Mage AoE Grinding
Based strongly off of Avarice's "AoE leveling and you, a guide for beginners" at http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=102911503&sid=1
If you want to look at his myriad of AoEing locations and try them out to see the best for you go ahead, but if you want to see a very slimmed down version that (imo) already has the best spots with a level by level talent guide, then stick right here.
I started at 36, which was when you get rank 3 blizzard, but you can likely start earlier if you find a good place. Horde, especially, at the alliance farm in hillsbrad foothills. This guide leans towards alliance, because I'm alliance and did it on alliance areas.
Step one: Spec this.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000230023213230013200000
Ele precision >>> imp frostbolt for AoEing. One missed FN can wreck a pull, causing a lot of lost time.
It doesn't have to be exactly the same, but it's what I prefer. Maybe 1/2 ice floes and 3/3 piercing ice though.
Step two:
from level 36-40 grind at Go'Shek Farm in Arathi Highlands
Once you get the basic AoE grinding down (see below for tactics)
(link to the movie below, time 6:20)
The video also reminded me that the forsaken courier spawns at this location, and if you time it right you can pull him with his 4 guards plus a few guys at Go'Shek. good pull.
Pulls:
1: big ol' field on the east
2: big ol' field to the west
3: rank 1 frost bolt a few guys around the house to the east, then run in to get them
4: same deal with the other house
Talents:
3/3 Piercing Ice
2/5 Shatter
1/1 Ice Barrier
Ice barrier makes it SO MUCH FLIPPING EASIER.
Just thought you'd like to know.
stop at 40 because you get ice barrier and it makes it possible to do the next place.
Step three:
from level 40-44 grind at northeast area of Dustwallow Marsh, the Murlocs. There's a little "island" that is actually connected to the main part of the landmass, that's where 2 of the pulls are, and the other 2 are found by turning around and going over a small hill. One murloc settlement on the "island", one on the landmass.
(video: 11:00. 14:00 for the hill area.
find the spot he's at and that's your location, look at his minimap for help..)
I'll warn you now, that place is a PAIN IN THE ASS to get used to. One of the types of murloc has a DoT that (if I recall correctly) ticks every 15s and will interrupt spellcasting. for that reason, it is very useful to keep ice barrier or mana sheild up.
Pulls:
Before doing any pulls, there's 2 murloc coastrunners who are annoying and I liked to pick off whenever they spawned. One runs up and down the coast, and the other runs around your island.
1: one side of the island
2: the other side of the island
3: I can't remember if there was actually 2 or 3 pulls on the island, so we'll just say there was three.
4: turn around, go up the hill, and there is one or two pulls there, too.
Talents:
Shatter: 5/5
Ice shards: 1/5
Blizzard can't crit, so Ice shards and shatter aren't as important as the other talents
44 to stop because new rank of blizzard.
Step four:
from level 44-50 (possibly even 52 if you want, the exp too stale IMO) grind at Lost Rigger Cove in tanaris. This place is hella awesome. I got from 48-50 in two hours each, but they were rested.
Watch out for the ranged mobs, though. there's a few here and there, but you begin to recognize where they spawn and you can avoid that area.
(video: 15:32)
To get there, enter lost rigger cove through the little cave and just run along the coast skipping all the beginning mobs. to your right will be a fence, and eventually you get to a dock with two ships. there's your first pull.
Pulls:
1: the 10-12 swashbucklers on the deck. best pull evar.
2: run up the ramp where the ship is under construction, and aggro everyone on top of the ship
3: underneath the bow of the ship are 4 workers, you can aggro the two on the platform by running beneath them. keep running forward, and at the entrance of the house is 2 groups of 2, and then on the opposite side of the ship under construction (yeah, backtracking just a little) is another 2 mobs on a platform.
Gaurenteed none of those mobs will spawn as ranged in the first 3 pulls. be wary of a pat that goes in and out of the house, though.
4: the group of 4 in the middle with the named, and 2 by the entrance to the second house
5: 6 inside the third house are all non-ranged.
The first 3 pulls are the best, the second two are good to do whenever you need some time for the mobs to spawn.
Talents:
Ice Shards: 5/5
Improved Frostbolt: 3/5
Water Elemental: 1/1
Current Spec:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000335023313235013201001
If you want imp frostbolt sooner, instead of putting points into shatter, put them into imp frostbolt.
If you do that, instead of 5/5 Ice shards and 3/5 Imp Frostbolt, you'll have the reverse.
Step five:
From 50-52 is stupid. I quested, haha. If you're set on AoEing, go to Sorrow Hill in WPL.
The place is GREAT for AoEing, but when I did it, it was plagued (heh..) by other players.
(video: 18:15, stupid editing though. too hard to see it)
Pulls, starting from the back of the place:
1: the graveyard + tomb near the exit
2: the graveyard across the road
3: the graveyard down and across the road
4: the rest of the stragglers around the road (all working towards the FP area)
Talents:
finish up Imp frostbolt or Ice Shards, whichever path you chose.
Step six:
from 52-58 grind at Dalson's Tears in WPL. AMAZING place. my average pull was 9-10 guys, sometimes up to 13. quickest 6 levels EVER in that bracket. each was probably at most ~4 hours
(Video: 21:15)
(remember, every time I list these pulls it's IDEALIZED and once you get used to the location!)
Pulls:
1: around the broken wagon on the side closest to the road, the ~4, and gather another ~6 from the west side inwards
2: the group around the little shack, haystacks, and other wagon
3: circle the cauldron, maybe grabbing another one or two from the east side
4: around the two silos and any in front of the house
5: behind the house and barn
These pulls are VERY dynamic, I usually just went wherever there was mobs, and there was always enough for a decent pull (8+)
Talents: Don't really matter at this point. just DO NOT GET FROSTBITE.
Tactics:
Step 1:
Mana Sheild / Ice Barrier (when you get it), drink/eat to full, mount up (as soon as you get it)
Step 2:
aggro mobs, dismount (I used a dismount/blink macro, so I hit it once to dismount and again to blink IF EVER NECESSARY), face mobs, Ice barrier when the other wears off
Step 3:
cone of cold, frost nova, turn, blink + run to about farthest distance
Step 4:
Blizzard, make sure they're all getting hit! blizzard again, make sure the FRONT man is either in the back or the middle-back of your blizzard's radius, so they walk through it.
Step 5a:
Frost nova, few steps, blizzard. All should die at that point.
Step 5b:
Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, AE to death.
5a is safer, less hits, use it when you have low health.
5b is more mana intensive, but funner cause you see flashy numbers ^^ and a bit faster, usually.
Troubles:
"Oh noes! one mob resisted frost nova!"
No problem, blink as planned, they should be slowed by your ice armor, and poly them. avoid getting him with the first blizzard, but it's ok to hit with the second, he'll need another fireblast + whatever to kill, though. hope you have the mana!
Alternativly, you can Cold snap and (CoC if you want, I usually skipped it) frost nova again. Much easier, much more effective.
Otherwise, run away. Running >>> Dying
"what about two?"
Use the second method above, or run like hell.
Gear:
+int and +stam all the way. If you have a wardrobe mod, get a second set of gear with all +spi for when you use Evocation. When I was grinding in wpl, I used a few tailored items with some +frost damage. it didn't help all that much, but wasn't bad.
That's about all. Any help on the horde side will be added up here if someone posts it =)
(added later)
great video from a post below:
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=30092
a must watch if you plan on seriously AoE grinding.
