Joining

[Jonathan Meer]

As soon as my laptop is repaired (should be sometime this week), I'm going to try this game out for the summer.

Anything I should know? I'm going to start as a Mage, but I haven't decided which race or anything. Any persons completely broken/useless?

I already heard about the Huntard situation.

[Kazuya]

Hunters aren't bad as long as you learn to use them responsibly. Mages, I don't know, i just started one myself, they're cool, but their defense blows balls. Maybe its because I'm biased, but Paladins are pretty awesome. You get some spellcasting, and enhanced spells to use against undead/demons that comes in handy, especially when you're venturing through the plaguelands, and just about anywhere, really.

[Kaden]

I <3 Mage.

The best defense if blowing up everything around you.

[Ashe]

They actually have very good defense. They just don't have access to every kind of bubble by level 10 like Paladins.

If I made an alliance mage right now, it would likely be Draenai, possibly Human (Gnome has more Int, but their racial of Escape Artist is fairly useless for a mage in my thoughts, which could be wrong). If I made a horde mage, it would likely be Blood Elf for Arcane Torrent to refill mana every few minutes by a small portion as well as being more magic resistant.

[Kaden]

(Gnome has more Int, but their racial of Escape Artist is fairly useless for a mage in my thoughts, which could be wrong)

Depends on how you spec. Blink can talent to be basically the same.

I always liked playing Fire Mage. They do some serious damage.

[Kazuya]

They actually have very good defense. They just don't have access to every kind of bubble by level 10 like Paladins.

If I made an alliance mage right now, it would likely be Draenai, possibly Human (Gnome has more Int, but their racial of Escape Artist is fairly useless for a mage in my thoughts, which could be wrong). If I made a horde mage, it would likely be Blood Elf for Arcane Torrent to refill mana every few minutes by a small portion as well as being more magic resistant.

Um, we only have one bubble and a few last ditches.

[Kaden]

I can think of two bubbles off the top of my head. One for self and one for anyone. Oh, there's also the one that lowers the amount of damage you deal along with the damage you take (I consider that a bubble, though I can see how someone might not).

Mages do get a handful of useful defensive spells. Usually they're just for emergencies, though.

[Belle Hibiki]

Mages are really fun.

[Orion]

Don't be a pally, DK or rogue. Please.

[Android-18]

It really depends on how you wanna play, in regards to the class. The fact of race boils down to what you wanna look at for 80 levels. I have gone beyond racial abilities and just gone with what I like. For example, female blood elfs look like anorexic morons that fall over when they cast with a wand, so I made an undead male for my mage. He looks bad ass, and he sounds cool. I also made an orc shaman, even though their blood fury has no affect on healing as a shaman, I thought my orc looked great.

[Tyr]

Mages are extremely fun in PvP. Much like rogues, they have a lot of utility but they then have the big advantage of being ranged. There's a certain joy to kiting around 3 opponent players, shooting ice lances while they're frost nova'd while micromanaging your frost elemental to freeze their ass to the ground, huge yellow crits appearing across your screen as you pump your trinkets.

I never had the patience to level one, though. If Alliance, any race that can be mage is good really. Human get the insane buff of an extra trinket and at end-game that can really be a huge buff. Gnomes get escape artist.

Horde is a bit trickier. Blood elves get their little fizzly mana thing, trolls have a 'bloodlust' effect to increase spell casting, but I feel none of those are really great except that belves fizzly mana thing also silences if they're around an enemy.

[Jonathan Meer]

This game is pretty fun, but very repetitive (hence, MMORPG, I suppose).

The whole 'underpowered for a few levels until you reach the requirement, then somewhat overpowered for a level, then underpowered again' system with the spells is bugging me, though. Fireball Level 2 and Fire Blast totally aren't cutting it right now (Level 8).

Does Mana Regen ever kick up to the point where one doesn't have to pause and spend thirty seconds drinking after every two fights?

[Kaden]

Does Mana Regen ever kick up to the point where one doesn't have to pause and spend thirty seconds drinking after every two fights?

You get a channeled spell called "Evocation" that gives you back most of your mana over a few seconds and you also get the mana gems.

There are some talents that help with mana costs as well (I thought they were mostly Arcane talents, but could very well have changed).

For the most part, though, the drinking doesn't slow down.

[Jonathan Meer]

Should I be careful about where I spend my talents, or will I eventually get all the slots?

[Kaden]

You will definitely not get all of them.

It really depends on how much investment you want to put into the character. Very basically, Fire focuses on doing more damage, Ice focuses on control and survivability, and Arcane focuses on utility.

Most people level up by putting most of their points into ice and then respec into either Arcane or Fire depending on whether they want to PvP or raid.

The easiest way to plan your "build" is to pick which element you like the most and plan a way to get to the last talent by spending only the required 41 points.

[Android-18]

http://thottbot.com/mage/t#/

Use that to figure out what you want to do, it's great.

[Medraut]

Krill, you only get 71 points by the time you ding 80.

It's pretty popular to level as frost since it's easier to solo quests with the slow debuffs and grouped mobs.

At 80, you'll know the mage enough to decide on which spec you wish to be.

[Ashe]

Chris, keep in mind that if you later decide that you don't like certain talents, you can always just respec at your trainer for a price.

[Jonathan Meer]

kk, cool. Thanks guys.

[Tyr]

If the drinking is excruciating, get yourself a wand. It auto-shoots and when I levelled up a mage saved me enough mana to at least get down another mob before I had to drink.

.. but yeah, you better have patience if you roll mage regarding the drinking, it can't be avoided.

If you dislike the drinking, you could try warlock. They suck it from other mobs/players instead (mana).