Mage, am I doing it right? (2 questions)

[Tekoa]

Normally I would take a question like this to the official WoW forums, but that place is godawful and quite scary. Was hoping some members of BG could help shine some light onto Mage style PvE solo'ing.

Still pretty new to WoW (highest toon is a bloodelf pally @ lvl 58 ). I really enjoy the mage playstyle when it comes to raids, and PvP (at least from the video's I've watched of both online). However, I seem to be having trouble when it comes to solo PvE quest grinding.

My mage is only 27 at the moment but all of my talent points are into frost at the moment. Looks like this:

3/3 frostbite
5/5 improved frostbolt
3/3 permafrost
3/3 piercing ice
1/1 icy veins
3/3 shatter

I usually handle mobs in one of two ways:

spam frostbolt hoping to to proc frostbite then get a shatter combo, fireblast then wand to death

or

open with frostbolt, fireball, arcane missles, fireblast (if health is too high) then wand to death

I find that if I ever have two or more mobs or get aggro, I generally end up using frost nova then blinking away, sheeping the add then blowing all of my mana on instant casts and higher damage spells rather then rely on my improved frostbolt.

Am I doing it right? If so, where can I improve to make mage and have higher survivability?

The other question I have is how does a mage handle more then one mob at once? With my pally, I just lay down consecration and use my heals to keep myself alive. Does mage survivability improve greatly as they level up and get more spells? Or is grinding mage to 80 exactly that: a grind.

Thank you for reading my wall of text ^^

[erish]

Honestly until lvl 35ish fire is generally better for grinding purposes, frost at low lvls is abit suck.

Pyro > fireball > fire blast ( if its still alive )

This should be able to kill most mobs with ease. After lvl 40 you can go AoE frost grinding but i wouldnt say to change to that until 45 not because it wont work but because there arent many camps that work well for this. Best place to start would be the pirates in Tanaris, Put ice barrier up aggro lots of mobs frost nova/ice barrier shatter when you get that blink away and spam blizzard just in front of the mobs and proceed to gain alot of exp very quickly.

Just remember when looking for a camp to aoe grind on make sure that most of the mobs are melee and not casters because that can really mess you up.

If your intent on grinding frost your going about it the right way, however its the talents further down in frost that really add that extra survabilty. It does get alot better and a hell of alot easier.

[altwight]

Don't use fireball or arcane missiles at all. You won't be using fireball until you get the talent that calls for instant cast fireball no mana later on. Soloing as frost should be the simplest of all specs. You're slowing their movements and have multiple CCs (crowd control) If you get an add as you do, sheep it but don't blow all your mana on insta casts because sheep last a very long time. Focus on 1 mob at a time until you're higher lvl (best for AoE grinding with Blizz and CoC)

Frost mage has the HIGHEST survivability of all specs by far.

2hrs later i forgot i was writing this and lost track of what i was saying.

[Plow]

For some reason, they made the low level wands made by enchanting slightly stronger than normal wands, enough so that it's actually competitive with your magic dmg right around the levels you can equip them. (Any wand actually is pretty damn good at low levels, but especially the enchanting ones or any blues you can get a hold of)

These in particular:
Wands - Items - World of Warcraft


At least right around those levels, don't hesitate to try out just frostbolting shit, shattering if it procs bite, and wanding it down before it gets to you if it doesn't. As long as you're paying attention and finding the times where it kills fast enough, it can be much more efficient due to using so little mana that it'll regen itself while you're wanding.

Basically what it comes down to is that wands get extra dps to make up for not getting ap/str etc bonuses, and at those levels melee tend to have so little of those stats from gear that the wand can easily be more dmg than a typical melee at the same level, or caster since they have virtually no sp.

[sb]

Just remember when looking for a camp to aoe grind on make sure that most of the mobs are melee and not casters because that can really mess you up.

Just want to add that while you want to make sure that they don't cast, but also that they cant ranged attack you. Often this makes beasts good targets also.

[Tekoa]

Thank you for the responses. I guess I will re-spec to fire till about level 40 then switch back to frost. I keep hearing that its better to quest grind rather then AoE since the changes that blizz made to xp gain from quests a few patches back. Any truth to this?

Sorry for the noob mage questions. I think I just became a little too comfortable with almost never dying on pally that mages squishy tendencies threw me off.

[Aerin]

Don't use fireball or arcane missiles at all. You won't be using fireball until you get the talent that calls for instant cast fireball no mana later on. Soloing as frost should be the simplest of all specs. You're slowing their movements and have multiple CCs (crowd control) If you get an add as you do, sheep it but don't blow all your mana on insta casts because sheep last a very long time. Focus on 1 mob at a time until you're higher lvl (best for AoE grinding with Blizz and CoC)

Frost mage has the HIGHEST survivability of all specs by far.

2hrs later i forgot i was writing this and lost track of what i was saying.

I was always frost mage while leveling, even in the low levels. And ya I hardly ever used fireball or arcane missiles really. Talents put into permafrost isn't really necessary imo.

Spells I used the most were frostbolt, frost nova, blink, ice barrier (later on). The mana one sucks ass.

At 27 I would have these talents:

3/3 frostbite
5/5 improved frostbolt
3/3 ice shards
3/3 piercing ice
1/1 icy veins
2/2 arctic reach
1/3 shatter

[Xiona]

I have and always will hate frost. that being said i still used it until i could use dragons breath. im not sold on any talent which can screw up your grouping when aoe grinding *cough* dont want to die because RNG let 2 mobs hit you. i dont remember what level they are but there are turtles at the very southern tip of tanaris. you have to go to the water on the east and sorta swim down but theyre good for grinding.

[Korietsu]

At 27 I would have these talents:

3/3 frostbite
5/5 improved frostbolt
3/3 ice shards
3/3 piercing ice
1/1 icy veins
2/2 arctic reach
1/3 shatter

3/3 shatter makes the kills faster, thus using less mana etc. Personally, to me, leveling fire/arc is suicide, although the imp arc missiles talent is nice for lowbie leveling.

[Shuemue]

Ice isn't fun at all for me. Played fire to 70 on EU, 64 fire mage on NA now. It's not suicide, you just aim for single pulls and burn them down fast. I'm sure it's slower than frost, but it's fun.

[Falaras]

I was fire in the mid 20s and found it to be horrible for leveling. Respecced frost and went that till 75. It really makes it more intresting to shatter instead of just fireball something down. Once 75 I went Frost/Ignite for FFB and loved it till 80! Though arcane is pretty awesome these days.

[Maguspk]

If you're going Frost and you ever want to AoE Frostbite is pretty much going to fuck that up. If you're frost and you are just focusing on single target DPS then you're fine. Surprised nobody mentioned this, but yeah Frostbite is a terrible talent if you ever fight multiple mobs and use AoE abilities.

[EternityEnd]

...What? Frostbite is a staple talent for AoEing.

[Maguspk]

...What? Frostbite is a staple talent for AoEing.

Right, and now I know you never seriously did AoE grinding with a Frost Mage because it fucks up your shit, bad. Anyway, AoE grinding isn't really useful anymore as a leveling strategy, it's more for added utility on the mage and the ability to handle larger pulls.

[EternityEnd]

Actually, I did, pre-Blizzard nerf, and a little after it. Frostbite was and, I assume, is, integral to Blizzard grinding. It didn't ever "fuck my shit up, bad" in the least.

[Xiona]

fucks you up because the RNG doesnt apply frostbite to the entire pack of mobs. it leaves stragglers which messes up grouping. its more reliable to mount gather mobs, frost nova, 3/3 imp blizzard from max range. using the waterelemental for a 2nd nova helps all that much better. when youre aoe grinding 8+ mobs a pull getting to close especially at low levels equals dead.

[EternityEnd]

Mobs die very fast in Blizzard; if you can't keep them permanently frozen in the Blizzard with Water Elemental out, you probably don't know what you're doing. When stragglers break free of Nova, frostbite actually helps.

When you're low level, before Water Elemental, mobs die in one Blizzard. Frostbite, again, helps. I just recently did this on a new mage.

[Keria]

now that blizzard can crit i would venture frostbite + blizzard is just fine

[altwight]

Using fire as low level to "burn em down fast" sounds like a great idea. Except fire takes forever to cast. Frost is definitely the best way to AoE grind shit. If you don't know how then don't say it isn't or that it sucks.

Frost is definitely good for the lower levels. It's very low mana cost and like I said it's the best spec for maximum survivability. Learn to use your frost novas and CoC. Also blizzard fucking owns still.

[Korietsu]

I'm going to go ahead and show you guys how Frostbite is useful in AoE grinding. Taking frostbite now is amazing, and is advisable in any build.

Doomc's Impossible Pulls By Doomc

Also

Right, and now I know you never seriously did AoE grinding with a Frost Mage because it fucks up your shit, bad. Anyway, AoE grinding isn't really useful anymore as a leveling strategy, it's more for added utility on the mage and the ability to handle larger pulls.

I lol'd. Wrath changed alot buddy.