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When did the class "click" for you?Follow

#1 May 19 2009 at 6:06 AM Rating: Good
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I just started up my mage after not having touched it in ages. I've been enjoying leveling him, especially since I got to Outland. He really started to kick some *** once I got gear with spellpower.

Yesterday I leveled up enough to learn Arcane Blast. I had been anxiously waiting for this and respecced to an Arcane spec immediately. On returning to Outland, I began melting the faces of any enemy I encountered in Zangarmarsh.

I'm loving this!

I began testing out what rotations would be good for taking out mobs in an efficient manner. Once I discovered that Arcane Blast x2 then Arcane Barrage was less mana than AB > Abarr > Ab > Abarr (and so on) everything just "clicked" for me. It was really awesome to see 3k to 4k Arcane Blast crits.

And to top it off, I had several encounters with different Horde Death Knights who tried to waylay me over the course of the night. However, I put each of them into the dirt quickly. Twas a fun evening and I can't wait till I can log on again to melt more faces! Hopefully, I'll get to do an instance so I can see how my damage shapes up in that environment.

When did the mage class "click" for you?
#2 May 19 2009 at 7:35 AM Rating: Excellent
Actually for me it was much earlier. In the 30's around STV and Dust I started to be able to get deep enough into frost to really start shattering and controlling mobs. It was awesome almost nothing could touch me, I started soloing elites just for the challenge learning to frost kite them I was able to kill mobs that should have totally smoked me. That lasted through BC and outlands. I remeber a mage buddy of mine was asking for help with one of the elite demons in Shadowmoon. I told him dude you are a mage you don't need help with that demon you can solo it. He thought I was nuts so I went out there and soloed it right in front of him to show him how it was done. :D

I leveled my pally first in WoTLK. Then I was working on my hunter when I realized I really needed a JC and miner. So I dusted off my mage. I was a bit bummed that they nerfed frost kiting elites so bad in WoTLK. Every single elite just about is immune to frost speed reduction and snares. Booo... But I fell in love with my mage again anyway.

At 80 I switched to arcane and it was just jaw dropping. Even with my crappy quest blues I was kicking major deeps. With a bit o gear it has only gotten better. Seeing 13-15k AB crits or doing 9k DPS on a pack of mobs in Naxx with IV AP Blizzards, well its just plain fun.

#3 May 19 2009 at 8:06 AM Rating: Good
For me it was the early 30s. I read so much about AoE grinding and such that I ground for around 30-45. I did AoE in Dustwallow on the murlocks, and the various human packs in Arathi Highlands. I would partner up with a priest and we would go to town for an hour and just grind link crazy, racking in some nice XP. As I continued to level I enjoyed frost leveling more and more. With the slowing, shatter crits, and freezes it became somewhat boring but pretty exciting when you were about to get smacked at that last moment the mob would freeze in place and you would nail it with a few thousand points of damage crit and watch it topple over.
#4 May 19 2009 at 12:30 PM Rating: Decent
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After leveling a warrior for a while I began to appreciate how easy it is for a mage to grind. So many less buttons to push...it's more tactical as well. Instead of just letting three mobs beat on your face and then chowing corpses playing mage requires some finesse. Also it's a bit cheaper than leveling most melee classes because you don't often, if ever, need to bandage. I always preferred frost for the trip to the level cap but to each his own. Arcane is fun to mess around with for a while.

Playing mage in instances isn't much different than other damage dealing classes but it's still a lot of fun. It's easier for a mage to squeeze out nice dps at early levels because of the area damage spells you have at your disposal. It's more difficult to get maximum damage out of a Rogue, Feral Druid, or Warrior in those early levels although they all stack up nicely when played well.
#5 May 19 2009 at 3:50 PM Rating: Good
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Two moments:
The first time I teleported (to SW). I hate running.

I leveled with a druid friend using RaF. I did level frost, but with my friend and guild, there was no real challenge. I started about 2 weeks before WoTLK hit and was run through everything to catch up for the expansion. I didn't really learn the class until we got to Northrend, so my real "click" moment came the first time I stepped into Naxx. I had crafted gear and almost nothing else. I had run maybe one heroic, just to see how my new arcane spec was going to work. First boss fight was Patchwork. I did not understand until then that my role was really: "you stand over there and blow the ever-loving %&$# out of him."

Obviously Patches is an extreme example... but it was really, really fun.
#6 May 19 2009 at 6:49 PM Rating: Good
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Sometime in my 20s, I decided that I needed to relearn how to move so that I turned with the mouse instead of the keyboard. Within hours, a whole new mage world had opened up. That said, even before that, I was already really loving my mage.
#7 May 19 2009 at 7:17 PM Rating: Decent
Yeah it was early twenties for me too. I had always wanted to level a mage, and once she was in her twenties and I got some tips here years ago, and I got the hang of things I really started enjoying leveling her. I never got into the AoE grinding, as I actually really enjoy questing and getting gear upgrades. Plus I felt like it was too much work trying to find camping spots and to figure out the method.
#8 May 20 2009 at 3:54 PM Rating: Decent
The mage class really did click to me once I lost my virginity to a woman who plays an Arcane Mage.
#9 May 20 2009 at 4:31 PM Rating: Good
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in most of my mmorgs i have played in my lifeI have always played a melee class. EQ i was a ranger, FFXI a pld,warrior,monk,dancer,blue, and summoner and kinda got bored with ffxi for a bit. I had beta tested WoW long ago and kinda just decided to play again. When i came back I wanted to play a caster class so I decided to pick up mage...I leveled it up as fire mostly. I got into the whole casting on something from afar and it would mostly be dead by the time it got to me. I think it clicked for me when I hit about 50 and decided I wanted to respec arcane cause it just for some reason seemed interesting. After that point I was omg wow Arcane mage is fun. Liked the whole arcane missle thing and took it up to 70. Started to raid and was kinda forced to play as fire for raiding cause at that time arcane just couldnt keep up. When the talent patch for WoTK came out it kinda clicked again and I was back in business with arcane. Mage I would have to say is my favorite class and it is nice to teleport around and my hearth is set to whatever out of the way area I choose :P

Edited, May 20th 2009 8:32pm by Jennave
#10 May 23 2009 at 1:21 AM Rating: Decent
Female Arcane Mages do it better? =x
#11 May 26 2009 at 9:33 AM Rating: Good
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I learned to DPS by tanking. Learn what to do and what to avoid...


#12 Jun 01 2009 at 4:16 PM Rating: Decent
The class clicked for me ever since I started it. I have always loved mages. (: But it was really awesome during TBC. I absolutely loved pvping with my mage. I could pretty much kill anything (except resto druids) if I played it right. All my friends and guildies knew I was pretty good at PvP so they always called on me to help them when they are getting ganked or something haha.
I'm in the process of leveling up my mage right now. I can't wait till I hit 80 (:
#13 Jun 02 2009 at 8:12 AM Rating: Decent
I guess i was the slow one but, the class finally clicked when i got ice lance. Without it the game felt so repetitive with the 2 sec casts and setting up for blizzard was getting boring.
Ice lance shatter combos felt like street fighter and stuff and thats when i knew i made the right choice
#14 Jun 02 2009 at 8:22 AM Rating: Decent
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Once I got Pyroblast >=D. KABOOM!

By the time I actually got the spell I had already planned out that I was going to get Shatter as well and I simply couldn't wait until I could experiment with Frost Nova and getting Pyroblast off.
#15 Jun 04 2009 at 7:23 AM Rating: Decent
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I have a level 36 Mage and it hasn't clicked yet. It's odd, because I've been in love with the class since I played it on the PTR back in the days when PTR gave you a toon decked in Dungeon 1 set (later Tier sets) at level 60.

Having leveled a Druid, Hunter, Warlock, Death Knight, Priest, Warrior and Shaman, I'm finding the Mage class particularly painful to level up. No heals, no armor to compensate and the downtime even surpasses that of my Warrior. I can take out two to three mobs and then I have to sit and drink. I've never had to do that on any other character I've leveled.

Watching all those high level Mages run around and crit stuff for massive damage makes my tummy tingle, though. I want to level one up, but I can't stand more than 15 minutes before I log on another character and quest with zero downtime. Smiley: frown

Help me?
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#16 Jun 04 2009 at 7:40 AM Rating: Good
Yeah the downtime at lower levels is pretty painful. The better part at that level range is when you can do a bit of AoE grinding to get through the levels that are taking a while. It isn't quite as good as it used to be, but even though you will have to drink after every AoE pull you will be killing 10+ guys.
#17 Jun 04 2009 at 8:12 AM Rating: Decent
What spec are you leveling as Mazra? That definitely could have something to do with it. I leveled as frost and I didn't find it too terribly bad once I got into the thirties from what I recall. Granted that was over two years ago that my mage was that low, so my memory could be a bit fuzzy. Reading these forums I've seen people complain quite a bit about fire having a lot more downtime, despite being more "fun" to play. Personally I thought frost was plenty fun to play, but I also hate dieing and down time, so that might have something to do with it. :-p
#18 Jun 04 2009 at 9:30 AM Rating: Good
Level eight, polymorph. My favourite spell in WC 2&3 - there's just something awesome about turning somone into a sheep.
#19 Jun 05 2009 at 1:43 AM Rating: Decent
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PigtailsOfDoom wrote:
What spec are you leveling as Mazra? That definitely could have something to do with it. I leveled as frost and I didn't find it too terribly bad once I got into the thirties from what I recall. Granted that was over two years ago that my mage was that low, so my memory could be a bit fuzzy. Reading these forums I've seen people complain quite a bit about fire having a lot more downtime, despite being more "fun" to play. Personally I thought frost was plenty fun to play, but I also hate dieing and down time, so that might have something to do with it. :-p


Character.

Yes, she's a pink-haired Gnome. Smiley: lol

She's from a time before spell power existed, I think, hence why I don't have any spell power items. I can easily grind single mobs thanks to Mage Armor, but if there's more than two (one can be Polymorphed), I'm in for a world of pain. And since they evened out the mana cost of all spell ranks, rank 1 Frost Nova now costs a lot. Smiley: frown I've tried a bit of AOE grinding, by rounding up a lot of mobs, freezing them, Blizzard, Cone of Cold, Cold Snap, Frost Nova, Blizzard, etc., but I always get beat to crap eventually through a resisted Nova or something.

Edited, Jun 5th 2009 11:44am by Mazra
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#20 Jun 05 2009 at 4:29 AM Rating: Good
Mazra wrote:
PigtailsOfDoom wrote:
What spec are you leveling as Mazra? That definitely could have something to do with it. I leveled as frost and I didn't find it too terribly bad once I got into the thirties from what I recall. Granted that was over two years ago that my mage was that low, so my memory could be a bit fuzzy. Reading these forums I've seen people complain quite a bit about fire having a lot more downtime, despite being more "fun" to play. Personally I thought frost was plenty fun to play, but I also hate dieing and down time, so that might have something to do with it. :-p


Character.

Yes, she's a pink-haired Gnome. Smiley: lol

She's from a time before spell power existed, I think, hence why I don't have any spell power items. I can easily grind single mobs thanks to Mage Armor, but if there's more than two (one can be Polymorphed), I'm in for a world of pain. And since they evened out the mana cost of all spell ranks, rank 1 Frost Nova now costs a lot. Smiley: frown I've tried a bit of AOE grinding, by rounding up a lot of mobs, freezing them, Blizzard, Cone of Cold, Cold Snap, Frost Nova, Blizzard, etc., but I always get beat to crap eventually through a resisted Nova or something.

Edited, Jun 5th 2009 11:44am by Mazra


Talents look good overall -- the next couple of levels I would put a single point (at least) into imp blizzard to get the chill effect (which could explain why you were getting pummelled if you didn't have that) and then a point or two into icefloes before you get your frost barrier. From there shattered barrier and the other damaging talents deeper in the tree will keep you afloat for a long time. Don't forget to pick up piercing ice when you start getting a bit of spellpower or at least start hitting a little harder.
#21 Jun 05 2009 at 11:22 AM Rating: Good
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I agre w/ Mazra.

Mage has been my hardest class to level.

We lack Armor, Heals, Pets, Stealth, HP... Etc.

I found that as I leveled my mage - a mage in trouble was likely a dead mage. Plus a lot of our best stuff was pretty spread out. It took a while to get my Frost shield, it took forever to get Ice Lance, cold snap wasn't fast either (if I recall correctly), my water buddy took freaking forever....

I've worked on, but not Maxed, a priest and lock (Both cloth) and both have been dramatically easier. The lock has a great ability with Pets and the ability to heal as a priest is just great.


A mage at end game is a totally different ball game. I haven't died (Solo) in months from a mob kill.


A mage must provide his own control - not relying on a pet or fear. A mage must avoid nearly all damage because he can't heal. A mage out of mana can not rely on a pet for help or mana.

Mage is a tough class - but damn they are fun.


*Plus Teleport is the best spell in the game. Hands down - Best spell. My paly would give up Lay of Hands if I could just Tele/Port where ever I wanted... Hahah!







#22 Jun 06 2009 at 7:34 AM Rating: Good
Funny, I found mage pretty easy to level. There are plenty of escape options (nova, CoC, blink, polymorph, slow fall, all up after lvl 26) plus it's a ranged class, so easy to pull with. Aside from difficulty opening on some mobs, rogue and druid (after about level 30, anyway) were a little easier, but warrior, paladin (seriously), and priest were all harder to get out of major trouble with. In a way, DK and Warlock have more trouble getting out of major difficulty too, but that's only because major difficulty for either class amounts to a raid boss using nukes as javelins. I'd probably rate mage as about a middling difficult class to level.

Yeah, drinking is annoying.
#23 Jun 06 2009 at 10:33 AM Rating: Good
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Kavekk wrote:
In a way, DK and Warlock have more trouble getting out of major difficulty too, but that's only because major difficulty for either class amounts to a raid boss using nukes as javelins.


Smiley: laugh
#24 Jun 20 2009 at 3:06 PM Rating: Good
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It hasn't yet. And I'd love for it to click.

I'm on my second attempt at the class. My first one died a swift death at level 20 or so some two years ago. Current one is an ex-bank alt which I'm going to VERY slowly level with a friend of mine. I'd love to get him to 80 so I can gogo crit a ton and have a lot of fun, but I'm not sure I'll get around to it.

Let's seeeeee, druid at 70 is my current leveling alt. THEN I'll probably turn my attention to forgotten hunter at 60 ... My friend will take a little summer break, so if I' 50 by christmas I'll be a happy mage. Hopefully it'll click by then XDXDXD
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