Newbie Raiding Mage 101, Edition #1

So, you just finished getting keyed for Karazhan, fresh out of the box. Your guild’s getting ready to bring you in. You have absolutely no idea as to what you’re supposed to do besides blow the crap out of some big bad guys. Well, worry no more! This series is going to cover the basics of being a raiding mage and how to better yourself as time goes on. In this first edition, we’re going to cover the basics: what you need to start.

• First and foremost, did you ever get the Conjured Water and Conjured Food books for level 70? If not, you should be able to find them for between 5g-25g on most servers a piece. Without training these two books as a mage, you can’t learn the Ritual of Refreshment spell that gives all of your fellow raiders the soggy mana biscuits they desire and beg for (thank god we can’t give away mana gems). It’s so much better than conjuring 200-400 stacks of water, more than that on bad nights. Ah, foodwell, I love thee.
• Next up: Bandages. If you’re not 300-375 in First Aid, you need to get on your way to doing so. Sometimes bandaging is the only way to keep yourself and possibly others alive, especially through learning content. I bring two stacks to every raid (I raid for 3-4 hours a night).
• Super Mana Potions: I carry 40 on me at all times. It’s better to pop one then debate if you should. It might cost a lot, but it could mean the difference between a wipe and a boss kill.
• Gear-Enhancements: If there’s a piece of gear you might win, but won’t use until you enchant it, bring the mats. Bring your spellthread. Bring knothide armor kits, magister’s armor kits, etc. Something. Always be at the top of your class and enhance your gear. Some guilds might not let you run and go turn in your tier tokens, but between trash pulls or a celebration, you should be able to get it in.

Ah, but now you’re wondering what sort of entry stats you should have. Well, to a raiding mage, spell hit is the most important stat. Until you have your spell hit capped, you’re not going to be able maximize your chance at hitting a boss mob (a boss being a level 73 elite character, such as Prince Malchezar or Gruul — level 73’s are considered raid bosses, as level 63’s were prior to the Burning Crusade). Depending on your spec, you’ll need a various amount of spell hit to be capped. Arcane mages need 76 with 5/5 Arcane Focus (Arcane Talent), Frost/Fire mages need 164 spell hit with 3/3 Elemental Precision (Frost Talent). As for spell damage, anything above 600 is reasonable to start with (your blues and heroic instance gear should have you near 600 damage to start Karazhan). Or hell, if your raid DPS is 500dps+ then you should be good to go and most likely already know what you’re doing or e-bay’d your account (ba da ching!).

• Importance of stats:
  Spell Hit > Spell Damage > Spell Haste/Spell Crit
  Just to note, as a 10/48/3 mage or similar, 1 Haste = 1 damage as a fire mage. I believe frost is near the same.
  Arcane Mages tend to not benefit so greatly with spell haste if using an arcane blast centered rotation. This will change in patch 2.4, when the Global Cooldown will be set by haste.
• Speccing Arcane to give yourself the low amount of hit needed (talents give you 10% of the total 16% you need, Fire/Frost get 3%), you’ll hit with your spells more often. Unfortunately, fire/frost do more damage in nature until you’ve hit 900 spell damage. If you’re in the Spellfire set or have the Spellstrike Set, arcane would be extremely benficial for starting.
• Starting +Spell Damage for Karazhan should be around 600.
• Always take +dmg gear over +crit gear. You want more damage in the end. Crit’s just an added bonus.

Next week: I’ll dive into the schematics of choosing your spec and the tailoring world for pre Tier 5 content mages (Karazhan, Gruul, Magtheridon). I’ll also cover the engineering hologogs and other key pieces of gear to help get you set for entry-level raiding.

~ by neythas on February 18, 2008.