by Christian Belt
So my beta testing this week has been pretty focused on the low-level stuff in Cataclysm, rather than clicking Fire Orb and hoping that this time it actually works. I figure this is okay, since Cataclysm itself is an expansion focused not just on the endgame stuff, but also on overhauling the leveling process. So today, put down your spreadsheets and your nerdrage; we’re going to have a brief conversation about leveling.
This isn’t going to be a leveling guide. So much is still unfinished in the beta, and by the time it goes live, a lot will have changed, making any sort of in-depth look at leveling a ridiculously premature activity. The numbers are still very unbalanced, the new spells and talents still raw, rough and unpolished, and the zones and quests still rife with bugs both hilarious and deadly. It’s a beta test; a great many things simply aren’t there. But what is there is the overall feeling that the class developers are working toward with each class. Rather than spend an entire column analyzing the specifics of the leveling process in an unfinished product, I thought we’d look in general terms at how the early levels of magehood feel in this new expansion.
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by Christian Belt
Another beta build hit a couple nights ago — as they tend to do — and it brought a number of class changes. A quick glance at the new talent trees revealed the expected (some talent position swaps, a few talents vanishing, some tooltip alterations, the occasional loss of a rank here and there) and the … unexpected. Three changes in the fire tree, particularly, caught my eye:
Yes, the tooltip for Molten Shields really is “Redesign!” With an exclamation point. For emphasis.
So clearly the fire tree is in a certain amount of flux? I became instantly excited. The fire tree, perhaps more than either of the other two trees, really has been due for some focused attention.
Let’s get started.
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by Christian Belt
A couple of brief disclaimers.
- This is the first pass at these new talent trees. They are quite unfinished and will change significantly throughout the beta cycle.
- Mages (and especially the arcane tree) are particularly unfinished. Some classes have a more accurate look at their new trees and specializations; mages do not.
- Do not panic, burn Ghostcrawler dolls in effigy, take up pitchforks and/or torches, or send anything potentially volatile to any class developers. Nothing you see here or elsewhere on the interwebs is even remotely close to being final. Relax.
Specializations
These are the primary skills you learn at level 10, when you select your talent tree.
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Posted by: free-wow-guide in WoW Battleground, WoW Death Knight, WoW Druid Guides, WoW Hunter Guides, WoW Mage Guides, WoW Paladin Guides, WoW Priest Guides, WoW PvP Guide, WoW Rogue Guides, WoW Shaman Guides, WoW Warlock Guides, WoW Warrior Guides
by Zach Yonzon
A new, exciting build of the Cataclysm beta has been released, implementing the promised overhaul to the talent trees. It’s still raw at this point, but we get a glimpse of the direction the developers want to take. The basic or starter abilities have been defined and although some of these may change, such as Divine Storm for retribution paladins (Ghostcrawler, lead systems designer, mentioned that it would probably go back into the talent tree), the changes feel solid and refreshing. One of the ideas the developers have is that “both the 31-point and the 10(-point) ability need to have more single-target use,” which means we should get very good one-on-one abilities early on as well as at higher levels. The trees are a long way off from being done, but that shouldn’t stop us from taking a look at them and picturing the possibilities.
One of the cooler, less noticeable things to come out of this build are the one-liner descriptions about each of the talent specs, allowing players to quickly grasp the concept of each spec. Blizzard seems committed to keeping this model, complete with talent tree lock-outs to prevent players from straying into other trees early on. As you might have suspected, the real culprit (or at least the most notable one) behind this change is PvP
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by Christian Belt
This week, I’m going to present the case for mages as the single best utility class in the game. Sure, druids bring their gifts of the wild, death knights bring their horns of winter, shaman bring their bloodlust/heroism, warlocks bring their evil little cookies and their obscene body odor, and rogues bring … a tendency to stab things in the back … but mages — I think you’ll agree after I pound it into your heads for the next thousand words or so — are the kings of utility.
You may think of us (and many of us may think of ourselves) as simple purveyors of arcane destruction. We trade in damage, humble merchants of death, standing behind someone wearing more substantial attire, churning out our fireballbolts and frostmadoodads and whatnot until the boss keels over, like any good ranged DPS class should. While this is our essential function, I’d like to spend this week’s column shining a spotlight of sorts on the other things we bring to the proverbial table.
Protip: one of the things we bring is a literal table.
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by Christian Belt
All signs point to patch 3.3.5 dropping very soon. When it drops, it will bring with it a few fun UI changes and quests, but most importantly, it will herald the final raid instance of this expansion, the last raid boss we’re going to get before Cataclysm erupts in a massive explosion of Goblins and Worgen and Tauren paladins and Wars of the Ancients and such. Soon after the patch hits, the portal to the Ruby Sanctum below Wyrmrest Temple will open, and the same heroes who ended to reign of the Lich King will enter and challenge the fearsome Black Dragonflight, led by The Twilight Destroyer, Halion.
And I want my fellow mages to be ready.
So fill your pockets with strudel, put on your best dress, and meet me at Wyrmrest, mages. We’ve got dragons to slay.
The Instance
Much like the Obsidian Sanctum before it, the Ruby version is a short, one-boss affair, though you do need to best Halion’s three lieutenants prior to facing off with that final loot pinata. These three function as minibosses who drop no loot, but will be worth an Emblem of Frost. There’s no option to bypass these sub-bosses this time around, no 3-drakes-up mechanic. You will need to clear them prior to challenging Halion.
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by Christian Belt
These will be primarily listed by level range and secondarily by zone. Simply scan the section for whatever level you happen to be, then look for the zones you wish to quest within. I’ll also be marking rewards that are faction-specific, so you can easily eliminate those that your faction can’t obtain. Keep in mind that the level I’m listing within the parentheses following the quest name is the minimum level at which you can pick up the quest. In most cases, it may be quite difficult to actually complete the quest at this level, but at least you can go get it in your quest log. The list will by no means be comprehensive. I’ve simply selected those quest rewards that I think are especially worth going out of your way for.
Levels 1-10
In this range, there simply isn’t a whole lot going on, and you’re typically not going to be moving beyond your racial starting zone anyway on a pilgrimage for a staff that has 1 point of intellect on it or whatever. My one piece of advice probably goes without saying: do your mage quests. I won’t list each quest individually. Just visit your mage trainer at level 10 and pick up the quest for your race.
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by Christian Belt
This week, regardless of the path you’ve taken to get there, I’m going to assume that you’ve been industrious and spent a significant amount of time gearing through drops and collecting emblems in those random heroics. Here’s the general road you should be following …
- Get all the drops you want/need from normal Trial of the Champion.
- Grind random heroics until your eyes bleed, gathering any upgrades from the boss drops and soaking up emblems like a giant, super-absorbant mage sponge. Before anyone in the comments comes up with it, I’m going to throw my new least-favorite nickname out for you: Spongemage Magicpants. Just like the cartoon that inspires the name, my columns are funnier when you’re high. Or when you’re 5. Either way.
- Remember to gem and enchant any upgrades that seem like they might last you a while. If funding is an issue, seek less expensive alternatives, but don’t simply eschew gems and enchants. Doing so cripples your potential.
- One thing a large number of you mentioned that I neglected to put in last week’s part 1 was PvP gear, and I have to agree with you. If PvP appeals to you at all, the PvP gear available can provide massive upgrades for you fairly quickly. Head into Wintergrasp, do a few dailies and hit a few random battlegrounds, and you’ll have enough honor to buy a piece or two of very high-level PvP gear that can also double as perfectly serviceable dungeon-running garb.
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by Tyler Caraway
Haste, unlike other mechanics within the game, is a rather flat system. Haste is universal. There isn’t a long list of exceptions, as you find with spellpower; every spell’s cast time is changed by haste in the exact same way. Although boring, there is something beautiful in the simplicity of haste. The stat is so clean, the rules so set, that it is actually easy to predict.
For how simple the mechanic is theoretically, it is far more convoluted in practice. Haste is an odd stat in that it is the only DPS stat people stack that doesn’t directly increase the damage potential of their spells. A hasted Fireball will do exactly the same amount of damage as an unhasted Fireball; it will merely do it faster. For this reason, haste is something of a fickle mistress. Haste is beautiful in that is holds no RNG variables in theory. 1% haste is always 1% haste; a spell’s cast time will always be changed by the exact same amount without fail.
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by Christian Belt
So you’ve hit level 80 with your mage. Your gear slots are likely filled with a random assortment of quest rewards, heirloom gear that suddenly doesn’t look so good anymore, and stuff that dropped in normal Nexus ten levels ago. You’d like to start running some of the level 80 content, but your DPS still hasn’t cracked a thousand. You’re not geared enough for a trip to heroic Ramparts, let alone heroic Trial of the Champion. So what do you do? Where do you begin?
The lure of the random dungeon finder is strong. It is truly a wonderful thing, but before you jump into it, you need to be able to pull your weight. Nobody likes to hop into a random heroic and discover that he’s in there with a mage who’s wheezing out 800 DPS. Don’t be that guy.
Luckily, you can begin improving your DPS right away. The first step is to begin replacing your current gear with as many item level 200ish blues and purples as possible. There are a few quick sources:
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