OK - farming Honor Hold Rep in HP taking the Towers, and got OWNED by a 66 Blood Elf Mage. UGH - I am soooo embarrassed. I don't PvP that much, but that's no excuse. I know I should be better at this. :shuffle:

I've done just fine with all other Classes, why can't I take a Mage? All Mages, no matter the race.

I've got to work on this. Can you guys give me some attack tips?

- Stun early, stun often. (Pounce, Maim, Feral Charge, Bash - use them all). Most Mages will blink out of the first stun. Charge and stun them again.
- Be prepared to shift often, especially against frost mages.
Shifting removes many debuffs that slow you down AND increase their damage on you.
- To survive the initial brunt, have HoTs on you and use regrowth after the first hit. Most Mages can deal amazing burst damage, but after they have used up their cooldowns they have nothing serious left.

Frost mages are easy since we can shift out of frost nova and any slows. Fire mages can be a LOT more difficult :(

Frost mages are easy since we can shift out of frost nova and any slows. Fire mages can be a LOT more difficult :(

A good frost mage can kite you very easily, regardless; druid versus frost mage is usually a battle of mana. Fire mages are challenging, but I've rarely seen any on my server.

If you check out the Fat Cow (Chrille) on warcraftmovies, I believe the first one has a battle versus a frost mage, and the second one has a battle versus a fire mage... I could be wrong about the latter, though. Good watch. It might help you out.

Tips I've learned from fighting Frost Mages:
Good approach is to do some staff DPS while casting lifeblooms and rejuv, until they frost nova--shift now.
Kill the elemental asap.

Generally, I find:
Cyclone often (Bandage during a full duration cyclone, too)
Use interrupts as much as possible, even if they'll blink out.
Anticipate the first CS, after that you have 22-27 seconds to get your spells off, Blast wave and poly aside.
Barkskin at appropriate times--it reduces their damage by 20%, very helpful.
Don't forget you can trinket their frost nova to save a shift.

Fire mages burn my fur and scorch my leather gear =(

The problem with mages is that they come in 3 different flavours, and a slightly different tactic is required for each. In all cases if the mage gets the jump on you they have a distinct advantage.

I'll try to cover basic responses to all 3 kinds of mage:

Arcane: You can recognise these because they throw 3 giant nukes at you within the first second or so. If you live, heal yourself - unless they seriously outgear you they won't be able to kill you once their burst damage has been used up. In the business we refer to these as "2 minute mages".
Once you're full health with hots rolling, go catform and start chasing :>

Fire: Very heavy damage if you let them use it. Fire mages have to play fast to defeat their enemies - you can defeat a fire mage by playing faster than they do. Once you've had a few of these their reactions become very predictable.
If you can entangle a fire mage, or pounce them, they may well use blink (15 sec cooldown) in order to get away. At this point if you switch to bear and use enrage/charge/bash, they are stunned for a considerable amount of time, and they can't blink out, and therefore are rendered helpless. So mangle them then switch back to cat and shred them before your stun wears off.
This trick works for me 90% of the time, I find fire mages the easiest type of mage to beat.

Frost: This is by far the hardest class for a [feral] druid to beat, imho. As Veriden says, it usually comes down to a battle of mana. If I'm duelling a frost mage I often switch to healing gear and just heal through their damage. This is despite the fact that I am specced feral.
If you get caught in feral gear, you could try some fast shifting to break through their novas and kill them fast. They will probably iceblock afterwards, imho the best thing to do if a mage iceblocks on you is to just run away and restealth.


-Annikk

Same gear, same skill a frost mage pawns a feral druid anytime.
He kites u down till no mana left. And he rly doesnt need much mana for kiting.
Lvl 1 frostbolt is enough to keep a feral away, at least until blink and nova are rdy.
The damage comes from his instant's.
The only problem is, that for the mage there is no room for mistakes cause he is so fragile.
So thats what we hope for as a druid :-D

Mages suck for me, more than any other class. The just do so much damage so quickly. Given the choice between jumping a mage or a warlock or a shadow priest, I'll thake the lock or SP every day of the week.

I've never had a problem with a frost mage. Fire mages eat me. Flambé style.

I've never had a problem with a frost mage. Fire mages eat me. Flambé style.


** NOTE TO SELF **

AVOID FIRE MAGES, OR GET EATEN


:rolleyes:

Niner, what spec are you?
If you are feral like me as it says in your .sig, I would like to find out why you can deal with frost mages without bother, but get eaten by fire mages... and why I have it the other way around :>
Frost mages whup my ass, but fire mages to me are walking toothpicks..


-Annikk

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Malfurion&n=Kyane

Yay for armory. I've always had enough mana to shift enough and keep frost mages at bay. Fire mages just have such high burst damage....I become kitty....on a stick.

There's your problem, 21 resilience.
With decent resilience fire mages will find it difficult to crit you, thus won't be able to get any meaningful ignites. Also I notice you don't have brutal impact or shredding attacks - both extremely useful talents for duelling. Brutal Impact halps with CC, and shredding attacks makes cat dps a lot more viable. Especially burst dps.

When I'm duelling a fire mage, here is how it always happens:


1. I start stealthed and pounce on the mage.
2. The mage, fearing iminent death, blinks out of the stun.
3. I switch to bear form and charge the mage whilst also hitting enrage (if i'm lucky the mage fireblasts me or something, giving me even more rage)
4. I bash the mage (5 sec stun). He's just used his blink so its on cooldown, and fire mages don't have iceblock. He is now stunned and helpless.
5. I Mangle (Bear) the mage. (4 sec of stun left)
6. I switch to Cat Form (3 sec of stun left)
7. SHRED (2 sec left)
8. Maim, wait a moment... and...
9. SHRED. pwned. brrrrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrg tuff durid ! (doubt many mages would survive the 2nd shred)


Can you talk me through your anti-frost-mage tactics? :>


-Annikk

21 resilience? That's not my full pvp set. I often use some pvp gear in my farming gear. I haven't done a load of pvp since 70, but my experiences have ranged from battlegrounds, arena and world pvp. I can hold my own ( in general ), just usually have harder times with fire mages vs frost.

When ice mages block up, I jump out and heal and always trying to keep a bleed on them while closing whatever kiting gap they attempt with dash, feral charge, bash, maim and lots of shifting.