I haz a mage

I started a little mage while I was on vacation (hey, I have to do something while my wife is sleeping).

It's pretty fun! I've avoided any mage blogs so I can "discover" the class as I level (Pyroblast ... is .... the .....BOMB!). With my experience as a hunter, I'm pretty comfortable with kiting, but for the most part, the mobs die before they get more than one or two hits on me.

The one big difference in this class is healing between fights. With a hunter, healing entailed making sure my pet was healed up (and rarely food/bandage/pot myself). As a priest...well, duh, I healed myself. And on my DK, I made sure that I healed up while I was fighting with whatever that strike is that heals yourself.

As a mage, I have no self healing outside of food, bandages, and pots; I find I'm much more reliant on bandages than I have been on any other toon. Add to that the fact that I'm only wearing a thin layer (of very attractive clothing), and it becomes much more important to stay outside of melee range. Frost Nova, oh how I love thee!

I also find myself doing a lot more clearing in an area to avoid adds as well as pondering a bit more strategy to only pull single targets. I may pull groups once I get farther down the frost tree and get the improved Blizzard, but for now, I pull singles. If mobs are connected, then I usually sheep the caster (if there is one) and deal with the other one(s) with a combination of Frostbolts and Frost Novas. CCing a mob near the end of a multiple mob pull is key to getting in a quick bandage.

I've also found out why mages are the ones who can create drinks...cause I'm drinkin' like a fish! I can usually go 2 or 3 single mob pulls before I have to drink, but if I get any resists/misses or extra mobs, then I find my mana quickly depletes. I'm finding that I look forward to the next X0 level not for the new spells, but rather for the improved water!

So, I have two mages - a level 26 Human on Kael'thas (the 10th toon on that server) and a level 11 Blood Elf on a new server (more about that later). I've decided to try to level the Human as fire (which I suspect is the most common spec for leveling) and the BE as frost just to experience both specs and the strengths/weaknesses of each.

Already, I have different spell rotations for each spec when doing single mob pulls; both of which are probably fairly standard:
For Frost(at level 11):
1. Frostbolt. This slows the mob, and with a talent, has a chance to freeze it in place.
2. Frostbolt. Every Frostbolt has the chance to freeze the target in place, so I choose them over Fireballs.
3. Frostbolt. By this time the mob is almost or is in melee range. If it's almost dead, I'll take a hit and use Fire Blast. If it still has significant health:
4. Frost Nova. And straf away to a safe distance.
5. Fireball. Yeah, I like the harder hitting spell after a frost nova cause I have time to cast it and if the mob doesn't die, it still has a bigger chunk taken out of it.
6. Fire Blast or Fireball. It depends on how low on health the mob is at this point. Sometimes, I substitute wanding if I'm low on mana.

For Fire(at level 26):
1. Pyroblast. The 5 second cast time on this spell (and its huge damage) make this a pretty good choice for initiating combat. After the first cast and in the absence of a tank, its effectiveness is not good due to the long cast time.
2. Frostbolt. Again, the slowing effect is the major reason I cast this second.
3. Fireball. Ah luv da smell of burnin' flesh....
4. Fire Blast or Fireball or Frost Nova. Depends on where the mob's health is, but by this time, it shouldn't be much.

That's about it. I'm really enjoying the different playing aspect of this class, and it's got me thinking that I might want to try out some of the other classes that I didn't really enjoy when I first tried them out (*cough *cough rogue *cough).