5 mages

I'm happy to see lots of mage teams running around now :)

I have got several questions about "what now?" when people ding their teams to 85, and they're looking forward to access Bastion of Twilight and Firelands epics.

There is no superfast way to do this.

When I dinged my mages to 85, my item levels were like 285-300 on each mage (gear from quest rewards). Then I moved to non-heroic Cata dungeons for 333 loot off from the bosses. Then I started to grind reputations up with some factions with 359 exalted rewards. I equipped faction tabards and farmed mostly in The Lost City of Tol'vir heroic for world drop epics and for the faction reputation. I did this quite a long time (a month or so) before I entered TBoT10 just for the lulz and my goal was just to kill one mob and hoping he had an epic on his loot table..

TBoT10 trash as low geared (300-333) is not fast. I used to farm 4 first mobs in that instance. I used to sheep melee, healer and hunter and then bursted down the one mob which can't be sheeped (with mirror images tanking). When the first mob was dead, I waited for mirror images cooldown while kept the other 3 mobs sheeped, then nuked down the healer one while interrupting their spells (round-robin counterspell), then waited mirror images cooldown again and bursted down the melee one (mirror images tanking him as well).. Then there was only the Twilight Crossfire ranged mob left, I used invisibility on all toons, and the trash pack respawned and I did all of this again, and again, and again..

Later I realized that I don't have to wait the mirror images cooldown, just needed to have round-robin on frost nova and talented cone of cold, so I could root the rootable mobs while nuking them and rerooting and they never reached my team.. So there I farmed some 359 weapons and gear for my little soldiers.. and each epic I got, the easier the job was..

If you can afford leveling like 5 engineers, then I'd suggest doing that for the 359 helm, since it's pure awesome.

Head: Lightweight Bio-Optic Killshades (Engineering)
Neck: Nightweaver's Amulet (Firelands dailies)
Shoulders: Jan'alari's Spaulders (Jan'alai heroic drop in ZA, not easy, better to farm 346 hc shoulders)
Cape: Rippling Flamewrath Drape (Firelands dailies)
Chest: Firelord's Robes (Justice Points)
Bracers: Bracers of the Dark Pool (Bastion of Twilight drop, 359 BoE)
Hands: Firelord's Gloves (Justice Points)
Belt: Embereye Belt (Firelands reputation - Honored, or tailoring 359 BoE ones)
Pants: Firelord's Leggings (Justice Pointsm or tailoring 359 BoE ones)
Feet: Desert Walker Sandals (Ramkahen - Exalted)
Ring1: Band of Secret Names (Justice Points)
Ring2: Lavishly Jeweled Ring (Deadmines heroic boss drop, need a real party for last boss)
Trinket1: Darkmoon Card: Volcano (crafted 359 BoE)
Trinket2: Soul Casket (Justice Points)
Weapon: Spire of Scarlet Pain (FL trash, also tBoT10 trash drops 359 staves)
Wand: Touch of Discord (ZG heroic bosses)

So here's something to aim for. If you feel like farming Justice Points or Baradin Hold or just gold, that's one sort of shortcut. If you ding 85 and got 275-300 item level, and you want to go cata heroics for 346 loot right away, I'm afraid that's not gonna happen like that.

Better to spend some gold on (crafted) BoE 359 stuff.

Also remember to cap your hit to 6% and haste to around 15%, because that's all you going to need.

thx Runtu! It looks like the lvl 85 normal mode bosses drop JPs when you kill them. Since i have a tank and healer on a separate account, i made two teams of tank..healer and 3 mages ( i have 6 mages now ) I think I will farm normal mode bosses and get JP items as fast as I can. And do FL dailies.

Any strats for 5 boxing the trash in FL?

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Originally Posted by Shodokan

Any strats for 5 boxing the trash in FL?

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With 5 Mages at least, you can bypass the first giant, just go by him on the left, no need to invis.

Go up to that root on the ground on the left of sorta a arch shape. Stand to the right of it.

Sheep the pack of the lizard guys when the pat close to you.

Kill them all, one at a time, except for one. If you get a bad dot on you, just iceblock. Loot the 4 dead. Go back to the root thing, invis, when the pack resets, sheep the main guy with the most hitpoints again (this will stop the pat), then sheep the 4 others, loot, repeat!

I do this on my 10 mages in 25 man mode, where the pat is 10. Just to minimize the invis downtime.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kicksome

With 5 Mages at least, you can bypass the first giant, just go by him on the left, no need to invis.

Go up to that root on the ground on the left of sorta a arch shape. Stand to the right of it.

Sheep the pack of the lizard guys when the pat close to you.

Kill them all, one at a time, except for one. If you get a bad dot on you, just iceblock. Loot the 4 dead. Go back to the root thing, invis, when the pack resets, sheep the main guy with the most hitpoints again (this will stop the pat), then sheep the 4 others, loot, repeat!

I do this on my 10 mages in 25 man mode, where the pat is 10. Just to minimize the invis downtime.

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Is it even worth the time leveling a group to do 10 man with 5?

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Originally Posted by Shodokan

Is it even worth the time leveling a group to do 10 man with 5?

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I like my mages a lot actually. Only second to my DK team. I can bring 3-4 to BH and they do like 23k DPS, it's nuts. So much more dps than any other class I have with the same gear.

You can also farm BoT, do BGs - which is pretty fun, but not as good as the DKs. So I love then, it's a great team for when you're bored.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kicksome

I like my mages a lot actually. Only second to my DK team. I can bring 3-4 to BH and they do like 23k DPS, it's nuts. So much more dps than any other class I have with the same gear.

You can also farm BoT, do BGs - which is pretty fun, but not as good as the DKs. So I love then, it's a great team for when you're bored.

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But is the farming aspect worth it? BoT trash doesn't interest me unless i have 10 mages really >_> Too little gph

i just started mages from my change of heart from warlocks

Warlocks do have the same as MI with there two cooldown pets they drop argo as well but 10mins cooldown would take dungeons and there not as good dps as the mages but u get sort of tanking pets to week to do a lot with at 85. kinda stucks

atm am level 20 just cleaned out deadmins really fast (posting video soon) then tryed SFK but that place is nuts! no CC as its all undead makes trash a pain and the bosses hit like being hit by a trunk at 100mph

like to see what there going to offer to me though.

I have had bad luck with 10 man FL trash ( the Naga pack of 5 ) last few times i have been there. I will keep gearing up my mages though. If you get lucky and get an epic or two.. its worth it. They are selling for more now since the nerf to the trash. ( or buff rather, cant snare some mobs )

The best thing is, I'm sure future raid trash will be doable as well. Next time ill be ready when a patch goes live and the loot is dropping like candy. ( before they nerf the drop rate )

Hmm, on Grim Batol the armor pieces only go for 2-5k each and have only gone down lower since i started farming :(
The weapons/trinkets still sells pretty nice tho 15k+, I guess I'll keep grinding untill i reach my goal of 2m :P

I'll also be ready for next raid patch :P, if farmable it'll give good :)