Welcome back to another installment of Arcane Brilliance, an homage to the mages we are, and hopefully a place where we can learn a few things that will help us along the way towards becoming the mages we want to be. When we last sat down together, we went through the different types of mage armor, their stats and uses.
As a result of the comments on last week's article, I tried a little variation in the use of the three armor types in my gameplay. You were right when you said that Mage Armor can actually give more punch than Molten Armor in instances; my addiction to crit was blinding me to the amazing damage that can be done when you don't run out of mana half-way through a fight. See, that's exactly what this column is all about, learning from each other how to become better mages.
Now, when we talk about protection for mages, the armor does go a long way toward keeping us alive, but there are other spells that help us survive, namely the shields and wards. These spells help us by absorbing damage and providing resistances to various schools of magic. You're a mage, at some point during the fight if you're doing decent enough damage you will pull aggro. But it's a combination of these spells that will help you survive long enough to dump aggro.
Let's look at the shields first. As a mage you get access to the Mana Shield at level 20. When I first started using this spell I had no idea it drained mana, but it does. The shield absorbs 120 damage at its base level, instead draining your mana. You're level 20 at this point though, high enough that your gear should last you a few levels. A good way to counteract this mana drain is to start building up +int gear. The more mana you have, the less you will see the effect of the shield on your mana. The spell receives upgrades at level 28, 36, 44, 52, 60 and 68.
For many mages, regardless of spec, this is the shield only option available to you. However, if you decide to spec heavily into the Frost tree, Ice Barrier is there awaiting you as a nice reward. The Ice Barrier spell is a talent you can pick up with 31 points, and if you're on your way to the water elemental, you'll definitely want to spend a point to learn this one. Not only does this shield absorb 438 points of damage, but you can cast uninterrupted as long as this baby is up. The caveat with the Ice Barrier is that it lasts 60 seconds, but has a 30 second cooldown. Technically you can first get this spell at level 40, and then receive upgrades at levels 46, 52, 58, 64, and 70.
I have used both these shields over my history with my mage. For a long while I was a pure frost mage, all the way down to my Squishy. Ice Barrier was definitely my friend. Uninterrupted casting is a lovely thing. But now that I have a blended spec, I admit that the lack of a cooldown on Mana Shield is also very useful. I don't use the shield as often as I should. I could say that I do this because I want to be as mana efficient as possible, but the truth is many times I forget to use the spell until I'm getting whacked on by some baddy. These days I am doing better about aggro management, and so I find that unless I am soloing my dailies I can get away with not using my shield.
I'd love to hear your recommendations on the use of Mana Shield versus Ice Barrier. I realize that for those of us that are Arcane or Pyro we don't have the option of Ice Barrier, but I also find that even though a mage doesn't have the spec, chances are they know enough about said spec to discuss its merits intelligently. And like I said I'm here to learn how to play my class better.
And now onto the wards: In your 20s you will receive two spells that absorb spell damage from the fire and frost schools. Think of them as a free protection potion but only for us mages. At level 20 you receive a spell called Fire Ward. The base level of this ward absorbs 165 fire damage and lasts 30 seconds, with a 30 second cool down. As you train in higher levels of the ward the amount of damage it absorbs goes up exponentially. By the time you hit Rank 6 of the spell it is absorbing 1220 fire damage. Look for upgrades to this spell at levels 30, 40, 50, 60, and 69.
Two levels later, at 22, you will get the chance to train in Frost Ward. Like the Fire Ward it absorbs 165 damage, only this time it's frost damage you're protected against. Again the spell lasts 30 seconds and has a 30 second cooldown. Upgrades to the spell are available at levels 32, 42, 52, 60 and 70.
Okay mages, help me out here. These are two spells I really don't use at all (I might have used Fire Ward in my few runs in MC, but it's been so long I don't recall.) I see the benefit of wards, I do, but I am not sure the amount of damage absorbed is enough to warrant a space in my already crowded UI. Part of my challenge is, I think, that when I first got the spells I was using them all the time, and didn't really learn that I had to anticipate another mage's spell usage first. Perhaps these spells are something that would help me in PvP? How useful do you find the wards?
Alright well, we've gone over the ways a mage can protect themselves in battle (although I still vote as Bear Druid for my favorite mage armor.) We have the armor, the shields, and the wards. As we embark on our continued discussion, I am definitely open to suggestions as to topics. I have plenty of ideas, but this is your column too. As a mage, what discussions would you find most helpful? Feel free to drop me a line at amanda [dot] rivera [at] weblogsinc [dot] com and let me know if there is a topic you would like discussed on a future Arcane Brilliance. Until then, happy casting.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-30-2007 @ 6:49PM
Ambril said...
Fire and Frost Ward are invaluable spells in many situations, particularly in PVE when you are able to anticipate what school of magic is going to be used against you.
I would argue that Fire Ward is the better of the two though, because there are fire-based DOTs out there ~ not so much the case with frost. One example is the Magtheridon fight, where you might get "bounced" into a fire causing you to take Conflagrate damage. Popping Fire Ward during this is a wonderful example of being able to use the spell to stop damage that you didn't have to anticipate you were going to take before hand.
It would be the same case with Ignite. Spell reflecting mobs will sometimes cause me to hit myself with my own fireball. Or in PVP, if you are fighting a fire mage ~ using Fire Ward while afflicted with Ignite yourself can prevent yourself from taking a fair bit of damage after you've already been hit. ;)
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6-30-2007 @ 7:15PM
blkmasta said...
Fire ward I use a lot for fel flak cannons during the ogri'la bombing run. Get hit, slowfall, fire ward, sorted.
Fire/Frost wards are also good for grinding fire/water elementals, as it protects against pretty much everything they can do (including physical damage, thankfully).
IMO, ice barrier is best, because it totally disrupts damage rather than converting it, as it were. The cooldown doesn't bother me particularly.
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6-30-2007 @ 7:59PM
ErsatzPotato said...
They're both marvelous for grinding motes. That pesky water elemental is shooting frost damage *and* meleeing frost damage. Ward is a free pass to kill it.
Perhaps a mention of ice block? One heck of a shield.
Ice barrier is fantastic. It's 31 points though, so you're probably frost all the way except for elementalist PVP builds.
While molten is definitely the default shield once you get it, those crits also make your threat trickier to manage. I sometimes take the protection and lower profile of ice in a bad group.
Surely I'll get some flack for this, but I'd recommend against taking any of the talents to enhance a mage's armor, wards, or mana shield. The benefits aren't large and none are needed to reach other important talents. And boy, all three trees have great talents!
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6-30-2007 @ 8:00PM
ErsatzPotato said...
Forgot to add: if you're deep enough to have barrier, you'll likely also have cold snap. Don't ask me to repeat this right after my mage has died, but the cooldown isn't bad at all.
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6-30-2007 @ 8:29PM
Brock said...
To speak directly to your query on fire/frost wards in PvP, they are insanely usefull. Any damage mitigation you can squeeze out of your squishy should be taken advantage of:
Running into a battle with a warlock? Pop fire ward and eat an immolate - and be sure to counterspell a shadow spell.
Fighting a mage? Counterspell one school (for example, a frostbolt) and pop the other school's ward (i.e. fire). That puts you in control enough to beat down your opponent.
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6-30-2007 @ 9:08PM
Elo said...
The Frost and Fire wards are essential and crucial to a mage. They keep you alive against casters and mitigate damage. If you have mage armor up and you cast one of these two wards, you become invincible against casters of these two schools for a limited time. It gives you plenty of time to dispatch more than 2 foes in PVE. You can always counter shadow if that is what your are being attacked with.
In PVP, the wards are the essential basic defense against other mages with improved counterspell of course. They are quick to cast and you can cast them again pretty quickly.
Mana shield is so mana inefficient that outside of PvP, it is more of a last defense spell for when you have to run to save your neck. Mana shield, Frost nova, Blink and run like a chicken is how I avoid a corpse run.
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6-30-2007 @ 9:11PM
Phantyk said...
I mostly use fire/frost ward when I'm aoeing elementals for primals. As a fire mage I can easily down 4-5 elementals per AoE using fire ward.
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7-01-2007 @ 2:44AM
idedontknow said...
How about dampen magic? or amplify magic? I never really used either but Dampen magic wasn't bad for soloing when i played my mage back in the day. Do they have any values these days?
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7-01-2007 @ 5:11AM
BenMS said...
Fire Ward is gold when you're fighting the Spectral Performers in Karazhan. When they blow up at the end, they do 3-4k fire damage, and if you're already low on health, absorbing a third of that can mean the difference between fighting on, and needing a res.
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7-01-2007 @ 6:14AM
Sherp of Ahrotahntee said...
I keep Mana Shield bound to G, Fire Ward bound to H, and Frost Ward bound to Shift-H; usually I can see a spell coming at me and get the ward up before it arrives. Wards make fighting non-Shadow casters so very easy, especially if you put the talent points in to get a 20% chance of spell reflection. That's just plain fun.
I'd like to see something about which crafted armor we should be looking to acquire at level 70! I'm not going to become a tailor, but if I want top-level caster robes, what should I start collecting mats for?
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7-01-2007 @ 6:23AM
Frznu said...
The wards are mainly for grinding, but can be somewhat useful when you can anticipate the dmg coming from another player. I use them more as a panic button.
As for amplify and dampen magic, these are EXTREMELY useful in both pve and pvp (I wasted the talent points to get imp amplify and dampen magic). They are mainly helpful because they essentially raise your targets' resistances to ALL schools of magic, or if you are in a tank n spank boss fight, toss an amplify on your tank, and heals are significantly boosted.
Whenever I'm going head to head in pvp with any caster, my best friends are my mage armor, dampen magic, and my wards. If you use them properly, you are nearly unstoppable in pvp against other casters.
As for ice barrier, it's essentially more of a time-buyer, just as mana shield. While they seem logical, most of the time they arent neccessary. You shouldn't in theory ever be close enough to anyone or anything to be taking physical damage (blink, frost nova, cone of cold, etc)...and therefore I reserve the loss of mana with mana shield as a panic button in pve and pvp.
As for specs I can break down my personal experiences as follows (I've tried essentially every spec, known and unknown, over my days of playing my mage):
Fire mage - valuable asset for pvp, basically everything in the talent tree is geared for pvp (daze, dragon's breath, pyroblast, crit bonuses). While I've seen a lot of mages playing fire as a raid spec, I've had very bad experiences myself with this layout. Firstly, it's not the most mana efficient spec available, and more importantly, the insane crit dmg will almost always get you killed before you use half your mana
Pure frost - excellent spec for solo play, not so great for pvp. Mana efficiency is decent, and you have a breadth of panic buttons and life saving tools (ice barrier, ice block, cold snap, water ele, imp frost nova, etc)
Pure arcane - excellent for dishing out insane damage, but not a lot of survivability or mana preservation (your 2 main dmg doers in this tree are arc blast and arc missiles, both of which hog mana) I have only used this spec twice, and while the top end dmg was INSANE (yes, I N S A N E) the mana costs of the big spells werent enough to keep me pure arcane
Arcane/fire - much better for raiding and pve than pure fire, and much better topend damage if specc'd into the mind mastery talent, but still not the greatest spec for mana conservation (as most of the fire spells' base mana costs are higher, and mainly, you'll be dead from pulling aggro with too much dmg to enjoy it very long)
Arcane/frost - essentially my favorite pve/raid spec to date. I've respecced out of this 4 times, only to pay the gold to go back. That should explain how well I like this spec. The crit dmg with frostbolts are amazing, while low enough to ensure you don't pull aggro constantly. The mana conservation and total mana pool of the arc/frost spec is excellent for long boss fights, and if you do as I did and take ice block, you can clear dots, or avoid certain boss features such as AoEs, MCs, etc. I find that when I do pull aggro, a quick ice block always sends the mob right back to the tank, and I'm able to immediately use invis after breaking ice block (if the tank hasnt passed me on the threat meter that is) to reduce or completely remove my threat. My usual method after pulling aggro is an ice block, followed by an invis, a quick evoke, and then arc power +trinket and go all out. This is extremely useful to open up when a boss is around 30-40% and your other mana classes are getting low.
In closing, no matter what all the trolls around the many boards discussing specs and what not, the essential thing to remember, is try them all, and find the one that best suits your play style. If you're raiding, find something that benefits the setup of your guild/raid groups and enjoy playing the game!
Hope this is useful to you all, and gluck!
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7-01-2007 @ 8:37AM
Raize said...
I know this isn't related to wards, but perhaps next time you should do a column about the mage's mana gems?
I have met dozens of mages who don't realise that mana gems make mage armour basically irrelivent. For instance, a lot of mages don't realise that you can have one of each mana gem conjured at once (5 gems!) and use them all in the same fight.
For raid bosses, mana gems are invaluable, for instance, as soon as you have burned through 1300 mana you pop your first, biggest mana gem, instantly bringing you back to full mana. Then, two minutes later, you pop the next mana gem, for another free 1000 mana. If the fight is long enough then you can pop your third mana gem for another 800-850 mana.
With effective use of pots and mana gems I never have to use mage armour in a raid fight, therefore I have 3% more dps than a mage who has to resort to mage armour (3% more crit, and that's not including dps from spells like ignite).
Mana gems are one of the most valuable tools available to a mage, and yet many mages consistantly underuse them.
Also, a column on addons such as Quartz wouldn't hurt ^^
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7-01-2007 @ 9:01AM
Knottop said...
The wards mean if you can find some caster mobs, you can solo grind them without a hit counting on you. I dont use it much in instances unless it looks like a long fight or fighting say a boss that uses fire, but solo its great.
That and counterspell ensure fast efficient grinding of casters.
Ive specced out of frost a few times but find Ice Barrier to be invaluable. Also, using Dampen Magic against casters will acually prolong the life of your Ice Barrier and amplify magic will increase healing more than it increase magic damage so very usefull at times.
As has been mentioned Iceblock is a great tool to have as frost, and Cold Snap and the talent that reduces cooldown of Nova/Snap/IceBlock is essential if going down the frost route imo.
I tend not to use mage armour, but then I like crit and I have 5 points in impact so molten armour will proc and stun mobs hitting me which makes my AoE role in instances that little easier.
I'll throw Mage Armour up for bosses where resistance is an issue, the mana regen is a nice bonus. Never really thought of using it full time during runs, but then I dont have mana issues generally. Shammy with mana totem/mana tide, few items of MP5, bag full of mana pots and always having two mana gems keep my bar up. I just got invis aswell so easy to fade a few seconds to drop aggro and evocate safely to regen.
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7-01-2007 @ 9:07AM
Knottop said...
..also, if your a mage class, I cannot reccomend Cryolysis enough. It will free up a LOT of space on action bars and really make your life easier.
Places a circle on screen surrounded by smaller circular buttons with all your buff spells (left click to open bar, left click buff.. bar auto closes), conjure food/water/gems, set the middle button to sheep. Has mount, HS, portals all built in and will auto-restock your reagents everytime you visit the vendor.
Very customisable and will print msg's to chat showing targets your sheeping, tells you how longs left on cooldowns, how long poly will last, sounds an alert a set amount of time before sheep breaks and one on break.. you can turn all this off, change messages, all sorts of stuff.
Really is great, I use a version of it for most classes, Totemus, Necrosis.. the hunter one escapes me now.. Venates perhaps.
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7-01-2007 @ 11:09AM
Quoi said...
@14
I also extol the virtues of Cryolysis to any mage that asks for mod suggestions. I just wish it would get updated more.
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7-01-2007 @ 2:01PM
The Kitchen Sink said...
Well, let's judge whether the wards are useful.
Let's take some Geomancers, for instance. They religiously use Fire Ward.
As a flame spec mage, this made them nearly unkillable. I had to kill 12 for a quest, and I died a lot. (Of course, this is partly due to my bad luck with random enemies spawning and walking in range and double teaming me.)
My frostbolt was tiny damage compared to my fireball, and the geomancer hit just as hard. If I had the idea to use Fire Ward myself, it would have been a lot easier, obviously. It's a great asset. I just hae to figure out how to fit it in my UI...
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7-01-2007 @ 4:48PM
Ambril said...
"I have met dozens of mages who don't realise that mana gems make mage armour basically irrelivent."
Absolutely not... for short term grinding and whatnot, maybe. But Mage Armor has always been primarily considered a spell for raiding mages. On long engagements, the benefits of mana gems do not really compare to the benefit of Mage Armor, particularly considering there is no reason to not benefit from both.
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7-01-2007 @ 4:58PM
Ambril said...
Though in all fairness, it wasn't really until about Magtheridon that I began seeing the virtues in Mage Armor again ~ I'd admit, the early raid fights do not necessarily call for it because they aren't too long.
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7-01-2007 @ 11:27PM
ErsatzPotato said...
To Sherp:
"I'm not going to become a tailor, but if I want top-level caster robes, what should I start collecting mats for?"
Short answer: eight million fire motes and fifty million netherweave cloth. Long answer below.
My 70 mage resisted tailoring but finally dropped 375 alchemy. (His spellstrike hood design dropped yesterday!) The gear is that good.
Anyway, here's the crafted gear. (No mention of instance drops.) The best BOE crafted gear is Girdle of Ruination (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24256) and one of two sets: Spellstrike (http://www.wowhead.com/?itemset=559) or Battlecast (http://www.wowhead.com/?itemset=572). Need to be a tailor to get set bonuses but not to wear them. There is engineer only gear but someone else will have to fill in that info.
For chest you can get an Imbued Netherweave Tunic or Robe dirt cheap. The mats aren't trivial but anyone leveling tailoring has to make zillions. I gave several to guildies and have even seen them on AH for as little as 6g. Can fill in with the rest of the set too. Lots of mp5.
Evoker's Helmet of Second Sight is a fantastic blue from a Shadowmoon quest chain. Used it until I got Spellstrike made. Remember to yank it off if the invisible patrol comes by!
The three purples combined for a non-tailor I'd guestimate 5k gold of mats. Watch trade and note people offering them so you don't have to search later. The girdle pattern is rare.
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7-01-2007 @ 11:33PM
Laurens Holst said...
I use Ice Barrier all the time. It’s so much better than Mana Shield, because running out of mana so often equals death for a mage. And the best part is: you still have Mana Shield (and the actual mana to use it) as backup.
When I use Mana Shield, that is how I use it. For example, when I am going to ride through bunches of mobs when taking a shortcut, I put both shields up. Or when you get aggro from a hard-hitting boss, it’s nice to have Mana Shield as backup when your Ice Barrier is still on cooldown.
But usually when my Ice Barrier is still on cooldown, I just let them hit me. Mana is much more prescious than health, and mages can take a hit or two no problem, they’re pretty sturdy for clothies (and the food’s free :)).
I actually think that is the core of my dislike for Mana Shield: if you’re out of mana, a mage has no means to stop the damage. So, if putting up Mana Shield means that you run out, the damage that it prevented is pretty worthless, and you are really only postponing the moment that you die. So in other words, Mana Shield is really only appliccable in situations where you have the upper hand. Ice Barrier is also useful when you’re in pinch.
By the way, I was originally fire/arcane specced, but I respecced to ice/fire about halfway (now with 41 points in ice and thus a cute elemental), and I have to say I like it a lot. Best of both worlds, I don’t die, but still do nice damage :).
As for wards, they’re extremely useful for a mage to tank any enemy type that does fire or frost damage. Against a fire dealing enemy, you can put up Fire Ward, Ice Barrier and Mana Shield (though you’ll usually don’t need that last one), and keep putting them up continuously. That’s three shields, plus damage, he simply can’t hit you, and then he dies.
So you sheep one target, and can deal with another by yourself without taking any damage, while the rest of your party can worry about the remaining mobs while you take yours down. Those fireballs usually hit pretty hard, so it’s really valuable for the others in the party too, who would otherwise be taking that all damage until they got the close-range melee out of the way. The wards are really cheap in mana cost as well.
~Grauw
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