All geared up now, are we?  Rocking all the requisite spellhit, a snazzy amount of spell power and a heaping helping of crit and haste?  Good.  It’s time to slay the drago… Wait, no, it’s time to raid!

hey guyz LOL want some lewt????

“Where do I start…?”

Well, I assume you ask this question form the perspective of someone in a non-raiding guild.  Because if you’re in a raiding guild, you should be going along with the raiding crew whenever possible.  Now, to answer the question, let’s hope you’re on an active server high population server, as it will make early raiding as easy as possible.  Use the LFG tool, and look for Vault of Archavon 10 and 25, Obsidian Sanctum 10 and 25 and Naxxramas 10 raids to start.  These are the 5 easiest and most common public raids to see.  I’m not going to detail what each raid entails.  That is the responsibility of the raider (You) to know what to expect inside. If all else fails, explain to the raid leader that you were taught Magecraft by Tzeriel.  You’ll get in, trust me.

“Any last minute preparations I should make?”

Water your plants, write a note and the load the gun with a single… Wait, wrong guide.  Make sure you have flasks, food and any other pertinent items you’ll need to bring, such as I carry a spell hit trinket in case no moonkin or shadowpriests show up.  Our only choice for flasks is Flask of the Frost Wyrm. As for food, assuming no Fish Feasts are dropped by the raid leader, you’ll either want to use Firecracker Salmon in most situations or Worg Tartare if you’re suffering from low hit rating.  If you’re raiding hard content, you may want to bring Potions of Speed or Mana Potions, though it generally isn’t needed for lesser content.  The best way to get all of these is to simply buy the base materials from the AH if you can’t farm them yourself and get a guild mate or friend to make them for you, again if you cannot make them on your own.  The last thing you’ll need is a mod.  Deadly Boss Mods.  I’ve been using this for years since the day it was released.  It keeps track of boss timers and abilities for you.  Very helpful.

“How can I tell how well I’m doing?”

Are bosses dying?  If so, everyone must be doing fine. You should have downloaded Recount before the raid, hell, before 5 mans, to give yourself a good idea of where you fall.  Don’t use this as an instrument of competition.  Use it to tune yourself to keep your rotations tight and your contribution to the raid high.  Whats that?  You don’t KNOW your rotation??

“Well, what the heck is my rotation?!  Hurry, we’re about to pull!”

If you’re trying to raid as Frost, stop reading now.  You’re a retard, and rotations and such will make no sense to your retarded brain.  No, seriously.  Stop reading.  Go away.

Are you Frostfire or Fireball/TotW spec?  If so, your rotation is VERY simple.  Follow this.

Profit.

Frostfire and Fire is a simple priority system.  The priority is: Scorch stacked to 5 and kept up at all times -> Living Bomb being up -> Insta Pyroblast -> Frostfire Bolt of Fireball.  Simple.  Your rotation never changes based on mana or what type of phase the boss is in.

Arcane is slightly more complicated.  I say slightly.  The rotations are simpler, but you need 3 of them as opposed to 1.  The Normal DPS rotation with Arcane is: Stack Arcane Blast (Henceforth, AB) to 4 stacks, use Arcane Missles (Henceforth, AM) if Missile Barrage has proc’d.  If it hasn’t proc’d, keep rifling out ABs until it does, then AM away.  Your rotation will change slightly if you’re very mana challenged for whatever reason, be it the fight or your gear.  The Mana rotation is: AB until Missile Barrage procs, then AM.  I don’t care if this is at 1 stack or 4.  If your AB reaches 4 stacks with no Missile Barrage proc, use Arcane Barrage (Henceforth, ABarr).  ABarr should N E V E R be used in a DPS rotation, except when you’re on the move.  Then there is the third, simplest and most dangerous rotation.  The Max DPS Burn.  This is as follows: AB until you have no mana.  This is the rotation you pick up when the boss is at 10% and you have 50% mana left.  This is the rotation you pick up if the boss needs taken out of a huge DPS output phase.  This is a VERY mana intense rotation, but VERY heavy DPS.

The trick to rotations it to keep them tight.  What do we mean by keeping them tight?  Less or no space between casts.  Minimal movement.  If Kel’Thuzad creates a void zone at your feet, you do not need to run across the zone to get away from it.  Take 2 steps, get 1 inch out of it and keep DPS going.  Anytime you’re not casting, you’re doing 0 DPS.  On that note, a dead or silenced. Mage always does 0 DPS.  Never finish a cast at the expense of a possible death.  Or getting your spells locked.  0 DPS is bad for you, it is bad for the raid.

“Anything else, Master?”

Lastly I will leave you with this.  Have fun.  Enjoy your Mage.  We are a class that has seen all angles of WoW, from overpowered 1 shot machine, to nerfed into the ground, to now having a resurgence in all areas of the game.  But there has always been 1 constant.  We’re fun.  In a world where every ability can be done by 2 or 3 classes, we stand alone with a few utilities like porting and food/water.  We’re the last unique class in WoW.

Mage.

Live it.  Love it. Pew Pew.

Any questions and/or comments about anything Mage related can be directed to my email or to @tzeriel on Twitter!