Mage AoE Farming

Hi, I've decided to make a Mage AoE Farming guide because I do it a lot, you can make a lot of money with it, and I was really bored.
I bet you've all heard of it, but it is important that you use the right talent build, know the good way to do it, and know the best spots to farm if you want to get the best out of it.
I'll start off with the right build, because you'll won't be going anywhere soon without a good one.

Frost is the build of choice for the most people, and for me it works best, but that's just my opinion.
If you want you can try out different specs (or just take my word if you can't afford all the respecs ^_^)

The base of every Frost AoE build, with all the essentials, should look like this:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?00000...

As you can see, there are some talents which are crucial in other builds missing, but theres a reason for that.
You don't need Crit, because Blizzard (the spell you're going to be using a LOT) can't critically hit, so that would be
a waste of talent points. That's why I left Ice Shards, Shatter and Winter's Chill open. What you really DON'T want
in a Frost AoE spec is Frostbite, which seems like a usefull talent, but can be fatal, because if some mobs get frozen by the proc, and others don't, the group of mobs you are AoEing will not be cluttered anymore, and there will be mobs attacking you or not getting damage while you are AoEing others. Also I left Frost Warding open, because you're not going to use Ice Armor for the same reasons as you're not picking Frostbite (Some mobs will get slowed, others don't, the slowed mobs might not be caught in your Frost Nova). This might get a bit clearer once we've discussed the way to AoE Grind. Imp Frostbolt 5/5 is mainly filler.
The key talent to a good Frost AoE farming spec is ofc, Imp Blizzard. Ofcourse there are other methods of AoE farming,
but I'm discussing this one first. Also important is Arctic Reach, so you can cast 3 Blizzard spells before the group of
mobs come to you, instead of 2 or 1, so you inflict more damage. Also nice is Permafrost, Ice Floes (so you can cast
Frost Nova more often), Ice Barrier (which is VERY important!) and Imp Cone of Cold (that's also a usefull spell).

As you can see, there are still 30 talent points remaining. There are different ways to spend those.
There are 3 main options:
-Go further in Frost, for the Water Elemental's Frost Nova (can be a life saver!)
-Go 30 pnts Arcane (There are really usefull things in there for eg. mana efficiency)
-Take Fire as an offspec (For more damage, so you can take packs of mobs down faster = more income)

I'll do 10 additional points in Frost for a Water Elemental:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?00000...

There aren't any other usefull talents for this method of AoE farming, and there won't be enough points for an effective fire offspec, so the solution is to
other 20 points in the Arcane tree.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?20320...

3 Points in Imp Arcane Missiles as filler, that also counts for Arcane Impact 2/3.
Wand Spec might be usefull if there's one mob who survived the pull and you're OOM. Arcane Concentration is very usefull, might give you a free Blizzard
which is nice because Blizzard costs a lot of mana. Arcane concentration for mana efficiency, and Imp Mana Shield for if your Ice Barrier is down and you're being hit by a pack of mobs.

The other possibility is to leave Water Elemental open, and go into the Arcane tree a bit deeper, because there are plenty of interesting things in there:

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?20320...

Arcane Mind is a VERY good build, you'll get tons of extra mana! and Imp Blink is also very nice, you might have noticed how much mana Blink costs, and now it's only half of that, and combined with Arcane mind you will last MUCH longer. And Prismatic cloak may seem useless, but it can make the difference of life and death in some cases. You'll have 1 talent point left, which i put in Arctic Winds, but you could also put it in Presence of Mind if you like, because you lack burst damage with an AoE farming build, so Presence of Mind will compensate for that if you're planning to also do other things than farming with this build.

And last but not least it's the Fire offspec:

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?00000...

With the Fire offspec, Crit CAN be usefull, so I've added Shatter to Frost.
Besides that I've picked Impact, because it's a bit more usefull than Imp Fireball. Ignite is also nice, and Flame Throwing too, because you have to keep distance between you and the mobs, or you're toast. You'll use Flamestrike, so improve that too. Pyroblast ONLY because you need it for Blast Wave, and in case you get hit, Burning Soul is nice against interrupts if you're casting Flamestrike. Master of Elements for Mana efficiency, Critical Mass for some extra crit, and Blastwave as another AoE. Important is you need to know how to use this build, so I'll go to the method of how to AoE farm right now.

First, make sure you've got some Mana Stones in case you're running low on mana during a pull, because it will kill you if you havent got any mana and there's 20 mobs chasing you. NEVER Use Ice armor (I've told you before why not to). Instead, use Mage Armor or Molten armor. If you've got the Fire offspec Molten Armor is very nice for the additional crit. If you're Frost/Arcane it won't help you that much, just less chance to be crit and they'll take some fire damage if they hit you (and if you're doing things as planned you'll wont get hit all that much). Besides, Mage armor stacked with Arcane concentration really increases your mana regeneration while channeling. When you're all set, cast Ice Barrier (and if you've got a big manapool you can cast Mana Shield as well), pull a lot of mobs, and depending on their strength and their number you either cast frost nova and blink away when they're all together or you Ice Block, wait untill they surround you, then Frost nova and blink away. After that you get maximum range, and cast blizzard. It's important that you cast your Blizzards in the right places, so I've made a simple Paint drawing
to show you.

http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aoeguideoh7.png

Once the mobs have reached you after casting 2 or 3 Blizzards, recast your Ice Barrier if it's gone, do a Cone of Cold and if they're NEARLY dead throw in an arcane explosion or 2, but if they have 15% hp or more left, cast Frost nova again and Blizzard the one more. Don't hestitate to use a Mana stone of Mana potion because it's always cheaper than a repair bill. Once they die, you can go and loot!
If you have the fire offspec, it goes about the same as described above, but except for when they reach you after 2 or 3 Blizzards, you do frost nova, cast flame strike on the mobs and right after that you throw in a Blastwave. This might be the best AoEing build if you can do it well, because the mobs in Outlands have a lot of HP compared to the ones in Azeroth. If you are new to this, you could also go Water elemental for an extra nova if you screw up or more arcane if you have mana issues or w/e. IF 1 ore more mobs resist your first frost nova, you should let Water elemental cast one if you have it, Cold snap and recast or if cold snap is on cooldown or the cooldown isn't worth it, kite a Cone of Cold, blink away and invisibility. If you die, it takes time to run back to your corpse and the repair bill costs money too, and farming is about making money, so wasting time is the last thing you want to do.

Well, you know how to do it now, all you need to know now, is where! There aren't as many good locations in Outland as there are in Azeroth, but there are a few:

For Shadowmoon Valley:
-Outside of Black Temple (Sunfury Eradicators and Demon Hunter Supplicicants) The supplicicants are hard to pull sometimes, and do a lot of damage, so you need decent gear for those, the Sunfury Eradicators have got a healing spell, so you'll need mana efficiency or some burst damage. All mobs have a chance to drop Sunfury Signets and Arcane Tomes, and a boatload of Netherweave. They sell really nice!
-Ruins of Baa'ri (Ashtongue Workers) There are a lot of patrols by spellcasting Shamans, but they only have melee attacks.

For Netherstorm:
-The Heap (Zaxxis mobs) They drop a LOT of Netherweave as well, and they also drop Zaxxis insignias that will get your Rep. up with the Consortium, so that's 2 birds with 1 rock!
-Manaforge Coruu (Sunfury Researchers) There is 1 caster per group, but you can pull those out individually and kill them before you will pull the researchers. This is also a great place for Sunfury Signets and Arcane Tomes, which sell for a lot of money on the Auction or they're also nice for getting your Scryer rep. up.

REMEMBER: Casters or Ranged mobs will kill you! if you see Ranged mobs or Casters with a ranged damage spell, don't bother to farm there, because they will interrupt your Blizzard spell, they'll wont come near you and they'll kill you! So stick with melee mobs or casters that have buffs or whatever. Did I say they'll kill you?

Well, that's about it I guess.. You can work with other classes as well, to do bigger pulls. You can bring a healer with you, but sometimes it's better to bring a Prot pally, because he also does AoE damage, and he can take a LOT of hits. So either that, or a Warlock, which can also work VERY good. If you're with a warlock, you can pull for yourself OR he can send in his Voidwalker to pull all the mobs. Once he has done that, you walk towards them, Nova them all, blink back and start AoEing. While they're coming towards you and they're being slowed, the warlock has to cast Seed of Corruption on every mob. Once the mobs have reached you, you cast Cone of Cold, and they will ALL explode with AoE damage because of Seed of Corruption. A very effective approach IMO.

Well, I guess that's about it. If you've got any feedback I'd love to hear it. :-)