Icey Chill Frost Freeze!

Ice! Frost! The spec that any wow player can spot right away. Frost spec uses frost bolt and a "freezeing" mechanic that traps players and mobs in place. Currently frost isnt used as a PVE spec, but Blizzard has high hopes for it to make a come-back. Frost as it is currently has been revamped to allow PVE useage. Mage's have been known to get some high numbers with frost, and I for one love that concept. Frost is always a fun spec to be due to slowing your enemies to a crawl and they try hard to get to you.

The main benefit for being a frost spec is your bitching pet, and the fact that your spells are based on a freezing mechanic that converts your frost spells into critical hits.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#of0Vzu0cZZVIccofu0czgfst:Rnic0z

Frost spec for best single target dps!

Now boss's cannot be frozen, sadly, which means that our Frostbite does not apply. Hence why I didn't put any points into it. Now your main 5 nukes are as follows.

Frost bolt.

Ice Lance.

Deep Freeze.

Brain Freeze.

Fingers of Frost.

Frost bolt is your main ability.

Ice Lance is used for clipping off mobs.

Deep Freeze can only be used when Fingers of Frost is up.

Brain Freeze allows you to get an instant and mana free fireball or frostfire bolt.

Fingers of Frost basically make your frost spells act like the target is frozen.

Now your summon water elemental helps with adding in with water bolt which is handy. Now it has a freeze ability but like i said, it doesn't work on a boss. Thats why you glyph into a Water Elemental that stays up at all times.

Now your going to notice you will crit...A LOT. Like more then normal for any mage. Also your frostbolt will be casting REALLY quickly. Might be good to get a mod that warns you when your proc is up, so you don't waste it.

Now as for the rotation:

Frostbolt till something proc's.

Brain Freeze should proc and when it does use deep freeze and cast a quick frostfire, then continue with frostbolt. Repeat.

Like I said....FAST. you need to focus if you wish to top the meters.

For this one ill post a video showing you what its like on the current patch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X-GB9GB7Ic

Now that we have the mage's specs out of the way, onward to discussions!

Burn Baby Burn!!

Fire, Mage's claim to fame spec. Despite Fire being widely viewed as a common and general spec, its quite unique in many respects. In addition, there is one quality of the Fire spec that most users and even some Mage's aren't aware of. When I first discovered this, I thought that Fire spec mage's where below Arcane and there was no hope in sight to return Fire to the powerhouse spec THAT it once was. But Blizzard in its omniscient glory, heard our cries for help and finally changed the Fire spec for our benefit. Today, Fire is one of the most important raiding specs and is renowned for delivering some mind-numbing DPS and ass-thumping AOE.

The main perk to being fire is this ability:

Ignite Rank 5

Your critical strikes from Fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 40% of your spell's damage over 4 sec.

Now some might say this isn't that impressive, that its a lot of hype for nothing. The thing you wanna know is that it stacks. Each crit adds damage to it. For this example we will be casting 4 fireballs to a target dummy:

Fireball Rank 16 hits Target Dummy for 14000 (Critical)

(40% of this is 5600. Over 4 seconds it burns every 2 seconds so thats 2800 each tick.)

Ignite Burns Target Dummy for 2800.

Fireball Rank 16 hits Target Dummy for 16000 (Critical)

(40% of this is 6400. Over 4 seconds it burns every 2 seconds so thats 3200 each tick.)

(Now since there is already 1 tick of 2800 it adds to that damage. 6400+2800=9200/2=4600 each tick.)

Ignite Burns Target Dummy for 4600.

Fireball Rank 16 hits Target Dummy for 18000 (Critical)

(40% of 18000 is 7200. Each tick would be 3600. 7200+4600=11800\2= 5900 each tick.)

Ignite Burns Target Dummy for 5900.

Fireball Rank 16 hits Target Dummy for 20000 (Critical)

(40% of 20000 is 8000. Each tick would be 4000. 8000+5900=13900\2 = 6950 each tick.)

Ignite Burns Target Dummy for 6950.

As you can see the more you crit, the more damage is added. Now this is dependent on Blizzards great RNG (Random Number Generator). Also on if you crit 4 times in a row. Now if the stacks are lost then you lose all the damage.

Now aside from Fireball which is your main nuke that all mage's get at level 1, you get 4 other spells to add to the damage.

1: Fire Blast

Blasts the enemy for 925 to 1095 Fire damage.

2: Living Bomb

The target becomes a Living Bomb, taking 1380 Fire damage over 12 sec. After 12 sec or when the spell is dispelled, the target explodes dealing 690 Fire damage to all enemies within 10 yards.

3: Pyroblast

Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes 1190 to 1510 Fire damage and an additional 452 Fire damage over 12 sec.

4: Scorch

Scorch the enemy for 376 to 444 Fire damage.

(Notice how each one says Fire damage.)

Now as with arcane there is a talent that gives you the ability to send out a Pyroblast instantly. This basically gives you an instant nuke ability.

Hot Streak Rank 3

Any time you score 2 non-periodic spell criticals in a row using Fireball, Fire Blast, Scorch, Living Bomb, or Frostfire Bolt, you have a 100% chance the next Pyroblast spell cast within 10 sec will be instant cast.

Having these in your armory makes you a huge pain in the ass of any boss. Each one of these delivers something unique to complement your special talent.

A Damage-Over-Time spell, Living bomb becomes the best AOE dps ability that you can use. Mainly because it has no limitation on how many targets you can apply it to AND its ability to become crits (when glyphed).

Pyroblast can become instant, and allow you to strike for excessive amounts of damage to earn DPS numbers that would make any caster jealous.

Scorch should be used if there is no warlock available with improved shadow bolt or frost mage (which should be never).

Fire Blast is used to keep your dps going if you need to move. Use it when its up to get a quick burst of damage. You mostly want to use it at the end of a fight. to get a last strike in.

And thats it! Fire rolled out for all to see its crazy power! Next topic will be Frost and its power in raiding!

Ahhhhh...what a rush!!

Today's topic is: Arcane!

Widely known for being a very good burst dps build, Arcane brings a lot to the table. Between giving you a mana pool that others would give their left nut for, and the ability to suddenly buff your damage by 20%, arcane is the spec for introducing mage's to the pain game!

The Arcane mage has a range of artillery spells for showing a boss what pain really means. Their most known and best friend is called: Arcane Blast!

Discription from Wowwiki:

Arcane Blast is a mage spell that deals direct arcane damage, with increasing damage levels and mana costs when cast in succession. With careful management, the mage can use this spell to trade off damage per mana verses damage per second.

Arcane Blast places a debuff on the mage each time they use it. It increase's the damage of arcane spells by 15% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast by 175% PER stack.

# of Buffs	Reported in Buff Tooltip		Reported in Spell Tooltip
	Damage done	Mana Cost Increase	Mana Cost
0	-	-	7% of base mana
1	Base damage + 15%	Base cost + 175%	19% of base mana
2	Base damage + 30%	Base cost + 350%	32% of base mana
3	Base damage + 45%	Base cost + 525%	44% of base mana
4	Base damage + 60%	Base cost + 700%	56% of base mana

This buff gives us good and bad perks. More dps output and burns the users mana like no other.

Now there are major conflict's of interest on how many stacks would be the most ideal. Many argue that keeping your mana conserved would be the best choice. Some say burn the mana, stack it to 4 and wait for Missile Barrage to proc. That's why you have a 2 min evocation!

My personal opinion has to go with the mana draining. There is a reason blizzard gave us a 2min evo. USE IT! And use it often. If you have the ability to see a % of your total mana, use it right at 38%. You will use more and more mana and it helps.

Next ability is: Arcane Missile's (Everything Arcane has the name Arcane in it! Isn't Blizzard unique?)

Arcane Missiles is a channeled mage spell that shoots a series of missiles at the target, one each second over a period of time, dealing direct arcane damage.

There are 2 talents that are worth mentioning with this spell:

Arcane Empowerment

Increases the damage done by Arcane Missiles by 45% and Arcane Blast by 9% of your spell power, and it increases damage done by 3% for all party/raid members.

Missile Barrage

Gives your Arcane Blast a 40% chance, and your Arcane Barrage, Fireball, Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt spells a 20% chance to reduce the channeled duration of the next Arcane Missiles spell by 2.5 secs, reduce the mana cost by 100%, and missiles will fire every .5 secs.

This basically makes Arcane Missiles into Arcane Nuke's, Major nukes, like 5 of them, in like a second!

Now my personal preference is going to be just these 2 spells. But there is another to keep your AB stacks from ruining your mana pool.

Arcane Barrage

Launches several missiles at the enemy target, causing 936 to 1144 Arcane damage.

You would basically use this to drop your AB stacks and get a strong hit in to boot!

I do NOT spec into Arcane Barrage, simply because I don't think using ABarr will cause you to do the same amount of DPS. Sure, if you don't drop the AB de-buff then your losing mana like crazy, but your hitting for a major amount. Thats just my personal opinion.

Now for the talent specs! As a rule for these spec's remember, if I leave any points those are considered free points. Place them anywhere you want. You wanna place them someplace that will help you on boss fights.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#of0Vfd0IzxGuMxedcZbhf0o:Nzi

The most cookie cutter of all spec's. This is the basic spec for starter's. Work with this if your starting out getting your gear up.

This is my build. Built to not have any push-back and to allow, when I do use my wards, to give me a boost in dps.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#oshVfz0IzxGuRxebcZbhf0o:NzMVzc

Use this only if you have good enough gear. I would say when buffed you have 33k mana and have at least 900haste. It's a high mana intensive build. You either keep using AB or use Missiles to allow your stacks to drop. But thats just me!

Anyway thats it for me! Knowledge of the Arcane is all about practice and hoping for the right proc's. Keep it up, and work with it and you will see an improvement!

Next Topic: The Power of FIRE!!!! MWAHAHAHAHA.....sorry....lost the happy...BUT THE HAPPY'S BACK! ^_^

Oh, INTRO!

Hi there!

My name is Fyersbane and I'm a mage! Welcome to my blog about the in's-and-out's of mage-ism's!

To start a little intro of myself!

I've been playing a mage since World Of Warcraft came out. Long ago working on getting as MUCH int gear as I could. You know...being a NOOB. To today, being top on the dps due to knowing all there is to know about how the Mage works.

It got me thinking, "I should create a Blog with talks about the mage! Seems I know a lot about the class, seeing as I'm getting asked more and more about how to play a mage!"

Since this is the first post I'm going to cut it short for 2 reasons.

1: because i need a topic for the next post.

2: Its Raid time! Yay!

First post will be about Arcane and its utility in raids!