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Arcane Brilliance: Tips for leveling your mage from 85 to 90
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we take a break from pet battling to actually level our mages. Seriously. Put down that Armadillo Pup for a second and let's get to level 90. I'm talking to myself as much as you. I want you to know that. I imagine I'm not the only slow-poke out there who's taking their sweet time getting to level 90. My playtime since the expansion hit has been almost non-existent until recently, and in fact I only just dinged max level this week. Still, even though time-constraints kept me from playing as much as I wanted to, it still felt like I was getting to 90 slower than I should have been. What can I say? I like to read the quest text, watch the cutscenes, listen to all the dialogue, explore the countryside. Oh, and I may have indulged in the occasional pet battle. We all have our vices. Though in this case, I'd hazard to say we all have the same vice. But I did eventually get there, late or not. And for those of you who are still enjoying the journey rather than the destination, I've compiled a few of the thoughts and observations I had along the way into this week's column. For those of you for whom this advice comes too late, I'll start hitting the post-90 content next week. Pinkie swear.
Arcane Brilliance: MoP talent calculator changes for mages, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we finish what we started in our last cloumn, which will involve wild speculation, irresponsible levels of optimism, and a giddy and in all likelihood unwarranted sense of unchecked excitement about tooltips. If you missed part one, what were you thinking? We talked about the updated Mists of Pandaria talents and even made some disparaging comments about warlocks. It was super fun -- you should go check it out. But hurry up about it. Because we have new spells to discuss. Like that one up there in the picture. It's rad. Arcane spells Arcane Charge An Arcane Charge, generated by Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles, and consumed by Arcane Barrage. Stacks up to 4 times (Passive). This is a brand new spell, and it's by far the single biggest game-changer for arcane mages in the new calculator. You pick it up if you spec arcane at level 10, alongside good old Arcane Blast, and it changes how that spell works, along with every other major arcane nuke.
Arcane Brilliance: Mage armors and the mages who armor themselves with them
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we deal in a difficult topic for mages: armor. Armor. Our ancient foe. We can use our arcane minds to teleport our physical bodies across thousands of miles in an instant, conjure enormous balls of flame from the ether with a flick of our fingers, and bake delicious pastries without ever setting foot near a stove. But present us with a shirt made of interlocking metal rings, and you are setting before us a conundrum we simply cannot solve. Still, we mages are nothing if not resourceful. We've come up with several workarounds for our inability to master putting on protective attire: We make friends with someone who can wear armor, then charge into battle cowering bravely behind that person. We learn to fling our spectacular balls of flame at our enemies from as far away as possible. We use our magical talents to conjure our own unique kind of armor. Hey, when you have to fight monsters wearing nothing but a skirt, you learn to get creative.
Yes, Virginia, there will be premade characters, and other PTR Tidbits
In case you were wondering, there will be premade characters for the 2.4.3 PTR before all is said and done, according to Hortus. There's no word for sure on why they're needed, what gear they'll have, or when they'll come along, but they'll be here. You'll need an account that had Burning Crusade activated before these PTRs went live, and when the time comes, you'll be able to sandbox it up with a fresh new premade while you help test the patch. This phase, says Hortus, is also not intended for testing Season 4 gear, since it was already tested on a previous PTR. Besides, with 4 days left until Season 4 goes live, the 2.4.3 patch won't be on live servers until Season 4 is well underway. That said, it looks like most (but not all) of the Season 4 gear is still on the PTR right now, so if you want to go check it out, you can fly up to Area 52 on the PTR and check out Big Zokk Torquewrench's wares. Of course, you can also expect us to give you all the Season 4 news you need in the next few days here at WoW Insider as well, including gear guides. Also, Mages and Warlocks are reporting that their self-buff armor spells are now no longer dispellable on the PTR servers. That's a nice chunk of mana you won't have to waste recasting after a stray Purge in PvP. We'll be watching the PTRs for more undocumented changes, oddities, and happenings, so be sure to keep it here for the rest of the testing cycle for all the news and analysis you'll need when the patch goes live.
Arcane Brilliance: Armor does matter, part 1
You asked for it, in comments, in emails, and now it's finally here. It's high time we sit down and talk about mages, don't you think? Matthew Porter and I will spend some time each week discussing the finer points of the pew pew, hopefully sharing some insights and starting some debates. We can't begin to tell you how to play your mage, but we can offer suggestions gleaned from our collective experience with the class. I would like to begin this odyssey into the world of magic with an unlikely topic: armor. When I first began playing the class, unlearned in stats as I was, I admit I tried my best to get items with as much armor as possible. But honestly, that's not the sort of armor I'm talking about. Each mage walks around with instant protection, and no, I'm not talking about meat shields either. As we gain levels we attain various armor spells to help buffer us from the aggro we will inevitably pull from the tank. It's these spells that although not often talked of, give mages endurance to go along with their substantial power. As a caster class, mages are the only class to receive damage dealing armor in addition to protective shields. The shadow priest can bubble, the warlock has their Fel and Demon armors, but only the mage has a combination of both. First, lets look at the armor spells available to mages. They come in three types, and each has very useful effects depending on the situation.
