People seem to be bounding back to the pvp side of things (you can see just on the mage boards right now about four subjects with pvp in them) and alot of people keep asking "How do I beat _______"
I am not the end all beat all of mages. Although I have done my fair share of pvp my last few toons have been much more...relaxed. Regardless I'm still going to put my best effort out there to make a PVP guide for mages. If anyone would like to contribute feel free.
I'm going to focus mainly on the frost mage due mostly to the fact that I have by far the most experience in my mage career with this spec. Also the frost spec is regarded by most as the stand by for pvp mages.
As far as specs go- Arcane (17 points)
2/2 Arcane Subtlety
2/5 Arcane Focus
5/5 Improved Arcane Missiles
5/5 Arcane Concentration
1/1 Arcane Fortitude
2/2 Improved Counterspell
Fire (0 points)
None
Frost (44 points)
5/5 Improved Frostbolt
3/3 Frostbite
2/2 Improved Frost Nova
3/3 Permafrost
3/3 Piercing Ice
1/1 Icy Veins
2/2 Arctic Reach
5/5 Shatter
1/1 Cold Snap
2/2 Ice Floes
5/5 Winter's Chill
1/1 Ice Barrier
5/5 Arctic Winds
5/5 Empowered Frostbolt
1/1 Summon Water Elemental
This is a very competitive build which will allow you all the survivability of a frost mage, a great damage base, and counters to your enemies. I welcome everyone to try any build they desire but for the sake of this guide I'm going to play it safe.
As a frost mage a great portion of your damage will come from what is called shatter criticals. Against a frozen enemy you will have a much greater chance to land a critical strike thereby exploiting the damage bonus available to our class. Shatter crits also work off of hunters frost traps, so a clever mage can make use of Hunter tricks as well as our own frost nova, Water Elemental ranged Freeze, or a frost bite proc.
Learning your frost nova radius on the fly is important because it will allow you maximum distance in your endeavors (very few mages want to melee fight)
There was an Addon that brought up a frost nova radius for a second before it cast but I heard this was sternly frowned upon. If anyone knows any different please let me know. Regardless, assuming that you are playing as most do : P Learn the distance of your Cone of cold spells, your frost nova radius, and always have an idea of you Water Elementals mana. The Water Elemental will run out of mana before the 45 second duration has passed so know when to squeek in that last freeze before he fades. By doing this you will maximize you chance of massive crits in pvp.
Last on the basics of shatter crits is the double crit. If you are against a frozen target and you cast-say frostbolt at that frozen target and the moment your frostbolt leaves your fingertips you hit an instant cast (fire blast, or Ice lance) both of the attacks will receive the bonus against the frozen enemy which can be very helpful given the fact that frostnova/frostbite/freeze breaks almost alwayson a crit and can quite often with lesser damage as well.
Now that you have the basics of how you will score most of your big hits the main thing to do is get out there and play. Practice makes permanent the things that will make you a better player. (like not letting a hunter see you come walking toward them from across the map)
After you have some practice you should know your strengths (warriors being chief) and your weaknesses (warlocks and hunters) and will have to adjust your game to accommodate.
basic rundown 1 v 1 fights
- Warriors
- Paladins
- Rouges
- Warlocks
- Hunters
- Druids
- Shaman
- Priests
Team fights
Some examples of mages in team situations. http://youtube.com/watch?v=43Y9-0OYINA
In this video you can see the mage in a number of situations in a 2 v 2 setting. Wish it were from the mages perspective. As you can see, Sheeping is used to great effect.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dJNLQS6yYig
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Shatter crits in depth-
When you download quartz you will notice a red portion of the cast bar. The start of that red portion is where the spells really stop casting. What does that mean for you my aspiring frosties? Quicker spells and double shatter crits even at low levels.
- High level pvp
At lower levels this can be done with Fireblast in the same way (minus the triple damage of course) and even before the WE comes into play with your frost nova.
It's almost always a good idea to wait on freezing your target in pvp because I promise that pally won't just sit there waiting for you to shatter crit him.
evertras' video tutorial for shatter crits. Evertras also has mage tutorials out in the I suck at pvp line.
Till the next update.
Edited, Feb 8th 2008 2:40am by Xiemage
Edited, Feb 8th 2008 2:42am by Xiemage
Edited, Feb 15th 2008 1:49pm by Xiemage