Mage Instance Guide

Raiding Advice for the Mage

A mage is a key component of any raid. Unlike in PVP or arena where the ultimate goal is to annihilate your enemies before they realize you are made of paper, a mage in raids has a great deal of work to do. I am not teaching you how to play your class here. I am showing you how to make a good member of a group. In other words, this guide will teach you how to keep your friends prepared for a fight and the raid leader happy.

Water

Its annoying to make and time consuming—yet you have to do this. You don’t ask a protection warrior to go into battle without his shield or a priest to heal without mana potions. You expect them to be prepared. A mage is no different. You absolutely have to show up to raids with enough water for everyone. For a ten-man raid, I bring almost four hundred water. This sounds over the top. It is not. All raid leaders detest stopping the “flow” of a run for any reason. If you only give a priest one stack of water, they won’t be happy and will just come back and annoy you later on. Give water out at the beginning of a run. Do it once. Do it right. For example, I give priests and paladins 60 water, hunters 40 water and 20 food, etc. This is a great way to get popular with your officers. If they see you come prepared, they know they can count on you.

Buffs

Have enough regents to cover the run. If you are going to be spending all day in Karazhan or Gruul’s Lair, you have to realize that 15 arcane powder will not cut it. If you want to help speed up raids, bring a ridiculous amount of regeants. In addition, make sure to buff everyone as quickly and efficiently as possible. Keep track of the people who die. Give them arcane intellect as soon as they are resurrected. Finally, actually spend some time reading the fights you will be doing. Not many mages realize the benefits of amplify and dampen magic (unfortunately). Yet this can be tremendously helpful if you know what you are doing. For example, Gruul does not use magic. If you put amplify magic on the people taking damage, you increase healing done by a great deal. Do not underestimate this.

Aggro and Efficient Play style

First of all—get KTM threat meter. Without this you are flying blind and deserve death if you pull aggro. Raid leaders hate it if they cant see your threat. Also, learn to balance which spells you use and when according to the fight you are in. It is foolish to open with two pyroblasts if your tank has 400 threat. The boss will turn on you, one shot you (as he laughs at your soul) and then the raid leader will probably yell at you. No one likes getting yelled at. Instead, open with low threat spells and build up during the fight. When the tank is a good 10-20k threat ahead of you, then you can go to town. Remember how long each fight might last. The maiden may only take 2-5 minutes, but a fight like Terestian Illhoof is much, much longer. A raid is not about doing the most damage! If you think it is, go back to PVP. Finally, learn that “invisibility” is now your friend. It can completely wipe your threat if nothing hits you and breaks it. A complete aggro wipe is priceless (and as my friends on Void Reaver in The Eye tell me, required).

Learn to make a “raiding spec”

I try not to limit how players design their spec. Nothing is more boring than a raid of 5 frost mages all with the same build tossing constant frostbolts. Yet you need to realize that some leveling talents are pointless in raids. “Playing with fire” is a perfect example. It increases the spell damage that you take. Why do this? Why make it easier for a boss to kill you? It may seem funny but in the end it is just foolish. Similarly, move points out of areas that bosses will resist anyway. You cannot frost nova High King Maulgar. Again, why waste points on something that has little meaning? Think about this as you build your spec.

Finally

As with all raids and all classes there are some things to remember. Remember to get repaired. Do not ask for the raiders to summon you unless absolutely necessary. Do not nag the raid leader constantly if you are not in the run. It just makes them want to leave you out again. If loot that you want drops, state that you are interested—do not demand anything, ever, for any reason. No matter how good a player you are, there is always another mage that can replace you. Threatening to gquit over a piece of loot does nothing but hurt your reputation (often severely). Lastly, do not expect a raid group to be your “loot machine.” It is your own responsibility to gear your character as best you can. Raiding loot is nice. But you need to upgrade your items as best you can before expecting high-end loot.

All this may seem like a lot of work, but in the end it will make your guildies/raiding team enjoy your company a lot more. As with most things, if you do not consider the people around you and act insensitive, they will probably treat you the same way. This will leave you sitting on the sidelines and that’s no fun for anyone.

Mage Spells

The mage has a wide range of spells to assist its party/raid members during instances. Its high DPS and versatility makes it a perfect party member for raids and group instances. Here are some of the most commonly used beneficial spells a mage can take advantage of to help its groups during instances.

Frost Nova

Frost Nova is a great mage spell that freezes targets in place, it's a useful spell in any instance. It can be used to stop mobs from advancing towards a party and often prevents them from killing other party members. It’s also great to use to stop mobs in place when you are frantically making a run for the zone line.

Polymorph

One of the main jobs of a mage during instance runs is to be quick about sheeping (polymorphing) adds. While only one add can be sheeped at a time, this handy spell has saved countless groups and even raids from complete wipes. If you are given the job of sheeping adds be sure to resheep them before the polymorph runs off or right after so that you don’t get beat down by an angry mob.

Conjure Food/Water

The mage can conjure food and water, a great skill that removes the need for buying expensive food and drink from vendors. The Mages is often bombarded with requests from melees and casters to summon them some food and drink before the start of a raid.

Teleport

There’s nothing like having a mage in the group to port to major cities at the conclusion of a raid. The spell does require a reagent, a rune of teleportation, but they are relatively cheap and worth the expense because of the convenience of being able to move quickly around the world.

Arcane Explosion

Arcane Explosion is an instant cast arcane AoE spell that damages targets within 10 yards of mages. It’s an awesome spell to use to quickly kill swarms of nonelite noobilicious mobs that are found during instances.

Ice Block

Ice Block is the reason the mage ie often used to pull mobs during instance runs. The spell protects the mage from any damage for 10 seconds! This gives the mage enough time to pull mobs and have a tank pull agro before it takes any damage. A downside to the spell is that the mage can’t attack, cast, or even move while it is activated. The mage uses another shield such as Ice Barrier during the initial pull, runs back to the group, and casts Ice Block. Also, the spell has a 4-minute cooldown so it can’t be used to pull every mob.