I can definitely remember a “what to do at 70″ post somewhere.. the problem is I can’t remember where that was… if it comes to me, I will send you a link… otherwise, just love the power

gnomeaggedons last blog post..Sunfire vs. Major Spellpower

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Working on leveling my third mageling (they’re surprisingly fun!) and having a blast. This one is currently Frost and I’ll be speccing into the Arcane tree soon for that loverly Arcane Meditation for soloing purposes. Frost is a little different from the Fire I’d explored before; think of Fire as your high consistent DPS with mana being a bit of an issue while Frost is spikey damage reliant on high Spell Crit. Fire and deep Arcane builds seem to be the current flavor for raiding, but if you’re looking to be casual you can more than likely get away with any tree. Arcane’s the one that I know least since I liken it to the Discipline tree for raiding priests: it’s there to bolster your preferred spec with yummy, mana-efficient talents.

Things to consider?

Learn your spec’s Spell Hit cap. Your main is a Balance druid if I remember correctly, so you probably know all about this. However, I’ll just cover it quickly just because. At level 70, you have an 83% chance to hit a 73 target. There is an inherent 1% chance of having your target resist your spell, so you need to close that remaining 16% gap. 12.6 Spell Hit converts to 1% spell hit at level 70. Which means that unspecced you’re looking at 201.6 (202 rounded) Spell Hit Rating to be capped.

Mages have three talents to help them improve their Spell Hit. With Arcane Focus, you can increase your chance to hit with Arcane spells by a total of 10%, meaning that you’ll need 76 Spell Hit to be capped. The Frost tree has Elemental Precison, which increases your chance to hit with Fire and Frost spells by a total of 3%, meaning you’d need 164 Spell Hit to be capped. I’d recommend snagging all three points in the latter irregardless of the build (you’ll most likely spam Frostbolt or Fireball/Scorch as your main spells, so it just makes sense). You might want to snag a single point or even two in Arcane Focus to help with Counterspell, Spellsteal, and Polymorph if you have the flexibility in your build and want to make sure the number of resists that you get with those spells are minimized.

Spell Hit is probably one of the most important stats for a mage and one that oddly a lot of higher progressed mages that I’ve raided with just don’t get (including one friend of mine who recently got picked up to sub with a raid that has Mount Hyjal on farm and Black Temple almost there!). If you can’t hit the mob, you can’t do damage. Feel free to sacrifice other stats — including Bonus Spell Damage and Spell Crit — just to get close to that cap.

If you’re looking to head into raiding and are a tailor, consider the crafted sets as a quick boost. The Frozen Shadoweave set will serve you well as a Frost mage while Spellfire set is good for Fire mages. Even if you’re not looking to PvP extensively, snagging the Merciless Gladiator’s War Staff is a quick and easy way to bolster your performance and stats.

For builds? Pick what appeals to you and do it well.

I don’t know much about the Arcane as it never appealed to me. There are viable Arcane builds but it’s generally accepted that they will won’t provide enough damage as a Fire or Frost build without some heavy boosts. And while the Arcane tree has talents to improve mana efficiency, that school of magic is really mana inefficient; you’re just bleeding mana every time you use Arcane Missiles, which would probably be one of the staple spells of any Arcane-specced spell rotation (I think a deep Arcane build goes for three Arcane Blasts, one Arcane Missiles, and then either Scorch or Frostbolt). However, I’ve heard it said that a deep Arcane build is viable when you need high burst damage as opposed to sustained DPS.

In general, Fire is considered the raiding tree due to the higher continuous DPS, with points in Arcane for mana efficient talents like Clearcasting and maybe Arcane Meditation. Your staple spell is as a Fire mage is Fireball. Basically spam Scorch until Improved Scorch has five debuffs on your target and enjoy mashing Fireball. A bit change since they gave everyone Iceblock is to go deep enough into the Frost tree to snag Icy Veins, which allows for higher damage. Your mana efficiency will suffer as a result, but it’s something to consider.

The Frost tree seems to be my favorite lately, but I haven’t quite managed to raid as it yet. It’s the survivability tree and emphasizes high spikey damage due to the high Spell Crit inherent in the tree. The tree offers you a little more flexibility in what you want to do as a mage; it features talents that will slow down an enemy or trap it so that you can both solo and PvP well. It also can have a viable place in raids, though most people agree that it doesn’t do as well as the cookie-cutter 2/47/11+1 build that seems to be the rave these days (thanks to Icy Veins!) or even a deep Arcane build that is very reliant on the right gear (two-piece of Tier 5) and the right buffs to compensate for the lower mana efficiency.

That’s about all that I can think about offhand. If you’d like I’ve got some sites bookmarked that I can hopefully share with you later when I get back to the house. I swear, the only reason that I make so many alts is because I want to theorycraft and learn the mechanics of all of the different classes and spec!

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