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Horde Grinding Spots:
0-15 - Questing fastest possible exp.15-20 - The Barrens - Harpies *15-20 - The Barrens - Bristleback(s) *20-25 - The Barrens - Bael Dun Exavs *20-25 - Hillsbrad - Hillsbrad Farmers (etc)22-26 - Thousand Needles - Galak Scouts (etc) *26-30 - Hillsbrad - Mud Gnolls *25-30 - Thousand Needles - Grimtotems30-38 - Shimmering Flats - All monsters. *38-40 - Dustswallow Swamp - Very North East Islands, Murlock Warriors/Oracles.Horde And Alliance Grinding Spots:40-46 - Ferales - Woodpaws (stay away from the ones that disease forslow casting speeds) **46-48 - Ferales - Frayfeather Skystormers *48-50 - Ferales - Harpies48-51 - Southwest of Gadgetzan - Thistleshrubs *50-54 - Western Plaguelands - First 'field' to the left, assorted monsters.54-60 - Western Plaguelands - Scarlet Lumberjacks52-60 - Eastern Dire Maul - Lashers ***** = Recommended
EXP Rates:Levels 30-40 = 18-20k exp/hourLevels 40-51 = 20-25k exp/hourLevels 52-60 = 40-50k exp/hour (Dire Maul)
Note: I recently took off the Western Plaguelands spots off therecommended list because of the release of the Honor PVP system. Ifyou are on a PVE server, these spots should remain perfectly fine foryou. If you're on a PVP server, try the spots, however, if you'rebeing ganked, just switch back to Thistleshrubs or the Un GuroElementals until level 52.
Spell Usage and Order:Typically, you don't want to use spells such as Arcane Missiles, FrostBolt, Cone of Code, and other horrible DPM/slow spells. Your basicspell order should be something similar to; Fireball, Fireball,Fireball, Frost Nova + Strafe Away, Fireball (Until low HP), Scorch(Until dead). Of course, this doesn't work for everything, but you getthe general idea.
Tip: Strafe SIDEWAYS away from monsters, instead of just backing up.Backing up is 70% movement, Strafing sideways = 100% Movement. I'veseen LOTS of mages just back up. Getting optimal distance helps a lot- especially if you're using intelligence gear.
Tip: Loot fast! Shift + Right click the body of the monster toauto-loot everything. So many people don't know about this feature,it's amazing. I admit, I didn't even know about it for a very longtime.
Knowing Your Mage:Knowing how much damage your spells do helps A LOT. This doesn't onlyhelp in grinding, but with PVP too. I would suggest getting a UI thatdisplays the opponents (monster/player) HP as a percentage. This makesit easier to familiarize yourself with damage. I suggest using eitherNurfed's UI or CT Mod. Personally, I use CT Mod and some of the Nurfedadd-ons together. The general point to knowing your mage's damage, isoptimizing your mana use. You don't want to cast a fireball when themonster has only 10% health left - because your fireball's normally doaround 20%. Get the idea?
UIs and Add-ons:As I just previously said, I personally use CT Mod with some of theNurfed Add-ons. However, there are some other good UIs out there, suchas Gypsy that lots of mages use.
As for add-ons, I also use the following:CastAway: Spell Sequencer with adjustable reset timerSpell Alert: Notifies you when an enemy monster/player starts casting,and includes what spell they're casting.CoolDownHud: Displays transparent icons on screen of the spells thatare on cooldown, along with how long is left on each.StatusBars: Displays your HP/MP at the bottom of the screen.Decursive: Lets you bind a hotkey to decursive, which will cast removecurse on you/your party/your raid, if they have a curse on them.You can find these UIs/Add-ons at www.Curse-Gaming.com.Mage Gear
Initially, I would suggest all mages get any * of intelligence gearpossible. Max your mana out as much as you can. If not, settle forEagle/Owl gear. You don't want to start having eagle gear equipped (asa priority) until 40+. Meaning, every time you go to AH, check outgear for levels 40+, because eagle gear gets harder to come by.What about AOE leveling?
Lots of people claim AOE leveling is the best possible way to level atall times. I haven't found this to be true. However, there are certainspots/levels when AOE grinding is the best and easiest way to level;the major and most popular spot being Dire Maul. If you solo EasternDM, you can easily obtain 40-50k exp/hour (yes, this is unrestedexperience). Are there more spots? I haven't find many other AOE spotsin which I consider viable. It's important to note that dyingdecreases your exp/hour rate A LOT, so if there's a good chance of youdying, it might not be worth the trouble at all. However, I must saythat if you have a priest, then AOE leveling becomes a much betterpossibility. However, I wouldn't design my talents around that forobvious reasons; you always will need a priest to level at maximumspeed, and it's not solo.
Wondering how to AE grind DM? Talents, What's The Best?!
I've leveled 3 mages past level 40, in retail. Two of them being 60,and the last one being 40. This doesn't include any of the betas. Ican safely tell you from what I've experienced, a pure fire build isthe fastest way to level initially. This doesn't mean being pure fireat level 60, however. As many know, talents such as clear casting arevery good. I've toyed with this a bit. I've noticed clear castingdoesn't start making a good amount of difference until around 40-45.So, I would suggest picking a pure fire build (please stay away fromsome of the less-used fire talents, such as flame strike), and have itplanned out in a way that when you hit 45, you'll have 16 arcane andthe rest into fire. Why? 16 arcane is IAM, Clear casting, Evocation,and IAE. All the necessary and supporting spells a mage needs.Tips: Read Alcaras's thread on talents. Planyour build in a way that meets what I said, but conforms to one of thearcane/fire // fire/arcane builds. This might save you some cash inthe long run, while giving you the opportunity to test out one of thebest viable builds in the game.
Managing Your Time Away From GrindingWoW is a very easy place to waste time in. From constantly checking AHto doing professions, you can find yourself with a huge amount ofwasted time on your hands if you don't pay attention.-When checking AH, check for gear for later (but not too far off)levels too. Doing this will save you AH trips in the long run.-Know what spells you get every two levels. Typically, it isn't worthinterrupting your grinding if the spell you receive isn't going toincrease your grinding time. If, for example, you're getting a newfireball spell, that's definitely worth the trip.
-WoW is WoW. There is no getting around it. Traveling in WoW takes ahuge amount of time. I've seen a huge amount of people go looking forbetter pits, for an extra 1-2k an hour, instead of just sticking itout and getting that 20k+ for that amount of time the other guy wastedLOOKING for a place to level. Even with teleports, don't foolyourself, try to limit your traveling as much as you can.
- Professions. Professions are a very popular time waster. STOCK UP.Instead of turning clothe into bolts, and bolts into gear, every timeyou get materials, STOCK UP. Do it all in big bundles. Keep thematerials in your bags if you don't need the space (some spots don'tdrop so much, some do), if not, stock it up in a local bank.
- Instances. Lower level instances are such a waste of time for amage. The equipment received from doing them doesn't increase yourperformance like melee classes. I suggest skipping the lower levelinstances and head straight for the ones that matter; the end-gameones.
-Dying. As I said earlier, if you're dying a lot, it might be best tochose an alternative pit. Dying reduces your exp/hour rate a lot. Itpretty much is equivalent to AH trips as a mage.Best Professions For A Mage
This is typically different for the type of server you're on. The bestoptions for a PVP mage are Alchemy and Engineering (I cant confirmEngineering myself, but there's a large amount of mages that think so,so I'll go with that for now). Other options would be Enchanting andTailoring. I wouldn't suggest tailoring, I consider it quite useless.I've had 260 tailoring on one of my mages, maxed tailoring on another.There's very few items you can make that you'll find useful, mainlybags. Tailoring is probably a lot more useful on a priest.Mage Armor or Ice Armor?
It really depends on the monsters you're grinding on. You'll want touse Mage Armor when you can. Although the spell does very little, thatlittle might be the 20 mana you need to caste a scorch or fireball tofinish a monster up. If the monsters do quite high damage, use IceArmor. An example of this, would be (from experience): Woodpaws inFerales don't hit hard if you level on them correctly (the basic spellorder I stated at the beginning of this guide), but the Stormers(initially) after Woodpaws hit faster/harder, so I had to use IceArmor to grind there (only the first level).
The 1-2 Levels Before A New Fireball SpellThese levels can be VERY painful. What I found to help a lot is savingall quests for these levels. Even if, for example, it's quests youcomplete by simply grinding on monsters (Shimmering Flats), don't turnthem in until they're going to turn gray or you're on one of thelevels before a new fireball spell. I do NOT suggest doing purelyquests, but knowing which quests are easy/grind-able on helps a lot.Also, a higher level friend might be more willing to help you, if theyknow it's the level (or two) before a new fireball spell, and theyknow you've stacked up quests so they have a wide selection to helpyou from. If you cant do this, simply keep grinding and deal with theextra couple hours or so of how long it takes to level. Personally,all I did was not turn in grind-able quests as long as I could holdout - until these levels came up.
Dealing With The Boringness Of GrindingThere's no way to get rid of it. There's ways to deal with it,fortunately. The basic ways are to simply play music while grinding,or position your TV to a location where you don't have to turn much towatch it, or chatting in game. Grinding doesn't require you to watchyour screen 100% of the time, even on a PVP server, so watching TVisn't too hard. A method I personally like is talking to friends, RLor on team speak, both are good choices to help you forget about whatyou're doing. One thing I urge everyone NOT to think about is how longit's taking to level, it'll make you extremely bored/frustrated.Why Do People Grind If It's So Boring?
A simple, yet complicated question. The simple answer is that we'repower gamers/PVPers. We want to get as strong as possible as fast aspossible. The part where it gets complicated is where casual gamersand such are reverting to grinding, too. With the current state ofWoW, there's very little reason to do quests. One of the only reasonsis that you get more involved with the story/history of WoW. Anotheris that it is more entertaining than grinding. While I'm not going totry arguing with either of those, I will tell you the following:There's very few rewards to doing quests, one of thembeing able tobuy mounts from other races in your faction. This, funny enough, isn'tvery possible. The other being you get discounts. I'll let you knownow that you can easily obtain an honorable status by questing from 1to 14-15, which is what I did. Grinding rewards better than questing,more materials, more gold, more of a chance to receive rare drops(blues that bind on equip), and most importantly, faster/better exp.Also, you can grind to 60 and then proceed to do instances, whichmeans you end up with the same gear as everyone else, but faster.How long did it take you to max, using these methods?
A bit over 7 days. Of course, it can be done faster, if you alreadyknow all of these spots, fallback spots, etc, and if you go afire/arcane build (I went Arcane/fire). Infact, people have alreadymaxed faster than I did using this guide.
Mage Macros:
Here are some macros for mages. They work great for their purpose.Polymorph Macro
Description: Announces the gender of the target, as well as their level.script if UnitSex("target") == 1 then SendChatMessage("Sheeping Female" .. UnitLevel("target") .. " %t","say") elseSendChatMessage("Sheeping Male " .. UnitLevel("target") .. " %t","say"); end/cast Polymorph(Rank 4)Counter-Spell
Description: It will cancel whichever spell is casting and castcounter-spell. Works GREAT in PVP./script SpellStopCasting()
/script CastSpellByName("counterspell")WOTF
Description: When you get feared in PVP, you automatically lose yourtarget, this will automatically target the last person when usingWOTF.
/cast Will of the Forsaken(Racial)/script TargetLastEnemy()Reparty:
Description: This will leave the party and reparty the person of yourchoice, resetting the instance. Very helpful with Dire Maul. Replace"Person" with the players name./script LeaveParty()/invite Person
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