Yes it has come to that time, where i have farmed all the battle grounds, done tol barad quite enough, made 10,000 gold from daily quests, and there isnt really that much else to do. I log in, do my 5 arena wins on the Hunter and the Priest, thats about 2 hours a week. Now what do i do? PvE? No Thanks, I found Sambas, Karoma and Loc’na(sp?) the other spirit beast.

I have about 20k in gold spread over my characters, nothing to buy really. I could level fishing again and cooking, but i can just buy the food from AH. So what is there to do apart from arenas? Nothing much really. I started leveling a few other characters that i have sitting around, and got all the heirloom gear, but it seems kinda pointless. I guess there comes a point when there isnt really that much else to do, i need to feel like im achieving something, which i guess is why they introduced the achievement system, but for some reason its just not the same as the feeling you get from leveling a toon. I usually top the DPS charts in BG’s as BM or Marks, its kinda fun but i dont need the honor points anymore, so whats the point.

And now there going to make honor even easier to farm? why? for alts? idk maybe its good. Recently i just started playing 1v1 on sc2, its kinda cool to play that again. Something different. I guess just keep playing arenas until next content update, least thats still fun.

I’m thinking that some people aren’t liking the cataclysm balance right now? Lol…

Also on other news, I got 2 spirit beasts! and now i can quit wow. And go play Harry Potter online, apparently… Pfft.

I dont usually post rogue stuff, but hey this is pretty pwnage. /rolls a rogue. and then spends 2 months getting gear/skills… Check it out, tis a good vid.

Playing with Talbadar (shadow priest) and Mayopompapum (resto druid).

3v3 currently rated over 3000 with a 99% win ratio.

Some games do take 15 minutes but I picked the faster ones this time (don’t worry, good opponents).

1) The White Panda – Stereo Hands
2) W-Unit – Rave Revolution
3) Utah Saints – Something Good (High Contrast Remix)
4) Damage Vault – Passage

Ah remember the good old days…

So you’ve recently hit 85, done a couple of bg’s or tol barad, and your getting a bit pwned. What spec do i choose?

Yeah this happened to me today, I know you cant ding 85 and be super leet straight away, well im my case i may never be, but hey i can dream (or practice). Went to the Auction house and bought up all the PVP Craftable Blues ended up with about 900 res and butt all spell power. So now im hitting like a wet sponge and getting wtfpwned quite often. Also the dam mobs are kicking my ass, even in tol. what the hell am i doing wrong? I think it all comes down to gear and maybe spec

I have found two frost specs that are quite decent. but really you need the gear to back it up, and you have two options really, get pwned in battle grounds for about a week or two, or alternatively fall asleep playing all the PVE content to get the DPS gear, and lets face it resiliance for a mage, really? i guess it all helps, but we are squishy and should really be playing keep away for most of the time anyway, not like we can just stand there and take it for long .

Here are the Specs:

Frost Spec 1

WoWHead Link

Frost Spec 2

WoWHead Link

Few things about these specs, you can choose between fast running when hit, or fast running after blinking, now for me i prefer the fast blinking run, i think you get to use it more often but some may prefer the latter. Anyway check them out.

As Always i have found some handy guides, Heres one from a post by Trixzy on Arena Junkies:

Alright, I’ll just start this out by saying, I’m not a glad,I’m not an Exceptional player but I’m here just to help out
I also want to Emphasize on that this guide is from MY point of view and has alot of MY opinions, if you disagree feel free to comment but please do not flame (:

Content
1. Spec
2. Gearing
3. Macros & Keybindings
4. Teams & Setups
5. Races
6. My Two Cents

1. Spec, where to put those extra talent points?

Spec:
http://www.wowhead.c…hsdMo:MkmMqkzmM

This is what I am using, I’ll start by saying there is ALOT of different spec choises you should consider when specing you mage.
I’ve chosen to take [Enduring Winter] to my build due to our 3v3, you can take that talent point and put it in [Improved Freeze] wich is the norm.
The 2 extra talent points I have in fire [Burning Soul] can also be placed in many different ways, some take [Invocation]from arcane to get that extra bit of damage boost. Others use them on [Ice Shards] in the frost tree.

There is also another choise to go wich looks like this:

http://www.wowhead.c…hsdMo:kMmMqkz0m
Thats basically the “norm” WITH impact.
So you can mess around with the 7 “extra” talent points, you can go [Blazing Speed] if you enjoy the dispel of all roots etc.

Thats basically covered, choose the extra 7 talent points(that is in the fire spec in this one) with your playstyle, what you usually do and wich one of them benefits your setup.

Glyphs
Prime:
Glyph of Ice Lance, surprise Ice Lance has changed from shatterfiller or omg instants I cannot cast to the most powerful spell we have.

Rest of these are situational, you can choose them according your playstyle or setup.

Glyph of Cone of Cold, Situational
Glyph of Frostbolt,Choose frostbolt if your setup allows you to cast alot e.g (you are not the tunneltarget usually)
Glyph of Frostfire, Frostfire if you want more dots and dispellable stuff on the target (e.g playing with an affliction warlock).
Glyph of Mage Armor,Situational do you end up ooming?

Major:
I have to say again, change glyphs according your setup. Ice Barrier glyph doesn’t increase the absorb with big amounts you could swap it with Glyph of Icy Veins due to the fact it removes Necrotic Strike, but again, if you feel like you are getting trained in your comp then you probably should stick with Glyph of Ice Barrier.
Glyph of Polymorph
Glyph of Ice Barrier
Glyph of Evocation

Minor:
These 2 are VERY good, if you don’t want to carry Light Feathers with you, get the slow fall glyph. Conjuring is good because it reduces the manacost of managem aswell, so if you are having long matches where you might even end up using all of your charges, this one is very good.
Glyph of Slow Fall
Glyph of Conjuring

2. Gearing up, gemming, what to choose?

Hit.
The most important stat for you to choose is HIT.
The PvP hitcap for a mage is 4% in cataclysm. With one exception, Night Elf racial [Quickness] this gives you 2% more needed hit to hit Night Elf’s so try going for just a tiny bit more than 4%. I suggest somewhere around 5% without sacrificing too much of other stats.
It should be easy to obtain, if you are under the hitcap don’t forget Reforging will always help you out (:

Spell Penetration.
Secondary and very close up on the list is Spell Penetration, you will need about 195 Spell Penetration since this is what the resistance auras, totems etc. give out max.
Against other Mages, they will be running with Mage Armor wich increases their resistances by 45 so with buffs and Mage Armor they can reach up to 240 resistance to your spells. 
Trying to get 240 is overkill, you won’t need that much against almost anything else (Felhunter is an exception) so get the spell penetration cloak, if you only have the Bloodthirsty version available you can enchant it with +70Spell pen or you can gem to reach ~~200.
I prefer running with the Vicious Cloak since it gives straight up 201 Spell Penetration. You can also choose Vicious Neckwhich gives the same amount.
But take in consideration, You cannot get a Haste Cloak, but you can get a Haste Neck.

Now we go into the part wich is kinda blurry for most people atm.

Haste/Crit/Mastery, what to choose?
Why would you gem for crit when you have [Shatter]? Because it multiplies your crit chance by 3. So lets say you are running with 15% crit, if the target is frozen you will have 3×15% wich is 45%, thats very low thinking you want to crit with each Ice Lance or Frostbolt on frozen targets. So best to get is 33.3% crit wich will then put your shatters up to 100% crit chanse (well almost). Crit is the most powerful stat atm, gemming until you reach a reasonable amount is suggested.
You will be low on crit at lower level gear (Bloodthirsty) but as you get more Vicious items your crit will increase by a significant amount. Just remember don’t reforge the crit away.

Haste is not nearly as powerful as it used to be, you wont be able to cast many frostbolts now that mages are tunneled hard so at this point, Crit and Mastery are much more stronger than haste.

As for mastery, without ANY mastery in your gear you will have 8.00 Mastery rating, that is 20% Increased damage against frozen targets. The Mage mainset items (shoulder and head) have mastery already in the item, 340rating to be exact. Which will give you about 4% increased damage, so gemming Intellect/Mastery gems, will give you 20 each yellow socket that will maybe get you up to 4,30% increased damage against frozen targets. So is it really worth gemming for? 
My Opinion, no. Take the mastery you can get from items but crit until certain levels and then mastery after that.

Gearing, how much resilience do I need?
(my armory; http://eu.battle.net…t/trixzy/simple)

Resilience for a Frostmage is starting to be key, try to aim for about 3k resilience, dont take those pve pieces since vicious has resil on it

More about gemming:
Yellow; Intellect / Haste
Red; Intellect
Meta; Chaotic (Critical strike and increased crit dmg.)they are updating the gem requirements.
Blue; Intellect / Hit if the socketbonus is worth taking.
Prismatic; Intellect.
Cogwheels; Mastery and Crit.

Enchants:
Head, Guardians of Hyjal Revered; 60Int 35Crit
Shoulder, Therazane Exalted; 50Int 25Haste
Cloak, Enchanter; 50Intellect
Chest, Enchanter; 40Resilience
Wrist, Enchanter; 50Crit
Mh Weapon, Enchanter; Hurricane unless you can afford Power Torrent
Oh, Enchanter; 100Int
Gloves, Enchanter; 50Mastery
Legs, Tailor; 95Int 85Stam
Feet, Enchanter; Movement Speed and 35 Mastery

That means offsets + 2mainsets of vicious will bring you up to the “now my resilience is fine” level. But unless you have a raiding guild to get you some nice pve gear to use with your pvpset, just stick with the pvp one. It’s really not that bad!

Now you have your gear and spec set up time to get into action.

3. Macros and Keybindings, how will I become better by using these?

Keybindings
Starting off, I suggest you bind almost all your abilites to some key in your keyboard. Most common bindings are 1-5,(since your fingers probably are not long enough to reach the 0 button while your right hand is on the mouse, yes you need to keep your right hand on the mouse.)Shift+1-5 keys, Control+1-5keys and Alt+1-5 keys. You can add such bindings as E,S+E,C+E,Q,S+Q,C+Q,F(with S+C),V(with S+C),§(with S+C),F1-5,<(with S+C),Shift+Space etc. there is over 60bindings you can put into your keyboard that you can reach with your left hand alone, not even including the keybindings you can add to your mouse Mousewheelup, mousewheel down, mousewheel button with modifiers. If you have additional buttons on your mouse them aswell.

Keybinding is essential if you keep your actionbar looking like (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0-+) with important spells on those, you will have to move your right hand from your mouse to your keyboard or stop moving with your character. Removing your right hand from the mouse will limit your view in arena, you cannot see what is happening if you are looking at a wall and have your right hand on the keyboard, so keep it on the mouse.

Macros
Focus target counterspells and sheeps are essential in the arena for a mage, you will need to set up a focus target (usually the healer) and while targeting your nuke target you can click on a macro to do something to your focus target without switching targets.

CS
Counterspells your target, if you click on shift modifier Counterspells your focus target.

#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Counterspell
/cast [nomodifier:shift] Counterspell

Sheep
Sheeps your target, if you click on shift modifier Sheeps your focus target.

#showtooltip Polymorph
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Polymorph
/cast [nomodifier:shift] Polymorph

Ice Block
#showtooltip Ice block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Invisibility
/cast Ice Block

Quick Invis
#showtooltip Invisibility
/Stopcasting
/cast Invisibility

Decurse
This will decurse your mouseover target if you have one, if not it decurses yourself

/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Remove Curse
/cast [target=player] Remove Curse

Armors
This is a onebutton all armors kind of thing. Puts on Molten Armor without modifiers, with shift modifier Mage Armor, with control modifier Frost Armor. Molten Armor tho is mostly for PvE, you probably wont use it in arena so if you like you can replace it with Mage/Frost Armor and remove the ability from the macro

/cast [nomod:ctrl, nomod:shift] Molten Armor
/cast [mod:ctrl] Frost Armor
/cast [mod:shift] Mage Armor

You can find guides on other sites and AJ aswell to mage macros and how to macro stuff, this is just the basics.

4. Teams Setups and Strategies

This Section is not to tell you every comp out there you can play, and neither is this guide about what setup to run so you can get “free” glad. This guide is to help out and here is only the most “popular” comps.

Teams
Mages are highly wanted is many different setups due to our high crowd control, damage and survivability.

2v2;
:mage:/:rogue: a very common setup that relies on CC to survive and get a kill. These two players will need good communication and synergy to be able to survive.
:mage:/:warlock: not as common as magerogue but also a very viable setup this team aswell relies on CC and communication.
:mage:/healer works just aswell as any mage dps teams, this team will require the mage to be able to CC a target by himself (with a few exceptions of short and limited CC from healers)
You can try with any dps class it will work, just aslong as you two have great synergy and know what you are doing and what you need to do.

3v3;
:rogue:/:mage:/:priest: one of the strongest comps out there (atleast will be again after patch) known as the famous RMP.
:mage:/:warrior:/h:paladin: again in this setup you are the CC’er, don’t try to tunnel too much damage since the warrior will do that, you focus mostly on interrupting keeping people locked(sheeped/RoF’ed etc.) but help with your damage, coordinate a warriorfear/sheep/hoj and you can have a person locked out of the game for a very long time.
:mage:/feral:druid:/:paladin: this team has high amounts of CC, Sheep, Cyclone, HoJ, Roots and Hibernate(for druids) You will mostly have to line up a LONG CC chain on a healer (or the dps while tunneling the healer) to land a kill, but both of the dps has amazing damage so if played right you can probably drop a target within a counterspell.
:mage:/shadow:priest:/r:shaman: Not so much CC yet amazing dps, shaman totems will buff you and the priest and you can probably drop a target in a couple seconds if lined up so that both of the dps can deal damage.
:mage:/:warlock:/r:druid: this team has the most CC ingame, every class has a spammable CC so spam them on a healer will land you kills very fast.

As for 5v5, theres no “very good mage setup” unless going 4Mages and a Rogue(A JOKE).

These are just the most popular setups in arena, not the “best” ones.
You can make any setup “best” for you if you play with people you enjoy playing with and train hard (:

5. Races and Racials

Blood Elf; Arcane Torrent, Arcane Resistance and Arcane Affinity. A good class for a mage due to Arcane Torrent the other racials are kind of a waste. Arcane Resistance does help with resisting CS but Mage Armor exist.

Draenei; Heroic Presence, Gift of the Naaru, Shadow Resistance and Gemcutting. 1% Hit from Heroic Presence is good, less hitgear you need to take. Gift of the Naaru again a good racial since you do not have alot of selfhealing (Evocation with glyphs and bandages!) Shadow Resistance and Gemcutting are kind of a waste, here I say it again, Mage Armor exist.

Dwarf; Explorer, Frost Resistance, Gun & Mace Spec, Stoneform. Most of these are useless (Mage Armor) but with the new changes to Stoneform it will be AWESOME. a VERY good race to pick for a mage.

Gnome; Arcane Resistance, Engineering Specialization, Escape Artist, Expansive Mind, Shortblade Specialization. Yet again a very good alliance race due to Expansive Mind and Escape artist but IMO it doesn’t compete.

Goblin; Best Deals Anywhere, Better Living Through Chemistry, Pack Hobgoblin, Rocket Barrage, Rocket Jump and Time is Money. This is probably one of the best Horde races there is for a mage due to Rocket Jump and Time is Money.

Human; Diplomacy, Every Man for Himself, Mace and Sword Spec, The Human Spirit. A good race to choose due to EMFHS but the rest of these are useless in pvp. Still the use of this one racial is better than almost anything else you can get.

Night Elf; Nature Resistance, Quickness, Shadowmeld, Wisp Spirit. Quickness and Shadowmeld are okay racials but not that helpful IMO.

Orc; Blood Fury, Axe Specialization, Command, Hardiness. Blood Fury is a good racial rest of them, not so good. You wont spend time in stuns anyway and there is no certainty that Command affects Water Elemental (I think it does but nobody knows for sure).

Troll; Beast Slaying, Berserking, Bow Specialization, Da Voodoo Shuffle, Regeneration, Throwing Specialization. This competes with Goblins for Horde, very high on the list due to Berserking.

Undead; Cannibalize, Shadow Resistance, Underwater Breathing, Will of the Forsaken. Not a bad race but definetly not good either. WotF shares a 45second cooldown with pvp-trinket.

Worgen; Aberration, Darkflight, Enable Worgen Altered Form, Flayer, Running Wild, Transform: Worgen, Two Forms,Viciousness. Not a very bad race due to sprint and crit but doesn’t compete with other racials IMO.

I’ll sort by order in which I(emphasize on this word) think is best.

Horde; 1. Goblin/Troll 2. Blood Elf 3. Orc 4. Undead
Alliance; 1. Human/Dwarf 2. Draenei 3. Night Elf 4. Worgen 5. Gnome

6. My Two Cents.
But ofcourse you shouldn’t pick your class by racials pick the one you think looks awesome and stick with it.

Happy Arenaing & GL!

Check out the full post here

Related Videos for

Here is another good movie, Jilrock 4. Great Mage PVPing, couldnt find an embed linkage tho:
Jilrock 4 – Class: Mage | Category: PvP | Server : EU – Ashenvale ( Flurry )

Edit: Umm the video above is actually of an 80 mage not 85, ah well.

Edit 2: I found a good list of Mage Pre-Raiding Gear on Elitest Jerks, listed for your (and my) convenience below. Mage BiS Pre-Rading Gear.

ITEMS PER HEROIC DUNGEON

7 – Halls of Origination
6 – Deadmines
5 – Throne of the Tides, Blackrock Caverns, Lost City of the Tol’vir
4 – Shadowfang Keep, Grim Batol, Stonecore
3 – Vortex Pinnacle

ITEMS PER REPUTATION

2 – Earthen Ring, Hellscream’s Reach, Therazane, Dragonmaw Clan, Ramkahen
1 – Guardians of Hyjal

HEAD

359 [Lightweight Bio-Optic Killshades] – 525 Engineering
346 [Cowl of Pleasant Gloom] – Hit/Crit – 2,200 Justice Points
346 [Helm of the Typhonic Beast] – Hit/Mastery – Halls of Origination
346 [Crown of Enfeebled Bodies] – Crit/Haste – Grim Batol
346 [Blinders of the Follower] – Crit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep
ENC [Arcanum of Hyjal] – Guardians of Hyjal (Revered)

NECK

359 [Yellow Smoke Pendant] – Crit/Mastery – Dragonmaw Clan (Exalted)
346 [Eye of Many Deaths] – Haste/Mastery – 525 Jewelcrafting (BOE)
346 [String of Beaded Bubbles] – Hit/Mastery – 1,250 Justice Points
346 [Charm of the Muse] – Hit/Crit – Halls of Origination
346 [Tauntka's Necklace] – Crit/Haste – Lost City of the Tol’vir
346 [Pipefish Cord] – Haste/Mastery – Throne of the Tides
346 [Pendant of the Keep] – Crit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep

SHOULDERS

346 [Meadow Mantle] – Crit/Mastery – 1,650 Justice Points
346 [Mantle of the Eastern Lords] – Hit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep
346 [Mantle of Master Cho] – Crit/Haste – Lost City of the Tol’vir
ENC [Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone] – Therazane (Exalted)
ENC [Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone] – Therazane (Honored)

BACK

346 [Cloak of Ancient Wisdom] – Crit/Haste – Earthen Ring (Revered)
346 [Shadow of Perfect Bliss] – Hit/Crit – Vortex Pinnacle
346 [Periwinkle Cloak] – Haste/Mastery – Throne of the Tides

CHEST

346 [Robes of Orsis] – Hit/Crit – Ramkahen (Revered)
346 [Robes of Embalmed Darkness] – Haste/Mastery – 2,200 Justice Points
346 [Corsair's Overshirt] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Inquisition Robes] – Hit/Mastery – Blackrock Caverns
346 [Robes of Arugal] – Crit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep
346 [Robes of Rampant Growth] – Crit/Haste – Halls of Origination

WRISTS

346 [Armbands of Exiled Architects] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Sand Silk Wristband] – Hit/Crit – Lost City of the Tol’vir

HANDS

359 [Flamebloom Gloves] – Haste/Mastery – Earthen Ring (Exalted)
346 [Gloves of the Painless Midnight] – Haste/Mastery – 1,650 Justice Points
346 [Mnemiopsis Gloves] – Hit/Crit – Throne of the Tides

WAIST

359 [Dreamless Belt] – Hit/Mastery – 525 Tailoring (BOE)
346 [Incense Infused Cumberbund] – Crit/Mastery – 1,650 Justice Points
346 [Stratosphere Belt] – Hit/Mastery – Vortex Pinnacle
346 [Beauty's Silken Ribbon] – Crit/Haste – Blackrock Caverns
346 [Girdle of Nobility] – Crit/Haste – UNKNOWN, possibly Deadmines

LEGS

359 [Breeches of Mended Nightmares] – Crit/Haste – 525 Tailoring (BOE)
359 [Flame-Ascended Pantaloons] – Crit/Mastery – 525 Tailoring (BOE)
346 [Pensive Legwraps] – Crit/Haste – 2,200 Justice Points
346 [Legwraps of Astral Rain] – Crit/Mastery – Halls of Origination

FEET

359 [Desert Walker Sandals] – Hit/Haste – Ramkahen (Exalted)
346 [Slippers of the Twilight Prophet] – Hit/Mastery – Stonecore
346 [Corpse Rompers] – Crit/Haste – Unknown

FINGERS

359 [Ring of the Boy Emperor] – Haste/Mastery – Archaeology
359 [Signet of High Arcanist Savor] – Hit/Crit – BOE World Drop
346 [Ring of Warring Elements] – Crit/Mastery – 525 Jewelcrafting (BOE)
346 [Band of Lamentation] – Hit/Mastery – Dragonmaw Clan (Revered)
346 [Diamant's Ring of Temperance] – Crit/Haste – Therazane (Revered)
346 [Abandoned Dark Iron Ring] – Crit/Haste – Grim Batol
346 [Anthia's Ring] – Hit/Mastery – Throne of the Tides
346 [Band of Rays] – Hit/Crit – Halls of Origination
346 [Lavishly Jeweled Ring] – Hit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Rose Quartz Band] – Crit/Haste – Stonecore
346 [Spirit Creeper Ring] – Crit/Mastery – Lost City of the Tol’vir

TRINKETS

359 [Darkmoon Card: Volcano] – 525 Inscription (BOE)
359 [Stump of Time] – Hellscream’s Reach (Exalted)
359 [Tyrande's Favorite Doll] – Archaeology
346 [Figurine - Jeweled Serpent] – 475 Jewelcrafting (BOP)
346 [Anhuur's Hymnal] – Halls of Origination
346 [Gale of Shadows] – Grim Batol
346 [Sorrowsong] – Lost City of the Tol’vir
346 [Tendrils of Burrowing Dark] – The Stonecore
346 [Witching Hourglass] – Blackrock Caverns

STAFF

359 [Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan] – Crit/Haste – Archaeology
346 [Insidious Staff] – Haste/Mastery – Hellscream’s Reach (Revered)
346 [Cerith Spire Staff] – Hit/Haste – Thone of the Tides
346 [Emberstone Staff] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Staff of Siphoned Essences] – Crit/Mastery – Grim Batol

MAIN HAND

346 [Elementium Spellblade] – Hit/Crit – 520 Blacksmithing (BOE)
346 [Beak of Julak-Doom] – Hit/Mastery – Julak-Doom (world boss, Twilight Highlands)
346 [Modgud's Blade] – Hit/Crit – Grim Batol
346 [Blade of the Burning Sun] – Crit/Haste – Halls of Origination
346 [Biting Wind] – Crit/Haste – Vortex Pinnacle

OFF HAND

346 [Dungeoneering Guide] – Hit/Mastery – 520 Inscription (BOE)
346 [Hermit's Lamp] – Hit/Haste – 950 Justice Points
346 [Beauty's Favorite Bone] – Hit/Crit – Blackrock Caverns

RANGED

346 [Corla's Baton] – Hit/Mastery – Blackrock Caverns
346 [Cookie's Stirring Rod] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Wand of Dark Worship] – Crit/Haste – Stonecore

Via Elitist Jerks / Valaran / Here

Well its another gaming day, and i just wrote half of this post and did a select all and delete, and then i couldnt even resurect it by pressing ALT+Z argh! Guess thats what i get for trusting in the wordpress editor, back to notepad++ for me. anyway… here goes again.

I really dont need another MMO to play, wow is just too all consuming as it is, but there is a bit of hype going around about a new one called Rift. It actually looks a little bit like aion vs warhammer. Some people are saying a few good things about it, you can get access to a beta key pretty easily i think, you may just need to pre-purchace it or something like that. But the community is growing.

Heres one review i found on RiftFan – Rift from an MMO veterans point of view:

I’ve played it all…
UO, EQ, EQOA, EQ2, FFXI, WOW, LOTRO, DAOC, Aion, AOC, WAR, AO, SWG, FE, VG, Shadowbane, FFXIV, DF etc… and I’m sure there are some I’m forgetting.
I’ve played WoW off and on since release, but did not buy into Cataclysm. It was just time to move on.
Enter Rift.. I had not researched it at all, I didn’t even care about it. The only information I had about it was what one of my friends had shared with me and even then I really didn’t pay attention. I didn’t think it would be a good game from how it sounded. One of the things I had missed about current MMO’s were their lack of attention to the PVP parts of the game. Once my friend mentioned how Rift was handling PVP, my interest was suddenly peaked. So I managed to get a VIP beta key.. and here’s what I found in the game. Please keep in mind that I’ve not stuck with any MMO except for WoW for more than a few months in the past year.

GRAPHICS
Trion was smart. They didn’t do like many others have done in the past and try to make a ridiculously system intensive game. They designed the game so that it looks great, but will still play fairly well on lower end systems. Mine is several years old and I can still play on almost the highest of settings. The graphic style was a good balance of “realism” and “stylishness” for me. The character models didn’t have a whole lot of customization options, but I believe there were more than WoW’s system. I also felt the models looked good and fit into the world around them. They didn’t look completely out of place like those in say, Vanguard. The world graphics fit the atmosphere of the game pretty well in my opinion. I really don’t have any gripes about the graphics at all. They look better than WoW and they run well on lower end systems.

GAMEPLAY
Since this is only a review of the parts of the game I’ve actually played. Please don’t take this and think that I’m referring that the entire game will be the same way, because we have yet to get to play the entire game as of yet. This is solely based on the short time I was in beta. I’ve heard alot of people scream that the game isn’t as it was advertised, or that it isn’t revolutionary.. etc. Does it have to be? WoW definitely wasn’t, and it did very well. Usually from what I’ve found, games that try to be extremely different from what people are used to.. are the ones that don’t do so hot. The gameplay in RIFT is definitely not revolutionary, but its very solid and smooth. What it does, it does well. The animations are smooth, the spell effects look great. I think everything they’ve done, takes WoW and amplifies it by a few notches. Which is what WoW did itself when it was released. They didn’t rewrite the book on MMO’s they just took what already works well and made it work even nicer. Most people who are looking for something “new” aren’t really at all. Most just want a familiar game in a new setting. This is what RIFT does. It won’t take long to familarize yourself with the controls or the game as it is indeed very similar to WoW and its counterparts. Is it a WoW clone? Depends on how you look at it.. are all the multitudes of FPS games with the same controls “clones”? There’s a certain formula that just “works” and this is one of those formulas. Age of Conan and Darkfall tried to change that formula and look where they ended up. On a down note, I could see where the game might get boring Because of this.. because they all eventually do.. but there’s always a downside.

SPECIAL FEATURES
RIFT includes a few things that we may have seen before in other games, but done in a new way. One of the biggest things I really enjoyed about the beta were the rifts, which are basically a more polished version of WAR’s public quests.. which I always thought was a great idea if they had been implemented properly. I really like the fact that they can appear anywhere . Its like a “drive by” raid and allows for group play without all the pains of trying to form a group. I’m sure they could get overwhelming when trying to level up, but I think that if your smart.. you can avoid them or better yet.. participate.
The Crafting in Rift is nothing special at all, its more of the “it works, so why change it” formula that WoW capitalized on. If your playing this game to be a crafter, I would suggest finding something else. This is not a crafter’s MMO. Crafting is more of a supplemental part of the main game and was never meant to be a game in itself here.
Rift’s Soul system is one of, if not the coolest feature in the game. With the way they’ve designed the character customization.. (if they are able to keep it balanced) We will be able to create some of the most customizable characters in an MMO to date. This could easily go very bad, if they did not balance things properly. As usual my fear is that within a few months, the “hardcore” min maxers will have already figured out what builds are the absolute best and idiotic gamers will just follow suit, rather than experiment and play the souls they find to be the most fun for them.
PVP in RIFT is something I haven’t gotten to do a whole lot of so I can’t really comment alot.. but from everything I’ve seen and read. They’ve put alot of thought into the PVP part of the game, so that its not just “Tacked on” like it is in most other games that focus mainly on PVE. It seems to have a purpose on its on, and I like the faction based system because I really think we will see some good world PVP out of it with how different the factions are.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I’ll be preordering the game, with several of my former WoW and Conan guild mates. I cannot tell you if the game will last for any of us, but as of now its surpassed everything else we’ve tried in the past year and is finally allowing us to lay the world of Azeroth to rest, and that for us is great because we were pretty sick of that world. If your looking for revolutionary, your looking in the wrong place. If you just want a fun game in a new setting that does what you already know very well.. Rift is your game, as it stands in beta.

Another interesting one that someone sent me a video link to is Interstellar Marines. This one looks quote good judging by the video so far, they have released three playable demos so far downloadable from their website. check out the vid below.

We realize that it can be difficult to explain the concept of Interstellar Marines and AAA indie game development to your friends and family, so we’ve put together a comprehensive new video that will get everyone up to speed in less than 5 minutes. Even your grandma will get the message! … Go to InterstellarMarines.com to learn more!

And finally a sweet (and yet surely annoying) console setup… Unless the fans dont make an annoying noise, and its not 3am…

So i am still leveling my mage at the moment… however its always good to see someone elses point of view when it comes to PVP. Found this one on the wow forums, looks like a two part series should be a good viewing. I have re-arranged the original post source to include the vids, i know it was hard work but hey makes for easier viewing and readage. The following vids and skill all belong to Nighttempest im not trying to claim any of his glory just promoting some good cata mage pvp skills Check it out:

DISCLAIMER: I don’t claim skill! I just happen to know what I’m doing (half the time).

Anyways out of sheer boredom I decided to make a mage guide I managed to get some good clips (all of it was filmed in one day other than the scene on the docks vs the boomkin and warlock which was 3.3.5), so I decided that I should probably put them to use… anyways it’s a 2 part movie just read the description, and it takes a while to load in from youtube since its popup so you can get the full quality.

As long as I don’t waste your time completely, and you guys get at least ONE thing out of it I’ll be happy.

Part 1

• Movement/Kiting
• Lining Up Burst
• Simple Exercises to increase your mage skill

Part 1 is essentially a very slow, very chill movie starts from the very basics of everything, and ends with some silly exercises of me doing stupid crap in IF. Anyways you can at least enjoy the music if nothing else. (WARNING: I was a “bit” drunk for the last bit of part 1 since it was the end of the day so expect some weird screen shaking.)

Part 2

-Class Specifics: Rogue

(Rules: No Water elemental, or mirror images allowed)

Notes: I was going to include warrior, but they are not a complete class until 85 in PvP so they won’t be on here despite the opening list on part 1. This movie is a lot more edited than the first part, and is not really in the “chill” mood.

I’m going to add a voice over (on a separate file that you can listen to while you watch) when I have access to my mic again (100$ mics seem to break down more than the 20$ ones), but till then read this:

Fedxx is a 2750 MMR rogue (ex glad on his UD), and we’ve been duel buddies for a while now, this is the 2nd time since the first day of 4.0 that we dueled so expect to see a learning a curve, and a few mistakes (mostly by me he makes like 3 in the entire movie).

His opener:

-Opens with a garrote without breaking sap so I can’t spin around to face him, into a KS while I’m still blanket silenced by garrote.

To trinket, or to not trinket the stun rules are simple…

-Did he use shadow dance?

Yes: trinket

No: Don’t trinket (derp)

Don’t worry about being blinded it’s better for him to reopen without shadow dance. (Some duels I eat the shadow dance since I don’t want to fraps his reset, so I save trinket for blind.)

-Why are you invising? It’s just going to break.

It gives me 2-3 globals of breathing time, and a possible freecast, but unfortunately I’ve been pro’d and sapped out of invis before >_>. That’s a minor issue though considering how many bleeds sub rogues have.

-Why are you taking so little damage?

I’m facing him as much as possible. The maximum amount of backstabs he gets per duel is 8-9, and max of 3 ambushes.

-Why doesn’t he just turtle for his CDs?

He does some duels, and those are the ones where I lose, but he was nice enough to do burn down duels as well.

-He wouldn’t be able to turtle as much if you used a pet.

I’m aware of that, but mages are such a hard counter to rogues with the pet atm that I found it cheap to use it so I decided to run without it.

-Won’t rogues smokebomb change the game of rogue vs mage?

Not really we can counter it with ring of frost, or just blizzard. Vs good mages smokebomb will mostly be for:

a.) Getting out of combat with blind, and then smokebombing off the pet (assuming pet nova is used). (No other rogue on beta has thought of this yet…. kudos to me?)

b.) Smokebombing as deep freeze goes off.

c.) Recup tick time, and energy regen.

Rogue vs mage has remained essentially the same formula since level 60 even.

Mage plays defensive until Cds are out, mage resets, rogue has jack. Rogue qqs about mages.

Alternatively: Mage plays defensive, but rogue outplays mage, and mage QQs about rogues.

Anyways as I mentioned earlier I hope you guys get at least ONE thing out of this, and I’ll be happy.

Check out the rest of the thread on: WoW Forums

So apparently Ghost Crawler has announced some pretty crazy priest BUFFS! it should hit the test realms soon!

Lets see what we have here. Oh yeah, disc wont suck anymore. /yay. (or maybe it was just me, heh) ah well im playing my mage now so eh. But still good news for disc pvp priests. Ill break down the official disc list here, ill skip the boring bits…

• PVP Buff: Focused Will now procs when the priest is critically hit, in addition to its current effect. : so that means that now it will stack?
• PVP Buff: Improved Power Word: Shield now also increases the amount absorbed by an additional 15/30% when cast on oneself. : but i did hear that the mana cost for shield is also being increased so you still cant spam it (too much).
• PVP Buff: Pain Suppression is no longer dispellable.
• Penance mana cost has been increased by 7%, but healing has been increased by 20%.
• PVP Buff: Strength of Soul now also causes the priest to become immune to silence, interrupt, and dispel effects for 2/4 seconds after using Inner Focus.
• PVP Buff: Glyph of Pain Suppression has been renamed Glyph of Desperation and now allows Guardian Spirit to be cast while stunned, in addition to Pain Suppression.
• PVP Buff: Glyph of Spirit of Redemption has been converted into Glyph of Prayer of Mending, which increases the healing done by the first charge of Prayer of Mending by 60%.

Now i have probably overlooked some of them so check out the official list below, but its looking good. Hmm do i want to go back to playing my priest or keep leveling the mage.

Here goes the list of changes for Priests happening in Patch 4.0.6:

• The duration of Levitate has been increased to 10 minutes, up from 2.
• The mana cost of Power Word: Fortitude has been reduced by approximately 68%, making it roughly equal to the cost of Mark of the Wild.
• The mana cost of Power Word: Shield has been increased by approximately 31%, but its effect has been increased by 208%.
• The mana cost of Renew has been reduced by 24%.
• The mana cost of Shadow Protection has been reduced by approximately 65%, making it roughly equal to the cost of Mark of the Wild.
• Mind Blast damage has been significantly increased. It should be roughly 50% greater than Mind Spike.
• Mind Control now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
• Mind Sear can now be channeled on friendly targets in addition to enemy targets. In addition, Mind Sear’s damage has been increased by roughly 15%.
• Prayer of Healing effectiveness has been reduced by 15%.

Talent Specializations

Discipline

• Divine Aegis: Critical effects from Prayer of Healing now award a bonus amount in addition to the default, always-proc Divine Aegis effect.
• Grace is no longer limited to one target at a time.
• Focused Will now procs when the priest is critically hit, in addition to its current effect.
• Improved Power Word: Shield now also increases the amount absorbed by an additional 15/30% when cast on oneself.
• Pain Suppression is no longer dispellable.
• Penance mana cost has been increased by 7%, but healing has been increased by 20%.
• Strength of Soul now also causes the priest to become immune to silence, interrupt, and dispel effects for 2/4 seconds after using Inner Focus.

Holy

• Blessed Resilience will now proc when the priest is critically hit, in addition to its current effect.
  Chakra
• Chakra states now last 1 minute, up from 30 seconds.
  Binding Heal and Holy Word: Serenity now refresh the duration of Renew on the target, in addition to the other direct heals.
• Binding Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal can now trigger Chakra: Serenity.
• Mind Spike can now trigger Chakra: Chastise.
• Circle of Healing effectiveness has been increased by 30%.
• Desperate Prayer now heals the priest for 30% of their total health, up from a very subpar value.
• Guardian Spirit: The absorb/heal from this ability can now never exceed 200% of the maximum health of the target.
• Holy Concentration now increases the amount of mana regeneration from Spirit while in combat by an additional 15/30%, down from 20/40%.
• Holy Word: Chastise now has a 30-second cooldown, up from 25. In addition, it properly breaks from damage.
• Lightwell’s health has been increased by 50% (for PvP purposes).
• Serendipity now has Spell Alert and Floating Combat Text feedback support.
• Surge of Light can now also proc from Flash Heal and Greater Heal, and can now also critically hit.

Shadow

• Shadow Orbs benefit from mastery has been increased by approximately 16%.
• Vampiric Embrace now lasts until canceled.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Mind Flay no longer requires Shadow Word: Pain to be on the target.
• Glyph of Pain Suppression has been renamed Glyph of Desperation and now allows Guardian Spirit to be cast while stunned, in addition to Pain Suppression.
• Glyph of Psychic Horror now reduces the cooldown of Psychic Horror by 30 seconds, down from 60.
• Glyph of Spirit of Redemption has been converted into Glyph of Prayer of Mending, which increases the healing done by the first charge of Prayer of Mending by 60%.

patch notes / talents come via Cataclysm Stuff

This may make up your (or my) mind about rolling a priest or a mage in cataclysm. Mage is looking pretty decent.