Leveling a Fresh Mage: Part 2
If you can recall from my last fresh mage post, leveling a mage has many things to consider. Between race and professions, getting into your first 20 levels is some serious work. Well, it’s been over a week or so, and it’s about time to get you caught up on the next few levels and go over glyphs and introduce you to macro’s a little bit. don’t worry, nothing that should hurt your head too much.
Understanding Glyphs
As a Mage, you need to do everything to optimize yourself. and understanding how glyphs affect you and your play style, you can tweak yourself to become an even more effective killing machine.
At Level 15: 1 Major Glyph. 1 Minor
Level 30: 2 Major 1 Minor
Level 50: 2 Major 2 Minor
Level 70: 2 Major 3 Minor
Level 80: 3 Major 3 Minor
So while leveling only, you will have only ever 2 major glyphs. Which glyphs you choose to use are entirely up to you and how you wish to experience the mage. Glyphs can be applied any time your toon is not in combat. Once scribed, a glyph can only be over-written by a correspdoing sized glyph (Major to Major, Minor to Minor). Once over-writtn, the previous glyph is lost. Glyph effects cannot be stacked (i.e. two of the SAME glyph). Bearing this in mind, here is a list of glyphs and the levels at which they can be used.
this is a list strictly more for leveling, not intended for end-game play. Listed in Alphabetical Order:
Glyph of Evocation – Useable at Level 20 – Majot Glyph
Glyph of Fire Blast – Useable at Level 15 – Major Glyph
Glyph of Frost Armor – Useable at Level 15 – Minor Glyph
Glyph of Frost Nova – Useable at Level 15 – Major Glyph
Glyph of Frostbolt – Useable at Level 15 – Major Glyph
Glyph of Ice Block – Useable at Level 30 – Major Glyph
Glyph of Icy Veins – Useable at Level 20 – Major Glyph
Glyph of the Penguin – Useable at Level 15 – Minor Glyph
Glyph of Water Elemental – Useable at Level 50 – Major Glyph
If you just down right do not wish to mess with water OR food, pickup Evocation.
Since you are using lots of stuns, fireblast might be useful with 50% dmg bonus.
Increase the duration of you frost and ice armors by 30 minutes (making it an hour total) with frost armor. is highly acceptable to decrease downtime.
Your enimes take up to 20% more damage before your frost nova breaks with it’s corresponding glyph.(recomended)
Increase the damage of your frostbolt but looses it’s slowing effect. i would not recomend this aside from strictly experimenting with practicing kiting at higher levels that did not start off on this guide.
Reset your frost nova upon poping Ice block with it’s glyph. And you’ll get ice block (now trainable) at level 30, also when you pickup the extra major glyph. not bad for leveling.
Icy veins would now remove all movement slowing effects as well as slow downs on cast times. meh.
Instead of a sheep, turn your foes into an adorable penguin. Strictly for cosmetic purposes only.
Reduce the cooldown on your Water Elemental by 30 seconds. will come in quite handy at higher levels.
Now that you have a grasp on some glyphs, obtaining them is up to you. Usually the Auction house will be your best bet. However, making friends with a nice Scribe will probably be recomended. Now, Glyphs help out to alter how your spells work, similar to how talents work, only thier much simpler than that. And there are tons of glyphs to discuss once you hit 80, since then you got all of the generic, arcane, and fire glyphs at that stage. But if you’re deadicated to leveling in the fashion i am laying out for you, just focus on the glyphs outlined above.
Your First Macro
Last time I left you, you were a level 20 mage, having just placed a poing into Icy Viens. Putting Icy Viens in to a macro will help you get better use out of it.
#showtooltip Frostbolt
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/cast Icy Veins
/cast Frostbolt
Ok, this breaks down fairly simply. The first line is what the tooltip Show when you mouse over the macro. So, in this instance, it’ll save Frostbolt. The second line is in place in case, for some reason, you trigger an error. And error could be you’re toon is out of mana, cannot cast that yet, or other, similar responses. The next two lines cast thier named spells. Pretty straight forward. Now, you may continue to use this macro to spam frostbolts to your hearts desire, as the macro will skip Icy viens (since it’s on Cooldown) and cast the subsiquint spell. Very useful for conserving bar real estate. This macro, by the end, the macro will look a touch scarier. Example:
#showtooltip Arcane Barrage
/stopCasting
/cast Arcane Power
/cast Mirror Image
/cast Icy Veins
/cast Arcane Blast Rank #
Repalce # with the corresponding Rank. If you open your spellbook, then the macro screen, you can shift+click the names of the desired spells into the desired location in the macro screen to ensure correctness of spelling.
Levels 21 – 42 = Gearing up into High Damage
Level 21 (Frostbite) = Finish off this talent to it’s maximum.
Level 22-24 (Ice Shards) = You are about to experience the true power of frost. Fasten your seatbelts.
Level 25-27 (Shatter) = Finally. The true power of the frost tree, now available for use. With this, you are going to want to adjust your strategy slightly. Rather than using frost nova as a purely defensive spell, start using it in an offensive role. Having your opponent “frozen” practically guarantees that your next frostbolt is going to be a critical strike. And that frostbolt is going to hit bloody hard, too, thanks to Ice Shards. Instead of waiting for the mob to come to you before using frost nova, try hitting it with frost nova early on in the fight to get a massive crit off. Feel free to use fireblast/cone of cold as soon as frostbolt finishes it’s cast time to get off two crits. It’s expensive, yes, but there is a lot of damage to be had. Obviously, don’t start the fight with frost nova, frosbolt should still be the first spell you cast. Just use it earlier, is all. If you get a frostbite proc, there is no need to interrupt whatever you are currently doing to take advantage of it. If you are in the middle of casting frostbolt, just add a fireblast to the tail end of it. If the mob is too far away, that is fine, you still get a large crit. If you get a proc while running away from something, keep running. A total root is better than a percentile snare. You should now have Cone of Cold in your arsenal. Note that it requires you to be very close to the target, is quite expensive, but it comes with a very powerful snare. If frost nova is resisted, cone of cold is an excellent follow up, allowing you to at least land a 60% snare. And, of course, using frost nova to pin a bunch of mobs in place and then blasting them all is a perfectly valid use for this spell. Enjoy the big numbers. You’ve earned them.
Level 28-29 (Arctic Reach) = More range on frostbolt means you can start the fight from 36 yards away rather than 30. More room, more kiting, larger margin of error, you know, not that you will need it.
Level 30 (Cold Snap) = The ultimate “Oh, S**T” button. You have Ice Block in your spellbook now, and with that, you now have a whole bunch of things cold snap benefits from. Frost nova, if something goes awry, an extra icy veins; dual cone of colds if you want. Or better yet, frost nova + cone of cold, then immediately frost nova + cone of cold again. Use your imagination here.
Level 31-33 (Ice Floes) = 5 seconds off frost nova and 2 seconds off cone of cold are some of the most important reductions for you while leveling. Frost Nova is a major keystone until much later in the game, when frostbolt and various proc rates are powerful enough to destroy things before frost nova is even needed.
Level 34-36 (Frost Channeling) = You will now have more mana. excellent timing, considering things are about to pickup.
Level 37 (Piercing Ice) = A very small, almost marginal increase in damage now. Grows seemingly exponentially with levels.
Level 38-39 (Cold as Ice) = Invaluable once your obtain your water elemental. need it now for points to advance.
Level 40 (Ice Barrier) = Replaces your Mana shield, quite handy considering the following:
Level 41-42 (Shattered Barrier) = This talent allows you to make use of your ice barrier as a sort of controlled frost nova. Avoid push backs, and subsiquintly, untimely deaths. Once struck, the barrier roots said mob in place. pair this with your expert kiting and a good ole’ polymorph, and you’ve reduced three mobs to one in no time. You’re welcome.
