the casting time of pyro it makes the dps for fireballs higher, but with presence of mind I'll be instant casting to pyros and topping the dps charts. (I usually do anyway) I love being a firemage, watching things light up like matches from crits is fun. Burn sucka burn.....