Could I get some Gear advice on my mage? Maybe some playing tips?

Worlawk

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Xixuegui @ Ner'zhul - Game - World of Warcraft



That's my mage so far. I'm new to level 70 twinking, I'm also new to mages. I'm currently fire, and it's fun fun fun, but I liked frost as well.



I was wondering if I'm gearing correctly, or if there is a better way to gear my mage?

I don't know what the core stats for each spec are, and I don't know where to go really to get what gear, and so I was really hoping the community here could give me a few tips.



Like, for fire, I felt like stacking crit was the right way to go, but for Frost I've heard haste. Is it reasonable/possible to gem for both, or should I plan on making a second set of gear for frost?



Are my talents set up correctly? Is there a better alotment, for someone who's just stepping into a caster playstyle after playing on melee for 5 years? Should I leave it until I get better and then change the spec to something more offensive later on?





As a mage, generally how should I go about dealing with priests/rogues/hunters/enh shams? These classes give me the most difficulty. (while prot paladins are tough I think there's nothing one can truly do against them 1v1 when they're skilled, if I'm wrong then tips would be nice for them too).



Sorry to be a total newb on the forums as ask all these questions at once. x_X

I'm currently working on the Shattered Sun helm enchant, and then I think I've got to do raids to get any other upgrades. And, I can do raids, I just don't know what I'm looking for. So, advice on upgrades would also be very much appreciated.



Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if you didn't...



TL;DR: WHAT DO I DOOOOOO? D:
 
Thats a lot of questions. Generally you want sunwell and black temple/hyjal gear, with sunwell being by far the best. Go for gear with as many socket places as possible since the overall stats will be much higher with sockets.

Also I saw you gem after the socket bonuses, but as you can see the socket bonuses is very low amount of stats, so you'd probably be better off just stacking whatever you need and ignoring the socket colors.

As for what to stack, as fire int and crit is by far the best stacks, with intelect being really good if you can get a lot of it, you need a high amount of crit as fire so aim for 40% and then start stacking int. (int gives crit aswell, but not as much as pure crit). As frost haste and int, no required amount of haste, just what you feel suits your play. Your fire spec is almost the same as I would use, only difference is I'd take cauterize over improved flamestrike, cauterize is one of the best talents while imp flamestrike is barely ever needed. Your frost spec is fine.
 
Thank you! that answers so many questions!



I'll look into moving points from flamestrike, I just like have a "pull rogues out of stealth" button for arenas.

Otherwise thank you so much. c: I really appreciate it!
 
mark of the wild gives 35 to all resist (16.67 dmg reduction), doesnt stack with other things like abberation (worgen racial that grants 52 nature&shadow resist - 22.91% dmg reduction). not too hard to get with a cape enchant and an epic gem or two
 
Worlawk said:
Like, for fire, I felt like stacking crit was the right way to go, but for Frost I've heard haste. Is it reasonable/possible to gem for both, or should I plan on making a second set of gear for frost?



Fire: Crit/Int

Frost: Int/Haste

Arcane: Haste/Int



Worlawk said:
Are my talents set up correctly? Is there a better alotment, for someone who's just stepping into a caster playstyle after playing on melee for 5 years? Should I leave it until I get better and then change the spec to something more offensive later on?



I can't see your character, but my talents + glyphs are ideal for Fire.



Qtpockets @ Azgalor - Game - World of Warcraft



Since you're new to the Mage class I'd recommend playing Frost for awhile until you get all the basics down and you know how to survive + hold your own in 1v1s and small fights. Fire (and Arcane) is a rough, extremely unforgiving spec. You will notice very quickly how much easier Frost is just to stay alive and do damage with FoF Ice Lance



Worlawk said:
As a mage, generally how should I go about dealing with priests/rogues/hunters/enh shams? These classes give me the most difficulty. (while prot paladins are tough I think there's nothing one can truly do against them 1v1 when they're skilled, if I'm wrong then tips would be nice for them too).



Priest: A good Priest won't really lose to a Mage unless the Mage is Arcane with pve gear. It takes several fight resets, but it is doable. What I normally do is play really aggressive and try to get a spellsteal on shields then burst them when they don't haz a shield.



Rogues: A hard counter for Mages. As Fire/Arcane you'll die in a Garrote silence. As Frost though, if you can survive through their 2 vanishes and cloak they're easy. Using your first Ice Block on either Cloak of Shadows or even on the garrote opener if he's going to be spamming Ambush with Shadowdance. Ambush does ridiculously OP damage. x.x



Hunters: Get in their face, abuse your instants and don't let them get an Aimed Shot off if they're Marks. I never have problems with Hunters.



Enhancement Shamans: Another counter for Mages. I'm not very familiar with fighting Enhance but my guess would be to just outlast their Wolves/cds.



Bandages are your friend.



Gotta jet, will post more later.
 
70 pene is a must -> shaman totem and pally aura.

There are no skilled prot paladins.

U can't win against a decent priest if he has a pillar, that is 1v1. If they are stupid u should get them at like 60% and get a CS off, then its gg for u. If they are not it will be hard to even get a frostbolt off :p

As our crit stackingfriend above says, ambush does op damage. Saying ambush does OP damage while shatter combos/ pyros/ ab pom ab are the deadliest bursts on 70, is a bit hypocritical, mage has OP damage too. Vs a rogue U shouldn't have to show ur back vs a good mage my rogue doesn't get a lot of backstabs, ur only garroted, start on ur mount & jump around since he cant slow & garrote u in 1 gcd. U'll be far enough from him to prevent him from getting in ur back and dying in one garrotelol. (Use frost armor vs a rogue, certainly as fire now that firestarter has been changed. U can switch later anyways since they don't cost mana.) Start casting poly, if he kicks u can freecast till kidney, if not just blink kidney. Poly after kidney, he probably either vannishes or shadowsteps, if he steps u nova if he doesn't u try drink/mount depends on ur hp, if he opens and ur not mounted u block quickly, don't let him run away, but try to get ur free cooldown time as much . Cancel block and then u'll have to use spec specific spells eg freeze -> deep or dragon's breath. He has to trinket that, then he might vannish & garrote u again, u can trinket that garrote then its pretty much gg, or he starts bursting u with all hes got then u will have to use whatever u have available, this happens very fast I'm pretty sure u u should be able to at least snap deep freeze to get ur distance without taking too much damage, or as fire u'll have to hope for a lucky blazing speet proc somewhere in a step above so u don't have to use a spell, or have an impact ready. This is all theoretically, probably one of u makes an error and everything changes (also there is blind which gives him an extra opener but if he waits a full blind to stealth plus a sap for stun/silence DR u have ur main cooldowns back, trinket or block that garrote if u can't just don't let him backstab), but in general rogue mage is a very even mage. Saying ambush does OP damage while shatter combos/ pyros/ ab pom ab are the deadliest bursts on 70, is a bit hypocritical.

Oh and enha shamans are always a bitch, as any mage spec, either u nuke them first or they rajp u since they ground trinket ur polymorphs and their ghostwolf shit is just jk.

Well good luck anyways, hope u enjoy mage at 70.

P.S. hunterlól
 
So the fact that I'm winning 1v1 most fights with Fire means I'm doing alright? :D



And I've updated the first post, I ended up race/name changing, got sick of my original name and wanted that extra trinket + faster pvp trinket cooldown.

I'm still trying to figure out if EMFH the human racial, actually breaks silence, it didn't seem to earlier.
 
Trinkets have the ability to break silence and disarm since 4.0.6
 
Worlawk said:
Thank you! that answers so many questions!



I'll look into moving points from flamestrike, I just like have a "pull rogues out of stealth" button for arenas.

Otherwise thank you so much. c: I really appreciate it!



Check my gear for some stuff. I'll admit, I'm not as good as I want to be, because I still need some sunwell gear, etc. But it will at least give you the right idea.



I will say though, that my spec I consider the best. That may not mean much to you, but at least think about it. I love my improved flamestrike lol



But I also love my cauterize. So think of moving talents from something else into those, if it suits you anyway.
 
I looked at your spec, and noticed a key difference between ours is that you have 3 in Molten Fury. The 12% damage sounds like an incredibly indispensable talent, but it's really not that useful for a crit stacked fire mage, because if you have anything below 35% health...chances are with our crazy crit chance and insane DoTs nothing will live anyway, so I don't put the points in it, because I just don't know how often it would be super necessary.
 
Squadbroken said:
I looked at your spec, and noticed a key difference between ours is that you have 3 in Molten Fury. The 12% damage sounds like an incredibly indispensable talent, but it's really not that useful for a crit stacked fire mage, because if you have anything below 35% health...chances are with our crazy crit chance and insane DoTs nothing will live anyway, so I don't put the points in it, because I just don't know how often it would be super necessary.



That's what I wanted to hear. I thought it wasn't amazing, but I didn't see how I could talk myself out of 12% damage. But that's a really good way to put it. Thanks. c:
 
Gihipoxu said:
Trinkets have the ability to break silence and disarm since 4.0.6



But my human racial hasn't been breaking SP silence, or Strangulate, or imp CS. So I'm confused.
 
Worlawk said:
But my human racial hasn't been breaking SP silence, or Strangulate, or imp CS. So I'm confused.

Well I'm not an alliance, trinket isn't the same as every man for himself I guess. Good to know it doesn't work for them.
 

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