Before I begin: you'd think that a guide about asking nicely wouldn't be needed, but apparently...

A Mage is a unique class in the fact that it can conjure (or, for those of us who don't speak English very well, make, create...) food and water using a simple spell. Not only that, but they can also create portals to all of their factions major cities (aka. capitals). Since these abilities are specific to the Mage, combined with the fact that they are very useful abilities, makes these "services" high in demand. However, it is not certain that any Mage will be willing to give you food/water or make a portal. However, if you know how to ask, you might just find a Mage willing to help you! What follows is a short guide to (hopefully) getting some food/water or a portal! Most of it is common sense and normal decency, but some people just seem to lack it.

The Golden Rule of Asking A Mage For Water, Food or a Portal To Your Favorite Town: BE NICE!!! This can not be emphasised enough! It's common decency, and applies to everyone in WoW and in real life! Being nice will get you into (most) guilds (or at least gives you a better chance...), increases the likely-hood that you'll get invited to an instance/raid, makes you get on peoples friend list, etc etc. And above all, it drastically increases the chance that a Mage will be willing to provide you with what service you want.

If the Mages does not want anything to do with you, don't take it personally (most of the time....)! Some Mages have had bad experiences with people pestering and spamming them for food/water/portal, and will simply ignore any such requests. Just move on, and find yourself another Mage. If you're in a well populated area, chances are that there's at least one Mage around...

Some Mages will request money in exchange for their services. Conjuring food/water does not cost us anything, but a portal requires a regent called "Rune of Portal", which costs 20 silver to buy, or, if you have the Honored Discount, 18 silver. Thus, most Mages will ask for at least that amount for making a portal for you. However, some Mages charge even more, and sometimes want some money for making food and water as well. One of the justifications for this is that, for example, when you craft a sword for someone or provide most other services, you not only pay for the materials, but also usually give them a bit more money, so that they can make a profit. It's the same thing in real life. When you buy a can of Cola, you not only pay what it cost to produce the thing, but you pay more, so that the evil corporation of Coca-Cola, Inc. can make a buck or two more! Thus, some Mages feel that we should charge for the time it takes us to conjure up whatever you want.

Another reason why Mages charge is to get back at all you people who charge a ridiculous amount of gold for the tomes we need to learn the highest rank of conjure water/food... damn profiteers!

If you give a tip to the Mage, even though the Mage is not asking for any sum of money, then you, sir, are a very nice person!

Even giving something small, like a buff, in return is always appreciated!

Please, if you see us fighting a bunch of mobs, don't just pop up a trade window and expect us to give you free water/food! Wait till we are not busy, and even then, ask before opening a trade window!

The Golden Rule of Asking A Mage For Water, Food or a Portal To Your Favorite Town: BE NICE!!!

To avoid the embarrassment of asking a level 58 Mage for a portal to Shattrath City, learn when we can learn our portal spells! To save you time, here's the list: At level 40, Alliance Mages learn the portal spells for Ironforge, Stormwind City and The Exodar. At level 50 the learn to make a portal for Darnassus. For Horde Mages, at level 40, we can make portals to Orgrimmar, Undercity and Silvermoon City, and at level 50, Thunder Bluff. At level 65 (note: 65) ALL Mages, regarless of faction, can learn to make a portal to Shattrath City.

Teleport =/= Portal. We learn Teleport spells earlier (levels 20, 30 and 60), but they are self-cast, only usable on ourself, you-can't-use-it-no-matter-how-much-you-ask-or-no-matter-what-amount-of-gold-you-give-us-(no-no-even-5000-gold-will-do-it!)

Remember: our conjured foods do NOT give any kind of stamina/spirit buffs! To get those, you will have to take up cooking!

Important thing to remember: ALL conjured items (even things such as Healthstones conjured by Warlocks) will DISAPPEAR (*poof*) if you are logged out for more than 15 minutes!

When going to instances/raids, it's considered standard practice to give out free food/water to anyone who might need it. Also, we usually provide a free portal at the end of the instance if anyone wants one. If your Mage is unwilling to provide any of these services, it usually (but not always) means he is a mean Mage!

Yes, Mages can conjure Mana Gems to instantly restore mana, no, you can not have them; they are soulbound!

The Golden Rule of Asking A Mage For Water, Food or a Portal To Your Favorite Town: BE NICE!!!

Just because I refuse to give you water/food/portal does not make me a "n00b"...

Above all, remember this: "GIEF water kthx!!!!1!" will result in you getting on our /ignore list...

As the saying goes: "If you say 'plz' because it's shorter than 'please', I'll say 'no' because it's shorter than 'yes'"...

If anyone has anything to add, please, tell me so, and I'll (proabably) add it...

And now for some light entertainment (thanks to "Buffmages"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXp_jFvlfMA

[EDIT: Re-posted ont the General Discussions forum to get more "non-Mage" exposure]
[EDIT2: Added a funny video, courtesy of "Buffmages"]

Nice work, was needed... Just post it on every other class forum instead then it might help :D

My guide, using my Mages name:

Random guy: Hey Axionknight, can I have some water?

Me: Nope!

End of conversation,

To the 2 above posters: Thank you making this thread even more serious!

I really despise people who just open up a trade window and expects me to give them food/water. It's the same people that tell the lvl 10's, who's running around opening trade and asking for gold, to farm their own gold...

I find it more annoying in bg's, with the latest changes, we don't get full mana when we join a new bg thus we need to spend ~15-20sec drinking in the beginning of the bg, rebuff, drink again and people still expect you to make 2-3 stacks of food/water for them.

I sometimes make 10 stacks of water when the que's are long but most often, I don't got time / bag space for so many stacks.

Had a lvl 70 warrior in durotar open up a trade window, I waited for a whisp/say from him but nothing, so I closed it. He then says give me food, and I tell him "You forgot the magic word, "please" ", he replied with "f... u" and ran to another mage who apparently didn't want to give him either.

It's also more annoying with request for int buff's, the buff takes a huuuge chunk of my mana and I'm not going to give it to you unless I get something of the same value back.

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Q u o t e:
I really despise people who just open up a trade window and expects me to give them food/water. It's the same people that tell the lvl 10's, who's running around opening trade and asking for gold, to farm their own gold...

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Oh, the irony...

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Q u o t e:
I find it more annoying in bg's, with the latest changes, we don't get full mana when we join a new bg thus we need to spend ~15-20sec drinking in the beginning of the bg, rebuff, drink again and people still expect you to make 2-3 stacks of food/water for them.

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TBH, I usually don't make food/water for people in BG's...

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Q u o t e:
I sometimes make 10 stacks of water when the que's are long but most often, I don't got time / bag space for so many stacks.

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I run around Orgrimmar making an ass of myself! A lot more fun...

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Q u o t e:
Had a lvl 70 warrior in durotar open up a trade window, I waited for a whisp/say from him but nothing, so I closed it. He then says give me food, and I tell him "You forgot the magic word, "please" ", he replied with "f... u" and ran to another mage who apparently didn't want to give him either.

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Nice fellow...

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Q u o t e:
It's also more annoying with request for int buff's, the buff takes a huuuge chunk of my mana and I'm not going to give it to you unless I get something of the same value back.

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Does not happen all that often to me....

also from my point of view i tend to innervate and MotW after the mage has made the water (in addition to saying thanks), often the mage will give me an intel buff too ^^

No, it is too long. And you don't address the real problem, which is random people begging mages. In fact, you encourage people to keep asking until someone give them what they want. I don't like it.

A vid to support this thread (rather old but still not obsolete)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXp_jFvlfMA

One thing to correct:

The levels for the portals are 40 and 50, not 30 and 40

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Q u o t e:
No, it is too long. And you don't address the real problem, which is random people begging mages. In fact, you encourage people to keep asking until someone give them what they want. I don't like it.

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Personally, I don't see it that way, but if you feel that way, fair enough.

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Q u o t e:
One thing to correct:

The levels for the portals are 40 and 50, not 30 and 40

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Silly me! Must change that...

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Q u o t e:
A vid to support this thread (rather old but still not obsolete)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXp_jFvlfMA

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I lol'd.

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Q u o t e:
A vid to support this thread (rather old but still not obsolete)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXp_jFvlfMA

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I lol'd much:PP
Sticky that on OTHER'S class forums plz!!
PS:Add the video on the guide,it rocks:)

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Q u o t e:

PS:Add the video on the guide,it rocks:)

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Done.

Ye the video just pwns :DD Sould be in the cinematics..

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Q u o t e:


Personally, I don't see it that way, but if you feel that way, fair enough.

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The thing is, time is money, friend. Instead of spending time begging mages for water, they could buy it and start grinding. You only need to kill a few mobs to cover the water cost.

It is the same as lowlevels who ask for 10s for training. If they went out there and killed a couple of humanoids they would get it faster and easier.

Or like someone who kept complaining about under-water quests in Zangarmarsh. I asked him why he didn't use water breathing potions. He thought they were too expensive, so he would rather find a warlock who could buff him. The time he would waste searching for that buff would probably buy him a whole bag of potions if he spent it on money-making instead.

Begging is a waste of time for both parts, and most mages don't like it. Well, most players don't like it, but for some reason, many don't see that whispering random mages for stuff is begging.

Tbh blizz should make something like "Soul-Well" thing for water... really annoying if ur alone in raid and u gota conjure 2×Stack for Each mana user. Pretty fun when its like 17people mana users out of 25.