Frost Mages - Very cool

The graphic to the left comes from Sons of the Storm, makers of some really nice art. I found it particularly nice because it captures the power of the gnome mage, allowing him look like a formadable adversary instead of a lawn ornament, without completely losing the wow graphics style (aka, the "cartoon feel"). It's very apropos of where I am with mages right now (my current alt is at 54). Mages are becoming for me everything that I want in a character.

They can provide buffs (I'm talking about "drive-by buffs" here -- the kind you toss on a complete stranger before saddling up and riding off). Don't ask me why, but I love random buffing. I always felt like I was missing something when I would play my rogue, get a buff, and just have to be satisfied with returning a "ty".

They are powerful, but more imporantly, they feel powerful. You see that windup and release of a bolt of pure fire/frost and it impacts with authority. Shadowpriests and locks might do more damage, but DoTs and silly string assaults just aren't very visceral.

They are extremely hard to kill (only talking PvE here - I have no experience with PvP). I'm die-hard frost, and although I've flirted with fire, frost is just so forgiving of my lackadasical leveling style that it's a better fit for me. For example, I had what was supposed to be a single-mob pull go bad. I got an add, then another add. Two of them were frost resistant, so that made frost nova only about 50% reliable. However, a polymorph and a water elemental summon made this trivial (ok, I did run around like a crazy person, but I never lost any significant health). And I didn't even have to burn my Cold Snap CD.

Teleports, which I thought were just a gimmick, are very useful for leveling. I pop from continent to continent and rarely have to burn my hearth. And it's fun to open portals, too.

My disclaimers are many:

• I've had a brief flirtation with fire and no time at all with arcane, but I'm happy enough with frost that I don't see any reason to switch while I'm still leveling
• I don't PvP ('nuff said)
• I have no experience with AoE - I'm using frostbite, so all my combats are pretty much single target.
  
• I haven't grouped at all. Old world leveling is pretty much a solo affair, so we'll see how I feel once I get to Outland and start doing instances (assuming I make it before WotLK!).

The irony of all this that my very first char in WoW was a mage that I never got the hang of and eventually deleted. So anyway, my new plan for WotLK (for today, at least) is: keep my preist healing, use my mage for dps, try and learn how to play my rogue better (melee has always been problematic for me). I'm strongly considering switching my main to my mage, but I want to max level him before I make that decision (and I guess I'll need to think of a new name for the blog!).