As mentioned yesterday, Larisa and I were asked some time back to write some guest posts for a Mage blogger that was (and maybe still is) returning to the fold. I know real life was getting in the way and its a shame to waste informative posts like these. After you read this you will realise how many Mage raid spots were lost just because this sat in draft for so long (like February long).
Strangely, Larisa departed from her normally sensible, informative posts to throw a bit of /sillyGnome about with her post. It was her usual well written stuff, the kind that if you read between the lines you know that you will be a better player, if not Mage, if you follow her suggestions.
Every now and then, I feel it is my duty to step away from the /sillyGnome stuff, to write truly valuable posts that will benefit both novice and ArchMage alike, so here it is:
Misleading Mage posts:
Fire Mage Raid Preparation: Gnomeaggedon’s guide to one time raid invites
I’m honored to have been asked to write a guest post for the relaunch of this wonderful Fire Magely blog and what’s more been given a topic so very close to my Gnomish heart…
Fire Mage Raiding.
Now the thing is, well the things are, that:
- I only really get to raid on the odd PuG’s discretion these days and;
- When I do raid these days I make healer DPS look good, and;
- There are so many better sources of Fire Mage raiding information (like the blog you have found this post on) and of course;
- Gnomes is /silly
So in the interests of maintaining an appropriate level of silliness in the face of a deadly serious and burning topic, I present to you my preparations for Fire Mage Raiding.
The essential Fire Mage Raiding Checklist.
Grind
You need mats right?
How you going to get them?
None of this pussy Goblin buy low sell high business. It’s bad enough that people compare us to Goblins without sinking to their level.
Nope you need to get out and grind the mats for the essential consumables, the ones with the following attributes.
Strength – You want that instant Pyroblast to pack a punch. Don’t let anyone accuse you of not having your Wheaties this morning. Go strength food, pass the big brother test and /flex
Agility – you need to avoid those whirlwinding raid mates when they discover how awesome you are to ignore the min/max concepts – not to mention that you want your spells to curl around all the objects you are hiding behind (hey, you have no health and healers never heal Mages)
Armor Penetration – If it’s good enough for hunters to stack after they reach 900 agility, it’s good enough for us! They are ranged, we are ranged, we don’t want to just cook our opponents in their armor, we want to microwave them from the inside out!
Gems
Spellpower, Spellpower, blah, blah, blah.
What if you don’t like red?
Seriously you want to gem the way you feel on the day… Feeling a little blue – gem blue!
Green with envy.. go green…
Feeling a little mellow… go yellow!
Beaten to a bruised and bloody pulp by your last PuG… Purple all the way baby!
Enchants
Your an enchanter right?
You know you can get good prices for the high level enchants right?
Don’t waste these on yourself when twink enchants will set fear into the hearts of your opponents and raiders alike.
I also highly recommend enchants that proc on melée hit. If you are a good Melee Mage (or follow this guide) you will be outputting so much aggro on so many mobs that you will need that melée enchant.
Gear
Go green!
It will ease your conscience. All these people picking up and discarding purples and you sticking with greens…
You may avert the Cataclysm!
Anyway, screw the greedy goblin. Anything a goblin can do in blues a Gnome/Fire Mage can do in greens!
Ohh BTW, get rid of that auto repair mod! Because you are dressed in greens you are better off de’ing them and replacing them with more greens… It’ll be cheaper in the long run.
Consumables
You got them, so why buy the spellpower ones?
I make a protest to Blizzard every time I raid now by not using their buffs.
Until they give me conjurable buff food my raid can go jump!
Speaking of them – don’t waste your reagents on them… Downgrade your conjures just so they feel the brunt of your protest. If they are so keen on fish feast, let them eat cake (or something like that).
Rotation – flex all your muscles
You have access to spells that make even Frost and Arcane mages weep – so use them!
All 3 schools in one rotation shows what a great Elementalist you are and is bound to get up their goat. (or the Warlock’s goat, or the Draenei goat… actually stay away from the Warlock’s goat. they get a bit antsy when you speak to their lovers)
Aggro and you
You, me, we are all attention seekers, that’s why we play with fire. It’s both very visual and entertaining for our raid mates, and usually gets the attention of the mobs too.
Pray for the day your tank says
You yank it, you tank it!
because that’s the day you have made it to the top. This is your chance to show off your uber tanking and kiting kills.
Make sure you leave all your raid shaking their head in disbelief (that you can be so awesome) and shaking in rage (that they will never reach your level of skills)
Utility spells
Utility spells are important. If that priest isn’t decursing then they need to be called out.
If they don’t listen, then teach them a lesson. Do what you do best and pull aggro, make sure you are standing next to them – then iceblock, or invis. They will understand who the boss is after one or two Mage induced deaths.
Recount
Coming from down under I have an appreciation of the fact that many maps and references are created from the perspective of the elitists that live in the northern hemisphere.
We all know Australia is on the top of the world and that it’s the lucky country (You know, truly Australia is in the North.. but the magnetic poles flip every couple of million years… so how does it feel to live on the bottom of the earth folks.. do you ever fall off?). So therefore Recount must be upside down too.
Strive to be in the primary position on the meters – at the bottom. Make sure they know it too. Spam that meter – mid fight preferably before the fools in the raid do it at the end of the battle.
Rings of fire
Ahh Fire… Our natural element. Others may feel an overwhelming need to get out of the rings and pools of fire, but be a good fire Mage and stay there.
There is nothing wrong with a nice lava bath!
Balls of Frost
Toravon might have balls of Frost, but we have balls of fire. Take down those balls.
Screw range, Dragons Breath is best!
Switching targets
Some people suggest you should switch targets, but we all know that’s for noobs. Fire Mages should always remain on the primary target.
Like you really intend to interrupt a 3 second cast time to start a spell for an add that will probably be dead before you find the spell in your spellbook (assuming the other noobs do their job and switch… man that drives me crazy!).
Tab targeting – the way to your tanks heart
Go Go Go Go!
One exception to target switching is tab targeting. Tanks have used it for years effectively and if you want to increase your dps and your appeal to the raid, you need to adopt the same policy.
If you aren’t having much luck picking up targets, increase your tab target range, you need those extra untanked mobs.
Mob detection – Blink ahead
Your efforts to speed up the run can be enhanced by blinking ahead of the tank. Don’t worry, they will charge after you the 1st or 2nd time.
Remember to Ice Nova and run like hell back to the healers… or go Invisible just as the others get in range to take the heat. It’s a shame your blink is on cooldown.
Decurse – yourself
You will get told, often, that as a Mage you are one of the few classes that can decurse. You will be expected to provide utility at the expense of your DPS.
Be warned, some anal noob will be checking decurses, so you need to get some on the board.
Luckily there is one character that you want to decurse – you!
Let the others suffer from the curse… Lowered defense – not your problem. Leaking life – let them buy a healer. DPS lowered – damn shame, looks like they are going down on the meters while you go up.
Master of Illusion.
By now you will have built a reputation for having the balls to solo a boss. Your very presence in the raid will be an inspiration, or maybe a taunt, for the whole raid to charge in.
Now is the time to have some fun with Invisibility.
Pop invisibility and charge at the boss. The boss can’t see you, but your raid mates can.
They will assume you are about to get pummeled and charge in to their deaths.
Get the hell out of there! Stay close enough that you can join in if they get it under control, but far enough that you can run when the wipe is obvious.
PvE like you PvP
PvE and PvP are quite different. PvE is quite measured, controlled, boring…
PvP is about popping your cooldowns, racing into melée range and living your life in a 5 second burst of fire (as much as Euripides will tell you Suicide Mages are out of fashion).
You want to play your raid like you play your BG. Fast, furious, chaotic and short.
Watch your raid mates switch to PvP mode when the mobs start running wild one shotting the healers.
Blizzard hardmodes can be completed by anyone, Fire Mage hardmodes are simply unpredictable.
Screw the healers.
Some people can DPS, others tank and heal.
They are hiding behind their armor and heals, more likely than not bored stupid.
Give them something to do. Aggro the mobs, bring them close to the healer then watch the healer generate aggro trying to keep himself alive.
One class exception – Druids.
Druids have Battle Rez. You will need this, so make some arrangements pre-battle so you know you will get the Battle Rez when the time comes – and it will (ohh if they balk at giving you the battle rez.. remind them your primary desire in life is to burn things… wood burns best… good Druids will protect the forests against reason).
Sell your soul if you have to.
After all, if you follow this guide to raiding you have already sold your soul at least once…
So suck up to a Warlock.. grab the soul stone they would have given to a healer (waste of time really.. when do they ever do DPS?), flick the Lock and extra quarter of strudel and go to town (you will need to portal to the nearest town about now anyway)
See it’s easy
And you get a 20% buff…
Seriously… who needs 45 self absorbed Hunter blogs to teach a Mage to Mage… right?
Gnomer and Out (of here before I get thumped)
Mmmm.. damn… I’ve run out of misleading information… HELP!
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i’m trying to imagine the faces of my guildies if i actually tried your recommendations… O.o… my guess is they wouldn’t be my guildies for long!
Fear not Prelimar, I have just received in the mail an awesome contribution to the (Mis)Information (M)Age.
As with all great misleading guides, you can’t just rely on one.
I’ll get that up tomorrow.
OMG you crack me up you crazy crazy mage you!
CRAZY!?!
I’m the most seriously misleading Mage blogger to ever write!
I prefer to think of myself as…
/silly
OMG, I am in tears. Firemage Hardmodes?
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!
*sigh*
BWAHAHAHAHAH!!
*wipes tear*
I’m about to join a fairly structured raiding guild. I may need to try these out.
/facedesk
OMG this one:
“Aggro the mobs, bring them close to the healer then watch the healer generate aggro trying to keep himself alive.”
Mages do this ALL the time to my resto druid. I’ve let many a mage die from getting aggressive. No shizz batman, I’m not going down. I could create my own mage gy for these stupid little nasties I’ve let die over the last year.
Go ahead, pull those trash, I dare ya.
Gnome I think you should come do a raid with me. I’ll keep ya safe…NOT
hehehe
Actually… Agility gives you more crit rating than actual crit rating. Seriously. I’m not joking. I found it accidentally while I was working my enchanting. It’s not a huge difference, but a difference nonetheless. ^_^
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