Monday, February 16, 2009

Why I love mages, and my build at 80. . .

This is kind of a new thing for me. With almost all of my characters I enjoy the leveling process, focus on the here and now, what I can do. With the mage it's different. The warlock was an easy class to get used to with easy conversion of health to mana, a pet to keep the mobs away and dots to tick damage down. It was efficient and well, easy. The mage is not easy. It is technical, there are a lot of abilities which can be very situational and I die a LOT leveling (less now than in the beginning). The more I become accustomed to them the more I feel the power there. Aoe damage, utility, self sufficiency, all the things that I look for in a character. They definately aren't easy, but what that is worthwhile is?

Again, in a move that is new to me, I've planned my talents up to level 80. Yes this implies I am actually going to charge to 80 with a character. The freedom from PvP and general enjoyment of the class and understanding have opened "new" doors for me. So hopefully this link works, my planned talents at 80.

The real question was "do I go into fire or arcane?". I honestly believe that the 51 point talent in frost is A) next to useless and B) not worthy of being a 51 point talent. The deciding factor on which way to go was the 21 point talents. Presence of mind is cool and has some utility but blast wave makes this a no-brainer. Aoe damage that is instant cast and knocks people back from me? I can just imagine the havoc I can cause on lower level instances with this (as I've previously stated, I solo lower level instances for fun and profit).

I would love to hear any and all comments/suggestions from those more experienced than me in the magical discipline. . .

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found Deep Freeze quite useful actually. My favourite way to burst down a mob as frost involved freezing it with the elemental or a Frostbite proc, FB, Deep Freeze, FB, Ice Lance, and it would usually be dead and wouldn't even have had a chance to move let alone touch me.

I haven't quite got to 80 yet with my mage - 75 and going up quickly (as cold molasses) - but I had decided on arcane at 80, since I'd always liked the idea of it and now it is also the highest dps. Was concerned about mana consumption but I figured the worst that would happen was I'd be out 6g in respec fees, so I switched to arcane at 74. Love it. Slow is the key to making it work whilst solo, that and evocation on a two-minute CD so it's always up when you need it. Cyllenia on Greymane if you want to have a look.

Good luck in the magical arts!

Anonymous said...

OK I didn't actually look at your proposed spec before :P but let me see if I can give you some feedback (bearing in mind I don't have mage experience at 80 so take it for what it's worth!).

Since you didn't take improved frostbolt I assume your main nuke will be frostfire. That makes me wonder why you took empowered frostbolt - those points could be used elsewhere.

Brain Freeze is a good dps increase and saves mana as well.

You take Shattered Barrier which leads me to believe that this spec is oriented towards solo play, so if that is the case I'd personally skip Winter's Chill as you'll never get the benefit of it on a non-elite.

I'm not as familiar with the fire tree but since you say you don't pvp I'd leave out molten shields and burning determination and go for 5/5 Ignite instead.

So if I were to do a frost-based frostfire spec with blast wave, as you suggest, I would do something like http://tinyurl.com/amjahu .