Focus Magic: The rush to Cataclysm: Part 1 - Levels 1-20
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Focus Magic: Blink and you’ll miss it.
Welcome to the 11th Edition of Focus Magic; Your Local WoW Mage blog, right here, only on crusaderscoliseum.com! The wait for Cataclysm ever shortens and for those of you who for some reason have not yet managed to grasp the awesomeness of having a Mage at level 80 may feel themselves rushing to quickly level their forgotten Mage gathering dust in the bottom of their character list screen.
Over the next few weeks, apart from buying me some time until Cataclysm finally hits our screens (Since I’m running out of ideas to write about after analysing Mage glyphs and talents for Cataclysm within the earlier editions), these comprehensive, yet pocket-sized, brief, to-the-point levelling guides will hopefully be the little push you need to get off your backside and level that Mage to 80! Then to 85! Life is good.
Beginning with our guide, I will start by sharing some of my levelling experiences. Having gone through the tedious process of levelling 9 characters to level 80 in just over a year and a half, it’s safe to say that I’m an altoholic (and I have waaay too much time on my hands)!
With first hand experience from levelling almost every class the game has to offer, the Mage really shone out from the rest and is definitely in my top 3 classes of which I enjoyed levelling the most. But it’s not all about the levelling, when you’ve hit the high tier of the game, as the previous Focus Magic articles will tell you, the life of a Mage at level 80 is a good life. The life of a God.
But how exactly should you go about levelling a Mage? Should you grind or quest? Maybe dungeons is your thing? Or perhaps you feel more at home in the battlegrounds. Not to mention the 3 specs you have open to you for levelling in. Mostly, it’s all down to personal preference, which is why writing a levelling guide can be quite tricky. However, I’m going to try and implement every factor of levelling into this guide as we start the gruelling journey from Level 1, all the way up Level 80! Count with me! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... Ugh, this WILL take a while…
Starting your Mage
Obviously, you need a project to begin working on. So make sure you’re happy with your Mages appearance, features, race etc. Take note of the racial abilities involved when choosing to create your Mage; if you want your Mage to have an upper hand in PvP, try a Gnome or an Undead. If you want to have a slight boost in PvE maybe a Troll or Draenei is your choice. But whatever you do, make sure it is YOUR choice. Don’t let any influence you eternally on the creation of your character! If you choose a Blood Elf, don’t get put off if people shout at you for choosing inferior racial abilities (Although Blood Elf racials are pretty sweet, this is purely an example), if they want to yell at you, they can go make their own Mage and drool all over him! Or her.
After you’ve chosen your race, you’ll be started off in your respective starting zone. Not a lot to say here, apart from complete the quests available, reach level 5 and head on out to the next encampment of the zone. Continue doing the quests around here, while training abilities every even level (2, 4, 6, 8 etc.). After you’ve hit Level 10-12, head on out to the area nearest to your starting Zone, as this will provide you with more quests for you to complete. As you familiarize yourself with the ways of the Mages, get used to the spells, when you hit level 10 it’s time to chose your spec.
Down to personal preference, Arcane, Fire and Frost are all viable levelling specs, so try out different specs and experiment. Also, once you are level 10 you are able to participate in battlegrounds. It is important to note that if you’re looking to level as quickly as possible, and I can’t stress this enough, if a battleground is available to you and it’s Call to Arms, spam that battleground for as long as you can bear. A win will grant you a total of around 75% of a level, and a loss will grant you around 25%. Levelling through battlegrounds even when they’re not call to arm can still be a diverse way of levelling and can provide a different outlook on the standard levelling situation.
When you’ve hit level 15 you’ll be granted access to the dungeon finder tool; this will give you easy access to queue and participate in dungeons respective to your level. You’ll be starting with Ragefire Chasm (RFC), Wailing Caverns (WC), Deadmines (DM), and Shadowfang Keep (SFK). It is definitely worth doing at least one random dungeon a day, since you have the chance to receive loot from the dungeon itself, you will be given a satchel on completion of the dungeon, which will contain a various piece of blue armor. With the added bonus of money, the dungeon experience is something not to be missed. Take note of when you are rested (always remember to log out in an Inn or other area which will grant you rested xp!), as doing a dungeon when you are rested will almost always grant you a level, maybe even 2 levels, if you do a full experience clearance of the place.
The guides included in the following weeks of Focus Magic will provide a more, in-depth analysis of the areas to level in and why to level there, but since the starter areas are paired with levelling up to around level 20, it’s pretty hard to try and discuss areas which are self-explanatory! But anyways, until next week, fellow Mages; I hope to see the population of World of Warcraft skyrocket with Mages! Yummy, Fledgling Mages!
Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 16:58 Written by Kuurg Wednesday, 29 September 2010 16:56
Comments
Looking forward to this series of articles
Will keep checking in on my new mob phone.
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