Tag Archives: Mage

Arcane Brilliance: Old mage armor sets and how to get them, part 2

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we talk more about transmogrification, that oh-so-exciting upcoming feature in patch 4.3 that allows us to make our sweet tier 17 sets look like greens we got while questing in 2004. The aught-fours are so in right now!

Last week, we started our epic journey into old content to find some sweet retro threads for our totally trendy mages to wear at all the hottest mage events of the season, be they spellstealing soirées, Polymorph parties or warlock-wienie-roasts. This week, we delve into slightly more recent content.

Before we begin, we should point out a few important transmogrification details we’ve learned since we convened last week.

  • Apparently only items with stats are candidates for transmogrification — and by stats, I mean “other than armor.” That rules out most cosmetic items. So no running around wielding a fish in each hand while raiding, I guess. Unless you can find a pair of fishes with stats on them, I guess.
  • Weapons and off-hand items can only be transmogrified into similarly slotted items. That means no running around with two staves or dual-wielding daggers or perhaps a lantern in each hand. I don’t know what you people are into …
  • Heirlooms are eligible, so good news for you speed levelers. Now you’re not stuck for 80 levels with a single armor model.
  • The gold cost isn’t set but will probably be similar to reforging, meaning it will scale, being more expensive the higher the level of your equipped item happens to be — so maybe not as much of a massive gold sink as I originally feared.
  • No legendary items, which I sincerely hope changes at some point. I feel like if you earned a freaking legendary item, you should be able to keep that model on your upgraded gear if you want. Forever.
  • All of this is still entirely subject to change.

And with that out of the way, on to some more of the armor sets you and I should both be hunting down and squirreling away right this very second.

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Arcane Brilliance: Old mage armor sets and how to get them, part 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: Old mage armor sets and how to get them, part 1

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female mage blizzard official art

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we’re talking about the stuff I now pledge to spend all my waking moments and most of my sleeping ones farming outdated content to obtain: old mage armor.

So what’s this I hear about some newfangled patchamajigger? Transmogrifica-hoochawhatsit? Whachama-void storage? You kids and your crazy doodads and gizmos.

There’s a buttload of info being released about patch 4.3, but the following literally leaped from the web page as I was reading it, plunged through my widening eye sockets and jacked directly into the pleasure centers of my brain:

  • Patch 4.3 will be bringing us at least two massively important customization options.
  • We will be able to replace the look of our current gear with the look of any other mage gear we possess.
  • We will also have new storage space in which to store all of that gear.

There are more details, and you should go read about them if you haven’t already. But what we really need to discuss here is how we can best start doing what I’m positive we all desperately want to be doing right this very second: hunting for sweet-looking gear sets. I don’t know about you, but I am going to transmogrify every single bit of my tier 12 set the very instant it is possible for me to do so. I will log out on patch night in front of the spot where the transmogrifier guy is going to spawn; then when the servers come back up, I will log in and shove my gold in his pockets as forcefully as I can, so that I don’t have to look like a stupid mage candle any longer than absolutely necessary.

But the questions I’m asking myself between that magical moment and this one are these: Which gear set do I want to replace it with, and what can I do right this moment to get that gear set in my inventory and ready to deploy the moment such a deployment becomes possible? Click through to see me attempt to answer my own questions.

Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: Old mage armor sets and how to get them, part 1

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Arcane Brilliance: Old mage armor sets and how to get them, part 1 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: Addons your mage should probably be using

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we’ll be talking about ways we can make something that is already awesome (being a mage) even better. It’s like when you take heaping bowl of Joss Whedon and add in a liberal sprinkling of Nathan Fillion. Yummy.

I know, I know. We already get to fling massive, flaming boulders at warlock faces. Also, we wiggle our fingers and delicious cake spontaneously appears. Being a mage is already as close to nirvana as mortals can hope to aspire to. How can that experience be improved?

The answer is simple: more warlock-killing. And more cake! Also?

Addons.

They come in all shapes and sizes, and your particular load-out may differ greatly from those of other mages you know. I’m not here to tell you you’re wrong. I am here, though, to spotlight a few of those addons that have improved my experience the most of late. Join me, won’t you? I promise both brevity and wit. Mostly brevity. Cake and warlocks are available in the foyer. Only one is edible, but both are cooked to perfection.

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Arcane Brilliance: Addons your mage should probably be using originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: The state of the frost mage

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, though, we’re all about frost mages. In case you aren’t one, frost mages are the spec to be when fighting anything in Molten Core in 2005.

Just kidding. I kid because I love, guys. If the joke hits a little too close to home, though, it’s because there’s a very real, very prevalent, very false perception out there. It goes something like this:

Frost is for PVP. It isn’t viable for raiding.

This sentiment has been around at various levels of general acceptance since patch 1.1, and even in the most enlightened corners of Azeroth, you’ll still find those willing to perpetuate it. But then again, you’ll also find people still willing to perpetuate things like racism and gender bias, so I guess ignorance, like a weed or a cockroach or a warlock, is remarkably resilient.

At any rate, in today’s State of the Frost Mage address, you’ll no doubt discover a recurring theme. That theme is this:

Frost is absolutely, positively viable.

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Arcane Brilliance: The state of the frost mage originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: The state of the fire mage

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we resume our three-part look at the current state of the mage nation. If you say that fast, it totally sounds like “imagination.” DELIGHTFUL.

I am so sorry, guys. I want to write this column. I want to write it every week. Given the choice, I’d like to write it every damn day. I have an incredibly demanding work and family schedule these days. Each week, it’s like a magician’s trick trying to produce enough time to sit down and provide you guys with a quality column, and some weeks, I wave my hands and say the magic words, and a puff of smoke appears, and when it fades … nothing’s there. I’m working very hard to change my current schedule, though, enabling me to have a regular, slightly more controllable block of time every seven days during which to deliver you something worth reading. So take heart, and keep me in your prayers or thoughts or whatever it is that you think will help, you godless heathens. And if you want someone to blame for the recent irregularity of Arcane Brilliance, blame my children. They are time-destroying merchants of pure evil, and I tell them so as often as I can. Keeps them in line.

Anyway, I know when I wrote the state of the arcane mage column way back in June, I remember promising two more columns, touching upon the current state of affairs for the other two mage specs. It is almost August now. Yikes. Why do you guys put up with my nonsense?

Without further delay, I present to you the 2011 state of the fire mage address, delivered to you from a pulpit of pure flame perched upon the highest peak in the Firelands, to a congregation of mages seated within an auditorium constructed entirely of flaming warlock skulls. It’s incredibly uncomfortable, but also crazy-epic.

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Arcane Brilliance: The state of the fire mage originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Classifieds: The birth of a mage tank

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The Classifieds brings you weekly news from around the WoW community, including our famous Random Acts of Uberness shout-outs to players who make your WoW sessions memorable.

Yes, Virginia, mage tanks do exist. While I wouldn’t call them a common occurrence, this PUG member was thrilled to find himself becoming a mage tank in this instance run:

My name is Kardas, from Emerald Dream, and I’m a mage. On Tuesday, July the 12, I was running a regular Vortex Pinacle with a friend when the tank and the only other plate wearer (My friend the DK, who happened to have atank spec) dc’d. This left a Restoration Shaman named Blowmytotem of Stormreaver, and a Moonkin named Guudru from Twisting Nether, and me, directly at the begining on the instance. I a bit better geared for the instance so we said, ‘What the heck, let’s try mage tanking the thing’. They we’re great about everything, even everytime I screwed up and got the Moonkin killed. It took about 3 hours, but we finished it, including Al’akir. They are now some of my favorite people on WoW, for everything they’ve done.

They deserve to get recognized for this, so I figured I’d drop a line and see if I could get this up. It would be really appreciated!

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The Classifieds: The birth of a mage tank originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: The two-button mage myth

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we dispel mage-related myths, expose wizardly untruth, and separate magical fact from fiction … just like the Mythbusters, only with more Fireballs.

You may not believe this, but lately I’ve been finding something more annoying than the continued existence of warlocks. I know, I know. Crazy, right? What could possibly be more annoying than our emo-loving, Hot Topic-frequenting, mascara-laden, parent-hating nemesises? Nemesi? Apparently the dictionary says “nemesis” is its own plural, which is just … boring.

Anyway, the answer to the question that I just pretended you asked is this:

“Mages are a two-button class.” — The internet

These days, you literally can’t post the word “mage” anywhere on the web without someone, usually multiple people, posting some poorly spelled, perplexingly punctuated amalgam of the above words. It’s usually intended as an indictment of the class, a dismissal of what non-mages feel is the simplistic nature of of our major DPS spell rotations. The assumption is that mages are an easy, boring class to play, that one could be a successful mage simply by drunkenly alternating pressing two buttons.

For a very long time, it was easy for me to ignore this. It was stupid, and false, and perpetuated by non-mages who were either clear trolls or outright ignorant. But lately, I’ve been hearing self-deprecating versions of this same phrase from actual, honest-to-goodness mages. Are we really buying into the ignorant assumptions of the rest of the community? It was at that moment that I realized that it was time I addressed what I call the two-button myth.

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Arcane Brilliance: The two-button mage myth originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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frost mage spec guide for levelling

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Frost Mage has been largely seen as a PvP spec, but don’t let them fool you – a player who plays their Mage skillfully can be a giant in terms of fast levelling and high damage in dungeons and raids in addition to being a formidable foe on the battlegrounds or in the arena.

There are subtle differences in the talent configurations in order to be successful as a Frost Mage in different areas of the game.

Note, although this is a Frost Mage guide, often many Frosties have points in the Arcane tree as well, making us a Frost/Arcane mix if truth be told.

Gear Choices, 1-56

Go for Stamina and Intellect as a priority in your gear for this range of play.

What about those extra gear bonuses? Spell Damage and Spell Hit and things that restore Mana every 5 seconds?

Spell Damage is a higher priority than Spell Hit while levelling, although Spell Hit can help you lower resists when fighting against mobs higher level than you are. MP5 gear comes around more frequently in the Outland, too.

When in a group with a healer, be sure to check that Spell Damage gear to ensure its Healing bonus is equal or less than the Spell Damage. If Healing bonus is higher, let the Healer get first crack at the gear.

Massive gear upgrades, 57-59

In this level range, Outland gear becomes available from those doing low-level Outland quests and selling the green BOE drops in the Auction House.

Outland gear is often a significant stat and +damage upgrade to the things you’ll be wearing as you approach this level range.

As you approach level 57, visit the Auction House on occasion to pick up a new wardrobe of gear that you can quickly switch over when you hit 57, 58 and 59.

Again, go for Stamina and Intellect as a priority in your gear for this range of play, but you’ll find that there’s a fair amount of gear with both stats plus +spell damage and healing on them that you can pick up as well. Spell Hit and MP5 gear is still lower priority during levelling through the Outland.

Gear Choices, 60-69

Outland gear is much more clear in terms of who gear is generally best for.

That being said, Mages have a lot of gear competition, especially in groups: Prime competitors for gear will be Warlocks, Shadow Priests and even Moonkin Druids on occasion. Remember to share with your teammates ;)

Priorities on Stats on Mage levelling gear remains the same: Intellect, Stamina, Spell Damage, MP5 and Spell Hit – in that order.

Sockets are introduced in this level range for all players, and this guide recommends the addition of +spell damage gems in all of the slots, no matter what color the slot itself asks for in order to get the socketing bonus. Most socket bonuses aren’t worth sacrificing the +spell damage.

“Mage AOE spec”

Name commonly given to the talent configuration aimed towards gathering up multiple mobs at once, keeping them slowed or iced in place, and downing them all together.

The “Blizzard” skill is required for this strategy, and since it isn’t obtained until level 20, a Mage must make their way through quests and mob grinding to get to 20 in order to being the faster progression that AOE grinding can offer. At around level 28 things get easier thanks to more talent points that strongly affect this strategy of play.

The final spec you’ll end up at as a level 70 is a Frost/Arcane mix.

Sample Mage AOE spec/talent build development:

  • lvl 20

  • lvl 30
  • lvl 40
  • lvl 50
  • lvl 60
  • lvl 70

5-man dungeon spec, clear to heroic

Talent configuration built on high damage output and improved crowd control
Sample spec: lvl 20, lvl 40, lvl 60, lvl 70

Raiding spec, Karazhan and beyond

Talent configuration built on high damage output and improved mana efficiency
Sample spec: lvl 20, lvl 40, lvl 60, lvl 70

PvP Spec

Talent configuration built on slowing and stopping opponents while delivering damage with high levels of penetration
Sample spec: lvl 20, lvl 40, lvl 60, lvl 70

This article was originally posted on and is © 2004-2009 WoWGrrl.com – visit WoWGrrl’s World of Warcraft blog for more tips and tricks, videos and writings about World of Warcraft



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20-60 aoe mage grinding spots

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(Level: 14-15) Savannah Lions – SW of Sludge Fen (Barrens)

(Level: 16-18) Venture Co. – Boulderlode Mine (Barrens)

(Level: 17-19) Stonesplinter Troggs – Ironband Excavation Site (Loch Modan)

(Level: 17-23) Mosshide Gnolls – Near Loch Modan Entrance [Few Casters] (Wetlands)

(Level: 19-21) Ravenclaw Undead – Beren’s Peri (Silverpine Forest)
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I suggest to do quests until level 20 and then start to do aoe at the places belove ( since frankly, you wont do that good before u get some talent into frost tree imp blizzard and the fact that you don`t get blizzard before lvl 20 :> so you will do more xp pr hour by questing and stuff :> from lvl 1 -20

Level: 25-29) Skeletal Undead – Raven Hill Cemetary (Duskwood)
(this is a GREATE spot also the Gy is really close ( not that greate for horde tho, since there is quite alott of allys add`s around :>)

(Level: 21-24) Bael’dun Dwarves – Bael’Dun Dig Site (Barrens)
( very easy to get adds =( so pay attention to mobs around before pull, since its a loooong walk from gy)

(Level: 21-25) Foulweald Furbolgs [Bring a Healer] (Ashenvale)

(Level: 21-26) Shadowhide Gnolls (Redridge Mountains)

(Level: 22-26) Hillsbrad Farmers/Peasants – Hillsbrad Fields (Hillsbrad Foothills)
(you shod bring a mage friend or a healer for this, since you often get adds. ( you shod also pick up the quest for this spot in tarren mill(Horde), since the you do get somewhat decent xp from those)

(Level: 23-31) Highperch Wyverns (Thousand Needles)

(Level: 25-32) Dragonmaw Orcs – Angerfang Encampment [Few Casters/Bring Healer] (Wetlands)

(Level: 26-28) Plague Spreaders – Raven Hill Tomb (Duskwood)

(Level: 26-28) Hillsbrad Miners/Sentrys- Azureload Mine (Hillsbrad Foothills)
(I sugest to bring another mage or a priest here, since u dont get alott of space to move in therefore cant use blizzard to well, and mobs hit kinda hard)

(Level: 28-30) Nightbane Worgens – Near Rotting Orchard (Duskwood)

(Level: 29-33) Syndicate Humans – North of Tarren Mill (Alterac Mountains)

(Level: 29-35) Sparkleshell Turtles – Shimmering Flats (Thousand Needles)

(Level: 30-32) Cave Yeti’s (Hillsbrad Foothills)

(Level: 30-33) Mountain Yeti’s (Alterac Mountains)

(Level: 30-34) Salt Flats Vultures/Scavengers – Shimmering Flats (Thousand Needles)

(Level: 33-35) Dabyrie Humans – Dabryie’s Farmstead (Arathi highlands) (HORDE)
This spot is amazing, I would advise doing this area until 37-38

(Level: 33-35) Hammerfall Orcs – Go’shek Farm (Arathi Highlands) (ALLIANCE)

(Level: 33-36) Silithids – Shimmering Flats (Thousand Needles)
Shimmering flats is to spread out i never did it

(Level: 33-36) Crushridge Ogres (Alterac Mountains)
I’ve ran through here, I never personally grinded here but it is a viable spot, the mobs are kinda spread out though

(Level: 33-36) Scorpid Reavers/Terrors – Shimmering Flats (Thousand Needles)
same as before

(Level: 33-40) Saltstone Basilisks – Shimmering Flats (Thousand Needles)
The Basilisks are grouped nicely but personally there are not enough to make it worthwhile

(Level: 35-38) Mirefin Murlocs – NE of Zone (Dustwallow Marsh)
The next best spot, For a frost mage i’d advise doing this spot until 44, just a filler until you get your next blizzard

(Level: 35-38) Syndicate Humans – North of Zone [One Caster per Camp] (Alterac Mountains)
Never liked it, tried it a little bit

(Level: 35-39) Darkmist Spiders – North of Brackenwall Village (Dustwallow Marsh)

(Level: 36-39) Lesser Rock Elementals – NW Corner (Badlands)
Not enough mobs to make worthwhile

(Level: 36-40) Bloodfen Raptors – NE of Brackenwall Village (Duskwallow Marsh)
Seem to be spread out

(Level: 37-39) Elementals [Various Locations & Types] (Arathi Highlands)

(Level: 37-40) Shadowforge Dwarves – Agnar Fortress [Few Casters] (Badlands)
The casters make this a pain

(Level: 39-44) Woodpaw Gnolls (Feralas)
The gnolls have a few ranged mobs, so as a frost mage I did not find this spot to be suitable

(Level: 40-43) Grimtotem Tauren (Feralas)
Again some casters, not advisable, depending on your aoe spec

(Level: 40-45) Wastewater Bandits (Tanaris)
The bandits have casters mixed in, to me there was not enough of these mobs to make it worthwhile, I’d advise doing the murlocks

(Level: 40-45) Southsea Pirates (Tanaris)
Ahhh now LOST RIGGER COVE is where its at. On my server not many people grind this area. I catagorized the area into 5 pulls, will last me until 52. At level 51 im able to grind 40k/hr.

(Level: 41-47) Green Sludges (Hinterlands)

(Level: 41-48) Dark Iron Dwarves [Various Locations] (Searing Gorge)

(Level: 42-48) Dunemaul Ogres (Tanaris) http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/map.htm…zoneid=1015

(Level: 45-50) Thistleshrub Elementals (Tanaris)

(Level: 46-47) Rage Scar Yeti’s (Feralas) http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/map.htm…zoneid=1009

(Level: 46-51) Nethergarde Humans (Blasted Lands)
Good spot to level besides the fact of not being able to mount in the mine, a few ranged mobs, not advised unless you have no other option

(Level: 47-50) Northspring Harpies (Feralas) http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/map.htm…zoneid=1009
Have alot of casters mixed in with them

(Level: 47-50) Ravasaur Raptors (Un’goro Crater)

(Level: 47-50) Deadwood Furbolgs (Felwood) http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/map.htm…zoneid=1008
Have ranged

(Level: 48-54) Jadefire Saytrs [Various Locations] (Felwood)

(Level: 49-50) Saltwater Snapjaw- East Coast (Hinterlands)

(Level: 49-54) Thunderhead Hippogryphs – Northern Peninsula (Azshara)

(Level: 49-55) Jaedenar Forces (Felwood)
Just a bad spot

(Level: 50-52) Felstone Fields [Few Casters] (Western Plaguelands)
The casters don’t make it worthwhile in my opinion

(Level: 50-53) Flamekin Imps [Various Locations] (Burning Steppes)

(Level: 50-54) Warpwood Elementals (Felwood)

(Level: 52-56) Sorrow Hill [SE of Anderhol] (Western Plaguelands)

(Level: 52-58) Ice Thistle

This article was originally posted on and is © 2004-2009 WoWGrrl.com – visit WoWGrrl’s World of Warcraft blog for more tips and tricks, videos and writings about World of Warcraft



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Arcane Brilliance: Beginner’s guide to being a mage

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we’re taking a trip through the first 20 levels of the game, which are now eternal. The important thing to remember about rolling a mage is that you’ve made the right choice; congratulations.

Between the newly adopted unending demo, the extended Recruit-a-Friend promotion, and the freshly bargain-priced WoW/The Burning Crusade bundle, it seems Blizzard is making a concerted effort to woo new players. And from my limited viewpoint, it seems to be working.

I have a brother, a year and some change younger than me, who doesn’t live near me. This sucks, because he and I have absolutely everything in common. We grew up taking turns watching each other play Shining Force, or designing Dungeons & Dragons campaigns to force each other to play through, but then college, family, and career separated us. I’m here in Las Vegas playing copious amounts of video games and ignoring my kids, and he’s at Purdue, working on his doctorate and just generally making me ashamed of the waste my life has become. Naturally, I’ve been trying for years to drag him down to my level. Thus far he’s resisted, but when I notified him of these new opportunities to play the game on the cheap, he finally took the plunge.

And rolled a warrior.

Sigh.

Oh well. At least it wasn’t a warlock, right?

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Arcane Brilliance: Beginner’s guide to being a mage originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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