Mages.

[xodkrm]

I am currently working on a mage, and was wondering if
it was normal for mages around level 17 to use at least 50% of their base mana per fight with a monster both same level & low level.

Also, where should i quest & grind as a level 17 mage horde?
Im kinda stuck right now because all the quests i have are green or gray, and i dont know where to go.

Thanks.

[Sikawtic]

Um, I'd go barrens.

[Geno]

I am currently working on a mage, and was wondering if
it was normal for mages around level 17 to use at least 50% of their base mana per fight with a monster both same level & low level.

Also, where should i quest & grind as a level 17 mage horde?
Im kinda stuck right now because all the quests i have are green or gray, and i dont know where to go.

Thanks.

My mage is currently level 28 on Cenarius, Ally side. Gnome, no less (Screw the reputation bonus! Up with your mana! ^.^; ), so I can understand what the problems you might have are, seeing as how I *just* started finding more.

1. You will run LoM sometimes. You can't deny it. In Deadmines, however, I ran through it with a 4 person party. Myself, a Rogue, Druid, and Warrior. Our Druid ran the heals, keeping us over 30% health (The warrior took some hard hits, obviously), and the Rogue kept the aggro off him best he could, as he knew fully well what "Oh hell, I have aggro" does to Rogues at that level (He plays a Priest in our guild, and originally was Shadow Spec'ed, doing godly DPS. Aggro to him was bad >.<; )

So anyway, running through there, I had just gotten Evocation, and everytime it was up, I was burning it. But at the same time, I did my best to play cost effectiveness. If I had a mob about to die, I didn't use an instant cast, but used Frostbolt or Scorch. In the end, it's a little more mana conservative, and finished them off in the same way. Sure, the cast time hurts, but you still allow yourself a second or two more to maybe get a tick of regen off.

2. You'll find mana come easier once you have equipment. The best place for Mage equipment (Seeing as how you're Horde, this is easy), is in Shadowfang Keep. The Belt of Arugal, Robes of Arugal, and the Feline Mantle (They are wolves... Why a 'feline' mantle...? >.>) are some of the best gear you can get up to about Scarlet Monestary. As for staves or 1H, Blackfathom Deeps has a nice staff that drops off the boss just before lighting the torches.

Getting more +Int is going to be a savior, and if you have Alchemy or Enchanting at your disposal and can make mana potions, oils, or anything like that? I'd say start making them. As a mage, it gives you a big upper hand, as well as a handy skill to share with others!

3. Mana Agate is your friend. It's on a 3 minute cooldown seperate from potions, and instantly gives you mana. It's just like a potion for mages. The hard part is knowing when to burn it. But on a 3m timer, you can use it at just about any point... Save just before a boss fight.

It costs more mana than it gives back for obvious reasons, but if you make one just after you burn your last? It'll come in handy. Just ask your party "Can we wait a second? I need to make another Agate," and most know what that means (At least mine have). It is basically a last resort mana potion, or if you need to get a Blizzard off and you're a little low on that mana? Burn it and cast it.

Mage armor at level 34 is what I'm looking forward to, and if you're spec'ed in the Arcane tree, you can get another skill called "Arcane Meditation" after spending a point in Evocation. It stacks (CONFIRMED) with Mage armor, and maxed out, gives you 45% regen in combat! That's amazing! That means that basically for every two ticks while casting something (Think of Blizzard), you'll get a normal tick off. Over time, that's a LOT of mana you're getting back!

Sure, at low levels (like what we're both at), you'll get maybe 35ish per tick. But at the same time, if you get 15 per tick while channeling a Blizzard, that's a lot of mana right back, and could get you another instant off. In a long boss battle, like Arugal or in the SM against those bosses? That's a lot of mana. And being forced into Evocation? The game is playing RIGHT into your hands...

Needless to say, there's a lot of tricks to being a mage. They have more "Oh sh*t" buttons than I know what to do with. Seriously.

I'm out of mana! *Burns Mana Agate*
Oh no! He's going to catch me! *Blinks*
Crap! He's on top of me! *Frost Novas*
He's nearly dead, and starting to run! *Cone of Cold*
Oh no, he still lives! *Throws off a Fire Blast*
Crud! Overpull! *Sheeping*
We're all low on mana? *5US$plzkthx 4 teh waterz0rz*

And in different specs, you have these!

Oh hell, too much aggro! *Ice Blockage*
Crud! Runner with a good amount of health! *Pressence of mind, Frostbolt / Pyroblast*
Crud, they resisted my Nova! *Cold snap + Another Nova*
Getting low on mana! *Evocation*

I know other classes have tons of outs, but how many outs do they really have? Mages have one for almost any situation, from mana to damage to runners to crowd control. They are truely one of the more versitile classes out there, now that I've kept playing. Sure, Druids can do any class job, but Mages? They can do any form of job so far, minus aggro drop... Sadly, that won't happen until the gates of AQ open on Cenarius, and I have a shot at the trinket to reduce aggro...

But yes, mages do have problems, but at the same time, you need to learn your arsenal. Find which pattern of moves do the best damage for you, and try it out on different mobs. Change it up. Find your rhythm, and keep going!

For reference, my Rhythem: Frostbolt -> Fireball -> Cone of Cold -> Frost Nova -> Back up a bit, then start Arcane Missles -> Fire Blast -> Cone of Cold when it's up after wanding.

Usually that drops a mob in record time for me, and it's very interesting to watch. Everyone has their style, and finding yours is needed. Once you get it, though, you'll be on top!

Until next time >.>

~Larry "Geno" Meyers

[Incantrix]

In my opinion, mages are very difficult for newbs to play well. True, I'm probably biased since my main is a mage, but I sucked bad at lvl 17 too. In fact at that lvl, I stopped playing my mage for about 3 months and chose to switch to a rogue. Got to lvl 41, then got bored and switched back to my mage. And now I can't imagine playing another class, especially not a non-caster type.

If you start getting impatient, tough it out until lvl 20. It'll probably feel like its taking forever, but once you get to lvl 20 moving around becomes quite easy, almost too easy. When you're just traveling, blink makes it feel like you're going much faster, and also at lvl 20 you can teleport to UC and Org from anywhere with a rune of teleportation. That makes it so you don't ever have to set your hearthstone to a major city.

As far as lvling goes, I prefer the Barrens even though they are bigger and take longer to move about in. Basically, start out doing things around the crossroads, and to the north, then start moving south. As you move south, the mobs get higher lvl, and there are more higher lvl quests available. Then once you get to lvl 18-20, go west, to the Stonetalon Mountains. The mobs there are like lvl 16, so at lvl 18-20 you'll be able to go through them fast, and do the easy quests really quickly for still a decent amount of XP. Then as you move farther into stonetalon things will get harder and more rewarding.

Also, check out ashenvale, there are some good question opportunities there, though I didn't like it much after the openness of the Barrens. There is one particularly long quest that gives you a nice blue belt for casters.

Once you get into the mid to late twenties, go to Hillsbrad. That is the absolute best questing place for the horde at that lvl range, and then leads to the arathi highlands and alterac mountains. After that, good luck, it gets messier, but you've got more and more interesting instances to check out too.

Oh, also, once you get to lvl 20, hang out in the barrens for sure (even if its the southern barrens), because people will be looking for groups to do wailing caverns all the time, which is a great instance for lvl 20 people, and you can lvl up at least once at lvl 20ish in a single run.

[xodkrm]

Kay.
Thanks for all the help.
:D

Now I just gotta level up three times more....
Did I mention the fact im broke?
I guess I didn't....

How the hell do I make gold?
I have just under 1g, and i can barely buy anything for my level from the auction house.
My professions are tailoring (7), and enchanting (12).

[Incantrix]

At early lvls its a given that you'll be poorer than dirt. Your best source for items is not the AH, its running instances. And frankly, you don't need that good of equipment at that low of a lvl unless you're doing battlegrounds a lot. Also, if you work on your tailoring skill more (you should be more like at lvl 25-50 or so, i forget exactly), you can make yourself some decent items until you run WC and other instances. Finally, ignore enchanting. Low lvl people can not afford to do major skill increasing with enchanting, its waaaay too expensive. My main is a lvl 60 mage with 283 tailoring and like 215 enchanting. I must have lost something like 10 gold or more trying to get high lvl of enchanting skill. If you have opportunities though, spend a little time on it, so at least you can enchant your own equipment a bit. But don't worry if someday you're at lvl 40 and have lik 100 skill in enchanting only. Money really isn't that big of a deal at low lvls, until you get to lvl 40 and can buy a mount. With that in mind, when you get to lvl 30, you should start saving up and should be able to make about 10g per lvl after lvl 30. Before lvl 20, making 10 silver is pretty good.

[Sikawtic]

Kay.
Thanks for all the help.
:D

Now I just gotta level up three times more....
Did I mention the fact im broke?
I guess I didn't....

How the hell do I make gold?
I have just under 1g, and i can barely buy anything for my level from the auction house.
My professions are tailoring (7), and enchanting (12).Ok, first off... get rid of enchanting, I'd replace with herbalism (godly amounts of gold). Why? Both tailoring and enchanting require you to farm... and farm a lot. While DE'ing things can give you a little bit of money... your not going to have enough to fund enchanting. (it's f*cking expensive... and nobody wants to do the "bring your mats and it's free" for low level enchants...)

Next is to actually use the tailoring... save the cloth you find and level it up. Professions are a very good way of making money. If you find tailoring isn't for you, however, you can always switch it to something else.

You can go with another resource gathering skill (mining is great, skinning is good for the fact that skins are just about everywhere, but mining will probably net you more) or, you can try enchanting again once you have enough herbalism to start raking in money.

For instance, briarthorn on my server costs about 4-5g for a stack. If you mosey around darkshore for a little bit, you can easily pick up 20+ thorns, along with a couple swiftthistles (which also sell decently).

Oh, and steelbloom is amazing :D (sells for more than purple lotus o_O (which is only 1g/stack on my server -_-)

[kongurous]

Enchanting is good when you want to make a lot of money and spend a lot of it, too. My rogue has full enchanting and I charge a 26g enchant charge on all end-level enchants. Sometimes it's a bit over, sometimes its drastically less than what someone else wants. I sold like nine firey enchants one day at 26g, and just about everyone else was doing it at 40g at LEAST.

But yeah... if you have a lot of cash to blow, go enchanting. It pays off in the end, if you're smart about it.

[Jeff]

Tailoring/Enchanting is terrible if you want to make money. Instead I'd go with Herbalism/Skinning or Mining/Skinning while leveling since those professions are all profit. Once you get to a higher level you can always drop one or both of those for Tailoring/Enchanting if you really want to. Be warned that Enchanting is very expensive profession to level, however.

Stay away from buying on the AH... just sell what you've gathered. You need all the gold to buy your spells every 2 levels.

As for mana issues, that's a major concern leveling the mage. There's constant downtime to drink, but at least you get free water. It does take patience compared to other classes who don't rely on mana as much.

Good luck :)

- Ralan, 60 gnome mage

[killer-penguin]

Herbalism, right now with guilds doing nefarion and such, is the number one way to make money PERIOD. Mining is useful at higher levels and iron and such sell pretty well. Skinning really isn't as good of a cash trade as people make it out to be, considering the time you waste skinning, and failing, and skinning, and failing and over and over and repeat a million billion times.

As for a mage.
I'd imagine you are fire specced (most new mages spec in fire) I'd switch that to arcane spec. Spec into evocation and 5/5 improved arcane explosion (the most important 5 talent points in any build.) Improved arcane missiles 5/5 are also key (although at really low levels the imp wand talent is by far the most improved dmg you can get by any mage talent and its a huge save on the mana pool. If you get 3/3 in it at the very first levels possible, your wand can out dps your fire/frostbolts. Just toss off a rank 1 frostbolt and spam wand til the mob is near, then nova, blink away and do it again. After you hit about 30ish you'll never touch your wand again (except in mana conservation areas.)

Mages have the second highest downtime in the game (warriors are first) which is why you can conjure your own water. Get used to this, just bide your time, kill what you can, regen and do it again, you aren't a machine, you are a glass cannon, and therefore you are fragile. You are gonna have to take the time out to tweak the machine a lot. (ie food/drink) mage is one of the few classes that should never really start a battle at mid health, most classes can safely do so, but with a mage you only have limited health (which is why you have so many escape spells) and your mana shield can only save you so long.

Anyways, partying with a mage is dead easy provided you learn how to do 2 things.

1: cast detect magic on the mob you are polying, helps you and your party recognize which one you are going to be ccing
2: Learn how to use counterspell. This is the biggest noob mistake of most mages, not knowing how to use counterspell effectively. Look for heals, look for mobs targeting healers (obviously those casting,) or look for mobs attacking you from a range that your tank can't get to, and counterspell them, WHEN they are casting. CS is useless between casts, even imp cs unless its immediately followed by a polymorph.

Oh, and as soon as u hit level 19, stop farming for a bit, stop levelling, and go do wsg til you get to grunt. Get your insignia of the horde and forget about honor until you hit 60 :D.

-Skittles

Level 60 Undead Mage