The Adventures of World of Warcraft - The Mage

Hello my fellow sweet potatoes!

Today's post is going to dive into how our stream and my first time playing World of Warcraft (WOW) started. I am going to try to break this down into how we got here and create a mini series of the characters and classes that I had played and my thoughts on them.

In June 2024, my partner convinced me that I needed to start playing World of Warcraft because there was going to be a new MMO game coming out that he wanted me to be able to play with him. His theory was that starting with WOW would be the most beneficial path in understanding how these games are played. As we started putting in hours on the game, though, he quickly realized that this is the type of thing we needed to stream, hence how our channel Sundance2226 was born. However, we were not going to start with normal retail WOW; that would be too easy. No, instead we were stepping into the depths of Classic Hardcore WOW. For those of you as in the dark as I was, this means if you're character dies in the game it gets permenantly deleted. Let that sink in.

My first experiences on WOW were memorable to say the least. I was stressed out because I had no idea what I was doing and the last thing I wanted to do was lose my brand new character. When we first started the game I entered the world as an Alliance human mage named Smores. My first day in the starting zone was nothing less than comical. I had no idea how to move my character around or use any of the abilities I was given. I even got myself stuck on the church wall and was accused by other players of being a bot. I am sure in these first few days of playing that my partner was starting to question what he had gotten himself into.

The Mage

Over the past 8 months, I can easily say that the mage has beaten out all other classes in all of these games. Could it be that it is the first class that I attempted to play? Maybe. It is also the class that I am the most comfortable with at this point.

I have a total of 2 mages in WOW currently. My first mage is named Smores, located on the old Hardcore WOW server Skull Rock. I started leveling her back in June 2024 with my partner's warrior character Fiona. We had a lot of trials and tribulations running as a duo with this character, as many of my partners characters he paired with Smores ultimately faced their death in attempts to ensure Smores stayed alive. Smores is an absolute trooper. She has made it to level 40, and is sitting pretty right now as my highest surviving character on the game. My biggest accomplishment on this character was obtaining my horse mount once I hit level 40. Hitting that milestone has made me not want to play on this character, and just keep her sitting up on the shelf like a small trophy. My partner has told me many of times not to get attached too easily to these characters, but I would have to say that if I lost this one I would be absolutely devastated. My second mage is mashedpotato, located on the new fresh start Hardcore WOW server Doomhowl. She is sitting around at level 25 currently, as I don't really get the chance to level her at this time with the way streaming schedules run and who we are playing online with at that time. She is probably one of my best geared mages though, as we have been running a lot more dungeons with her when we do get the chance to play her.

People say that mages in WOW and Ashes of Creation alike are one of the most powerful classes in the game. In WOW specifically, they have great safety and escape abilities, they can conjure up their own food and water, and the higher level you get you can then access the ability to make portals to different areas of the world. Mages are also one of the classes that depends the least on the type of gear that it is wearing. This magic wielding character won my heart pretty quickly, and still seems to be the one that I gravitate toward even now.

There are 3 different types of mages you can play in this game: Frost, Arcane, and Fire. Frost and Fire are the two types that people seem to lean toward the most, as they seem to be the most sustainable; but Arcane mages are definitely still out there.

Both of my mages so far have been leveled as Frost mages. Frost mages build their abilities around all the freeze/slowing ablities: these include frostbolt, cone of cold, blizzard, frost nova, and shatter to name a few. With the frost build frostbolt is going to be your main go to ability. Each talent point that you gather by leveling up is ultimately going to help your frostbolt improve and allow you to cause more and more damage.

I think the reason why the mage is my favorite class is because of how many different abilities there are to help you when things may get a little sticky. I also enjoy not having to be right on the enemy to attack it. The mage just feels more versatile, but it relies on energy called mana to cast all of the spells it has. Once that mana is out in a fight, you just have to sit and pray that your wand or staff can save you or that you can outrun the mob you are fighting.

My favorite ability in the game as a mage would have to be blink. Blink is the ability to flash ahead several feet while running away or when you need to get distance quickly. I abuse this ability though while just running around, as I feel like running in this game (no matter the character) is extremely slow. Blink has saved my life in this game on more occasions than just one. My most famous instance on our stream would have been when myself and my partner's character Fiona went deep into a yeti cave in the Southshore/Hillsbrad area. These yetis were easily level 30 or more and we were not much higher than that in level ourselves. We were both doing just fine running around in there killing yeti's, until we ended up botching a pull. My partner pulled a duo of yetis, not quite seeing a patrolling one coming around the corner. That gave us 3 yeti's over the level of 30 on us. He was yelling out demands to me on what spells to cast to best help us in the situation, and under stress I unfortunately kept hitting the wrong spells. He finally just made the call to try to run while we could. Running, though, meant running through every single yeti that had respawned from when we entered the cave. Fiona ultimately ended up not making it out, but Smores by the grace of god, some healing potions, and the blink ability somehow managed to run off to safety. I made some very bad ability decisions in that cave, and it cost us a character. To this day I have yet to re-enter that cave.

As much as we have played this game in the last 8 months, I still very much think of myself as a baby when it comes to my knowledge and capability of them. Sometimes I still find myself making similar mistakes of what I did back then, but then in other situations I find myself finally starting to make things click. I know I still have a whole lot to learn about and grow within this realm of gaming and I am excited to see how far we can get. It would be absolutely amazing to end the saga by reaching level 60, the highest level you can earn in the game.

If you would like to follow along on our journey with us, you can find us live at Sundance2226 on Twitch Monday-Saturday starting around 11pm EST. Stop in, say hi, and let us know how you found us! We would love to have you in our community.

Until next post: stay safe, stay cozy, and go out and treat others with kindness! <3