Pie at ForTheHorde had a great post about avoiding tardness as a Hunter by practicing, practicing and practicing a bit more.
His point was that while leveling and grinding we tend to fall back on lazy practices which will inhibit our ability to excel in instances and raids.
Fundamentally you can get away with sloppy play while soloing. Likewise there is rarely a need to challenge yourself, and on those occasions when a solo pull goes pear shaped, there is a good chance you will accept a ghost run rather than practice “wipe recovery”.
Noobaggedon the Magetard
Reading this post so soon after my Noobaggedon post, it really struck a cord. It occurred to me that I am a sloppy Mage, a Magetard (not a term you hear every day).
I think a part of the problem comes from the very “glass” nature of being a Mage and had been accentuated in my case by both being a Fire Mage and a suicide PvP Mage (and it doesn’t help having limited playtime… But that is ultimately just another excuse).
When I die, I think nothing of it and neither to my group mates. If someone is going to die, it will probably be the dps with the least health, right? Last in line for heals, and 1st to pull aggro.
Here are some of my failings as a Mage:
- I can’t kite.
- I can’t AoE grind.
- I have shite situational awareness.
- I prefer to stand fight or die, than run, kite and kill.
- I am sloppy with my cooldowns.
- I forget my gems.
- I don’t bandage.
- I forget invisibility & iceblock
- I can’t remember by keybindings
- I forget Fire and Frost Ward.
- I forget to Counterspell (doesn’t the rogue interrupt?)
- But I know where my polymorph is!
Kiting.
Problem
Kiting takes practice, especially if you don’t have the additional tools that Frost and Arcane can find hidden in their trees.
As I have had a small window of playtime, and I have always raced to get to instancing/raid level to join my mates, I haven’t taken the time to learn to kite effectively.
Solution
If you aren’t max level, start practicing with your final grinding and questing sessions. You have the advantage that you aren’t wasting any time. You need to kill the mobs anyway, so why not hone your skills while you are at it.
If you are already maxed, then either practice while doing your dailies, or go find a “safe” mob to practice with.
An old standard used to be the golems in Ungoro crater, and there is no reason you still can’t go down there and use them still, but you will need to downrank your spells.
AoE grinding.
Problem
Have I ever mentioned that I am Fire spec’d, or at least I was. At one point I even “commissioned” an AoE grinding guide from Zupa.
But I never took the opportunity that the end of TBC offered and respec’d to practice.
Now I am FrostFire, and I have a few more frosty tools up my sleeve, but I am totally unprepared to use them.
Solution
Practice of course, which is made easier with duel spec. Now is the time to pick up a purpose built AoE grinding spec, because it will allow you more margin for error and practice till you have the knack. Once you have the knack, switch back to your Raid spec and adjust your strategy until you can do it AFK.
Situational Awareness
Problem
Are you standing in the fire, frost or poison cloud? Are you standing watching the explosive, yet avoidable, spear come in your direction?
Well get out of the way!
Blizzard is in part to blame for this. Until WoLK and only for a few non-instanced encounters even now, you couldn’t avoid aimed attacks. If the mob threw a spell, spear etc at you, it would hit or miss purely based on the RNG.
But, there are now some encounters where you can avoid the impact, which is great for building some situational awareness. WoWGrrl has a great post about this.
Solution.
Track these mobs down and take them on until you get to the point where you automatically move to avoid the incoming damage, then laugh at your group mates when they die in the fire.
Kite & Kill vs. Stand & Die
Problem
This is very closely related to the kiting issue, but goes beyond it. Have you stood there while getting thumped by mobs watching your casts get pushed back until you die?
When all you needed to do was pop a couple of abilities and slaughter the mobs?
Solution
On those occasions when melee mobs are about to engage with you, practice a bit of frost nova & strafe (with instants while gaining distance), a bit of blink and blast etc until you do it automatically.
While you are at it, visualize you are saving the healer, pulling the healer’s incoming aggro and dealing with it until the tank can get it back.
You are much more expendable than the healer, but why should either of you take a dirt bath.
Win some healing friends… learn how to save them.
Cooldowns.
Problem
When I am raiding I forget my cooldowns (there are so many of them all of a sudden). Not so much during boss encounters, although I am sure I could be using them more effectively (note to self, when the he’ll are you going to write that trinket macro?), rather during trash.
It costs nothing to pop trinkets, combustion, icy veins, mirror image, even mana gems (for your tier piece bonus damage) are fundamentally free. Yet I constantly forget to use them during trash pulls. I hang on to them as if I will die if they aren’t preserved for the last 35% of a boss fight.
Solution.
While grinding, constantly pop your cooldowns, one per mob until you get to the point you do it on every trash encounter.
Apart from being good practice, the damage meters will look favorably upon you!
Oh… Write a trinket/cooldown macro for boss fights, and practice using it… Why search for abilities at a crucial moment in a battle when you only need one I WIN! button?
Mana Gems
Problem.
- Do you know when to pop them?
- At what mana % can you pop one and return to full mana?
You know you want to do this asap in a boss fight so you have the option to do it again later.
If you have 2 pieces on T7/7.5 you get a damage bonus as well.
I used to hold onto them like coveted candy. The sort you desire so much you don’t eat it until it’s spoiled. Or I would drop them too late in a fight, should I drop it at 80%, 75%, 70%?
Solution
When grinding, rely less on food and more on gems. Try to get it to the point that the only time you stop to eat is when either you have run out of mana gems or you are low on health… And as for health…
Bandage
Problem.
Are you a drain on your healer?
There are times in raid encounters where less dps, more bandages is a good thing. Sometimes your healers are so stretched that their mission statement should read:
Sacrifice the dps, save the tanks and healers.
Problem is when you are grinding it is easier to stop every 5 mobs and sit and eat… but that isn’t developing your skills now is it?
Solution.
Used in conjunction with mana gem solution. Don’t eat, bandage! You are picking up cloth from the mobs anyway, so use it as a training resource…
Mana Gem + Bandage for the I lived to fight another day win!
Invisibility and Iceblock.
How’s your trigger finger?
Problem
You are so used to being behind the tank in aggro, you have forgotten where the buttons/keybinds are.
Then one battle you rock the dps, it’s a bad pug tank or your tank dies.
Now you are in the crapper in the dark and you can’t remember where the toilet paper is!
Solution.
1st up maybe you shouldn’t have waited so long to invisibility, but too late now, so next time you are grinding, let a couple get away while you practice invisibility.
Also try out a bit of iceblocking when you are getting hit, maybe even combo it up with a bit of frost nova and blink.
Keybindings
Problem
You can’t remember them when you need to.
Solution
Use them all while grinding.
Yeah counterspell the melée, iceblock against the caster. Whatever, just use them so you remember.
Better still, use them appropriately!
Frost & Fire Wards
You got them, but do you ever use them?
Problem
Solo you destroy the mob before it does too much damage. In parties you have healers, why prevent damage when they can just as easily heal it?
Thus you never use what are apparently useless spells, this if you even have them on your cast bars, you probably don’t even remember where they are, or god forbid, know the keybinding.
But you know what… They can be useful…
Ever been in a fight with random fire or frost damage… No?
How about Sapp and that blizzard?
Sure it won’t protect you completely from death, but it will buy you some time to get out of the blizzard. It will allow your healers the option of not dropping a heal on you… Maybe they can save themselves, and the raid.
Of course once you dodge Sapp’s blizzard and hump the iceblock, what you going to do?
Did I hear bandage…. Ohhh good!
Solution
Get into the habit of identifying whether mobs are using Frost or Fire against you.. then get into the habit of popping the wards. Sure the mobs will go down before they do too much damage, but why not make it zero damage, and a training exercise.
Those Whelps near Argent Tournament will get your started with the Frost Ward, find some mobs for the Fire Ward!
Counterspell
I know where it is on my bars.
I even remember the keybind, by do I use it often enough?
Problem
When grinding, those pesky casters only get one or two casts off before I incinerate them. So why would I bother interrupting my rotation to interrupt theirs?
When I’m in an instance or raid, our healers out heal (most of) the spell damage, and we can dps the mob down before it does too much damage…
But is that good enough?
KT is possible without interruption, but is easier with it.
Solution
Counterspell every opportunity you get. Sure your dps will suffer a little, which won’t matter if you are practicing while grinding, and less healer strain will be appreciated in group situations (and you can always argue your case with a recount or WWS).
It can be hard to coordinate interrupts, but you can use a mid like Deadened to announce them, which serves the dual purpose of waking up other interrupters and letting the group know you are doing something useful.
Polymorph
I’ve been playing for a while so I know what polymorph is (apart from a novelty spell), I have a macro and I know how to use it, but do you?
Problem
WoLK… ’nuff said
Solution
Go sheep some things. Practice maintaining your sheep while grinding on other mobs.
It’s not enough to sheep once, you need to be able to maintain it am react quickly to broken sheep.
- Sheep pull
- Take on multiple mobs with sheep
- Drown sheep
- Play with it, enjoy it.
- Shock and amaze your friends with your stable of polymorphs!
I used a sheep at a moment request the other night in Halls of Lightning.
Was it necessary?
No, but maybe my pug tank was testing me, maybe he wanted to mix it up, maybe he was just providing me with an opportunity to practice.
Whatever the case, when the tank said:
Pulling – Gnome sheep that!
My finger moved instinctively to the key that has contained my polymorph since the moment I learnt it, and Baaaaah (or whatever sound a turtle makes).
I got a pat on the back and an “Ahhh cool” for that one use of Polymorph.
I didn’t use it again for that run, but boy was I happy that I could still sheep in my sleep.
Are you a Magetard or Magetastic?
Anyway, that wraps up this post. I hope as you read through it you stopped and thought about the last time you practiced the skill. Not so much used it in an instance or a raid (although if you use them often enough, that’s all practice).
Hopefully next time you are out grinding you will mix up the 1111111′s with the odd 69hat12, have a little fun while knowing you are preparing for the big time.
I am going to leave you with Matticus’ signature quote. The reason is simple, if you don’t practice, you won’t even THINK to take the shot. If you have practiced, well you will still miss, but more likely you will be showered with praise for being Magetastic!
Matt’s quote:
“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”
- Wayne Gretzky
Gnomer and Out!
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/05/12/magetard-like-a-huntard-only-worse/
Here’s a possible solution: go try arena 2v2. You’ll learn most of those skills once you get sick of losing
.
Also try playing a tank or healer, the broadened perspective can highlight your own short-comings. And possibly teach you things like situational awareness.
Just some suggestions.
Nice post! fun read.
You know, there’s another way to brush up on all those essential skills….
PvP! The more abilities and cooldowns you use, the better you will do.
Great for training everything from situational awareness, to perfecting that I WIN macro.
An insta pyro with trinkets is what rogues deserve after all!
@Darksentinel & zupa: You are both absolutely correct… PvP is a great way to hone these skills.
The thing is, from past experience, when you are in the thick of it, it’s hard to:
Practice safely & reflect.
The Practice safely is the key aspect of this post… you want to practice until you can use the abilities without conscious thought, and that will take some practice so your fingers are already pressing the keys before your brain catches up.
The reflection part is only hard in the sense that in PvP a lot of things can happen in quick succession… you may not even be aware of the fact that they are happening… then of course you want to get back into the thick of it, don’t you
So, I guess this is the “boot camp” to go through before you hit the “training maneuvers” of PvP and trial boss wipes.
Oh, and I guess the real point of Pie’s post and this this one, is don’t get lazy while doing the daily grind.
Every fight can be a learning and practice encounter, no matter how trivial
I’m going to have to agree that playing a healing class really makes me think twice about everything I do as DPS since I know what the healer is going through.
That’s helped my gameplay the most. And I know that I should use bandages, but I never make them, that frostweave cloth always seems to be able to find a better use than a bandage.
Great post!
Learning your skills while PvPing is just a recipe for frustration, IMNSHO. PvPing is about reacting, anticipation etc. It’s fast paced and chaotic.
A mob on the other hand is boring and predictable.
and I don’t kite as well as I should. I keyboard turn so I strafe kite.
Yeah…keyboard turn. I know.
That was an awesome post. My main toon is a human 80 mage but then recently started a Dreanei mage on another server. Actually, now I feel like I’m practicing since I’m starting over. I love to attempt the most difficult quests on my own and try to figure out how I can make it work to get it complete.
Have I cheated a little? Oh Yeah…using swiftness pots to escape difficult situtations and invisi pots to get me closer to a quest without having to kill a million mobs on the way. Even so, I have been using my sheep more than ever, being more aware of my health and mana to use a pot when necessary and just really wanting to stay alive. I love not having to group for the high end quests.
The best thing I did this time round was take up herbalism immediately. The Gift of Naaru plus the Life Blood heal from herbalism has made it much easier to quest on my own even doing the high end red quests. So I have 2 heals to get me through a tough fight and pot if necessary. It’s been sweet.
One of the highlights of my mage career was in 10 man ulduar first time through. I kited two of Ignis’s trash flame elementals around and killed them when the rest of the raid died. Extensive use of living bomb, FFB, and running. It took them about 4 minutes to realize “This isn’t a boss fight, we can zone in!”
If you’re going to practice in PvP, don’t go overboard and practice everything. Set up a new keybinding and go into a battleground focusing on one or two things you want to improve.
“I’m going to focus on sheeping melee and counterspelling healers.”
“I’m going to make sure my buffs are up, use my iceblock and invis and drive with the mouse/strafe”
“I’m going to try and kite hunter/DK pets around the field (assuming they don’t micromanage)”
Most importantly, don’t get down on yourself if you get rolled in the BG and people talk smack on you. It’s about improving yourself.
The timing on your post is impeccable. Did you already read mine or were you picking up my brainwaves all the way out in Oz? Yours is much nicer, lol.
Just a couple items to add to your excellent stuff here.
Kiting – Out in Dragonblight there are several elites starting at level 72. Most are part of 2 and 3-man group quests. They will live long enough to get some kiting practice in without having to downrank spells.
AoE – The herds of shoveltusk in Howling Fjord are very safe to start practicing AoE on. Make yourself yummy shoveltusk food afterwards.
Situational Awareness – Two suggestions: 1) Move your frames and cooldown-action bars closer to the center of the screen to keep an eye on them, 2) Never let your eyes rest, keep them moving. Don’t “zone out” on the pretty pewpew lights. Sparklies…
Kill & Kite – While farming shoveltusk, let the bulls get close to you and practice “emergency” kiting.
Cooldowns – DoTimer is a great add on, as is OmniCC, for helping keep an eye on cooldowns. Keep the icons where you can easily see the time remaining. (This is the one I really need to work on. I also hate to burn them on trash.)
Mana Gems – Same goes for Blood Elves and Arcane Torrent. Early and often is the best bet. Just remember that Mana Gems share a CD with warlock candy so you may need to do some extra planning. AT does not share a CD with anything else and does not trigger the GCD.
Bandages – Frostweave is everywhere. You should have plenty to use 1-5 bandages per raid without hurting tailoring too much. If you run out, go AoE grind undead.
Invisibillity & Ice Block – Don’t forget that these are auras that can be canceled as soon as you’re done with them. Might also want to macro an IB aura cancel to Blink so you can get away with fewer clicks or spam. Mirror Image is also a great threat drop, just remember you will regain the threat when they fade.
Keybindings – Sometimes I forget my keybindings too… I try to review my binds while waiting on other people in raids. When I’m not turned into a bunny and hopping around like mad. =)
Frost and Fire wards – I have a special spot on an action bar in the middle of my screen for wards. If a ward can be used in a fight, I place the appropriate one there and can keep a close eye on it. The other ward is tucked away in the corner. Getting the wards moved around is part of my pre-fight routine.
Counterspell – Run H Violet Hold. There are lots of casters in there to practice on. I still have trouble on stopping the polymorph, it’s such a fast cast.
Polymorph – Macro it for Target and Focus. Have Presence of Mind? Make sure you have an emergency livestock macro.
I may as well point out here that for Invis/IB/CS, a /stopcasting macro works wonders. For example:
/stopcasting
/cast Ice Block
This way, you don’t even have to worry about finishing or canceling a current cast – just press the button, and the ability will go off instantly!
@Troutwort: Ahh the other side of the fence… yeah that would expand your understanding… and yeah I know what you mean about cloth… I could use more of it… but I still make sure I have a pile of 20 bandages on me at the start of each session.
@forthepie: I agree, PvP is a place to refine your skills, not learn to use them…. You are a keyboard turner…. I wont say anything… there are enough hungry wolves around already…
@Cathy: That’s not cheating… that’s great practicing… I never remember to use any other pots… I have to prod myself to use my mana gems, but at least I have some more incentive now I have the 2xT7.
@Fricassee: You sure they didn’t realize, or were they just appreciating your kiting magic?
You have a great suggestion re in-PvP training… as long as you feel comfortable with just working on those skills, and can ignore your team mates yelling… let’s face it… once you have honed your skills, you will be much more useful for it… in the long run, that means more wins!
@Arioch: You Back to the basic post is an awesome one, and delves into two of my points in such beautiful, data supported detail… yes we should all hang our heads in shame if our recounts look like that (well, not your efforts)
Thanks for all the other great tips!
@velinath: Geez… the Magemind must be forming into a Hivemind… I have nearly completed a post on /stopcasting… coming in a day or so…
Oh and thanks Leitlamaa, Guild Master @Nephilim of Fenris, for posting this up in your forums…
I just started my mage (lvl 20 FTW) and am loving it. This post provides a lot of good advice. I guess I will stop the AE,AE,AE,AE,AE until everything is dead and start practicing now. I have no desire to be a magetard.
[...] Not to Be a Fail Knight Similar questions have been posed by For the Horde and Gnomeageddon about their classes, each providing a list of typical class-related problems and solutions. So, [...]
@smart001: How’s that Blink working out? yeah you are in a good position… no bad habits that you need to break.
[...] had forgotten all about it until /stopcasting was positively mentioned in a comment by Velinath to my Magetard [...]
Excellent and timely post. I recently had an exchange with some guild mages when I reminded them that they can pop invisibility or ice block. (A reminder that was prompted by the endless pulling of aggro off the tank) Then they argue back that ice block rocks and invisibility is useless because of the 3 second fade so it’s hard for them to not pull aggro. Hmmm, yes I won’t repeat the entire conversation here but needless to say I ended it on a positive note by saying “You’re a good mage, I know you can do it” Anyways, both are excellent ‘get out of jail free’ cards!
One thing I think worth mentioning is the use of Amplify/Dampen magic. Those fights where the MT and/or OT is taking physical damage (like Patchwerk), Amplify magic is a sometimes forgotten tool to help out the healers. Those hateful strikes hurt and every bit of help healing doesn’t hurt, especially if you are running new-to-raiding healers!
I don’t often use Dampen magic outside of PvP. Honestly I’m trying to remember the last time I used it in a group/raid, maybe like 2 weeks ago but I can’t remember that far back.
Another option to keep your skills honed are to go back and solo some of the BC 5-mans. I know, who goes back to BC these days right? But it really is great practice, especially if you push yourself and pull that extra mob. You work your cooldowns, aggro dropping practice, AoE grinding, crowd control, situational awareness and mana gems. . .a lot of what you said and all in one instance. If you haven’t tried to solo an instance before, I definitely recommend starting with something easy like Ramps and moving your way up. Plus, you can really learn to mirror image tank and also learn when to pop mirror image towards the end of a fight to buy you some time to evocate or bandage. It’s great practice.
And one thing that some new mages may take for granted – you’ve got 3 different armors to chose from, you aren’t stuck with one through an entire or instance! While I hate not using Molten Armor b/c my crit drops below 40% during raids (QQ I know right), I don’t hesitate to use Mage Armor when the fight calls for it (need that extra bit of magic resistance or mana regen etc).
The important thing is that despite our inherent squishiness, we’ve got a lot of great tools at our disposal to buy our healers a few more seconds to pop that heal off our way!
[...] recently posted about not being a Magetard. He suggested that mages practice sheeping, kiting, AOE grinding, and counterspelling. It [...]
[...] from Armaggedon’s Coming came up with a fun and entertaining Shared Topic for the Blog Azeroth Community this week: [...]
[...] on Jun.01, 2009, under World of Warcraft This Blog Azeroth Shared Topic has been brought to you by Gnomeaggedon, who has asked for others to share their thoughts on “<insertclasshere>tards.” [...]
[...] then, more time was spent grinding for coppers than was spent fighting Internet dragons. You had to play, improve your technique, improve your efficiency to be able to grind to be able to [...]