12-21-2004, 07:47 PM
c) The Early Game, levels 1-10
The early game isnât all that interesting, mostly because you have a limited spell selection and because nothing is particularly challenging at this stage. In general, you will be able to solo the whole thing, with the exception of initial elite quests such as Fizzle for trolls and Hogger for humans, and even those are possible with the right preparation.
--- The Early Game â Solo Play ---
Initially, youâll set off on a quest to kill a mass of level 1-2 beasts that arenât initially aggressive towards you. This isnât a tough task, but it should introduce you to the basics of a mob engagement while solo.
From levels 1-3, you have no choice but to use fireball. Target something and get as close to maximum range as you can (if this is your first character, note that the number in the upper-right corner will be red if youâre out of range and white if youâre in range). Reel off fireballs until they get close. You can switch to your staff at this point, if you like, but you can also keep casting fireballs. If you do, youâll introduce yourself to the biggest reason why youâll want to engage at a distance â casting time interruption.
Whenever youâre hit, youâll lose casting time. This counts no matter where the damage comes from. The stats have been cited as 1 second for the first hit, .8 second for the second, and while I havenât tested extensively to determine if thatâs true, it feels roughly correct from my own experience. It works similarly for channelling spells â you lose maximum time off the spell, which reduces the chance that youâll still be channelling it when it checks to see if itâs going to do anything. Ideally, then, you want to kill them before they can reach you, or, if they do reach you, to have some manner of uninterruptible attack to finish off whatever life they have left.
At level four, youâll get frostbolt. Switch to that; at this point, fireball has no advantages. Frostbolts will serve you well until level 6, when you get Rank 2 of Fireball and Fireblast, which expands your toolbox to something a little more interesting. These three spells can get you rolling on the general strategy for a battle solo.
Pick an opener. This is how youâll express your greetings to most things you encounter. Itâs like shaking hands, except without the shaking, or the hands. There isnât much to choose between fireball or frostbolt at this stage; either will work just fine. Fireball has a 5 yard range advantage, but frostbolt slows them down. Either way itâs more time to cast more fireballs or frostbolts as they charge in. Generally, youâll be wanting Fireball for its superior damage. By the time they get in close, their life should be low enough that a single fireblast will finish them.
Make sure to cast them as close together as possible. When the spell bar flashes, you can hit the button for your next spell.
At level 8 youâll obtain Arcane Missiles and Polymorph. Arcane Missiles has the best damage-per-second of any of your spells to this point, and Polymorph is going to be a staple for the rest of the game. Both are going to get a lot of use.
Arcane Missiles, despite having the best DPS, isnât a good choice of opener. When you look for an opener, you want something that makes a big impact, regardless of casting time. After all, before your opener hits them, theyâre unaware of your existence, which means that they wonât be running towards you waving pointy things. In essence, casting time before the battle actually starts doesnât âcountâ, so what you want is the biggest amount of damage that can be done in one hit. Fireball is the best candidate there, but frostbolt also does more damage than a single missile hit and gives you more time to shoot off missiles. Either works fine to start things off. Missiles as they come in, fireblast to finish things.
Polymorph has a number of uses, generally when things go wrong. However, it can also be used as an opener â against multiple targets. Occasionally youâll see mobs engaging in a buddy-up system whereby they patrol in pairs. If you shoot one, youâll get them both mad, and it will be significantly more difficult to take them both on at the same time. Sheep one, however, and you have a slightly shortened but much easier combat against the other guy. Your blasting power wonât get near that point until level 10, but keep this use in mind.
At level 10, youâll get frost nova, which suggests itself to strategies simply. As they approach melee range (after youâve unloaded from long range), cast nova to freeze them, back up, and cast something else without fear of interruption.
In general, you only want to back up a few steps â just out of melee range. You could back up more, or turn around and run to a safer distance. But freezing doesnât last long â a maximum of eight seconds â and every second you spend backing up and running away increases the chance that the mob will break free and cost you every bit of advantage you earned by casting the nova in the first place.
Do remember what I said about hits possibly breaking the ice of Frost Nova. Hence, while Arcane Missiles may sound like a natural option to inflict the most damage while theyâre frozen, thereâs a good case to be made for Fireball, as the multiple-hits mechanic of Missiles appears to have a higher chance of breaking the ice.
There are a number of things that can go wrong even in the early game, but the two youâre most likely to get are unexpected attacks and resisted spells.
Unexpected attacks are something youâll have to learn to live with, but until level 8 you wonât have a good way of dealing with something spawning on you, a monster trained towards you, or a mob you just plain didnât see. The easiest option available is always to run. Your Frost Armor should slow them and you should get away clean as long as youâre aiming yourself in a direction where things are clear. If thereâs any doubt, go for the road as the roads are always clear of spawns.
Itâs a little hairier if something attacks when youâre preoccupied with blasting something else. All of a sudden, youâre dealing with spell interruption earlier than you thought, making your original target more likely to survive and also get to the point where it can chew on you. Again, running is always an option. If your original target is very weakened and youâre at full life, you can consider shooting off a Fireblast right away and going to your melee weapon to finish them off quickly, and then running from the add. Either way there isnât a lot of wisdom to staying and fighting. Youâre just not made for close combat.
Once you get Polymorph, however, unexpected attacks become little more than a nuisance. Your immediate reaction to any unexpected add or attack should be to sheep it. If you want to attack, run to a safe place and uncork an opener. Otherwise, you can run â much easier when youâre not being chased â and go to wherever you were planning to go. However, keep in mind that you wonât be noted as âout of combatâ until the Polymorph spell ends, no matter where you are, so donât plan on eating or drinking until itâs over.
The worst case is multiple adds, such as if you happened to cast a spell while someone brought four or five mobs into your general area. Unless you can hit a fireblast and finish your original target immediately, run to the nearest clear space and keep running until youâre out of combat. If theyâre chasing closely, use frost nova, if you have it, and keep running.
Resisted spells can be less severe, but you also donât have an easy solution such as polymorph to deal with it. Against mobs up to two levels higher than you, resists will be infrequent, but you need to know how to deal with them. Against mobs three or more levels higher, 70% or more of your spells are resisted, and you generally donât want to start fights like that.
Resisted spells are like missed attacks for weapon-users, but theyâre much worse. After all, the warrior didnât just spend two and half seconds charging up. The main result of a resisted spell is going to be a creature in melee range that you canât finish with a Fireblast. Polymorph doesnât help here since whatever you morph will regenerate all its health, forcing you to start from the beginning â which you can do, of course, but thatâs time-consuming and you may not have enough mana to do it all over again. Remember, you wonât get out of combat until Polymorph is done, so you canât eat or drink while a sheepâs wandering around.
In the very early game, you can generally pull out your weapon for this. Your damage and accuracy with staves and the like are going to fall behind very quickly, but very early on they should suffice. During the middle stages, you can use frostbolts, since they have the quickest cast time aside from instant. Fireblasting immediately can be useful, as well, since if you can survive eight seconds another Fireblast can generally end it. If you have a great deal of mana, Arcane Missiles is the best choice to get damage on the target because of how it works. If, at the end of one second, the bar is still on the screen, you will get one missile, and even if youâre hit twice the barâs length will go from 3 seconds to 1.2, meaning that it will still be around when the game checks to see if it should fire a missile at the end of the first second. It wonât fire any others, making it incredibly inefficient, but it will get you 24 damage after one second, which is useful if you need that damage right away.
In the worst case, you may need to sheep the target and run from it. This set of circumstances wonât happen often, but if it does, this is how you react. Yes, I needed to say it. Rule One.
--- The Early Game â Group Play ---
Donât expect to see a lot of grouping up at these levels. Most challenges can be completed alone, though progress may be gradual. However, any group you end up in at these levels is an excellent way to learn a key skill for groups throughout the game â threat management.
Given the enormous amounts of damage mages can put out in a small period of time, it should come as no surprise that they can get a mobâs attention very quickly. This is, of course, bad. As Iâve pointed out earlier, your armor is likely to be of the downy soft variety and not too good at stopping anything much more savage than your average kitten. Preferably, you want their attention focused on the tank, so you can sling spells without worrying about getting eaten.
One thing should make itself clear right from the get-go: group play is nothing like solo play. Solo play involves firing the biggest damage spells immediately and piling on the damage as quick as you can to kill something before it reaches you. You can do this even in group play at these levels, but itâs really better to learn your proper role in a group so that when you really have to work as part of a group, youâll know what youâre doing.
Most mages never contribute all that much to groups, because the grand majority of them are played incredibly badly. Sometimes itâs just general cluelessness, but most of the time itâs because theyâre playing in groups like theyâre trying to play solo. This is almost always going to get you in trouble at the higher levels, because itâs frankly a stupid thing to do. It makes the tankâs job harder, it makes the healerâs job harder, and it makes your job harder. Donât do it.
First things first. Donât pull (i.e. be the first to get the mobâs attention). If you really, really have to, use a wand. Under no circumstances launch a max-range Fireball or Frostbolt, since thatâs simply going to make whatever you hit very mad, and it will be extraordinarily difficult for your team members to get the aggro off you. Mobs display a tendency to stick to whatever got their attention first, which works fine if the tank was that person, but not so well if itâs you.
Your first priority, then, is to do nothing until the tank has safely attracted the attention of your target and is likely to hold it. There are options later, but not at this point. Then you can start to cast, but carefully. Arcane Missiles and Fireballs are both fine, but you must take care to space them out and not rapidly chaincast them. You can cast Frostbolts slightly quicker.
In groups this early, you essentially have but one priority â not attracting the enemiesâ attention (âgetting aggroâ). Do try to push the envelope a bit, if only to get a feel for how much damage you can do safely. Whenever they lock on to you, stop casting and donât do anything that could possibly deal damage to the target, unless its life is so low that a spell or two will kill it. Move towards the tank instead of running away, so that he or she can take back aggro as soon as possible. Try not to Frost Nova, since itâll not only draw the ire of whatever you hit with Nova, but may also attract others who were happy to hit the tank until then.
Strategies are similar for smaller parties without all the defined roles. If your party lacks a true tank, i.e. a paladin or warrior, youâll have to go with a substitute. Warlock and hunter pets follow mostly the same rules, as do shamans and druids. If youâre using a rogue as the âtankâ you can open fire sooner, as the rogueâs high damage output will keep the mob attracted longer. Parties without healers are somewhat more problematic. In general, tanks will survive without healers at this level, but be ready to have the entire party run if needed.
The only group situations where you should play like youâre soloing are when youâre all mages or all mages and priests. In both those cases, no one can take much damage â just like the situation when soloing â so treat it the same way. Only in these cases, however.
The early game isnât all that interesting, mostly because you have a limited spell selection and because nothing is particularly challenging at this stage. In general, you will be able to solo the whole thing, with the exception of initial elite quests such as Fizzle for trolls and Hogger for humans, and even those are possible with the right preparation.
--- The Early Game â Solo Play ---
Initially, youâll set off on a quest to kill a mass of level 1-2 beasts that arenât initially aggressive towards you. This isnât a tough task, but it should introduce you to the basics of a mob engagement while solo.
From levels 1-3, you have no choice but to use fireball. Target something and get as close to maximum range as you can (if this is your first character, note that the number in the upper-right corner will be red if youâre out of range and white if youâre in range). Reel off fireballs until they get close. You can switch to your staff at this point, if you like, but you can also keep casting fireballs. If you do, youâll introduce yourself to the biggest reason why youâll want to engage at a distance â casting time interruption.
Whenever youâre hit, youâll lose casting time. This counts no matter where the damage comes from. The stats have been cited as 1 second for the first hit, .8 second for the second, and while I havenât tested extensively to determine if thatâs true, it feels roughly correct from my own experience. It works similarly for channelling spells â you lose maximum time off the spell, which reduces the chance that youâll still be channelling it when it checks to see if itâs going to do anything. Ideally, then, you want to kill them before they can reach you, or, if they do reach you, to have some manner of uninterruptible attack to finish off whatever life they have left.
At level four, youâll get frostbolt. Switch to that; at this point, fireball has no advantages. Frostbolts will serve you well until level 6, when you get Rank 2 of Fireball and Fireblast, which expands your toolbox to something a little more interesting. These three spells can get you rolling on the general strategy for a battle solo.
Pick an opener. This is how youâll express your greetings to most things you encounter. Itâs like shaking hands, except without the shaking, or the hands. There isnât much to choose between fireball or frostbolt at this stage; either will work just fine. Fireball has a 5 yard range advantage, but frostbolt slows them down. Either way itâs more time to cast more fireballs or frostbolts as they charge in. Generally, youâll be wanting Fireball for its superior damage. By the time they get in close, their life should be low enough that a single fireblast will finish them.
Make sure to cast them as close together as possible. When the spell bar flashes, you can hit the button for your next spell.
At level 8 youâll obtain Arcane Missiles and Polymorph. Arcane Missiles has the best damage-per-second of any of your spells to this point, and Polymorph is going to be a staple for the rest of the game. Both are going to get a lot of use.
Arcane Missiles, despite having the best DPS, isnât a good choice of opener. When you look for an opener, you want something that makes a big impact, regardless of casting time. After all, before your opener hits them, theyâre unaware of your existence, which means that they wonât be running towards you waving pointy things. In essence, casting time before the battle actually starts doesnât âcountâ, so what you want is the biggest amount of damage that can be done in one hit. Fireball is the best candidate there, but frostbolt also does more damage than a single missile hit and gives you more time to shoot off missiles. Either works fine to start things off. Missiles as they come in, fireblast to finish things.
Polymorph has a number of uses, generally when things go wrong. However, it can also be used as an opener â against multiple targets. Occasionally youâll see mobs engaging in a buddy-up system whereby they patrol in pairs. If you shoot one, youâll get them both mad, and it will be significantly more difficult to take them both on at the same time. Sheep one, however, and you have a slightly shortened but much easier combat against the other guy. Your blasting power wonât get near that point until level 10, but keep this use in mind.
At level 10, youâll get frost nova, which suggests itself to strategies simply. As they approach melee range (after youâve unloaded from long range), cast nova to freeze them, back up, and cast something else without fear of interruption.
In general, you only want to back up a few steps â just out of melee range. You could back up more, or turn around and run to a safer distance. But freezing doesnât last long â a maximum of eight seconds â and every second you spend backing up and running away increases the chance that the mob will break free and cost you every bit of advantage you earned by casting the nova in the first place.
Do remember what I said about hits possibly breaking the ice of Frost Nova. Hence, while Arcane Missiles may sound like a natural option to inflict the most damage while theyâre frozen, thereâs a good case to be made for Fireball, as the multiple-hits mechanic of Missiles appears to have a higher chance of breaking the ice.
There are a number of things that can go wrong even in the early game, but the two youâre most likely to get are unexpected attacks and resisted spells.
Unexpected attacks are something youâll have to learn to live with, but until level 8 you wonât have a good way of dealing with something spawning on you, a monster trained towards you, or a mob you just plain didnât see. The easiest option available is always to run. Your Frost Armor should slow them and you should get away clean as long as youâre aiming yourself in a direction where things are clear. If thereâs any doubt, go for the road as the roads are always clear of spawns.
Itâs a little hairier if something attacks when youâre preoccupied with blasting something else. All of a sudden, youâre dealing with spell interruption earlier than you thought, making your original target more likely to survive and also get to the point where it can chew on you. Again, running is always an option. If your original target is very weakened and youâre at full life, you can consider shooting off a Fireblast right away and going to your melee weapon to finish them off quickly, and then running from the add. Either way there isnât a lot of wisdom to staying and fighting. Youâre just not made for close combat.
Once you get Polymorph, however, unexpected attacks become little more than a nuisance. Your immediate reaction to any unexpected add or attack should be to sheep it. If you want to attack, run to a safe place and uncork an opener. Otherwise, you can run â much easier when youâre not being chased â and go to wherever you were planning to go. However, keep in mind that you wonât be noted as âout of combatâ until the Polymorph spell ends, no matter where you are, so donât plan on eating or drinking until itâs over.
The worst case is multiple adds, such as if you happened to cast a spell while someone brought four or five mobs into your general area. Unless you can hit a fireblast and finish your original target immediately, run to the nearest clear space and keep running until youâre out of combat. If theyâre chasing closely, use frost nova, if you have it, and keep running.
Resisted spells can be less severe, but you also donât have an easy solution such as polymorph to deal with it. Against mobs up to two levels higher than you, resists will be infrequent, but you need to know how to deal with them. Against mobs three or more levels higher, 70% or more of your spells are resisted, and you generally donât want to start fights like that.
Resisted spells are like missed attacks for weapon-users, but theyâre much worse. After all, the warrior didnât just spend two and half seconds charging up. The main result of a resisted spell is going to be a creature in melee range that you canât finish with a Fireblast. Polymorph doesnât help here since whatever you morph will regenerate all its health, forcing you to start from the beginning â which you can do, of course, but thatâs time-consuming and you may not have enough mana to do it all over again. Remember, you wonât get out of combat until Polymorph is done, so you canât eat or drink while a sheepâs wandering around.
In the very early game, you can generally pull out your weapon for this. Your damage and accuracy with staves and the like are going to fall behind very quickly, but very early on they should suffice. During the middle stages, you can use frostbolts, since they have the quickest cast time aside from instant. Fireblasting immediately can be useful, as well, since if you can survive eight seconds another Fireblast can generally end it. If you have a great deal of mana, Arcane Missiles is the best choice to get damage on the target because of how it works. If, at the end of one second, the bar is still on the screen, you will get one missile, and even if youâre hit twice the barâs length will go from 3 seconds to 1.2, meaning that it will still be around when the game checks to see if it should fire a missile at the end of the first second. It wonât fire any others, making it incredibly inefficient, but it will get you 24 damage after one second, which is useful if you need that damage right away.
In the worst case, you may need to sheep the target and run from it. This set of circumstances wonât happen often, but if it does, this is how you react. Yes, I needed to say it. Rule One.
--- The Early Game â Group Play ---
Donât expect to see a lot of grouping up at these levels. Most challenges can be completed alone, though progress may be gradual. However, any group you end up in at these levels is an excellent way to learn a key skill for groups throughout the game â threat management.
Given the enormous amounts of damage mages can put out in a small period of time, it should come as no surprise that they can get a mobâs attention very quickly. This is, of course, bad. As Iâve pointed out earlier, your armor is likely to be of the downy soft variety and not too good at stopping anything much more savage than your average kitten. Preferably, you want their attention focused on the tank, so you can sling spells without worrying about getting eaten.
One thing should make itself clear right from the get-go: group play is nothing like solo play. Solo play involves firing the biggest damage spells immediately and piling on the damage as quick as you can to kill something before it reaches you. You can do this even in group play at these levels, but itâs really better to learn your proper role in a group so that when you really have to work as part of a group, youâll know what youâre doing.
Most mages never contribute all that much to groups, because the grand majority of them are played incredibly badly. Sometimes itâs just general cluelessness, but most of the time itâs because theyâre playing in groups like theyâre trying to play solo. This is almost always going to get you in trouble at the higher levels, because itâs frankly a stupid thing to do. It makes the tankâs job harder, it makes the healerâs job harder, and it makes your job harder. Donât do it.
First things first. Donât pull (i.e. be the first to get the mobâs attention). If you really, really have to, use a wand. Under no circumstances launch a max-range Fireball or Frostbolt, since thatâs simply going to make whatever you hit very mad, and it will be extraordinarily difficult for your team members to get the aggro off you. Mobs display a tendency to stick to whatever got their attention first, which works fine if the tank was that person, but not so well if itâs you.
Your first priority, then, is to do nothing until the tank has safely attracted the attention of your target and is likely to hold it. There are options later, but not at this point. Then you can start to cast, but carefully. Arcane Missiles and Fireballs are both fine, but you must take care to space them out and not rapidly chaincast them. You can cast Frostbolts slightly quicker.
In groups this early, you essentially have but one priority â not attracting the enemiesâ attention (âgetting aggroâ). Do try to push the envelope a bit, if only to get a feel for how much damage you can do safely. Whenever they lock on to you, stop casting and donât do anything that could possibly deal damage to the target, unless its life is so low that a spell or two will kill it. Move towards the tank instead of running away, so that he or she can take back aggro as soon as possible. Try not to Frost Nova, since itâll not only draw the ire of whatever you hit with Nova, but may also attract others who were happy to hit the tank until then.
Strategies are similar for smaller parties without all the defined roles. If your party lacks a true tank, i.e. a paladin or warrior, youâll have to go with a substitute. Warlock and hunter pets follow mostly the same rules, as do shamans and druids. If youâre using a rogue as the âtankâ you can open fire sooner, as the rogueâs high damage output will keep the mob attracted longer. Parties without healers are somewhat more problematic. In general, tanks will survive without healers at this level, but be ready to have the entire party run if needed.
The only group situations where you should play like youâre soloing are when youâre all mages or all mages and priests. In both those cases, no one can take much damage â just like the situation when soloing â so treat it the same way. Only in these cases, however.