Friday Top Five: Mage Raiding

Today's Top Five Countdown is for new to raiding mages.  These are five things I wish I had been told when I started.  For a twist, these will be delivered via puns, the lowest form of humor.

I must warn you though.  Puns have been known to drive even the most sane person into incredible fits of rage.  In fact, that German kid who raged out on his computer was fueled by his hatred for puns.  Had he not read my post, that keyboard would still be alive today.  You have been warned.

5. A WARD of Advice
Fire Ward and Frost Ward are huge, especially for Incanter's Absorption Arcane mages.  The extra shielding can help keep you alive (especially with your new to raiding stamina), and give you a serious boost in damage.  Also, if you do stand in a fire it may save you and you can claim you were doing it on purpose for spell damage.  I've used that one.

4. In the BLINK of an Eye
Blink is possibly your number one tool as a mage.  Movement is crucial in many fights and blink gets you where you need to be faster.  In addition, if you're snared or stunned, blink can often get you out of it.  Hotkey this ability and use it often.

3. VITAL to Success
Even though you'll be blinking often, movement speed is still the most important bonus you can have.  The Tuskarr's Vitality enchant will give you more time on target which will give you more damage than Icewalker.  EJ did a test and if you move for at least 4 seconds out of a minute, Tuskarr's is a DPS increase.

2. /POWA to the People
Addons can make a decent player a good player as well as making a good player a better player.  Power Auras Classic is probably the number one tool for increasing DPS for mages.  I throughly suggest learning and using that addon for all your buff tracking needs.  There are other addons out there but this is my blog and that's what I use, so its what I'm talking about.

1. Mana MANAGEMent
Especially when raiding arcane, mana management can be the difference between good and great dps.  You can't spell management without Mana Gem! A lot of times I forget to recast mana gems after attempts, and it really borks my normal burn, relax, burn, relax playstyle.  Make sure your gem is on a bar and in your face so you can actually refresh and use it for more AB spam.

God, I hate puns...