This week we’re going to take a look at a few of the add-ons meant for mages, the glass cannons of the World of Warcraft. As always, be sure to get the latest version if you’re going to try these out; out-of-date add-ons may not work at all, or worse, they may do something completely different to what you want. Check out the links in the segment notes for add-on details and dates.

First up, we have ControlFreak. This add-on is meant for crowd control, and it does a very good job keeping you, the mage, focused on this aspect of your job.

Next is Decursive. Decursive is designed to help you cast Remove Curse on the proper target at the proper time.

Mage Fever is a proc and buff notifier for mages. If you have difficulty figuring out when to cast any of the spells that depend on another spell’s proc for maximum effect, Mage Fever will aid you to get the best effect from your rotation.

OmniCC is a simple, lightweight timer that puts impossible-to-miss countdown timers on your spells which are on cooldown.

SmartBuff helps you make sure your buffs are kept up, allows you to manage them for solo or groups, and even reminds you to scarf down that buff food.

Finally, WittyMage is a fun addon (which may annoy those around your toon, so make sure they’re cool with it if you plan to be around them often).

Music for this segment is from FreePlayMusic.com and entitled “Magic Evening” by Dean Barrett and Judy Whittaker.

Download the MP3

No related posts.

I originally wrote my article about Arcane Mage spec and glyphs for patch 4.0.1 right as the patch was coming out and used play time in the the Cataclysm Beta as well as sites like Wowtal.com for reference.

Unfortunately since then Patch 4.0.1 went live and Mage glyphs are a complete and utter mess in the live game. Therefore I decided to go back and revisit glyphing specifically for Arcane Mages and try to give you something to work with until they get this fixed or Cataclysm is released, whichever comes first. My bet is that this will be fixed on December 7th.

Prime Glyphs

Glyph of Arcane Blast
Yes, that’s it. That is currently the only available Arcane specific Prime glyph in the game right now. Just leave the other two spots empty because you’ll never use any of the frost or fire spells.

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Arcane Missiles
Glyph of Arcane Power
Glyph of Molten Armor

Originally I had been using Major glyphs like Glyph of Evocation because there were mostly utility glyphs in the Major slot. Now in the current broken state of glyphs I say go with these three for your best options.

I chose these Major Glyphs for two reasons:

1.) Your rotation will most likely be:

Arcane Power > Arcane Missiles (when procs) > Arcane Power

You may or may not feel like mixing in Arcane Barrage after an Arcane Missiles proc. I usually don’t use Arcane Barrage often enough to warrant using the glyph.

2.) Glyph of Molten Armor is supposed to be a Prime Glyph and will be moved once Cataclysm is released unless glyphs are fixed before that. Also, the plan is for Fire Mages to use Molten Armor and Arcane Mages to use Mage Armor. Therefore take advantage of the situation and the increased critical strike and use Molten Armor instead of Mage Armor for the time being and continue to glyph for it. Molten Armor provides 3% increased critical strike, the Glyph provides 2% critical strike making this a 5% increase in critical strike chance.

Minor Glyphs:

Anything. Take your pick because none of these will make or break you and are completely optional.

No related posts.

Currently, I raid as an Arcane Mage which has proven to most the most widely used PvE spec during Wrath of the Lich King. This guide will help you to maintain your Arcane spec while simply updating it for patch 4.0.1.

Going forward to Patch 4.0.3 and Cataclysm however, I am excited for the opportunity to try Frost and Fire Mage specs in PvE and in Raid content. I will look further into those Mage specs in further blog posts.

Let’s take a look my PvE Arcane Mage specs for 4.0.1.

Arcane Tree:

A lot of the talents in the Arcane tree are pretty obvious choices and should be taken. The following three talents can be taken at your discretion based on play style and raid needs/encounter needs.
Improved Blink
Prismatic Cloak
Improved Arcane Explosion

The talents I avoided are:
Improved Counterspell – PvP or very situational PvE
Invocation – PvP or situational PvE depending on required interrupts
Improved Polymorph – PvP

Fire & Frost Trees:
Master of Elements – The only fire talent worth taking at level 80. Helps you save on mana.

Piercing Ice – The must have Frost talent. It gives increased critical strike chance–enough said.

Glyphs:

Gems
Thanks to commenter Michael, UK for his thoughts on gemming. I’ve decided to include them in the updated version of this post now.

Get rid of all spirit gems, not needed anymore. Replace the Purified Dreadstones with Veiled Dreadstones. Replace your spirit leg enchant with Sapphire Spellthread.

• Red Socket: +20 Intellect
• Orange Socket: +10 Intellect / +10 Haste
• Purple Socket: +10 Intellect / +10 hit

No related posts.

Mage Fever is a proc and buff notification addon for mages. It was designed to be simple, light on memory, completely stand alone, and easy to use. Developed by a mage for a mage, it is specifically tailored to help make the most of a mage’s damage output and manage their spell rotation. Mage Fever is an addon that is extremely flexible and fit for any mage. Mage Fever is designed to visually stand out when needed, yet invisible when not, through uniquely colored notification frames with background timers which can be placed anywhere on the screen.

Mage Fever keeps the raiding or PvP mage on top of her game. Decisions for spell rotation will be much easier to make with all mage procs being much easier to see. Scorch and Living Bomb debuffs are tracked with timers so you will be able to constantly keep that debuff on your target; you will know whether to cast one more fireball or refresh the living bomb. You will know when you are guaranteed a critical strike due to Fingers of Frost or a free fireball from Brain Freeze.

Mage Fever is suitable for all specs – Fire,Frost, Arcane, or Hybrid, and tracks Clearcasting and Mirror Image in addition to the basic procs and buffs. It also has a unique multi-target Living Bomb tracker.

Download Mage Fever from WoWinterface or Curse.

Music from BeeMP3.com, Rihanna and “Russian Roulette”

Download the MP3

No related posts.