conjure-water
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Arcane Brilliance: The difference between good and great
It's time again for Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that believes frost mages shouldn't be the only mages to experience the joy of pet ownership. Reader Doidadetanga, aside from having more syllables in his character name than is reasonably necessary, sent in this picture of his very own Arcane Elemental, which (if Blizzard listens to my nightly prayers at all) will be a new spell in Cataclysm ... along with Anti-Warlock Bolt, the new 56-point talent in the Arfrostfirecane tree. I'm about to make a bold statement (literally; it's in bold typeface): I'm a good mage. My GearScore is adequate. I am fully capable of putting out an acceptable amount of damage over an acceptable timespan. When folks want free food and water, I somehow manage to provide it for them. My dress is appropriately pretty, and my staff is sufficiently formidable in terms of both size and the manner in which I employ it. I'm about to make another bold statement: Anybody -- absolutely anybody -- can be a good mage. I can, you can and yes, even that defecting warlock who has finally outgrown his dark eyeliner, Taylor Lautner posters and hating his parents can be a good mage. The problem is, not nearly enough of us manage to move beyond that particular tier of magehood. I know I'm still working on it, five years after I started playing this wonderful game, and chances are you are too. There are a whole lot of good mages out there -- but not a whole lot of truly great ones. But fear not, my fellow mages. Though I have not yet attained greatness, I can recognize it when I see it. I'm willing to bet a good number of you can, too. Follow me past the jump and we'll discuss the fine line that separates a good mage from a great one. Because I'm going to make one final statement, and this one isn't even bold: Every mage can become great. Every single one.
Ask a Beta Tester: Flying in the snow, etc
FoSho asked.... Maybe I'm in the dark here, but how does one get to Dalaran since its floating in mid air. Is there a portal in a town, or do you have to be 67 to get there? I keep on hearing its "dangerous" to get to Dalaran, how so? I wouldn't call it dangerous, but you aren't going to be able to get there at level 70 without the help of a Mage or Warlock. Because Dalaran is floating high above Northrend, you need a flying mounto reach it, and when you first arrive in Northrend, your flying mount simply doesn't know how to handle the cold weather. You'll need to complete a level 77 quest chain to obtain Cold Weather Flying and reach Dalaran on your own. Alternatively, there's a quest at level 74 you can seek out in certain inns that will take you there.For more of your beta questions -- and our beta answers -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving a few things away.
You get water from a well
... and bread from a mill? Grettel asks an interesting question on the forums: Why don't mages get a water well? That would be a spell like Lightwell or Ritual of Souls that would create an item players can click on to get their own water (or food-- Grettel says a "flour mill" would work), instead of having the mage cast Conjure Water 60 times before every raid.It's not really a bad idea. The obvious benefit is that it would definitely save time, and since other classes have gotten timesaving skills like this, pretty much the only thing anyone waits for in a raid now is for the mages to make all the water they need to give out, and then drink again to regain all that mana. The only real argument against it is that unlike, say, Ritual of Souls, the mage water spell doesn't require any costs or reagents-- just mana. So the devs might counter that Ritual of Souls was meant to make the reagent cost cheaper for warlocks, but mages are supposed to use their mana-- that's how you play the game.I guess you could make a parallel with buffs as well-- if we're not waiting for mages to drink after conjuring their water, we're waiting for priests to drink after rebuffing all the time. The only way to keep that time from being wasted is to give the priests mana-free buffs, and that ain't going to happen, so maybe the devs aren't hot on the water well idea, either.But considering Ritual of Souls was implemented, a food and water well doesn't seem too far off. Maybe there'll be an extra mage quest in the next content patch?
