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A lot of people come to me and say, "Arctic, how are you always so amazingly awesome on the damage meters? You're so sexy." Well, to be honest, its much easier than you think! Anyone can do it, and because I'm gracious, i have decided to share my methods with you all in an easy-to-read guide.
Objective:
To maintain the highest DPS at all costs.
Raid Groups:
The very first thing you'll want to do is convince the raid leader to give you Raid-Assist. Show up early and offer to send invites while they do other things. Sabotage is the most important skill for any Mage. Not many people realize how beneficial group abilities can be, and how devastating it is to remove them from classes. Lets begin with your optimal party in a raid:
Your Group
When drafting your own party, you'll want to ensure you have an Elemental Shaman, BM Hunter, Balance Druid, and Shadow Priest in your group. This is the optimal raid synergy group for a Mage. Now that you've drafted your group, its time to !*%@ up the other four.
Melee Group:
Did you know that the optimal melee group is centered around a Enhancement Shaman and a Arms warrior? Your first and foremost priority is to keep these classes away from the melee. In place of a Shaman, put another Mage. In place of the warrior, chuck in a shadow priest. This should suffice.
Other Caster Groups:
These groups should ideally be centered around a Shadow Priest and Elemental Shaman. Again, not so good of an idea for your place in the damage meters. Begin by placing other casters with Rogues, Warriors, and Enhancement Shamans.
Your Spec:
Always Pick Arcane
Its widely known that the highest DPS spec for a Mage is Arcane. (57/3/11). Never ever, under any circumstances, spec anything else. Why would you waste a valuable 300+ DPS to pick up Improved Scorch when it only lowers your place on the damage meters? That's right, you shouldn't.
Your Spells:
Arcane Intellect:
This one is simple. Only cast it on yourself. Quite simply, giving other DPS casters mana only reduces the gap on the damage meters. You're going for an awe factor here, and this doesn't help. Sometimes a stingy raid leader will demand the buff, but there is some Arctic-Advice for this. No one ever checks their buffs aside from looking at the Icon. Cast Rank 1 on everyone else, they'll only get an extra 50 Mana or so. No one will ever notice, and you simply pop your top rank on yourself.
Remove Curse:
Again, useless. Let some low dps mage handle this, or the Druids. Those ambitious bastards always have their finger on the dispel key. This lets you focus on the important task at hand.
Polymorph
Yet again, useless. Priests have Shackle, Shamans have Hex, Low-DPS mages have sheep. Just claim you are sheeping with them and blame a Paladin's Consecration for "breaking your sheep" if they ask why you don't have one up.
Slow Fall
You're probably wondering, "Wtf Arctic, what does slowfall have to do with my DPS?". Well, you are in for a treat. You are always judged by what you are compared against, so if no one else is even close, you're a god. Now, this one is a bit sneaky. When you cast an Instant-Slowfall on another player, it interrupts their casting. Now, i don't have time to waste spamming slowfall and losing out on valuable DPS time, so we need to optimize our casting.
Set the Main Healer as your focus. Make a Macro like /cast [target=focus] Slowfall. Main Healers are cocky and normally heal the Main Tank without much help. All you need to do is wait until your focus cast bar shows him casting Holy Light and pop that macro. With luck, you are going to kill the main tank before he can recover. Now, the boss at this point is going to go on a killing rampage of the higher DPS in the raid. You, as Arcane, have low threat and aren't in trouble. Once two or three die, the secondary tank will get agro and again and you'll be on your merry way.
These guys should keep their threat down a bit anyways. Its their fault.
Innervate and Power Infusion:
You've hit the Holy-Grail of damage here. Your goal is simply to convince all of the druids and priests that you need these buffs. Its advisable to get a hunter friend who can misdirect onto non-compliant druids and priests so they know you aren't !*%@ing around. A rogue with Tricks of the Trade will suffice as well. After you've softened up a non-compliant priest, bribe him with Focus Magic for future PI's.
Focus Magic:
Always place this on a Holy Priest. Why, you may ask? You are going to kill some of the DPS, so that's like playing Russian Roulette with your buffs. A healer is a safe bet, and you need all the leverage you can get for Power Infusions. I try to bribe a Priest before i resort to killing them. Either way, they learn how to act right. (Thanks Tashre)
Frost Nova:
Did you know that when a monster is frozen in place, he will attack the nearest target regardless of agro? I bet not. Stand behind the dps and pull agro, then nova them on top of everyone else! For additional effect, do this with AoE groups. (Thanks Erosis)
Feasts:
Always drop a Tiny Feast randomly throughout the raid. If luck holds, everyone will click on it and thus dispelling their previous food buffs for a useless one.
Down Time:
If the Main Healer doesn't recover and the raid wipes, no worries. There will be a good five minutes of down-time. While everyone is rebuffing, look for all the Critters. I suggest a good ole' Arcane Blast on each of them. If you kill ten in the area, that's another 30k to add to your numbers.
Specific Fights:
Grobbulus: When you are going to explode, run on up to the pack of DPS. Remember, you are the star of the show. All you need to win is you, the tanks, and the healers.
Sapphiron: Ice Block to entice confusion during the Air Phase. Everyone should know the difference, if they die its their fault. Thanks to Nirya of Stonemaul, it is also advised to add a /yell macro of "I'm an Ice Block!" for additional effect.
Gluth - Have you ever seen a more beautiful sight? There are 20 stacked zombies who can't die! DPS the boss? Psh. Once a bunch of zombies are out, just run over to them and start AoE'ing. Who cares if he hasn't decimated yet, you just need to pump out numbers. Its also a good idea to slowfall the main tank right before he jumps, this should get rid of a few overzealous dpsers. (Thanks Suganem)
Loatheb - Spores are yours. Only yours. I advise making a macro like /target Spore, /cast Fire Blast for when you already have the buff. There isn't a big graphic to this, no one will ever know it was you!
Maexxina: Screw the spiders, they take too much of your time. You, being specced into Arcane Stability, can not be interrupted. Other casters will have their spells pushed back to hell and further.
Grand Widow: Throw in an AoE blizzard on the pack of adds. On Heroic, there is usually seven monsters stacked up in total: Well worth your time. If you kill one too soon, oh well, someone is bound to need the achievement anyways.
Thaddius: Good god, this is the best one to kill a few unlucky people off. Better yet, recount doesn't show who did it! Blame it on Rogue. He won't mind.
Sartharion + 3: Here is a great chance to prove your worth to your guild. Everyone is wasting time DPSing the drakes, but not you! For optimal pwnage, spend your time AoEing the Whelps+Blazes. If your guild wipes, they'll praise your for damage and yell at everyone else to step up their game. Win/Win. (Thanks Aniline)
Kel'Thuzad: This one is the greatest of them all. Get ready for some awesomeness! During Phase 1 if you pop Mirror Image, they'll pick a random target and go on a Frostbolt rampage. Ideally, each one will pull an entire section! Just warm up that Blizzard hotkey and get ready for 30-40 mobs. You, expecting it, will have some kickass numbers. During Phase 2, coincidentally stand near your competition. When you get Detonate Mana, just slide on over their direction by four or five yards. Problem solved.
Conclusion
YOU are the star of this raid. They need YOU. Anyone who calls you out is obviously just jealous. As everyone knows, Recount reports are the only judge of skill. If you top the meters, you ARE the best. Spec selfishly, loot#*@!@, and overall do whatever it takes to get that Recount crown. It'll come in handy on the guild-wide level and get you the respect you deserve. I promise.
-Arctic
Death Knight
Druid
Hunter
Mage
Paladin
Priest
Rogue
Shaman
Warlock
Warrior
