Help! My World of Mage Dinged 80 -- Now What? Getting the stats your mage needs

Help! My World of  Mage Dinged 80 -- Now What?  Getting the stats your mage needs
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Reaching the Pinnacle of Level Achievement

Congratulations! Your mage reachecurrent d the pinnacle of level achievement in World of Warcraft and reached level 80. Relaxing and taking a few months off from the daily mmorpg grind does not prepare the Azertohian mage for his next set of challenges. The focus of the end game for a mage characters is boosting the amount of damage that he can do.

A player can do dailies or pursue the more bizarre achievements if he desires, but most likely he wants to get his character ready to help defeat the minions of the Scourge and the Lich King. A mage needs to know what factions help him most, which enchantments he should apply to his gear and gain one or two items of must have gear that will aid him and his guild turn back the tide of the Scourge. The Kirin Tor faction quartermaster sell gears with desirable spell caster stats.

Stats a Mage Needs

dranei mage

Mages need intellect and crit rating while leveling up. Raiding mages need these stats as well. Intellect increases the amount of mana in a character’s mana pool, and a character’s crit rating makes it more likely for a mage to score a critical hit when his spell lands. Hit rating decreases the chances of a spell missing its target. A player can find the hit percentage of his character by opening the character panel and using the mouse to hover over the hit rating. A pull-down box displays your character’s hit percentage. DPS casters need a hit rating of 17 percent.

A Mage in Karazhan Gear

Players use the term enchantments to mean items added to a piece of armor or weapon that add stats to the item. Mages need to go for spell power, hit, crit, and haste. (Spell power is the most important of these stats.) Enhancements from enchanting or from other trade skills further increase these stats. Enginers can add spellpower to their cloak and have it funciton as a parachute. Only engineers can use tinkered items. (Mages also get featherfall and do not have a need for the parachute function.)

Major Enchantments exist that add spell power to gloves and your weapon. Crit percentage adjustments exist for the shoulder, although this adds attack power which a mage does not need. Because spellpower, crit rating, and haste commonly appear on caster gear, enchantments that add to the mage’s hit ratings take great priority. Hit rating gems allow the mage to help make up for the lack of gear that boosts a caster’s hit rating.

World of Warcraft Mage Play Style

human mage casting a spell

Arcane, frost and fire mages specialize in different types of damage, but they share the same goal in raiding. Mortoc, a mage from the Outcast guild on Doomhammer, says that mages use two play styles. The first play style relies on doing damage from afar. The point blank area of affect DPS mage play style requires the haste rating more than the close-in mages should focus on stamina in addition to other stats.

Gearing Your Level 80 Mage

A player should have all blue gear in his inventory before reaching level 80. All level 80 characters need to replare rare gear with epic gear. Heroic Nexus, Heroic Drak’tharon Keep, Heroic Halls of Lightning, and Heroic Violet hold boss mobs drop good gear for mages, but the most important item that drops in heroic dungeons are the Emblems of Heroism that players can use to purchase level 80 epic gear and account bound gear. Players can send account bound gear to their other characters on the same server.

A Gnome Mage

PvP zones such as Wintergrasp, Warsong Gulch, and Alterac Valley help fill in gaps in the gear that faction tiems and heroic loot drops do not. Competent mages can join ten man Naxxramas runs to acquire more powerful items. World of Warcraft characters should replace all their green items before entering this raid instance. Players who rely more on ranged attacks should acquire the Embrace of the Spider trinket from the Arachnid Quarter. The Embrace of the spider trinket increases spell power when equipped and occasionally grants an its user an additional 500 haste rating. World of Warcraft characters should replace all of their green items before entering the Naxxramas raid instance.

Crowd Control: Still Required Occasionally

Troll Mage

Mages seldom need to use crowd control during raids. Either crowd control does not work on raid mobs, or it is faster to burn down the mobs with area of effect spells. Some raid situations require the use of crowd control. The polymorph spell works more reliably against living creatures than the equivalent shaman spell hex. Raid leaders always let members of the raid know the srategy for taking down boss mobs before a the raid party engages a monster.

What Level 80 Mages Can Expect

Good mages make a welcome addition to any high level raid. The well-played mage controls his aggro and does not get attention from mobs. Guild leaders also expect mages to summon tables at the beginning of the raid. Other players appreciate the portals that mages open at the end of the raids or in instances. Guids expect mages to fulfill a utility role only at the beginning and end of raids.

Level 80 mages must focus on getting the highest damage per second rating possible. The fire talent tree works best for raiding, and most of a mage’s glyphs should boost the damage on spells he uses. The glyph that removes the need for spell components saves a character money which can be spent on cold weather flying or armor repair.

I dinged Level 85 – Now What?

goblin-mage

The Cataclysm Expansion raised the Level cap by 5. Mages found MP5 gear gone, and they had to deal with fewer factions in Cataclysm than they had to deal with at the end of the Wrath of the Lich King. They can now benefit from spirit in the form of extra mana regen. They can no longer control the level of their spells. What a player needs to know is what he needs to do once he reaches level 85. The process remains roughly the same as it did when the mage hit 80. The key palyers are different now.

wow worgen

Intelligence was an important statistic for mages and other casters in previous expansions. It is even more important now. A character gets a bonus to his mana pool for his intelligence socre and a mage Cataclysm talent lets his int score add onto his character’s hit bonus. Becuase of the extra damage caused by Cataclysm mobs, stamina has become important for many players. Cloth wearers may find themselves torn between spirit and intelligence. Mages, as a pure dps caster, want to go for int and if possible hit.

Which Faction Offers the Best Mage Gear in Cataclysm?

Blizzard decided to spread useful gear throughout all of the factions in Cataclysm. The tabard system introduced in Wrath of the Lich King continued. Even if a player earns with revered with all the factions, he cannot get all the gear he needs to run heroic instances successfully. He still must work on badges.

Because mages can only wear cloth, they do not need to worry about the problems suffered by wearing gear of mixed taps. They will get the bonus for specialization regardless of what armor they need. A well-prepared mage will reforge his spirit into hit. Once a mage reaches the hit cap, he needs to work on spell haste. After he reaches the spell haste cap he can work on his mastery rating.

This post is part of the series: WoW Level 80 Raiding Guide

I dinged level 80: Now what? Preparing for raiding with various classes in World of Warcraft.

  1. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for Mage
  2. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for the Paladin
  3. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for Warlock
  4. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for the Shaman
  5. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for the Death Knight
  6. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for the Priest