Other casting classes

I have been playing WoW for quite a while now (nearly two years) and I have had a chance to play around with Warhammer Online. What always draws me is, of course, the various caster classes.

I did mention that I played Warhammer Online for a month (free trial) and while I chose not to continue playing (the game doesn't fell as polished as WoW at the moment, and it feels a bit less fun), trying out the various caster classes was fun.

From the Dark Elf Sorcerer to the Orc's Shaman, it was an interesting experience. What was odd in Warhammer Online, was the universal Action Point bar for each class, so everybody relied on it to some extent. What was nice though, was that each class Archpretype had a unique mechanic, so that made casting interesting and varied.

I have had a lot more experience playing the caster classes in WoW though- In fact, I have a level 30 Warlock, a level 22 balance Druid, a level 7 Priest ( I have had more but they ended up deleted) and a level 17 Elemental Shammy. As you can see, all the hybrid classes are specced for casting, not melee, as I like nuking things more than beating things (at least as a hybrid). I have enjoyed playing all of them (except the priest), and I have plans to continue with my warlock at some point. What I can say is that while each of these classes use the mana bar, they all get varied ways to nuke things to death and each one feels unique to me.

Of course, I always end up back at my mage, because unlike the others, I get three talent trees to do one thing- blow things up!

Image from- http://dragonsdenls.com/images/Sorcerer.bmp

-Eric

Looking closer at Arcane

Since I don't have screenies of my character as of yet, this won't be a post on that, which is fairly obvious...Instead, I think I'll explain my spec at the moment for leveling (which is Arcane) and why I love it.

Let's start with my glyphs- First, I have Glyph of Mage Armour, which means my Mage Armour grants me 50% of my normal mana regen while casting (stacked with my talent to increase mana regen while casting by 30%, for a grand total of 80% of mana regen while casting). I also have Glyph of Evocation, which restores 60% of my health as well as my mana. With all of that, I barely have to drink at all, which is very nice.

As for my talents- well as is obvious I have the one for mana regen (I can't remember what it's called). I have Arcane Stability, which means I don't get pushback on my Arcane Missiles, I have clearcasting, giving me a 10% chance on each damaging spell to make the next one cost no mana. I have Torment the Weak, meaning my Arcane Missiles do 12% more damage to snared targets, I have a talent which increases my Intellect by 15%, one that increases my Spellpower by 15% of my intellect (can't remember what either of them are called). I have Prescence of Mind (Next Spell with a cast time of less than 10 seconds is instant), I have Arcane Empowerment, which increases the damage of my Arcane Missiles off a % of my spellpower (can't remember how much), I have Slow (Make the target move 60% slower, attack 60% slower and cast 60% slower, so it counts as a snare). I am finishing up Missile Barrage at the moment (At the end, it gives me a 20% chance to channel Arcane Missiles much faster- it procs off certain spells).

If you read through that semi-wall of text, then well done to you :P

Why am I not specced Fire or Frost- Mana efficiency mainly. As Frost, killing single mobs felt slow and somewhat mana intensive, and for Fire it was just mana intensive. With Polymorph, I can take up to 3 mobs my level and expect to come out alive (especially if they are caster mobs). I will admit to having trouble with bow-using mobs, but I don't run into them often so that is nice (I hate Naga.... a lot, Murlocs too!).

Next time I'll post screenies and stuff, I swear!

Image from http://orderofhasson.com/images/site/icon_mage.gif

Quick edit here: I'll link my spec later, it'll probably go all the way up to 80, but it should be obvious when and where I put my points

-Eric

My Mage!

Finally! Now I get to talk about my mage.... as for screenshots of him- that'll have to wait.

I play Horde side, and my main (at the moment- I switch mains a lot) is a level 52 Blood Elf Mage. I have been playing on him for a while, and have been leveling with a Pally friend, so I never lack for a meatshield err....... tank. While he gains aggro and does his best to burst down the mobs, I reign upon it with Fire, Frost or Arcane spells. It's nice.

My mage has both Herbalism and Mining (I turn with my mouse and key-bind my abilities, so it's easy to change them quickly) I'll admit, my professions have been shafted for a while- I have Herbalism at 257 and Mining at 167 so I have some work to do later. Providing my auctions come in later today, I should have over 600g which is nice.

I have mucked around with all the specs for leveling- I was specced Frost for levels 10-33, which was alright- I ran outta mana fairly quickly, and it seemed to take forever to kill a mob- taking on a bunch of mobs at once was awesome I'll admit.

I was Fire from levels 33-38- It was only slightly less mana efficient than Frost- and killing a single mobs was so fast! If I pulled more than one, Polymorph was used.

After patch 3.0, I specced Arcane from 38-44. With the changes in 3.0 I had 80% of my mana regen while casting, and with some talent changes I was able to Frostbolt a mob, followed by Arcane Missles, then Frost Nova, more Arcane Missles, a Fireblast and the mob was down. With clearcasting procs, I only needed to evocate every 5 minutes (evocations new cooldown) and I was able to kill non-stop. I had massive amounts of mana and was questing extremely efficiently- I forgot about Polymoprh though and ended up speccing Frost form 44-52 so I could kill multiple mobs.... Then I remembered I had Polymorph.

I'm Arcane again and it is most excellent- While AOE grinding was awesome, I feel I can quest faster, so I get faster leveling. I can't wait to get Arcane Barrage at 60, which should make my rotation much more enjoyable.

Sadly, I feel the need to take a small break from my mage- I burn out on characters too quickly- I plan to get him to 55 on Friday, and get Lich King on Saturday so I muck around with the Death Knight. If I get bored with him, then I have a level 11 Tauren Warrior to play with- then when I muck around with them, I'll probably end up going back to my mage.

'Coz nuking stuff to death is probably my favourite thing

-Eric

I, Magus

Mage- according to Answers.com, a mage is 'A magician or sorcerer'. (Again, from http://www.answers.com/topic/mage).

While you may be looking at me like- 'Duh- that's like obvious', it seems that some people don't know what a mage is. For example some spellcheckers *coughblogger'scough* doesn't even know that it's a word. Weird eh?



Pictured to the left is Raistlin, one of the more prominent mages from the DragonLance series. As you can see, like the stereotypical arcane spellcaster, he is dressed in robes, with a large staff (note the crystal orb on top) and pouches, with various spellcasting components hanging around the case.

Mages/wizards/sorcerers, all of them tend to play a support role in both video games and books. They tend to be fragile and rather bookish, but when it comes to a fight, they can be devastating, unleashing fireballs, meteors, lightning and other arcane magicks upon the enemy- all from a safe distance.

As they are rather fragile though, they tend to hang around those who are better protected- warriors or paladins, who wear plate armour and keep a sword from the mages gut (cloth doesn't exactly offer much protection).


(Image from- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b4/Raistlin.png/225px-Raistlin.png)

-Eric

Quick update here

Alright, for my most recent task in my computing class we have to look at someone else's blog and make a post about it- I have looked at Bashing Bass While it has just started (like everyone elses), it seems promising- not to mention, the bass guitar is one of my favourite instruments- A blog to watch

-Eric

Computer Gaming and WoW

For me, computer gaming didn't become a big thing until about 2 or so years ago. Previously, all the games I wanted came in console format, so I was fairly happy. Then I found the Internet. It was smooth sailing from there.

I started poking around with online mini-games, until I handled the more robust stuff. At the start, all I looked at was just free games around the Internet (I'm cheap like that), but soon I became interested in games that could be played on the computer, just like my consoles. I was really interested in the RPG's, but had trouble finding recent ones that our computer could run (it was a piece of junk, really). After about half a year, I stumbled upon World of Warcraft.

I was intrigued, it was a fantasy game, with RPG elements- and you were playing with other people! I checked out the specs and was amazed that our computer could run it. The $15 (about $30 where I live) a month price tag (along with the initial in the box cost) put me off a bit, but I was determined to pay- some hard work around the house was able to handle that, and my brother wanted to play, so we split the cost (15$ each). After waiting for a couple of weeks, it came in, and since then, it has been computer gaming for me! We have a much better computer now, and my main character is, of course, a mage. We'll be looking at him next.

Image from-http://www.sc2blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/2wow-logo2800-med.jpg

-Eric

My gaming background

Since I have introduced myself already, I guess I'll share my gaming background. I started gaming when I was seven or eight, when I got my Gameboy Colour (seen left). I only had a few games at the start, but my collection grew. My most memorable game for it would have to be Pokemon. I was enchanted and must have logged over 100 hours in Red version alone. It's been great since then. I have gone through the original Playstation, Nintendo 64, a Gamecube, the Playstation 2, a Nintendo Wii and an X-Box 360 and various other handheld systems. Only the X-Box 360 has bit the dust so far (stupid red ring of death....grrrrr), so I am pretty happy that it all works. I have since moved on though, to computer gaming- that will be covered in my next post

Image from- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/GameBoy_Color.jpg

-Eric