Mage Raiding Tips
Introduction: “Raid or die.”
For a game that prides itself on allowing players to solo to the level cap, those words sound harsh. But, for players who are level 60 right now and don’t relish the chance to enter the PVP fray doing massively less damage than heavily geared raiders, those words are a sad truth. Here are some tricks of the trade from a casual player who has made the jump into
the raiding game without totally hating it. While many of the specifics will be out of date in a few months with the release of the Burning Crusade, the concepts in this guide will hold true for the next generation of mages, setting forth to raid for the first time at level 70.
Part I: Spells and Specs
All joking about water boys and portal taxis aside, the main job of a mage is to cast spells to deal damage. This guide isn’t going to cover every point of every spec and the mage’s role in every fight. But here are some general considerations in how you spend those precious talent points.
General:
- Get the talent that reduces threat for your main nuking tree. A mage that pulls aggro and dies does no more damage for the rest of the fight (presuming that they didn’t cause a wipe outright).
- Consider what your back-up spell is going to be. If you’re fire specced, you’re going to be severely limited in MC and BWL. Frost specs face a similar dilemma against Sapphiron at the end of Naxx, though I’d imagine that relatively few people reading this guide for tips currently have that problem. Regardless of spec, there are enemies in AQ20 and AQ40 that reflect specific spells, forcing you to use alternatives.
- Be prepared to make choices between raiding and PVP/farming. While mages have it a lot better than other classes, every tree faces some choices where talents you’d really like for non-raiding use are simply useless once you zone into a raid (e.g. Shatter in the frost tree, since most raid bosses are immune to freezing).
Arcane:
- Arcane Missiles suffers from poor mana efficiency and is rumored to occupy an invisible debuff slot on enemies, causing the raid to lose the benefits of far more valuable debuffs on the mobs. Contrary to some popular belief, AM is not entirely without benefits in raiding. The talent to make the spell uninterruptible makes it a passable option for situations when
you must cast while taking damage (notably Vael and Firemaw in BWL). You’re also significantly less likely to pull aggro while casting AM even without the aggro reducer, simply because AM crits only affect one of the five missile volleys. And, of course, it’s a source of Arcane spell damage for fights where a mob is vulnerable to Arcane spells. In general, though, AM is not very popular as a primary raid nuke, and you can expect to run out of mana a lot more when using it.
- At level 60, heavy (21+) Arcane specs don’t offer great utility for level 60 raiding. Arcane Power and Presence of Mind are fun talents that do a lot of damage in PVP, but you’re giving up a lot of damage potential in other trees to get that burst damage, and risking aggro on yourself in the process. You’re more commonly going to see a main spec in another tree
with low end Arcane talents to add mana regen.
- BC Preview Note: As of this writing, the official talent preview for the Burning Crusade suggests that the 20+ point region of the Arcane tree is going to get several new talents that improve the effectiveness of all spells. It’s distinctly possible that these talents will outweigh the damage gained by shooting for 41 points in either of the other two trees.
Fire Spec:
- Fire specs suffer heavily in the low end raiding game because resistance or even outright immunity to fire is very common in MC and BWL. In all other instances, though, Fire mages do more damage than either of the alternatives. Many high-end guilds that would have frowned on fire specs months ago are now mandating fire specs as they try to tackle AQ40 and Naxx.
- The mage talent revamp introduced changes intended to favor Elementalist builds (i.e. builds that specced in both Fire and Frost, rather than using Arcane as a support tree). And indeed, Fire mages will want to spend 3 points in the Frost tree to obtain Elemental Precision, which offers a sizeable spell hit bonus (and will continue to, even after trees are revised for the expansion). Unfortunately, the other synergy fire mages will find in the frost tree is Shatter, which has limited use in raiding. In general, mages with a primary spec in Fire are going to find more raid utility out of mana efficiency talents in the Arcane tree than a foray into frost.
- BC Preview Note: Fire specs are in line to obtain a new talent, Molten Fury, which will allow for a massive damage boost on foes below 20% life. In lengthy raid fights where that last 20% can be a huge chunk of HP, this will be a huge benefit, well worth going above 31 points in Fire for.
Frost Spec:
- Frostbolt mages are kings of the mana efficiency game. Combined with an off-spec in Arcane, a frost mage can expect to last for a very long time before running out of mana. Unfortunately, many of the snaring and freezing effects a frost mage relies on solo and in PVP are worthless in raids, because enemies are immune.
- A heavy frost spec (as opposed to a 20 point spec that picks up the low-hanging improvements to frostbolt and goes heavy Arcane for support/PVP) gets two key talents that improve mage survivability. The first is ice block, which, like a Paladin's bubble, makes the mage temporarily invulnerable. This talent can be used offensively to remove annoying
debuffs, and defensively when a mage pulls aggro. Note that this spell is NOT an aggro wipe like a hunter's Feign Death or a Rogue's Vanish, so caution should be used in resuming DPS on a target. The other, Ice Barrier, allows a frost mage to essentially heal himself, reducing burden on healers and allowing uninterrupted casting. Both are recommended for
high end frost specs.
- BC Preview Note: Many mages are going to be tempted to go to 41 points for the water elemental. Stopping at ice barrier and switching to the Arcane tree for mana efficiency and extra DPS upgrades may or may not be a better choice, but we won't know until balancing in the beta test is finished.
Part II:
Tools of the Trade A huge portion of a mage's damage potential will come from raid gear, which will be discussed in Part III. But there are many things a mage can do before even setting foot in a raid zone that will improve the mage's damage output (and thereby help earn a place in a raiding guild).
Enchants:
Getting your gear enchanted can be expensive, and that expense seems wasted if the gear sucks and you replace it shortly thereafter. But remember that enchants are ALWAYS on, while other consumable options expire after time, or upon death (which happens often while learning a new raid). That makes enchants a decent investment even on gear you’ll only be using for a short time. Low end enchants: Many nice enchants are surprizingly cheap. For example, 5 resist all
or 7 fire resist to cape, 7 stamina to boots, 7 int or 9 sta to bracers. Because mages don't benefit from melee stats, you might find that a cheap 100 health to chest enchant is more beneficial than a very expensive +3 or +4 stats enchant. High end enchants: +30 spell damage to weapon and +20 fire/frost to gloves are the big ones and they aren't cheap, but
they're a huge boost to your damage potential. My best advice is to evaluate whether the item you have is one you're going to have for a long time. If you can afford these, again, they're a huge, permanent boost. The Subtlety to Cloak enchant is somewhat mediocre due to recent changes in the way that threat reducing effects stack – unless you’re deep in Naxx, this one is probably more expensive than it’s worth, especially for Alliance players.
Bandages:
Boring, but simple and useful. Sometimes the healers are overwhelmed and won't be able to get to you very quickly. If you're not taking damage and in danger of death, there's no excuse not to have the highest rank of bandages. (Fortunately, this won't cost you very much, since cloth is plentiful.) Bring a stack or two.
Potions:
I'm going to presume you're not made of money and don't have access to a constant stream of flasks. Still, there are some low-end potions that can help you out even if you're not made of gold. (Obviously, the cost goes down a lot if you or an alt can pick herbs in zones at least up to level 40). - Major Health/Mana Potions: The ingredients aren't necessarily
cheap, but you can often get these as drops from mobs while farming for repair cash anyway. You may or may not use many of these, but it’s good to have them around for when you need them.
- Damage potions: Greater Arcane Elixirs are best, but these are also costly, and you may or may not have access to the recipe even if you are an alchemist. The low level alternative, however, can be made with goldthorn and blindweed that a level 40 character can farm efficiently
Part III: Gear
There's no avoiding it, gear is the biggest thing that affects your raid DPS. By the time you get into AQ40, it's not uncommon for half of your DPS to come from gear. Here are some tips in your hunt for those shiny Purples everyone is always talking about.
- General considerations: By and large, you want spell damage above all other stats. Spell crit and spell hit can be valued in terms of spell damage (consider 1% crit to be worth about 1% of your average spell hit). Next comes your mana pool. Get int (boosts mana and adds crit), followed by mana regen (though, again, some builds care more about this than others). When possible, get stamina too. A dead mage deals no damage.
- PVP for gear and profit: My mage traveled a significant distance into AQ40 wearing the cape from honored with the AV
battleground, and still uses the wand for victory in AV. If you don't have a top end staff, the exalted off-hands from AV are amongst the best options in the game (though use caution in starting that grind now, with the honor system revamp coming soon). Keep your eyes on all rep rewards so you can target items that will be good upgrades without requiring you to morgage your life to the Honor System. Note that Blizzard will soon be revamping the honor system to make honor function more like currency. When that happens, it will become increasingly common for all classes to be able to supplement their raiding gear by targeting one or two choice upgrades and earning them with PVP over time.
- The Road Less Taken: Almost all guilds rely on some form of DKP (Dragon Kill Points) to distribute loot from raids to people who have been present day after day and week after week to help the guild learn the encounters. This can, however, also work in favor of the new or casual raider. In every instance, there are certain items that are deemed "the best" that people will save up for. This often means that bargains can be had on less popular items. If you're in MC and everyone is saving for the Mageblade/Staff of Dominance, look for a Sorcerous Dagger or maybe a weapon from 20-mans. Everyone piling on to try and complete their Netherwind sets? Pick up non-set items instead. In many guilds that are in BWL or beyond, you may find that people aren't even interested in 20-man loot for their mains. Well, some of that stuff is actually BETTER than anything you'll find for the same slots in BWL. Point being, your goal is to make the most of what you've got, not to gather the most.
Part IV: Other General Tips
- Don't be afraid to ask questions. Raiding guilds often do the same dungeons over and over again for weeks at a time. As a result, often we don't stop to think about whether there's someone new who doesn't know the strategy for a given fight. The only thing stupider than asking a stupid question is not asking one and having things go to heck because of it.
- Provide Arcane Intellect/Brilliance to people who need it. Ask the other mages in the raid how this task is divided up, but everyone with a mana bar should have an Int buff as soon as can be managed between pulls.
- Schedule matters. If you are applying to a guild that expects 75+% attendence and you're not able to commit to that because of work, life, etc, neither side is going to be happy. Your guild may get ticked that you're not around,
and meanwhile you'll likely find yourself at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to loot.
- Sometimes, being a mage while a guild is learning encounters can be harsh. It doesn't matter how much DPS you can do if the boss is getting loose on the pull, the MT is dying, etc. In general, save your potions etc until it looks like the raid has the strategy down and just needs that extra boost to finish the boss.
- If you're doing anything that lies beyond the AQ gates, set your hearthstone in Silithus. :) With portals, us mages can be at any other raid zone pretty quickly, but Silithus is just a pain in the tail to get to.
- Try to have a bag full of water at the start of the raid. It's sad, but more often than not someone won't think of the fact that they need water until after the raid is underway. Ask your class leader to chew them out if you want, but someone has to water them, and you might as well do it yourself. A little good will from the healers never hurts, especially if you'll be AE'ing later. :)
- Have fun! If you're serious about raiding, you're going to be spending a lot of time on it. If it's not fun for you, it's just not worth it.
Best of luck, fellow mages!
