on mage leveling

Before I get to the topic at hand, allow me to squee just a little bit - a couple of weeks ago, I took my priest to Naxx10 again (run by my friends) and, well, let's just say I got geared up the heezy:

• [Agonal Sash]
• [Heroes' Leggings of Faith]
• And finally, the item I had been drooling over for a while: [Heroes' Shoulderpads of Faith]

Oh man, gentle reader (yes, the one of you that is out there!) you have no idea how long I have wanted my glowy angel wings. And now I have them! (Although I did not realize that the particle effect would look kind of funny from behind, but oh well.)

/end squee

And now: after months of procrastinating (actually, I prefer to think of it as a "vacation" of sorts), I have finally decided to level my first character, Adenine. But not as frost.

...Wait, what?

YES, that's right, she is fire now. She has never been a fire mage. I knew nothing about fire mages. Turns out, it's not as scary as I anticipated.

But before I could set foot in Northrend, I had to do something of the utmost importance:


New haircut FTW! Now moving on...

I read Ekye's mage guide on the Ensidia website (link is over there to the right somewhere). Excellent guide. I decided to go with his 0/51/20 build, for the fact that I will eventually be wanting to use the ever-so-sexy [Frostfire Bolt] as my main nuke (also includes the glyphs he recommended for MAXIMUM DEEPS).

Now, a few observations: one, I forgot how much effin fun it was nuking the shit out of things. (I guess leveling as a holy priest does that to you.)

Two: FIRE - HOLY CRAP WHY DID I NEVER TRY THIS BEFORE?! Seriously. Wow. I love frost, always have, always will...but damn have I been missing out.

Three: I did not anticipate how squishy I would be. Or how quickly I would run out of mana. Hurm. Must remember to investigate further.

Four: Jame's Horde Leveling Guide - okay, not really an observation, but I'm pretty sure that if I tried to level without it I would take much too long (most of the time spent leveling Illythia went something like: *runs around for twenty minutes* "Hurrrrr where's the next quest hub guise?"). As of tonight, Adenine is 72 (I started leveling her about two days ago). My goal right now is to get to 80 as quickly as possible, and this efficient little guide is working quite well for that.

Next post: Old school raiding, and Children's Week!

...or i'm psychic?

The Blizzard gods have answered my prayers!

In yesterday's post, I off-handedly mentioned how I would love to have my very own pack mule to carry around my bank items. Well...according to a recent mmo-champion post, this is actually something that will be implemented in an upcoming patch:

Pack Mule ?

• Pack Mule -- Summons a pack mule, giving you access to any bank items for 3 min. The mule may only be summoned once.
• Summon Faithful Mule -- Summons your faithful pack mule, giving you access to any bank items for 3 min.

This is awesome news! I wonder how people will be able to acquire these, though. Rep rewards? Or something really uber-expensive? There isn't anything much else in that post to explain it, so I guess we'll just have to find out.

There was something else in the upcoming patch notes that caught my eye, though. First, the good:

Priest

• Levitate can now be cast on other players. [Same with Slow Fall!]
  

Yay, minor woot? Sadly, the Blizzard gods are as fickle as they are generous. They will just as soon smite you as shower you with blessings, I soon found out:

• Glyph of Dispel Magic -- Your Dispel Magic spell also heals your target for 3% of maximum health. (Down from 6%)

Oh, LAME. Well, I guess that's not so bad.

• Circle of Healing now has a 6 second cooldown.

...Wait, what?

6 second cooldown

6 second cooldown?!

Major freaking QQ!

So I guess Blizz doesn't want us to rely too much on this spell. I won't know for sure how much of an impact this'll make until I hit 80 and start venturing into Naxxramas. However, it may not seem like a long time, but when everyone in your group is taking big hits six seconds can seem like an eternity.

I can't say I don't appreciate a challenge, but still: damn you, Blizz, for making me work harder! (I kid! But only a little, because I'm still QQ-ing.)

More on the recently released patch notes later.