The Greatest Mage Post Ever.Follow

My talents and "spec" are in my first post, and the spells I use most now are in my second post.

sigh. Shadow you really need to start playing this game before making these comments ... you are mixing misinformation with information you've gleamed from these forums and could seriously misinform other people.

PoM-FS does work and is decent in PvP ... but in truth flamestrike isn't quite the bomb most people want. I have personally chained together AP->FS->PoM->FS->BW->IAE->IAE->IAE to great effect in a WSG flag room ... but thats about the only place you will get more than 1 or two people with those spells and thus ... is mostly useless elsewhere. I eventually ended up dropping improved blizzard in PvP because its really only good in WSG flag rooms and in the AV massacre I despise. Mostly AB and open-field WSG appeals to me and its a worthless spell there.

Wand spec is ... well ... no comment :). Mages that use wands after level 40 (and not in a raid or fighting onyxia) ... are just being lazy :). In raids/instances you should mana up before most if not all fights to ensure maximum DPS viability ... and even if you have tons of mana your healer probably doesn't so you might as well sit and drink too.

IAE has its uses both PvP and PvE ... whereas plain old unimproved arcane explosion is tragicaly useless (for the mana and casting time you should be casting flamestrike).



Edited, Tue Mar 14 09:10:54 2006 by feralminded

No,man,I´m just askin!
I know I don´t have knowledge about these speicific info...
I don´t wanna post any specific data,just tryin to lead people to direction of what real mages are: thinking and learning!!!

I´ve seen people here who don´t even move a finger...
I know what I was doin in all other games,and that was learnin all moves,all stats from the other chars,any aspect of game which is present,mages must know details...

they are Wisdom,Lore & Power in one...
& it is logical not to use wand spec,improved mana shield...
think that the Filterspawn already wrote this kind of talents AND explanation,but it doesn´t matter...


this is my state...

Ok with Shadow's prodding I've decided to post up my elemental builds. I have played all three for quite some time so these are no theorycraft in any way ... these are builds I've made and experienced gameplay with. They are all targetted at level 60 play so mileage may vary if you try these at lower levels. I did not begin my elementalist trek until my late 40's but I did explore this on my own before I even got hint of it on these forums (yes I am proud of my independence).

Build #1: Pure PvP Pwnage 27 Fire/24 Frost

Here

Fire Talents - 27 point(s)
Impact rank 5/5
Ignite rank 5/5
Improved Fire Blast rank 5/5
Incinerate rank 2/2
Burning Soul rank 1/3
Improved Flamestrike rank 3/3
Critical Mass rank 3/3
Blast Wave rank 1/1
Fire Power rank 2/5

Frost Talents - 24 point(s)
Permafrost rank 5/5
Ice Shards rank 4/5
Winter's Chill rank 3/3
Improved Frost Nova rank 2/2
Cold Snap rank 1/1
Shatter rank 5/5
Ice Block rank 1/1
Improved Cone of Cold rank 3/3

This one was my first build and it's easily the most clear. 100% PvP build based on as much sustained burst damage as a mage can possibly do. PoM-pyro mages can do more burst but on a 3 minute timer. No one else can do as much sustained burst as this build and on top of that this build get's ice block. About the longest timer this build worries about is Blastwave which 45 seconds is just about once a fight anyhow. The best opener in this build is sheep->fireball and then close and go to work with those insta-casts. When between spells either kite or scorch. All of the frost snares are fully improved so remember a rank 1 frost bolt is your best friend here. Additionally this build is geared for absolutely devestating PvP AoE burst. FS->BW->FN->CoC-> Blink is totally safe and will drop a couple thousand AoE damage in a few seconds.




Edited, Wed Mar 15 09:13:01 2006 by feralminded

/clap

Thank U Feral,I hope this will show what two complete differences do when they combine...

I too share a lot of the annoyance faced by mages on build and talent selection as you level, most gear for level 60 which is fair enough.

I have my 2 cents though on talent choice as you level as I have levelled 2 mages to 40, one on up to 60 and did things very differently both times, one way for superb, one not so much.

My better build (In terms of flexibility and levelling power) was to stick 16 points in Arcane THEN go heavily into fire. IAM rocks for uninterruptable damage, Arcane Concentration speaks for itself, Improved Arcane Explosion is nice too I found. Very mana draining at times but I found I could easily take on 5 - 7 mobs at a time (greens and just yellows mind) using that coupled with CoC and FN. And finally a point in Evocation, which is very useful when your in a pinch and can slap your down time a bit.

Then go fire, fire, fire. The extra damage against a single mob makes levelling a whole lot faster and IMO soloing grinding 1 mob is far faster for XP/Hr that Frost AoE'ing ever is.

Thankyou for the very informative guide. Before reading it I knew next to nothing about mages, and granted I still know very little, but now you have me interested in trying a class I previously stayed far away from.

Arcane Talents - 21 point(s)

Arcane Focus rank 5/5

Improved Arcane Missiles rank 5/5

Improved Dampen Magic rank 2/2

Improved Arcane Explosion rank 5/5

Evocation rank 1/1

Improved Counterspell rank 2/2

Presence of Mind rank 1/1

Arcane Instability rank 3/3


Fire Talents - 30 point(s)

Improved Fireball rank 5/5

Ignite rank 5/5

Flame Throwing rank 2/2

Incinerate rank 2/2

Pyroblast rank 1/1

Improved Flamestrike rank 3/3

Burning Soul rank 3/3

Critical Mass rank 3/3

Blast Wave rank 1/1

Fire Power rank 5/5

well this is wat i make out after reading this tread, quite effective in pvping & grinding 2 >.^

ok so, im trying to sort this all out(new mage here thinking about my endgame talents) you have a fire set up that is good for high burst damange"Feels like burning!" and a fire set up thats good aoe damage"Mass Murderer" and one for highest sustainable dmg a mage can cook up "Can somebody light this for me?"

so, the feals likeburning one is yoou do high bursts then run out of mana fast? why would you want to have that set up if you can do the "Can somebody light this for me?" set up cause you said its the highest dmg a mage can cook up, if you say this why do the frost one? just curoious. only 25 so far so i have alot to think about and try out for myself.

Not a big fan of permafrost, eh?

*whip whip*

hope they dont ***** up the trees toooo much :P