I had a great time tonight, questing out in the Ghostlands with my father :)

Dad started to play Runescape as a way to chat with my brother and myself (mainly me, I live further away and visit less often), and then recently we got him onto World of Warcraft and he’s been plugging away since Christmas.

Because of my brief foray into raiding, and the fact that he’d be available to play in the evening, I didn’t get a chance to play WITH him, although we got some good chances to chat about the game in general and each time I visit we share some new things.

Now we’re finally getting a chance to play together, because my evening play time isn’t already spoken for (well, I could lie and say I’m not there, but I don’t like to lie).

So tonight Dad and I tackled some quests in Ghostlands. We started in Tranquillien with his little Mage and I put on my Shaman healing gear, and we trodded off together to lay waste to bats and spiders and ghouls.

Dad on Vent, Me on Chat

In order to make this gaming together easier for him, I helped Dad get set up with Ventrilo when I visited last, and we’ve agreed that when we play together, I don’t talk - I type. I can type a lot faster than he can ;) and his 56k internet connection gets super lagged if there’s incoming talking while he’s trying to play. Maybe there’s some configurations I could alter to improve performance but I’ll worry about that later.

For now, it seems to be working pretty well. We went out and finished a couple of the quests that we share in our quest logs - he lead the pace and the direction and the attacks, and I mainly acted as heals or backup DPS if we got some extra mobs.

Once, Knucklerot came upon us when I had Dad looking in his spellbook for Frost Nova - I was able to run away without death but Dad didn’t even see the attack coming. Soooo… I got to rez him, and save him a run back!

It was all kinda neat and fun. This is the first person from my Real Life that I’ve actually played with on this game - not just chatted with because they’re in a completely different part of the game than I am.

I’m looking forward to partying again, very soon :)

Today’s Newbie Mage tip:

Use Frost Nova to freeze meleee mobs in place once they’re physically close to you, so you can back away to cast without interruption. Even if you’re a Fire-spec’d or Arcane-spec’d mage, Frost Nova works the same way and is just as effective.

You can continue to use Rank 1 of Frost Nova and not worry about using higher versions of it when you get the skill - the amount of time frozen never changes, just the amount of damage caused and it causes miniscule damage to begin with. Save the mana, use Rank 1.

Tags: advancing a mage, beginner mage, beginner mage tips, beginner shaman, blood elf mage, fire mage tips, frost nova, ghostlands, how to use frost nova, leveling a mage, lowbie mage tips, mage tips, newbie mage, newbie mage tips, newbie shaman, resto shaman, tranquillien

Now that my Troll Mage is level 70, I have been working at gearing up to level 70 equipment that brings my stats up high enough to be a good contribution to Heriocs dungeons every time I go in, instead of being the weaker link.

I did a wee bit of research on our realm for guilds recruiting for Karazhan teams, and talked to the Mage Lead of a “casual”, “adults”, “raiding guild” that I knew my toon would not yet qualify for. This Mage Lead gave me some advice on my equipment and gems, answered my questions and gave me basic numerical goals to strive for in order to get myself equipped up far enough to join someone’s Kara team, if I ever choose to.

PvPing for Epic Cloth Bracers (socketable)

As a result of chatting with this Mage Lead, I headed directly towards the Battlemasters and begun the task of accumulating enough Warsong Gulch tokens (20) and Honor in general (just under 12k worth) to be able to afford the Vindicator's Silk Cuffs which I’ll be using to upgrade my current Level 66-green, Consortium Bracer of the Owl.

This epic cloth bracer that is restricted to Priest, Mage and Warlock use is apparently the best bracer and the easiest to get for a solo Mage player, pre-Karazhan, and some Mages have told me they would keep it past Karazhan as well.

PvPing For The Honor and Letting Fun Decide

I found that getting the 20 WSG tokens was much easier than getting the 12k honor, but that just meant I had more choice about my Battlegrounds after I had accumulated the 20 WSG tokens, and could therefore have more fun with the process.

I’ve taken the time to learn the Eye of the Storm battleground for the first time since it was released and have quite enjoyed playing it although it doesn’t garner as much honor per round as Alterac Valley does.

I’m still learning about what changes have occurred with Alterac Valley battleground itself as well - I played it for a number of months a year ago in order to earn my epic land mount, the Frostwolf Howler, but Blizzard has implemented various changes to the battleground since then and it’s changed some dynamics.

I haven’t spent much time in Arathi Basin this time for no particular reason…

At any rate, some rounds are great and I’m part of a team that pounds the Alliance into the ground, but some rounds are long and painful (especially in WSG!) and full of annoyed players whining on the Battleground line.

In the end, however, I will have my fourth epic level 70 piece that won’t be replaced until Karazhan or the Expansion pack, whatever comes first!

Tags: alterac valley, battleground rewards, Battlegrounds, daily pvp, daily quests, epic bracer, eye of the storm, frost mage, gearing up for heroics, gearing up for karazhan, karazhan, level 70 mage gear, mage, mage gear list, mage heroics guide, mage tips, pvp rewards, raider guide, tips and tricks, warcraft battlegrounds, warsong gulch