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by Ralf Introduction Why play a mage? Why play a toon that has no defense, no health, crap-tastic cloth armor, no pet or PW: Shield? Damage, my uneducated friends, pure, delicious damage (and crowd control, but that�s more PvE). The main ability that a mage has is to deal large amounts of damage in a short amount of time, and because of our short life bar and less than cardboard armor, our damage needs to be done quick, and from far away (the exception being hunters, see below). And always remember, mana is the mages life line, lose it and your mage is as good as dead, so be sure to be conservative! ***Please note that I am following a 33/18 talent build (arcane/fire), so a arcane/frost mage may use a very different strategy than that listed below*** General Strategies Polymorph (aka Sheep) Polymorph transforms the enemy into a sheep, forcing it to wander around for the duration of the spell. While wandering, the sheep can not attack or cast spells and will regenerate health very quickly. Any damage will transform the target back into its normal form. Only one target can be Polymorphed at a time. Polymorph will only work on Beasts, Dragons, Giants, Humanoids, and Critters. Players have an increasing chance to break free of the effect, such that it is unlikely the effect will last more than 15 seconds. I can NOT stress this enough. Polymorph is the #1 PvP ability that mages have, for two reasons: Number one: The ability to sheep an opponent that was once in close quarters, run like hell, then nuke the living Jesus out of them is invaluable. As I have said earlier, an opponent that is in melee range is not good for the mage, and via the use of polymorph a mage can distance him/her self a great deal away from said opponent. Number two: Mages spells have a very long cast time, ranging anywhere from 2-6 seconds (Six seconds being the massive ball of fire known as pyroblast). The ability to be able to sheep an opposing toon, and cast such a huge spell, uninterrupted mind you, is one of the great rewards of being a mage. *Note*- When an opponent is sheeped, he/she will regain health at a very increased rate. Because of this, a mage should only use this spell at the beginning of a fight, if a healer has healed to full, or in a fleeing situation. Counterspell Counters the enemy's spell X% of the time, preventing him from casting that spell or any spell from the same school again for 10 sec. Ah, the almighty counterspell, which can be learned at level 24, is the mage�s sole key to beating a healing class. As stated above, almost all healing players wait until last minute to heal, so right when they start, hit that counterspell baby! That 10 seconds of spell-less heaven is great� enough time for a mage to put down some nasty damage. Go and get �er boys! Frost Nova Our second most valuable spell, frost nova allows the mage freeze an opponent in place for upwards of 8 seconds. This is just enough time to back up a good amount of yards, and throw a few more fireballs. Frost nova is also very useful for dealing with pesky pets and those sprinting rogues, which puts their actions to a halt almost immediately. Although frost nova may seem perfect, it has one major flaw; opponents can still attack via a ranged weapon when frozen. Be it throwing knifes, a bow, a spell, or lord forbid a gun, opponents still have the ability to damage you and interrupt your spell casting. When frost nova is used as a device to put distance between yourself and an opponent, it is effective; however, when it is used for damage or the casting of a very large spell, its effectiveness diminishes greatly. Frost nova has a 25 second cool down, so, either use it at the beginning of a fight, polymorph, then use again at the end, or use it mid fight, after the opponent recovers from sheep. Fireball The mage�s bread and butter. This spell should be used religiously throughout the mage�s early life (until the mid 30�s). Fireball, in conjunction with a very handy talent known as improved fireball (reduces casting time by .5 seconds), can lay waste to a sheeped/frosted enemy. Often times, I can get 2-3 fireballs off of a sheeped enemy before they know what hits them. End game, the fireball�s increased casting time along with other classes interrupting attacks make it not as viable as it is early on, but still very effective. Fireblast No cast time, fireball-like damage, great finisher, what�s there to hate about fireblast? The mana cost, and that deadly Eight second cool down. Fireblast is great, as it helps the mage unload mad damage very quickly. If you find yourself in a fight where the opponent has no healing spells, or is too stupid to use them, feel free to fireblast throughout the entire fight, whenever the cool down has finished. However, against those pesky healing type, fireblast should not be used until the end of a match. Healing classes seem to take their time healing, as they never do until they are at about 1/8 health. Lord knows you can�t get a fireball/frostbolt out in the time it takes them to heal, but if you heeded my advice, and kept it until the end, fireblast can be used to blow away a healing opponent in no time. In addition, fights against healing classes seem to drag on, and seeing as fireblast isn�t the most mana efficient spell in the game, it would be wise to use your mana for other spells. Arcane Missiles (AM for short) AM is a great spell when used in conjunction with the talent Improved Arcane Missiles, which gives you a 100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Arcane Missiles. This allows you to do damage while getting beat on ?. When a melee or range class has somehow gotten past your first two lines of defense (Polymorph and Frost Nova), and gotten within melee range, AM is the only spell a good mage will use should all his instants be on cool down. However, AM is very mana greedy, its uses up as much mana as 2 1/2 fireballs do, but only does the damage of about 2 Fireballs. As I stated before, one must be very mana conscious as a mage, and wasting mana where it needn�t be wasted may lead to a mage�s demise. Buffs Be sure to have arcane intelligence (a plus to INT) and frost shield (a plus to armor and a chilling side effect that slows attackers) up at all times, and dampen magic up when fighting against casters. Often times, mages forget to cast dampen magic while facing against other casters, but the ability to reduce magic damage taken by spells is very useful considering our microscopic life bars. Dampen Magic only lasts for 3 minutes, so be sure to refresh often. *Note*- If fighting in a raid or group PvP where a healer is involved, do NOT use dampen magic, as it greatly hinders the effectiveness of a healer�s restoration spells. Class Strategies for a Mage Mage Vs Fighter A semi-easy fight, but contrary to what you may think, do NOT get a long distance away from the fighter at the start of a battle� if you do, he will use a nasty long range attack called �Charge�, which not only puts the warrior in close range, but also temporarily stuns you. So: start the fight semi-close>Frost nova>Polymorph>run in an opposite direction> pyroblast/fireball>fireball>fireball>fireblast>frost nova>back up� at this point they should be very close to dead, just give them another spell or two and its over. Just be sure to stay out of the range of their swords, which can be done very easily by a lvl 1 frost bolt, frost nova, and blink. Mage Vs Rogue Rogues come in two varieties in my experience, amazing ones, and really�really horrible ones. Lets hope that most of rogues you fight are cruddy, for your sake, but for all intensive purposes lets pretend all rogues use their abilities to their full extent. Before any fight a rogue will stealth, making it very hard to sheep the little buggers. To fight this, I like to use AE (arcane explosion) when I think the rogue is near me, therefore bringing him out of stealth when he gets hit by my spell. After finding the rogue, its just a simple game of: Frostnova>sheep>run>pyroblast>fireball� ect. Rogues, at times, can be very quick too, and only a few hits from one of their dainty little daggers will put you out of commission very quickly, so be sure to have blink ready and willing. Mage Vs Hunter Hunters, yet another punching bag for the almighty mage, are easily taken down when approached right. When fighting a hunter, it is very important that you keep yourself close to him/her simply for the reason that when a mage is at a range where he can be hit by the hunter�s gun and gun abilities, the mage is in great danger. Keeping a hunter in melee range is very important, as they can drop a mage in a few shots from a distance. First step, sheep the pet. With out a pet, the hunter has just lost a major out put of damage, tanking, and spell interruption. Second step, frost nova the hunter. Third step, fireballs away! Throw a few fireballs towards to hunter, a fireblast here and there, arcane missiles when they come close for melee, and use blink to keep up with them if they decide to pull back and try to shoot you. Easy as Pie. Mage Vs Paladin We can destroy these guys, absolutely destroy them. Paladins have no range attack, so movement altering spells, in fact, the only attack they have that can screw with a mage is a 3 second stun with on a minute timer. So, before we get into a general strategy, im going to make some generalizations about the paladin class: 90% of the paladins I fight play their class like a warrior� fight-fight-fight. Paladins don�t understand that their class is meant to outlast, no to do damage. Most paladins don�t know what the hell they are doing, be it not using blessing of freedom when in a frost nova, or healing at horrible times. Paladins, like all other healing classes, wait until the last minute to heal, and with a well timed counterspell and fireblast, that�s one dead pally. With these three facts about paladins, you should be able to make up a decent strategy, be it sheep>pyroblast>fireball>fireball>fireball>fireblast>frost nova>fireball>(healing starts)>counterspell>fireblast>dead pally. If for some reason, you are unlucky enough to fight a well leaned paladin who uses blessing of freedom (release from roots), you can always blink away and hope he gets confused. If a paladin uses a shield, heals, and is back at full health, or near to it, re-sheep him and start again, you should have just enough mana. Mage Vs Druid Hope, for the love of god, the druid doesn�t start shape shifted. A shape shifted druid can not be polymorphed, and is this is the case, you start out in a whole world of pain. Since poly can�t be used, you must rely on costly instants, frost nova, and blink to stay away. Use IAM if you have it when he finally starts pounding on you, and be ready to counterspell when he shifts back into caster form. If he starts in caster from, just sheep>pyroblast>fireball�.counterspell� you know the routine. If the druid starts spamming moon fire, I like to switch to scorch and fireblast as my main attacks, mostly because you wont be interrupted half as much. Mage Vs Priest Sheep �em, mash �em, put �em in a stew. Shadow priests are killing machines, and therefore every freaking priest in the game is shadow speced. Sheep early on, blow the throw as many nukes as you can, and hope he doesn�t have PW:Shield on a 15 second timer. I like to counterspell early on so that they can�t use those pesky shadow spells. Use lots of instants and try to stay away from long cast spell as it seems that they always have a nasty DOT on you that interrupts casting. Once they start healing and reach full health again I like to sheep>bandage>fireball�and finish them quick. Good luck here! Mage Vs Mage You know your own class, and with that knowledge, you know that we take damage like little girls. So, poly the mage, and nuke the hell out of them. If they decide to counterspell, just use a different school of magic. Use your instants whenever they are ready, the first mage to do the most damage wins! No need to use frostnova, and only blink if you feel that it may confuse your opponent. Mage Vs Warlock If you are ever in a 1v1 situation, where your opponent is a Warlock with a succubus, run like hell. At this point, there is nearly no way to beat an experienced Warlock with a succubus out. If the Lock has an imp out, sheep the caster and nuke the imp, and if the Lock has a void walker out, frost nova the void and nuke the caster, occasionally throwing out a counterspell on those nasty shadow bolts. Just be sure to stick with instants as the Warlock�s multiple DOTs wreck havoc on our casing time. When a warlock has his succubus out, between fear and charm, the caster can keep you under his control for the majority of the fight. It is accepted among the mage community that this combination is quite unbeatable. However, if the warlock doesn�t play his cards just right, we can still take him. If the fight starts, and you still aren�t charmed, and you see the succubus casting, Counterspell her, this gets rid of one problem for 10 seconds. Sheep the caster if he hasn�t feared you yet (highly unlikely), and let you nukes lay waste. The only real suggestion I can give is to stay far away from the succubus (more than 20 yards) as she needs to be in range to charm. Surprise and confusion is the only way I�ve been able to beat a warlock 1v1, so if you see one traveling down the road, prey to god and blink! Mage Vs Shaman As of now, I have no experience fighting this class. I will update this section after I have gathered more information. However, from what I hear, shamans have nasty instants with the ability to halt spell casting. If you see one throw down a totem, kill that first, they go after the shaman. General Strategies Vs a mage For melee, get in as close as possible, as soon as possible. A mage with some distance and without interruption is a dangerous mage. Kill our mana. Be it through mana burn, drain mana, making us waste it or some other obscure way of depleting our mana reserves, we are nothing without it. DOTs (Damage Over Times). A DOT that is placed on a mage early fight can hinder his casting time throughout the whole fight, so do it early and keep those DOTs on him/her. Heal early in the fight. There is nothing more that a mage loves then counterspelling a late battle heal and fireblasting the crud out a spell-less opponent. Get lots of resists. At high levels, resists play a major part in the damage a mage can deal. Practice dueling! |