A Guide to Mages comment thread

[MongoJerry]

RULE ONE: THINGS GO WRONG

I had more rules than this, but they all seemed to condense nicely into this. Hence, rule one.

The biggest assumption that a lot of guides make is that things are going to be perfect. They assume that each engagement is going to go according to plan, and that if it doesn’t, you are clearly an inferior player. They also provide little or no advice should things turn south in a hurry.

Hang all that. Things go wrong. You are going to misjudge aggro, or you’re going to pull one too many mobs, or you’re going to get an add from an unexpected direction, or you’re going to get something spawning on your head. Things go wrong. The distinction between an excellent player and one who is merely good is that an excellent player can react to most unexpected situations and still pull out a win.

Rule One also applies to groups. The dream is a perfectly functioning group where you’ve got a pair of tanks, a healer and some other support character. Not all your groups will look like this, and not all groups that do are going to work well. You’re going to get tanks that don’t know how to tank, rogues and other mages who have no idea what an “aggro” is, much less how to handle it, and priests who think they’re offensive spellcasters. You could leave the group every time it’s not perfect, but then you won’t be in many groups. In the majority of cases, you’ll have to deal with it. Things go wrong.

My favorite part of the whole guide. So many priest guides make this same mistake. I might plagerize this section. :D

I can't claim to have read every word, but I gave the guide a long skim and it looked great! One addition I have is that you might want to emphasize Counterspell a little more. After experiencing a shadow spec'd Priest's Silence spell, I can't believe how rarely I see mages using Counterspell. In fact, I ran into several level 60 mages in the beta who didn't even have it hotkeyed. That's nuts! As you say, it's a great way to get a caster mob to come forward and get pummeled. Especially now that Taunt has been *improved* so that one cast of Taunt can get the mob off the mage, Counterspell should be a normal part of a mage's repertoire.

Regarding group dynamics in late game play, I'll give you a preview: Mages are the most powerful AoE casters in the game and that AoE damage becomes critical in so many situations in late game instances. Warlocks can do decently well, but their AoE channeling spells can be more easily interrupted and aren't quite as good. No other classes come close to the AoE damage that mages and to some extent warlocks can deliver.