[Mage] BigPulls AOE Grinding Guide

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When I first heard aboutWhen I first heard about this back in 2.# it was get to level 30 first then aoe grind.
Well as my luck right after getting a mage to 30 it seems that bliz said enough, at least that is what I saw.
You started with the worgens in darkshire. Seems that bliz stuck in a mage in every pack which is DEATH big time.
I soon gave up and eventually deleted the character.
Now I see that its level 20 to start now.
but some are saying that this area in wetlands has been changed to include casters as well.
The mobs in plaguelands now throw fear and they said its not just cast, its spammed faster than you can say OUCH if you try to do aoe there now.

I would like to hear from comments from someone doing this now.
NOT level 80 and give some real info on whats going on with this at lower levels.

Even better with a friendIf you’re friend happens to be a prot spec’d paladin. Have the pally round up the mobs and build a little threat, then blizzard the mobs into the dust. This match up works really well. The mobs will die much more quickly than they would for the paladin alone (invulnerable but slow killing machines) and is much safer for the mage (mighty fast killing machine that bruises easily).

This has worked amazingly well for me. Unfortunately, my friend prefers his rogue. Go figure.

Blizzard now critsBlizzard was given the ability to crit with patch 3.0 (I’m pretty sure it was that one.) Most of the Frost AoE guides predate the patch, so there’s a lot of confusion about this.

Personally, I don’t aoe grind much, but I do use blizzard a lot. I’ve got shatter and frostbite fully talented as well as Improved Blizzard. Now that blizzard crits, it’s the rare mob that will escape your first Blizzard alive. Any that do will have low health. Just kite the remainders around using fire blast and cone of cold, or let them group up on you again (you do have ice barrier, right?) and frost nova them before blinking and blizzarding again.

Also, it’s probably obvious, but don’t try this on elites. You’ll be oom before they’re dead. 🙁

I’m confused by thisI’m confused by this comment.

A lot of posts I’ve read about aoe grinding indicate that Frostbite is a nightmare since it will cause your enemies to “un-pack” themselves when some are frozen and others are not. Also, I think Blizzard can crit regardless of whether or not you’ve taken World in Flames.

Lvl Times3-6 hours to get from 1 to 20 is impossible outside of instance lvling tricks or other exploits which Blizzard is not too happy about. Stating as such will make people now leveling think they are doing something wrong.

I definitely second theI definitely second the Shattered Barrier. It’s an awesome talent for AoE’ing with blizzard.

Frostbite can be potent!When you get the talent World in Flames it gives your Blizzard a chance to crit, which makes Frostbite and Shatter a great combo whilst AoE grinding. 🙂

Take your time, no need toTake your time, no need to hurry up 🙂

Thanks, I got the video back in TBCI like your additions. I’ll record my own video of my mage when he was level 30. Maybe after Christmas?

it can also come in handy for questsI personally found AOE Grinding helpful when I followed Jame’s Quest guide to 80. On kill quests, I would kill half of the required kills in one pull and finish most quests in under 3 minutes!

Videos are outdated.Hello, I appreciate this guide about AOE grinding, as I see often mages making big pulls while I do single target killing 🙂 The first video you linked (and also the chapter II of the same autor) is outdated. I believe that the way AOE grinding is done is correct with the 3.0 patch. After viewing those videos I find myself disagreed with the talent tree you linked in step 3: actually in the video the author specifies some things , such as Frostbite is useless and he hints to go on with Arcane after having maxed out Frost. For these reasons, I’d like to have an opinion for you and other expert mages outta here about this spec:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0VZZcIcIsfuhfdgbst

I think that Shattered Barrier is very good, it seems to be an additional Frost Nova, so additional chance to run away when the Ice Barrier is broken. Also I think that the last talent of the tree is useless in PvE, I can’t see the reason to stun a mob that is already frozen… 🙂
Other things about the spec are:

-Empowered Frostbolt is good only when you get to Outlands because in Azeroth there is few + spell power equipment;
-Impoved Frost Elemental is wonderful for its mana bonus, it reduces the downtime a little;

I can’t think of more additions, I’d only like to have some opinions about what I’ve wrote.
Thanks in advance,
Ben ^^

The video is great

When IThe video is great 🙂

When I play my frost mage, I personally don’t grind. I just follow my quest circuits and whenever the slightest AoE opportunity arises, I go for it, while completign quest objectives 😉