Hi, I’m wondering how to beat elites as a mage. I have always had this problem. Does anyone know how to do it? I’m currently stuck on a quest in Shadowlands against elites. If anyone has any tips on how to kill elites, please let me know.
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There’s only so much you can do, especially if you’re not particularly geared.
Keep shield up as much as possible. Mirror Images keeps the mob off your back for a while- depending on your spec you may want to do this during your offensive CDs so you can freely blast as much damage as possible. When your shield goes down, hit Alter Time to undo any damage you take before you can get your next shield up. Use the conduit that heals you while you are Ice Blocked. (Consider Frost for open world as you get extra Ice Blocks)
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If you’re in ZM ask Popoc to heal you.
Kite and slow mate, kite and slow. Mages can kill almost anything by themselves out in the wild, but it takes getting creative. Alter time, mirror image into a invis, nova blinking, everything you’ve got to keep away enough to reset your burst.
Hi!
As a Fire Mage you:
- Need to spec Blazing Soul and Rune of Power. Blazing Soul is incredible for soloing as it gives you Blazing Barrier every 11-15 seconds when you can Blink. Don’t overlap with normal Barrier though, try to use Blink when normal shield is broken and normal shield when Blink Blazing Barrier is broken. Rune of Power will help much with burst damage allowing you to kill some elite enemies earlier than they kill you.
- Take Diverted Energy and Cryo Freeze Endurance Conduits. Also take Flow of Time Finesse conduit. First will heal you when your barriers absorb damage (both normal and Blazing Soul barrier) and second gives you a close-to-full heal in Ice Block. Flow of Time reduces CD of Blink giving you both more mobility and survivability because of Blazing Soul Blink barrier.
- Take the Flame On talent instead of Alexstrasza’s Fury and take Infernal Cascade Potency conduit. Take Flame Patch or Living Bomb instead of Conflagration as it can easily break your breakable CC when you don’t want to.
- Start the fight with summoning Mirror Images and casting a Frostbolt at the enemy. Frostbolt will slow him, needed for kiting melee enemies. Images will distract enemy from you for 4-6 seconds and refresh the slow. Occasionally refresh the slow yourself against melee enemies (usually after Combustion / Rune of Power go as you don’t want to waste their power on Frostbolt)
- Cast a Meteor and pop Combustion right after that. This will make it auto-crit. Then do the standard rotation of 2 x Fire Blast - Pyroblast - Phoenix Flames - Pyroblast - FB - Pyro - PF - Pyro - recharged FB - Pyro - PF - Pyro. It might require certain Haste number to perform effectively (about 25%), so try to reach is as soon as possible.
- Don’t forget about Time Warp. If you cast it with Combustion, your dps increases a lot both in it and after it.
- If enemy is still alive after Combustion, you need to put Rune of Power, cast Alter Time and channel Shifting Power. Rune will provide additional damage increase and will be partially reset with Shifting Power. Alter Time will allow you to heal all the wounds you receive while being stationary in Rune and channeling Shifting Power and will also be partially reset with it. Shifting will reset not only them, but also your Blink, Blazing Barrier, Fire Blast and Phoenix Flame charges. If you play Dreamweaver, it will also give you a flower field that boosts Haste by 15% while you stand in it. When Shifting Power is over, stay near the Rune and just cast Fireball - 2 x Fire Blast inside its cast time - Pyroblast into standard Fireball → Fireball → (Heating up proc) Fire Blast → Pyroblast → Fireball. When enemy drops you low, manually reset Alter Time to return to high health. If 10 seconds expire and you don’t die, Alter Time can also reset by itself. Also I advice to take Searing Touch instead of Firestarter. When enemy drops to 30% health, you will be able to finish him with combos of Scorch → Scorch / Fire Blast → Pyroblast and it is combo that can be done entirely on the move, so you can kite in its process. When Rune of Power and Meteor are off CD, use them in combo again.
- Interrupt elite’s dangerous casts. Interruptible casts (yellow bar) should be interrupted by Counterspell. Uninterruptible casts (grey bar) should be disrupted by Dragon’s Breath as its disorient still stops them.
- Utilize Frost Nova. It is a breakable root, but you can use its duration to simply run away a long distance and only then break it with let’s say Fireball cast.
- Use Soulshape for kiting as well. It is very mobile and allows you to easily get 30-40 yds distance after 2 Flickers (1 auto and 1 manual), which is useful against melee enemies.
- Utilize Ring of Frost. Unlike Polymorph, it does not heal its target and works on all kinds of enemies that can be CCed in general. Use it to stop the fight for 10 seconds and get some distance / wait for Blink or shield CD / heal yourself with bandage / etc. It is also useful to get additional enemies out of fight for several seconds if they join the fight or elite summoned them himself, just bait them into the ring borders. Dragon’s Breath + Ring of Frost combo allows to safely cast it wihout being damaged / interrupted if needed.
- If you get Cauterized, just use Ice Block. It will negate its burn damage and heal you to full. You can also use Ice Block before Cauterize procs, just when you are low to heal with Cryo Freeze conduit.
- If the elite has a glowing buff, that usually means it can be Spellstolen. Use it, as elites often have effects that can be useful even for your Mage, like Haste boost or additional shield.
- Buy Spiritual Healing Potions and use them in crutch moments. They should be cheap now when more powerful Cosmic Healing Potion has been released. Also buy Heavy Shrouded Bandages, they can be used even in combat (but break on any damage ticks, beware of dots) and heal a decent amount. CC-ing an enemy with Polymorph or Ring of Frost, so they don’t stop it and healing with bandages is an option to heal.
- If all of mentioned above didn’t work, you can reset the fight with Invisibility. It has a 3s delay, so you should cover it with Frost Nova or Blink away first.
Hope these advices help!
Note also that fire mages do have Frostbolt.
If the elite can be snared, casting a frostbolt on it periodically to snare it may help you kite it.
Literally all the elite rares in ZM are snare immune
I did mention that in the beginning of my post.
Frostbolt is also useful to pre-proc Frost spell for Disciplinary Command before Combustion / Rune of Power go.
A lot of boss mobs can’t be kited
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Anything can be kited. You hit something, run away. Hit it again. Put a rock in between you to get distance as you ramp up. Fake it out with a mirror image. Jump off a small ledge as cds recharge. I have leveled a mage since vanilla and have never struggled in open world content. Just because some people are used to face rolling stuff doesnt mean that’s the only way. A mob doesn’t have to be shackled with frost nova to be kited.
We can’t all be Chris Angel
I don’t think mages need a pet tank; if I want a warlock gameplay, I would just play a Warlock.
The problem is that none of our CC works on elites. We just need an improved slow talent or something like that, where it affects elite mobs. That way, we can rotate between slow, blink/shimmer, alter time, and displacement to kite the mob.
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Just wait around until a tank shows up. Even if you use every tool in the mage kit it still won’t be enough to solo a rare elite especially in the new zones which are always scaled up for higher ilvls. This has been an ongoing problem since the inception of the game because mages are supposed to kite but you can’t kite elite mobs that are immune to slows. It’s just the way the game is. If you want to roflstomp open world content solo you have to play as a tank.
Edit: RIP, I didn’t realize this was a 2 year old thread that got necroed. But everything I said still applies which is doubly sad.
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Most of the time, I gauge whether or not the enemy is able to be slowed or kited. If it is, I’ll try it and be prepared to drink health potions/ice block heal if needed. If the enemy cannot be kited/slowed (like most Dragonflight rares), I usually pray that I find another player to assist me.
Just get another mage friend and do a bounce with the elite,aggro him between both mages.
Several new tips how to fight un-CCable enemies (since previous post in this thread was 2 years ago):
- Mass Barrier has a synergy with Mirror Images - if you summon images first and then use it, both you and your images get a shield, making them much more tankier. This allows them to distract the enemy longer.
- Have a stack of consumables with you and use them if things are getting hard. With new consumable changes, you can use 1 healing consumable (Dream Healing Potion), 1 offensive / utility consumable (I suggest Crimson Embers, which provide 30% damage boost for 24 seconds, can be bought for Bloody Tokens / Honor from PVP vendors) and 1 “pet consumable” (allows to summon Shikaar Hunting pet wherever you need in open world in Dragon Isles for 15 minutes, can be bought from Maruuk Centaur Renown vendor if you have enough Renown).
- Time Warp / Temporal Warp can be used for additional help if enemy is tough.
- If all of that is still not enough and you play multiple specs, Frost Mage for me seems like the best option to fight stronger enemies - it has the most durable barriers, the biggest amount of them and 2 healing Ice Blocks.
All of that might still be not enough to kill 10+ million health enemies, but is usually enough to solo things like Fields of Ferocity and some easier elites. Hope that helps!
Are there even any elite NPCs that would cause any grief in Dragonflight? Maybe a couple of named dudes, but that’s mostly if you stand if the bad or don’t know how to use counterspell.
We need a tank spec