Hello all,
I was hoping someone can guide me on my Mage build and gear. I'm new to World of Warcraft and am slowly getting the hang of being a DPS in a group. I was hopping someone can give advice on what type of gear to get, how to best spend my talent points. One thing I noticed on my last dungeon run throw was that my threat from my fire spells almost all the time caused me to be aggro. I usually stick to using only scorch and fire blast. Here is my toon below:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cenarion%20Circle&n=Mushmouth
Thanks for any help!
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Ok, mostly looking good (though I'll leave spec comments to a more experienced fire mage).
Big thing that I noticed with a) your trinket and b) one of your rings. I know these are hard items to find usually, but strength, attack power and hit rating do nothing for you as as mage (although hit and crit rating are being changed to work for both melee attacks and spells soon, but currently there is a seperate spell hit/spell crit for casters).
Soon you can do the questline in Felwood/Winterspring for the Timbermaw and at the end you can get Power of the High Chief as a reward.
Also, as you're an alchemist it may be worth making/equipping your Philosopher's Stone (recipe from Alchemist Pestlezugg in Gadgetzan), the strength and agility won't be of any benefit, but you'll get use out of the stam/int/spi on it.
Soon you'll get more items available with spell damage/spell crit (and stam/int aswell) so those will be good to pick up.
About the threat, best bet is to give your tank a little time to build up some threat before you start attacking, also starting with a scorch or two before fireballing can help. You might want to get a threat meter (omen is one of the more popular ones), if your tank has a threat meter installed then you will see a bar for the tanks threat on your target and a bar for your threat. Keep your bar below the tanks and you should be ok.
Big thing that I noticed with a) your trinket and b) one of your rings. I know these are hard items to find usually, but strength, attack power and hit rating do nothing for you as as mage (although hit and crit rating are being changed to work for both melee attacks and spells soon, but currently there is a seperate spell hit/spell crit for casters).
Soon you can do the questline in Felwood/Winterspring for the Timbermaw and at the end you can get Power of the High Chief as a reward.
Also, as you're an alchemist it may be worth making/equipping your Philosopher's Stone (recipe from Alchemist Pestlezugg in Gadgetzan), the strength and agility won't be of any benefit, but you'll get use out of the stam/int/spi on it.
Soon you'll get more items available with spell damage/spell crit (and stam/int aswell) so those will be good to pick up.
About the threat, best bet is to give your tank a little time to build up some threat before you start attacking, also starting with a scorch or two before fireballing can help. You might want to get a threat meter (omen is one of the more popular ones), if your tank has a threat meter installed then you will see a bar for the tanks threat on your target and a bar for your threat. Keep your bar below the tanks and you should be ok.
With your spec, what are you going to be using it for. Raiding, solo PVE, PVP, etc.?
If you're aiming at raiding eventually, I'd fill out Empowered Fireball. Impact isn't needed too much for raiding (although I put a point or two just because I like it when soloing). Take a look at my build on Zakira below in my sig. That's an example of a fire raiding build. Some points can be moved around (as shown in the Greatest Mage Post Ever sticky at the top of the page.
I suggest you check that out first then come back and ask questions, if you're still not understanding what is said there.
Good luck!
Oh and at your level, I wouldn't worry too much on what gear you have and whatnot since it'll all be replaced quickly (especially when you hit outlands, if you decide to go at 58).
But try focusing on spell hit or spell damage type gear (if you run across it). As Tunuv said, the regular hit and attack power doesn't do anything (at the moment) for casters.
Edited, Oct 3rd 2008 8:12am by xNocturnalSunx
If you're aiming at raiding eventually, I'd fill out Empowered Fireball. Impact isn't needed too much for raiding (although I put a point or two just because I like it when soloing). Take a look at my build on Zakira below in my sig. That's an example of a fire raiding build. Some points can be moved around (as shown in the Greatest Mage Post Ever sticky at the top of the page.
I suggest you check that out first then come back and ask questions, if you're still not understanding what is said there.
Good luck!
Oh and at your level, I wouldn't worry too much on what gear you have and whatnot since it'll all be replaced quickly (especially when you hit outlands, if you decide to go at 58).
But try focusing on spell hit or spell damage type gear (if you run across it). As Tunuv said, the regular hit and attack power doesn't do anything (at the moment) for casters.
Edited, Oct 3rd 2008 8:12am by xNocturnalSunx
When I started I was fire – because initially my fire spells did more damage than my frost. Thus – I thought – “Why use the frost?â€
Looking back with a 70 mage, nearly 70 paly, mid level lock, etc… I would have gone frost… Particularly in outland….
Having said that –
The trinket is useless. The one ring is way out-dated. The rest of your gear seems ok. Go for Spell Damage, INT, STA. Not necessarily in that order all the time, but you really don’t start to focus on stats until outland gear. Frankly – you should be leveling fast, getting gear from quests or the occasional instance run.
Blazing Speed – I never took it – if you PVP as fire it’s nice, but I never bothered. Everything’s dead before it gets to you.
Molten Fury – You don’t need this unless you are really raiding or doing a lot of PVE boss fights. Solo – most mobs should be just getting destroyed by you. The last 20% should take 1 shot plus your DoT from ignite should be ticking.
Incinerate – Eh… If you use scorch a lot, then yeah, but you didn’t take the buff to Fire Blast (Decrease CD) so I wonder how much use this is getting you? I don’t use scorch much when soloing… Usually it’s Pyro, Fire Ball, etc…
Empowered Fireball – Get it.
Why are you using Elixer of Giants? I see that you are Alch/Herb – either sell or trade them away. If you run with a warrior – Just give it to him. He’ll be a better tank and you’ll make a quick friend.
Looking back with a 70 mage, nearly 70 paly, mid level lock, etc… I would have gone frost… Particularly in outland….
Having said that –
The trinket is useless. The one ring is way out-dated. The rest of your gear seems ok. Go for Spell Damage, INT, STA. Not necessarily in that order all the time, but you really don’t start to focus on stats until outland gear. Frankly – you should be leveling fast, getting gear from quests or the occasional instance run.
Blazing Speed – I never took it – if you PVP as fire it’s nice, but I never bothered. Everything’s dead before it gets to you.
Molten Fury – You don’t need this unless you are really raiding or doing a lot of PVE boss fights. Solo – most mobs should be just getting destroyed by you. The last 20% should take 1 shot plus your DoT from ignite should be ticking.
Incinerate – Eh… If you use scorch a lot, then yeah, but you didn’t take the buff to Fire Blast (Decrease CD) so I wonder how much use this is getting you? I don’t use scorch much when soloing… Usually it’s Pyro, Fire Ball, etc…
Empowered Fireball – Get it.
Why are you using Elixer of Giants? I see that you are Alch/Herb – either sell or trade them away. If you run with a warrior – Just give it to him. He’ll be a better tank and you’ll make a quick friend.
Beyond the trinket being utterly useless, I can't see a lot wrong with your character.
3 posts
Thanks for the info on everything guys. I definitely take into consideration all the advice all of you have given me.
I know the one trinket is not for me, but I got it as a quest reward and figured I'll stick it on until I got something else to put in it's place. Thanks for the info on quests I can do to get better ones.
Thanks for the talent build advice and I will definitely adjust mine a little from what you guys have advised. I do plan on doing mostly PvE and Raiding, I'm not too much into PvP.
As for the elixir of giants, I just drank it for the heck of it.
Edited, Oct 3rd 2008 2:51pm by AdrenalinePassX
I know the one trinket is not for me, but I got it as a quest reward and figured I'll stick it on until I got something else to put in it's place. Thanks for the info on quests I can do to get better ones.
Thanks for the talent build advice and I will definitely adjust mine a little from what you guys have advised. I do plan on doing mostly PvE and Raiding, I'm not too much into PvP.
As for the elixir of giants, I just drank it for the heck of it.
Edited, Oct 3rd 2008 2:51pm by AdrenalinePassX
If you're looking to replace that trinket, consider the level 50 mage class quest, the fire trinket from that is pretty good, though it does require you to run Sunken Temple, and I'm not sure how realistic that is in your particular situation.
And yeah.... spell damage... spell damage good, spell hit can be safely ignored until around 70 and spell crit (while nice) isn't something you really need to care a TON about until outland, at which point quests will rain it on you.
The spec looks good now (I don't know what it looked like before but now it's fine) though I'm not a huge fan of Incinerate for solo grinding, I *AM* a huge fan of Improved Fire Blast.. as a fire mage my spell rotation usually looks something like this:
Pyro
Fireball
Fire Blast
(the mob is usually smoldering its way into my face by this point)
Dragon Breath
Scorch/Fire Blast/Whatever to finish it off/Just stand there and watch it burn to death from Ignite)
If something sneaks up on me, or I get a bad add though, having more Fire Blasts is helpful as hell, it's cheap, strong, and fast
Oh and Impact is handy for soloing, it can also proc off Molten Armor once you get that at 62 which makes it even better
Edited, Oct 4th 2008 11:22am by Callinon
And yeah.... spell damage... spell damage good, spell hit can be safely ignored until around 70 and spell crit (while nice) isn't something you really need to care a TON about until outland, at which point quests will rain it on you.
The spec looks good now (I don't know what it looked like before but now it's fine) though I'm not a huge fan of Incinerate for solo grinding, I *AM* a huge fan of Improved Fire Blast.. as a fire mage my spell rotation usually looks something like this:
Pyro
Fireball
Fire Blast
(the mob is usually smoldering its way into my face by this point)
Dragon Breath
Scorch/Fire Blast/Whatever to finish it off/Just stand there and watch it burn to death from Ignite)
If something sneaks up on me, or I get a bad add though, having more Fire Blasts is helpful as hell, it's cheap, strong, and fast
Oh and Impact is handy for soloing, it can also proc off Molten Armor once you get that at 62 which makes it even better
Edited, Oct 4th 2008 11:22am by Callinon
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