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Priest PvE Guide!

HordeLife — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:39:23 +0000

Priest PVE!

World of Warcraft Priest PvE Guide!
Here are the Pros and Cons for Priest!

Pros

Discipline Priests are very annoying and hard to kill!
Quite possibly the best healers in the game due to the many types of healing and pure healing their class is focused around
Always wanted in groups as healers
Shadow has the ability to restore mana as they dps

Cons

Priests usually aren’t wanted for dps, rather they are wanted for healing
Not a lot of people enjoy leveling a priest
As shadow dps spec, you don’t have the ability to cast holy spells to heal, while other classes such as Shaman or Druid can cast healing spells in DPS forms.

Now that I have discussed the Pros and Cons I will get into detail about the best ways to get gear and how to practice your gameplay.

How to Spec

Discipline!

“Raid Healer Build (57/14/0) [Current as of 3.2.0]

This is a standard Discipline healer build with the inclusion of Desperate Prayer. Although Divine Fury is not talented, don’t leave Greater Heal out completely, as Borrowed Time will cut the casting time down.” -WoWiki

Holy

“Cookie-Cutter Guardian Spirit/Circle of Healing Build (14/57/0) [Current as of 3.2.0]

A build commonly referred to as the standard for Guardian Spirit/Circle of Healing builds, it specializes in healing up raid-wide damage while also having adequate tools to deal with incoming personnel or tank burst. This build is great for fights with a lot of AoE damage, and most holy builds vary little from this mainframe.” -WoWiki

Shadow

“Basic Shadow Raiding Build (14/0/57) [Current as of 3.2.0]

Number crunching has showed that the increased spirit effect from Improved Spirit Tap will improve your average spell power by some arbitrary number close to 6, and is therefore not worth the 5 talent points spent in it. This build takes all the necessary talents to improve DPS, as well as raid survival skills such as Improved Vampiric Embrace, and Focused Mind to improve mana efficiency. It’s a solid raiding build.” – WoWiki

List of Activities
Following these list of activities will get you the fastest way to be ready for epic raiding experiences!

5-man Heroic Dungeons
Every 5-Man is necessary to do. To get you all the Pre-Epic blues and some epics to get you ready for raids. But now Blizzard has made it easier to get geared so what I would recommend doing is 5-Man Trial Of Champions. All the gear that drops is Epic. Even in normal mode! So just Farm Normal mode then do heroic mode with a couple semi-geared people and you’ll get geared enough for most raids to continue from there.

Both 10 & 25 Man Raids
Mandatory raid to complete every week is Vault of Archevon. Always a mandatory. It drops the best epic’s that you could roll on and win from doing easy bosses. The next raid’s I would suggest is Onyxia & Obsidian Sanctum.

Find a Good raiding Guild
Finding a raiding guild could possibly be your key to getting into every raid you need and getting down bosses easily. It could possibly be the quickest fastest way to get geared because you have people dedicated to helping you =)

Build Reputation with Factions
Buying Tabards from each reputation faction and building up rep by doing Heroics will get you revered then exalted to get epic gear with gold!

As far as Specs and actual PVE guides go. I would encourage any viewer to send me their Spec and how they play so I can post it for them! Or leave a comment. More info will be coming soon. You can e-mail me your specs and guides or ideas to webmaster@hordelife.com

Priest PvP Guide!

HordeLife — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:38:48 +0000

Priest PVP!

World of Warcraft Priest PvP Guide!
Here are the Pros and Cons for Priest!

Pros

The best Healing class in the game
Very Strong Defensive spells (i.e. Power Word: Shield – Bubble)
Have Mass dispel so they can dispell paladin’s bubble and Mage ice block
Highly wanted for groups/bg’s/ & Arenas

Cons

Can only wear cloth
Don’t have great damage abilities
Once in Shadowform, not allowed to cast any Holy Spells.

Now that I have discussed the Pros and Cons I will get into detail about the best ways to get gear and how to practice your gameplay.

How to Spec

Discipline!

“Cookie-Cutter Disc PvP/Arena Build (57/14/0) [Current as of 3.2.0]

This build is based on high Survivability, with great mana regeneration. Great for PvP and Arena.”

-WoWiki

“Alternate Disc PvP Build (54/17/0) [Current as of 3.2.0]

This build is decent, as it allows faster casting and mitigating talents, including Inspiration. Glyphs include Glyph of Penance, Glyph of Pain Suppression, and Glyph of Power Word: Shield. “

-WoWiki

“Survivability Spec for priest/meelee (58/13/0) Gives max survivability at the cost of mana regen and maximum mana. Very deep disc, with holy down to Desperate Prayer. Good for arena with DK, ret pala or warrior” -WoWiki

Shadow!

“Shadow/Disc Hybrid Build (PvP) (38/0/33) [Current as of 3.2.0]

Defensive DPS spec, the priest can mitigate incoming damage with Shadowform as well as being able to protect themself and others with powerful Shields. “

-WoWiki

“Shadow Cookie-Cutter PvP Build (17/0/54) [Current as of 3.2.0]

Typical talents taken for a shadow damage PvP priest, going into discipline as far as Improved Mana Burn.”

-WoWiki

“Survivability Spec for priest/meelee (58/13/0) Gives max survivability at the cost of mana regen and maximum mana. Very deep disc, with holy down to Desperate Prayer. Good for arena with DK, ret pala or warrior” -WoWiki

Gearing up!
The best way to gear up is to PvP in battlegrounds! If you turn in one mark of each battleground you receive roughly around 1300 Honor. Personally I do battlegrounds until I reach 30 marks for each battleground. The honor grind from that makes you enough honor for something like bracers. Also que for WG. Wintergrasp is a very crucial part because the marks for WG can get you trinkets you need for PvP.

List of Activities
Here is a list of things to do that will help you gear out your character.

Battlegrounds
Battleground farming is the typical way people start off getting gear. Not only because it gives you enormous amounts of experience going up against other WoW Classes but you gain constant honor to get you epic’s!

WinterGrasp
Ever Since WOTLK came out Wintergrasp has been added. It’s like a battleground that comes once every three hours. They have their own special uses of Marks.

Daily PVP quests
Like I said battlegrounds are very useful, Blizzard just makes it even better by adding daily battleground PVP quests. Going in and winning a certain battleground will complete your quest which you can not only turn in for gold but honor as well! =)

Vault of Archevon Raid
Very Very Very important to complete every week. Both 10 and 25 man! Usually the best groups you’ll find is on tuesdays when the raid resets because people want to get it done quick and get it over with. It is a very easy raid that drops very epic loot =). Be sure to do it you will not be disappointed. This raid drops both insane PVP and PVE epics so you don’t want to miss out.

As far as Specs and actual PVP guides go. I would encourage any viewer to send me their Spec and how they play so I can post it for them! Or leave a comment. More info will be coming soon. You can e-mail me your specs and guides or ideas to webmaster@hordelife.com

Paladin PvE Guide!

HordeLife — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:01:44 +0000

Welcome Paladins

World of Warcraft Paladin PvE Guide
For starters here are the characteristics of a Paladin in PvE! I will lay out the Pros and Cons!

Pros

“1. Able to heal.
2. Strong and durable enough to tank for a group.
3. Not dependent on rage like a warrior is or has to switch forms like a druid.
4. Gets the ability to summon a mount at level 40.
5. Has abilities that allow the Paladin to be immune to attacks for a short period of time.
6. Can resurrect other players.
7. Can be very mana efficient if played right.” – Source: Gameogre

Cons

“1. Lacks the overall damage of other classes.
2. Both healing and tanking need to be focused on instead of trying to do both at once.
3. Need to constantly manage blessings, seals, and auras.
4. Has a negative image on the Horde side due largely to “bubble and hearthing” (become immune to attacks and then using a hearthstone to leave the battlefield).” -Source: Gameogre

Now with all that being said, I will get into the different types of gameplay you can have with a Paladin for PvE. So pretty much Paladin’s have three different types of gameplay. You can either be a Tank (someone who holds aggro and makes enemies attack them. In turn Tank’s can take hits from these mobs and stay alive because they have so much armor and health, hence the word tank) The next thing you can be is a Healer. Paladin healers are always wanted in groups to do dungeons and raids. As a healer you focus on healing the tank that takes the damage from enemies, but you don’t only heal the tank, sometimes you have to heal the rest of the people in the group who take area of effect damage. And last but not least, you can be a dps. Paladins do insane bursts of Holy and Physical Damage. In some situations they are preferred because sometimes when groups engage in combat with the undead paladins can put out more dps because holy damage itself hurts undead more.

How To Spec
Here I will list out the best & most popular specs used for each type of gameplay. Tanking, Healing, Dpsing!

Healing = Holy Talent Tree

Tanking = Protection Talent Tree

Dpsing = Retribution Talent Tree

Holy
Holy is the most commonly used spec to go for healing. To be a good healer and use paladins abilities to it’s maximum healing capacity it would be a good idea to spend most of your talent points in the Holy Tree. Now as a healer people always get an add-on called Healbot. Healbot allows healers to just look at a little box to heal, and instead of having to click every single target one by one and clicking heal you have faster healing powers by hovering over the characters name in the small addon box and just using clicks on the mouse for certain heals. For example Healing player A, you hover over Player A’s name, left click, and it casts Flash heal or whatever you set left click to.

Now finnaly here is how to Spec into your Holy talent tree along with using some points in other talent trees to help. Here is the most commonly used best Holy Spec for a Healing Paladin!
51/5/15 – Holy Paladin Healing Spec

Protection
Protection spec is mainly used for Tanking. To be a viable tank and take the damage from mob’s you honestly can only spec in Protection lol. Any other spec you go, you will not be able to tank raids. So with that being said spend most of your talents in the protection tree. As far as tanking addons go you should get just the general tanking addons. Nothing specific for Paladins. So make sure to get a threat meter, I would recommend Omen Threat Meter, also Deadly Boss Mods to make it easier for you to know what’s going on in Boss fights.

Now with all that being said here is the Spec that is most commonly used for tanking.
2/57/12 – Tanking Spec for Protection Paladin

Retribution
Ahhhh good old Retribution Paladins. Paladin’s are a major part of the history of World of Warcraft, so you can expect for Paladin’s to be a little OP during some patches. Especially the Wrath of Lich King expansion lol. People argue that they are Overpowered. Because Pre-Wotlk Paladins were very weak PvE dps. But now they are considered one of the top Dps classes. Especially now that Lich King dungeons are out, Paladin’s can use their holy abilities to cause extra damage to undead targets. There aren’t really any addons Paladin’s should get for Dps. Only thing I can think of is Recount Dps Meter just to test out your Dps and get better rotations.

With that being said here is the best & most commonly used spec for Paladin DPS
5/11/55 – Best spec for Retribution DPS Paladins

Gearing Up!
List of Activities
Following these list of activities will get you the fastest way to be ready for epic raiding experiences!

5-man Heroic Dungeons
With patch 3.3 comes the new system of LFD! Looking for dungeon system. For each random dungeon you que for you get rewards of two extra badges. And now the minimum standard badge is the Triumph badge. Now with that being said you can pretty much get Full tier 9 from vendors. Every 5-Man is necessary to do. To get you all the Pre-Epic blues and some epics to get you ready for raids. But now Blizzard has made it easier to get geared so what I would recommend doing is 5-Man Trial Of Champions. All the gear that drops is Epic. Even in normal mode! So just Farm Normal mode then do heroic mode with a couple semi-geared people and you’ll get geared enough for most raids to continue from there.

Build Reputation with Factions
Buying Tabards from each reputation faction and building up rep by doing Heroics will get you revered then exalted to get epic gear with gold!

Paladin PvP Guide!

HordeLife — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:01:15 +0000

Welcome Paladins

For starters here are the Characteristics of the Paladin class. I will lay out the Pros and Cons of being a Paladin for PvP!

Pros

They have the ability to heal
Can wear plate armor that means a lot of armor!
Doesn’t require the generation of rage like warriors, or form switching like druids.
Has abilities that allow the Paladin to be immune to attacks for a short period of time.
Can resurrect other players. Also in battle these guys are ridiculous at survival. They can self heal themselves back to full heal instantly, they use a bubble to heal themselves back to full health, plus their original full health. So technically to die as a paladin, you have to die 3 times lol.

Cons

Doesn’t put out as much damage as other classes.
Both healing and tanking need to be focused on instead of trying to do both at once.
Need to constantly manage blessings, seals, and auras.
Has a negative image on the Horde side due largely to “bubble and hearthing” (become immune to attacks and then using a hearthstone to leave the battlefield). LOL

If you are not sure what class to pick when starting World of Warcraft or if you are looking for a strong alt, this guide gives a simple analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each class. Since the classes are so different, choosing the right character from the start can you save a great deal of time.

Warrior

Strengths:

1. Can wear mail from the start and plate at level 40.
2. Great melee abilities such as
3. Great tank class, especially when using a shield and going deep into the Protection tree.
4. One of the better classes to use for blacksmithing since warriors can use both the armor and weapons made with this profession.
5. Can be a force damage wise with a good two-handed weapon and a build focused on the Arms tree or two good 1 handed weapons and a build focused on the Fury tree.
6. Can equip almost any type of weapon in the game whereas other classes are more restricted. For example, a shaman can not use a sword and a Paladin can not use a bow.

Weaknesses:

1. Depends on rage too much.
2. Not a broad class.
3. Not the highest melee damage dealer.
4. More equipment dependant than other classes.
5. Dependency on the healing of other classes.
6. Somewhat limited in PvP due to the range and magic of other classes.

Hunter

Strengths:

1. Having a pet that can serve as a personal tank.
2. Possibly the best solo class in the game.
3. Traps can turn the tide of a battle in PvP.
4. Tracking allows you to get a scope of enemies in the area.
5. Works great with the leatherworking skill.
6. A strong PvP class due to high damage and range.
7. Can tame a huge variety of pets.

Weaknesses:

1. Can not wear mail until level 40.
2. Very few melee abilities.
3. Can not use a shield.
4. Pets can draw monsters to your group if not handled correctly.
5. Not sought after by groups.
6. Need ammo and food for the pet constantly.

Rogue

Strengths:

1. Best melee damage dealing class.
2. Can open locks.
3. Great dual wielders.
4. Stealth opens up possibilities that other classes do not enjoy.
5. Possibly the most fun class in the game from a character ability standpoint.

Weaknesses:

1. Can use no better than leather armor.
2. Relies on daggers too much.
3. One of the least respected and sought after classes in the game.
4. Very dependent on cool downs for abilities.

Paladin

Strengths:

1. Able to heal.
2. Strong and durable enough to tank for a group.
3. Not dependent on rage like a warrior is or has to switch forms like a druid.
4. Gets the ability to summon a mount at level 40.
5. Has abilities that allow the Paladin to be immune to attacks for a short period of time.
6. Can resurrect other players.
7. Can be very mana efficient if played right.

How to Spec
Dude there are so many ways to Play a paladin lol. But here are some of the most commonly used ones. This will be detailed to type of player you want to be. For example the Specs will coordinate with best healing spec, or best DPS, or even now you can pretty much even Tank in PVP lol. (Tank in PvP? I know sounds so wierd lol but you can)

Holy
Paladin healers are always fun to play, and are really hated on by other classes because not only are they so hard to kill because of their bubble and amazing heals, they can heal others as well lol. So pretty much while everyone is trying to kill you, you allies are killing them, and if they don’t try to kill you and kill your allies, your healing your allies so eventually they lose, unless they have a healer, which is when skill comes down to it and the best man/woman wins.

54/17/0 Paladin PvP Healing Spec

Protection
Believe it or not Paladins can go Prot spec for PvP lol. I will list two different specs though for this. You should generally use the regular tanking spec you have for PvE if you wanna purely tank actual players as well. But there is a second spec that some players use for PvP Prot healing. It gives the advantage to do some damage with Protection abilities as well as heal with Holy Abilities. Making it somewhat Hybrid. But here are the two specs!

19/52/0 – Prot/healing Spec For Prot/Healer Paladins!

2/57/12 – Tanking Spec for Protection Paladin

Retribution
Retribution Paladins are the most commonly seen Paladins in PvP. Just a bit more than Holy Paladins for PvP but there have been lots of complaints about them. Paladin’s are really OP in battlegrounds and PvP lol. (Opinion) But think about this. A warrior can’t heal himself, a Paladin can. Paladin’s have Lay on Hands ability which is an instant heal that brings them completely back to full health. Giving them two lives. Not only this but Paladin’s have bubbles that make them immune to damage, thus making them godlike for a couple seconds lol. But yea they are fun to play and certain classes have advantages over them so they are somewhat balanced. For example a Priest can remove Paladin bubbles. Here is a commonly used spec for PvP Retribution.
7/13/51 – Retribution Paladin PvP

Gearing up!

The best way to gear up is to PvP in battlegrounds not only does this get you honor points, but it now with patch 3.3 it also grants arena points too! If you turn in one mark of each battleground you receive roughly around 1300 Honor. Personally I do battlegrounds until I reach 30 marks for each battleground. The honor grind from that makes you enough honor for something like bracers. Also que for WG. Wintergrasp is a very crucial part because the marks for WG can get you trinkets you need for PvP.

List of Activities

Here is a list of things to do that will help you gear out your character.

Battlegrounds

Battleground farming is the typical way people start off getting gear. Not only because it gives you enormous amounts of experience going up against other WoW Classes but you gain constant honor to get you epic’s!

WinterGrasp

Ever Since WOTLK came out Wintergrasp has been added. It’s like a battleground that comes once every three hours. They have their own special uses of Marks.

Daily PVP quests

Like I said battlegrounds are very useful, Blizzard just makes it even better by adding daily battleground PVP quests. Going in and winning a certain battleground will complete your quest which you can not only turn in for gold but honor as well! =)

Vault of Archevon Raid

Very Very Very important to complete every week. Both 10 and 25 man! Usually the best groups you’ll find is on tuesdays when the raid resets because people want to get it done quick and get it over with. It is a very easy raid that drops very epic loot =). Be sure to do it you will not be disappointed. This raid drops both insane PVP and PVE epics so you don’t want to miss out.

Death Knight PvP Guide!

HordeLife — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:50:47 +0000

Welcome Death Knights!

For starters here are the Characteristics of a Death Knight. I will lay out the Pros and the Cons of being a Death Knight for PvP!

Pros

Death Knight have Plate armor, so they will do great against melee (example: a rogue LOL)
They have the ability to use both melee dps and magic damage as well so it makes them flexible
They can self heal/use dots(damage over time spells)/CC (with chains of ice – slowing target)
They also have a pet that stuns!
They also have anti-magic abilities

Cons

Death Knights cannot heal others in group
They don’t have good buffs for casters
They are very hard classes to play for pvp due to all the runes and their cooldowns plus all the buttons to press

How To Spec

There are a couple Specs. The best Arena standard spec will be posted under unholy. Unholy is the most commonly used one for it but there are others as well in Blood and Frost.

Frost

Working on finding a reliable frost spec. Check Unholy for the most commonly used spec out there.

Blood

Working on finding a reliable blood spec. Check Unholy for the most commonly used spec out there.

Unholy

0/17/54: This is probably the best PvP build there is for Arena! Endless winter provides you the ability to not use icy touch to get your disease off and slow the target by 95%. Also Unholy provides you the ability to dps with magic damage as well as giving you the anti-magic abilities to protect yourself from casters since they are your weak point. As well as having a pet, With an extra summoned pet gargoyle! It doesn’t really get better than unholy!

Gearing up!

The best way to gear up is to PvP in battlegrounds! If you turn in one mark of each battleground you receive roughly around 1300 Honor. Personally I do battlegrounds until I reach 30 marks for each battleground. The honor grind from that makes you enough honor for something like bracers. Also que for WG. Wintergrasp is a very crucial part because the marks for WG can get you trinkets you need for PvP.

List of Activities

Here is a list of things to do that will help you gear out your character.

Battlegrounds

WinterGrasp

Ever Since WOTLK came out Wintergrasp has been added. It’s like a battleground that comes once every three hours. They have their own special uses of Marks.

Daily PVP quests

Vault of Archevon Raid

Under Construction!

Death Knight PVE Guide!

HordeLife — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:50:06 +0000

Welcome Death Knights!

World Of Warcraft Death Knight PvE Guide!
For starters here are the Characteristics of a Death Knight. I will lay out the Pros and the Cons of being a Death Knight for PvE!

Pros

Heavy Plate Armor – Great at Melee
Start at level 55 – Plus great gear start bonus
Usage of Runic power similar to rage as compared to energy or mana usage.
Can wield two one hand weapons, or one two-handed weapon. Different way to tank as well
Anti Magic
Can Self-Heal with blood Spec abilities

Cons

Can’t play unless you have a level 55 Character already
Can’t tank with a sheild, unable to use sheilds
Use runes as well as runic power, so it does get complicated at times.

How To Spec
Since Death knight’s can tank and dps. I will seperate the spec’s into two categories. Tanking & Dps.

DPS Specs

Frost

0/53/18: If you decide to spec Frost for dps, this is the current top frost dual wield dps spec. It focuses most of the talent points in to the Frost tree, getting all the necessary talents & saving enough to get the talents in the Unholy tree that are great when dual wielding. Here is the rotation for it as well.

Blood

51/0/20: This spec uses Dancing Rune weapon talent. Very effective for two-hand weapon DPS. For heart strike only uses one rune. A blood Rune. Also obliterate is replaced with death strike which constantly keeps your health up. Death Strike replaces Obliterate in your standard cycle as well. Make sure you glyph for Death Strike also!

Unholy

17/0/54: Here is the DPS spec for Unholy. It’s the best one for Unholy but I personally wouldn’t reccomend this spec until being really geared!

As with other specs make sure you use your death coil as much as you can throughout the process of rotation to use up your runic power. Also for this spec make sure to use gargoyle as often as possible as well!

Tanking Specs
For starters, Tanking as a Death Knight is not reccomended for new players with no experience in tanking with other classes. Death Knights also don’t get the luxury of using shields to tank. Although they are created to work around it, which makes them somewhat cool. LOL. But anyway here are the specs.

Frost

7/52/12 – Frost Raid Tank

Rotation: Icy touch>Plague Strike>Bloodstrike>Bloodstrike>Obliterate>repeat

Multi mob rotation: Frost Strike>Blood Boil>Blood Boil or Death & Decay along with other AOE’s

Blood

55/7/9 – Blood Tank Build DS is used in the DK blood tank spec instead of oblit.

Unholy

No good current Tank builds are available – If you have your own personal idea you may e-mail us for posting. E-mail webmaster@hordelife.com. Usually nobody really goes unholy for tanking anyway. The preferred one is Frost due to Howling Blast’s effective damage AOE and threat.

Gearing Up!
List of Activities
Following these list of activities will get you the fastest way to be ready for epic raiding experiences!

Build Reputation with Factions
Buying Tabards from each reputation faction and building up rep by doing Heroics will get you revered then exalted to get epic gear with gold!

WoW Mage PvE Guide!

HordeLife — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:56:44 +0000

Welcome Mages!

World of Warcraft Mage PvE Guide!
For starters here are the Characteristics of a Mage. I will lay out the Pros and the Cons of being a Mage for PvE!

Cons

Mages are Mana based DPS. Once they have no more options to replenish their mana, they are useless.
Mages are very squishy, there is a good chance that if they grab aggro from the boss once, and get hit, they will die from a one shot
Mages are only magic based damage. So against certain bosses at times they will do less damage.

Pros

Mages have only one spec type. Which is DPS so they are focused DPS payers which causes them to have major dps output.
There’s not much movement involved with a mage compared to a melee class because they just need to stand far back and spam couple buttons for casting. Rather a rogue who has to move constantly and spam and face the target.
They are very easy to play and get used to.
Gear is more important than weapons for a mage, because they are spell power based so all they need is the spell power from gear. As compared to a melee who could have the best DPS gear but no weapon.

How to Spec
As you know already mages specs are all focused on DPS. Some provide more Crowd control then others while some provide single target dps, or better AOE DPS. The tree different talent trees are Arcane, Fire, & Frost.

Frost

Brand New Update for Patch 3.3! A new Viable Spec for Frost which is actually just as good as Arcane PvE. I’ve tested both with equivalent gear and it seems to be that they both can put out the same amount of damage! Click to View the new PvE Frost spec with Unlimited Elemental!

(18/0/53) Deep Frost & Torment the Weak (TTW)

“This build uses DPS cooldowns for maximum benefit, which means as often as possible for boss fights with no “burn periods”, but also means saving cooldowns for when the boss is vulnerable and DPS needs to increase. Blizzard has admitted that Frost is currently low on raid DPS and it remains that way even after a minor buff in patch 3.2. However, if raid survivability is a problem while learning an encounter, frost mages are more likely to stay alive, especially when the Ice Barrier talent is taken. Frost is extremely mana efficient, so it pays to get extra magic resistance from Magic Absorption at the cost of one point from Arcane Concentration. Avoid casting Fireballs during Fingers of Frost procs, which will potentially add 50% extra crit chance on the instant cast Fireball right after two Fingers of Frost frostbolts. Also, try to summon the water elemental just before Heroism/Bloodlust. The lowest value DPS talent points in this build are (in no particular order): Ice Floes, Student of the Mind and Spell Impact. The point in Ice Floes could be used for a second point in Improved Blizzard. Always keep one point in improved blizzard, so that Blizzard procs Fingers of Frost. This version of the build uses only three points in Arcane Concentration. For some fights, an extra 2% mana efficiency can be more useful than a point in Student of the Mind or Spell Impact, each of which is only worth a fraction of a percent in DPS.” – WowWiki

Fire
(18/51/0 +2) Fireball & TTW build
“This is the the top Fire raiding build. This tree invests into Arcane for Spell Impact and Torment the Weak. Its rotation is considerably interactive, consisting of spamming Fireball at all possible times, using Scorch every 30 seconds to maintain the Improved Scorch debuff if necessary and casting Pyroblast when Hot Streak happens. Molten Armor should be used, and Living Bomb should be kept up on the target. Two points can be put in either Burning Soul or Flame Throwing, or into Arcane Meditation for DPM aid. Combustion’s DPS gain is no longer negligible since Living Bomb does not use up a point of Combustion anymore.” – WoWwiki

(0/51/18 +2) Frostfire Bolt (FFB) build
“This build is PvE-competitive because of the early Frost DPS talents and the powerful crit modifier it gives to Frostfire Bolt. This build is based on Frostfire Bolt, and is classified as Fire rather than Elementalist for its steep expenditure into the Fire tree, while the Frost investment is puny in comparison, making it in reality a Deep Fire build. The rotation in this tree is exactly like the one in the above Fireball build, except replacing Fireball with Frostfire Bolt and using Living Bomb at all times. Frostfire Bolt is highly mana-efficient and has been shown to compete excellently with the Fireball build above in terms of DPS. Although Frostfire Bolt normally hits for less than Fireball, it crits hit much harder due to the number of modifiers and talents which activate on a critical hit: Burnout, Ice Shards and Ignite, all of which are absolutely mandatory. Note that unlike Fireball/TTW, Combustion is absolutely mandatory because of this.” – WoWwiki

Arcane
(50/3/11 +7) Arcane/Frost
“Only bare essential points are taken in this build, so as to provide the most customizable build possible. Certain talents have no objective effect on DPS, such as Magic Attunement, but are useful in other ways and a good investment of remaining points. Magic Attunement and Arcane Stability protect DPS in less measurable ways, for instance, by reducing spell pushback from certain encounter mechanics, and Arcane Barrage is a useful mobile DPS spell, if not the best stationary damage spell.
With changes in Patch 3.0.8, Arcane has once again become a viable spec for single-target DPS. Talents like Arcane Power make it far more flexible than Frostfire Bolt specs, as DPS can be raised and lowered at the cost of Mana efficiency, dependent on the situation. Your rotations should be Arcane Blast 1, 2 or 3 times, depending on the length of the fight and your MP5 and Arcane Missiles, after the Arcane Blasts, regardless of whether Missile Barrage procs or not. Use Presence of Mind at your own preference. At least 8 points are taken in Frost for Precision, providing a 289 hitcap for Arcane spells. Going deeper in Frost for Icy Veins and into Fire for Incineration increase overall DPS, though points can be spent otherwise to adjust for your own play style.” – WoWwiki

Gearing up!

List of Activities
Following these list of activities will get you the fastest way to be ready for epic raiding experiences!

Build Reputation with Factions
Buying Tabards from each reputation faction and building up rep by doing Heroics will get you revered then exalted to get epic gear with gold!

WoW Mage PvP Guide!

HordeLife — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:40:15 +0000

Welcome Mages!

World of Warcraft Mage PvP Guide!

For starters here are the Characteristics of a Mage. I will lay out the Pros and the Cons of being a Mage for PVP!

Cons

Mages are Squishy (Squishy meaning compared to other classes in WoW they don’t have much armor to protect againt powerful melee damage. So when struck they take a lot more damage from it than for a example a Warrior
Mages can not heal themselves. Unlike other classes like Shaman or Priest or even druids Mages don’t have the capability to heal themselves or others for that matter.
They are very very mana based Characters. If a mage has no mana they are worthless. Because all of their spells requires using up mana.

Pros

Mages have a lot of CC’s (Crowd Control Abilities). For example they have abilities such as freezing targets on the floor making them unable to move for a period of time as you run away and cast a spell to hurt them. They also can turn an enemy into a sheep with polymorph spell.
Mages can create a water elemental pet to help them freeze targets on the floor as well
Because mages can’t do things like heal or don’t have things like a lot of armor, they get abilities to help them survive with damage absorbing barriers and ice blocking them selves to take no damage for a period of time.
They are also a fun class to play overall requires a bit of practice to become a pro but its very possible =)

Now that I have discussed the Pros and Cons I will get into detail about the best ways to get gear and how to practice your gameplay.

How to Spec

Frost
(20/0/51) Frost + TTW
“An Arena standard, this Frost build has not only the most survivability, but also has the most burst potential Frost can achieve through Deep Freeze and Brain Freeze, boosted by Torment the Weak. Improved Counterspell is also obtained, as are most utility Frost talents. It also includes Magic Absorption, Arcane Fortitude, and Magic Attunement for added defenses. With this, you can switch between Ice and Mage Armor as situations require. Some mages that group with other casters may prefer to drop a single point from Spell Impact to pick up Focus Magic. It is also advised to attain around 11% haste, to be able to get off the very lethal Deep Freeze + FB + IL + IL combo.” – WoWwiki

(28/0/43) Frost w/Prismatic Cloak
“The ‘Frismatic’ build combines the survivability and utility of Frost with Prismatic Cloak and Presence of Mind.The Frost part of the build can be customized as necessary to obtain specific talents such as Permafrost. ” – WoWwiki

Arcane

(58/13/0) Arcane Barrage, POM/Arcane Blast spec.
“This spec is meant for those who have more experience with the arcane tree. You will rely more on your arcane spells, mostly not [pom + pyroblast] but more on [pom + arcane blast] its a spec that works well in PvP. Also great versus paladins. Keep in mind some people seem to not have noticed that impact is not only for fire. It works globally now.” – WoWwiki

(51/2/18) POM Frostfire Bolt
“This spec utilizes crit damage modifiers (similar to the Frostfire Bolt PvE spec above) but instead of using Fire as it’s base, it optimizes the PvP power of Arcane. Uses the root and snare mechanics to minimize enemy mobility while using Shatter, Spell Power, and Torment the Weak to provide large crits. Great for high burst damage. Updated for 3.2 to incorporate Permafrost’s new anti-healing effect. ” – WoWwiki

(55/16/0)Arcane Barrage + POM + Pyroblast
“Combines the power of the 3 minute mage spec, and adds impact for a stun, and world in flames for a better crit chance. ” – WoWwiki

(56/12/3)Arcane Barrage + pompyro + ice flows for quicker snare cooldowns.
“Very nice kiting spec with plenty of instant casts for mobility. Very powerful. ” – WoWwiki

Fire

(17/54/0) Fire PvP
“This is a cookie cutter fire PvP spec. It is very RNG dependend and has no main nuke. There are many tactics to playing this build. These include, Rapid scorches to proc a Hot Streak, using Dragons Breath to get off a Frostfire Bolt (damage + snare), following up with a Blastwave and Fire Blast, all while retaining use of instant casts such as a Nova/IL/CoC/Arcane Exlosion to proc impacts. Motlen armor works for proccing impact for both melee and ranged attacks. Frost and Fire Ward have a high chance to reflect Fire and Frost spells with minor glyphs for added effect. A PvP Fire mage is always on his toes adapting to different situations. It isn’t as consistent as other tree’s for PvP, but it can be entertaining and effective. ” – WoWwiki

(0/53/18) Frostfire PvP
“This is very similar to the above build with the exception that it adds the possibility for shatter combo’s and Icy Veins within a fire spec. It adds slightly more survivability to melee classes through Ice Armor buffs and more snares. However, the lack of Imp. Counterspell, Magic Absorption, and Magic Attunement can make fighting other casters significantly more difficult. The point into Imp. Blizzard is simply to provide slightly more utility inside a battlegrounds environment by adding a snare/freeze to blizzard, this point may be removed if needed. ” – WoWwiki

List of Activities
Here is a list of things to do that will help you gear out your character.

WinterGrasp
Ever Since WOTLK came out Wintergrasp has been added. It’s like a battleground that comes once every three hours. They have their own special uses of Marks.