A Frustrated Mage... Needs some help

[comstuff234]

Im a lvl 13 troll mage. I have done almost every quest in dutoar except a couple. I have been asking around and when do I get to where better armor. I have killed several beast and such and I always find good/fair items that I would love to wear. You know like def 24 boots... or 25 wrist guards. I cant wear anything. Leather, mail (I know mail is for higher levels) but I end up giving to my friends who seem to have no restriction. When can I at least learn/be able to where leather. Right now I have 4 wrist, 25 chest, 5 back, 10 boots. basicaly stuff that gets me killed.

Here is my problem while fighting. Im in party of 3 and we are attempting dark storms. We get to fizzle and I draw out one of the guards. I frost bolt them, to slow them down but who do they attack ME! They run right past my buddy warrior, paldin and I have to retreat, (into the giant lizards) and they wack me dead in 3 swings. How can I make things stop chasing me. Espcially when Im in a party. We even tested it I had them tank on the baby raptor. same thing, I let the raptor's health get half way I fireball, instally stop going after my buddy and haul's balls to me!!. Any combat tips?

I can not for the life of me get past dark storms.. I need help or something for solo mage. How did you do it.

Anyway my first roadblock trying not to give up.

thanks

[Lothaer]

Mages, Priests and Warlock are stuck with cloth Period.

Mages, Priests, Warlock = Cloth
Rogue, Druid = Cloth and Leather
Hunter, Shaman, Cloth and Leather and Mail at lvl 40
Warrrior, Paladin = Cloth, Leather, Mail and Plate at lvl 40

sucks but thats the way it is.

[efindel]

Mage can be one of the harder classes to play, especially as your first class. Here's my suggestions:

- Either take tailoring as a profession, or make friends with a tailor. Unlike blacksmiths, who generally can't make as good armor for low level mail-wearers as they can get as drops, tailors can make good armor for low level cloth-wearers.

- Get bonuses onto your equipment. Enchanters can do +Armor to some items -- since cloth has such low armor values, the bonus it gives will be more significant to you. Leatherworkers can make leather "armor kits" that you can apply to some pieces of armor to improve them -- those can help a cloth wearer a lot too.

- Avoid melee. Learn to start attacking from maximum range. If something comes into melee with you, use Frost Nova to freeze it in place, spend a few seconds backing up, and start attacking again.

- A lot of people like the frost and fire trees, but I personally prefer the arcane tree. Here's why: 1. On the first row of arcane, you'll find improved arcane missiles, which will keep melee hits from taking time off your arcane missiles. This is great for when you can't avoid melee range, since you don't have the frustration of your damage output being torn to hell by their hits. 2. Also on the first row of arcane, you can take a threat reduction talent. Using this with arcane missiles when in a party makes it much less likely that the thing you're hitting comes after you. 3. Arcane missiles does a lot of smaller damage hits, instead of one bigger-damage hit. This means it builds aggro for you more slowly, and it's less likely to immediately un-root a frozen target -- which again helps you stay out of melee.

- You're going to wind up in melee sometimes -- so practice it against weaker opponents. Go find something to attack that's low green or grey for you, and fight it with your staff/sword/whatever. If it starts to take you down faster than you're taking it down, use some of your instant spells to help -- fire blast and arcane explosion, for instance. If you get in a really bad situation, frost nova, move back, and attack from range. This is so you get your Defense and weapon skills up to what they should be for your level, without having to die a lot -- Defense especially will help a lot if you're forced to go toe-to-toe. It's also so you can practice handling an opponent in melee, so you'll be more prepared for when one makes it to you.

- Once you've gotten good at handling one opponent, start taking on two humanoid or animal opponents, using Polymorph to keep one off you while you take down the other. This requires some practice, but it's a valuable skill. Since this is the UI customization forum, I'll note that focus macros can help with keeping one opponent polymorphed while fighting another -- my CCFocus addon can create focus macros for you semi-automatically, and there are other addons that can warn you when your sheep breaks, give you a frame to see your focus target so you can see the timer on the sheeping, etc.

- While I heartily recommend arcane spec, for defense, the rank 1 frost specialization talent that ups your frost armor bonus is great, especially at low levels. Arcane spec has one that will add a portion of your Intellect to your armor as well.

- And speaking of frost armor, never fight without some armor spell up. In the interface options, you can turn on timers to show under your buffs, so you can see when they're getting close to running out -- it's often better to be able to renew them when you have plenty of mana, even if there's three or four minutes left.

- Last, but not least, it may just be that mage isn't for you. Some people find that some classes just don't fit well with the way they naturally want to play. If you keep having a lot of trouble, consider rolling something else.

Good luck!