Arcane Advice

Okay, I lied. One more post before I leave for the wilds of BlizzCon (or perhaps just open a portal there). This section poses mage-centric advice for non-mages for their consideration, consternation and, hopefully, benefit.

First, I'd like to cover something which I have experienced recently a great deal in BGs. I think I can summarize it best by calling it "Shield Color-Blindness," because it usually happens in WSG when I am sporting my lovely little Mana Shield and traipsing toward the enemy flag to pick it up, or blinking right behind a flag-carrying druid in travel form, who is taking damage from enemies and looking for some more backup.

Some team-mate will see me and give me a tell like this: "shield pls".

The first time this happened, I assumed it was a mis-tell. Then it happened again. And again. It's even happened while engaging in the randomness which is world PvP.

I recently read a back-issue of Arcane Brilliance which mentioned that it's not uncommon for non-clothie WoW players to view all cloth-wearers as pretty much the same animal. This article, coupled with my own experience in PvP, led me to this conclusion: non-mages are color-blind. They have no idea that Mana Shield is a self-only cast. It cannot be cast on anyone else, at any time, regardless of whether said target has a mana pool of their own or not.

Mana Shield can clearly be identified, unless your graphics card is on the fritz, by its happy blue aura. Power Word: Shield, on the other hand, has a nice, lovely golden aura. Having played both a priest and a mage, to me, they look nothing alike, even if they do have the same casting sound effect.

I'd love to say that this mage/priest confusion only happens to me while playing my undead mage, since Forsaken can roll both priests and mages, and may look similar in the levels before we're all decked out in our snazzy PvP gear. But usually, this request occurs when I am playing my happy, bouncy gnome mage, which I find truly weird.

The second point I'd like to mention is far less of an issue, though it is nevertheless amusing, and sometimes depressing, to me. This is the assumption that any mage, regardless of level, can open a portal, and, furthermore, that said mage can therefore open a portal to Shattrath.

When leveling my mages, I frequently received tells asking for portals. This happened as early as level nine.

Stop the train, people. Only mages who have reached the venerable age of level 40 can open portals anywhere, and even then, we can only take you to Stormwind, Ironforge, and the Exodar, or Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Silvermoon, respectively. We can't even get you to Thunder Bluff or Darnassus - we have to reach level 50 before we can visit either. Okay, okay, we can port to Theramore or Stonard when we reach 35, but I don't think I've ever gotten a request for me to open a port to either of those places.

Porting to Shattrath is a whole different story. We have to reach level 65 before we can get anyone to that lovely city. By then, most players have already found the means to get there themselves, though that doesn't mean a well-placed Shattrath Portal isn't welcome at the end of a long dungeon.

Don't get me wrong. I love opening portals. Portals and all of their magical goodness were one of the top reasons why I rolled a mage in the first place. They are one of the greatest time-savers (and, when you reach Outland, money-savers) in the game and I adore them. But it makes me feel bad when I have to turn people away, especially willing people with a ready tip for my time, just because they've asked my low-level mage for a portal I cannot open. Hey, if my level 9 mage were capable of porting anywhere, I'd happily lend my services to anyone. And on a busy day, I could have made 20 gold in about 5 minutes opening portals for people trying to get to Shattrath. Just the thought of all that unobtainable gold is enough to make a well-intentioned but low-level mage cry.

When I need a port and am on one of my non-mage toons, my best recourse isn't whispering random mages, but asking the whole General or Trade chat channels for a willing soul to take the time to port me. And I always state my tip first. And if I'm trying to get to Shattrath, that tip is in gold. This strategy has gotten good reception from willing mages of the right level who are more than happy to take me anywhere I choose. It also gives mages who are busy the option to ignore me without the "obligation" of responding to a whisper.

Anyway, this is just food for thought, and information which will hopefully allow mages and non-mages alike better communication about some commonly-misunderstood aspects of magecraft. Good luck, and remember: never eat beef with a Tauren.