The Kill List-From its Originator

I was talking to my partner Brem about a kill list- a list that healers should have that in case of dire straits, they should make conscious decisions about who to let die first as to prevent a wipe. Now Kikidas seems to think that I scarfed the idea from I think GoW but their essay is not really the essence of the kill list nor did I ever read their blog until she brought it to my attention. Great blog! Thank you K! Now I would like to extend the idea to the mage dps class and a philosophy on when to break the rules.

In almost every run that I do, we have kill order marks that we usually follow. Skull, X, Ice Cube, etc I think is the most common kill rotation around (at least for me). This works out well. We all know what do do and when to do it. Kinda nice but most times speed and efficiency are what matters in these fights and a kill order is the order of the day. But do we always have to follow this? I make the suggestion that you do not. Now before I here all the nay saying listen to what I propose...

As mages (and the other cloth classes) we know that we usually cannot stand up to the flesh ripping attacks of most npc melee dps. A bit of a nod to K (even though she thinks mages are only food dispensers) :), warlocks are prolly the best of cloth classes to (sort of) off tank with there life drain and fears (not that many fear in an instance!). I digress; tanking is not what I wanted to discuss. I want to discuss the ability to diagnose, understand, and execute pulling an elite toon away from the tank to kill it on your own.

Did I just send shivers down your spine? You would never DREAM of putting your wonderful mage in harm's way by PURPOSEFULLY pulling aggro? I say it CAN and SHOULD be done. You need to know your mage. You need to know your healer. You need know WHEN to do it. If you keep this points in mind, you can increase the rate you pull mobs and maximize your time and efforts.

I normally only go after other clothies. I know that they have less armour (like me) and I can be most effective with my efforts. Most clothies dont have high health so, with my +1100 to fire/arcane damage and my hit rating is somewhere around 120 (not the 142 cap:) ), I know that I can be effective. This is knowing my toon:)

Is the healer attentive? Are they having problems healing the party? If they arent and the tank is staying around full health AND its NOT a boss fight this might be a good time to do your work outside of the prescribed marks:)

Now would I start this devious plan in the beginning of the fight?? Hmmm.......usually no. Most of the time I wait until the skull dies first. This mark needs to die the quickest and I tend to respect that. Also this gives the tank to cause a little extra damage on the target that I may want to pick off and have all to my own:) No one said that I was totally crazy!

I am not saying that everyone should do this. I am saying that, under the right circumstances, this is a viable strategy. Just know your stuff!

Rock On!
Babygorn

The Bride is here

Taking a break from purely mage stuff (although your mage could do this if you have a warlock friend and any other stealthy friend:) ), I have to tell you what some guildies and I did to someone. Before I go any further, I have to pay homage to Tasogare (sorry if the spelling is off) from Knights of Utopia on the Alleria server for coming up with this idea. We tweaked it a little but it came from him and it was hilarious. Imitation is the highest form of flattery...

We have this young guy who is pretty laid back (and maybe a little arrogant) in our guild Schadenfreude. Well his father, myself, and another party signed onto his account, took away all arms and anything he could use to fight or flee, put him in a wedding dress, and ported him into the middle or Orgrimmar ( in that instance there), put him in a wedding dress and left him. Was this mean? Had he done anything to deserve this? If you had the wherewithall to check out the meaning of my guild's name, you would know why. 'Nuff said.

Rock On
Babygorn

Fire or Frost: That is the burning question...

I know that we all have or favs in mages (mine is fire) but I am also realistic in that I know that people have different playing styles that would lend towards fire or frost. As I dont intend for this to be a long post, I will just blurb a few things about both specs and see what you all think.

I am very content (as a player) doing the exact thing over and over again. There is is comfort in my OCD world if I can repeat things with the same sesults in my life. The same is true with a fire mage. I pick a target, I start my spell order, and ususally by the time that it reaches me, it is a molten pile of metal or cloth, whichever the case may be. I am comforted by this. And I dont rack up repair bills (usually). This is my style of play that fits well into my cocktail hours as I play (you cant screw up TOO much when you do the same thing over and over. Unless there is a sheep...... :) ) >

Frost mages are the round'em up, group'em up, and kill, kill, KILL! See, for me, this leaves too much room for error. I have a HUGE ego and I think I would have a tendency to gather the whole zone and think that, with a few of my frost spells, demolish the opposition. Now, I am not say that frost is not a great spec. I know many people out there that are frost and that they enjoy them immenslyl. Not to mention the great damage mitigation that they can generate. I am just saying for me, it would lead down a long and troublesome, repair-bill filled road. Dont be a mage if you are faint of heart.

Babygorn
Rock On!

Spell Hit: DOnt need it....NOT!

I walked into Gruul's lair with a bit of nervousness. Would we be able to defeat this awe inspiring creature? What great treasure would we find inside? Our group huddled together to discuss any last minute strategy that we would want to employ to get through the epic battle to come. Then the fight commenced. The beast was held at bay by our awesome warriors and paladains as those of use who had the use of arcane powers pummeled the beast with epic amounts of energy. Or were we?? As the fight dragged on, I noticed that I was becoming quite weary and was on the last bit of power that I could dredge up. Finally me and my hardy companions manage to down Gruul but the fight was a bit unnerving. With the raw power we had, Gruul, although a formidable opponent,should not have been so difficult to overcome....

I did not come into the idea of spell hit until later in the game when I was already raiding Kara. I was doing ok damage and I seemed to be doing my job so I never thought that (ohter than hot tiered gear) I could improve my performance. Au contraire! ( I hope I spelled that right:) ) After someone pointed out that I only hit somewhere about 75% of the time, I suddenly became QUITE aware that I needed to do something about my spell hit rating and QUICK!

Spell hit is a function of many different factions. It concerns your lvl, your target's lvl, and any intervening factions like buffs, any talents your have trained down in, and any buffs or auras. Resistance is a totally seperate issue in that for a spell to be resisted, the spell has to hit! I think that this is common misunderstanding that can easily be dispelled:) (Double entaundre there:)

So, in a nutshell, the higher the lvl the enemy you are facing, the less chance you have to hit it. Also consider that, as a max, the best that you can achieve as a spell caster is 99%. Believe me, that is a number that you want to aspire to!

I am not going into the exact math of spell hit. It has been done for you quite well at www.wowwikki.com and plus I find it boring. They explain it in depth which gave me a more comprehensive understanding. Also there is a list of things and items that will bump that spell hit rating up to where your party and guild need it to be.

I have got to share this factoid about elemental shamans (since I have one) and spell hit rating. Did you know that if two elemental shamans are in the same group in a raid that with the stacking of Wrath of Air and elemental precision that with a +0 spell hit rating will give each other the +38 spell hit rating that they need for them both to get a 99%spell hit rating. Interesting...

So....dont be fooled by that little number on your character sheet to touts the huge plus damage that you may cause. If you cant reach that monster with your spell, you are't going to cause ANY damage. And that would suck.

Babygorn
RockOn!

THe Lost Spells

As mages, we all have our little spell rotations that we are used to casting to melt (or freeze-dry) the face of any and/or all nearby enemies that run afoul of our good sensibilities. Scorch, Ice lance, Pyroblast, etc. are all well known and often used spells that our party loves to see (Cuz of the awesomeness of the dps being caused!). But what about the other less widely used spells in our aresonal? Lets explore a couple of these today.

1) Amplify/Dampen Magic-If you are in end game content, you will know the use of amplify magic in the Gruul's fight. But amplify/dampen are very viable in other situations that can greatly cut the mana used of your healer. If you know that the next few fights are purely melee, throw up an amplify magic if not on everyone then on yourself. If you see a magical fight occurring, dampen magic might be of use. You will take a nibble off the overall healing but the damage mitigated might be worth it

2) Blink-I know we ALL love this nifty little trick when we are in Ironforge and want to get to the mailbox before that crafty gnome heading towards it. It also has its use when you have an AoE damage effect that you need to get out of QUICK! Combine that with mana shield and you have a viable way to stay alive through a LOT of damage.

3) Mana Ruby (and all the lesser mana stones)-Even though, as a lvl 70 mage, I have very little mana issues, I have found that these have saved my life in a couple of situations. How many times did we wish that we had just that little bit of mana to start a round of arcane missles on a boss that has 1% of health left instead od wanding? I know I have been there and I suspect there are a few of you out there too:)

I know there are others but these are the lil' buggers that I wanted to feature. Please feel free to add any others that I have not mentioned. Looking forward to it!

Babygorn
Rock On!

Aggro and Mages: Ride the Line

Now that I am into this bloggin thing I feel the need to get a couple of posts down to get SOME material down so that all of you knowledgeable peeps out there can give a shout out and share/provide tips and info to us to make the game more enjoyable. I know that I have learned many things from blog sites, fellow guildies, pugs (not that often but it DOES happen) and so on. So today I would like to talk about aggro and the monkey on our mage's back.

Having played a fire mage for the first three years ans still somewhat leaning on my prowess with the flames, I know that mages, espicially fire, are spikey little critters that seem to all of a sudden to be fighting the tank for superiority on the aggro list. My motto that I coined about 2 years ago goes like this: " A dead mage has no aggro; nor do they create dps." You can make the effect of aggro a little less if you do a couple of things preemptively.

1)Invisable-dumps all aggro from the mage. On the surface it seems like that this would be the end all-be all of the worry of aggro. But try casting it when you have 5 scorches up ticking damage, a POM pyroblast ticking off damage, and any other little trick you may have up your sleave. The 5 seconds that it takes to cast and then go into invisability now seems forever. I suggest casting it once or twice during LONG boss fights. That way you can always open up and not worry too much. You may take a little hit on the dps meters but see above mentioned motto.

2) Mana Shield- not an aggro dump but it is a way that if you get aggro, this might buy you a little time to cast invisability. I have successfully used this when I have become a little bit of an, uh, overacheiver.

3) MANAGE YOUR AGGRO- This is the most surefire way to never get your fire little buns into trouble with aggro. Yes I know that we all want to put out the damage but, again, see my motto. Give the tank, espicially in a 5 man group, some time to build up aggro. Dont cast your big ticket spells right away. COMMON sense ppl. I dont want another repair bill. Fat chance, huh?

4) THreart meters-there are several out there that work. See what your guild supports.

5)Know your toon-this should be self evident but is it? Do you know your playing style? DO you know what each spell does? Is it a DoT or straight damage? Your team my depend on you having and embracing this knowledge.

I have played with people that really dont care when they start casting, what they cast, who is in the party, etc. In our guild, in a 5 man, the quote, "You spank it, you tank it" is often uttered to those you challenge the aggro of our tanks. Nuff said.

Babygorn
Rock On!

Well I have finally done it......

This is Babygorn from the the Allerian server. I have been playing 4 years now and I have 4 level 70 toons with two on the way up. My mage was my first Alliance toon that I leveled to 70 after starting with an Undead warlock on a PvP server (what a pain! :) ) My guild Schadenfreude is currently working on end game material such as Hyjal, SSC, etc. All of this history is to tell you that I come to blog with a practical view backed by years of experience so....take that!

I started out as a dyed in the wool, burn your face off, deep (51pts) into the fire tree fire mage. I did well starting in Kara and not doing too poorly but something felt...missing. Like the high damage other mages, shammys, warlocks, etc seemed to be pouring out and I wasn't. Part of this was my spec. Part is that mages are gimped right now (which is suppossed to be addressed in WOTLK making us KINGS OF DAMAGE again:) ) And part was the fact that I would not come to a raid prepared which is the subject of my first blog: RESPONSIBILITIES TO RAIDS AND BEING PREPARED!

I know, I know.....we all like to think that we do great dps the way our lovely little selves are but the fact of the matter is that we may do ok by just showing up and playing, gracing the raid with your awesomeness, we could be doing SO MUCH BETTER if we brought the pots, food, even equipment to the same raid. Since I will be dealing with the mage class I will only delve into the needs directly to them.

Lets start with the little things first. Potions. Flasks. Food. Arcane elixir will increase your spelll power by up to 20. Considered a Battle elixir and lasts an hour. Consider how many spells you cast during a raid and you will realize that you would be missing out on A LOT of dps if you dont utilize these little dittys. I mentioned these first because it is prolly one of the least expensive items to boost your dps immediately. Poached bluefish (from the cooking side) will immediately bonus you +23 spell damage and +20 spirit WHILE giving your little lovely back 7500 pts of health. So right there you have a +43 bonus to ALL damage (notice the word "mage" in there?? ) right off the bat.

Flask of Pure Death counts as both a Guardian and Battle elixir granting a bonus to shadow, frost, and fire spells by +80 for two hours. This effect lasts through death which makes the expense of these humdingers (about 40g at current AH price) A LITTLE easier to swallow:) I like this Flask because I can have bonus to both my frost and fire spells. I AM an arcane POM mage (Presence of Mind for all you newbies that allows me to cast an instantaneous pyroblast FTW:) )I will use blizzard as an AoE at times so these plus to damage really stack up. There are other flasks and elixirs that work but these fit my build and the style of play so I suggest do as I say....or not. At your pwn peril :) Get it??

Now lets talk about armour. Armoury on the main page of the WoW website is a great place to research armour for your toon. PLEASE dont make the raid leader single you out at the begining of the raid to tell you your gear needs to be upgraded. As in your guild. Read. It is NOT the raid leader's responsibility to give you this info. If you have a class lead, ask them. But, I have found, the best info is the info you find for yourself. If you are unsure about it, ask someone who knows! We all can become our own experts if we try!

I could go on for days about responsibilities and preparedness for raids. Be early and prepared. Be signed up. Have a good attitude. Have fun!

I will sign off now. Come back soon for another informative and slightly irreverant post on really important stuff!

Babygorn
ROCK ON!