Mage 3's advice

[TeamFrosty]

Ok. So a lot of this is just me daydreaming. I started boxing back in January. Started my 3 mages, got them up to 60 fairly quickly, but then had to let them chill for a little bit due to some schooling obligations (so close to graduating, I can taste it). I have some time now to pick them back up though, and so I am. My main goal is to have a 3v3 arena team a 80. The comp would be .... you guessed it... 3 mages. I played a Mage solo through vanilla and TBC as my main, and have continued to follow mage class changes pretty closely since wrath launched, so I have a pretty decent working knowledge of the mage class.

These are my thoughts on strategy. I've played a single mage in arenas before, just not 3 at a time. I should also note here that my previous mage arenas have been as frost, these plans account for 3 arcane mages. I figure the first 30 seconds of the match are the most important. I'm planning on using a blitzkrieg style of play to get the odds in my favor as quickly as possible, then slow the tempo down so I can focus on my crowd control and movement impairing effects. In essence my plan is to ride out mounted, pick the squishiest target (Priority: Priest, hunter, lock, shaman, mage, warrior, dk, pally. Assuming rogues and druids are stealthed) Hit that target with PoM (instant) arcane blast, followed by arcane barrage, followed by fire blast. With 3 mages hitting this target at the exact same time, it is my hope that it will be enough damage to burst them down in about 2 gcd's not giving the healer enough of a chance to blow cd's in time to save them. That is the blitzkrieg phase of my overall strat.

After I have 1 confirmed kill, I'm going to pop invisibility (talented to have no fade time), run back to their starting area, and evocate (glyphed to heal me for 60%) If this does not put me back to full, it should put me pretty close. After that, I'm going to run out, mirror image, sheep 1, gank the other. I don't need to rush this, just keep pressing my 3-2 advantage. As long as I keep 1 sheeped, I will have enough novas (round robined) to keep any melee from doing serious harm. Just making sure I counterspell heals, and keep cc up I should be able to maintain a pretty good advantage and wrap things up with a victory.

Now. Please tear this apart. Anything you guys can think of that could go wrong will help me to develop contingancy plans. I'm not naive enough to think that this is going to go exactly like that. Help a brother out and tell me what could go wrong.

[merujo]

heya

well i only see one major problem.
once u start to meet the same opponent, by the second or third time they already have a plan. and ur's will remain the same. u can always adapt and try something different but, a hunter will do deterrence, a pala will bubble, a rogue will cos, a mage will ice block, shamans always have a grounding totem that will kill ur sync'd attack (imagine 3 pyros goin to a totem), a spriest will reduce the damage in 90% or put pain suppression. a warrior can always pop spell reflection

believe me when i tell u that in arenas, things get pretty bad quickly. u think u have an iwin button and all of a sudden ur burst is lost and my guess is that against 3 people ull have many problems without cd's up.

as for invisibility, it can get messy. wont dots break it? this means ull have to ice block first, letting ur opponent surround u with more chances to catch u while doing invisibility.

ress's can be a problem. while ur at the starting point doing evocation imagine a resser getting hes partner back in action.

but dont let this kill ur idea. go on and do ur best.

[TeamFrosty]

Great points there. I never even considered the res. Immune mechanics are something i'll have to figure out. As for the grounding totem, I was planning to lead off with a wave of ice lances and slows. Great stuff though, thanks for the help.

[pinotnoir]

Let me know how it goes. In BC I did 3v3 mages in arena without success. I was arcane with pom. I would invis and nuke a guy to death at the start and then usually die if I couldnt get another dead. Mages have more tricks now. My arena was never serious. If you took time to make cc macros and strats you can prob do better. I was pretty much doing it for points per week.