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Mage PVE mage guide for dummies!

Aquarelle

Authorized
Joined
Mar 28, 2015
:innocent: Hello ladies and gentlemen^^
English isn’t my native language, but I hope u can understand the main things about mages, I wanted to create an easy guide like ‘what should I do when I rich 60’, so it consists of spec/
attune/gear/chant/conz/macro/addon parts and contains pictures and links to the items u need.U don’t need to be genius to play mage in pve, just do a couple of things and keep 30% of attention in raids so u don’t die before boss dead :( Follow this guide and train your forefinger and soon u will be on the top of dps meters.

1.Spec.
For MC/BWL you need to useFrost spec. One mage should go in WC spec. If that’s u, your prio will be stacking WC by frostbolt r1 up to 5times as soon as possible!
In later content AQ/Naxx your main pve spec will change to Fire.


2. Attunes.
A key to Upper Blackrock Spire(UBRS).
This item obtained from a short questline.
1. The very first step of creating the UBRS keys is to gather these 4 items from LBRS
- Unadorned Seal of Ascension:random drop off of mobs both inside and outside the BRS instace. The seal can be purchased and sold on the Auction House.
- Gemstone of Spirestone: random drop from Highlord Omokk
- Gemstone of Smolderthorn: random drop from War Master Voone
- Gemstone of Bloodaxe: random drop from Overlord Wyrthmalak
2. Once you have these 4 items, you must turn them into Vaelan in LBRS. He's located at the top of the slope that is right before the first wooden bridge. If you go to the very top of that slope, look left, you'll see a single orc at the very end of that flat area. That's Vaelan in disguise. He will transform back to his normal self when you get close. Speak with him. He says a few things and eventually lets you complete the 4 item Seal of Ascension quest. You now should get another Seal of Ascension quest which sends you to Dustwallow Marsh. Vaelan gives you a box containing (1) Orb of Draconic Energy and (1) Unforged Seal of Ascension. Both of these items have 5 charges which equates to 5 chances at getting your Unforged Seal, Forged. If you fail all 5 times you will have to go Gem hunting again.

3. Get a group of 5 or so capable people and head to Dustwallow Marsh. The quest, Seal of Ascension, describes how you must find the ancient drake known as Emberstrife and use him to forge your seal. The cave that this named 59-61 elite is in is located just south of Onyxias lair at the very southern part of Dustwallow Marsh.

4. Once your party has reached the cave where Emberstrife is located, go in and position yourself across from the plateau that he sits on. There should be a shallow lake between you and him.

5. Now the fun begins. What you're trying to accomplish here is to use Emberstrife to forge your Unforged Seal of Ascension. This is accomplished by a form of mind control, and using one of his abilities that pops up for you on the Unforged Seal. I'll detail this event.
- Make sure whoever is doing the Quest is not tanking. You have to do a couple things that should not be interrupted.
- Have someone with a ranged attack pull Emberstrife. Fight in the shallow lake as there can be issues with LOS and forging of the Seal.
- When Emberstrifes health reaches around 25%, the person who has the Unforged Seal of Ascension needs to use that item. When used you will see a purple orb type object floating a little off of the ground. This is the Unforged Seal of Ascension. It will only last for a couple of minutes, so its best to use that item when he's around 20-25% health.
- When Emberstrifes health reaches 10-15% everyone will see an orange emote stating "Emberstrife's will is faltering". At that time, everyone must stop attacking. I say again, stop attacking the drake. At the same time, the person who has the Orb of Draconic Energy needs to target Emberstrife and use the Orb. What this does is mind control the drake.
- The person who used the Orb should now have total control over Emberstrife. Position Emberstrife so that he is facing that Unforged Seal of Ascension that you placed. You should also have a minibar that pops up just above your main bar that contains 4 different abilities. You want to use the very far left one which is "Flame of the Black Dragonflight". Making sure that Emberstrife is facing the Unforged Seal of Ascension, use that ability. If done correctly you will see an icy blue cloud spew from Emberstrife. If you put your mouse over the Seal, if done correctly, it should now say Forged Seal of Ascension. Also note, Emberstrife can only be mind controled for the duration of the channeling bar that pops up. You do have ample time to do the event, however, once that bar is gone, you have to repeat the battle again.
- Once you have Forged the Seal, you can either right click on the mind control icon to cancel mind control or let the channeling bar run out. Once you return to your character finish Emberstrike and go right click on the Seal. You will receive the Forged Seal of Ascension at that point.
- The last step is to return the Forged Seal of Ascension to Vaelan in LBRS. You then are given the Seal of Ascension which opens the door to UBRS. Congrats!

Onyxia.
Molten Core
U can get to after finish the quest Attunement to the Core. Find a group to BRD, take a quest from this guy
Quest_Guy_For_MC_Text.jpg
Lothos Riftwaker, go to BRD and before u come in the room with huge amount of mobs with fast respawn turn right and kill a few fire elementals, loot . Talk to that elf again;
BWL.
Find a raid to UBRS and ask ppl to help you with attune. Kill (Scarshield Quartermaster)loot an envelope, accept the quest, kill last boss in UBRS, click the sphere and /dance ;

Naxx
U need to get Honored or higher reputation with Argent Dawn(hope u got it), go to Eastern Plaguelands to a hot blondie (history minute: this chick discovered the secret to creating the Frostfire Regalia(t3) set for mages^^)
Archmage_Angela_Dosantos.jpg
I advise u to take needed amount of qshit before u get to Light's Hope Chapel.​
Honored:Nexus crystal x2, Righteous Orb, Arcane Crystal x5
Revered:Nexus crystal x1, Arcane Crystal x2
If u got Exalted u won’t need anything, just finish the quest.

3. Pre-raid gear:

Helm

- Spellweaver's Turban is bis. It drops from General Drakkisath in UBRS.
Untill you get it, you can use Crimson Felt Hat from Magistrate Barthilas, Stratholme.

Neck
inv_jewelry_necklace_10.jpg

You need to get Diana's Pearl Necklace, which drops in a living part of Stratholme from Cannon Master Willey.
lil bit worse variant is Star of Mystaria,drops from Balnazzar, Stratholme.

Shoulder
inv_shoulder_02.jpg

Boreal Mantle(drops from Warder Stilgiss in The Vault in BRD) is the best for nowdays pve content, later for fire spec you can get Burial Shawl, but it has really low droprate from the last Sholo bosses.

Cloak
inv_misc_cape_02.jpg

This will be a problem. Bis back is a random green cloak of Frozen wrath, that gives 21 frost spell dmg.
If you aren't that lucky, you can get Amplifying Cloak from Magister Kalendris(Dire Maul) or Deep Woodlands Cloak from this elite Hinterlands quest.

Chest
inv_chest_cloth_38.jpg

Best in slot is Robe of the Archmage;it requires Tailoring and drops from LBRS. The pattern is boe,so you can buy it on AH, but the chest is Bind on Pickup.
For non-tailors the best robe is Freezing Lich Robes, which drops from Ras Frostwhisper(Sholo).

Wrist
inv_bracer_13.jpg

Sublime Wristguards drops in Dire Maul North from Guards Slip'kik&Mol'dar.

Hands
inv_gauntlets_14.jpg

Hands of Power (drops from Quartermaster Zigris-LBRS), till you change it with Sorcerer's Gloves, which you can get from the Dungeon set 2 quest chain.

Waist
inv_belt_29.jpg

Go to BRD, dont forget to take a couple of friends and farm arena for Ban'thok Sash.

Legs
inv_pants_13.jpg

So, as we don't have an opportunity to craft bloodvine, I can advice you try to get Skyshroud Leggings from Highlord Omokk(LBRS).
p.s.:tnx for Doomie, I really forgot about this great item:(

Boots
inv_boots_05.jpg

BRD runs will bring you Omnicast Boots from Golem Lord Argelmach, which are really good for the start and the drop rate is good, so it wont take much time to get it fast.

Rings
inv_jewelry_ring_16.jpg

Don Mauricio's Band of Domination (Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance) + Rune Band of Wizardry (Lord Valthalak, UBRS) is my choise, but the variants could be:Freezing Band(world drop), Maiden's Circle(world drop), Songstone of Ironforge (Quest reward)

Trinkets
inv_jewelry_talisman_08.png

You will get this great Eye of the Beast by doing the quest line for Onyxia attunement. Second thinket can be - Briarwood Reed,UBRS.

Weapons
inv_weapon_shortblade_25.jpg

I prefer to have 1h+oh, so I advice you to get Witchblade from Darkmaster Gandling(Sholo) + Tome of the Lost(General Drakkisath-UBRS), which you will change later for Scepter of Interminable Focus from Sothos and Jarien's Heirlooms in Stratholme. I should also mention here the AV exalted OH, Tome of the Ice Lord.
There is also a good stuff from Lord Valthalak(UBRS) - Lord Valthalak's Staff of Command or you can get Rod of the Ogre Magi from Dire Maul.

Wand
inv_misc_bone_taurenskull_01.jpg

There are also few variants here: green wand world drop +21frost/fire spd, wand for the AV quest and some we can get even now:
Bonecreeper Stylus from Darkmaster Gandling(Sholo) or Ritssyn's Wand of Bad Mojo drops from Baron Rivendare in Stratholme.


4.Enchants.
Main hand 30 damage to spells
​Head and legs
Arcanum of Focus, that you can get for the Dire Maul quest
Chest
+4stat/100mana/100hp – that’s up to you
Boots
+7 stam
Wrist
+7 int or +9 stam
Cloack
Greater Resistance or 70 armor

5.Consumable goods.

Here is the list of conz you may use for the raids(17.04.2015) I will add some lil bit later for the future content. Note that not everything stack here!
Flask of Supreme Power
Greater Arcane Elixir
Elixir of the Sages
Elixir of Frost Power(I dunno if we need to wait till next Xmass:( )
Elixir of Greater Intellect
Greater Fire Protection Potion
Lesser Wizard Oil
Demonic/Dark Rune
Heavy Runecloth Bandage
Nighfin Soup
Major Mana Potion
Oil of Immolation - go-go mage-tanks:D
Limited Invulnerability Potion
Invisibility Potion
+ scrolls

6. Macro.
I will post just a few.
/script SetCVar ("cameraDistancemax" ,50)
Look the rogue behind you:D

/script SpellStopCasting()
/cast Counterspell
/script SpellStopCasting()
/cast Blink
It will stop whatever you're casting and cast counterspell.

/run local x = IsAltKeyDown(); if x == nil then CastSpellByName("Frostbolt(Rank 10)") else CastSpellByName("Frostbolt(Rank 1)"); end;
Save the space:)

/run local x = IsShiftKeyDown(); if x == nil then CastSpellByName("Ice Barrier") else CastSpellByName("Mana Shield"); end;
This macro casts Ice Barrier if shift isn't pressed. If shift is pressed, it casts Mana Shield.

/run for b=0,4 do for s=1,GetContainerNumSlots:)) do local n=GetContainerItemLink(b,s) if n and string.find(n,"Conjured Crystal Water") then PickupContainerItem(b,s); DropItemOnUnit("target"); AcceptTrade(); break; end; end; end;
This macro will open trade, put in two stacks of water, and accept trade in 1 button(click it few times)

/script i=1;m=0;while(UnitBuff("player",i)~=nil) do if(strfind(UnitBuff("player",i), "Spell_Shadow_ManaBurn") ~=nil) then m=1; end; i=i+1;end; c=CastSpellByName; if(m==1) then c("Arcane Missiles"); else c("Frostbolt"); end;
This macro will cast Frostbolt when Arcane Concentrating isn't up. When Arcane Concentration is up, it will cast Arcane Missiles for you.

Tnx to Netherfist for help with macros:rolleyes2:

7.Addons
There are many good topics with addons on this forum, but as Im writing guide for begginers, I will just describe list of minimum usefull addons or you can ask me later ingame if you need some(/w Aquarelle).
Install all addons in Wow-Interface-Addons
So..
In raid we need the addon, that will show us timers of harmful spells and alarm us when we standing in some dangerous shiet.I prefer BigWigs for it,you can download it from the link below, but I advice you to use the same addon as your guildies in raid(the same version),
You also need to watch your treatment, notice that we don't have subtlety(-aggro chant on cloak),install Omen or KTM.Both addons showing aggro, but you should ask your raid leader if ppl in raid use the same version or not.
Watch the time of your abilities, so you need to download Omnicc. Now you will know when your cooldowns will be ready.
You also need to watch whats happening with your raid and if all parties got an Intellect buff. You aren't a healer,so you wont need those massive 40man tables in your Interface. I advice you to use Perfect raid. Use this comands to set it like you like:
1) /praid sort group
2) /praid columns 1-10
3) /praid scale 0.3-1.5
One of must-have addons is Decursive. You will need to decurse a lot and this addon will help you to become very good and usefull part of raid. It has black and prio lists,so you can set for example healers or your party to get decurse first.
You will need to watch the boss/mob/player cast with the help of Enemy casting bar.

Here is an example(sorry for my old screenshot,I will change it lil bit later ^^) of how your Interface could look like. Its far from 'perfect', there are a lot of beautiful UIs in the Internet, but I prefer my familiar&ugly:laugh:
6803916.jpg

Google disc,where you can download addons
and some more useful addons:rolleyes2:
And the last one! Professions!
Here u can find a list of NPC- trainers for each prof.U can chose any cuz it doesnt give u bonuses in pve!

b2b0a65da8a441bc8403569e44fd877d.0.gif
 
Last edited:
Can you or someone else please post the proper frost specs? The link is broken. : / I think the spec I made is close but I wanna make sure. Thanks in advance!
 
Preraid bis : for non tailor is the best robe of winter night imho :wink: not the stamina one you posted
 
Why does everyone always post the Horde Ony attunement line. WHere's the Ally side start?
 
Bumping with Bloodvine set, Rockfury Bracers from CC rep and Talisman of Ascendance from AD rep
 
I mostly play for PvP but I think this could be useful for both PvP and PvE. So, here's my counterspell macro I wrote:

/run s, d, e=GetSpellCooldown(27, "spell") if d==0 then SpellStopCasting() c=CastSpellByName s="Counterspell" if UnitExists("mouseover") and UnitIsEnemy("player", "mouseover") then TargetUnit("mouseover") c(s) TargetLastEnemy() else c(s) end; end;

What it does:
It checks if your counterspell is on cooldown. If it is, it will do nothing. If not: it cancels your current spell, then checks if your mouse is over an ENEMY target. If so, it will cast on the target under your mouse, otherwise it will cast on your currently selected target. NOTE: You may have to change the 27 in the GetSpellCooldown() function, as I'm not sure if it's in the same spell slot in every mages book. Mine is in the 27th slot, so it works for me.
 
I have a question about +spell dmg vs. +crit. In the matter of using witchblade + scepter of interminable focus vs Valthalak's staff of command: is it worth trading off the additional 11 stam, 2 int and 7 spell dmg for the 1% crit? Even if considering just spell dmg and +crit, is there a rule of thumb for how much spell dmg is worth trading for crit? Thanks for any information on this.
 
The ratio isn't fixed. The better your gear (/ more consumes used), the more valuable crit becomes in comparison to spelldmg.
For the sake of sanity and not spending too much time theorycrafting a class that is based entirely on pressing a single button for the whole duration of the fight... you can value 1% crit as equal to somewhere between 9-11 spelldamage. Maybe 13-14 once you get some BWL gear and flask up.
That's for frost, of course. Accurate math for fire spec (in synergy with other fire mages) is complete madness.
 
Just get the scepter off hand, it is BIS until the one from aq40. If your tanks do a good job, it is not necessarily needed to get that much stamina. For frost in theory hit is always better than crit, but in reality it can easily happen that you don't miss a single time in a 2 minutes fight, but crit a lot more if you traded e.g. 4% hit vs 4% crit.
For fire you just asume (to make it an easy linear function) that your crits so 2.1 times normal damage (for frost they do 2.0 times normal damage).
 
Except for fire crit gains a huge amount of value for keeping ignite up and giving 30% refunds on crit ON TOP OF crits hitting harder than frost.
 
since on kronos 2 the staff of valthalak and the strat offhand are not in the game, what is preferable - witchblade + tome or rod of ogre magi? the tradeoff essentially being +9 spell damage with the 1h + oh or trade that off for 1% crit with the staff. What is statistically optimal when considering crit vs. spell damage?
 
In this guide, how much of the gear will be avaiable at server stats k3? all of it or are there some items that wont be there? :)
 
:eek: wow Sorry guys I stopped playing on Kronos long time ago. Last boss in scholomance drops dagger for start in case its hard for you to get into UBRS. Yes crit (fire is better) but bosses has fire resistance till AQ,so for Kronos 1 choose fire, for Kronos 3 choose frost. And yes, if ZG is up on your server - farm golds and craft bloodvine set, rockfury will take you some time still, so you can get DM bracers easy and then just wait till you farm rockfury. Thanks for bumping this topic :) Im glad if it helped someone
 
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