User talk:Steve1985

- Watch Your Cooldowns Mage class is very different from other classes in that it has many spells with short cooldown times, and these spells also constitute the core arsenal for a mage. You should constantly monitor the time left on       Fire Blast; Frost Nova; Blink; and Counterspell, so as to maximize your damage and survivability. This is a bit harder than it sounds, since it       is very easy to develop "tunnel vision" when there are a lot of actions going on in the middle of your screen. You could use a mod to help you in this area, or you could just play more and eventually you will develop a sense of time as to when your cooldowns are about to expire, so that you don't have to watch them constantlywow power leveling.

The other aspect of "watching your cooldowns" is knowing when to use them, especially for your Frost Nova, Blink and Counterspell. For example, in most cases you don't want to blow both Frost Nova and Blink in short succession because after that you will have very little defense left. Similarly, you may not want to use Counterspell at your first opportunity, but reserve it for the more critical moments. The same goes for other cooldown-related abilities such as racial traits and PvP trinkets, I will say a few more words about them in later sectionswow power leveling.

- Move Even though you are a caster and many of your spells require you to be        stationary to cast, you shouldn't just stand at one place without moving an inch the whole time. On the contrary, moving is an integral part of mage combat because you need to constantly adjust the distance and facing between you and your enemy to take advantage of terrains and make sure your spells can hit him but he would have a hard time hitting you. This isn't just for when you are up against melee classes. For example, if you can run in circles around a caster such as a priest, he will have a very hard time in landing a spell on you due to facing requirement, while you can still blast him with your instant spells. The general rule is that you should be moving whenever your Global Cooldown (GCD) is up. - Learn to Multitask There will be plenty of times when you (and perhaps your teammates with       you) face multiple opponents, and this is where multitasking comes in: you need to juggle between doing damage; crowd control through Polymorph and snare; Counterspelling; moving; and staying alive. To        accomplish this you have to be quick in the eyes and fast at hands, shifting targets and spells constantly to meet any challenge your opponents throw at you and your team. This isn't something you can learn overnight just by reading some guides or watching some video clips, you really need to be in those situations to learn to not to        panic and cast the correct spells under pressure. As I've stated in the Introduction, the warlock class offers some great training on        multitasking, since you will be controlling both your character and your pet and coordinate between the two. If you can juggle three mobs or two players effortlessly on a warlock, then you are well on your way to become a good multitaskerpower leveling.

- Develop Fast Reflex and Good Anticipation These two are sort of tied together in that good anticipation will help you to react quicker. As an example of what I mean by "anticipation", let's say you are fighting a priest and all of a sudden he runs toward you, you should realize at this point that he is about to use Psychic Scream so have your finger ready on that trinket or WotF key. As for "fast reflex", any PvP mage should be able to Counterspell a 1.5 second cast under any circumstance. A mage with great anticipation and reflex such as Saerdna can Cold Snap and Ice Block within under a second after he senses a potential killing blow is coming.

- Create an Efficient and Effective Keybinding Scheme I won't get into the whole "Clicker vs. Keybinder" argument, because there is simply no debate whatsoever that keybinding is absolutely essential when it comes to PvP. To create a good keybinding scheme, I        suggest you to look at the spells you want to use, and the keys you can most comfortably and reliably reach during the heat of battle, then assign the most accessible keys to those spells that you use the most. You also need to think about what spells you may need to use while you are on the move, so that you can assign them to keys that you can still press easily while you are running. It will take a bit of work to get everything right, but you will be amply rewarded for your effort. This whole process varies from person to person, but if you need some ideas, you could check out the movie Sorrow Hill 5 from Otherguy, or you check out a later section (5.4) where I put down what keybindings I use.

- Watch Mage Videos and Learn One of the best ways to become better at a class is to learn from the masters. Over the years a few names stand out from the rest, they are Otherguy, Saerdna, and Vurtne. Even though their videos are mostly about World PvP, I strongly recommend that you watch them, because everything I've said in this section, such as "Watch Your Cooldowns", "Move", etc., is all superbly demonstrated in these videos. For more information about these videos, refer to the video section later in        this guide.