I spend a fair amount of time these days, browsing the Official WoW Forums.

I read the Guild Relations board first and with most interest, because there’s often some interesting discussions going on from an Officer/Guildmaster perspective, about the varying challenges of running a guild. And for some reason, there don’t seem to be many inflammatory “trollers” in that forum (just posting inflammatory things to stir people up), which means the “signal to noise ratio” is high. Less annoying, more information.

I then tend to venture over to the General board, just to see what the topics of the day are. Here, I find a lot more trolls and a lot more trash posting (Subject: “Blood elves are ruining the Horde” Body: “Discuss”), but on occasion I find some very interesting reads.

Next, I hit the Raid & Dungeons forum. Everyone’s talking about the heroic and other level 70 dungeon stuff that it’ll be a long time before I ever see, but wow is that board educational. Wanna get the hard and fast on what mistakes folks in your class tend to make while in dungeon groups? Check this forum out. Wanna know why certain spec builds are looked over for the Burning Crusade 5-man dungeons? You’ll get lots of info there.

Sometimes I venture over to different Class forums, to see what’s going on there. Again, there’s some GREAT information about class abilities, tips and tricks for successful solo play vs dungeon instance play vs raiding, and a lot of heated debate in general.

I’ve learned so much just by reading the forums. Of course, for the 10% of good information I glean, there’s 90% I have to ignore outright.

Specializations Before 40 - Skill First, Efficiency Second

One of the big things I’ve learned from the forums is that specializations only really start to matter quite late in the game.

While yes it’s nice to have a “protection tank” and “holy healer”, it’s not required, because at the levels where instances can be taken on by players higher level than required, success is more about the “dungeon party skill” of the players in the party, and less about squeezing efficiency out of the tank or healer’s powers.

That’s not to say that a player can’t slow their progression down by speccing poorly, nor to say that certain specs don’t work better with specific other specs… it’s just to say that learning how to play your class well (in a party situation which is different from solo play) is an important first step, and then fine-tuning your class play through spec(ialization) is something to focus on later.

Purpose of Specializations

First of all, you choose your Specializations by spending your Talent points (’n’ brings up your talent trees). The very basic purpose of a ’spec’ is to allow a player to ‘tune’ their characters so as to be somewhat unique from others within their class, depending on their own play style and needs.

The first time I spent my Talent points as a levelling Hunter, I spent points according to where I felt I needed a boost in my gameplay. Pulling aggro from my pet, or my pet dying too quickly? Put points in Beastmaster. Fights lasting too long? Put points into Marksmanship. At the end, I came out with a predominantly Beastmaster talent spec but I’m sure it wasn’t “THE Beastmaster spec”.

The beauty of Talent specs is that you can get them wiped (for a fee) at any of your class trainer locations, and you can re-allocate the points in a different fashion. If you’ve got the cash to spend and want to try some other talent specs, have a ball!

All Classes Are Hybrid Classes

Some may argue that not all talent point configurations can really be called a “specialization”, due to the true definition of that word. If, after all, you put an even amount of talent points into all three talent trees, are you really choosing a “specialization”?

But at the same time, whatever your Talent configuration is, that’s your “spec”. Funny.

At any rate, because of this imbalance, it can truly be said that all classes can be configured as Hybrid, meaning they’re not truly strong in any one tree of potential specialization. For some players this may be a “gimped” playstyle (especially in dungeon/party situations) but for others it may work perfectly.

That’s all I have to say about that, for now.

Mage’s Instance Tips - Before Starting The Instance

It’s expected that every member of a dungeon party will cover some absolute basics before heading in:

• Repair your equipment
  
• Restock your consumables (potions, reagents, ammo)
  
• Make lots of room in your bags for loot drops

As a Mage, there are some extra things you can do to make your teammate’s run a little easier or more cost-effective:

• Offer Conjured Water and Food
  
• Buff members who benefit from an Int boost

Offering these things without being asked is also a great way to build rapport and make some friends who might be around to team up for harder content as you progress.

Mage’s Instance Tips - Managing Threat While Fighting

As a Soloing or PvPing mage, quick-burst DPS with plenty of crits and high calibre pain is the route to success. “Blast ‘em down before they have time to get within Melee range” is the general thought, with Frost Nova serving backup right from level 10, and the introduction of Blink at level 20.

A Mage’s first goal in party battle is to target attacks upon mobs already occupied by the main or off-tank.

In an 5-person instance party, high DPS with plenty of crits and high calibre pain is also along the path towards success, but with one big difference - instances have tough, elite mobs that can destroy a cloth-wearer in a very short period of time, so DPS needs to be focussed correctly and then slowly ramped in order to allow the tanks to “establish aggro” and gain a lot of “threat” points towards themselves from the targetted mob.

If done correctly, Mages are awesome damage-dealers who have enough control that they DO NOT “steal aggro” from the tank and end up dead on the floor, providing no additional DPS to the fight.

A Mage’s primary job is to support the tank while not needing services of the healer. In order to properly support a Tank, those with a DPS role, such as Mages, should be careful when targetting enemies, ensuring the mob they’re attacking is being hit upon by one of the party’s tanks. Targetting an enemy that a tank is not actively hitting will generally result in “peeling off aggro”, with the enemy mob turning its attention towards attacking you!

If you find you’re peeling off aggro in party situations even though you’re targetting a mob that the main or off-tank is actively beating on, read on for a Mage’s second goal in an instancing party situation, regarding keeping alive without needing the Priest to save your clothy ass.

A Mage’s second goal in party battle is to temper their attacks, starting small and ramping up as the fight progresses.

Mages are extremely powerful but cannot take the beats. Thus, a Mage’s second goal within a dungeon instance, aside from staying in the back of the party instead of up with the melee folk, is to temper their attacks so they still deal quality damage over the fight as a whole, but don’t peel off aggro because they have done it by starting small and ramping up the DPS as the fight progresses and the tank and off-tank remain right on top of the Threat meter.

Mage’s Instance Tips - Using Lower Level Spells

One key way to “start small and ramp up” involves the strategy of starting with rank 1 and 2 spells instead of the highest level available, and then moving up to the highest rank versions halfway through the fight. A bonus of this strategy is that your attacks launch more quickly because cast times are smaller on the lower-ranked spells.

You’ll need to play around with your strategies a little bit while in an Instance Party in order to find the “right” sequence of spell attacks that work with the group you’re currently in. Parties with tanks who are not used to grabbing and holding aggro will be more difficult to manage but can also be considered a fertile training ground for learning how to control your own toon in more challenging situations.

Jump in and blast’em out, but spend some quality time learning how to “manage threat” by targetting mobs effectively and starting small and ramping up DPS as the fight progresses.

Good Luck!