Tag: mage

Guild Wars 2: Spellcasters Quick Guide

Posted on by Gazimoff

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll probably notice that I have an ongoing love-affair with spellcasters in MMOs. Call it a mage, wizard or sorcerer – if it hurls magic then I’ll probably be playing it. Perhaps it’s because I identify with the thought of an intellectual magus studying to become proficient in arcane lore. Maybe I just have a primal desire to launch balls of fire from my hands. Who knows.

Earlier this week, ArenaNet announced that Pre-purchases of Guild Wars 2 will start on April 10th. As an added bonus everyone taking part also gets access to beta weekends. If you’re thinking of going for this MMO then I’d seriously suggest going for this deal, if only to get used to just how different this game is for spellcaster types.

As a result, I’ve gone through my notes from the closed beta back in February and pulled together this quick guide on spellcasters in Guild Wars 2, focusing on how they work, what the common features are and what sets them apart. I’ve also tried to explain how each profession feels in order to give you an idea of the playstyle. I’ve been a bit brief in some of my explanations, so if you have questions please let me know in the comments!

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Mages and Patch 4.2

Posted on by Gazimoff

A lot of us have been in a kind of holding pattern since 4.1 came out. Some of us have been focused on mopping up the current tier of raiding, like a roast dinner with lashings of gravy that you just need a bit of bread to polish off. Others have been filling a few gaps here and there with the troll content, using the new epics to fill a couple of gaps in our gear.

Patch 4.2 is approaching. With it comes the new Firelands raiding and questing zone, the new Mage legendary staff, a new tier of armour (and a new round of sympathy for Priests) and a truckload of other stuff besides. Putting the new juicy content to one side though, there’s the inevitable class changes as well. It’s early days so far and there’s a promise of more to come, but Mages are already tasting both sides of the nerfbat.

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Mages & PvP – Fun, Lethal, or Both?

Posted on by Gazimoff

This guest post is from Bordy, a veteran player of games and dealer in lethal puns. You can find his unique brand of humour on Twitter @snuffleorc

I have played WoW since the retail release. Gazimoff is the one to blame for getting me into it. It was by no means though my first MMO. That honour goes to Ultima Online. Playing with a dial up connection and (in current terms) an incredibly slow PC, I both loved that game and hated it.

My recollections of the game now are vague, so my apologies for anyone who knows better, but to me the world was pretty standard fantasy fayre, although gameplay was fun. Unlike WoW, the game was classless and you picked and chose skills from across a range, meaning that the ultimate combination became so widespread that the bulk of characters were effectively (as far as I could tell) fighter-mages.

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Reader Q: From Arcane to Fire

Posted on by Gazimoff

I recently got a reader email asking for some advice with improving their fire spec. I love getting messages like this as it gives me a chance to help someone out and get geeky about my favourite spec at the same time. This particular email was eerily familiar…

We started raiding last evening and had great difficulty controlling the adds. Since then I have been asked to go as fire for the supposedly superior AoE. I’ve spent a little time on the dummies and my DPS is at best unpredictable. I’m guessing this is because I’m not criting enough to proc Hot Streak often enough and therefore having to recast scorch to get the de-buff. Just how much crit do I need and what would be worth reforging?

The first thing is that you’re not alone. I was also struggling with my fire DPS, particularly when compared with Arcane mages. Arcane is great for when you’re learning fights as the simple rotation allows you to focus on positioning and targeting. The great thing is that I found some really simple techniques that allow me to maximise my fire DPS.

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Mages and Patch 4.0.6

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s about a month and a half since Cataclysm was released. In that time we’ve seen a flurry of tweaks, changes and hotfixes to some of the biggest bugs in the game. Not everything can be fixed with a hotfix though, which is why patch 4.0.6 is bringing some pretty serious changes.

Why 4.0.6 though? Blizzard will never admit it, but patch 4.0.4 could not be found anywhere. Patch 4.0.5 was desperately trying to be an expansion in it’s own right, but this method was not allowed. It was last seen on the hills outside Irvine, howling to the other feral patches that never made it and living off stale internets discarded by open wi-fi outlets.

This leaves us with Experiment 4.0.6, a patch designed to bring union and harmony to the classes, restoring balance throughout the playerbase. Or something.
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Mage Stat Priority in 4.0

Posted on by Gazimoff

For many of us, January marks the beginning of Cataclysm raiding. It’s time to start getting those gear upgrades from heroic dungeons, digging out those gems and finishing everything off with a nice coat of enchants. This can be fairly expensive, so it’s worth doing properly rather than wasting money on mistakes.

I’m hearing that the minimum DPS you want to be doing is around 10k sustained while raidbuffed. This isn’t just the burn phase either – you need to be able to provide decent damage output during your recover phase as well. But how do you make sure that the gear you pick is good for you? As an example, there are four cloth headpieces available at iLevel 346, all with the same base stats. Which would be the best for your spec?

I’ve put together a handy list for all three mage specs to give you an idea of what gear to look for and what gems and enchants to pick out. This mage stat priority list should help you focus on what’s important while letting you comfortably shard what’s not essential.

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Mage Resources Need You!

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s incredible to think that we’re days away from the next expansion. In less than a week, we’ll be doing the new quests, entering the new dungeons and collecting the new gear. Expansions are the great equaliser – everyone starts at the same position again. Newer mages get a fresh chance to join raidgroups at the start of an expansion, as almost all are recruiting to replace tired veterans or character changes.

It also means that it’s time to sweep away the older guides that no longer apply to a sundered world. A lot of the core mechanics have changed, while guides to the new dungeons, heroics and raids are sorely needed. There’s also a need for gear information, upgrade paths and so on. Think of all the questions you’re likely to ask as you level through the new content, and these are the ones that are likely to be asked.

Over the next few days I’ll be refreshing the content in the Mage Resources page to ensure all the links are relevant for 4.0 and Cataclysm. But this also means that I need your help to update it and ensure all the great guides and articles that everyone has written get included.

If you’ve written a guide or article on anything mage related for 4.0/Cataclysm – or know of one that someone else has written – please leave a link in the comments.

If you’re thinking about writing something  but don’t yet have a blog, feel free to post it in the relevant part of the Mage Forums. I’ll be sure to include a link to it from the Mage Resources page, plus other forumites can provide their own thoughts and feedback on it!

Thanks for all your help!

Choose Your Mage: Alliance

Posted on by Gazimoff

With the release of Patch 4.0.3a, new race and class combinations became available for players to try out. Mages have become one of the most accessible classes, with all classes except Tauren having them available as an option. With all new quest content, revamped zones and streamlined zones, it’s never been a better time to choose a new mage.

Unfortunately having so much choice can be bewildering. Choosing which race to play is as much about how they feel as what bonuses they give. You might want to play an explosive Gnome instead of an aristocratic Blood Elf. Whatever your drives or desires, this two-part guide should give you everything you need about choosing your ideal character. This week I’ll be covering the Alliance races, while next week will be the turn of the Horde.

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Mage Tier 11 Preview

Posted on by Gazimoff

With the new Cataclysm raids comes a new set of armour for Mages to drool over. The Firelord’s Vestments have certainly won praise for their looks, but how does it stack up as a fully-fledged dungeon set? Will the complete outfit be worn by most mages, or will the bare minimum be used?

Firstly, it’s worth putting things in perspective. We’re three weeks away from the release of the next expansion. It’s going to take at least two weeks after that to get levelled up and geared up to enter raids – going through normal dungeons to get ready for heroic 5-mans, then using the gear from that to prepare yourself for raiding. By early January most raiding guild should be back in the saddle following the Christmas break. As a result, a lot of this will remain theory for a good few months.

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Ratings and Mage 4.0

Posted on by Gazimoff

Back in Wrath, mages were driven by a small number of key stats. Spellpower and Haste Rating were key, with Crit Rating coming a distant third for all specs except Fire. Bringing up the rear were Spirit and Intellect, with the former being useful for Molten Armor and the latter supporting a larger mana pool.

Flip over to 4.0 and the landscape of useful stats has changed. Spellpower and Spirit are largely eliminated, while Mastery has crept in as an elusive new stat. Intellect and Stamina are still present, but they work in new ways and provide new benefits. All this presents a new challenge to players looking to maximise the potential of their gear.

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