Solipsists Kiting / Movement perfection topic
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.
11. Gear, spec, diffrence in talents, Enchants.
12. Keybindings, and important mods
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)
Mage instant aoe spells suffer from a bug (surprising huh)
It's really simple. Instant AOE spells like Arcane explosion, Cone of
cold, Blastwave, Frostnova (!) have more range, while you jump!
This movie shows that jumping increases the range of Cone of Cold.
Lowres/Stream: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-6212144481449702203
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/cocrange.avi
This movie shows that jumping increases the range of Arcane Explosion.
Lowres/Stream:
http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-4497327190831515577&hl=nl
Highres/DivX: http://www.solipsist.biz/kiting/aerange.avi
Can't really add alot. the movies speak for themselves.
Just make sure you jump while you use an instant aoe spell, for
increased range.
[ Post edited by Solipsist ]
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