A Question for Mages: Effective AoEing

[Jeff Kelly]

Area of effect damage becomes a very important tool for mages as they reach endgame Instances or so I've heard ;-). There are several encounters where a mages' AoE damage makes things easier.

Right now I suck at AoE. When I'm AoEing more often than not I die instead of the mobs. I even specced improved AoE to make AoE an instant spell, it is not instant however since you still have the 1 second global cooldown.

When I use arcane explosion it usually goes something like this:

1. aggro mobs
2. Frost Nova
3. spam AE
4. Out of mana, mobs still alive
5. mobs club me to death.

The same happens in dungeons, the only exception being that I die faster than to regular mobs.

I play a Level 50 undead mage with about 4000 mana

Take the green dragonkin in sunken temple for example. Many people say that AoE is very effective against these mobs and that it makes the encounter easier. The last time I tried to use AE against these mobs I had all the aggro and was dead after two seconds.

So I'd like to know from you mages how do you use AoE damage? Which technique do you use to survive? What tricks are necessary?

Jeff

[kaid]

The main key to aoeing correctly is your groups performance. If you are the only aoe using person in the group you need to have a tank get some agro first or a priest to shield you. Honestly aoe tends to be more useful if there are a couple people doing it. In my normal group when its time to aoe usually one hunter and our warlock aoes while the others do what they can to hold agro. Splitting the agro is usually enough to totally decimate the opponents before the opponents can decimate us.

AOE in pickup groups is dangerous to really do your job with aoe you really need to totally depend on your party members to do their jobs right or you are going to get plowed horribly.

Still if you have a rezzer around I have used jihad tactics to some effect knowing full well you are going to buy it frees you up to do a shitton of damage crazy fast. I have done it before and basically I just tell the group to clean up the mess and scrape me back up once its done and just throw down with everything I have as fast as I can throw it down.


kaid

[Sogrinaugh]

1)  That is a painful level t be doing temple, if you plan on going up to Eranikus.  My rule of thumb is that DPS classes (that = us mages) cannot be more then 2 levels beneath the boss, or our attacks become utterly ineffectual.  YOU, however, will be red to Eranikus, thats something like a 90% resist rate (or theirabouts).  Just something to keep in mind with regards to the difficulty  you are experiencing in temple.

2)  Using AoE is that it relys every bit as much on the skill of the healer as the skill of the mage.  If your healer is sub-par, unless you're Frost, you gonna die.  Skillful tank can help abit here also, since he can hold hate on at least the hardest-hitting guy and taunt it off here n there.

3)  The attack pattern vary with your spec.  I will assume you're not frost.  Let tank draw some hate (about 3 sec to build up rage and cleave or whatever), run in and IAE spam.  Once you taking alot of abuse, FN (and then blink if nessessary).  About-face, Flamestrike the frozen cluster (if you have PoM, throw down another right after), if your healer seems slow u might throw up manashield.  CoC, then "orbit" the clustered dragonkin and IAE spam to finish.

4)  Final note.  A warlock can really help here also.  You build tremendous hate with IAE spam, then he uses hellfire, only thing here is you can NOT root with FN or it will kill him if he is still in thier midst and you leave thier melee range.  Instead, IAE, he hellfire, you kite with CoC and more IAE.  Once all the little ones are dead, root, clear, and let tank/sham get rid of the big stuff.  My ideal temple group was Warrior, Shaman, Priest, Lock, and myself (mage).  Thats 2-tiered wipe prevention, Tank, off-tank, primary heal, backup heal, and double AoE.  Furthermore, if the lock bring out the felhunter, you now have someone who can can un-frog the priest.  Only downside to this group is leather drops go to waste.

[Strazos]

You mean Leather drops go to the disenchanter or AH?

[palmer_eldritch]

If I'm going to spam arcane explosion, I always put up mana shield first.

Also, just don't try it if they are elites, unless they are all green to you or you have a really good healer.

[Jeff Kelly]

Nekropost Alert!

If I'm going to spam arcane explosion, I always put up mana shield first.

If I do that I am OOM before the mobs are dead.

Also, just don't try it if they are elites, unless they are all green to you or you have a really good healer.

Elites are difficult. You are most probably OOM before they drop so you need somebody to take your aggro if that happens. They also usually hit to hard for mediocre healers to keep you alive.

Jeff

[Phred]

I did ST around 52 with my mage and didn't have a lot of trouble, though I lucked out and had good priests the times I did it. The main difference sounds like gear. I had over 5k mana at 53 when I was there, though my mage is a gnome so he get's the mana bonus as a racial. Also, do your priest a favor and have hp so he has a bit of cushion for healing. One pickup group I did there the priest said "thank god a mage with some hp" after the first dragon ae we did entering the main hall. I was mostly in of the eagle stuff with as many +sta enchants as I could leach from a friend though. I usually run in a circle around the mobs I'm ae'ing. Dunno if it helps, but it seems they miss a bit more that way, what with having to turn and sometimes path someplace new to attack. I figure any time they're moving they don't seem to be hitting me.

Our guild mages are mostly frost and they have a much easier time with it because they can basically kite the groups they AE. We usually AE ubrs all the way to Rend, as the assassins afterwards tend to hit a bit too hard to keep ae'ing.

[Train Wreck]

Being a Frost mage definantly helps.  You may try putting up frost field before doing AoE, though if you are fast enough then you can wait to see if mobs come running after you before casting it.  Ice Block will save you in case you draw too much attention, and will alert any competant healer that you need healed.  If there is a warrior, wait for him to get off his intimidating shout -- you'll be able to get off a fire blast without drawing aggro.  The same thing applies to their lighting stomp (whatever it's called) and the paly's AoE.  Basically, you don't want to be the first one to get an AoE off.