Welcome, to Solipsists Kiting and Movement perfection topic.

This guide will give you tips, hints, information, on how to squeeze the maximum out of your mage, movement wise.

I have made several movies because i want the message to be as clear as possible.

The stuff i will present in this topic, is usable for PVE, as well as for PVP.

Most of the things i describe here i've learned out of my own experience, and/or own thoughts about how things should work. some stuff i've seen from other mage movies offcourse, but it's perhaps nice to have all the stuff in one topic.

The goal is to have one complete guide on the mage-eu forums, so every mage can learn, adapt, be better at handling, squeeze just THAT little more out of your mage, while hoping you will be able to annihilate most other classes ingame even harder and more near perfection!,(except for soullink lifedrain locks offcourse ;) )

If you think something is incomplete, or invalid, please say so, i will add the stuff, completely with movies and screenshots. Perhaps i can learn things i didn't know as well :)
If things could be done better, or more easy, then please say so, i'm not perfect after all :)

The movies are available in livestream (video.google.com) or highres divx movies from my webspace ;)
(note, this is work in progress, dependant if people actually are intrested in this stuff)

1. Introduction
2. lagcasting, (abusing lag for your own benefit)
3. Blink movement and the global cooldown
4. frostnova (gaining as much distance possible in the shortest ammount of time)
5. Aoe Spells (bugs and how to work around it)
6. Cone of cold Movement.
7. Polymorph and pulling.
8. /stopcasting, and how it works.
9. Using rank 1 spells. (how, why, when)
10. Important Mods
11. Gear, spec, diffrence in talents, Enchants.

12. Keybindings http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=508741315&postId=13808143783&sid=1#78

13. Duels, and how to beat classes in general.
14. Dictionary

1. Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to have an complete overview from the collection of spells wich a mage got to offer.
I'm hoping, to create a sort of guide, wich could lead mage handling to almost perfection for everyone who reads it. i need your help as well for that :). If things could be improved, better done because i need to lern2play etc, please let me know, so i can alter it in this guide.

2. Lag casting (abusing lag for your own benefit)

At first we are going to discuss what i call "lagcasting" (dunno if there's an official phrase for it)
Basicly, when you cast a spell like frostbolt, your wow client allways will suffer some lag / delay, because your computer needs
to communicate to the servers in france over the internet. That is some distance, and that's why you experience a little delay while playing.
Your spells will allways be finished about 5 / 10% earlier then your castbar is showing.
The mod Quartz, shows the actual lag you had when you started to cast your frostbolt. this way you can time your lagcasting more accurately.

The following movie shows how you can gain distance the best way without using frostnova.

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-5565342921225724889
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/lagcasting.avi

Basicly, you see me casting a frostbolt.
i turn around immediately, and start walking, before the cast finished casting!
You would think that the spell would be cancelled because we are walking at the moment.
The truth is, that the server allready finished the spell, but your client doesn't know it because ofthe lag / delay from the servers in france.
You walk away, and the client actually thinks the spell was cancelled. However, the server will tell your client that your frostbolt was fired off properly.
So now you are walking backwards, while casting a frostbolt, wich gives you more space while kiting.

Here another example:
Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-2297340234093206792
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/lagcastingpolymorph.avi

So, you cast polymorph, and you walk away before the spell even finished. but the ogre still got sheeped!
I use this myself mostly in PVP scenarios. Especially now the duration is getting nerfed to 10 seconds, you want to buy every inch you can get.

Imagine the following procedure:
The rogue ambushes.
You blink and walk 1.5sec
after 1.5sec you cast poly, and right before it's finished you walk away, to get just that extra distance.
Now the rogue uses his pvp trinket, and you cast poly again.
You've cut yourself some more distance, so you can polymorph him for the second time safely (we don't talk about the pvp hands ;) its just an example)

3. Blink movement and the global cooldown

The concept of this is very simple.
Basicly, when you press blink, you will be teleported forwards instantly (most of the times anyway).

So, you have blinked forward, but your global cooldown still has to wait out its cooldown of 1.5 seconds.
I see a lot of mages spam blink when they get ambushed by a rogue, and they stand still after blink, spamming their poly button for 1.5 sec.

The goal of the mage in general is to "not get hit"
What you should do is:

Press blink
walk forward for 1,5 seconds right after you pressed blink. The range you are getting here, is totally free, because you can't cast spells anyway for that 1,5 seconds. why not use those 1.5 seconds as much as possible into your advantage.
When the global cooldown is over, you can continue with what you were doing offcourse ;)

Since you can't do anything other then walking anyway while waiting on the global cooldown, it's better to gain the maximum distance possible, as it could buy you JUST that little time you needed in order to survive.

3. Frostnova

As a mage, you want to have the max distance in almost every situation.
I've seen alot of mages cast frostnova, walk backwards(!), and then cast a frostbolt + icelance.

You want to make sure that if you are running away to gain distance, you allways will walk forward, in the opposite direction, or strafe, if that's more your thing.
The next movie shows what in my opinion the best way is to cast frostnova, and to gain max range/distance in the shortest timeframe.

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=8217138977440205208
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/frostnova.avi


Basicly, i lagcast a frostbolt and i'm running away allready from the ogre
when the frostbolt is launched while i walk away and it has hit the ogre, i cast frostnova while still running away from him.
This way, you will get the most range the fastest way.

I've compiled a slowmotion video of the actual action. This slowmotion video shows very clearly, what actually is happening.

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=4443480735828873436&hl=nl
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/frostnovaslowmo.avi

You have to be carefull with this though.
Unfortunately we mages suffer a little bug with frostnova.
If you cast a frostbolt, and a frostnova to fast, the frostbolt will kill the frostnova immediately
You could see it as, the frostbolt is still flying to the enemy, and you cast frostnova even before frostbolt has landed.
this way the frostnova gets destroyed immediately, and you don't want that.

Here a little demonstration on how broken the mechanic really is.

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=2901595381753903158
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/frostnovabreak.avi

You can clearly see in the movie, that frostnova hit that ogre for 145, but it didn't get rooted.
You want to take this into account while doing this stuff :)

5. Aoe Spells (bugs and how to work around it)

(have to rework this story / movies, it has been changed)

6. Cone of cold Movement.

Ever had a sprinting rogue running to ya, while your frostnova cooldown wasn't finished yet?
How would you kite the rogue, while not getting shivved first?
The answer is simple. Trickjump Cone of Cold, FTW.
I'll try and explain how this trickjump can be done.

at first, reconfire your camera, to never leave it's position where you left it. You can do this in the interface options.
http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/options.jpg

The reason i am looking in an 180 degrees angle alot, is to see what my opponent is doing, while i am running away. this way i can cast rank 1 blizzard faster when he vanishes for instance.

So, while i am running away, i point the camera, towards the rogue, as if i aim to him as i would do in an FPS. Then i press the jump key, and the right mouse button (forward key). My character will instantly turn 180 degrees, while i press the cone of cold keybind. After that i turn my char with my mouse 180 degrees manually, where i after that flip the camera back in an 180 degrees angle.

Basicly, i am running. i'm jumping in the air. while being in mid air, i turn 180 degrees, i shoot cone of cold, turn back 180 degrees and land walking forwards like i used to. this means that i won't lose any speed / distance whatsoever, because everything happens while the jump is in progress, wich doesn't affect your 100% standard walkingspeed.

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=2493295774639439977
Highres/DivX: [/b] http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/cocsprint.avi

No way in hell you will make this trickjump, if you don't use keybindings.
I made a slowmotion video of the shot you just saw, so you can see clearly wtf is happening

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-4002925371049753479
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/slowmo1.avi

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-7228932248232455901
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/slowmo2.avi

As you can see, somehow it looks like i am casting cone of cold in the wrong direction, but still the rogue is slowed! WTF! is happening amg.

The trick is, that cone of cold will calibrate the aim at the exact moment when you press your cone of cold keybinding.
The graphics will follow 0.5 seconds later due to the lag. by then, i allready turned my character to walk furter forward, and then the graphics come, as if i'm casting coc in the wrong direction.

Here a video of a duel in action.
Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=2094282068426907810&hl=nl
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/cocdruidkite.avi

This way, you can keep everything slowed what's chasing you (every 8 sec talented), while they never lay a hand on you.
Sprinting rogues, druids, heroic mobs, goosses, chickens, your mother in law, you name it!
You won't get shivved again, and that's what we ALL want right? ;)

7. Polymorph and pulling.

Imagine you find a pack of 2 mobs in the outdoor world.
What i often see, is mages polymorph their target first, and then start to cast a frostbolt.


This movie shows how it shouldn't be done.
Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=29864170951531644
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/polymorphwrong.avi

What happens is the following. i sheep one mob, the other mob gets aggroed,
Now i'm starting to cast a frostbolt wich takes 2,5 sec casting time.
This means the mob could walk for 2,5 seconds towards me, while not being slowed.
As you can see in this movie i was able to cast 2 frostbolts at it, before i needed to kite.

This is how it should be done:
Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-3065714982400773823
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/polymorphright.avi

As you can see, i first cast a frostbolt at one mob.
the bolt is launched, and while it's on it's way, i cast poly on the other one.
The frostbolt almost hits at the same time the poly is finished with casting.
As you could see, i was able to cast 3 frostbolts now, before i had to start kiting, wich is infact, an almost free frostbolt! ;)


_________________________________________________________________________________

I've learned alot from the mage community, especially theorycraftwise (i suck at maths ;))
SO! i like to do something back in exchange :)
I've spent bout 8 hours creating the stuff i now have posted.

What i'd like to know is,.. did you learn something from this guide?
Have you read it all? or almost all? or was it just one boring big wall of text?
Do you want me to continue/complete it?
How valuable is the info wich is presented in this topic for you? or is it all old news?

Cheers, solipsist.

The reason i'm discussing duels, is duelling is the most basic pvp you can encounter.
This way you can learn about other classes skills the best.
The more you own at duels, the more you own at pvp as well :)

I HAVE TO REWORK THIS STORY AS WELL

My duelling philosophy about rogues:

1. The rogue gets his opener. Period :). i'm not gonna spam rank 1 AE like some paranoid mage ,
jumping around retarded while getting sapped anyway. Even so, imagine this was a pvp server,
there should be ways for us to survive an ambush/garotte or whatever from a rogue in worldpvp while farming a mob.
2. when the rogue has appeared, i'm allowed to do everything to keep him from stealthing,
this contains rank1 blizzard / frostnova / elemental freeze while he vanishes, and or AE while he vanishes near me.
3. I don't use coldsnap (resets all frost cooldowns, 8 minute cooldown talented)
4. the rogue uses every cooldown he has (i like that), and so can i, except for coldsnap.
5. I use my gimped, green gruul tankinggear if i duel a rogue. (12023 hp, 323 spelldmg, 6200 mana intbuffed).
this gear is an issue, for sure, but i can manage quiet nice with this gear.
imagine i have that arena set one day :) We are talking 10K HP, 450 resillience, 900 spelldmg, 9k mana!


The guide
1. Clos in combo with an other skill (sprint, vanish)
2. Shiv (offhand poison, amg)
3. Learning to anticipate the lag involved for countering a sprinting rogue
(yes, an adaption to the earlier explained coc trick, READ IT)
4. countering vanish
5. deadly throw isn't as dangerous as one might think
6. Polymorph
7. rank 1 improved blizzard and frostbite.
8. Blind
9. burst vs burst / resillience and you.


at first, we are talking here about good rogues, so we assume that he's at least as fast as you,
and knows exactly how to own you as a mage. there aren't much rogues who are blessed with this type of skill, but
they do exist (hi ranethar ;))

You could describe this guide actually as, "me, pathetically trying to gain controle over a rogue".

1. Clos

Yup, this gives rogues edge :) i think we all know it by now :)
Rogues NEED clos, else we can kite 'm with great ease as a little schoolgirl, wich was previously the case PRE TBC.
mages were overpowered against rogues. i'm happy for them, they gained alot of skills to actually stand a chance against us.

So... clos... 1 minute cooldown, gives 90% magic resistance for 6 seconds.
Clos alone isn't hard to counter, it's clos in combination with other skills (vanish, sprint) wich makes it a hard skill.

you can't counter a good rogue with a blink + trinket combo, becuase he will run as fast as he can to you,
spamming shiv like hell to get that poison on you again.
so the basic rule, is, iceblock is the answer to clos

2. Shiv

Performs an instant off-hand weapon attack that automatically applies the poison from your off-hand weapon to the target.
Slower weapons require more Energy. Awards 1 combo point.

This skill is by far, THE most dangerous skill against a mage.
If the rogue uses crippling poison on offhand, he just has to get in range, and use shiv in order to get you poisoned.
the poison slows us much more then we can slow them, wich basicly makes us unable to kite the rogue, wich is our goal ;)

There's also another issue with shiv.
Imagine the following sequence: "garotte / frostnova + poly / clos / blink / sprint / iceblock"

so, there you are in your cozy little iceblock , you didnt had a choice because
he's practicly immune to spells, and you don't want to tank this rogue for 6 seconds.

Rogues will now stand next to you, and spam shiv.
When the rogue uses shiv while you are in iceblock, it DOESN'T cost them energy!
they practicly SPAM shiv, and when you get out your iceblock, you have the poison applied, immediately.

This basicly means, that iceblock won't save you from the poison.

You could spam blink while you are in block, and pray you can blink out of block when it's over and not getting the poison.
The global cooldown of a rogue is only one second. so he spams it every second.
COnsidering the lag you have, and the lag it takes to actually cast blink between the shiv spamming will mean that
it's nearly impossible to get out of iceblock without getting poisoned.

This is imba, in my opinion.

3. Learning to anticipate the lag involved countering a sprinting rogue

I recorded the following movie, where i was training my new coc trick when i just discovered it.
This is an attempt where i failed, miserably!

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=1278261113858296306&hl=nl
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/range.avi

i took a screenshot from the exact moment, i got MELEE hit by this rogue.

http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/range.jpg
I've also created a slowmotion video, so you can see very clearly, from what distance i get hit (melee!)

Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/slowmorange.avi
Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=78915787211770722&hl=nl

now tell me, is this 5 yard melee range o.0

at this point i begun to realise that landing a cone of cold in the right way at a sprinting rogue, isn't as easy as i thought.

Apparently, when the rogue sprints, he's nearer to me then i can see due to serverlag. So, i have to cast cone of cold,
as if he's behind me when he's not. You can compare it with using the railgun in quake 3 arena with 300 MS.

You could best train this with a friend rogue in duels.
You need to cast cone of cold far more earlier, wich feels unnatural.
But,... it's the only way to really learn on how to do it :)

These 2 movies (as previously showed) let you see how early you need to cast coc in order to hit, without being hit.
This isn't easy at all.

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-4002925371049753479
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/slowmo1.avi

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-7228932248232455901
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/slowmo2.avi

4. Countering vanish

When the rogue uses vanish, and i don't hit him with blizzard and/or freeze, or AE (only when he's really near to use it offensively) i have failed.
i'm not going to spam AE's, because i want controle. controle i can gain through fast reaction,
and knowing when my enemy will use what skill, at what moment.

The best thing to counter vanish, is freeze of your water elemental.
after a "garotte / frostnova / clos / iceblock" sequence, most rogues will just vanish, so they can garotte
you again while you don't have your power cooldowns left.

so, it's better to "garotte / frostnova + clos / elemental + iceblock"
allready hover your freeze over the rogue, becuase IF he vanishes, you can unvanish him immediately with freeze.

Once you have this freeze while vanish under 100% controle, you won't have to be worried again about him getting this garotte opener again.

5. Deadly throw isn't as dangerous as one might think

A permafrost specced mage, can kite a rogue while having the deadly throw debuff on him.

you can either use rank 1 frostbolt, or use cone of cold.
when the rogue has the PVP gloves, be sure to ALLWAYS use cone of cold, you don't want your frostschool silenced for 3 seconds.

This is a movie wich shows kiting with rank 1 frostbolt

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=5405544202527241560
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/rogues/r1frostbolts.avi

Note, that the rogue will come closer and closer to you, as you have to stand still one second to cast frostbolt
eventually you will need cone of cold anyway, but rank 1 rox at max range.

Here is a movie wich shows coc kiting while being slowed by deadly throw.

Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=8991690800282276857
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/rogues/cocdeadlythrow.avi

As you can see, he had the PVP gloves.
He didn't stand a chance getting near me.
You will receive damage from the trhows, yes, but it's always better then being poisoned. also, you can wait out blink and frostnova
if needed this way, without getting wtfpwned.

The only thing you have to worry about, is NOT GETTING POISONED.
if you get poisoned, you lose, if you don't, you win.

6. Polymorph

Polymorph can save you in many cases.
It does heal the rogue, but that's irrelevant in a rogue fight, because we are fighting cooldown versus cooldown

If you are at half HP, as well as the rogue, but the rogue has almost to none cooldowns left, you can polymorph him, run away, and kite
him like a little schoolgirl. if a mage is to fight a rogue while both having none cooldowns left, the mage will probably win, because
the rogue by no means can ever get near to you again.

Perhaps he can activate his clos gain, but he doesn't have sprint or vanish left.
with a nice c0c jump, you can get him slowed after that 6 seconds again.

If you manage to sheep a rogue, you can get distance again, wich is totally free.
Most rogues (if not every) pvp rogue has the pvp gloves.
The glove counterpsells your school for 3 seconds when you are casting a spell.

If you are to polymorph, you can try to do the following things.

- frostnova, and walk TO the rogue, so he doesn't have the range required for deadly throw.
- fake cast a polymorph to let him use deadly throw. when it hits, immediately cast it again and pray it lands due to lag.

7. rank 1 improved blizzard and frostbite.

Blizzard has by far the most range of every mage spell.
So, imagine you are at max range (perhaps a poly, or whatever)

You cast blizzard.
He can't vanish, due to a aoe spell wich is being cast on him
Frostbite will proc, so you can fire off icelances wich crit for 2k+

Also, bind rank 1 blizz to a nice key so you can use it fast.
If he vanishes, and you don't have elemental out, or freeze is on CD, use rank 1 blizzard to uncover the just vanished rogue.

8. Blind

The tie breaker...
Counter this one with trinket.
If you needed your trinket to escape from poison, you have lost allready.

One thing though, blind is getting nerfed to a duration of 10 seconds.
The same timer as our polymorph will be nerfed to.

This is a buff for us, because now rogues can't get out of combat, and get a new FREE garotte again ;)

9. burst vs burst / resillience and you.

Considering the skills the rogue have in contrast with the skills we have, perhaps it's better to just not try
and gain the upperhand in a rogue fight.
Perhaps it's just better to spam frostnova and icelance and all your instants
Especially if you have like 400 resillience, you can tank the rogue for quite a while.
I don't like the idea of spamming, and therefor i don't do it, allthought it COULD be better against rogues.

If mages have stuff to add, please feel free to contribute, because i'm still far from developing a perfect strategy against rogues ;)

By the way, I NEED MORE SPACE, LOTS OF SPACE, any way i can get it? blizz? pretty please? can you add some more reserveds or something? postings have a charlimit! *sighs*

Seems nice..
Didn't read it all because i know most of it though.

Awesome work. I've played this class for almost two years now and I consider myself pretty good in PvP, but I'd say I still gained something from reading this through. Suberb.

Seems useful for new mages, deserves a mention in that useful links thread.

Question that i had though that wasnt addressed here, I remember a long time ago there used to be a rumour that strafing was faster than moving forwards. I remember if this is true or not though :/

---

Q u o t e:
Seems useful for new mages, deserves a mention in that useful links thread.

Question that i had though that wasnt addressed here, I remember a long time ago there used to be a rumour that strafing was faster than moving forwards. I remember if this is true or not though :/

---

intresting, i just tested it :) (i've got a mod wich shows me what the speed is i'm travelling at)

walking forward / 108.1%
strafing right/left / 108.1%
backwards / 64,3%

i think that rules it out pretty much :)

This guide is excellent. I've got more than 70 days played and the extra range on AoE is news to me :/

The explanations are clear, and the videos are perfect. Sticky!

Really nice post!

nice guide, i knew most of these things, but never really used those tricks, good reminder, now i'll start using em. Thx

Very nice guide, just a question tho', do you know anything about the difference in cone shape/size for DB/CoC?

Well written and easy to understand.

Good job man.

most of the info is just for ppl who dont use their intelligence.
Its simple in "7. Polymorph and pulling". to use first "long time cast" then polymorph on other mob.
same in "3. Blink movement and the global cooldown", well i cant even imagine how someone can just stay and do nothing while he is chasing by enemy.
I didnt read it all because ive just being a bit confused when i was reading it, I think its good info for ppl who dont know how to play (especially in PvP like my friend who is still "keyboard turner").
Well, i hope my post will not stop u with doing ur work.

Whats the song tittle in this vidd again http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=2493295774639439977 ? :o

Anyway, a very nice guide, I knew everything but new players will love this, I actually working with a guide with pvp mods in action as Quartz, focus etc. =)

Well written and easy to understand, great contribution. I dont think experienced mages will find any new information from your guide but it was entertaining nonetheless, and I'm sure there's loads of mages out there who find a lot of useful info here.

I really hate to be kitted by you when we duel but i have to admit that this is a very useful guide:)
See you around

Nice one

you forgot one thing

always jump when you cast AOE due to the AoE range bug =)

mate nice guide for the rest of it =)