Spicytuna» Tuna

Frost Mage PvP: 102 – Spell Penetration and Resilience

Tuna — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:21:48 +0000

The stats you need for PvP is a little bit different from PvE. Of course you will still need Spell Power, Crit, Haste, and Hit; but now you will also need two other stats: Resilience and Spell Penetration.

Spell Power: Self explanatory. The more you have, the more damage you do. Get a lot of it.

Critical Strike Rating: An important stat for doing spike damage, but as a Frost Mage, you don’t NEED it. You will rely on your many talents for your critical strike rates.

Haste: Much more important than Critical Strike Rating for a Frost Mage. The more Haste you have, the faster you cast. The faster you cast, the more damage you do.

Hit Rating: In PvP, you won’t need as much as you did for PvE since you will be fighting opponents at your own level. For PvP purposes, you will only need 4% Hit Rating total. 105 Hit Rating without talents.

Spell Penetration: Is (for the most part) a PvP only stat which will negate your opponent’s Spell Resists. Each point of Spell Penetration will negate a point of Spell Resist.

There isn’t much gear with this stat, so most of your Spell Penetration will come from your enchants and gems.

The hardest part about Spell Penetration is figuring how you need, and against some opponents, Spell Penetration is not needed, and is a wasted stat. It is still a good idea to have some Spell Penetration just in case.

For occasional PvP, having around 75 Spell Penetration is a good start. For Arena, you will want around 150 Spell Penetration.

You want to have enough Spell Penetration to effectively take your opponent’s Spell Resistance down to zero. Let’s take a look at who has Spell Resistance, and how much.

Druids: Can give themselves and their teammates Spell Resistance with a buff.

Mark of the Wild = 54 Spell Resistance
Improved Mark of the Wild = 75 Spell Resistance

Paladins: Can give themselves and their teammates Frost Resistance with an aura.

Frost Resistance Aura = 130 Frost Resistance
Aura Mastery = 260 Frost Resistance Resistance (for 6 seconds)

Shamans: Can give themselves and their teammates Frost Resistance with a totem.

Frost Resistance Totem = 130 Frost Resistance

Death Knights: Can proc a buff on themselves and their teammates.

Acclimation = 50 Frost Resistance (stacks 3 times)

Mages: Has self-buffs and talents which will increase their Spell Resistances.

Magic Absorption = 80 Spell Resistance
Mage Armor = 40 Spell Resistance
Arcane Shielding = 60 Spell Resistance (for Mage Armor)

Remember, group/raid buffs won’t stack with each other. However, self-buffs will stack with group/raid buffs.

At most, you will need 270 Spell Penetration, and that is only against Arcane Mages partnered up with a Paladin. The minimum you will need is 54 Spell Penetration, which is against anyone with a regular Mark of the Wild.

Again, shoot for around 75 Spell Penetration for occasional PvP, and around 150 Spell Penetration for Arenas.

Resilience: A PvP only stat which will increase your survivability significantly. The more you have, the less damage you take, the longer you live.

I am just going to copy and paste what I wrote earlier about Resilience. Resilience is and even more important PvP stat than before.

Patch 3.2 gave us a new change to how Resilience works, and an addition hotfix gave us more damage reduction from Resilience, making this stat even more essential to PvP. You won’t see players with a lot of PvE gear in Arenas as much anymore.

Reduces Chance to be Critically Hit

At level 80, every 94.27 Resilience rating will net you a 1% chance reduction. For example, I have 1125 Resilience, so that will give me a 11.933% chance reduction of being critically hit.

Total Resilience / 94.27 = % Critical Hit Chance Reduction

There is currently no cap to reducing your chances of getting critically hit- so essentially you can be “uncritable” if you stack enough Resilience.

Mana Drains and Critical Strike Damage Reduction

Not only does Resilience reduces the chance of you getting hit by a critical strike, if you do get it, it will reduce the damage of the critical strike! Mana drain reduction too! Resilience is a nice stat.

[Total Resilience / 94.27] x 2.2 = % Critical Strike Damage Reduction

So I take the 11.933% Critical Hit Chance Reduction I have from my 1125 Resilience, and multiply it by 2.2 to get the % of Mana Drains and Critical Strike Damage Reduction I will have: 26.246%.

Additional Damage Reduction From All Damage Sources

On top of all that, Resilience now gives you a straight up damage reduction- and by double the amount of your % Critical Hit Chance Reduction too!

[Total Resilience / 94.27] x 2.0 = % Damage Reduction

So again I take the 11.933% Critical Hit Chance Reduction I have, then multiply it by 2.0 to get how much Damage Reduction I will have: 23.867%.

Next, I think I will get into gear, and how/where to obtain them.

Frost Mage PvP: 101

Tuna — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:44:33 +0000

Welcome to introductory class to Frost Mage PvP! This will cover the very basics of what you need to know about PvPing as a Frost Mage. I will making additional posts to cover the different aspects of PvP. You can’t learn it all in one post!

I’ve gotten a few emails about PvPing, so this is my way of answering a few of those questions at the same time. Feel free to ask more questions, or if you want to add to anything I have, please feel free to do so.

Your Role as a Mage

As a Frost Mage, you have a lot of utility, and can do things many classes can’t do, or won’t do well. Playing a Mage isn’t just about doing damage, although damage is one of our main roles. And we can also do more than just provide food and water!

Crowd Control: Also known as “CC”, Mages have the ability to render an opponent useless for a short durations. It can be to make the opponent lose control of their character, keep an opponent from moving, or even preventing an opponent from using their abilities. And we have many ways to do it too!

Buffer: We also bring buffs which will help make ourselves and our teammates stronger. We help our teammates crit more often, take less magic damage, take more healing, or just have more mana.

Debuffer: We can also debuff our enemies to make them weaker. We can make the move and attack slower; take more critical strikes; or even receive less healing.

Tank: Yes, sometimes in PvP we are called on to just stay alive and keep the opponents occupied. When there are many players beating on you, you have many options to use to escape, and stay alive longer.

Frost Mage PvP Spec

You will need to know how to spec your talent trees. 20/0/51 is usually how most Frost Mages are spec’d, but “how” they spec each tree can be a little different.

The Arcane Tree is pretty much straight forward. I’ve seen some players who opted to sacrifice Mana efficiency from Arcane Concentration for more defense from Arcane Fortitude. It will depend on your play style, gear, and team composition. Every other talent is pretty much a “must get”.

The Frost Tree gets a bit more complicated since there are many good talents to get, and not enough talent points. I’ve seen many Mages with different little variations in their Frost Tree. Again it is mostly preference and situational depending on your team composition.

Improved Blizzard: Mainly used for Battlegrounds, Improved Blizzard can be the nastiest movement debuff a Mage can do to a target. With all the right talents, your Blizzard can slow your target(s) to a crawling 30% movement speed, with each tick of Blizzard having a 15% chance to freeze too!

Frost Warding: A nice defensive talent with the utility of also returning you Mana too. It makes your Ice Armor stronger, and gives your Frost and Fire Wards a 30% chance to negate damage, turning that damage into Mana.

Cold as Ice: Some players have 1, 2, or no points at all invested into this talent. If you are used to long drawn out battles, you will probably be taking this talent. If you are used to matches being decided within the first 5 minutes, you might not bother with this talent.

Shattered Barrier: This is a nice talent which gives you addition protection by freezing anything around you whenever your Ice Barrier gets eaten through. The problem is, it shares the same Diminishing Return as Frostbite.

Arctic Winds: Another talent where some players will put some, none, or all points into the talent. It gives you an offensive and defensive boost at the same time. Some players don’t think it is worth all 5 points however.

Enduring Winter: The “general consensus” is that one point into this talent is enough, and I agree with that.

Chilled to the Bone: Some players won’t have all five points invested into this talent, and will use those extra points to put them into Shattered Barrier or Cold as Ice.

Major and Minor Glyphs

You can think of Glyphs like they are enchants, but for your spells! At level 80, you can have up to three Major Glyphs, and three Minor Glyphs.

Minor Glyphs:

Out of all the minor glyphs available, these three are the only ones with a useful use for them. The two wards will have a small chance to reflect back spells, and you can use Slow Fall for buff protection without wasting reagents.

Major Glyphs:

These two glyphs you must have. The last glyph is open depending on your own preference. Here are some I’ve seen used:

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One Down, Nine More to Go

Tuna — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:52:53 +0000

I am down to my final ten mounts til I get the Mountain o’ Mounts Achievement, so I’m trying make these final ten mounts be ones I really want- or at least are good ones.

My number ten mount is: Turbostrider

I wanted this mount mainly because it looked cool with my PvP gear. Then while I was riding around with it, I noticed something. It has bitch’n decals on it!

Everyone knows adding Flame decals to your vehicle adds extra horse-power. Plus it’s faster than any land mount. Why? Because It’s Red!Related Posts:

Crashing the Lunar Festival Again

Tuna — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:31:15 +0000

I already had all my achievements done last year, so this year I didn’t bother running all around Azeroth to honor the Elders. I just did the two starter quests which gives you the teleportation stone to Moonglade. Once there, I remembered what I did last year, and figured, why the heck not?

Dragon Dance time!

I waited til I saw a few Hordies were in town to turn in quests/coins, then talked to Keeper Remolus and started the quest. I saw a few of them die to the Shadowbolt Volleys. My job here is done

Maybe this will be the year I finally go ahead and finish this quest! Maybe…Related Posts:

How to Make the Lunar Festival More Exciting

36 Minute Arena Match

Tuna — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:16:26 +0000

The beginning of all my Arena Sessions usually start with, “Let’s do our 10 games for the week!” That leads to, “Let’s keep Arena’ing til 7pm!” On good days it leads to, “Let’s get XXXX rating so we can get our next piece of gear! We’re so close!” Sometimes it ends up with, “OMG let’s get our rating back and quit!”

This week we’ve busy and couldn’t get any games in til Monday night- the night before ratings are calculated and points are given out. Apparently this is usually the time where some of the good players queue up to collect rating off scrubs (like us), and we ended up only getting 15 games in before I ran out of time and had to leave.

We started off the night with just trying to get our 10 games in for the week so we can get Arena points for the week. We had a pretty bad losing streak so we ended up playing more games so we can get our Rating back up to at least where it was. Well we gave ourselves til 7pm before we would stop, but we ran into a team that just wouldn’t let us stop at 7pm.

Over 1 Million Damage AND Outhealed the other Paladin!

My Rogue partner got wtfpwn’d by the two Paladins early in the game. Then they went after me. Thing is, they got over confident and the Holy Paladin decided that he didn’t need to heal anymore. I guess the Retribution Paladin didn’t think he would need to bubble either, and I got a few good crits and and killed him. Now it is just me and the Holy Paladin left.

It was a chess match with us trying to out-mana each other. A long, long, loooooooooooooong chess match. As the match went on, I got less and less help from my partner over vent too!

1 Minute In:

“He’s at 50% Mana, you’re running low, Sheep him and use Evocation!”

2 Minutes In:

“You’re running low on Mana again, try to get out of combat and drink up.”
“OMG he has water too! Go interrupt his drinking!”

5 Minutes In:

“He’s trying to rez!”

10 Minutes In:

“… be right back, I’m going to go get a drink…”

15 Minutes In:

“WTF the match isn’t over yet?! We better get like 100 Rating for this Match!”

20 Minutes In:

“Holy shit, you’re still fighting?!”
Me: “Yea I think he bubbled like three times…”
“Okay I’m gonna go do something, yell in vent when its over.”

35 Minutes In:

“… okay you should just text me or something when this is over or something.”

Man I really really really hate going 1 on 1 against healers. It is such a different fight. You stop looking at Health bar and all you look at is the Mana bar. I have save all my cooldowns and keep an eye on all my timers.

There was a few mistakes the Paladin made which led to me finally winning the match:

He blew a bubble thinking it would keep me from interrupting him from resurrecting his partner.
He buffed himself with Greater Blessing of Wisdom. Thanks!
He didn’t bring more water than me, and ran out. Mage FTW!
He chased me out in the open (not near middle grave or entrance) and couldn’t LOS Squirtle and my final bursts of damage at the end.

Good match Mr. Nomixus of team ROADHOUSE! Hopefully we won’t cross paths again, I don’t think I can handle another epic battle. This was longer than when I solo’d old Onyxia.

We ended with a 7-8 record for the 3rd week of Arena, with a 1343 Rating. I think we ended up losing 5 Rating from what we previously had last week.Related Posts:

Season 8 Arena: Week One

Tuna — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:03:07 +0000

The first week of Arena with my new Rogue partner was very fun. It felt really good to participate in Arena matches again. All these feelings I’ve had the last time I arena’d are coming back to me- and I’ve missed them all.

The rush of ending a match only a few seconds into the match; the thrill of beating a composition you were having trouble with all night; pulling off a victory as the last man standing after your partner has died. Being angry at yourself for doing something stupid; forgetting to buff yourself and hoping your partner didn’t catch it; cheering on your partner to win the match after you died already.

Even the “pins and needles” sensation I get in my hands and arms after a close match. It feels great to do Arena again.

I’ve been away from competitive PvP for quite sometime, and I’ve pretty much had to learn to fight each class again. Learn to save my cooldowns for the correct time, and learned to save my Counterspells for just the right moment.

I had to learn what buffs some classes got, and what each spell animation looks like for whenever they pop a certain defensive ability. I’ve learned about the Hunter’s Deterrence ability the hard way. “WTF did he just deflect my Frostbolts!?!”

Our first week went fairly well. We were still learning how to play along with each other- learn each other’s play style. Also, I didn’t have a working mic, and my partner had to put up with playing with a mute Mage.

About 90% of our losses were against teams with a Hunter in it. For some reason, we just couldn’t win. They seem to cheat death like five times per match. Something for us to work on for the upcoming weeks.

We ended up with and .500 record and we stopped with a 657-ish rating for the week. Not bad for a new team with no communication.

Dear Blizzard,

Buff Mages.
Nerf Hunters.
Warriors are fine.

- Tuna

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Over 1000 Resilience

Tuna — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:31:59 +0000

So what did I do with all that Honor I farmed during the first two weeks of Season 8? New Wrathful gear! There are a couple of pieces you can pick up with just Honor that doesn’t have a Arena Rating Requirement on them. I made sure to pick them all up!

Reduces Chance to be Critically Hit

At level 80, every 94.27 Resilience rating will net you a 1% chance reduction. For example, I have 1125 Resilience, so that will give me a 11.933% chance reduction of being critically hit.

Total Resilience / 94.27 = % Critical Hit Chance Reduction

There is currently no cap to reducing your chances of getting critically hit- so essentially you can be “uncritable” if you stack enough Resilience.

Mana Drains and Critical Strike Damage Reduction

[Total Resilience / 94.27] x 2.2 = % Critical Strike Damage Reduction

So I take the 11.933% Critical Hit Chance Reduction I have from my 1125 Resilience, and multiply it by 2.2 to get the % of Mana Drains and Critical Strike Damage Reduction I will have: 26.246%.

Additional Damage Reduction From All Damage Sources

On top of all that, Resilience now gives you a straight up damage reduction- and by double the amount of your % Critical Hit Chance Reduction too!

[Total Resilience / 94.27] x 2.0 = % Damage Reduction

So again I take the 11.933% Critical Hit Chance Reduction I have, then multiply it by 2.0 to get how much Damage Reduction I will have: 23.867%.

TLDR: Get Resilience, it’s a good PvP stat.Related Posts:

Back into PvP Mode

Tuna — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:01:34 +0000

When Patch 3.3.2 was released, it marked the beginning of Season 8 of Arena- which will also be the last season of the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion. It also gave me a new reason to start PvPing again, and more reason to kill Horde.

107k Honor in one day!

Since I am now on a new server, I will have to find myself a new Arena partner too! A guildie was looking for a Mage to do Arena with his Rogue- sounds like a pretty good 2v2 composition!

This also means I will be doing Battlegrounds regularly now for the PvP Daily, as well as collecting marks to turn in for more Honor. I’m just glad that I have enough Eye of Storm marks saved up that I won’t have to enter that BG unless it is the Daily. AB and WSG still remains as my favorite two BGs to play.

Dropping down that Pony Keg was a BAD idea!

I gotta go now! Have… to… farm… more… honor…

I’m going to put together some sort of Season 8 starter guide sometime in the near future so look forward to that. Look forward to more Arena Pictures too! I know a few of you have been bugging me to show off my MS Paint skillz.Related Posts:

Frost Mage PvE: Gunship Battle

Tuna — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:29:29 +0000

After defeating Lady Deathwhisper, you make your way up the Lower Spires of the Icecrown Citadel to reach the next level. On your way, you run into the opposing faction, and at one point the Alliance’s “Skybreaker” and the Horde’s “Ogrim’s Hammer” will battle and race each other to the second level of the Icecrown Citadel.

Gunship Battle image taken from Wowwiki.com

This Gunship Event is fun battle, and a very nice break from the “Tank and Spank” boss system. This fight also serves as a “Raid Coordination” check, and can be a roadblock for some raids. Is refered to as the “Lootship Battle” by some guilds.

Boss Stats:

Hit Points – ??? (10man), ??? (25man)
Enemy Ship has more HP on Heroic Mode
No Enrage Timer

Abilities:

High Overlord Saurfang & Muradin Bronzebeard
- Battle Fury: Increases all damage by 10%, stacking. Lasts 20 seconds, refreshed with each stack. Applied every time Saurfang or Muradin strike a target.
- Cleave: Inflicts 110% weapon damage to up to 3 targets in front of Saurfang or Muradin.
All Troops
- Experienced: Increases damage by 30%, and attack and casting speed by 20%. Applied if a soldier has been alive for more than ~20 seconds.
- Veteran: Increases damage by 60%, and attack and casting speed by 40%. Applied if a soldier has been alive for more than ~40 seconds.
- Elite: Increases damage by 120%, and attack and casting speed by 80%. Applied if a soldier has been alive for more than 60 seconds.
- Desperate Resolve: Increases armor and attack speed by 60%. Applied when a soldier’s health gets below 20%.
Kor’kron Sergeant & Skybreaker Sergeant
- Bladestorm: Inflicts weapon damage to up to 4 nearby targets every 1 second for 6 seconds.
- Wounding Strike: Inflicts 200% weapon damage and reduces all healing done to the target by 25% for 10 seconds.
Kor’kron Axethrower & Skybreaker Rifleman
- Hurl Axe: Inflicts 3,800 to 4,200 Physical damage.
- Shoot: Inflicts 3,800 to 4,200 Physical damage.
Kor’kron Battle-mage & Skybreaker Sorcerer
- Below Zero: Freezes the enemy gunship’s cannons, rendering them inactive. Channeled spell. Cannot be interrupted.
Kor’kron Rocketeer & Skybreaker Mortar Soldier
- Rocket Artillery: Targets an area on the players’ ship and launches a rocket there. The rocket travels for a few seconds, causing an Explosion when it lands, inflicting 6,300 to 7,700 Fire damage to players and Siege damage to the gunship.
- Rocket Artillery will also have a 7 yard knockback in Heroic Mode.

Recommended Consumables:

[Flask of the Frost Wyrm]
Spell Damage food of your choice or Feast

Your role will be different depending on what you will be assigned for during this Gunship Battle Event.

Frost Mage Overview:

Pet Friendly: Friendly
Cooldowns: No need to save your Ice Blocks or Cold Snap for anything, so use them for any emergencies such as pulling aggro.

Your Water Elemental won’t be targeted by any mobs, but will be taking some raid damage. Since your pet will have a 80% AoE damage reduction so it won’t get killed easily. Put him on aggressive and let him go nuts.

Gunship Cannon

If you are assigned to be one of the Cannon Gunners, you will get to be doing direct damage to the enemy Gunship. You simply mount one of the Gunship Cannons and you will be given a new vehicle spellbar.

You will only have two options:

Cannon Blast: Inflicts 1,000 Siege damage and generates 6-10 Heat.
Incinerating Blast: Inflicts 1,000 Fire damage and additional Fire damage per point of Heat. Consumes all of the cannon’s heat.

You have to keep an eye on your Cannon’s Heat meter. Make sure it never goes to 100% or else your Cannon will Overheat and will be unable to fire for 3 seconds.

What I do is spam Cannon Blast (1 on your spellbar) until it reaches around 95% heat, then use Incinerating Blast (2 on your spellbar). It makes your Incinerating Blast do more damage, and also purges all the heat from the Cannon so it won’t overheat.

At some points during the fight, the opposing ship will summon a Mage out which will freeze your Cannon’s until they are killed. You will be ejected from the Cannon, and at this point you should help the Defending team kill any adds that are aboard your ship.

*Important* You probably won’t want to be on Cannon duty since it will render your Water Elemental useless every time you mount and dismount from the cannons. You will be forced to resummon your Water Elemental to fix the Pet action bars.

Defending the Gunship

If you are on defense or part of the “Home Team”, your job is to kill any enemies which boards your ship. There will be a portal in the middle of your ship, and mobs will spawn from it. The longer they stay alive, the more damage they do. So after your tank picks them up, kill them as soon as possible.

Since you are also a Ranged DPS, you can also attack the enemy Axe Throwers or Riflemen that are on the enemy ship. Be on the look out for Rocket Artillery. There will be a target circle on the ground where the rocket will land, so don’t stand near it.

Boarding Party

If you are selected to be the boarding party of the “Away Team”, you will get to have the joy of using your [Goblin Rocket Pack] to board the opposing Gunship. Just remember to equip the Rocket Pack to your shirt slot, and add it to your action bars for easy use.

When the opposing Gunship calls out for the Mage to freeze your Cannons, that is the queue for the “Away Team” to hop on over and kill that Mage. Make sure your tank jumps over first so that he can keep you safe from Saurfang or Bronzebeard.

After the Mage is dead, it is recommended that the “Away Team” return back to the ship before Saurfang or Bronzebeard builds up too many stacks of Battle Fury, which will pretty much allow them to kill your tank very easily. Make sure you return to your ship BEFORE your tank does. If he leaves before you, that will leave Saurfang or Bronzebeard to kill any stragglers.

While you are on your ship waiting for the enemy Mage to appear, you will be helping with any adds on your ship.

Strategy

Cannon Gunners attack enemy ship, “Away Team” kills Mages, “Home Team” kill adds. Rinse and repeat. Take down the enemy ship’s HP before they take down your ship. Collect your loot.

Mage Loots:

[Midnight Sun] (10N)
[Muradin's Spyglass] (10N)
[Ring of Rapid Ascent] (25N)
[Amulet of the Silent Eulogy] (25N)
[Gunship Captain's Mittens] (25N)
[Corp'rethar Ceremonial Crown] (25N)
[Midnight Sun] Heroic (10H)
[Muradin's Spyglass] Heroic (10H)
[Ring of Rapid Ascent] Heroic (25H)
[Amulet of the Silent Eulogy] Heroic (25H)
[Gunship Captain's Mittens] Heroic (25H)
[Corp'rethar Ceremonial Crown] Heroic (25H)

A lot of good drop for Mages from the “Lootship Battle”. The only item that is iffy, is the Midnight because of the mp5 on it. I personally have been passing them to any healers that needed them. If no healers needed it, only then I would grab it. There are plenty of weapon alternatives out there.

[General Strategy used was taken from WoWHead.com]

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Year of the Tiger: So Far So Good

Tuna — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:47:53 +0000

Happy (Lunar) New Years to those of you out there who celebrate it. 2010 is the year of the Tiger and like the title says, so far so good.

I got to visit family and friends, collected some Red Envelopes, visited a temple, and bought one of those scratch off lottery tickets to test my luck. Won ten bucks! Looks like I got Lady Luck on my side this year.

Happy New Years everyone!