10-14-2005, 12:50 AM
Quote:How can I increase my chance of surviving these fights as they occur? What strategies work as a mage? I'm a solid PvE mage. I can handle as many multiples as anyone. I rarely die unless I'm in a mood where I'm throwing caution to the wind. But in PvP, I'm just a noob. I've learned that throwing up my mana shield first, or when I'm running through somewhere dangerous, can really help out since it absorbs enough damage for me to get a second to get my bearings, but beyond that, I'm stuck. Advice? I'm currently specced 11 into Arcane for the Evocation and 11 into Fire. I'm not liking Pyroblast much though so the spec is up into the air.
So, I'm not a godlike PvP warrior but I do pretty OK. There's more out there to learn, but here's some tricks.
1) Drink early, drink often: It is easy as a mage to get into a routine where you play until you exhaust your mana, sit and drink, and then go again. The problem is that this makes you an easy target. A mage without mana is a dead mage. Never let your mana get below half if you can help it. If your mana is down in the 60-70% level stop and drink. You can make all the water in the world - there is no need to ration it. If you're in a particularly dangerous area, cap yourself off after each fight.
2) Blink: Your best friend is your blink button. I'm always surprised by how many mages don't realize that Blink breaks stun. I've seen mages duel rogues and stand there and take a stunlock. No! Hit that blink button, get some distance.
3) Move: This is just a way of life in PvP. If you are standing still, you are dead. Mages get into this trap in PvE where they stand in one place and outlast their enemy. This is not PvE. You should be running full tilt the whole time. Why? If you are not in front of an opponent, 90% of their abilities can't hit you. If you run straight through a Paladin, you are now behind him and he won't get his swing off. If you run through a warlock, that shadowbolt is going to fizzle before it flies. You are playing a positioning battle with your characters. That means constantly attempting to move behind your opponent.
4) Instant cast: Accept this little rule of life. If it isn't instant cast, it's probably not going to do anything for you in PvP. Fireblast, IAE, CoC, Frost Nova - these are your mainstays. Anything else you cast is just buying you time. Anything else can get interrupted and stopped before it even appears.
5) Spec: Corallary to the above: if it's instant cast, it's useful, so make everything instant cast. All mages who PvP should have Presence of Mind and Improved Arcane Explosion. As an added bonus, Presence of Mind + Pyroblast or Fireball gives you an instant cast DoT which will keep a rogue from vanishing.
6) Jump Shots: A jump shot lets you run away from an opponent and hit them at the same time. If your character jumps in the air, he will keep moving forward at full run speed. While in the air, you can spin around. This lets you cast instant cast spells at opponents behind you. Close opponents can be hit with Cone of Cold which will prevent them from catching you. Opponents farther away can be hit with fireblast or PoM+any spell.
7) Distance is your Friend: If you are facing a melee character, you have a simple way of not taking damage - getting more than 5 yards away from them. At that point, you can still kill them and they can't hurt you very effectively. Most of your cold spells snare your opponent, Frost Nova is a root, and your fire spells can stun. Use this to your advantage.
8) OOC: Ok, this is getting a little cheap, but lets talk about out of combat. If you get far enough away from a PvP opponent, you are dropped out of combat. When this happens, combat effects are reset and you can drink/mount. If you are facing a single opponent you can very effectively control the encounter. What's more, you're playing horde side and that means you only face trinkets as an anti-poly effect. This gives you amazing control. If you sheep an opponent and move far enough away from them that you drop out of combat, you eliminate the penalty for multiple sheeps. This means you can poly+blink+run a little bit, then drink/eat, blink, repolly, etc. You can keep a single player in this state indefinitely. With a bit of timing, you can even do this if they break out of the first polly using a PvP trinket. I suspect this will be addressed someday, but for now... it works, so use it if you need it.
9) Shields Up!: My goal in PvP is to have my hps and my mana run out at exactly the same time. If I die and I have mana left, I haven't been as effective as I could have been. If you are facing an opponent who does physical damage and you aren't going to be able to dump all of your mana into instants as fast as he can kill you (esp. rogues) you should be turning that mana into Hps by turning on your shield. Take a look at the cost of your fire blast and IAE spells. You can cast these at most once every 1.5s. PvP combat is probably only going to last 10-25s. If you can't burn through that in spells, put your shield up. It's an expensive way to "heal", but outside of the 31 point ice talent, it's your only option.
That should be enough to get you started. The first thing I'd recommend is respeccing so that you get 16 points into arcane. Your mileage may vary, but as far as I'm concerned the first 16 points for all mages should be: improved arcane missile, arcane concentration, evocation, improved arcane explosion.