I didn't intend to write a post about what is a good mage build and tips for leveling a mage, but I decided to look and see what the guys at Killer Guide's have been up to.
Well, it's been a while since I reviewed Killer Guide's Hunter's Guide and Paladin's Guide and I thought I'd give each a look to see if they've been updated with all the new content from Wrath of the Lich King.
I was afraid I'd have to take Killer Guides off my recommend list, but both guides have been updated for WOTLK. That led me to check out The Unofficial World of Warcraft Mage Guide. I just started an alt and as my first mage, I can use some help.
I figured this would be a nice time to review the mage guide as well in case any of you were looking for a guide on how to play your mage.
The first thing I noticed about the Mage Guide is that it is written by Joe Prime (a pen name no doubt), who also wrote the Hunter Guide and the Paladin Guide - both of which are of very high quality.
The Guide is available as a PDF download and is 203 pages. I don't personally print my guides but the formatting looks very nice and I'm sure it would look great on paper. I'm also sure that it would take a ton of ink to print out these guides.
The first section of the guide is Character Creation. It starts by giving you server selection ideas which is pretty self-explanatory for most of us, but if you are brand new to WoW, I guess it would be helpful.
Next there are a few pages describing the different races and how each plays as a mage in WoW. I won't spoil all the details, but I'll say race isn't a huge factor in the success or failure of your mage. That's a good thing since I think most of us have already made that decision. If you want to make a brand new mage though, the info in here will help you squeeze every last drop of power out of your new toon.
The next section talks about the different stats and formulas and how useful each is for the mage. I find this information fascinating and it certainly helps me in gear selection.
General advice on how to play a mage along with the basic mage archetypes makes up the next section. Again, quite useful if you haven't already made your mage, but if you're already been playing your mage for a while this section is less useful. The information is still good and there are some good nuggets in there, but you've probably already learned a good deal of it by playing your mage. A short section regardless.
The next section is very useful if you PvP. It deals with how to PvP. As someone relatively new to PvP, I love this section. I feel like it evens the odds a bit for me. I make up for a lack of experience with knowledge.
The PvP section includes information about how to duel individuals of each class. Very useful info including how to best defeat each class based on how the class is specced.
Group PvP is also covered including the mage's role in PvP and specific group situations encountered in Battlegrounds and Arenas. Strategies are included for each separate Battleground and for all three arena possibilities. Great stuff.
If the PvP section is great, than the Talents section is incredible. This is by far my favorite section of the Killer Guides products. The talents are broken down into the three different talent trees.
These talents are then each given a page and are broken down with regards to a description, ranks, usefulness, and commentary.
The description tells what the talent does. It's good stuff, but a pretty basic description that you can get anywhere.
Ranks describes what you get for each rank invested in the talent. Again, this information is available all over the place.
Usefulness is where this section shines. Each talent is evaluated for its usefulness in group vs solo play and raid vs PvP play. Some talents are universally useful or useless, but others a situationally useful and this section shows you when each talent is useful.
Commentary is also quite useful as a short write-up of the talent is recorded. I generally agree with almost everything the authors says about the talents so I love this part.
The talents section is the meat of the guide and also takes up the most space. Almost half the guide covers the different talents available to mages.
Next up is the Build Section. This section is also golden. It lists six PVE builds including at least one devoted primarily to each tree. There are also seven PVP builds again with at least one from each tree. Choose the Mage Build that you think is right for you and experiment with it. Try another mage build out. With thirteen builds, you should find something you like.
My only real desire for this section would be to show the actual progression from 1-80 as opposed to what the final build looks like at 80. A minor point, but one that would make the guide better in my opinion.
The next section is one I could do without. It's the leveling guide, but it's really just generalities about where you should level as opposed to exactly what to do to level quickly. I much prefer the leveling guides that are just leveling guides as they do an outstanding job of showing you how to level quickly.
If you are seeking a Horde leveling guide, Joana's 1-80 Horde Leveling Guide is still the best. If you want an Alliance Leveling Guide, I'd go for Penn's Alliance Leveling Guide.
The section dealing with addons and macros comes next and is also quite handy. It lists a number of addons that each mage should have in addition to some very, very useful macros. I never fully utilized macros, but the few listed in here make my job much easier. A short section, but a good one.
Equipment is covered next and this section is quite useful. There are numerous pieces of equipment you can look for at different stages of your career and each are linked to wowhead for easy reference. There is also a discussion about gems which comes in handy. Another nice section.
The last two sections are rather bland to me. The first deals with Mage Quests and is useful, but the information is freely available from a number of sources. The nice thing is if you want to find out how to do a mage quest, you can look in your guide instead of Google, but I certainly wouldn't buy the guide for the quest section.
Likewise, I wouldn't buy the guide for the last section either - the money making section. It's not that there aren't good tips - it's just there are other guides that do a much better job if you are seriously interested in making gold.
Much like with the leveling guides, you'd be better off getting a specialized guide if you are looking to make money. I recommend the Gold Secrets Guide.
Overall, Killer Guides The Unofficial World of Warcraft Mage Guide is an outstanding resource for Mages. It's especially useful if you are trying to decide on a build or if you are interested in which talents best match your play style. If you are interested in it as a leveling guide or a gold guide, there are much better options.
The Mage Guide by itself is $29.99 and is a good value, but if you really want a lot of information about WoW and play multiple classes, you should consider Killer Guides' WoW Guides Package. It includes 20 different WoW Guides at an 84% discount at $79.99. I personally got the whole package and can tell you that Killer Guides does update the information and as they do, you get updates free of charge. I highly recommend Killer Guides.
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