The Dungeons of Northrend: A Guide for Mages

Welcome to the beginning of my Dungeon Guide for Mages.  In this one we are going to look at the dungeons of Northrend, both regular and heroic.  These are in order of difficulty for the regular ones, so as you level up you can go right down the list.  Each instance review will look at two things; the instance as a whole, namely anything you should know in things like how to proceed, anything to look out for as you do, and anything about the mobs that is of particular interest to a mage, and then each boss encounter.  For each boss I will discuss anything a mage should keep in mind during the battle and any loot they can drop which you should be hoping for.  I tried to keep it pretty spoiler free, but there will be some references to story arcs and whatnot, so you have been warned.

This guide will not discuss any achievements in particular, although you may get them by accident following the guide.  If you are to the point you are going into these instances looking to top off your achievement list, then you are already probably geared above what you can get in these places and so the guide won't be as useful to you.

Also, if you are doing these places on heroic, don't forget your Emblems of Triumph you will be raking in.  Getting your Tier 9 (Horde/Alliance) set as quickly as possible along with the trinket and ring if you need them, too.  So, with no further ado:

Random Dungeon Guide

What started as one giant blog, I now split up into two parts, so the next post will be the guide to the dungeons of Northrend.  If that goes well, I may go further back, but truthfully, not many people will stay at the level where the loot from the dungeons is all that important, since it will be replaced right quick.  This guide will look at the finder as a whole, and what you can do as a mage (and some points will benefit all classes) to help make your time as enjoyable and profitable as is possible.

The Wait is Done, and it is Glorious

Just a quick heads up, for those that it matters too.  I finally got my computer fixed all up last night, and got to jump on wow for a nice 3 hours last night, about 2 hours more than I was planning, but so it goes (especially when netherweave was so cheap last night and I have some tailoring to grind on the mage now that I dropped mining).  This doesn't matter to much for the blog other than I should be able to start uploading pictures from raids and whatnot, so hopefully that makes things here at least more bright and pretty...or something anyway.

Cataclysm Item Revamp

I know this is a bit premature, but as I understand it now, I am pretty excited for the gear changes coming up for the Cataclysm expansion.  For the most part, itemization is going to be simplified across the board; all classes, all specs, all gear slots.  It reminds me a bit more of how Diablo 2 did gear, where your core stats are key, mastery is similar to D2's +skill stat, and there is no spellpower nor armor penetration.  (Edit: the minute I wrote this sentence, I looked back at old D2 weapons and armor, and apparently I remembered it somewhat wrong.  There was attack rating and mana regen bonuses, but still, it seemed to more simple at the time, so I am sticking with my original feelings on this.)

As a mage I am excited to pay attention to intellect again, it just feels right.  In the same breath I am crazy excited to be able to ignore spirit again, as well, spirit is just a poor excuse for more crit right now, and that's about it.  Likewise, I think the mastery system will be a nice way to give us our bonuses to damage, crit, haste, etc that we always strive for without needing to place them as three or five point talents in each tree that give the illusion of having more choices than there really are.  'Oh you mean I can either get 6% more frost damage or...not have it?  Well, in that case then, I spose I will have the more damage, thanks?' 

Now my main point for these changes; I am guessing there will be a 4.0 patch that comes out just prior to Cataclysm itself, similar to the 3.0 patch were inscription was added prior to Wrath, that will change the item stats on what we are already wearing.  This won't be an issue for the mage only stuff you have equipped, like your tier items and whatnot, but that does mean that any item you have that is technically a priest item, even if it was better than the more dps slanted item you had prior, may no longer be that little bit better after the change.  All that I am getting at with this is that it might be in your best interest to throw that dps item in the bank, just to see how it compares after the new patch.  You do have some time though, so don't worry too much about it yet, but probably after summer time you might want to be more cautious with dumping some things.

Mageling Pointers

Upon finding Khi's call for some Elders' insight, I thought it would be a good chance to get something with sustenance on my fledgling blog. In the next few hundred or thousand words I will take a look at all of the things (in my humble opinion) mages should keep in mind whilst learning the ropes to being the spell-slinging master they are destined to be: